MadaboutKitcars

Tell us more please

Form my friends shop in North Carolina. Uses aftermarket Corvette chassis.
Body extended 5 inches at the cowl. Very accurate body like the 2VEV car.
Original windscreen, etc. Beginning at $70,000 and at least a year wait.
Very doubtful if it would pass the required IVA though.

Nothing much of interest going on. I am cleaning, stripping and treating MBG seat frames. Not very stimulating, but I aim to spray them black this week sometime. There are loads of videos on re-furbishing these, so I'll maybe just put a couple of progress pics up for interest.

I also hope to collect my dashboard this coming week or the week after.

The 275 roofline being modified for Welsh Kiwi is the start point for my roof, and the back cannot be done until we have the roof. The front will use something like the narrow 250SWB as a start, but there is a lot of work to do on the nose.

Barber - There are some nice photos/ideas here:
https://www.goodwood.com/grrc/event-coverage/festival-of-speed/2018/2/could-this-zagato-aston-martin-break-a-16.9m-auction-record-at-fos/

Seat Refurbishment - The Paint Booth

Here is the spray paint booth, a large carton:


and here is the product:


It will all be covered in foam and seat covers, so not a lot of finesse in cleaning the frames, just a wire brush to get the rust off, and anti rust treatment, before a couple of coats of paint.

Zagato Roadsters

Following on from Jagtvr's comments about wanting one of these, I wondered what it would look like. Apart from the BMW and AM AR1 versions, I cannot find any others.

This is a US kit I think. Obviously a Z3 windscreen would have a bit of an effect, but this gives the gist of it I think.

Very pretty but useless without a roof for me.
If you look at the Evante from the rear, remove the roof and the horrible sticky outy wheel arches and you have the 250swb c rear end which I really like. Just needs to be modified slightly to allow for no door skins and it's almost there.
Must surely make it a very cheap kit!

The way fibreglass materials and steel stock prices have been going up over the last year or so ...doubt if any kits will be cheap for much longer !!

That is a very pretty car by the way ...

Shocked at the price increases here in the USA as well!

I think steel has gone up at 40% overall in the last 12 months , but its not a constant across the board weirdly ..some sections have increased more than others ....a length of 12mm round bar was about £6 a length last year ..bought some a week or so ago ...£15 !!
My frame man is increasing them by £50 as of the next one and my laminators are doing sums to find a way to keep any increase to a minimum !!

My steel stockholders used to submit 30 day quotes to customers ...they won't guarantee past 7 days now ...

I'm not planning an increase so it squeezes me a bit ...

Anyway , sorry to sidetrack your thread ....as you were !!

No problem, they are real issues that affect us all, so need to be aired.

Please delete the above posts before Chris reads them and starts getting ideas!

A bit of a clue





This is from Welshkiwi’s thread and shows the revised 275 roofline. Raising the roof slightly helps with both the window line, as well as the need to insert a rear quarter light for the Z3gato.

If you can imagine a 250SWB coupe rear with the wings sloping down slightly at the back you can begin to get the picture.

I do like the look of that ...and the camp fella in the background seems to be in awe of it too ......

Looking at the leading edge of the roof. Would it be possible to fit hardtop type catches instead of bonding? (similar say to an MGB)
Would have the advantage of stopping any stress cracks and would also make the whole rear end removable.
If this were to be done would you need the roll cage?

I think the cage gives structural support for the roof. So long as the roll cage is required to do this, I wouldn't expect a significant shift. Roadsters top seems to have come to a halt. The tolerances and rigidity, without building a bomb shelter will probably take quite some time to get right.

The MGB I had with a hard top and it didn't need a roll cage for the hard top. I would think that the BMW is probably more rigid than an old MGB.
Would it matter if there was slight movement at the windscreen join? It would have a rubber strip to allow for movement and weatherproofing.
I can see that a bonded on hard top would need the roll cage to stop any movement and prevent cracks forming.
The roof itself could have a couple of supports glassed in, in the same way as the bonnet has.

My 250 convertible rear end is only bolted on with the bolts at the front of the rear wing in the door apertures. It is meant to be fixed at the bottom of the rear wing with a bolt on either side but to fit them I would have to some strain on the rear clam so have never fixed it here.
It seems to be on very firmly but I'm sure it gives it a little room for movement which hopefully will prevent any stress crack from appearing.

Interesting. How much narrower is the MGB? My NG based on the MG running gear was 36 inches across the front seats panel to panel, the Z3 is 54 inches so quite a big difference.

No idea on the width but if the Z3 hardtop doesn't need a roof brace, why would the Tribute hard top need one?
I would imagine the larger tribute top to be more stable.

Dashboard update

Some progress on the buck for the dashboard. The hole left of centre is for a lockable glove box.

Coming along very nicely!

Starting point for the front

Here are some beginning shots of panels for the front buck. Still a fair way to go, but the journey has begun. Waiting to hear on progress of the 275 roof.

Mondeo grill


On top

Recessed, definitely recessed, bear in mind I am intending to get the first convertible!
You lose the Aston look with the "on top" option

Looks like some great progress.

Could we have vents under the grill similar to the silver Evanta pictured earlier in the thread?

One of my few dislike on the 250swb is the fact that the front panel would look better if it was deeper. By adding the vents you could make the front panel a few inches deeper.
You could use the two front ducts from the 250 and would only need to do the centre vent and make the lower section a bit deeper.
10 minutes work for Chris

There will be vents of some kind below the grill, possibly 3. My preference is for recessed also.

Has to be recessed. The first shot is just a mondeo grille tacked on, the second is properly integrated