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Well I wanted to get the apertures, (now there's a posh word for "holes")
cut out today, and it looked fairly straightforward, and I thought "this will be a piece of cake", just at that moment, the doorbell rang, and it was a friend of mine, and he handed me - a cake! His wife had made it for me!
Is that spooky or what?
Reminds me of another time when I was younger,
and I had my fortune told at a fairground, and the gyppo said "You will come into money", that very night I scored with a girl called "Penny", coincidence perhaps? I have an open mind............
I digress, so I started on the panel, what a nightmare! far from being easy, it was extremely difficult to get all the angles spot-on, and hard to get clamps in the confines I was faced with. I also had to make several small formers from wood and metal to clamp on to the workpiece in order to get good right angle bends. Really time consuming stuff.
But, as ever its done now, and that's enough for today as I have other things to do.
Years ago the lads asked if I was I was going down the pub. I had a busy day the next day, so no, I had to be up at the crack of dawn.
I went out anyway, you can guess what happened a bit later after meeting a young lady by the name of Dawn.
No Landmannn, I haven't got a clue what happened, so what happened? :-)
Okay, so I had a think about making the glove box on the dash panel, and went ahead with it. I used really thin galvanised steel as it was easier to work with.
I used rivets, but mainly fibre paste. The rivets don't (and CAN'T show!)
As usual, I work from photo's, and in this case, my inspiration was a picture of a D Type being converted to an XKSS.
That type of conversion is usually reckoned to cost around £30,000, (and you have to own a D Type to start with!)
I wonder what they would charge to convert a Spitfire to an XKSS?
At present, going by their rates, I have about £26 000 left in my kitty.
Mind you, if I charged myself labour costs at their rates, I don't think 30 grand would cover me up to now!
Here's my inspiration:
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[SIZE="5"]And speaking of Jaguar XKSS glove boxes, here's one I made earlier[/SIZE]
Scottie, looks good! Will the cover for the "aperture" be fixed, or is it able to open. It looks to me like the former. In which case, was it necessary to cut said aperture?
Hi Ox, well, yes it was necessary actually, as I intend to make as large a glove box as I can behind that panel, and the cover will have the 4 screws on it (dummies) but will actually be on a hinge, so it opens, then I can store all my rubbish in the cavity I will make. So it will look standard, but perform a useful function,
Am I ever a glutton for punishment!
When you look at the so-called "glove box" on the right of the panel, its a bit of a joke really, I cannot imagine what Jaguar were thinking at the time. but I had to copy that too so it looked right.
When you look at the so-called "glove box" on the right of the panel, its a bit of a joke really, I cannot imagine what Jaguar were thinking at the time. but I had to copy that too so it looked right.
It was clearly designed to take an i-pad. If you look at an original you'll probably find a usb port tucked away inside it.
Apparently Steve McQueen also thought the original glove box design was useless, so he had a lid fitted to his, so his sunglasses wouldn't keep falling out.
Note:
This photo isn't to make more work for you, but rather to show how close you have got your layout, top job.
Nice work Scottie, looking at the picture Paul has added it's hard to see any difference apart from that is the dodgy looking guy hiding in your glove box.
You made me laugh Swifty!
Thanks for the encouragement.
I think with the dash and the seats as they are, that should be enough to give the car authenticity, regardless of how I finish the interior now.
Having said that, I will of course try to detail it as much as possible even so.
I see that you've discarded the scuttle brace (incorrectly called the H bracket or radio housing etc.) Triumph didn't put this in for fun, it serves the important function cunningly hidden in its name. I fear that, unless you add some bracing down to the frame, your instruments will perform St Vitus' dance at some rev's, especially as you're sticking with the vibey four pot.
Point taken Mick, You are right, I had not intended to put the easily ecognisable H bracket back in as it was, but had noticed that it was quite a chunky lump, and must be there for some reason.
Seeing as I have cut away more of the top part of the dash than I had originally intended, I realised when I cut it that it would need some sort of bracing.
When I get round to doing the transmission tunnel itself I will definately work out something in that area, possibly using the original bolt mounts that Triumph have provided.
I will try to cover it in alloy, so it looks like it should be there!
Thanks for the advice Mick, which adds creedance to what I have written earlier, that one of the good points of this forum is that no one who reads the threads, will let anyone make a dreadful mistake in their build!
Well, I guess some people will go ahead and do what they want anyway, but when it all goes wrong, they realise that they had been warned!
As Mick O'Malley suggested, I do need to brace my dash from below, but before I do that I need to fit the gearbox cover, which I need to repair and modify first.
The Triumph gearbox cover has for some reason always irritated me the way it is designed, so it is ripe for the knife.
I want to fit it to seal off the road noise etc, but it will be covered by alloy anyway, but it has never needed to be that shape or size, and I am going to change it.
Well it is lunchtime, and I have done a fair amount to it, but after lunch I have a dental appointment and then some other chores to do, so that's it for today I'm afraid.
Once it is finished and fitted, I can then design a brace support for the dash around it.
This gearbox cover is actually the one out of my GT6, as the one from my donar fell to pieces when I took it out. I've ordered a new one online, but will chop this one up and use it in the meantime.
If anyone is looking for a Spitfire donar, this is the one, 200BHP engine fitted
plus all the other bits. If I had storage, I'd buy it myself, very much worth a look.
It finishes tonight , so you'd have to be quick
Before I can strengthen the under side of the scuttle, I have to fit the dash in its final position, and only then can I see where the reinforcements need to go.
So I have to eventually put more metal back into the scuttle, then build a bracing frame under there, and connect it to the original Triumph strong point anchor with the captive nuts of the "H" frame, and then connect it to the new dash lower edge.
So first things first, I have spent all morning fiddling with the two dash halves, I have bolted them together now, so they will go in the car as one piece, which has made things slightly easier....... I think!
I have modded the gearbox cover, so I can get a lower profile on the transmission tunnel, when I get round to making that.
Also I have drilled all the holes in the fibre glass dash top and screwed the dash in place, it will have to come out again, but before that happens, I need to make the dash top cover. I have a cardboard pattern for that now.
I am having a lunch break, and a quick visit to the scrappie, as I am running short of aluminium!
Well. I went to the scrappie, but they had no aluminium, but I found a strip in my shed, which was the right size, but really bent and battered. I hammered it around for a long time and got it flat enough to use as the top dash panel.
The throw away line of "I'll knock one out" was easy to say, but knocking one out took all the afternoon!
At least now I know all the dash fits, and all the holes are in the right places
for assembly after I have to re-fit later in the build.
Now I can take the lot out, and get on with re-inforcing the scuttle, and bracing the dash from the floor up.
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