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There is a balance to be had, that sounds about right. The interior on my car is going to be satin black painted aluminium which is pretty much like the original cars. They were never fitted with plush interiors the so called restored examples feature today!
THE FORMOSA IS GOING SATIN BLACK INSIDE TOO ...The car closer resembles a Maserati in my eyes and they tended to be silver , but all the Ferrari's of that era were satin black frames internals , everything ..which is a lot easier to manage ...
Whilst the body is off and access is good I've done some interior ali panel work. The donor car had a flat tunnel top which is fine when covered with carpet but no good when the ali is the final finish. I've remade it with a radiused top which looks loads better. The bulkhead isn't finished yet, there are fillets to add to the top and sides to meet up with the scuttle panel and body sides. Some of the bulk head is visible when the body is on, especially on the passenger side because there is no dash board. One reason why I wanted a neat job.
Nice one ! At least the panels on my car were straight even though there were a few bits missing.
Also made a start on the manifolds tonight, got one side done. Need to buy a couple more tube bends for the other side as I used several along the way and had to rework a couple of tubes. Tube fabrication is a bit of an art but I'm happy with whats done so far !
Gradually getting through my list of jobs on the car. I've fitted a new fuel line front to back. The original one was only tiny 3/16" bore tube which is probably why there were two electric pumps mounted in series in the boot ! I've removed the pumps and run an 8mm bore tube right through to the mechanical pump on the engine.
I've run the loom front to back and tried my best to keep it all hidden out of site. Too many specially built cars have wires running all over, under the bonnet, under the dash and hanging here, there and everywhere. A bit of thought and planning you can do away with all the excess and loose ends ! The only wires you will see on my car will be the plug leads and cables to the starter motor.
Made a start on the exhaust system. I've finished the manifolds and the silencer box's were made up a while ago. The system runs down each side of the car under the sill then tucks behind the rear wheels and exit in four trumpets. The trumpets are exactly that, tapering from 2" upto 3" at the tips !! It will probably make a right racket but I want to recreate that V12 sound like the real thing !
Photos to follow.
The exhaust is just about done apart from making the rear trumpet / megaphone trims x4. I have simplified the design a little largely down to ground clearance under the sills. I've gone with a single box rather than the double decker arrangement on the original. That in turn goes back under the car to a "Y" section on each side to get the 4 outlets. I'll soon be able to start up the engine for the first time and it will be drivable not long after, fingers crossed !!
A few photos here, they are a week or two old in some cases .
* Manifolds fitted to the engine on both sides, fairly straight forward as although the Cologne engine is a V6 there are only 4 exhaust ports in total to connect up. They will be covered in heat wrap and painted black upon completion.
* Mountings for the sill area on the body required some extension brackets from the chassis. These are now filled in with aluminium panels. The lower sill area will be bolted on along these extensions.
* The left and right exhausts here, not quite complete in these photos but not far off. The whole system will be painted in high temp matt black like the original cars.
Very nice work! I'm struggling to understand the logic for Ford Germany to design a V6 with FOUR exhaust outlets! Mind you, I'm not an engineer. I get cheapness but surely the flow must be impeded and very close to the exit point from the cylinders?
The engine was used in the Granada MK2 and the injection version was used to great effect in the 2.8 Capri. The best thing with these engines are the compact design and torquey power delivery from quite low down the rev range. The later engines did feature 3 exhaust ports which helped a little along with a few other upgrades. I was lucky to find this engine as it was new in a crate, all be it "old stock"! If the same engine could pull around a fully loaded Granada estate it will make light work powering my light weight 7 based car.
Another job completed are the side vents mounted into the front wings. These were missing so I've made a pair in aluminium. Rather than copy the poor design the car had from Giordanengo, I've gone with a more authentic curved and rolled edge design as seen on the real TR. A bit more work but they look so much better. I'll take some photos soon as they are mounted in place.
