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7 months and one change of ownership after placing my deposit with Gary in Poole, I how have G46 No6. bodykit sitting on my drive.
Gareth has gone three or four steps beyond what is resonable for a new owner to do satifying existing orders.
The body has been delivered on the date and time (to the minute) by Gareth, who gave up 2 days and 1000 miles to deliver the kit.
All my modifications agreed by Gary at no extra costs have been fulfilled by Gareth at some extra cost to himself and I am very pleased.
If anyone is considering a G46, you will not be disapppointed in the customer service from Gareth.
So blackbird my G46 has round arches, full earo screen and NO hump, great job by tribute automative to blank off the hump and leave a gell coat with no scaring. The even manged to deliver a kit with every panel in the same same dark gel coat colour, am I a luck guy!
So here are some picture for you all
front
rear
side
front angle
rear angle
aerial
with build assistant passing critical eye.
So the next choice is which donor, red or purple?
I am trying a different approach to CT, WCA, Nike and Andrew Hush.I i plan to cut away as little as possible from the scimitar body to add strength (weight) and make the bonding of rear inner wheel arches easier. However, it may all change when I can't get the seat in the place I want!
More pics next weekend when I start to take the donor apart and make that first cut.
These G46's are really starting to gain momentum now and yours looks like another interesting twist on the model. I wish you all the best with the build and I'm really looking fwd to seeing some of these in the flesh next year!
Dave
That's easy which ever one lets you down first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Looking good all one colour gel coat! can't help thinking the moulding looks neater than ours, to be fair to Gary but we did buy a very early development shell on the basis we would have to work out a lot for ourselves.
It good to see the new starts for the G46 have felt a little alone.
Now hop down to the local DIY shop and buy several hundred 1mm cutting discs and wait to see whether Red or Purple get's it!
That does look good....I agree with Toad about the humpless body giving it a totally different vibe...
Reading the original posting , its fairly obvious I am being slated for my initial involvements in this order ..... Fair enough . I accept that.The G46 orders have been a disaster for me....lots of reasons , well documented on here so no need to re-trace old comments ...
The G46 was a massive undertaking that I undertook at a time I shouldn't have ...a case of my artistic hat being worn instead of my business hat.
I have one outstanding order for Adrian in Wales to satisfy....he has been incredibly patient and I have been difficult throughout .
One of the reasons I let Gaz take on the G46's was it was obvious I was sinking fast with them....his approach to sorting out previous orders and working towards new orders with the finish build of number 1 is absolutely first class...
He is definitely the right man to take this car forward....I am lucky to have been able to get him on board...
I did offer to finance the extras on Housemartins car as I offered them free of charge but didn't expect Tribute to be as generous with something that isn't their product , Gaz refused and said he'd cover it as he was aware of the time and financial burdens I was under....Top man again !
I got Tribute involved because I know Chris will offer a first rate service and is very business like ( unlike me ..whos a bit crap at that side of things ! ) His current success with the MX250's reflects this...
Tribute haven't let me down...they are on the money every time...
I would also like to add that I still do about a half day a week , free of charge , collecting bodies from Tribute , organising parts , dealing with customers on collection of kits from me etc etc....this is mostly Spyder and Cordite orders at present but a few G46's have been dealt with as well....not looking for a medal but I want it known I haven't just sold and run leaving a mess behind me to sort out....I am still here acting in a voluntary way to keep things moving for a bit longer yet...
Anyway....thats that out of the way ....As said earlier Housemartin , body looks great ....keep us posted on its progress...
Thank you very much for the kind comments from both HM and LL, although without the help and guidance of Gary, firstly in the initial take over and later with his continued support, the G46s that have been produced lately would still be nothing more than plans. Any praise for me and especially the product should reflect directly on Gary.
I do very much like the no hump G46 but what I think makes a huge difference is the dark gel coat. It seems to show all of those lovely curves off so much more than the white gel that most of the others have been made in.
Its great to see all of these G46 build threads, Im looking forward to seeing how they all look when they are finished with so many different variations.
That does look good....I agree with Toad about the humpless body giving it a totally different vibe...
Reading the original posting , its fairly obvious I am being slated for my initial involvements in this order .....
Anyway....thats that out of the way ....As said earlier Housemartin , body looks great ....keep us posted on its progress...
Thank you
Lancelot, stop beating yourself up.
No slating intended, as you know, I requested that delivery be put back, before Gareth gave you a helping hand.
I just wanted to express how impressed I was with Gareth's kit delivery.
In the same way I am impressed with your creative ability to design and build such a kit by posting my pictures. You make a great team.
My insistance on the dark colour gel coat for all panels was just a way to show your G46 at its best as soon as possible.
Like any business man, had you not been under such pressure to secure orders when I asked for no hump and round arches, I am sure you would have upped the price.
More pics next weekend when I start to take the donor apart and make that first cut.
HM
Well I took both scimitars for the MOT earlier in the week. The purple one passed with not advisories but the red one failed for a rubbish handbrake and play in the steering rack inner balljoint. So I think I will get the red one gets the facelift.
Unfortunately the wife's Citroen C3 steering rack has gone very notchy and noisy so my weekend on the G46 has been hickjecked by rubbish french engineering. £1900 for a new rack - what a rip off!
The person who invented Torx needs shooting! Yes they enable you to exert a lot more power, but Citroen seem to make bolts a lot smaller as a result.
It is built in obselesence to expect a 12mm stud corroded into an aluminum rack to be removed with a 3mm bit, not to mention bits of plastic securing subframe corroded nuts.
Give me british engineering any day.
Anyway, I have had a few 1/2 hours in the evening this week and been cleaning up the mounding so the boot lid and doors fit. Like WCA and CT I note the two door are over and inch different in length.
The G46 body is now hanging from the garage roof and the donor is going to be rolled back underneath.
I have removed all the rear end lights, bumper, numberplate etc.
Eased out the side windows and the unbolted the rear hatch.
Removed all the roof and side trim and drilled out the roof guttering.
removed all the wiring from the interior light, heated rear window and rear lights.
So the donor has lost its trousers, but still has its shirt as the front is still intact.
I have put a few holes through the roof from inside the donor just behind the anti roll bar to act as a guide as i want to leave the roll bar in place to assist centering the body. (or to make life difficult for myself)
I will make the cut at the highest point of the lower edge of the side window to remove the roof
Photos with the roof cut off and the donor under the G46 kit to follow
We are currently working on the door cills, nice to see another body so we can compare, its looks as yours is identical to ours where the drivers cill is a lot deeper and tucks under more than the passenger side.
As they have to be cut it gives a lot of scope for modelling them to suit the individual car, we are making a recessed section down each side to take cherry bomb exhausts, proving a little bit of a challenge but getting there.
We found the roll over bar just got in the way and ended up chopping it off so we could line up he body.
If you go to our very first page on our thread we posted a few photo's of the body cutting up which may assist as did WCA or should I say (hop along) WCA was definitely the right handle for him!
It is quite a lot of chopping to be done. Just remember that the frame supplied sits on the plastic door sills of the donor. If you chop those away you end up with the floating frame design of my special 'light weight'. It was a deliberate decision, honest*
*Okay, it was a mistake because I couldn't work out how to get the frame to sit properly but right now I am allow 'lame' excuses
Don't forget to keep your rear seata and door hinges for later re-use. Door shut mechanisms probably useful too.
So the ultra thin cutting disks have been put to good use and the GTE is now a pickup.
I was curious to see if there was any stregthening around the rear hatch and Reliant do have a 10mm metal tube enclosed in the fibreglass.
(you can see it in th photo above)
This seems an elegant solution to avoid metal work inside the car and add a significant amount of strength easily.
I wondering if I can do something similar with the supplied metailwork
I have rolled the donor backup under the body and trimmed the side skirts so they are straightish and sqaure
LIke CT says the roll bar is getting the way so that is next for the chop.
However, the door provided are a very tight fit in the body and I was wondering about cutting the body
down the middle of the door aperature to increase the opening slighty and simplify the alignment.
The door trailing edge of the door should be easy enough to extend with bnding paste or this this a no no?
What are your views on this Gary, AH, GWA or CT?
I need to locate the bonnet to keep the garage tidy so i set about cutting the relief for the headlights.
I hope to keep as much as possible of the existing inner wheel arches below
Ever wondered what a G46 with a windscreen might look like?
Well not as striking as the aero screened version Gaz is about to reveil at exeter.
The bonnet still another 6 inches to go before it lines up with the wheel arches,
so I need to figure out how to get the siezed front overridders and indicators off in a saleable condition for ebay
Progress is slow but as long as I get a little done each week I am a happy builder. My plans for this weeks are:
Drain and remove the petrol tank and filler.
Cut away the rear light clusters.
Cut away more of the bonnet and front wings to aline the front wheel arches.
Spend hours on ebay looking for rear lights, steering wheels and guages.
HM
Doors are a tight fit on mine. i haven't had a chance to fit the hinges since twatting my ankle but have trimmed the rear edges off the doors in preparation. They also have a slightly different amount of curve at the moment but that may be down to the straps I have holding the body work in place.
Be aware that sticking a ratchet strap around the body and tightening makes a huge difference to how the body sits. Make sure you have the bonnet lined up with the body before fixing the body otherwise it is possible to pull the body in tighter than the bonnet can curve and you have to cut the bonnet to fit.
Are you planning on keeping your screen?
I am planning on putting a proper screen on mine and have the old Scimi windscreen glass. If it looks okay in your picture I might consider that option.
Even if you are not planning on keeping the screen, please can you take a couple of 'mock up' pictures to help me see what it might look like.
Cheers
WCA
PS Gauges can be V expensive so I have decided to stick with the white on black Smiths that came with the car. Period enough.
It's perhaps a little tall for a 'convertible' but I'm sure you can get screens cut down and aluminium side support posts made, a-la Porsche 356 Speedster.
HM you are playing the same game as Charile and I did, first we made a "pick up"
re-profiled the back, the front wings etc, etc, it was a fitting tribute to the old girl when cutting her up.
I love the front clip over the exist bonnet as other had said E Type or my thoughts were Daytona Cobra now's there an idea LL
Are you taking a slightly different route by cutting off lumps and then seeing if the panels fit over? I am pretty sure the rest of us have cut the body off and then place the new body on top of the floor plan and bulk head left.
WCA I am not sure if the body does need to have a ratchet strap around it (like a spyder) it looked to me and only opinion that from the photos you posted that it brings the back wings in to tight almost touching the the old inner wheel arches where as ours and others don't seem to meet them.
100% in agreement with WCA about the re-use of gauges new ones are not cheap and the black smiths are as period as you like.
HM we cut the body shell because of the changes we mad to cut the body heel to make the doors fit better would be a huge amount of work I think I would adjust the length of the doors.
HM if you go the LL link and our early posts and WCA's (apart from removing the cills') they will give a reference to how much of the old car to leave in place, when we did it we only had the LL photos and the photos we took of the fist car in development at his workshop so it really was working in the dark.
For your reference, the frame Gary supplies fits something like this at each side at the back :
The flat angle iron should run parallel with the chassis and sit on the door sill (which you don't need to remove).
The front of the frame sits on the top of the bulkhead and the side of the foot well. Make sure you don't cut too much off or you will have to create a patch to cover the mistake (spotting a pattern?)
You do need to cut the bodywork down quite a bit, look at the fuel filler pipe in the picture below. If you can, I strongly suggest that you cut a bit, offer the body up, cut a bit, offer the body up etc etc etc
Good luck and lots of pictures please. Looks like my ankle is a write off for at least 6 months :-( on the bright side, if i do lose my foot there will be a cheap G46 donor up for sale soon!
Just spotted MrTowed's comment about strapping in the car and how far it pulls the body in. The first photo shows the body with the strap ratchetted around it. The front of the rear wheel arch just touches what remains of the outside of the old rear arch. I actually left the exterior edge of the wheel arch in place. The second photo shows the rear of the rear wheel arch while ratchetted still requiring my toe to push is against the old out aarch.
For reference to how much wheel arch I left in place look at one of the first photos I posted on the thread and you can see the white body work remaining. I trimmed it a little from that.
Guys,
Thanks for all the feedback an illustrations with pictures. It helps considerably and reading about and seeing your build just creates a clearer vision of what i have ahead.like WCA advises I will be cutting a little and trial fitting alot.
CT, It is certainly great fun cutting up and taking photos of a classic design.
Yes I am taking the approach of cutting off bits and see if the panels fit over. I may end up with the same shape as everyone else, but it is an experiment I want to try out.
The thinking out cutting the door aperture was that I could slide the rear body on and see what it looks like with the windsreen still in place.
If I cut in the midde of the lower cill, I will be joining again on the lower metal framework shown in WCA pictures so have solid support to help rebonding.
Obviously the lower part of the cill will be alot of work as you say, is it worth it for a few photos when Gaz is getting me an aero screen anyway?
WCA I have printed out your image and will stick it to the boot floor as my guide for the rear end cutting, thanks mate.
Looking at the last couple of picture why has LL not make use of the exiting chasis to attach the new metal work? Is it to keep within the IVA rules, stop possible corrosion or make the removal of the body easier?
e-type - I knew it reminded me of another car. Now how can I get that V12 under the bonnet?
I am not sure why the frame sits on the sill and not the chassis. I think it is as much to do with the door height as anything. The doors are just stretched 550 ones. If he made the frame reach down to the chassis then the doors would be too deep.
If you look at the flat angle bit there are three holes drilled on each side at the front, middle and back. I am thinking that I will bolt a separate bracket to each of these that will then sit on the chassis.
This should brace the frame nicely and let me run the wiring loom to the back of the car and from the battery (now sited in the rear foot well) in the gap between the exterior body work and under the flat angle frame. I will then fix an access panel to get at the wire if I need it.
At the moment I have the wires all running along the transmission tunnel but that is not ideal when trying to trim the inside.
Don't worry about photos with the screen in place if it is a hassle, the one you have taken shows it well enough. I just need to work out how to build the frame to take the glass and decide how much to either cut off the top or bury in the bodywork at the bottom.
[QUOTE=GazDavies;36236]It looks like you have had a Jaguar on top of the bonnet.QUOTE]
I have 4 cats taking a keen interest in the progress.
They just love the runing their paws over those curves.
If I get to the painting stage they will be confined to their quarters.
HM
i plan to cut away as little as possible from the scimitar body to add strength (weight) and make the bonding of rear inner wheel arches easier. However, it may all change when I can't get the seat in the place I want! 
