Skip to main content

MadaboutKitcars

This is a read-only archive of the old Madabout Kitcars forum. New posts and replies are no longer possible, but every thread is still here to browse and read.

My rebuild updates..

5 Apr 2006, 7:48am
If you have been to my website you will know the background, but here's a quick summary...

I bought the 'green' car from Chris Greville-Smith (GTR designer) after it had been stolen and crashed. It has a few developments on it and I plan to enhance it further.

Plan is to have it in a BMW silver with black leather interior, fit a decent sound system in it (Ed's influence!), electric power steering and a new centre console.

A few pics so far:

As it arrived









Broken suspension parts will be remade


Electric assisted steering column with Rover switchgear fitted


Cosworth radiator in case of future engine upgrades


New engine, been sitting around a test rig for years, never been in a car!


Beginning of the sound system, it will all be hidden


Honda S2000 leather seats fit perfectly!


My website will be kept fully up to date wiht more pics, but I thought a quick summary might be handy..

Rich
5 Apr 2006, 12:33pm
Very nice car.

Looks like it will be a much improved car when it's rebuild.
12 Apr 2006, 3:34pm
Starting to fine tune the position of the corsa electric assisted steering column, the mounting points are a fair bit further back than the Rover column ones



Dash moulding will need tweaking to fit more neatly with the corsa shroud



Rich
12 Apr 2006, 9:21pm
Nice choice of speakers! Are you going to need a lot of new bits to repair it?

Which silver you going for, I really like titanium silver - it looks so good in the sun after a good clean and wax.
13 Apr 2006, 8:14am
Ed is leading me down a pricey path for the stereo! Should be a nice quality system when it's all done tho'. The mids will get custom sculpted centre sections in the doors, tweeters in the A pillars and a sub in the back, not sure whether to make it removable or not yet. I'm also going to have to hide 2 amps, crossover and the DAB tuner box somewhere!

I know which silver, but don't know the name. I'll have to get over to a BMW dealership and ask them.

I'm getting a new front section of the body, bonnet and front luggage tray. I want to guarantee no crazing in the future so am being careful about where I make the cuts. Chris has lent me the wishbone jigs for this car so they will be easy to reproduce, I will use the later style bushings which are slightly narrower to give me some caster adjustment in the top wishbones in case I need more self centring with the power steering.

Rich
22 Apr 2006, 12:29pm


body repair will commence shortly! I also have a new bonnet and front luggage tray..
25 Apr 2006, 4:02am
Wow!

That is the nicest repair piece I have ever seen. That puts many of the Vette pieces here in the states to shame.

Bill
25 Apr 2006, 11:32am
well it came out of the same mould so quality is the same as the body, they just laid up the section I needed..

Rich
25 Apr 2006, 8:51pm


more details on my website..
25 Apr 2006, 10:07pm
I take it you won't be taking your car to Stoneligh then. ( :sorry: )
29 Apr 2006, 5:01pm
Made some good progress today!

6 May 2006, 6:46pm
I've finally sold my GTM Libra which was going to help fund the GTR's completion. Hopefully I'l get a bit of a bump in the enthusiasm stakes and get some more work done now!

Rich
7 May 2006, 11:25am
You are really making headway. I like the mating jig you laid up. That will probably save you hours of shaping on the seam.

I noticed the moulding around the door glass looks as if it is actually part of the body. In other pictures I assumed it was chrome or black moulding. Is it actually just a contour line that is painted?

When you finish the body reconstruction will you remove the body and refinish the chassis or are you leaving it as is?

Bill
7 May 2006, 2:39pm
You're right, the side window moulding is actually part of the body. Most people paint it a contrasting colour and I think it really sets off the car.

The plan is to get the body all sorted, then lift it off and fully strip/rebuild the chassis. I'm still contemplating the options of LPG and air con to make it more usable for everyday.

Rich
7 May 2006, 8:26pm
LPG? As in Propane?
8 May 2006, 6:28am
As in liquid petroleum gas. You get similar mpg but it's half the price of unleaded in the UK so a conversion would pay for itself pretty quickly..
31 May 2006, 1:26pm
progressing along nicely now, lots of fine tuning was needed to guarantee the front end ended up in the right place.. lots of upside down fibreglassing!



Bi-xenon projector headlights from a BMW M3 will fit into custom mouldings.

5 Jun 2006, 1:12pm
Body is in one piece again!



Time to get on with the chassis now...

Rich
18 Jun 2006, 5:10pm
ricola wrote:
If you have been to my website you will know the background, but here's a quick summary...

Honda S2000 leather seats fit perfectly!




Seats look nice! How accessible are the adjustments on the Honda seats? I've got some aftermarket electric Recaro's but am not totally convinced I'll go with them! How about the reclines - wheels or levers on the Honda seats?

Another options I'm looking at are Impreza - my other half had a "classic" WRX (before the current bug-eye one) and the seats in it were very nice! The bug eye has inferior ones.

Cheers
Greg
18 Jun 2006, 7:47pm
Hi Greg,
They are quite easy to access, there is a lever at the side of the squab which you lift, this releases the seat forwards but is also used to set the recline position, slide adjustment is by usual lever at front.
One thing I have noticed recently is that the rails have two different brackets at the back, which effectively changed the length between holes, I'll just cut off the longer one and make a duplicate short one..
Hope that helps,
Rich
19 Jun 2006, 9:42am
Greg, reacros are ok, ive got sportline ones in mine, and you can just get to the adjusters etc.. the only really tricky one to get to is the lumbar pump on the side.
Be weary of the WRX seats, most of them dont tilt forward, IMO you really do need them to if you wish to use the area behind the seats. Its a real pain if they dont tilt.
25 Jun 2006, 5:18pm
light progress

Finally made up some mouldings for the headlights and started modifying them for the bi-xenon projectors from a 2002-2004 BMW M3 plus angel eye sidelight



One with the BMW shroud:


I plan to make up some custom shrouds to accomodate the angel eyes, possibly in carbon fibre...

Rich
2 Jul 2006, 5:22pm
Tweaked version of phantom's centre console with recessed switch section, I think I will still make some modifications to the rear section instead of just putting a padded top on it:



Light isn't finished, but quick mock-up gives a pretty good idea of the final result:

4 Jul 2006, 8:50am
Those headlights look great :D
9 Jul 2006, 8:15pm
One of my bugbears was the expanse of dash not being broken up, so I fitted a glovebox from a Rover 214:




Rich