When I was posting the pictures of the wheels earlier on, I forgot to add the pictures of the modified spinners.They were really cheap off ebay, but are quite hefty. They are solid aluminium chromed, and weigh over 630 grams each. I was not happy with the small "toy" bolt which was supposed to hold them in place on the wheel, so I made some small mods,
uprated the bolt, and added a second one, as I just did not trust the way it was designed to stay on!
Someone else said I must have wrecked the drill bits and hole cutters, but they are still in good nick considering what they've been through!
I take your point about stainless steel though, I don't even like welding it!
The body
The body finally arrived, and one of the first things I wanted to do was put aluminium louvres in the bonnet.
The original car had I think 6 or 7 inch louvres, but because I chose a non flip front end, it came with an ordinary opening type bonnet, which due to the position and width, the full size louvres would not fit/be practical.
I went to B nQ and they had some cheap ally ones about 4 inches wide which I decided to fit.
The XKSS had more louvres on the nearside as that is where all the heat from the exhaust manifold needed to be vented, so mine had to be similar
to look the part.
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I cut the holes, routered the edges out about half a mil so the alloy would sit almost flush, stuk them in with epoxy resin, filled and sanded. although there will vbe a lot of rubbing down to be done yet to get a perfect finish for a top coat!
Access panel
Because I chose a non flip front, there were certain things under the bonnet that could not be accessed once the body was permanently bonded to the chassis / tub, Or it would be incredibly difficult to carry out repairs to master cylinders windscreen wiper motors etc.
So I decided to make an access panel.
When it came time to actually do the cutting, I was crapping myself as I have always been useless with a jigsaw!
But in the event it turned out not too bad.
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bonnet catch / lock
I did not want bonnet straps on my car so went with hidden locks with a T pull handle under the dash.
The bootlid will be done in a similar way, a clean look with no handles straps or other stuff on show.
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I had a go at the doors next, I wanted the illusion that the car is made from aluminium, so I lined the inside of the door skin with it, and the edges, so that it would be seen if some looked inside the door aperture
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You've worried me there Paul, I'm not sure where I stand on that one.
I looked at them and I could see a big weight reduction if they were removed!! Fingers crossed right now then!!
Thanks for the support MT! When I went to collect my body shell from Chris, he took the shell from a Spit it was sat on at the time, and as far as I recall, that car had no brackets, which influenced me as to removal.
The 1 mil cutting disc is my new found friend, and I do get a bit carried away at times, I'll have to dig out a pic of the dash top, where I cut so much out, I panicked and welded in two strengthening bars to compensate! I want my car to have windscreen wipers, and fitting them after the body is in place will be bit tricky and I wanted plenty of access.
Gear lever and hand brake mods
An XKSS interior looks nothing like a Spitfire interior, another big headache. At first I was willing to compromise, then became ashamed of my gutless attitude, and decided to whack it hard!
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The Spit, for those that don't know, looks like this.
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I decided to make it look like this
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