MadaboutKitcars

Today

Small job on the recently removed luggage rack, the elegant rubber feet arrived in the post so I did the business, and now the rack is ready for bolt-on after the ever looming paint job.

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

Yeah, that nailed it WCA, thanks for that.

Cannot imagine for a moment what madness possessed the builder to fit wire wheels to it!!

Should have been Dunlop's finest I would have thought.

There were a few things I was not impressed with on that red one!

I better shut up before I drop myself in the mire...........

All 16 of the originals have the rack on that way, and as far as I can tell all of the replicas too.

Some time back Mr Towed pointed that out too!

I think they were all mounted that way because the acceleration was so fierce, it they were not that way you would have lost all your luggage!!

Seriously though they were all mounted that way, and so will mine be.

Providing the rack is correctly mounted to the car, and the luggage is secured correctly to the rack, I can't see any problem.

Plus the fact that unlike the original which had no boot space to speak of, just a "postbox" for the spare wheel, (hence the rack in the first place) my car has a huge boot, plus a large space behind the seats, so I would most likely never need to carry any external crap anyway.

Hey, its supposed to be the coolest car in the world not the safest!!!! :-)

For goodness sake don't drop me in the shit with Mr Towed!

HE IS THE SOURCE OF ALL WISDOM!!!

By all means quote me, but don't mess with the Towed!! :-)

today



For those that did not follow y cymro's link, The car magazine Octane,
had named the XKSS "The coolest car in the world"

Now, given what I am building, and the effort I am putting in, I'd be stupid to argue against that!

However, I have always had two minor criticisms of the XKSS styling,
one being the screen, which I have always thought was too upright, and the other, the nose of the car which I think is too pug-nosed, or squashed looking.

Fortunately, I am in a good position here, as neither of those problems exist on my car.

I deliberately, welded my screen frame in such a way that it is raked back more steeply than the XKSS, and the nose on the body Chris has created, is longer (I would imagine because he used a long-nosed D Type shell to copy from)

The longer nose version was a part of the R and D program at Jaguar.
When they were winning all the races with the D Type, they did not rest of their laurels, but kept developing the car, and one result was
to add an extra 9 inches to the bonnet, and they called the car the "long nosed D"

This made it more aerodynamic, and increased the top speed by several extra miles per hour.

The following pic shows the difference, and as far as I understand it the 16 XKSS's were all built using the short nose version bonnet.

Hence the snubness.

So when I finish my build, I may well have a cooler car, than the coolest car in the world!!

I will surely have the only XKSS replica not to be Jaguar-based?

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

Sunday

I did not post yesterday as I was so busy.

When I first fabricated my stainless exhaust quite a while ago now, I had briefly trial fitted it, and was satisfied with the result.

Since then, I have drastically lowered the car, in order to get the look I wanted, also with satisfying results, so far so good.

The other day when I fitted the exhaust to the car "properly" I had not checked under the car on flat level concrete, as I had done the work outside with the car on rough grass.

So yesterday I did check, and was totally f**king horrified at finding out I only had 2 inches of clearance (that's 50mm to you europhiles).

I knew with a sinking heart, that the part where the exhaust curls under the chassis, to start its journey under the passengers floor, would have to be radically altered to stand any chance of remaining on the car after a speed bump.

Back to the drawing board.................

I worked very hard for a very long time, thinking, swearing, injuring, cutting, grinding, bending , and finally I think I have the solution and my extra 2 inches of clearance.

Right now the exhaust is all in cut sections again, but hopefully sections that when I weld and put them back on today, will be just what is needed for the clearance required.
Again, two more days work that I had not planned on!!!!

I think the car is deliberately pissing me about because it knows it's not going to Stoneleigh.

If it carries on in this fashion, it won't be going next bloody year either!

Pics to follow after its done.

Today

Well, I got stuck into the exhaust again today and am still at it.

I have done a lot of welding and cutting yet again, and felt pleased with where I was, until I realised that sod was trying to attract my attention.

With an increasingly uneasy feeling, I listened to sod explaining all about his "law".

He said that according to his law, all the drastic modyfying I had done, would result in all the holes I had drilled in the body and chassis,
( to accommodate the fixing brackets) must now be in the wrong places.

Also all the brackets I had painstakingly made, would also be useless and the wrong size and shape.

Of course I told him to piss off, and told him what to do with his law,

then with the same sinking feeling Max Clifford must have had earlier,

I realised the bastard was right!

So with a heavy heart, I started fabricating and drilling all over again, and like I said I am still at it.

I am starting to learn that coolness does not come cheap, - in labour terms at least.


[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

It has just occurred to me that I am having to labour so hard to get my exhaust ground clearance, simply because I laboured so hard to drastically lower the car in the first place, its a funny old world we live in..........

Thanks for the support guys!

Mr T, I'm sure you are right on that one, and that is why all this labour is going on, as far as my exhaust goes I am confident that at the end of the exhaust marathon, I will have AT LEAST 90mm.

As you say, praise be to the lowered!!

Exhaust saga

Back at it today,

now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

The pics are not up to the usual standard becase yesterday I rolled over on my camera under the car and totally f**ked it up and had to bin it.

It was an expensive one too, however I have bought a cheaper model but not got used to it yet, so the pics are not so good.


I will post theses pics then crack on:

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

I understand your concern, but I have no room for any saggy rubber, but when it is lagged with the correct stuff, and then bolted back, it is so tight it will not rattle or bang, but there may well be some vibration, I have used the longest length of flexi I could, so we will have to see.

There is always a way, have more faith!

Jaguartvr,

I am fairly confident that it will, but as ever, I do have a cunning plan "B".

In the worst case scenario, if it is not viable, and will definitely not work, I will slice the pipe off where it comes under the chassis to the engine part, and run a straight through pipe to the rear as Triumph intended, (complete with rubber suspension), and just leave the side exhaust as a very necessary dummy.

Obviously I would rather not do this, but you may well be right, and that would be my easy escape route.

Second session today

Well its late and I've just packed up, I am seriously hoping to have the lot on and finalised tomorrow, but I've been saying that to myself for bloody days now!

We''ll see,

more pics with the cheap shitty camera:

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG]http://[/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

Somehow this pic did not get uploaded:[IMG][/IMG]

Thanks fella's I do have a life apart from the build!

But I have to make time. I know what I want, and will work til I get it.

I sometimes think I bit a lot off, and now I have to chew hard, What about you Chris!!

Today.

Today, my aim has been the same as the last five or six days, to finally bolt the complete exhaust and heat-shield into its final position on the car.

The main difference with today is, I finally did it!!

Aaar, the sweet smell of success!

If anyone would have said "it will take a whole week of work to get that bastard on"

I would not have believed them.

As Paul said. people will notice a side exhaust and just not give it another thought, never imagining for a second the amount of work it took to make and fit.

If anyone ever asks me I shall say, "yes it is nice isn't it?
I bought it ready-made, and it only took 10 minutes to fit"

pics:

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

Yes I do want to come, I will see you there, possibly Sunday.

Perhaps you're not such a bad chap after all :-)

I'll also pack my stainless garotting wire......

humour in pictures

[IMG][/IMG]