MadaboutKitcars

Seriously Fatbloke, its so bloody fiddly trying to put the bolts in for the bonnet, and that comes on and off more times than a successful whores knickers, so I ruined two good screwdrivers (modified) so they would be a good push fit for the holes!

By the way, it was good to see you at Stoneleigh.

Terrific humour Towed!

Keep that up too, you rarely disappoint me in that area!

THursday

I ordered some polycarbonate (perspex type) sheeting for my side windows, well it arrived yesterday, so today I had planed to get the doors adjusted to the absolute correct position, build a cardboard pattern and cut out the curvy windows.

Out I went bright and early, stripped off the outer packaging, and found I had ordered 4mm twin-wall polycarbonate.

That will teach me to read the description properly next time.......

I immediately imagined myself cruising the Champs-Elysees on a wonderful spring morning in the sunshine, hair blowing in the wind, trying to look cool with poly-fu**ing-carbonate side windows glinting in the sun, and all the French pointing at me..

I don't think so, twin-wall polycarbonate is about as much use for side windows, as a soggy piece of string would be for lock-picking.

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

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Later today

I went out to the car and re-fiited the windscreen, and also, for the first time the wiper spindles.

I did this so I would have a better idea of what size the side windows would need to be, as I need to re-order the material for them.

Total disaster!!!!

My original idea was to have the side windows bridge the gap from the front door edge to the windscreen.

The reason for this was that the Morris screen did not wrap around the sides as much as the Jaguar one.

I clamped a lump of ally in place of the front edge of where the window would sit, and tried to open the door, in order to see what clearance I would have.

Absolutely none! It just mover forward and jammed solid, The door cannot open configured that way.

So, what I had planned for and built the screen for is not do-able!

What a time to find that out. I had not checked in-depth enough, and, as we all know, assumption is the mother of all f**k-ups.

Having given this a bit of thought, and given that I want to use the windscreen, which took me so long to make, the answer is some sort of quarter-light, fixed to the screen, un-openerble, which will bridge the gap.

I did not really want to go this route, but right now, I cannot see any alternative.

I will make it in stainless steel.

Once again, a huge amount of work I had not planned on!

But, it has to be done. I surely will have a one-off unique car. as it will be the only XKSS on the planet with quarter-lights.

On the positive side, (and there always is one) I will need less polycarbonate
for the windows, so it should be cheaper!

That is if I forget about the twin-wall I have already wasted cash on!

Two kicks in the goolies in one day, ouch!

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I had thought of that WCA, but discarded it as too much work, but may give it more thought.

You are right, in that it needs to push the door outwards like a cupboard door does.

Perhaps cupboard door hinges are the answer!

When I mpdified the hinges the first time round, in order to make the door fit at all, I most likely made the problem worse.

The angles can get very complex and difficult to work around, which is why I shied away from it in the first place!

I have to do SOMETHING though.

What were you building there?
It looks a very similar shape to my shell at the sides?

Not sure if your pics will help me, but I understand where you are coming from!

Thanks for the input Paul, yes you are right, the slightest angle of change, seems to make a HUGE difference as to how the door performs when it opens.

I think before I do any huge amount of work (possibly in the wrong direction) I need to play with it a lot to see all the possibilties, and to figure out what the correct thing to do is!!

Whatever, I do Mick, if its in the area of quarter lights, the door must be able to open without doing anything else first.

Otherewise passengers would always need to be briefed, or something would be broken if they opened the door normally.

I really did think of a similar thing, and discarded it for that very reason. Just think how irritating it would be to have to remember to do something else every time the door needed to be open?

In the above picture, when the door starts to open, the front edge of that ally, which would be the window, moves at a 45 degree angle outwards, but also forwards, so putting a bit at the bottom would actually make it worse WCA

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Friday

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Mmmmmmmmm.

It is a bit of a bummer. However, it is an engineering problem and can be solved, I just have to work out how I am going to do it.
I still lean towards a quarter light though.....

Thanks for all the input fellahs,

Watch this space..........

Well, I have given this some thought and a cunning plan is forming....

Fatbloke said "Can't you put the hinges in the back so they open like "suicide doors"?


No.

Later on Friday

I thank you all for your input, and I do consider all your options.

Putting the hinges on the rear and making the doors into suicide doors, is a good idea, but like they say on "Catchphrase" sorry, its the wrong one!

Re-doing the door hinges WCA, is so "last week"

So, on with the cunning plan..........

I will go ahead with what was my first gut feeling when I realised with horror that I had screwed up badly, which is ------quarter lights.

Quarter lights seem to have put some people off a bit, but not me.
I see them as my salvation, and my reasonably easy way out of this mess I'm in.

I will make them in stainless steel, so they look like chrome, they will match the rest of the exterior trim, and be elegant and hopefully look the part and look as though they should be there.

I have made a mock up to give myself an idea of what to aim for, and here it is:


Watcha think? Look okay?


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If it was just the doors WCA I would, but stepping over the side windows as well, I'd need to be 8 feet tall, then I'd not fit in the car anyway!

Do you have any pics of your G46 completed?

Would be nice to see if you have. I'm sure they would be popular with all on the forum.

Wow!

Thanks for all that stuff Paul and WCA.

Nice looking car!

I wondered why you'd had got rid of such a nice car, of course that's why it has to be auto's. What a shame!