First of all I would like to thank all you fella’s that gave me good advice on the rivnuts / well nuts issue.
It looks like Mr Towed was the only satisfied customer!
I paid a visit to my local motor bike workshop as instructed, where I think the old boy there, used to build bikes for King Henry the VIII, and he would not touch well nuts with a barge pole, which surprised me.
The outcome of all this is, that I am sure that rivnuts and well nuts have their uses, But one of them is NOT fitting Scottie’s windscreen on!
( N.B It’s much bigger and heavier than Mr T’s.)
Access to the place where the screen needs to fit the car body is very limited,
But even if I have to cut individual access holes for each ‘king nut, I will bolt the screen on with stainless steel bolts and nuts in the conventional way.
Today was so cold; I sat inside by the wood burner!
But I became so hot and bored that the ice cold concrete floor in the tent began to look attractive, so off I went for a while.
When I finished for the day, the ex soldier’s steel helmet looked more at home On the Jaguar than it would have on the battle field, so I was satisfied.
Here are some pics to illustrate that point:
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I had considered that WCA, although he body is not bonded on yet, I a REALLY reluctant to take it off again, and will most likely go the route I wrote of earlier.
Why can't you use stick on plates on your car??
Mmmm, I take your point, Financially better off within the law for sure!
My access as it is now, is limited, and of course will get worse as other bits are added, as you say.
I have another idea to add strength to the screen frame, which is to support it either side, by hefty steel bars / strips bolted to the side crash bars which are ideally placed for that to happen.
That will be successful I'm sure, so the bolts which hold the lower part of the screen on, will be relieved of an awful lot of stress if I get it right!
In other words, those lower screen bolts will not be stopping the screen from being ripped off, as the two bars either side will be doing that, if you see what I mean!
Not sure if I've made that clear enough, but it is clear in my mind!
I'm not sure whether you mean my "tempory" build tent or the exhaust dome!!!!! Clarify please, (you may be a council spy)
And what a terrific house that is too!
Well, I finished it Paul, and as you say no-one will ever know how I made
it!
( that is if you don't count the 5,119 people that have looked at this thread!!)
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Since I last posted, I have managed to sell off most of the bits I stripped off my donar Spitfire, and surprisingly I raised over £456.
I only paid £1180 for the Spit, as is was a bit battered, but it needed no work, and came with a genuine years Mot.
With the battered bits fetching £450, I have a cracking donar for about
£700. ( And, I had budgeted for around £1500 to £2000 for a good solid donar!)
So all you builders out there, don't leave your junk at the back of your garage, as it's worth cash to you, get it on *bay!
I actually joked about making a profit just recently, but with what I have left over i'ts not going to happen, But it did to you! So it IS possible. Well done.
I envy you being able to jump in your car and drive about, I will get there eventually, but I have so much left to do.
If I had decided to build the car as Chris intended, I would be finished now, but Wanting an XKSS, means just about everything has to be modified or fabricated from scratch. But of course I knew that when I started, but it doesn't make the work load any easier"!
Seats
As I said earlier in this thread, I was going to build a Jaguar XK13, but the company went bust and I lost 2.5 grand, ouch.
But I had started hoarding Jaguar bits and pieces, most of which I still have.
I have just sorted through my bits and found some XJ6 seats which I had stripped out of a car I scrapped years ago.
I will use them as a base to build new seats for XKSS.
They are creased and worn, but that is exactly the look I need.
They were made during a good financial period for Jaguar, when they could still afford top quality materials.
here are some pics
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Exhaust AGAIN
I thought I was out of the woods with my heat shield and cowl, but the saga drags on.
I had to cut some off the cowl, and the shield needed a right angle bend on the lower edge to mate up perfectly with the sill.
The tolerances are so fine that when I've got the whole thing wrapped in heat resistant tape, it will be a shoe- horn process to get it all in.
difficult but do-able.
Sounds like the whole of my build so far!
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Rear brace
Pressing on with the build, I have fabricated a bracing bar to
Re-inforce the body where it overlaps the steel tub at the rear of the car. In that area, it is a bit floppy!
Chris provided back panels to cure this, but because I am trying to mimic the XKSS design in that area, I cannot use them, so I must
Make my own.
I have used a 1.75 X ¼ inch solid steel bar, which I have made fit
Across the car from wheel arch to wheel arch.
I have tried to show this in these pics:
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They are certainly strong enough Paul!
The seat belt anchors, not the leather seats!
I finally got the three bolts in place which will hold the lower edge of the heat shield. This job had to done before bonding, as afterwards, there would be no access to do it.
As a first time builder, I maybe have some odd ideas about certain things, let me elaborate:
When people talk about “bonding the body on” My inexperienced brain just thinks “glue”
When the car is complete, I may eventually bow to peer pressure and install a 2 litre turbo 250 BHP engine, which will give the car around 400 BHP per ton, and the thought of whanging
Round the Nurenbergring at 145 mph, with just GLUE holding the body on really Horrifies me.
But, I WILL use the stuff Chris recommends, but will augment this with good old fashioned stainless steel nuts and bolts.
On that subject I bough some today and nearly had a heart attack when I had to pay for them!!
Here are some not so clear pics:
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I forgot to add, that is just the tail bonded in, I have yet to do the nose and sides.
Carrying on with the build, and as always, so far NOTHING has been simple or straight forward, everything seems complicated.
Today carries on in that theme………………….
Before I bond the nose, I have to line it up, and noticed that the bonnet opening was resting on the radiator frame.
That won’t do.
I am determined to get the nose as low down as it will go, (without putting it under stress.)
I also noticed that the rad cap was really high and may foul the bonnet, so, before I can move forward, I have to lower the radiator.
F**%”!g B%*”*+x
I took out the rad and the U frame it sits on.
I chopped off the two U frame mounts, and welded them back on a bit lower down, then chopped about an inch out of the U frame so the rad will sit lower in it.
I have rested it all back in, to check how much room I’ve gained, and it’s about two inches. That’s a good result, but it took best part of the day to do!!
And it’s not finished yet.
I’ve ordered an electric fan, so before I bolt the rad back in place, the shitty plastic fan will be removed, which should provide a small gain all round.
The following pics show some of it:
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Re-sited battery
I have been asked why I re-sited the battery to the boot, I should have explained this before, it is simply a question of access.
As most people know, a Spitfire has a flip front, which makes the battery easy to get at and change if needed.
My body shell does not, and if the battery were left in place, it would be trapped forever!!
That is also the reason I had to move the fuse box.
It’s always fiddly to change a fuse, but when access is difficult and you can’t actually see it, it makes life hard.
Incidentally, I had to move the chassis commission plate from the nearside of the car to where it is now, otherwise it would have been trapped out of sight between the two body skins.
And as far as I know this plate is the only bit of info which can identify the car.
As a 1971 vehicle it came out before Vin numbers were dreamed up, and has only two letters and four figures! Those were the days.
You didn’t have to lock your doors in those days, there was no crime, policemen were nice blokes, females knew their place, etc. etc and all that old drivel…………….
.Oh well…..
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Next year
If I finish it for the spring, I want to go to a Triumph day and tell them its a triumph, then go to a Jaguar day and tell them the same!!
Then watch their faces!!
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