MadaboutKitcars

Thanks guys - yes I do use a ridged metal roller, but even the pros get voids sometimes. My cardboard plug probably didn't help matters there, either

The temperature thing is a bit of a bugger. My garage is unheated but I'd been using the resin successfully for small jobs like the door hinge pockets when it was colder than it was on Monday afternoon.

It's possible that the large flat area meant that the heat from the exothermic reaction didn't stay in the panel for long enough for it to cure properly as I also noticed that it was still tacky some 20 hours after it was laid up, despite having 5% catalyst mixed in. The small jobs i'd done a week earlier were all rock solid and dry to the touch within 12 hours.

What I do have now, though, is a nice rigid plug that can be used to create a really decent floor, once I've fixed the issues outlined above.

That's a fine idea but I have a feeling that would be quite hazardous to my health.

Not from the fumes, but because my wife would kill me eep:

Ha ha, I seem to remember someone posting something about a kitchen being full of useful tools that don't know they're tools and that the flow of tools from kitchen to garage was inevitable and irreversible.

The Car Years programme is, I believe, now due to be shown in April so you haven't missed it.

The sun is shining today so I'm off out into the garage to carry on with the moulds for my floorpans. Should have something to show you by tomorrow...

Having used cardboard to make a plug to take a mould from for my driver's side floor and found it a little too flexible, I've been making something similar for the passenger side in aluminium.

It's still a work in progress but is starting to look okay in its own right. I'm making it slightly smaller in all directions as I'll be using the underneath as a male mould to make the floor from so the gelcoat is on the inside of the car. I'll be waterproofing the underside of the floors with some sort of underseal anyway.









Should have this and the driver's side floorpan mould finished and ready for use later this week if all goes to plan.

No more progress on the Speedster to report, I'm afraid as other hobbies/projects/work/ family stuff have all taken precedence these last few months.

Some good news is that Iris, our MG Midget, will finally be appearing on the telly, helping to sponsor the new series of 'The Car Years'. That's on ITV4, Monday evenings at 8pm starting tomorrow, 12th July.

Enjoy, just ignore the tubby chap in the overalls pretending to remove a hubcap for the cameras...

Time for an update I feel as I have been making progress on my doors.

Just to recap, I wanted something different in the way of doors but my attempt to rear hinge them for the suicide door look failed. I wasn't too worried about that as I didn't feel it was going to give me quite the look I wanted anyway.

I've always thought that the doors on the 356 Speedster are a bit big and a bit of an odd design. Quite a bit of their length protrudes forward way beyond the door opening with the hinges about a foot back towards the rear. When you open the doors a big chunk of them just disappears into a large recess in the front wing, so that part of the door doesn't provide any better access.

I also know from experience with very low cars that having a full height door doesn't really help you get in and out any more gracefully, it just means you're closer to the pavement when you sprawl out of it on your hands and knees.

I did rather like not having any doors at all on my Spyder, heaving yourself up, standing on the seat and stepping over the side was actually very easy and looks pretty cool to boot. On this car, though, I am toying with the idea of making some perspex side-screens to wrap around the cockpit from the front screen to just behind the occupants in 718 RSK style, so some sort of hinge mechanism or door would be necessary to clear them out of the way before you step over the side so you don't end up kicking them off -



I'm also quite a fan of the small 'racing' doors on the 718 and 550 Spyders which start about a third of the way up the body. I think they look really business like and mean you don't have to lift your leg quite so high to climb in, which is good when you're ticking on a bit in years...



So, as I'm taking my Speedster down the 'Concept car built by Wendler (who built the 550's and 718's for Porsche)' route, I thought why not make the doors smaller?

After lots of measuring, pencilling in possible shapes, several pots of tea and not a little head scratching, I settled on a design and went at the doors with my angle grinder, dremel and a hacksaw blade -



I formed some aluminium sheet to create a new sill and door pillar inside the old door with a recess for the (MG Midget) hinges, which was then fibreglassed on the underside so the gelcoat is where I want it -





Once the 'glass had cured it was very easy to pop the aluminium former away leaving a rather nice new door recess -











As you can see, the doors open out to almost 45 degrees which should make access really easy.

Next job is to fit the catches and their slam plates (MG Midget again) then fabricate the front and lower door 'inners' to match the recess.

As I retired for good just over a month ago I now have the time to get on with it, so I should have some more progress soon...

Thanks for your positive comments, guys, they're much appreciated

I know what you mean about the way time evaporates when you retire as I tried to retire back in 2017.

I found that months went by and nothing got done as I had all the time in the World to do whatever I wanted but seemed to have no motivation to do anything but binge watch crap on Netflix.

After about nine months I worked out that what hobbies are really for is to give you a distraction away from the pressures of work, so I unretired and got a part time job, working three days a week with a four day weekend every week.

That actually worked very well, I got a lot more things done over those four day weekends than I did when I had seven days a week off. We recently paid off our mortgage, though, which meant our finances are a lot healthier and I decided that now is the time to leave the workplace behind and enjoy my retirement, and this time I mean it!

So, my wife and I have been travelling the UK staying in Hotels picked from the 'Secret Escapes' website, visiting National Trust and English Heritage sites such as Stone Henge, Sutton Hoo and multiple Elizabethan manor houses. I'd have liked to have done that by Classic car, but my wife wasn't so keen, so we compromised and bought a 'youngtimer' classic, an R53 Mini Cooper S to undertake such journeys in. I also have a renewed sense of purpose in my hobbies - I'm really enjoying the challenge of creating my Speedster and I'm getting plenty of time in the fields with my metal detectors.

So, if you're thinking of retiring or wondering where your time is going in retirement, I'd recommend easing yourself into it by taking on a part time job for a few years first. I promise you you'll appreciate retirement much more when you do finally hang up the office keys.

Thanks Deni, yes, I am aiming for the Le Mans race car door look similar to a D Type Jag. I'm hoping that will throw people off the scent of it being a kit-car as it won't look like all the other 356 Speedsters on the road.

Progress continues apace now I've retired - here are some pics of the MG Midget door catches/locks going in -





With a bit of cutting and shaving of the door and body, they fit as if they were designed for the car and the door opens and closes with no drama -



The great thing about the Midget catches is that the slam plate completely encloses the catch on the door on three sides which helps to align the door in its opening. That means that the door can easily be adjusted simply by moving the slam panel a few thou' here and there. The front hinges will also offer similar levels of adjustment so a perfect fit should be achievable.

The passenger door is now at a similar stage - I just reused the same aluminium former to make the sill by bending it completely over to form a mirror image of the driver's side and panel beating it into place the other way up.

Next step is to create the lower half of the door 'innards' which will need to include a weather seal.

More later...

Thanks Paul, yes, I'm afraid I too found the adverts more interesting than the show...

So, progress over the weekend and today revolved around continuing to develop the racing doors.

I reused the alloy former that I made to create the sills to make a front/lower inner section for the passenger door, then glassed it into the door with a gap of three lolly sticks (5mm) all round to ensure it would still open and close without jamming -





Slots added to take the hinges -



I made the door inner quite thin so it would be flexible enough to align properly - it's about three layers of 200gsm mat - and I expected to have to reinforce it later, but now it's glassed in place it's really very rigid. That will only improve when I join the back of it to the rear of the door so I reckon it's strong enough. I'll be doing that this week once I've decided how I want it to look. Although I have an idea in my head as to how it's all going to come together, I am making this up as I go along!

As I've never had much faith in limit straps to stop the doors opening too far and damaging the bodywork, I wanted to fit proper stays. I had to guess what might work and sourced a pair of Peugeot 206 rear door stays brand new for £15.00 on ebay.

I went for the rear ones as they're longer than the fronts and I guessed, correctly as it happens, that would give me more scope to make them fit and work.

They're obviously designed for much heavier doors than I have and the 'ramps' on them were too steep to operate smoothly without jamming, so I trimmed them down with the angle grinder.

They're also about 1cm too long, which is fine as it means that the front stays would be about 2cm too short so the door wouldn't open far enough if I'd bought a pair of those, and I just ground in a new 'stop' so they don't allow the door to over-extend. Hopefully these pictures should explain better than I've just tried to -

Before



After



Doing its job



And the spring clamp inside the door



Tomorrow I'll be doing the same to the driver's door, then I need to join up the lower and rear sections of the doors where there's still a gap and finish them off by creating inner panels to box the doors in.

More later

More progress today despite the very windy weather which kept blowing my fibreglass mat all over the place.

I started by remodelling the aluminium former for the driver's side again so I can make the lower/front inner section for that door -



I'm lucky enough to have a very nice selection of panel beating hammers which I inherited from my late father-in-law, who was a very skilled professional metal fabricator by trade. I can only hope that some of his skills have infused into his tools over the years and rub off on me. With hindsight I should have 'glassed both the underside of the former to make the sill and the top of it to make the door inner at the same time as it would have saved quite a bit of faffing about bending the former one way then t'other, but as I've already said, I am making this up as I go along...

Once the inner had cured I then bonded it into the door. Here's a pic of the necessary bits'n'bobs to do that -



While that was curing I took the time to trial fit the passenger door to see how usable the opening would actually be -





I'm rather pleased with the results so far. As you can see, the opening is plenty big enough and I really like the angle that the door opens to.

Hopefully I should have something a bit more interesting to report back on over the next few days

Thanks Deni. The look I'm going for is inspired by the 550 Spyder -





Looking pretty similar so far

Thanks Peterux, my mantra with parts like door latches is to keep it simple and stick with what I know.

When I restored our Midget I was impressed with the simplicity and effectiveness of the hinges and latch mechanism, so I figured it's be a good idea to use them on my Speedster. They're cheap too, which is a bonus.

I also want to be able to truthfully say "There is not one single Volkswagen part in this car" should anyone ask if it's a converted Beetle. Of course, I'm not going to add that it's substantially constructed from British Leyland parts...

My task for today was to come up with some sort of inner surface panel for the doors. I'm taking my inspiration from Porsche's 718 and 550 Spyders, and I really rather like the minimalist look that the inside of their doors have -



So, a bit of CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) and I came up with this -



Quick check that it fits both doors, which it does if you flip it -



Then transferred onto a bit of aluminium sheet and cut slightly oversized so it can be trimmed to fit -





As I want the openings to be chamfered inwards, I cut a bit of rubber hose and used it with some plasticine and parcel tape to make a suitable former -





Then a nice thick coat of gelcoat -



I've finished it off with three layers of 300gsm mat, but you'll have to wait to see the result until tomorrow as it's curing in the garage at the moment.

If it looks the part it's just a case of popping out the recess former and taping it back through the hole on the other side of the alloy sheet to make the panel for the other door.

More tomorrow

After popping my door panel off the alloy former and tidying it up a bit I'm not happy with the result. It looks 'okay' but my efforts to create a chamfered edge using hose and plasticine resulted in a slightly uneven opening that was a bit bigger than I intended -



Plan B has, therefore, swung into place, which is to create a flat panel with greater thickness around where the opening will be so I can carefully cut it out and shape it how I want it -





Again, that's curing in the garage overnight as the cold snap we had here today has slowed down the hardening process somewhat

Okay, just taken a look in the garage and the fibreglass has now fully set.

It doesn't look like much, but I'm a lot happier with the result this time -



It has a nice guide for me to follow to cut out the opening so I'll tackle that in the morning

There, that's much better -



The image possibly still makes it look a bit wonky, which it isn't, and I'm confident it will look right once it's cut to size and properly lined up with the structure of the door.

I've made a mirror image of the inner panel for the other side which will be ready to have its opening cut out tomorrow.

While that was curing I made a start on the next step, which is to create something to make the doors weatherproof. That might seem a bit unnecessary on a completely open car, but it's mainly to stop it filling up with water if it's parked up in the rain with its tonneau cover fitted.

550 Spyder replicas often have a flange that overlaps the door on its inside to take a D section rubber seal -



So, my plan is to recreate that lip around the inside of the door aperture at the front and bottom of the opening. The inside back edges of my doors have the facility to take a seal already, albeit a self-adhesive one rather than one that clips over the lip, so I won't need to continue the lip up the back edges. A picture of what I'm doing might well explain that better.

A big chunk of alloy sheet cut to match the opening -



Then my now 'old faithful' former for the door sills was reused again to overlap the edge -



Tomorrow I'll fibreglass about a 4" band around the join between the flat panel and sticky out panel, which, once cured, will be moved 10mm back and up and 'glassed in place to form a lip the right size to take a slim D section seal.

Hopefully I should have that done tomorrow

Thanks for the supportive words guys, they're much appreciated

Not much progress this week, I'm afraid, due to family commitments.

I did manage to make the seal 'lip' for each door, though. They just need a bit of sanding and trimming to make them an even thickness and height above the door opening all the way round, then they'll be bonded in place, and they'll need to stand off from the opening about 5mm to allow space for the seal to contact the surface of the door under pressure but without completely crushing it. That will negate the need to have a recess around the doors to take the seal -





To keep it looking neat and 'factory' finished, I'm thinking that I need to find a way of using a seal that clips over the lip rather than a self-adhesive version. As there's quite a wide and deep gap between the back of the doors and the body I think I can make that work...

Hopefully I should have a better update later this week

Having spent a week doing other things, I have picked up the baton and restarted work on my Speedster doors.

I just had a couple of hours spare today, so decided to trim the oval hole in the passenger door inner surface panel, cut it to size - just at the top for the moment - fit it along its top edge and work out where the door handle needs to be.

to help me fix the panel in place I recently bought this rather Gucci M4 Rivnut tool -





As you can see, it's rather different to the usual 'pliers' type which require a lot of brute force to operate. This one uses two 13mm open ended spanners to draw the Rivnut up and compress it into place, which gives you a lot of control over exactly how tight it clamps into its hole.

It's the first time I've tried it and I do like it, you just have to be careful to stop when you feel the resistance to turning the nut increase or you'll strip the thread out of the Rivnut and have to drill it out and replace it (don't ask me how I know this...)

Anyway, that allowed me to fix the panel in place along its top edge with M4 countersunk allen bolts, and then find a suitable place for the handle -





I'm pleased with the results so far, I think it's all coming together the way I envisaged it

Showing my age...

Whilst idly surfing through chrome fuel filler caps on ebay, I came across this image, and I saw something completely different to my son (20) and my wife (a fair bit younger than me) -



So, what did you see?

I saw a freaky image of someone in a hoody wearing an Edvard Munch 'Scream' mask reflected in the chrome, while my far more tech. savvy son and wife both just saw the latest mobile phone being used as a camera.

I do now feel rather old this morning

Progress has been a little slow lately due to family commitments and the like. I have been able to get on with the driver's side door seal 'lip' over the last week or so, though.

I've now set the correct gap for the seal and bonded/glassed the lip in place at the front and along the bottom, and I've temporarily screwed in a strip at the rear of the door aperture, which I'll bond into place in a day or so -





The seal fits snugly against the inner face of the door all round without leaving any gaps for water ingress or making the door too tight to close easily.

The seal looks a little uneven and there appears to be a squared section in the curve that joins the door upright to the lower edge in the photo taken from inside the cabin, but I just hadn't seated it properly all the way around so it does fit better than it looks.

Anyway, Christmas is only a week away so there won't be any more progress today as I have some shopping to do...

Thanks for your positive comments, guys, it's nice to know you're interested in what I'm doing

It's all coming together slowly but surely, and I should have another update shortly after Christmas.