MadaboutKitcars

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Ordered some new boots for it, and borrowed a mates lathe and knocked up some adapters for the spinners.

This was my fuel filler pipe, lots of head scratching to get this right.

So, dry fitted the kit, tried the lights in front and rear etc.


The thing that always bugged me on the kit was the rear window, it just looks too flat on the back and also too recessed all IMHO of course, so out with the air saw.


Oh dear, no turning back now, so off down to my mates place who runs a fabrication company, he bent me up some alloy strips to acts as a former around the aperture and also hold the new rear screen.


These were cut and bent to shape (ish) then I screwed and bonded them in place, I took the screws out once it had set, then I flipped the roof section over and glassed them in to place from behind.

The black stuff is flow coat, it sort of protects the matting from water ingress and also makes the surface a bit smoother so it will be easier to clean any crap or road dirt off, I treated all the exposed Matt with it.

I had to grind it off where the new matting was applied.

More to follow.

I think it has improved the rear end, you may disagree of course, the rear window will now be perspex (Race car remember saves weight)

Yes bud,

Rosso Barchetta, a sort of darkish red, not the blood red you see on a lot of fezzas.

I actually bought the paint before the kit arrived, this is the look i am aiming for.

So,

Remember the one step forward, two back thing ? well in my wisdom I decided to add a cross brace to the rear cage, I have fitted a harness bar for the 4 point belts.

Back out with the welder.



So now I have even less rear view, these are supposed to be badish any way, still who needs to see what's behind you eh ?

More to follow.

This is the back end now with the bar in.
The other small problem I had was how close my head was to the internal roll bar, I will pad it before the car goes back on the road but I also got hold of some small bucket seats for it.

More to etc etc.

So,

The next brain wave was to give some shape to the doors, I know why Tribute done them the way they did and their is nowt wrong with it at all, however after a LOT of thought I hoped I could improve them.

So, masked out the cut lines.

And fired up the disc cutter.


Of course you can't just hack the skins off without moving the lower part of the door up, this is where A part of me wished I left the fecker alone.

And of course that mod also meant I had to build the sill up to meet the door, I think I took 40mm off the bottom of the door and added 30mm to the sill, or it may have been the other way around, not sure, been asleep since then.

I ripped all the Gel coat off the top and sides of the sills, this was more for the bonding to take better.

I then popped back down to the fabricators and had some steel plates folded up to bring the height back up.

Then I drilled some holes in them so that I could screw them on as well as bond them on, they were also welded the full length of the sill, I also filled them with builders foam and then glassed them in place.




More to follow.

After this was done I was ready to finally bond the kit on, It really did put me back weeks on the build to do this mod, hopefully the finished result will be ok.

So, out with the Stickall and time to fit the top for the final time, I had already bonded some flanges on to the sills before I fitted them, I also waxoyled the hell out of the inner sills before they were fitted.

Not a great pic but you may be able to see the flanges I put on here, this was so the quarter panels had something firm to sit against.





The blue stuff is bonding paste designed for gluing 2 bits of fiberglass together,

The eagle eyed ones will notice I have not bonded the pillar trim on, I am going to bond it on but leave a small gap, 3mm maybe, I will then seam seal this and paint over, I think it will flex on the sealer then and not the body.

We live in hope.

Thanks,

I was originally hoping to have it done by now, customers work has to take priority over my own toy, I have to accept it is done when it is done, frustrating at times but there we go I guess.

So,

This is where I am up to at present, I built up the gaps left by the rear wings the same way as I done the sills, formed some steel sections, welded them in to the door shuts and glued ,screwed foamed and glassed them in place.





I think the sides look ok, will it crack ? that is the million dollar question, If it does I will deal with it at the time, I will certainly look in to the under brace that some body on here put up, it was in the States I think.

Still a lot to do, I have a lowering kit for it to fit as the arch to wheel gap is rather large.

Thanks for the kind words,

It is difficult at times when you work on motors all day to find the enthusiasm to crack on with your own project.

Planning it and having a picture in your head of how you want the finished car to look is one thing, getting their is another.

Still, I did manage to do a little bit on it today, I got the boot lid and locking mechanism in place, and I spent some time preparing the Jacking point plugs ready for fitting.

After having Nick's (World class accident) car in for polishing a while back, I was surprised at how heavy his front clip is, it weighed a ton, so I had a mould taken off the bonnet that came with the kit and produced a much lighter one.

Some pics for those interested.

This was the rear crash bar/ brace I had made earlier, I beefed it up by adding a couple of extra bars, it also locates the bear claw for the rear boot.





The boot lock is from a Morris Marina, came from ebay, the plinth it sits on I bought at the auto jumble last month, no idea really what it is from.

I also added a couple of adjuster bolts to the bottom edge of the boot lid, it means I can adjust the lid up or down to get a decent gap, the boot lid is not gapped up any where near correct at the moment.


This was the mould taken from the original bonnet

And the finished item, also fitted to the front clip.

Then I cleaned up the jacking point bungs, I had to clean the excess material off them, We then punched some big stainless washers out to go behind them, and then after tack welding them on turned them down on the lathe and gave them a quick polish.

You are more than welcome to pop in when you are passing Gary.

I found some old Dulux under the bench the other day, might bung that on, probably push the boat out and use a new brush.....

Cheers Chris,

Just a different take on your design, hopefully turned the corner on the build now.

Thanks,

I will cover the body prep and paint side in detail for you, at the moment all you can see is where the flash lines have been taken back with a DA (orbital sander) using 80 grit paper, I did also try to block some shape in before filling using a long block with 120 grit paper.

The roll bar and panel under the rear screen were just keyed, etch primed , 2k primed, and then satin blacked, they do look gloss but the pics were taken when the paint was still wet.

The body will be Polyester primed with a U-pol product called re face, this has to be dry blocked/flatted before going on with standard 2k primer.

The colour I have bought is a basecoat so will need to be lacquered.

The paint work side is a few weeks away yet, but I will keep the thread updated.

Again, thank you for the replies,

Had a busy week at work this week,

I did manage to do a small amount , cut the perspex rear screen down, pulled the bonnet in using the world famous Nubodi split, drilled the old wing mounting points off.

I also bonded some tubes in to the bonnet for the headlight/side/indicator wiring to run thru, I am running low on resin so can't glass them in properly until it turns up.

My goal is to have the car on the road before Sept (this year)

Some pics.