Kidge's Z3 275 Project

[Paul L]

Egdik - I certainly know the "testing and frustrating" parts of building a kit.

However, it is a great experience when you finally get to drive it on the road.

Your 275 project certainly looks like it could be amazing when finished.

So good luck and keep us posted, Paul.

[Egdik]

GTB june 9th 012 small.jpg

Here we are on some Dorset Heath, heading to the Tribute OC on Saturday. More to follow.

[Paul L]

Egdik - Great to see your car on the road.

Enjoy the BBQ and +1 to more photos please.

Cheers, Paul.

[Aus Simmo]

Well that looks very nice indeed. LOTS of photos to follow please! Is the paint matte, or is it just short of final painting? Your car has turned out very well and I'm jealous.

[mazdarazmataz]

Looking great, love the headlight area, rear end looks great and front vents.

[Egdik]

In October 2016 we removed the panels and slowly set about creating a 275 GTB Farina style body on a Z3 base.

Over the following 8 months, I had some inactivity, but in the spring work started in earnest and WACA organised a TOC date - that became a deadline to be on the road 'OTR' . . . .

Here is the result with some text about how or how not to create a body conversion kitcar.

1 R side.jpg

2 R fr 3-4.jpg

3 fr R.jpg

4 R hlight.jpg

33 front top window frame.jpg

The window frames are made by using a second Z3 upright and rubber guide, turned round and put on the rear vertical. The top part comes from a Fiesta coupe for the gentle curve. Cut, build up & trim here and there, weld them together and have them chrome powder coated.

The headlight covers come from a TVR Griffith and the rims are fabricated from a 3mm brass sheet, after scanning and cad work. Need a little tidying up before chroming.

The stainless steel bumpers come from the Harrington group's sweatshop in Thailand. They are of variable standard and finish and we have fabricated brackets to fit them onto the chassis and carriers.

On the Z3 there is a sort of side / rear shelf area and we partly glassed over this, forward to the door return and added some abs plastic sheet, to seal off the wheel arches, in order to separate the outside, the boot and the interior.

More to follow, 5 photos at a time.

[Egdik]

Here is a full view of the window frame:

7 R door window.jpg

The front and rear 3/4 vents and covered over in glass, so we cut the vent holes and added a little more grp to the front sections and quite a lot onto the rear ones, to allow for the addition of first perspex and later glass, maybe 6 - 8mm thick.

6 R bonnet vents.jpg

9 R rear vent windows.jpg

The bmw filler flap has a large gap to the body and Chris kindly reduced this to give a better appearance. The door handles, catches, links and lock mechanisms took a lot of time thought, design changes and several different craftsmen for the final presentation.

The handles are a thing of beauty. First the blacksmith bent the 8 x 25mm stainless bars into the designed outline. Then I cut, ground and smoothed them into the desired [GTB style] shape and sectioned to fit . . . the precision engineers then made up some sections to be welded onto the handles and accept rod links, held in place with 5mm grub screws.

These fit the door and the rods meet with a movable link attached, with P clips, across the back of the oem plastic handle.

The lock is left in place and operated by a lengthened key, with a tube attached to the end of the barrel and another chrome key slot next to the handle.

I can bore for Britain about these if you need a cure for insomnia . . . .

8 R filler flap and door handle.jpg

15 up R side.JPG

[Egdik]

The back end of the car is certainly quite close to Farina's lines, while not being too complex. The design is clean, but set off by the lights, hinges, bumpers and tailpipes.

The panel was reworked / glassed to have the rear lights pointing almost straight backwards. Note: they must be visible from the side.

The led rear lights [including a reflector] come from Australia, with their colours of wiring. The car was designed by a Japanese man, for a German company, who built the car in the USofA, while we play in the UK.................... in their infinite wisdom bmw seem to have different coloured wires going into and coming out of the same connections in a say, 8 wire plug !

The fog and reversing lights come from a bmw Mini and in due course, they will look better being 2 - 3" further back under the bumper.

10 rear whole.jpg

The Tribute sign in a modified Ferrari Rosso font, inverted line, was laser cut in Cornwall, via ebay

The boot lid was my attempt to fibre fill, hi build, flat and rattle can spray . . . probably leave it to the professionals in future.

In places we have sprayed a matt cellulose RAL 5000 to cover ugly workings. The gel coat was RAL 5000.

The MGB GT rear glass is a B..... to fit, even by a professional.

11 rear tribute lid & window.jpg

The boot is enlarged with a not very usable space and the lid will need some powerful struts to help it up. Fitting the catch was best done with the shell off, so that I could see inside what was happening . . . The aluminium hinges come from old Minis at Mini spares in Potters Bar. 'Handed' to allow for the boot lid curvature and with the edges smoothed over, they will need lacquering in due course.

20 boot and heavy lid.jpg

The boot lock barrel will benefit from a round stainless surround. 36 - 40mm?

The standard lock mechanism and connectors are set upside down and the other way round, so that the lock is on the boot ledge and the striker in the lid.


31 boot lock.jpg

The rear end has elongated tailpipes in 54mm OD 2mm wall stainless 15" onto the rear box; the tubes came from Poland via ebay. Fair price, poor communicators. Adaptors quickly and efficiently from UK 'everyexhaustpart' on ebay. A dummy box and pipes will be placed on the R side for balance.

When delivered the rear was bracketed up with some holey galvanised steel and in an effort to provide some weather protection, these were replaced with an aluminium sheet, a stainless section by the box and some plastic sheet to help.

The rear carrier was raised about 9mm but somehow the bumper is not quite level and a spacer will need to be inserted to lower the R side.

32 under rear.jpg

[Car photographer]

Looking good!

[Barber]

Toppa posts matey

[lancelot link]

having spoken to richard at the bbq it appears that they ( nubodi ), are the first point of contact regards sales for tribute products unless you want to go directly through chris, which you still can if you want at the moment.

buying from source would always be my preference ...

[Lucky@LeMans]

I'm only going on what Richard told me at the BBQ a couple of weeks ago. I can understand the logic behind doing things this way and having read the features / adverts in the magazines this seems to be the case.

Perhaps Chris could clarify if this is now the case.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Lucky@LeMans

… Perhaps Chris could clarify if this is now the case.

Lucky – I know Chris doesn’t post much on the forum these days.

But I found the original message that Dan posted back in October 2016…

Originally Posted by duracell

… When the kit is complete it will be available to order exclusively through old no7.

I think the arrangement with Nubodi covers the Tribute range, but the 275 kit will not be a Tribute.

The coupe was a ‘one off’ from Tribute, but the convertible will be an ‘Old No.7’ kit, if that makes sense.

At this point, I should point out that technically I know nothing, just what I’ve read on here.

Cheers, Paul.

[Tribute Automotive]

Originally Posted by Paul L

Lucky – I know Chris doesn’t post much on the forum these days.

But I found the original message that Dan posted back in October 2016…



I think the arrangement with Nubodi covers the Tribute range, but the 275 kit will not be a Tribute.

The coupe was a ‘one off’ from Tribute, but the convertible will be an ‘Old No.7’ kit, if that makes sense.

At this point, I should point out that technically I know nothing, just what I’ve read on here.

Cheers, Paul.

Nubodi represent the Tribute products shown on their website (250 SWB Hard top / soft top and the Kobra). These are also (along all the other Tribute products) available directly from myself.

As Paul L has correctly pointed out above the 275 is an Old No.7 product and will be available exclusively from Dan.

[Jaguartvr]

Egdik, can you give me some more information on the Harrington bumpers please.
I have been considering a set for my MK2 Jag but they are a very heavy style and unless the shape is perfect they just won't fit. At around £1300 a pair they are not cheap and the return postage to Vietnam would be horribly expensive.
A friend fitted a pair to a Dino and he said they fitted, just, after a lot of fiddling about, he said if they were large one piece bumpers he probably wouldn't have got them to fit.

[Egdik]

Hi,

The Harrington bumpers are marketed as being 'to original style / spec / fit' so far as I can understand these things.

On receipt, I noticed that the main cross section of the rear bumper was NOT square / would not sit flat on a flat surface.

Harrington's view was that it might still fit, but they inspired no confidence in me if that was their standard. There are plenty of blogs out there from other buyers expressing various concerns. The 275 rear body on the Z3 is slightly wider where the side sections wrap around and this complicates the fit between the sides and the main rear section. I may find a little further improvement.

Harrington do not give tolerances for their products.

At £1500 I did not expect a sub-standard part.

It is all too easy to see the 'beating out' marks on the metal; they are clearly not pressed out, which Ferrari maybe. They are well polished. The metal is thinner than I would expect. They are painted black inside. The appearance overall is not unsatisfactory. They do look very good, design wise, for this car.

Currently there is very little alternative for a set of stainless bumpers [for a number of cars]. Perhaps in future, with quality scanning, things will improve. These days an old car can be scanned and whole panels made as 'exact' replications. Chroming plastic is a growing area of technological advance . . .

Knowing what I now know, it is probable that I would buy the same again.

You are welcome to come and see them.

Kidge.

[Egdik]

Once the schools were back Carol & I set off on a trip down through France via Le Mans, the Dordogne and the Pyrenees to Sos del Rey Catolico in Spain. Returning via the Isle d'Oleron and the Eurotunnel.

A tyre change has made the car steer slightly better, by fitting a 215/70 R15 [Vredestein] to the rear - raises it an inch - and a 215/60 R15 [Continental] on the front - about standard ride height. Pressures R:34 & F:30. The rear arch is better filled and more 'period'. Here we are at Guzet near Aulus les Bains in the Pyrenees.

1 Guzet niege Aulus les Bains Pyrenees.jpg


The fog & reversing lights have been moved back under the bumper by a couple of inches, as you can see, though the sheep are totally disinterested. In an attempt at discretion the GB plate was printed off and laminated - euro stars included . . . plus an aluminium front plate.


2 fog & rev lights look better but sheep totally disinterested.jpg

In the boot is a 'baguette box' made of spare pieces of plastic and a piano hinge. The bread fits in quite well, but we used it for a large array of tools, which were not required.

6 baguette box.jpg

However, we had a little problem which may tax your grey cells: when the lights - side or main - are turned on, the engine cpu or the throttle sensor partially & temporarily limits the fuel supply / varies the ignition - very similar to when one lifts off the accelerator - saving fuel. Any pressure on the accelerator rectifies the situation, but it is an irritant. Anyone else had this experience ?

It may also be the same 'conflict' that causes the auto gearbox to change up of its own accord from M4 to M5, which it seemed more prone to do when it was wet - usually meaning the lights were on.

On motorways cruising around the French limit of 130kph oil consumption is very low. But on the mountain passes [including snow over the Tourmalet] oil was being consumed at an alarming rate of about 1 litre per 500 hard miles.

We have tried to fit some guttering over the door tops, with limited success. The basic form comes from a Lotus derivative, which we have bent in various directions to fit / bolted through the door 'return' and sealed with Butyl. Room for improvement. How wide can the gutter gap be ?

P1160401.jpg

Over the last 40 years or so we have mostly toured on large motorcycles and organised weekend breaks and holidays of up to a fortnight in Europe. Might the club enjoy such a thing or perhaps we ought to start with a weekend in England ?

Finally here is a photo from the top of the Puerto Sos pass with Sos del Rey Catolico in the middle distance. The Parador here is a very good one, on the hilltop of the old town. The man who unified Spain was Ferdinand the Catholic born here in 1452.

4 Puerto Sos.jpg

[Barber]

As they say in tThe life of Brian, you lucky, lucky b*****.

How did you do they gutters, I like them a lot.

[Egdik]

The gutters were purchased as a long strip of aluminium with a curved bend along the full length for the gutter. I then cut then down and bent them to fit. Probably they are too tight against the roof edge and I'll have another go at pulling the gutter edge out 2 - 3mm.

[Barber]

Thanks, it looks like a great job, well done.