691 replies to this topic

[alchall]

Ive just read this from start to finish too whilst at work over the last few days.  Looking amazing, so much hard work gone into this.  Looking forward to seeing it in paint soon!

Thanks for your kind words, hopefully not too many months off being painted now, want to find somewhere I can be sure will do a good job though so prepared to wait if needs be once I'm done with it....

[alchall]

Small update from this weekend, managed to do some tweaking and fiddling with the doors, it's amazing what just taking time away from a problem can do, a couple of hours of messing and now both are pretty close to where I can expect them to be and they open and close nicely too.

 

Generally the gaps are ok now, pretty even, just one door skin to weld on, one A panel to fit and then just some tweaking / welding rod magic on the top corner of each door skin where the gaps a bit strange (as appears to be the norm!).....

 

 

[72hump]

Nice work on the doors. Are you going to make Bristol next year?

[alchall]

Nice work on the doors. Are you going to make Bristol next year?

 

I suspect I'll not be quite finished in time, partly because I'm not sure how long it's going take to get painted and partly because my available time to work on it comes and goes

[minimissions]

Those panel gaps are looking ace. Nice work it would be great to see it at bristol mate...

[72hump]

Nice work on the doors. Are you going to make Bristol next year?

I suspect I'll not be quite finished in time, partly because I'm not sure how long it's going take to get painted and partly because my available time to work on it comes and goes

Tell me about it, I might make it there, but the car is looking like a lost cause for Bristol.

Edited by 72hump, 28 June 2018 - 05:42 PM.

[alchall]

Those panel gaps are looking ace. Nice work it would be great to see it at bristol mate...

Thanks, I'll be needing a minor miracle to be done in time I suspect

[minimissions]

 

Those panel gaps are looking ace. Nice work it would be great to see it at bristol mate...

Thanks, I'll be needing a minor miracle to be done in time I suspect

 

na everything is doable its all time and money unfortunately...

[alchall]

Just chipping away at bits and bobs at the moment, prepped A panel ready for fitting and decided to rectify a bit of a mess I created on the A post when trying to get the door to fit originally, I'd bashed away at this around the opening for the check strap and it didn't look right anymore.

 

So I bought a Magnum A post, cut out a section from just below the light switch hole and just above the check strap hole, cut out the equivalent part from the car, painted up the inside of the new piece and welded it in place, now looks much better, happy with this fiddly little fix!

 

 

I also fitted the rear seat pan stiffener, not difficult, but time consuming - lots of holes to drill and plug welds to fix followed by much grinding and finishing, had a couple of weld that blew out so a couple of spots where it could be neater but at the end of the day it'll never been seen anyway....

 

 

I've also plug welded the passenger door skin in place so that's now finished too (not taken a photo of that yet though).

 

Next up fitting brackets to hold catch tank under the wing, after which I can then fit the A panel and refit the door to check that it's all still good.

 

Then it'll be into the engine bay again to finish off the mods there and that should be the shell complete and ready for prep and paint!

[72hump]

Any updates mate, as sad as this sounds, your build is keeping my mini mojo going until I restart my build next year.

[alchall]

Any updates mate, as sad as this sounds, your build is keeping my mini mojo going until I restart my build next year.

 

I've had a couple of weekends away so progress has been a little slow.

 

I've got my modified loom now and have test fitted it and worked out how to route it as neatly as possible, has taken more time tweaking this than I expected but it will be worth it in the end. Needs a couple of tweaks again now and a couple of changes I've decided to make so it'll be off back to David Wilson shortly to finish it off (he's done a fantastic job for me and has been amazingly helpful!).

[alchall]

Time for a bit of an update, nothing earth shattering but some progress test fitting the loom....

 

I ditched the SPI loom and purchased a late carb version on the advice of specialist components, this went off to Wired by Wilson for modification and upgrades, David did a fantastic job of customising my loom and I spent quite a lot of time working out how best to fit it around the bay so it's as tidy as possible, here's how it ended up....

 

 

 

Loom now has some new relays and fuses, I had all the glass fuses, including the inline fuses that would have lived dangling from the bulkhead and behind the dash swapped for blade fuses, as you can see they look nice and neat either size of the rotodip hole.

 

The relays I will mount to the side of the servo mounting, picture below shows test fitting, I've since made a bracket to fasten them to....

 

 

Loom needs a couple of minor tweaks and also I decided to add a couple of extra connections for auxiliary gauges so it's current back with David to finish it off for me, I can't speak highly enough of his work!

 

So with that the bulkhead an inner wings need some tidying up, I'd already decided to delete some holes that were not going to be required and I'd drilled a couple of extras I no longer need as I fiddled with the loom routing. Also one new 45mm hole behind the wiper motor where the ECU loom will run into the car, ECU to be mounted under the dash.

 

I also decided to do a final repair to the bulkhead, I'd patched it up a bit a long time ago but it wasn't great so cut out the dodgy  patch and stitched some fresh steel in, it's now tidier and stiffer...

 

 

I've stocked up on rivnuts, which I'm using for fastening the P clips around the bay to fix the loom amongst other things, I also purchased a stainless bracket that the vacuum pump will mount to (wasn't cheap but it's very neat, so I've included some captive nuts that this will fit to, I've set it up so that it combines with the horn bracket as well to saves some space.

 

Here's how the bay now looks with the vacuum pump also test fitted again to check alignment of the captive nuts, thankfully they are good!

 

 

 

 

And the last thing I've done is work out mounting of my oil catch can under the wing, by coincidence a standard wiper motor strap fits perfectly around it and the can came with a single lug for mounting at the top. I fitted a small fixing poing for the lug and added a pair of M6 rivunts for the bracket to fit to....

 

 

And hey presto, it fits nicely, I may have it a tad high up, the filter may foul the fresh air pipe but that's easily solved....

 

 

So next up, fit the final A panel then onto the front panel that needs tidy up after cutting it back to fit the air filter and also rivnuts to be fitted to fix the front grille, also left to do are mounting points for alarm siren and vacuum tank and a small mod to the cross member to set it back a little where the exhaust header sits a bit close.

[johnR]

good to see the detailing coming together

[72hump]

Very nice work mate, the car is going to be something else once she's finished.

[minimissions]

This is looking good, the use of those rivnuts will make life so much easier.