Cheating The Reaper

**legendlives** · 29-12-2020 20:33

One of the things that removing the body has allowed me to do is fit the mounting points for the window net. The rearmost ones are level with the 'B' pillar so access was extremely limited with the body on, and drilling the holes was impossible.

Mounting slugs are tapped M8 and TIG'd into place:

The rear of the net bars are on rosejoints, the front on an adjustable strap and a QR catch (both liberated from a long expired harness)

The whole net should drop away when released, thus not restricting ingress and egress. Hopefully the proper window net will fold better than the masking tape one (I don't want to buy a new SFI one until the car is nearly finished for obvious reasons).

**legendlives** · 30-12-2020 07:52

I don't normally remake stuff within a fortnight. I usually wait months, sometimes years, before consigning my fabrications to the bin, but this was bugging me:

All neat and tidy, but even though the panel is removable I was really unhappy with the fuses only being accessible by unbolting the panel and dragging two battery leads and an 8 wire loom out of the resulting hole just to change a fuse.

Whilst looking for something else in the stacks of boxes of parts for the car I came across these:

Out of an aircraft (I believe), I acquired them years ago and, like so many other parts, I had forgotten them.
A quick conversion to spade terminals (to make assembly easier)

And the back of the panel now looks like this:

Far neater I'm sure you'll agree.
The panel doesn't look too shabby either:

The spare hole next to the master switch is for the extinguisher pull.

**budetta** · 30-12-2020 09:17

Much better.

**mygasser** · 30-12-2020 12:10

those fuse holders were common on lorry refrigeration unit switch panels, just in case you need any more.

neil.

**legendlives** · 02-01-2021 05:13

With the body off I now have access to all of those bits that were hidden by the chassis and rollcage.
First job was to tidy these areas around the exhaust exits:

I want to seal these against water, dirt, and the mandatory 75,000 tons of burnt rubber fragments.
The closing panels don't need to be strong, so out with the old cooker (again) to liberate some 1mm galvanised steel which was shaped and then welded into place:

Next up the 'B' pillars:

The shape of the rear of the pillar doesn't match the window, the top is just messy, and the bottom needs something to secure the inner panel (which runs along the lower edge of the window) to.
Hack more out of the cooker (this time 1.5mm) and....

Yeah, that's better. I was going to trim the pillars but with the shape good and the original triangular 'trim' holes now round they look a bit race-car so I might just paint them body colour.

With the rear window surround in place the shape follows nicely.

**legendlives** · 04-01-2021 05:36

Another section of the body that's pretty inaccessible are the rear inner roof panels.

I was not sure whether to make a panel and trim it, or weld a panel in and body colour it.
Had a play with some 1mm SS sheet (the other half of the cooker hood that gave it's life for the engine bulkhead) and came up with these:

Here just trial-fitted in place. I figure they will look good in body colour with the headlining (that is the same metallic blue vinyl seen on the trans-tunnel) just tucked behind, or trimmed to the top. So weld it is!
Some time later, stitch-welded in place:

(for any of you that have a 7Y, the bodies aren't the same side-to-side!)

Imagine them in white with the window trims in anthracite grey:

Next, up to the roof which, last time you saw it (if you were paying attention) looked like this:

My main issue with the roof is the roof vent. As I had no access the vent was welded front and rear, then riveted along it's length from the underneath.
Not happy, so I removed the roof support, out with the grinder, then stitch-welded it to the roof along it's length:

Still needs more work, and I need to figure out how the headlining is going to work with the big hole up the middle of it, but I think a plan is hatching!

**legendlives** · 13-01-2021 07:18

Back at the front of the car (?) the bits around the windscreen also needed covering up.
It looked a bit rough, here with a white anti-rust paint. I trimmed more metal away after this was taken:

Made up these panels, again from parts of the old cooker and/or washing machine:

Long ones are for above the screen, holey ones are for the 'A' pillars, talking of which looked like this:

As the windscreen fixing studs need to be accessible I was considering doing a bolt-in panel, but by positioning the holes in the right place I can get to them OK, and the weld-in panels look cool, add stiffness and are lighter than solid aluminium panels with fixing bolts. Incidentally, because of the varying size of the holes I had to make 5 dimple-die tools to put the shape in (and another one for the wiper holes in the top panel).

So now we're all good, and just need a few more holes drilled and a couple of spot-welds and I can prime & paint the inside! Whoopee!!!!

**legendlives** · 17-01-2021 02:39

After a frantic night cutting, grinding and welding as I realised there were a few things more to do before this step, I've actually primed the interior!

Front bulkhead (engine side) and (what's left of the) inner wings:

Looks less like a cooker hood now!

Inside:

All of the original triangular trim-strip holes have now been made round. 'On show' panels have had three coats, bits that will be hidden by trim have had two heavy coats;

As an aside, I decided that my sewing machine really wasn't cutting the mustard so I bought an old Singer industrial machine that has been converted to electric but had seen far better days, but at $60NZ (including a box-load of thread, bobbins, material and spares) I could always weigh it in!.
The original bed was virtually bent double with the weight:

So I've made a longer, double thickness bed out of an old plywood pallet:

I've cleaned and oiled the machine, and adjusted the motor pedal and it goes like the gangbusters!
Double bonus, looking into the history of this machine it appears it was manufactured around the same time as the car.
Stitchin' the Reaper