[ivanhoew]

Fascinating Paul , where was all the traffic ..did you do that at 6 in the morning ? i was following along quite well until you went over the bridge and then magically was in parliament square lol.

 

[Paul L]

Robert - 'Plan A' was to get into town at the crack of dawn on a Sunday around the Summer Solstice, when the light would good enough and the traffic would be at its lightest.

But in the end, by the time I got my act together, it was a Sunday in late July and almost 8am by the time I arrived in town and started filming. :roll:

This meant a lot of traffic, in addition to the usual red lights & roadworks.

So I was left with a lot of rubbish footage I couldn't use, which created a few 'gaps' in the route.

Maybe next year I will be able to do a better job.

Cheers,

Paul.

 

[ivanhoew]

PPFFFT , i thought it was Great , i wanna do it in my car ! how much is the congestion charge now ?

Oh ,except i might have to do a patreon or gofundme to pay for the fuel

 

[Paul L]

Robert - Apologies for the delay in replying…

Sorry I can't help with your MPG / fuel crisis issue.

But there is no congestion charge at the weekends, so it is free to drive around on a Sunday.

However, you need to be quick, as the new Ultra Low Emission Zone starts on the 8th of April 2019.

At which point it will cost £12.50 to enter Central London 24/7.

Note: Vehicles in the Historic Tax Class are exempt from the ULEZ charges.

Unfortunately, both of us have rebodied cars that look older than they actually are. :roll:

Cheers, Paul.

 

[ivanhoew]

Fair enough Paul thank you , that might be a target depending on my new mpg

 

[jaydub]

I was out in my truck over the New Year break and was followed, then overtaken by a Sammio - looked brilliant, bright red and a no. 64 in a race roundel, very jolly. Also found myself chatting to a guy with a Tribute - a Sammio type car with a "D Type" style fin, based on a GT6 and, strangely, still using the donor car's floors and footwells. I'd forgotten just how small these little Brit' based cars turn out, was tiny in comparison to everything else on the road. Both looked like a crackin' drive tho' and made me think of the fun I had in my old Vincent Hurricane - built to a similar(ish) recipe.

 

[Paul L]

Jaydub - Here is some more background on those cars…

Bright red and a no. 64 in a race roundel

This is actually a 'Formosa GR120', but it was developed by the same guy who started Sammio.

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A Tribute with a "D Type" style fin



The owner/builder did a great job on this with a lot of bespoke work to make it look more authentic. 8)

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Based on a GT6 and, strangely, still using the donor car's floors and footwells

Because the donor car has a separate chassis, this is a rebody that avoids IVA.

The fibreglass is designed to fit over (and be bonded to) a chopped down bodyshell.

So you can leave the original bulkhead, complete with steering, dash, pedals, electrics, etc. untouched if you want.

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My old Vincent Hurricane

I only discovered the Hurricane when I started looking for a new model name on my V5C.

As I thought Hurricane would be an obvious choice to replace the original Spitfire.

But as that was taken, I picked another WWII plane, the Swordfish instead.

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Cheers, Paul.

 

[jaydub]

I did wonder if you'd know of these two - that's why I described them. When I had my kits I knew of most of the similar type cars, it's a small world. In some ways, tighter knit than the hot rod world. The Formosa was a cracker, looked great out on the Fosse Way on a winter's day... and the chap driving returned our wave and had a huge grin on his face, but he might just have been laughing at my truck.
The guy with the Tribute was building another kit, I forget what, and was a bit of a character - he was well chuffed that I knew what he was driving and that he'd found a fellow kit fan. My comment regarding bonding the shell to the original floorpan was based on having owned/rebuilt/modified a dozen or so small chassis Triumphs and nearly all needed floor or footwell repairs! It was one of the attractions of the Hurricane when I bought it, basically a complete new shell (that took all the donor glass, trim, door handles, lights etc.) with fibre glass floors all bonded in - lovely...

Sometimes miss my old kit cars, they were great fun on the cheap and lacked the seriousness that has crept into some aspects of the hot rod world. Having said that, the guys who turn up at the Historic Specials each year take their old Super Twos and Shirleys quite seriously. Have fun , mate.

 

[Paul L]

Jaydub - And a bit more info for you…

The guy with the Tribute was building another kit, I forget what

He is currently building a Spitfire based Moss Monaco, which is still a work in progress.

It was an abandoned project that he was given FOC provided he finished it.
(The fact he has been building cars for over 30 years convinced the previous owner he could.)

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nearly all needed floor or footwell repairs!

A long story short…

I had sold my donor's nice Spitfire body shell before I discovered the problems with my kit.

Then I ended up buying another second hand shell so I could cannibalize it for key parts.

Unfortunately, it was a rust bucket in places and it took me months to patch up the bulkhead.
( As I had never welded or done any kind of metal work repairs before I started this project. )

Below is just one example or Before/During/After.

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I've got my car booked in with a specialist Triumph garage next week to finally get my oil leak fixed.

Which will allow we to take the car to a Track Day at Goodwood when the nice weather returns.

Cheers, Paul.

 

[Paul L]

2019 - Half Year Report

Engine Oil Leaks
Left my car in the capable hands of the Triumph specialists at Enginuity in Acton, London W3.

They fixed a long list of problems and I got the car back just as the snow was clearing.

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Working with leather
Let's be very clear, if you want a professional upholstery job, go to HotRodTrimmer.

But I like to 'have a go' as making as many things for my car as my limited skills will allow.

So, when it was time for an old sofa to be thrown away, I saved some sections of black leather.

As this was going to be my first attempt at hand sewing leather, I started with something small…

Whilst I really like the look of the headlight grilles, they have lots of sharp edges that catch my car cover.

Therefore, my first sewing project became a pair of headlight grille covers.

I sewed a length of elastic on the inside, which when pulled tight made them look like small shower caps.

With the excess elastic trimmed off, they seemed to work OK.

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Leather project #2 - Gear Lever Gaiter
I just couldn't get my first attempt at making one of these to work, so this was my MkII version.

I also made two aluminium base plates to fix the gaiter in place.

The general idea being to 'sandwich' the flat leather base between these before fixing it to the car.

Unfortunately, the rivets I used were too big, so at some point there will be a MkIII version of this. :roll:

End of Part 1…

 

[Paul L]

EDIT - This post is a continuation from the previous page.

Leather project #3 - Headrests
The first attempts at working with leather were really just practice for making my headrests.

I had made some cardboard templates and had some left-over foam and plywood to play with.

Unfortunately, I quickly discovered that I needed an 'edge' section that was longer than the leather I had.

So you can see how I had to add a short section of leather to the bottom edge in this photo.

This was the leather pulled over just the foam, before fitting the plywood base.

I fitted plastic 'fir trees' to both of the plywood panels to fix them in place.

Then the leather was pulled tight around the plywood based and trimmed/fixed in place.

Notes:
- The two aero humps are different sizes / shapes.
- The cockpit edge is a different thickness either side of the humps.

Both of these things made it difficult to judge the best shape and position for the headrests.

So, I knew there was an element of compromise involved when I marked up the holes for drilling.

However, I hadn't realised that I would be creating an optical illusion by putting a straight edge near a curve.

Because, if you are looking completely square on, the bottom edge of the headrest looks pretty horizontal.
( The fact my driveway slopes doesn't help the visual angles. )

But as soon as you move to one side, the green of the body shell makes the black headrests look really tilted.

Therefore, I stick to this photo taken further away.

End of Part 2…

 

[Paul L]

Side Mirror Plinth
Whilst I like the look of my mirrors, I really can't see much out of the one on the passenger side.

So I removed it in order to build a plinth to lift it up a bit.

I used the plastic base plate as a guide for a new metal one.
( Please ignore the fact one of the lines is drawn wonky. )

I then needed to make the flat plate match the curves in the bodyshell using a very low-tech approach.

But after a bit of hammering, the shape was starting to form.

Eventually, the base plate was good to go.

Next I needed to make another base plate for the mirror to attach to.

Once again, I used the plastic mirror base to help me mark up some sheet steel.

But this time, I then turned it around to give me a guide to extending the 'short' edge.

To give me something like this.

Hopefully, this design will become clear as the plinth progresses.

After that was cut out and tidied up, I could fix the mirror to it and add some 'builders' band'.

Then these four bands were bolted to the base plate and the car like so.

End of Part 3…

 

[Paul L]

Side Mirror Plinth - Continued
I then drove around the block a bit, stopping and adjusting the mirror position until I had a decent view.

With the mirror removed, I then used strips of cardboard to give me the rough angles for the support pillars.

Before cutting sections of steel tube to match.

Unfortunately, the wind started gusting as I was welding outdoors which didn't help.

But once I had two pillars in place, I could remove the builders' band and add a third.
( Thankfully, the slightly blurred photo helps disguise my poor welding. )

Still, it looked a lot better after some grinding/filing/filler/primer/paint.

I used the original plastic base to bolt the mirror to the top plate.

Then but a thin rubber strip between the bottom plate and the bodyshell.

This head on view gives you a better idea of how much higher the passenger side is compared to the driver's.

Note: This photo was taken in late February and I know the car needed a good clean.

End of Part 4…

 

[Paul L]

Cockpit Panelling
The fibreglass body shell is bonded to a metal framework that is bolted to the chassis as per the re-body rules.

So, sides of the cockpit are a mixture of treated plywood and fibreglass to cover up the metal work underneath.
( Although when these were bonded it, they did help to make the whole car feel very solid. )

Anyway, in order to get the car on the road I simply covered everything in Tetroseal to give a spartan finish.

Now it was time to add some 'stucco' aluminium sheets that I bought from Ebay.

I made a start on some cardboard templates, but the seats & seat belts needed to come out to finish the job.

Given the odd sizes and shapes of the alloy, panels, I need to cut five pieces from three sheets.

This was the cardboard templates laid out.

Which were then cut out.

In order to fit the panels, some panel beating was required so the flat ally would match the curved surfaces.

This was how the rear cockpit wall panel ended up.

I had already ordered a load of these Torx screws to fix the alloy panels to the plywood cockpit walls.

In addition to the panelling, I also need to make access panels for the bolts holding the two side mirrors in place.

In order to fix the panels in place I had to use three different bits for my drill.

One to drill the hole in the alloy, one to drill a pilot hole in the plywood wall & one to fix the screw in place.

At some points, I was having to fix one screw at a time using all three bits as I hammered the panels before fitting.

So, I'll spare you the highly repetitive nature of this work and cut to the chase…

End of Part 4…

 

[Paul L]

Cockpit Panelling - Continued
I had extra screws matching the ones used on the rear wall access panel "somewhere", but couldn't find them.

So rather than waste time, I simply 'borrowed' four from the rear panel to fit the side mirror bolt covers.

Which left some temporary gaps in the rear access panel.

Here are the side panels.

With the seats and seat belts re-fitted, this is what I was left with on Tuesday (2nd July).
( Note - By now I'd managed to find four more screws for the rear access panel. )

I must confess that this has worked out much better than I ever could have expected.

While the seats were out, I also made a start on the base panel for the hand brake gaiter.
( Which will be scuffed before final fitment, as this looks way too shiny. )

But that is a job for another day, instead I will leave you with a couple of car park photos.

And this one, which was taken yesterday out in the sunshine.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

 

[ivanhoew]

well done that man.... lots of improvements .:tup:

 

[4potHemi]

This is great. Love all the detailing. Just the sort of car Terry-Thomas would use to pick up his popsie. Don't fancy making up some stick on black & white plates? I made some up for my ratty MGB using Fablon (or the equiv) - so effective and evocative against a BRG background.

 

[Paul L]

28Chevy, drseg, ivanhoew & 4potHemi - Thanks gentlemen.

Unfortunately, I need to wait until 2021 before I can use black & white number plates legally.

So, for now, I've used the 'old fashioned' raised plastic numbers instead.

I don't have the 'rakish moustache' to pull off a true Terry-Thomas cad impression.

But I do have a flat cap.

Which my bald head certainly needs when driving around…

On days like these when skies are blue and fields are green.

Cheers, Paul.

 

[4potHemi]

28Chevy, drseg, ivanhoew & 4potHemi - Thanks gentlemen.

Unfortunately, I need to wait until 2021 before I can use black & white number plates legally.

So, for now, I've used the 'old fashioned' raised plastic numbers instead.

I don't have the 'rakish moustache' to pull off a true Terry-Thomas cad impression.

But I do have a flat cap.

Which my bald head certainly needs when driving around…

On days like these when skies are blue and fields are green.

Cheers, Paul.

Love it! Questi giorni quando vieni il belle sole...............as you drive into that Alpine tunnel..........

 

[28Chevy]

Even Terry Thomas, being a trouser endowed babe magnet and all, never had to resort to braces of that magnitude!