[Al Snow]

And so the first build post. The car was collected and brought back to Bath to the workshop of Bath Performance Cars. I saw Gary build a Cobra last year and was really impressed, so when he suggested he might be prepared to 'do' a 40 for me, I started thinking. I saw a car on ebay, then checked around for other unfinished projects. I found this car, which belonged to John Bransgrove. It is a KVA frame with GTD front and back sections. The glass was all KVA mk3, but I decided to go Mk 1 (which I think was John's intention). I have ordered bodywork from Chris Melia, and hoping it will be here in a couple of weeks.

2 engines came with the project- 1 a "holding lump" with the bell housing and gearbox, and the real one in waiting. This later one is 302 block built by Repower, and lots of boxes of nice things.

Gary of BPC will do most of the work, with moi painting/sourcing bits/learning/cleaning mastic off things/whatever...

So what has happened in the last 2 weeks? Welding! Gary has cleaned up some of the joins and strengthened things up. He has also cut/welded/strengthened to allow a 2 1/2" engine drop. Below are few pictures.

I have rebuilt a set of instruments for the car (I have 6 spare 52mm oil pressure gauges), sourced some headlights (NOS 2cv), sorted some fans, and been generally running about like a blue arsed fly.

I hope to paint the lot tomorrow with a first coat of black, while Gary starts the engine build. I am hoping to set up a time-lapse camera on the engine and will post a link to the results.