Dave, I'm with Fran, just terrific. The chassis looks like you could dive into it and swim with all that blue. This build thread has been so interesting with great details. Your body man has done a super job of setting up the body lines and inner ducting. Keep on postin' man.
__________________ Kit Car Centre Mk I (South Africa)
What exactly is stone chip ? Usually this materials donīt allow this nice finish if you top it with paint.
Could you post exactly what it is , may be with part number
Thanks
TOM
__________________ RCR 40 ; LEVY RACING 331; G50/05; gulfwide
I will need to let him advise exactly what the"stone chip" is that he used. All I know is that it provides a smooth finish unlike the normal wrinkle finishes you get on many production car sills etc.
The time taken to get to the current state has been longer than expected but I am certainly expecting the end result to be well worth it. Hopefully the car will start to come together reasonably quickly over the coming weeks.
Well I just received a few more pictures showing recent progress on the top side of the chassis. As well as various openings for items such as the windscreen wiper drive, eyeball vents, air con feeds into dash plenum and air inlets from the NACA ducts on the front clip, the bracket for the rod gear linkage and shifter assembly has been added along with the ribs on the tops of the fuel tanks. The dummy inspection cover plates will be bonded on at a later date.
Tom
The stonechip is Standox aquabase thinned 20% with distiled water and given 3 coats with gravaty feed spraygun then baked at 80 degrees for 40 mins.
Thank's for the comments guys, the car is taking longer then expected but I need to get it right.
Managed to get upto see the car on Thursday and take a look at the painted chassis for the first time. All I can say is that the pictures do not really do it justice and I am really pleased with the look so far. Looking at the stone chip you can just see a very slight patina under the top coat that tells you it is there, but nothing like that horrible wrinkly finish you get on many production cars. Hopefully it will work well over the long term.
Front suspension has now been re-attached and steering rack fitted.
Engine and gearbox are installed and headers fitted. These are a very tight interference fit to the top gearbox mounting cross member so some work will be required to ensure that all the fixings can be installed and some clearance achieved.
Silencer and tail pipes were unwrapped for the first time and trial fitted, as you can see from the photos this looks like a "Friday afternoon" part and will need to have the drivers side inlet pipe cut and repositioned to straighten up the fitment.
As you will see from the photographs the air vents into the dash have been changed and a decision has been made to rework the air outlet side of the supplied aircon unit. This will allow it to be fitted under the dash without having too remove/cut the underdash strengthening pieces as others have done.
Also you may notice that there are two holes cut at the rear of the fuel tank areas. This is because it has been decided to use VDO dip tube senders rather than the supplied float mechanism. Not only will this make the installation easier but it is also expected to provide a more consistent fuel level measurement and cope better with surge situations.
Now that the focus has moved away from bodywork things are starting to come together much quicker and there was not quite as much white dust in the workshop!!
Took another trip up to see the car yesterday. Good progress has been made in many areas, and lots of problem solving has been going on to ensure best fit of components to ensure an easily maintainable solution for the future.
With the spider installed it is starting to look like a car again.
Firstly on the dash front it has now been painted and the air vent recess has been opened up to take the full size of the zephyr grill.
The edges of the dash have been trimmed and shaped to allow a neat join with the roll cage.
Air con unit has also been installed and is being plumbed in.
The rear bulkhead has now been finally painted in Norfolk Blue. Key elements you will see in the photographas are:
a) Fuel pickup and VDO dip tube level sensors accessible through inspection panel.
b) Recessed fuel pumps.
c) Access panel cutout behind nearside fuel tank which will contain fire extinguisher bottle. A panel will be fixed across this with suitable fastners to allow compartment to also be used as storage space.
d) Battery fitment in offside (battery just sitting in - a cradle is to be fabricated to locate it at an angle for easy access.
e) Distributor cutout
Nick has built what feels like an excellent rod shift mechanism, feels a bit stiff at present but once it is fully greased up and has a few 100 shifts under it's belt should be excellent.
There is still an aluminium gate plate to be added to the top of the shift box and it is likely that the shifter will be shortened slightly before it is fully completed.
First driveshaft has been fitted. A small amount of adjustment is required to get it to mate up to the hub (approx 1/2") on the wide track rear.
As the full +2" is right on the limit with MK11 rear clip it may be that the optimum way to adjust this will be to take a little length out of the lower arms and reduce the rear track, that way the adjustment range in the rose joints will not be compromised.
