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Thanks Jim...
Hey, do you have any spyder bodywork left ....?
If so, is it really lightweight or medium , or what ?
David, do you run with the original lightweight bodywork, or is yours a more durable thicker body ?
I don't car about how well it holds paint, so long as it does not crack.
David, this is what the "Sunoco" car used to look like.
Also, I need a new left side fuel cell. It looks like a caterpiller, with indentations for the pod ribs.
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Johan,
I use an original body for a MkII. My MkI body that came with my car was smashed up pretty good and came with a MKIII spyder non-headlight nose.
The body I use is an original, it was used on the John Surtees MkII that ran at Stardust Las Vegas in 1967.
Surtees drove a MKIII that year but didn't like it! He repurchased his "old" MkII 1966 chassis and used wider MKIII 9" front wheels and I believe he used his MkII body on it but with flared front and rear wheelwells to clear the wider wheels. When I sanded down the body, I found it to be red with white Surtees arrow down the center on nose and tail!
I get starburst chips on the fender tops front and rear. I don't have any protection underneath and of course slicks throw lots of rocks. No cracking problems to speak of and I have raced the car since 1978! but only average one event a year because I'm pretty buisy working on our family farm.
I made up a "mock up" fuel tank out of aluminum and had a new cell made to fit that, my car was originally built with just fuel tanks with baffles! I cut open the pass side top, and removed the baffles, my tanks are .090" thick aluminum made up of four sections welded together. I guess Lola didn't have the equipment to form a long fuel tank that thick, so they made it in smaller sections. The original owner Buck Fulp, told me he had a leak in it at a race in Florida.
I made a rivet on top cover to the tank and installed a flush filler cap on the cover plate, I open the door to fill it. It isn't safe to race with the standard fillers, they have long hoses reaching to the filler caps, if the car were to get body damage there, the fuel would spill out very easily or tear the bladder.
The MkI tub is supposed to be 50 lbs heavier than a MkII due to more steel used instead of aluminum, and thicker tanks. Most MkI's have been re-tubbed by now. the advantage is, they hold up pretty well and seem to be stiffer torsionally.
Another weakness is the throttle pedal, the pivot for it is very weak and if the driver downshifts by hitting the pedal with some side pressure, the pedal can break off! Mine did at Laguna Seca, but first before it broke completely off, it bent outward and stuck wide open!!! THEN it broke off.
The pedal wedged against the right side of the tub in the floored position.
I made a bracket to suport the gas pedal pivot on it's outer end so that can't happen again.
David
