Geoff Wilson's F120 GR
Geoff and I have been discussing a Formosa build for over 6 months now and he's finally got a firm plan in his head ...
So yesterday , Geoff dropped his 'barn find' SE5 off to me ...He had already stripped the front grille area off to access the engine etc easier ...but today I went all the way and stripped it right back to our starting point ... https://preview.ibb.co/jwxVQz/IMG_2659.jpg https://preview.ibb.co/eMx5Qz/IMG_2660.jpg I already have Geoff's body here , so after doing a couple of repairs on his chassis and converting the outer rails to boxed sections , I can start putting his frame together and moving engine and box etc back a bit ... |
Interesting project.
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Geoff wants to fit a few upgrades ..looking at RX8 gearbox and rear disc conversion amongst some other things ...
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Some progress made on this in the last 2 days .....
I have removed the steering column , pedal cluster , radiator and centre and rear exhaust sections ... pedals will be changed and radiator will be a Lotus item. The chassis had about half a dozen holes in it , weirdly all except one along the passenger side ( where I found the bramble bush whilst stripping the bodyshell off )these have been cut out and patched where necessary and the drivers 4 bar mount reconstructed as it was quite poorly. I have also repaired the outriggers on their ends and replaced the open channel side rails with a closed box section ...front outriggers have been replaced too ... finally , the engine and gearbox have been moved back approx 4 '' and the original engine mounts re-welded to the chassis ... https://preview.ibb.co/hWTf2e/IMG_2691.jpg https://preview.ibb.co/dq4sFz/IMG_2692.jpg |
https://preview.ibb.co/nf8OQz/IMG_2709.jpg
Bolt in framework for Triumph fuel tank fitted and some bracketry fitted to the chassis by tapping and drilling rails in anticipation of starting to fabricate the space frame augmentation which this fuel tank frame will form the rear section of... |
Geoff wants a bit more room in his car , he's quite tall and wants maximum legroom ...so I am dropping the floors as much as I can , stretching the bulkhead area forward as well ...The Scimitar based cars can achieve this better than the Vitesse based ones but its a bit more work to achieve it....
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Geoff has supplied some centre laced 7.5 x 15 wires with 235/60 fronts and 245/60 rears for the car ...They look fantastic but are hugely wider than the car ... I am attacking the task from two directions .
First is to widen the rear arches as much as I feel I can without compromising the shape ...so 75mm bands put in both rear wings today ... https://preview.ibb.co/fXtEue/IMG_2744.jpg second stage will be to put a strip down through the centre of the body to widen the whole shell ... |
Tyres look too wide for the rims. Surely a tyre change would be a much cheaper and easier solution.
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I would be tempted to trial fit some 205/70's first. That will save hours of work and they'll probably fit under wider arches. The style of car lends itself to narrow wheels and tyres anyway.
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If Geoff had started with a Vitesse and the narrower track , the wheels would fit just fine ... Bottom line is , he was made aware of the issues before he bought the wheel/tyre combo ...I advised him that it would create a headache ,..but he wants a wide look to the car ...I designed her to be narrow purely because the real examples are narrow and all the Replica stuff is wide due to Cortina / Sierra and Jag axles being used ... Geoff wants a wide look to go with his wheels , 3.4 Essex engine / RX8 gearbox , rear discs etc approach to his car ... Not how I would build for me , but it's not my car ... |
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I know there was a time when taking an angle grinder to the body shell would have filled me with fear. But these days, I am just interested in where/how you make the cuts, as I understand the process better. Good luck, Paul. :) |
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bootlid and bonnet will be done once the body has been secured to the frame .. |
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https://preview.ibb.co/exmXep/IMG_2848.jpg
The sides still need to be pulled in a bit and a fair old dollop of filler will be required , not so much the centre cut , but both wing tops need the curve re-instating a bit ...but its the correct width for the wheel/tyre combo now ....it's too wide for me but Geoff loves it ...so that's the main thing ... |
I would use Isopon p40 grp paste as a filler. Bit harder to sand back but less chance of cracking and shrinkage at a later date.
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And this shows how flexible this design can be - so it is still a "special". So much more fun than another (yawn) Cobra or Westfield.
The width reminds me of, was it called, a Kougar? Jag based cycle wing special from the early 80's scene Following with interest - not because I want one, but because the modifying is fascinating to watch. Marc |
The Kougar Monza was a similar shape but it was a "big" jag based car. The mods on this example have meant loads of extra work to accommodate some over size wheels and tyres.
There were similar suggestions that I should use a Cobra chassis to mount my 250 Testarossa body onto but there was no way I was going to cut up a perfectly good ali body to fit it to a chassis that was too wide. |
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The car has ended up a similar width to a Jag or Cortina based Kougar Monza ...
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Here's a body I converted to LHD by cutting and swapping the dash and headrest around ... its a fair bit of work , about 2 days in all ...but as you can see , using gel coat as a final finish , brushed on like this and sanded back ...( not shown ) gives it a decent surface ...
https://preview.ibb.co/eT1Ajp/IMG_2850.jpg |
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