An idea for seating. Having a flat ply floor means that I could use the scimitar rear seat pan area and rear seats for driver and passenger. I haven't cut away the rear deck yet to suit the hood position so the pan and seats are too far forward in relation to the gearstick but you can see the overall idea.
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...psdc330210.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ps431efa69.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...psf071d61f.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...psa0c3efce.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...pscdecc4ad.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...psdc34f512.jpg

They fit very well, I don't think it matters that they stick up a fraction?

It's as if they were made for it. It is so satisfying when you spot a solution like that. And, it is so nice to use more of the donor than you anticipated.

I have always liked the look of the Scimitar rear seats and it seems that they are made to fit, great find. You could always cut the floor away a little to allow them to drop down a few inches and the fact that they fold flat is a bonus. I may very well steal this idea when I build another G46!

Fixed seats would need adjustable pedals. I have seen somewhere a moving pedal box arrangement that uses the sliding frame from a front seat. It makes sense that such a frame can withstand brake pedal push whether under the seat or in the footwell. Or I could set the pedals for me (5'6") and not let anyone else drive!!

Nice looking seats, very similar to the look I've asked my trimmer to achieve. If you can either drop them a few inches or shorten the backrests to get them level with the edge of the cockpit they'll be perfect. As you're not exactly tall you might get away with a decent driving position with them mounted as they are in the pictures, but having the seats sticking out of the top would bug me I'm afraid.

I think you may just have solved my seating issue.

The height of the backs is fine as I have twin humps and my floor still has the foot well so will be slightly lower.

Are yours just fixed position? I might be able to wangle something with the runners from the Land Rover seats I was given.

[EDIT] - I am now awaiting delivery of a pair of tan vinyl rear seats from the wonderful world of eBay. £43 for the pair delivered. [/EDIT]

Great solution Andrew keep the photos coming.
I am following in your footsteps.

Have you been reprofiling the rear a little to even it up?

Nice centre line down the body very useful for setting the body up square to the chasis.
How about the horizontal datum line. Have you used the bottom of the doors
or top of the wheel arches to set the body height relative to the chasis?

HM

How about the horizontal datum line

You might want to check the distance between the wheel arch and the bottom of the door shut measured horizontally. On mine, if I continue the line level with the bottom of the door shut, backwards until it hits the rear arch there appears to be 2cm difference.

I spent an afternoon trying to line up the body after I fitted metal plates behind the door slam panel that are to be tack welded onto the end of the flat angle on the frame. The drivers side rested perfectly leaving just enough overlap to weld the plate and the frame together. On the passenger side the plate was about 1cm behind the frame.

After much measuring of the frame, the body inner, pushing, shoving, swearing I finally measured the out shell and discovered the difference.

This was just before I went on holiday and i haven't looked since so there is a chance i was just having a bad day when I discovered thgis. I will be checking again at the weekend.

Hm & Wca
 

What can I say, now you know why we cut ours about so much.

We used a centre line on the body and took the horizontal lines of the garage floor tiles to plumb down to and measure offsets and then measure up from the floor to the underside of the chassis for the the datum.

Rear end took ages getting the wheel arches correct in all dims and we still have to make slight adjustments.

Making sure the floor plan is in the correct position on the chassis and fixed helps we also took some key dimension triangulated from the front suspension pillars like back to bulkhead, forward to front end and each side to wheel arch

To get the front end correct has been difficult, but I think I have caused most of those problems by making the front end fixed /bonnet rather than clam shell and our bulkhead was not quite square on the chassis, in the end I have to slice the bonnet in half so ended up with two wings which we cut a slot out off to re-aline all looking good now, but now have to get the wheel areas looking the same.

It would be easy to end with a car looking different from both sides!!!
Will update with photos at the weekend.

But I will say that this part of making the job a job I know we all agree that it is this element of the build we enjoy! and as you proceed you add in your personal touches, look at Mr Toweds air scoops brilliant.

I spent some time trying to get wheel arches, rear wing tops, front bulkhead and door openings at the same level each side. There appear to be some asymmetry in the body so you have to chose the points you think will have the most impact on the car's finished appearance. I chose the rear wing tops and the outer curved sections of the front bulkhead approx 22" either side of the centreline (which was marked by plumbing up with a spirit level at various points along the body's length, finding the mid points and finding the best line through them all). The door tops ended up at approx the same height each side although the door bottoms differed by 1". The door lengths are also slightly different but these can be accommodated as I can move the sides back by different amounts. I need to have the front edge of the door openings directly opposite each other otherwise my screen will not end up at right angles to the centreline. The rear wheel arch tops will need some levelling up which would push me in the direction of forming new (round?) arches. I read somewhere that peoples faces that are considered to be beautiful always have some degree of asymmetry which suggests that the G46 is likely to be the world's most beautiful car!!! Can't ask for any more than that!

In the case of the Spyders neither the bodies or the donors ever seem to be symmetrical. Now I've put my bonnet on I can see that my front cross member is actually sitting at a bit of a jaunty angle to the direction of travel of the car, which has also put the radiator at the same angle because I've bolted it to the orignal radiator mounts on the cross member. This looks to be from a front-end shunt that the donor had at some stage in its life :( Luckily it doesn't seem to have affected the chassis any further back.

The trick is to fit the body with the wheels centred in the arches and with even gaps above them, and not to worry too much about side to side symmetry. How often are you going to be able to see both sides of the car at the same time?

More progress, fitting and bonding rear inner arches. These have been bonded to the ply floor panels but don't reach the inside face of the rear wings.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...erreararch.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...rreararch2.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...rreararch3.jpg

The gap is bridged by bonding strips of chopped strand mat to the inside of the wing and to the arch. I applied resin only to the edges of each piece sufficient to make them stay in place. Fully wetting out the pieces with resin just made them fall down! Once set they were fully coated and when that coat set another layer of mat and resin was added. Later I will fill in the curved gap behind where the mat meets the body with bonding paste to a radius and add a layer of mat on that side as well.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...chbonding1.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...chbonding2.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...chbonding3.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...chbonding4.jpg

Time to try out the mg midget screen. I have cut two small holes in the scuttle top to let the screen retaining lugs drop through. The offside door is further forward than the nearside one so the holes are cut to place the frame edge correctly on the offside and further forward on the nearside so the screen is set square across the car.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...uild/side2.jpg
side

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...uild/right.jpg
offside


http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...build/left.jpg
nearside

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...uild/front.jpg
front

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...build/rear.jpg
rear

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...oftemplate.jpg
Here is a template I made from lightweight display board to copy the shape of a friends mg midget with the roof up.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...entemplate.jpg
This allows me to set the screen at the correct rake

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...platefront.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...mplaterear.jpg

The next step is to cut away sufficient of the rear deck to allow the seat to be placed in a comfortable position in relation to the gearstick. More will need to be removed later to accommodate the greater width of the hood frame and to allow the hood to drop through the rear deck as on a midget.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ld/cutline.jpg
cutline

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1.../seatwheel.jpg
no turning back now!

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ild/offcut.jpg
spare grp

The next pic with me in it (had to happen sooner or later) shows my head further back than the highest point of the roof. To put this right the sides of the body need to be cut away a la charmantech to move the doors, screen and roof back. I think about 6" offside, 5" nearside should do it.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...uild/side1.jpg

Before cutting anything more I am going to make up a trial mini bulkhead with the (nissan) pedals on it that can be slid backwards and forwards to a comfortable position and so locate where the permanent bulkhead needs to be.

ok all for now

Fit the screen and a rear perspex cover...

Before
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...uild/side2.jpg

After
http://www.swaqvalley.com/Blueprints...aguar_XJ13.jpg

with a spare v12 in the back for added oomph!

looking at the jag pics reminds me of what I thought when I saw the first side on pics of Gary' first g46, i.e. with the standard scimitar seating position, it looked mid engined.

Did I misunderstand when you said you were moving the engine back a bit?

;-)

Excellent work, so is it a Midget soft top. I guess you can't change the distance it travels.

yes, the folding type not the earlier assemble and fit hoodstick arrangement. I also have a pair or midget doors which will provide the quarterlights and windup windows. I hope to try and fit them into the sammio doors. They wont be able to lower fully as the sammio doors are not as tall as the midget ones.