Trev Dunn's SWB 250
 

Trev's car made an appearance at the 2017 Stoneleigh Show.

http://i1275.photobucket.com/albums/...sed4lvwj1.jpeg

And he has now supplied me with a few more photos for your viewing pleasure.

I'm guessing this is outside Tribute HQ.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/co...=w1152-h864-no

But here are some more up to date 'glamour shots'. :cool:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/NR...Q=w591-h333-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Xc...=w1536-h864-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/kS...=w1536-h864-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/rx...=w1536-h864-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/tu...=w1536-h864-no

I'll leave it to Trev to add more details of the build if he wants.

But he has ended up with a very nice example. :cool:

Ooooo that's a bit nice

OMG, love the car. And the number plate...

OMG that is very nice !

Looks very nice, gaps all look nice and tight.
Intrigued by the hole under the drivers side door handle. I presume it is an emergency get you in key hole.

The remote central locking on these cars seems to be a bit temperamental, if it fails you have to have a key in the ignition turned on and then pull the interior door handle otherwise it will not open. The old long bit of wire with a loop will not work as I found out to my cost, I had to remove the rear window. I had been looking at a replacement roof but all the non original replacement roofs that I have seen have sewn in rear window so you can't gain access that way.

at last got some pics posted
 

Many many thanks to Paul for posting the pics for me I'm a bit of a luddite when it comes to pc's
The first pic is indeed when I picked the car up from Chris. Dan did the initial build to the stage that I could drive it home to Bolton no problems and plenty of thumbs up along the way and at the service areas including a couple of very appreciative traffic cops. The build up initially continued in my garage, I have had a few classics in my time which I have renovated, but when my mate Wilf saw my efforts he said it was a load of s--t and suggested I take it down to his body shop to a spare bay that he had. I have pics of the build up at his place (W&M Autos Bolton) if any one is interested. Getting the caps even was time consuming as was splitting the wheel arches to bring in back/bottom of the bonnet in line. The leading edge of the doors and back end of the bonnet also had to be played with. Since I am now retired I was going down to the garage 2 to 3 days a week under the supervision of my mate and his son who took great pleasure in knocking me back if things won't up to their standard. They know how pedantic I am.
So after 14 months I'm adding the finishing touches, just when i was diagnosed with the throat cancer, I have had 3 lots on chemo now and thankfully I feel good, every time I go into my garage I have the inspiration to get on with things so I can really use the car to its full potential. The chemo will go through to September but as long as I feel ok I will be going to shows and using the car every chance I get.
Steve, yes the hole is the original key hole, the auto electrician next door to my mate checked out the central locking it works with the key in the lock but when he opened up the key there was no chip in the actual key case, he is trying to get the correct chip so that he can get the central locking working using either the key or the alarm fob-watch this space, I will always have the fall back of the key hole which I will civer with a removable cover if things go ok.
If Paul is prepared to assist in posting more pics I will send him some more of the build up and under bonnet / under the car (2 months cleaning /derusting/ waxolying)
Thanks to all you guys for the positive comments hope to meet up with some of you soon.
Here endeth the sermon
Trev.

Super congrats Trevor, another soft-top on the road ready for summer, Iam sure you will get lots of enjoyment from it and for sure it will take your mind away from your health issues. I wish you all the very best and will no doubt bump into each other at some point. Love the chrome trim around hood edge at rear, somthing I never thought of :eyebrows:

No problem whatsoever, send any many as you like and I'll load them onto this thread.
( Although there may be a bit of a time delay. )

Hope you continue to keep improving throughout your treatment.

Take care, Paul. :)

With all due respect (and we know what that means)- I saw the car at Stoneleigh and those pics do not do the car justice. Wilf is a master.

Getting picky, the only thing I'm not keen on is the cheap builders mesh in the bonnet opening, just doesn't do justice to the rest of the build.
It would be nice to find a small rectangular mesh to match in with the front grill.

Best I could find is (first, largest option)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/The-Mesh-C...3tbJ7jLPtfeUGQ

Bit pricey though.........almost £4 including P+P!

Thanks guys for all the positive comments.
Paul thanks for the offer I will send some more pics over next few days.
Andy, that is praise indeed from from someone with a great car like yours. Throughout my build I kept referring to your blog for inspiration and shamelessly steal ideas. After the spray job the back deck of the car still seemed a bit ragged so to cover it up /hid it I was inspired by a Alfa Spider I once had which had the same type of chrome trim around the back deck. I made up a cardboard template and cut it from the chrome vinyl but has is the case it did not fit due to the curvature of deck so I just cut a extra large pieces of vinyl got out the hot gun and folded it around the curves and trimmed the edges it had to be done in 3 pieces, I'm happy with the results.
Steve good point we were on a deadline to get the car ready for Stoneleigh and the mesh was something at the back of the garage which we used. The mesh on ebay looks much ciassier and it should be easy enough to take off the existing mesh from under the bonnet, its currently on with stickafix painted over.
Ian I agree Wilf and is son Tom are brilliant at what they do, my brother in law was his initial partner with their first garage so we have known each other for 46 years (grumpy old bastards) but all is not perfect, when machine polishing the car we notice some very small pin pricks on the back end and the small bonnet, these will be scotch's brited on the end of a needle file, paint dropped in and when fully hard it will be polished back, Wilf knows what he is doing anyway.
The car was originally blue so I to do a lot work to cover the original colour including the engine bay and insides of the doors but like the rest of you guys when working on our cars your mind is in a different place.
I tried to get an exhibitors pass for the Tatton Park Classic and Performance Car Show on June 3rd and 4th but all full up, unless anything silly happens I will still be going.There is another show at Tatton in August and my never miss event The Oulton Park Gold Cup with plenty original classics racing and plenty club stands. I have applied for a exhibitors passes for both so hope it works out. If anyone is interested it would be great to meet up even if we don't have club patch.
Thanks again for all your comments.
Cheers
Trev

Takes me back- wife's light blue HB OHC Viva with 155x12s on the front and 175x13s on the back. Acrylic sprayed it red for a "Starsky&Hutch" job and patching it up with an airbrush prior to the final rub-out.

Looks great! wheels are a good fit and nice to see painted as an alternative.

Looks like the grill surround has been chromed?

Again many thanks for the appreciative comments, especially coming from guys with great looking cars themselves.
Ian I passed my test in a Viva many years ago I always thought they had a good gearbox and envied my mates 2.3 magnum. I need to re-register my car and thought I had seen something on your blog a while back. I have noted what you did and will be re-registering my soon hopefully as a Tribute-BMW- 250 GT-SWB you can only try can't you.
Smash praise indeed from some one with a car like yours, I spoke to you at Stoneleigh last year and commented how great the car then noticed the bumpers they really finish it off. The grill has been chrome wrapped but not very well, it had already been painted but my mate Wilf's son knows I guy who does vinyl wrapping, he was sceptical but said if I payed (£100, chrome is the most expensive vinyl) for the vinyl he would wrap it for free as an experiment, they had trouble getting it to stick and although it looks good at 10ft away, there are bits they had to re-cover but when your looking down on it and with the spots in place It looks good. If my memory serves my right I think Jag had issues with his grill that he had chromed, seems we are destined to a good bright painted grill or a slightly sub-standard wrap and hopefully people will be too taken by the rest of the car to pay too much attention to the grill.

My surround was due to poor preparation i'm afraid.
It really needs to be painted first to get that perfectly smooth finish and then chrome plated.
I was intending to have a grovel to Chris about getting another one at the BBQ.
There is also a metal fabricator in the yard next to my painter, he does all sorts of exotic alloy panels for handmade cars. I was going to show him the panel and see if it could be done at a reasonable cost. I was thinking if I could give them just a nose section of a bonnet and the original panel, they might be able to do a short run of them to bring the cost down.

I made a grill surround for my Cobra 289 replica which is a similar shape to the 250. I made it in brass strip, about 18swg. It was a fair bit of work to make the former but once that was done the metal work only took an hour or two. Had it plated and was quite happy with the final result. Same could be done in aluminium which would look nice polished up.
http://www.fantasyjunction.com/img/c...arge/41610.jpg

Great ideas between the guys on the forum I'm sure something will get sorted eventually. I have worked in foundries all my career and when I had my TVR Vixen I cast a limited run of bumpers in ally but the 250 grill is to thin so a fabrication would be the way to go.