Is that the bit where you sit in the seat going, brumm!!! brumm!!!:icon_rolleyes:

Dave - Looks like you are making great progress. :cool:

Good luck, Paul. :)

Damn right! :)

Which reminds me, i need to fit the back-stop to the throttle pedal as it does make an intoxicating noise when the revs build :)

Well there has been a lot of progress over the past week but not much to show for it!

The front of the shell has now been glassed to the end of the front outriggers and the rear of the shell glassed to the ends of the rear outriggers.
This makes things a _lot_ more solid!

I've also finished glassing between the bulkhead and the shell and reminded myself that i really don't like fibreglassing upside down and/or in awkward places!
I also put a skim of bonding paste over the fibreglass that runs along the bottom edge of the shell just to make it a bit more solid, even though i will be bonding and riveting alloy sheet to supply the eventual strength in that area.

Then i started shaping the doors and bonnet and i added a new reenforcing strip along the front edge of the bonnet.
The Blue foam packing from the edges of the alloy sheet i had delivered was the ideal size!

This is an awful photo, but gives you an idea of where it's gone.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...psc81c8822.jpg

Then the door locks turned up!
I've opted for the Mini Bear Claw latches from CBS and from an initial rough trial fitting last night they look and fit superbly! :)

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...psa5e6cff2.jpg

I'll try and get some better photos of what's been done on the weekend

Good (?) to see your doors are as bad as mine :-) Lot of gaps to fill aren't there... And mine are not very good shape wise to the shell so I will need to see what can be done to help their alignment. But good to see you making progress - inspirational stuff

Says here that the doors fit perfectly: http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/foru...ead.php?t=4062

Well, there are lies, damn lies and press articles :-)

But I think that is just the way these cars are - we are not paying £50k for a Cobra look-a-like, so we are getting more of a project car. Just part of the colourful tapestry of this style of car building. But it is helpful for me when I see others' cars, as it stops me worrying too much :-)

Even if i was paying £20k for a Cobra-in-a-box i would expect to have some minor fettling to do on the panels. But i didn't, i paid a considerable amount less and I knew that there would be some reworking required.
As MarcF says, it's good to share so that we can all work through/around these areas together, as part of my personal reworking is going to be due to:

• My donor car.
• How i mounted the frame
• How i mounted the bodywork

etc...

I know that Mike and Mike (Miglia/Sammio - this isn't going to get confusing now is it!! :) ) are both trying to improve their products to try and reduce the amount of reworking needed on a build, but TBH for the price that we pay for these frame/bodyshell packages we simply need to go in to these projects with our eyes open and be willing to either

a) put up with some of the quirks
or
b) Put in the time and effort to change them to our personal standards (i.e. Paul!)

:)

I do have some more 'quirks' that i've encountered that i'll share this weekend, but again, nothing world ending!! :)

Dave - I'm looking forward to seeing some doors that work. :cool:

Good luck, Paul. :)

PS
Does Frankenstein Hillbilly actually count as a standard?

:icon_wink:

Dave, are going to Shepton next weekend, "The Restoration Show" I'll be there saturday in the Tribute, regards Pat

Sadly not :(
I'm away at my nieces christening which my brother-in-law has inconveniently booked for the same weekend as the last show of the year!

SWMBO finds this funny!

Well this last week has been all about the interior.

To start with I panelled in around the gearbox as this is the most 'faffy' area and so I wanted it over and done with! And it was all done with only 1 minor power-file 'incident' to the side of my hand! :eusa_doh:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ps661649b7.jpg


Then I did the cockpit rear panels now that I've trial fitted the seats and I know where it needs to end.

I've decided to mount them to the frame and to a long length of alloy angle that is run across from edge to edge of the frame and sits on top of the handbrake-frame in the middle. At the top where the panels meet the shell I am cutting slits in a length of alloy angle so that I can bend it and then that is going to be bonded in place with Tiger Seal.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...psa786c8c7.jpg


One thing to note when you look at how those panels sit inside the lip of the shell and interestingly for other Miglia builders is that the distance from the panel to the shell lip is slightly different behind each seat!
Now I haven't spent much time investigating this yet so I don't know if that's due to the donor vehicle, or the frame, or how I've mounted the shell or just how the body is! I'll do some more measurements over the week.
TBH I don't care but I know that some of you will and so I thought I'd mention it in case others come across it. Or then again you might not if you've done things differently to me! :)

Also note the length of blue padding (packaging from the metal sheet I had delivered!) which will be profiled and covered in order to finish things off but a by-product of that is that it also helps hide this slight inconsistency. Result! :)

I have also been fitting aluminium angle everywhere else on the interior ready to rivet the panels on to and I've also now decided on my final centre tunnel design. The initial choice is based slightly on comfort and slightly on practicality of where panels need to sit!

I've now run two lengths of alloy box section to form the new tunnel top and you can see those in the below picture and in the first picture.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ps36d32bf5.jpg

Finally while I was buying yet-more pop rivets (I really under estimated how many I'd get through!) I saw something that under normal circumstances I'd never even look twice at, but somehow seemed ideal for the Miglia. Some alloy dust cap covers! For only £1 I thought it worth a try and they seem to fit in just right :)

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...psb4596bf9.jpg

Hopefully i'll get more of the interior done this week, then it's just finish off the door locks and fit the lights before I can start the bodywork prep for painting!

Oh... and the grill! I'm _still_ waiting for my grill <cough><cough> (and the head rest and Perspex wind deflector) and TBH I'm currently thinking about taking the same approach as I did with the delayed floor plans, and fabricating my own grill so that I can get on with things!

I'm finding that 'a little and often' is the way to tackle Alloy Paneling! as the cutting/shaping/drilling/riveting does take longer than you'd think and is also quite a physical task, especially for someone who drives a keyboard for a living!

So the passengers side of the central tunnel is now in place:

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ps42c03e2c.jpg

and amazingly I've now just about run out of alloy sheet! (I'd originally ordered 2 sheets of 2000x1000x1.2mm!) So a quick order to metals4u for another 2 sheets and a load more alloy-angle has just been placed that (after some careful measuring) looks like it will allow me to finish the interior and make the wheel arch liners :)


Additionally to that and with the help of the nice chaps at Merlin Motorsport and the Triumph Owners Club forum, I've been doing a bit of research into the Vitesse Suspension as I'm not happy with how mine is sitting at the front and my local MOT men don't like chopped springs!

Here's an interesting read (with embedded charts) for anyone looking at altering their front suspension that shows you what std springs were fitted and advise for after-market spring rates:

http://club.triumph.org.uk/cgi-bin/f...?m-1294420747/

That shows us is the front spring rates and that the OEM ones are 2 3/4" internal diameter.

Now interestingly.... if you buy the height adjustable GAZ shocks from mssr's Rimmer, those were custom made for Rimmers with a 2 3/4" spring seat so you could fit the std springs!
I know this as the nice man at Merlin Motorsports rang them and asked for me :)

But... most after-market lowering springs, including the ones i'd bought previously specifically for the Vitesse (although i can't remember where from) are 2 1/2" Internal Diameter!

So, If you alter the spring seats down to 2 1/2" (not too hard i've found!), or buy some 2 1/2" spring seats for your shocks then suddenly the world is your lobster!!

And if you talk to the nice man at Merlin, you can opt for just about any length and rate of 2 1/2" spring that you'd ever want and for not a lot of money at all!! :D

https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/s...ilover-springs

After my reading and measuring i have now ordered some 2 1/2" x 8" x 325lbs springs and we shall see what we shall see :)

Dave - Your cockpit panelling is coming along very nicely. :cool:

I'll also come back to your front spring info links when I finally get to that stage.

Good luck, Paul. :)

Very nice indeed. I see rivets along the trans tunnel to the floor, but isnt the chassis rail inder there? How've u managed that?

Nice ally work Dave it all looks very professional, equally spaced rivets and all that keep up the good work.

The link for the springs is one to keep for later as i have fitted the standard springs for now with the intentions of seeing how they work and possibly upgrading.

Best not to go too hard on the front springs. I've gone from 3 & 3/4" cut down Vitesse 220lb springs, which rattled my fillings out and made the car very skittish, to 1.5" cut down Spitfire 4 (mk1) 150lb springs, which allow much more spirited driving as the front tyres stay in contact with the road instead of hopping about all over the place.

Cheers all :)


There are only a few rivets along that floor seam as i didn't want to turn the chassis rails into Swiss Cheese!
Those few rivets that are there go through the edges of the dropped floorpans just to hold things in place and that Alloy Angle is bonded in place along it's length with Tiger Seal and then when it's all connected up at either end it is proving very strong and stable!

The front most verticals panels by the gearbox are pretty much all on top of floorpan-overlap, so are riveted all the way along. plus they're visible and that looks prettier :)

TBH as far as the paneling is concerned I'm making it up as I'm going along and just making it look how _i_ want it to look and TBH I'm thoroughly enjoying it! :)

While waiting for the Aluminium delivery I decided upon my rear light configuration. I'm applying the "simply quality" approach as i splashed out on good quality glass and chrome items this time and fitted things where they naturally want to sit.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ps7963b291.jpg

The lights were just balanced in place in this pic so look a little wonky, but i'm happy with how it looks!

I also fitted the front lights and indicators using the same approach, but then the metal delivery turned up from metals4u.co.uk so i don't have any pics of them.

Next day delivery was very impressive for 2 sheets of 2000x1000x1.2mm sheet and a few lengths of angle which allowed me to continue with the interior paneling.

I managed to get the drivers side of the tunnel and the first part of the top fitted and I then went on to the rear corner pieces as i was a bit worried because i wasn't sure what i was going to do with them. But while testing options the solution came naturally and i'm very happy with how they are turning out!

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ps61d7c66d.jpg

Dave, looks very swish but are you going to brace the front centre of the rear deck with anything?

You're probably way ahead of me as you've previous Sammio experience, but that's where your hand will naturally come to rest when you get in/out and it'll crack if there's nothing supporting it beneath.