Another Cordite Is Born ...

[Mister Towed]

Keep up the good work Paul and you'll be surprised how fast it'll all come together now that you've broken the back of all the chassis prep. Bet you a pound you can finish this before Patoune finishes his next four cars, which gives you about two months...

[christinedmc]

Paul,
this is fantastic, So much going on. You will get there, that's for sure.

Michiel

[oxford1360]

Well done, Paul. There is definitely a car starting to come together. Great stuff.

[micky1mo]

Paul, if your like me, you know the look you want it's just a case of finding the right lights to match

It took me weeks and many disappointments but I found it in the end, you just have to keep on trying.

[Paul L]

General Point
I'd like to say a quick thank you to everyone who takes the time to reply to my build thread.

It can be quite lonely working away on this project by myself, with just a radio for company at times.
So I like to think of the forum as the equivalent of a trip down the pub to discuss my build with some mates.
My "Visitor's Book" has over 40 people in it, plus I appear to have a number of BTRA* members.
( * Build Thread Readers Anonymous )

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Nike 55 - Cheers Nigel, although I wouldn't say I've actually mastered many things yet.
However, my skills (especially my welding) are definitely improving as this build continues to tick along.
I understand the fear of starting a job that you are not sure you can finish, so start small & build from there.
I think sorting out my headlights was one of the first, simple, bits of car "building" that I had a go at.
Following up from my general point above, you will get lots of support & encouragement from this forum.

Mister Towed - I know there will be a "tipping point" in the build where big leaps forward are made.
Unfortunately, I still have a lot of small, but time consuming, jobs to sort out during this next phase.
The good news is that I am still trying to follow your "just do it" advice, which does speed things up a bit.
But I'll certainly be glad when I don't have to keep lifting heavy things on & off the chassis any more.

Michiel - Thanks, the more jobs I complete, the more confident I feel about the work still to do.
I'm sure seeing your car on the road will be another inspiration for me to keep chipping away at my own one.

Oxford - I must confess that it has been nice to be back working on the "car" part of the build.
As clearly the bulkhead, rear frame, lowered floors & rear wheel arches are key parts of this jigsaw.
I know how I want to fit these big pieces to fit together and am getting closer to making that happen.
Then it will be full steam ahead to complete the "moon rover" stage and have a working "naked" car.

Micky1Mo - Unfortunately, I only have a vague idea of how I want the finished car to look, which doesn't help.
A key point for me is the need to remain practical over any design choices I make, so that I can realistically build them.
I'm actually dreading the bodywork stage, given how much work Mac did to straighten / fix the Navigator buck.
However, your Navigator/Spitfire "hybrid" build has also given me hope that the body can be cut up & put back together.

Cheers, Paul.

[ufo17]

WOW Paul, I blinked and your build is flying. I must have mist some earlier posts as I thought you only had a dash tub you where working on, I didn't realise you had a car, body and frame. You should be really proud of your achievements so far. When the car is parked on the drive and you are looking at it just come back from a long sunny days driving, with a cold beer in your hand, you will not be thinking about any little mistakes you may have made while learning all the new skills you have, you will be grinning from ear to ear thinking, I built that, I BUILT THAT. Although as some one once said " if you have never made a mistake, then you have never tried anything new". I personally think It's our duty as humans to constantly push ourselves to do things out of our comfort zones, its what all the great people in history have done before us. Will you build another when this is done as I'm concerned that the most prolific posters car will soon be done. . Top work.
Bon chance.

[Paul L]

ufo17 - Thanks for the kind words, unfortunately my build "plan" has been through a number of key stages:

Plan A
- Use the front and rear framework supplied with the kit.
- Abandoned when it became clear the bulkhead frame on the early kits did not really work.

Plan B
- Use a cut down Spitfire body shell like the Tribute A352 & an early Ribble Navigator experiment.
- Abandoned because I was still trying to make the standard body shell fit and it wouldn't.

Plan C
- Use the bulkhead & rear arches from a Spitfire
- Plus the kit's rear framework, modified to join the Spitfire bulkhead (see update below)
- Cut & "stretch" the original bodywork so that it will fit around the Spitfire bulkhead.

Without doubt, Plan C is the most complicated way of building this kit.
So there is no danger of me finishing this build any time soon.
However, I do hope to match the grin that Mr T had on his first drive.

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Another Mystery Solved...
I'd already taken the first step towards making a "join" between the frame & bulkhead.



Tonight I was able to take advantage of the daylight after 7pm and made some more progress.

I dug out what was left of the original bulkhead framework so I could recycle some more of it.



This large section of thick metal plate used to mount the pedals is bound to come in handy.



The other plates that caught my eye were used for as part of the original joining of the two frame sections.

Now these two plates always puzzled me, because they were pre-drilled with holes that didn't line up with anything.

In addition, the holes on the two sides were in different places.

Driver's side:



Passenger:



While thinking about the design of the join, I'd printed off this photo from Mister Towed's build.



Then, as if by magic, I could finally see the wood from the trees.

There had obviously been a bit of recycling going on in the Sammio factory too.

As these plates are cut down versions of the ones used in the Spyder frame work.

A quick test with my cardboard template and a new door hinge gasket confirmed this.





A perfect match.

So these plates will definitely form part of the structure to extend the rear frame work.

This frame extension will then be bolted to the Spitfire bulkhead in a similar way to the Herald bulkhead above.

The other things I dug out of an old parts box were the rear bumper supports from my 2nd hand body tub.



These are also made of thick metal.



So I will either use these, or some normal box section to hold the plates in the correct position.

After a serious session with my angle grinder I had these bits cut out.



I also removed a couple of "feet" while I was at it.



These might be re-used at the back of the rear frame work, where it joins the rear wheel arches.

Given I wasn't expecting to do any work on the car today, a good result.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

[Paul L]

Gardener's World
I've invested a lot of time over the years to ensure my garden is a "lower" maintenance one.
But my wife and daughters really wanted to try their hand at growing some vegetables.
So most of today was spend as a family activity preparing the ground & sowing seeds.

There was a corner of the garden that I needed to sort out anyway so that was sacrificed.



After cutting the plants down and digging out the roots it looked like this.



Then we had to add in some compost & sharp sand to improve our "London Clay".



You may notice that we are going to cheat & use a grow bag for the tomatoes (which initially will start indoors).

Then the area was marked out and the seeds sown (carrots, mini leeks, beetroot, peas, lettuce).



We also planted some "Flanders Poppies" as my eldest daughter has just been on a school trip to the WW1 sites.

Finally we gave the area a light covering of bark chips which we hope will throw the birds off the scent.



Overall, bloody hard work, but great to do something like this as a family.

I was then left to continue working in the garden for a few more hours.

But I did get a few more small jobs on the car under my belt at the close of play.

Lowered Floor Pans
Part of me wants to remove the slope in the floors, as this exaggerates the rear slope in my seats.
But sticking to KISS principals, it would be less hassle to change the seats, despite the potential extra cost.
So with no radical changes to make, I could start to finish out the floors as they were.

I was short of time (and energy) so I needed a way of marking up the passenger floor without removed the framework.

So I made another cardboard template to help me located the hole to bolt the frame to the chassis.



I then cut out the red dot I'd marked and with the floor back in place I could then mark that.



I also marked up the outer edge of the floor, & the front edge, for some light trimming.

This was the floor before:



With two sides trimmed, a hole drilled, a notch cut out for the seat belt mounting point & a light sand, it looked like this.



A liberal coating of Kurust later and this was how I left it for the night.



The only other thing I managed to do was to start work on the connectors for the rear lights.



I'd made yet another school boy error when I ordered the connecting blocks.

I'd been thinking about the wires required in the loom for these lights on each side:
- Stop
- Tail
- Indicator
- Common earth

That is why I ordered a 4 pin connecting block, but that would permanently join the two lights together!

So what I should have ordered was a 3 pin and a 2 pin, in the end I just orders some more "double" connectors from ebay.



I will now use the 4 pin for the 3 stop/tail light wires.



And the new two blade connectors for the indicators.





Right, I'm off for a hard earned beer, take care, Paul.

[Paul L]

Every little helps...
I've tried to fit some small car jobs around everything else I've got to do and that approach is working out OK.

Clearly it is never going to be as productive as a full day, but all this work needs to be done at some point.

Hard to see in the photo, but I took my angle grinder to the welds on the four "corners" to smooth them out.



Then I sprayed on some etch primer & instantly the whole floor looked a lot better.



Later I used the same cardboard template technique as before to locate the mounting hole on the driver's side floor.



I also marked up all the other adjustments I needed to make.

Before:



After:



Then the usual layer of Kurust.



And while the bottle was open, I did the underneath of the passenger side floor I had primed earlier.



I did another pop rivet test as I want to fix the floors to the frame before the final bonding / fibre glassing session.

I used an off cut section of the floor and a short length of box to see if the biggest rivets that came with my gun would work.



It does look like this approach will do the job I need.





I also finished off the rear lights with the remaining connecting blocks & wrapped the ends of the wires.



I have deliberately left the wires from the lights as long as possible to give me more flexibility with the main loom.

This is how Scottie22 attached his rear loom on his A352 project.



I need to take a similar "high road" approach, as I can no longer run the wires along the floor as per normal in a Spitfire.
( I welded up all the cable "holes" in the bulkhead due to the rust damage in this area. )

That's all for now, take care, Paul.

[Paul L]

A small step backwards...
It was pointed out to me that I had mixed up the fittings on the two pin connecting blocks.

Obviously they didn't come with any instructions and I've never used these things before.

So the "male" end is not supposed to poke out of the block it is fitted to.



Similarly, "female" end is supposed to be flush with its fitting.



So out came my penknife where the tweezers, sewing needle & short blade were required.



These allowed me to push in the locating tabs to remove the wires & push the tabs back out for re-fitting.

So now the male end looks like this.





And the female end looks like this.



A bit of a pain to re-do work, but at least all the remaining blocks will be fitted correctly at the first attempt.

Some small steps forwards...
I got a coat of etch primer on the "top side" of the driver's floor pan.



I also took my angle grinder to some of the welds on the underside of the passenger floor, before it got primed too.



When the primer on the driver's floor was dry enough, I flipped it over, ground down the welds & covered the underneath in Kurust.



Later on, the Kurust was dry enough to spray a coat of etch primer over the top.

Unfortunately, I ran out of primer just as I started, so I couldn't finish the job (more is on its way).



Still, at least I covered the areas that I will be adding a skim of filler to, which will be the next job on these floors.

Right, got to go, take care, Paul.

[Viatron]

Do you really want to use filler on the floors Paul? As they are steel I would just underseal them underneath and a couple of good coats of paint on the inside. Filler may crack when applied to a large flat surface that then has weight put in the middle of it and it would be a shame to have a problem once assembled.
TTFN
Mac

[davecymru]

Love the commitment matey.

I remember making my lowered floor pans and I just undercoated them, then chassis black on the inside and that nasty tarry anti-stone-chip stuff on the underneath and that worked a treat.

One lesson I learnt on a rainy trip back from a show that is worth sharing is, don't forget to drill some drain holes at the lowest points and make sure that the holes are fully painted/grommeted to stop that bit rusting as there you are expecting water!

[Paul L]

Mac & Dave - Thanks for the replies chaps.

Sorry I wasn't being very clear, the filler is just to skim over the welding, not to cover the whole floor.

Good point about drain holes, I'll add them when I know where the seat are going to be bolted in.

Cheers, Paul.

[Paul L]

Filler...
Just to quickly follow up my previous message, here is the filler on the "top" side.

[Paul L]

More Filler...
Managed one more short session outside this afternoon & got some filler on the "under" side of the floors too.



At some point I need to rest these back in place on the car so I can measure & mark up where to drill the holes for the rivets.

I don't want to use rivets on the inside edge of the frame, as that is made from a length of angle iron that sits directly on the chassis.

Instead, the rivet will go into the lengths of box section that form the framework around the other three sides of the floor.

With the floors secure, I will then be able to work out the best way to attach the rear wheel arches to the frame/floor.

In this photo Micky1Mo extended his own frame work so it could be welded directly to the top of the arches.



Whilst Scottie made use of the seat belt mounting points in the arches for one of his support brackets.



So I will bear these two approaches in mind when I get to that stage.

Cheers, Paul.

[Paul L]

Working by moonlight...
Spent most of the day having a BBQ with my wife's goddaughter and her boyfriend.
A great time had by all as it was nice and sunny all day.

I got permission to do a quick bit of grinding when they had headed home.
Although my wife did ask was it a good idea to use power tools after drinking all day.
Obviously the answer was probably not, but I did it anyway.

The moon was out when I started around 8pm.



But I did manage to grind & sand down most of the filler on both sides.
I stopped at 9pm as that is too anti-social to be using power tools outside at that time of night.
So there is a small bit of work still to do, but this is what the floors look like now.





Two years and counting...
- 13th April 2012 - I visited the Sammio factory in Poole & put my deposit down for Cordite kit No.7.
- 20th April 2012 - I bought my Spitfire 1500 donor car.

I gave up thinking about, or setting, deadlines to finish this project a long time ago.
However, passing anniversaries dates like these do make me stop and think a little bit.

My main focus at this point is still "just" getting the project to a working Moon Rover stage.
Well, it will be working when the local Triumph specialist has sorted out the engine.

The good news is that both the weather and daylight should keep improving from now on.
I am also much better at welding and fabricating now, so that should come in handy too.

So let's see where another 12 months of chipping away will take me.
And if there is still work to be done in a year's time, then so be it.

Take care, Paul.

[swifty]

I take my hat off to you Paul L, that's dedication working in the moon light.... did you have toploader playing in the back ground "Dancing in The Moonlight" after a days drinking. lol

[Paul L]

Swifty - I think I might have been humming that track on the way to the bottom of the garden.
Thankfully I also had an electric work light so I could see what I was doing in the dark.

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Daylight working...
I dragged the floors to the front drive, so I could work out where I needed holes for the rivets.

But while checking the general fit it slowly dawned on me that I had missed a chassis mounting point completely.

Don't ask me know this happened, I think I counted the 2 seat belt mounts as part of the 4 bolts through the chassis.

So this was something else I needed to mark the floors for.





I then discovered that the rivet gun would not fit between the floor and the outside frame work.
( It would need to fit on the other side of this section of frame. )



So the floors will be temporarily held in place on just 2 sides (front and back).

After the next round of drilling, grinding & sanding, the floors look like this.

Top:

*

Bottom:

*

They are still a bit rough & ready, but that is in keeping with the rest of the build.

If my etch primer finally arrives tomorrow I will try to get the floors coated.

Until next time, take care, Paul.

[Paul L]

Flying Visit...
The etch primer was delivered this morning, so I wasted no time in coating the under sides of the floors.





So by the afternoon, the primer was dry enough for me to flip the floors over and do the other side too.





Even allowing for the 24 hour recommended hardening time, I still have a fighting chance of getting some black paint on these floors tomorrow.

But, as always these days, I'm supposed to be doing something else, so I've got to go, Paul.

[Mister Towed]

Some useful hints and tips on speed building a car here Paul -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fzj-dW5ALU

Total donor fest at the end too!