New Cordite Build, with a twist....

[Paul L]

Mac - Great job on blending in the body shell "extension", you'd never know if wasn't there from the beginning.

Can I just ask what you used to get the shape of the wheel arch curve section of that panel?

Is it simply the tyre + x inches?

Cheers, Paul.

PS
Swifty - Without wishing to hi-jack Mac's thread, I have both the original body shell & original bonnet.
Your Navigator body no longer has the issues that you can read about Mac tackling in the link above.
( I have a hard copy of that report which gives me nightmares every time I read it. )

[Viatron]

Paul, KISS was applied, taped a piece of wire to a marker then to the floor and marked it roughly on the back by holding it against the existing arch and running a pen along. I then used the floor mounted "monster compass" to refine the curve, really it was just trial and error.

Up the workshop now so hopefully an update later, fingers crossed!

TTFN

Mac

[Viatron]

Quick update whilst I'm waiting for some fibreglass to go off and taking a small break as I'm drenched in sweat, its warm!

Started by taking some measurement off the passenger side wheel arch to body extension so I have a datum I can use when trying to get the drivers side to match.
As can be seen in this picture the magic numbers were 365mm and 355 mm



what this did highlight was that the outrigger moulding needed trimming back by approx. 20mm



Quick cut and its done, you can see the template on the floor in the background, I have extended the rear backwards at the top as Paul L was exactly spot on as the major difference was the lean back in the bulkhead notch side to side



Then set too making a new Ali panel for the drivers side, same process as before.











Just waiting for my landlord to get back with some stainless countersunk set screws he's picking up from the nut and bolt supplier for me as he was going anyway. As on the passenger side the panel will be bolted and bonded with a combination of PU and fibreglass so it becomes an integral part of the tub. should have this done in the next hour or so and then will start on making the Ali closing panels for the inside of the extension. These are necessary to make them full rigid and also to fix their position in relation to the wheels I have a plan in my head but am making this up as I go along so no promises!

TTFN

Mac

[Viatron]

slight change of tack, thinking about it a bit more I really want the passenger side totally immoveable before I tackle the drivers side so I can take reasonably accurate measurements. So out with CAD V1.2



Forgot to take a pic of the finished closing panel but did decide I couldn't get a good enough bend on the top so have bonded and riveted a piece of 2mm thick angle to the top rail, this will give me a good vertical surface to rivet the closing panel to. In addition it gave me a good surface to trim the top flat of the extension panel to so it was a nice straight line and a consistent width.



Next I bonded and riveted the closing panel in place, started on the top then worked from the bottom of the arch working my way up dressing the outer panel as I went to get a good close join, that said the air riveter can pull panels together that are a good few mm away as long as your using a long enough rivet. End result is:





Very pleased with it so far as it gives a nice finished look to what was just an add on to the body. Now going to concentrate on joining the inner panel to the firewall which should make it totally rigid. Right quick coffee then back to it.

TTFN

Mac

[Viatron]

Probably (depending on how knackered I am after doing this update) the last update for today.

Would have liked to have made the rear of the front wing to body joining panel in one piece but I don't have the luxury of a folder so all bending is done in a relatively small vice using block of wood angle iron etc so the risk of scrapping a panl part way through is high. with this in mind I decided to split the panel into 3 pieces and rather than try and hide the fact they exist make a feature of them. As you can see from my interior I like the rivet look, good job really!
With more CAD the results so far are:





With this panel in place the position of the front wing rear is now cast in stone, no going back now!



Will fill the slight gap you can see in the top left of this pic before I go tonight.

This panel was actually harder than the first as it actually has 2 bends in it the one that isn't obvious is just to the right of the vertical lines of the rivets, it was necessary to make sure I have 100% panel to panel contact for bonding and riveting.







TTFN
Mac

[Paul L]

Mac - As always, very impressive construction work.

[Viatron]

Well its a been a couple of days with no updates but that's because I've been busy. Duplicating the front winglet I did on the passenger side has been a trial to says the least, remade the panel twice and spend yonks making up an alignment tool to try and get both sides as similar dimensionally as possible. Today finally saw the back of it done though. They are not millimetre identical but close enough and at least the rear of the front drivers side wing now covers the wheel.


The filler work looks much worse than it is as I had just wiped it down with thinners which tends to make it look very patchy.

Better shot here of how it actually looks after giving the thinners 5 minutes to flash off:



The angle makes it look its pointing skywards but its not.

Still a couple of hours of final fibreglass filling and profiling then a quick finish skim but hopefully will have it looking done by this time tomorrow if I manage to get a few hours in tomorrow night.

Comparison side to side, bit more of a dip on the passenger side but I think I'm going to leave it as is:









Overall I was very happy, then just before I left I looked behind the car.....



just highlights how out of whack the nose is, that said I have just had a peek at a couple of Miglia threads and all the Sammio faults are present there as well !

TTFN

Mac

[Viatron]

If you think the newer Ribble Navigator body still has a few....eccentricities then check out this thread on the new Miglia offering, looks ;like someone took the mould before realising the issue with one side being out of alignment with the other!
http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/foru...ead.php?t=4806

[davecymru]

It's weird all this talk of rear end issues as i know i had bonnet alignment problems on my Sammio, but i can't remember any rear end alignment problems?
I may have to have a delve through my photo archives at some point now as you've piqued my interest

[Viatron]

Dave bear in mind were talking about the cordite body was this what you built?
Mac

[davecymru]

Hey Mac,
You're right in that i built a Spyder, but i didn't think the rear ends were greatly different? I just thought that the main body tub differed at the front?

Although obviously the mods to that could have thrown the back out..

I'm still going to have a nosy through my pics tho as it'll be interesting comparing those to my Miglia kit when it turns up.
Although, as with my Sammio, i fully accept what I'm getting for the price I'm paying and I'm willing to 'fettle' as required

[Viatron]

think these pics of the Cordite moulds as bought from Sammio tell the story Gary:



believe it or not these are the 2 halves of the same body...
Mac

[swifty]

It beggars belief that the simple acid test of putting the two halves together was not done at the beginning and to be that far out is crazy regardless of the final kit cost.

Your build is coming along nicely viatron and I look forward to working on my tub when it arrives which should be very soon.

[Viatron]

ill see it before you as Ribbles laminator is my next door neighbour up the man cave, ill keep any eye out for it :-)

As for the Sammio moulds well as I have said before I'm not surprised they were sold off when they were as it would only have been a matter of time until a lynch mob arrived in Poole!

Shame Mike didn't think to do any basic measuring when he used them as the basis for his Miglia offering!

[swifty]

Cheers Viatron, it should be just about out of the mould as its been two weeks now so hopefully it will arrive soon.

[phil9]

bodys are all over the place ....like in some of you bit and bobs on car think it s going to look a1 ...keep up good work mac.

[Viatron]

Cheers Phil, high praise from a founder builder!
Mac

[swifty]

Hi Viatron did you get a chance to see if there is a complete navigator shell next door?

I see you have R Tech welders, is one of them a tig by any chance and if so is it any good?

[Viatron]

I'm not up again until tomorrow afternoon mate or if not then I'll be up all day Saturday, I'll have a look and let you know :-)
Both my Tig and Mig are R-Tech, there not Esab or Miller but for the price they are both excellent bits of kit and their service and warranty are very good. Keep an eye on their ebay shop as they often have xe display units going for a discount.
Mac

[swifty]

I did consider the R Tech tig welder a couple of years ago for my garage but decided at the time to buy a mig instead being put off by the cheap price.

I do use a Esab tig at work and can say they are excellent but they should as they cost a couple of grand and as they say you only get what you pay for.