Scottie's Tribute A352 build

[Scottie22]

Ha ha! I deliberately put those door handles in that format in the hopes of eliciting a response of this nature, but honestly thought WCA would post.

Really surprised to see your post Mr Towed!

Well done. very clever. Great stuff.

[Scottie22]

I put in a fair amount of time today on the build, mostly on small time consuming jobs.
I drilled out and fitted little bolts to the two locks so that the handles will operate them correctly.

Did a lot more work on the drivers rear shut plate, ( still working on it now at 9:15 pm) I WILL finish it tonight!!!

Quite some time ago I spent three complete days re-fibre glassing the bolt holes in the drivers door, re-drilling and shimming it to as good a fit as I could get, and was pleased with the result, so far so good.

Today I re-fitted the drivers door in what I expected to be a near perfect position given all the work I had put in, only to find it was probably the worst fitting door in the history of badly fitting doors, in the whole of the bloody universe.

There were a few choice words I can tell you. When you see the picture, it is plain to see why I was so peed off.

Nothing for it but to re-shim and get it back to some sort of order.

Oddly, this time it did not take so long, see the next pic.

Not as good as it once was, but good enough once all in BRG methinks.

Pics:

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[Scottie22]

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[8 Valve Ed]

Well done Scottie! Looking good, you have put a lot of work into that paneling. You have inspired me to pay more attention to detailing in the period style of the concept car I have in my mind. I am not trying to create a replica but to include distinctive features of similar cars of that period. I think you are making a marvellous job of your car, your approach is helping me to achieve a better job of my own build, attention to detail is key.

[Thurcroft flyer]

well done Scottie keep at it, it will look really authentic when finished. it's those little bits that add to the overall look of the car in the end.

[Scottie22]

Thanks for the encouragement Thurcroft, it is appreciated, especially when enthusiasm flags a bit! (And it does at times!)

Ed, I'm glad you are fired up to re-tackle your interior, that surely is what this forum is all about.

I in turn, have been inspired several times on different issues, due to seeing things in the forum, so it is a self perpetuating system which works well.

We all keep saying it, but attention to detail IS the key.

Sure, it certainly does take longer, but as WCA said: "a build is not a race" and the extra effort is really worth it in the end.

Keep that in mind all you newbies out there!

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[WorldClassAccident]

I like the way the closed door completely covers the big block of wood that keeps the door open. Neat design!

:-)

[Scottie22]

Glad you noticed that World Class, It took me ages to hack a big enough hole in the bottom of the door to make it work so!!

[Scottie22]

Today I bit the bullet, and started drilling holes in my car. After much measuring, marking and rechecking, I fitted the door lock to the passengers door.

Then I managed to fit the lock plate to the door bulkhead.

The good news is that the lock works, the door closes with a resounding "click" and is firmly closed, and does not rattle.

I have not fitted the handle yet, nor obviously connected it to the lock, that will come later. I am just relieved to get the lock in place with no mistakes or damage to anything.

It is so fiddly getting both these two bits secured in the right places, that I wanted to get it right in one, and not have to adjust it at all afterwards.

I achieved my aim, as I had checked all the measurement so many times ,
that it came out right first try.

I hope I have the same luck with the drivers side.

When I fitted the doors, I made them stick out just a bit at the rear, so they needed definite pressure to close them, and fit correctly.

When the "Click" is heard, and the door is shut flush, it is very satisfying.

Pics:

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[WorldClassAccident]

Are you going to hide the lock mountings behind the alloy?

At the moment it looks like someone has stuck a b&q door catch on a classis car door.

I am sure you will address this in your usual style

[landmannnn]

My 20's Citroën has a virtually identical plate from new. We aren't used to seeing them on cars nowadays.

[Scottie22]

It will stay like that, and as the doors on cars are closed 99.9999% of the time it will probably never get seen.

Aluminium is a very soft material and certainly not suitable for locks and lock shut plates, which is why its not used for that purpose.

Steel is the normal chosen material, due to its hard wearing qualities, which is why I've used it on my car.

[Paul L]

WCA & Scottie – I quite like the simplistic “function over form” look of the door locks.

I did try to find out what an original XKSS door lock looked like, but failed.

As almost all the photos I could find show the cars with the doors shut!

However, I did find a photo of this Aston Martin, which also seems to be sporting a B&Q door lock.
( Still looks as cool as though. )



Jokes aside, Scottie you are making great progress.

Good luck, Paul.

[Scottie22]

I could not find any pictures of XKSS locks either Paul, but like Landmannn, I came to the conclusion that all old cars had similar locks in those days.
I have the same locks on the bonnet and boot and they work well.
The good thing is that they are not on show, and will rarely be seen.

[redratbike]

looking good scottie this along with Pauls cordite are the 2 cars i cant wait to see completed as your build threads have been epic! so well documented ,sometimes it seems you spend as much time photographing and writing it up as you do working on the cars.

[WorldClassAccident]

Well I thought I would have a quick google to show the kind of door latch I was thinking of but that didn't work.

I was thinking that if you mounted the 'sticky out bit' behind the ally panel with just the catch sticking out it would look neater. Most of those type of catches allow you to adjust the length that sticks out.

For the catch side I was just thinking making is perhaps slightly larger or make it look more designed for that place rather than an simple 'off the shelf' house door catch.

I won;t go on as you are correct the door is normally shut. It just jars a bit in my eyes. You go to all the effort on loads of details that will be totally hidden and then the door catch looks quite out of place in my eyes.

I did find this while googling as another possible approach but I think you hidden catch approach is better

[Scottie22]

Well, the door locks that I chose appear to have rattled certain cages, and upset the animals!

Seriously though, I put as much time and effort into research on which locks to use, as I have put into other things on the car, and came to the conclusion that what I have fitted, are the most simple, functional and hidden locks as I could find.

Especially given the odd angles and shapes of the XKSS doors in the first place.

Even the simple ones I have used were an absolute bitch to fit, and I had to make another " special tool" in order to actually get them in place.

The original plan was to then take them out, and paint the doors then refit,
but given how difficult and time consuming it was to fit them in the first place, the bastards are staying in there, and will end up painted BRG along with the door too.

Here are some pics:

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[Scottie22]

Redratbike, you may really want to see my car finished, but not half as much as me!!

Ref the time spent on the blog, it takes less than a minute to snap a few pics, and 30 minutes for the text, and believe me that is absolutely nothing compared with the time spent on the car.

I could be even more detailed with the build report, but I really don't have the time, so I actually miss quite a lot out!
Glad you appreciate it though!

[Scottie22]

I have spent the whole day on just the passengers door.
I had not intended to, and was going to finish the last rain channel, but with the door off, I realised I had yet to glass in the fitting holes and re-drill.

Having done that, and as it was a nice sunny day, I decided to make and fit some sort of mechanism so that the handle would open the door.
With the door off the car, I could turn it to any angle and see inside.

Well, I spent ages making the mechanism, and even longer trying to get it inside the restricted space, but I did it in the end, and tried it out, and it was a miserable failure. It just did not work at all, and worse still, jammed the lock, so it would not come back out.

I was gutted! Time is a commodity I am short of right now, and boy, had I wasted some!

I stripped it all out and went back to basics, I decided that using nuts and bolts in such a tight space was madness, so got rid of them, and worked out a system that was much simpler, which slotted together with no nuts or bolts. It now works perfectly, so doing the drivers side will be much quicker
now, as I know what to do first time.

Call me jaded, but I just could not dredge up any excitement for the "show of the century" I did watch it, but afterwards wondered why I'd bothered!

Pics:

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[WorldClassAccident]

Like the handle.

Still don't like seeing the latch plate but having been called an animal I will keep quiet :-)