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Go Back   Madabout Kitcars Forum > Mad Build Area > Formosa Builds, Ideas and Discussion

Formosa Builds, Ideas and Discussion Formosa 120 GR and related builds

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  #1  
Old 16th August 2018, 19:39
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Default Geoff Wilson's F120 GR

Geoff and I have been discussing a Formosa build for over 6 months now and he's finally got a firm plan in his head ...

So yesterday , Geoff dropped his 'barn find' SE5 off to me ...He had already stripped the front grille area off to access the engine etc easier ...but today I went all the way and stripped it right back to our starting point ...






I already have Geoff's body here , so after doing a couple of repairs on his chassis and converting the outer rails to boxed sections , I can start putting his frame together and moving engine and box etc back a bit ...
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  #2  
Old 16th August 2018, 21:00
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Interesting project.
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  #3  
Old 16th August 2018, 21:13
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Geoff wants to fit a few upgrades ..looking at RX8 gearbox and rear disc conversion amongst some other things ...
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Old 21st August 2018, 18:35
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Some progress made on this in the last 2 days .....

I have removed the steering column , pedal cluster , radiator and centre and rear exhaust sections ...

pedals will be changed and radiator will be a Lotus item.

The chassis had about half a dozen holes in it , weirdly all except one along the passenger side ( where I found the bramble bush whilst stripping the bodyshell off )these have been cut out and patched where necessary and the drivers 4 bar mount reconstructed as it was quite poorly.
I have also repaired the outriggers on their ends and replaced the open channel side rails with a closed box section ...front outriggers have been replaced too ...
finally , the engine and gearbox have been moved back approx 4 '' and the original engine mounts re-welded to the chassis ...




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  #5  
Old 22nd August 2018, 22:53
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Bolt in framework for Triumph fuel tank fitted and some bracketry fitted to the chassis by tapping and drilling rails in anticipation of starting to fabricate the space frame augmentation which this fuel tank frame will form the rear section of...

Last edited by lancelot link; 22nd August 2018 at 22:57..
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  #6  
Old 23rd August 2018, 11:57
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Geoff wants a bit more room in his car , he's quite tall and wants maximum legroom ...so I am dropping the floors as much as I can , stretching the bulkhead area forward as well ...The Scimitar based cars can achieve this better than the Vitesse based ones but its a bit more work to achieve it....
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Old 4th September 2018, 23:09
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Geoff has supplied some centre laced 7.5 x 15 wires with 235/60 fronts and 245/60 rears for the car ...They look fantastic but are hugely wider than the car ... I am attacking the task from two directions .
First is to widen the rear arches as much as I feel I can without compromising the shape ...so 75mm bands put in both rear wings today ...



second stage will be to put a strip down through the centre of the body to widen the whole shell ...
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  #8  
Old 5th September 2018, 09:09
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Tyres look too wide for the rims. Surely a tyre change would be a much cheaper and easier solution.
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Old 5th September 2018, 16:50
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I would be tempted to trial fit some 205/70's first. That will save hours of work and they'll probably fit under wider arches. The style of car lends itself to narrow wheels and tyres anyway.
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Old 5th September 2018, 19:46
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Originally Posted by Lucky@LeMans View Post
I would be tempted to trial fit some 205/70's first. That will save hours of work and they'll probably fit under wider arches. The style of car lends itself to narrow wheels and tyres anyway.
Exactly why the car is set up to take 5.5 maximum ...I have another one on the go for a customer , his is on 16 x 5's and that's wide enough on a Scim car for me ..
If Geoff had started with a Vitesse and the narrower track , the wheels would fit just fine ...

Bottom line is , he was made aware of the issues before he bought the wheel/tyre combo ...I advised him that it would create a headache ,..but he wants a wide look to the car ...I designed her to be narrow purely because the real examples are narrow and all the Replica stuff is wide due to Cortina / Sierra and Jag axles being used ...
Geoff wants a wide look to go with his wheels , 3.4 Essex engine / RX8 gearbox , rear discs etc approach to his car ...

Not how I would build for me , but it's not my car ...
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  #11  
Old 8th September 2018, 06:42
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lancelot link View Post
…second stage will be to put a strip down through the centre of the body to widen the whole shell ...
I assume that means widening the boot lid to match?

I know there was a time when taking an angle grinder to the body shell would have filled me with fear.

But these days, I am just interested in where/how you make the cuts, as I understand the process better.

Good luck, Paul.
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  #12  
Old 8th September 2018, 07:43
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul L View Post
I assume that means widening the boot lid to match?

I know there was a time when taking an angle grinder to the body shell would have filled me with fear.

But these days, I am just interested in where/how you make the cuts, as I understand the process better.

Good luck, Paul.
Yes Paul ...I started the work yesterday , right pain to do on my own ( I don't have a ''Paul'' like Ed China )...took a few hours to get it all set up and clamped and bolted in place , but managed to get it fibreglassed back together by glassing the rear valance and dash face initially as these pieces are vertical and tied it back together... I did a nice hot mix and the muggy weather helps to cure it nice and quickly ... Turned the body over with the help of the neighbour and glassed the entire cut from underneath , body went back on just before I left for the day ... this morning , I will add some fibreglass paste to the top surface and give it an initial sand ....

bootlid and bonnet will be done once the body has been secured to the frame ..
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  #13  
Old 8th September 2018, 19:00
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  #14  
Old 10th September 2018, 21:46
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The sides still need to be pulled in a bit and a fair old dollop of filler will be required , not so much the centre cut , but both wing tops need the curve re-instating a bit ...but its the correct width for the wheel/tyre combo now ....it's too wide for me but Geoff loves it ...so that's the main thing ...

Last edited by lancelot link; 10th September 2018 at 21:56.. Reason: dodgey letter E key created spelling issues
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  #15  
Old 11th September 2018, 11:32
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I would use Isopon p40 grp paste as a filler. Bit harder to sand back but less chance of cracking and shrinkage at a later date.
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Old 11th September 2018, 13:47
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And this shows how flexible this design can be - so it is still a "special". So much more fun than another (yawn) Cobra or Westfield.

The width reminds me of, was it called, a Kougar? Jag based cycle wing special from the early 80's scene

Following with interest - not because I want one, but because the modifying is fascinating to watch.

Marc
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Old 11th September 2018, 17:19
Lucky@LeMans Lucky@LeMans is offline
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The Kougar Monza was a similar shape but it was a "big" jag based car. The mods on this example have meant loads of extra work to accommodate some over size wheels and tyres.
There were similar suggestions that I should use a Cobra chassis to mount my 250 Testarossa body onto but there was no way I was going to cut up a perfectly good ali body to fit it to a chassis that was too wide.
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Old 11th September 2018, 18:48
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaguartvr View Post
I would use Isopon p40 grp paste as a filler. Bit harder to sand back but less chance of cracking and shrinkage at a later date.
That's exactly what you are looking at .... fibreglassed with 3 layers of 600 from behind against an aluminium strip being used as a 'mould' and then P40 'hairy filler' added to the top surface to build up the low points , it will be finished with regular Easy sand to get the profile back ... I will then brush some red gelcoat with wax solution on the re-shaped area and sand that back to give it a final finish ...

Last edited by lancelot link; 11th September 2018 at 18:51..
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Old 11th September 2018, 18:52
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The car has ended up a similar width to a Jag or Cortina based Kougar Monza ...
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Old 11th September 2018, 19:01
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Here's a body I converted to LHD by cutting and swapping the dash and headrest around ... its a fair bit of work , about 2 days in all ...but as you can see , using gel coat as a final finish , brushed on like this and sanded back ...( not shown ) gives it a decent surface ...

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