Scottie's Tribute A352 build

[Scottie22]

WCA,

Whilst I do appreciate your humour, I somehow doubt that Master Po had such tools at his disposal, also you have failed to note that the object of the exercise was to demonstrate perseverance..........


Right!

Today I did a job that I have been dreading (as usual) and, as usual it was a complete pig to do.

This job I HAD to do in order to progress to the interior of the car.

Namely the dash/ dash top dash itself, instruments etc.

Of course the original car did not have or need the bit that I made today,
having said that, sat on my dash top, it does not look odd, or out of place.

The other day I filled the edges of the sills on the inside of the car by the doors with expanded foam. I was sick of dropping nuts and bolts and tools down the side between the two surfaces, and having a hell of a job getting them out. In fact some did not come out and have been sealed in for life by the foam!

I then started to plan out the cover for the wiper boxes.

The bit I made was so complex in curves that I made it in bits in the end, and glassed them together to form the end result.

There has been 8 hours work gone into this lump, and I see this as a big step forward!


Some pictures:

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[a big scary monster]

Hours of enjoyment for us the on lookers,watching and eagerly awaiting your creative hand crafted solutions rather than throwing a boat load of money at each item just because you know a mass produced part won't be quite correct.Enjoyment is clearly in the eye of the beholder, I for one come on here as relaxation and to see people tick a task off the list, be it mental or paper. This stops me (or prolongs the on set ) from a full mental breakdown, caused by my list of things to do:
Which would be as long as your build thread.
What you building next? As you know full well you love it really? Ed

[Paul L]

Scottie - Make a list of all outstanding jobs?

Are you mad?



Even just listing the things to do on the areas I'm currently working on is scary enough.

Jokes aside, you have done another great job building that wiper motor cover.

I'm sure your dash will have the same attention to detail as the rest of your build.

Good luck, Paul.

[Scottie22]

Big scary monster:

I am only making all these bits for my car because that is the only way I can get it to look authentic.

My bodyshell is 5 inches narrower than the real thing, so an XKSS windscreen would'nt fit anyway, so I was forced to make one.

Almost none of the interior things on the donar Spitfire were of any use in my car, so I had to adapt a Jaguar handbrake and gear stick as well.

The exhaust system I had to make is the only one in the world, as no-one would be stupid enough to put an exterior exhaust system on the left hand side of the car when the exhaust manifold on the donar was on the RIGHT.

And the list goes on. I cannot make the car an exact copy of the original, as the body shell is different to start with, I have a bonnet on mine, the real deal has a flip front. I have made a proper boot lid, the real deal did not have a boot at all, and so on.

But what I CAN do is to make a car that looks very authentic, and make it a classic looker in its own right, and I am well down the road on that one.

It is a good thing that I'm not a purist really, because that makes me free to do whatever I want on my car, as long as it looks right, and so far I am happy with how it looks, and with the forum blokes breathing down my neck, I won't get away with anything that looks naff on the car.

The recent driving mirror is a good example of forum co-operation!

What is my next project?

Are you totally looney?? Have you lost the plot? does your elevator not go all the way to the top?
Are you one sandwhich short of a picnic?

Seriously though, when I have finished this one (my first by the way) I just want to enjoy driving it.

Paul: I seem to have so much to do, I often don't know where to start next, I usually gravitate towards the jobs I like, leaving the shitty jobs to pile up, which is not really the way!

[landmannnn]

A wise man once said

“There are different paths to your destination. Choose your own path.”

[Scottie22]

Originally Posted by landmannnn

A wise man once said

“There are different paths to your destination. Choose your own path.”

That wise man was most likely Mr Towed! Sounds like one of his sayings :-)

[WorldClassAccident]

Patience is a virtue...

...but having the right tools and skills help too.

I admire both the patience but also the skills on this thread

[Scottie22]

WCA,

Goodness me sir! You DO have a good side after all!

Seriously, you're mistaken about the patience, that is one virtue I have NEVER had. Most of my small paint jobs are done with a paint gun in one hand and a heat gun in the other!

I cannot even wait for the paint to dry, and go on to do the rest of the job leaving finger prints in the wet paint.

When something goes wrong, (happens a lot) the screams of anguish can be heard streets away.

There is a big difference between patience and relentless tenacity, but on the surface they tend to look similar. :-)

[WorldClassAccident]

Winners never quit and quitters never win!!


If you never win and you never quit then life sucks and you can join me at the bar.

:-)

[Scottie22]

Well I filled and sanded the wiper gubbins cover, and it is ready to be cloaked in leather.

After an awful lot of photo study of XKSS interiors, (and I seem to have the worlds largest collection)

I was able to work out just what size, and roughly where my yet-to-be made
dash top will go, and a paper pattern was done.

All this took so long time-wise, and it does not look like much has been done,
but I'm another day closer to completion I suppose.

Pics:

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[Scottie22]

I had a bit of an admin day today, but later I decided to think about the screen demister slots I need to sort out at this stage.

I was going to cut the slot covers out of the usual stainless, but the original Spitfire ones are made in 3D, and direct the air forward to the screen, and I
could never copy that as well.

They were ugly, and far too large, so I cut and shut them, soldered them back together, then filled over the joins, drilled some holes so I could use my usual self tappers, and now I quite like them.

They will be screwed onto the cover I made yesterday, and I will pipe the hot air to them with some sort of slim hose.

They will be painted black, the same as a lot of stuff around the dash will be.

The black ought to contrast well with the red leather on the dash top.

I am too embarassed to say how many hours this little exercise took!

And they are not finished yet!

But it is one more step..........

Pics:

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[Scottie22]

Later after a cup of tea.........

[IMG][/IMG]

[Scottie22]

I have been fairly busy doing all sorts of stuff, and also working on my build.

I have finished the heating ducts in the dash, which seemed to take forever.

They have much narrower pipes to feed the hot air to them than before, but I have used pipes as wide as I could, given the confines I'm working with.
They should work okay, but it may take a little longer to demist than before.

Bearing in mind that 90 per cent of the time I should be driving around with the roof off! (What roof?)

When I make the dash, I want my start button at the top, the ignition key under that, and the choke button under that. It seems logical to me.

At present the Spitfire choke cable is too short to reach, so I ordered a generic new one at 6 feet long.

It arrived today, and I spent an enormous amount of time modifying it to look like the button in the real XKSS that occupies that position.

I had to file all the engraved letters off, then cut and file it to look like the XKSS button, or more like it than it did to start with at least.

The material is very resistant to being filed or marked in any way,which made the work hard to do, but it will pass a not-too-close-inspection now.

I am not even sure what function the original button performs, but I would guess at a manual water pump for the wipers. It has "push" written on it.

I have an electrical one so do not need that switch anyway.

Here are some pictures.

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[garyh]

It looks authentic... or are the blurry pics on purpse?

[Scottie22]

No Gary!

I'm just not much good at photos!

[Paul L]

Scottie - That choke lever really sums up your attention to detail on this build.

A HUGE amount of work to add a small detail, but it is the layers of small details that will make all the difference.

Good luck, Paul.

PS
I thought it was pain just to re-locate my choke lever.

[Scottie22]

Thanks Paul, that choke button is now with the engraver to put
"PUSH" on it, although in reality, I will be pulling it!

What a crazy world we make for our selves!

[Mister Towed]

Originally Posted by Scottie22

Thanks Paul, that choke button is now with the engraver to put
"PUSH" on it, although in reality, I will be pulling it!

What a crazy world we make for our selves!

Should provide an extra level of security and be an effective anti-theft immobiliser.

I can just picture a teenage twoccer frantically pushing the choke knob in a desperate attempt to get the mixture rich enough to fire from cold after hot wiring the ignition. The deeply impressed thumb print on the surface of the knob should help the police with their enquiries.

[Scottie22]

I wonder if the insurance company will swallow that one..........

And then again, how would the twoccer know that was the choke...

:-)

[Mister Towed]

Originally Posted by Scottie22

I wonder if the insurance company will swallow that one..........

And then again, how would the twoccer know that was the choke...

:-)

'twas but poetic licence, no teenage twoccer would even know what a choke was these days. Young folk today, they don't know they're born.