Looking good Gary.

Do you have a pipe bender in your workshop? If so, what type and is it any good?

I'd like to fabricate my own tube framework at some stage but I've heard that the cheap pipe benders on ebay tend to squash the tubing.

Thanks ...I have borrowed one , it is a cheaper MachineMart type and it is good for gentle bends but does flatten a bit on the more adventurous bends ...even a pro shop will fill with sand or resin for extreme bends , so its not all the benders fault ...

A couple of better pics showing the bonnet line up issue ...I'm going to mount the bonnet and then we will layup another back section of bonnet to do the extension ..

http://preview.ibb.co/eGKoyR/IMG_20171117_133755.jpg

http://preview.ibb.co/moY3Xm/IMG_20171117_133929.jpg

I found plans on the net for a diy type of Hossfeld bender. I used it for bending 10mm stainless rod into a semicircle to use as hinges for my Dino bonnet by placing a solid metal disc (from a bearing puller set) onto the middle (pivot) pin.

In theory the stronger the pins the thicker the rod which can be bent. With pipe the comments already made re packing would be relevant, as yet I have not used it for pipe.
Plans are here. https://www.dropbox.com/s/t6oj3yxuuv...nder.docx?dl=0
Neil

Added some bracing to the bulkhead on passenger side earlier ..this will be supporting the battery and fuse box etc...

http://preview.ibb.co/n82AJR/IMG_20171122_173220.jpg

Added the front framework to support the bonnet pivots ...

http://preview.ibb.co/gDcAJR/IMG_20171122_165209.jpg

It works well , clears everything nicely ...

http://preview.ibb.co/gQWnyR/IMG_20171122_165239.jpg

Just need to create a 175mm 'infill' at the rear due to wheelbase differences ...

http://preview.ibb.co/nyT6sm/IMG_20171122_165313.jpg

bonnet is back off to do that now and I'll continue with metal fabrication and look at lowering her etc...

A cut & paste type fill would likely assist with the rear of the bonnet alignment.

I'm not doing the stretch ...A professional laminator I use is going to do the modification ..we discussed it last night and it will be a kind of diagonal cut travelling along the most horizontal planes we can to minimize line up and blending issues as much as possible ..stretching a tapering panel is never straight forward ... The intention is to take a mould from it once it is done ...

Best way, make a mold of the finished part and hang on to it for "next time".

exactly ...

Did some more working out and moving forward today ...

THE CAR SITS QUITE HIGH ON ITS STANDARD SUSPENSION . Eric wanted to retain the stock rear shocks without cutting them so the only option really was to raise the top mounts or lower the bottom ones ..Tops was easier .
I didn't want to weld anything to the chassis so a new bolt on crossmember has been made from some 60x40 box and bolted to the car through the original shock mounts using crush tubes instead of the shock top mount , I drilled the tubular crossmember and bolted it through that as well with bracketry both sides of the member to totally trap the new piece and make it very strong ...where the ends touch the exiting tubular framework , I welded it to the tubes here ..When the framework is removed from the car , you will remove the 4 bolts and it will lift away with the frame .....The action of fitting mounts 65mm higher than originally and swing the shocks out to meet them , has lowered the car 50mm ..which is good news ..

http://preview.ibb.co/fPBN06/IMG_20171125_161831.jpg

I also managed to get the handbrake fitted ..Stock Scimitar handbrake and entire mechanism has been fitted to the passenger side of the centre tunnel using a 20x20 box frame to hold the piece that retains the two outer cables and some homemade brackets have been fitted to hold the lever ...front one has a tubular leg to brace it , rear one has a strengthening web to the rear of it , so as not to foul the mech. when being operated ...

http://preview.ibb.co/fZdXYR/IMG_20171125_162310.jpg

Well done LL!

Seems very OTT making new top mounts to lower it?

I'm doing what was asked of me ..if its safe and stuff , I'm happy to roll with what they want ...Eric wanted stock rear shocks , don't know why ..I'm not allowed , technically, to weld anything major to the chassis and I think new suspension mounts might be considered a modification .....an obvious one to spot ...so I did it this way ...

Front is a lot more straightforward ..

I don't claim my way is the only way ...I have a certain way I build , a style if you like , based very much on traditional Special building and Hot Rod construction .....its just how I was taught by a guy who had been doing similar for years before me and its not a fixed in stone method ...I love seeing how other people tackle these similar cars too ...thats what is so cool about them ..

Just seems a lot of work when springs are cheaply available in just about any size even if you don’t want adjustable seats?

The front suspension has been fitted with some adjustable coilovers to get the height down ...The car has been lowered approx. 50mm front and rear now

I also made a start on the rear arch modifications , I was hoping to finish them today but the temperature suddenly dropped mid afternoon and it was only just starting to cure as I left around 6 ..so I didn't want to disturb it until tomorrow.

First job was to cut a radius around the wheel to create the roughed out round arch.....then I sliced the arch along the flash line on the top across the rear valance back to the arch and down its front edge between arch and door shut ...this allowed me to pull the wing out 35mm. That's the most I can get away with without compromising the shape ...luckily , its enough !

http://preview.ibb.co/iefv9b/IMG_20171129_104932.jpg
http://preview.ibb.co/iujfQG/IMG_20171129_104943.jpg

After pinning the pieces back together and checking the measurements again ...I bent a strip of aluminium about 4'' wide around the arch shape and blocked it away from the tyre using 25mm baton blocks to create a uniform shape around the tyre. When I was happy with the spacing , I parcel taped the aluminium in place with several layers and then taped over the wing splits as well ...

http://preview.ibb.co/cCKx5G/IMG_20171129_104955.jpg

Car was put on stands and wheels removed ....

I than added red gel , paste and a couple of layers of matt ...I had to fibreglass upside down and blind as part of this process which is always a right ball ache to do ..but if there is any gaps left when the tape comes off , I can deal with them next time the body comes off as I am going to glass extra layers inside at that point as well..but hopefully its tagged and joined enough to hold it all together...

tomorrow the tape and splints will come off and I can see how successful todays exploits have been ...

The bonnet came back yesterday with the stretch done ...it fits very nicely (Thank you Chris ) and I started extending the lower wing sections today whilst the matt and resin was out too ...so hopefully , I can roll her out and take a few pics to see how she looks ...

Sticky tape and string
 

That last photo looks like the auto equivalent of a surgical truss.:icon_wink:

Gary - Looks like a very neat little 'cut and shut' to me. :cool:

I also saw your original Formosa made the front cover of one of the Kit Car magazines.
( I was only passing by and didn't get a good look at it. )

Cheers, Paul. :)

Yes a little corner pic to tie in with the news article inside . I was very pleased with that , next month is a full feature on the car , we were promised 5 pages and the cover , so hopefully that's what we got !

Rolled the car outside today after removing the 'truss' and after adding a bit of hairy filler , I gave her a quick sand .....it still needs some work , the rear arches are pretty decent but the front wing extensions haven't been shaped up yet ...need to add the top edge and roll the cill properly ...but its enough to see how the cars silhouette looks ...

http://preview.ibb.co/jhTnqG/IMG_20171130_154835.jpg
upload photo to internet

The widened / rounded rear arches and stretched front give the car a different look ....I like it ...I was worried the stretch might be a stretch too far , but it looks great , IMHO ...

http://preview.ibb.co/gwphPb/IMG_20171130_154848.jpg
upload photo to internet

looks good to me! Great work.

Those proportions do shout, "Paint me silver....and add some red numbers."

Looking good, must agree with Oxford about the colour scheme. DaveCymru's triple bonnet side vents would look very nice IMHO.
Round rear arches look much nicer.
The Scimitar is such a good donor.

Now it really looks like it is built for speed.

I did wonder how you were going to stretch the contoured section along the side of the body shell.

Now I realised that that section has been left completely untouched.

Is the grey strip where the bonnet was cut/joined/extended?

I agree , it has the proportions to carry that colour scheme ..... someone needs to do one !!


It is an excellent donor , really good front and rear axles and suspension that open up larger engine options etc...I just wish there were a few more about as it is easier to obtain Triumph donors and that's what kept me Triumph based ...


Yes it was decided that the panel would cope with being stretched in front of the vent ....that area is going to be opened up with some vent detail ...Grahams had the 250 SWB styled triple slots on the front edge which was quite subtle ...this will have something a bit more obvious ..

The grey is the grey gel repairs yes ...Christophe from Tribute did it for me ...he took the path that made joining less of a faff ..and he has done a really nice job ...across the wing , two lines parallel to each other along the bulge and then across the bulge on its flattest area .....so the rear slid backwards sliding along the bulge ...its made a really easy and strong repair ...cutting non-straight lines is always good for strength when re-joining two panels ...

When the car is in primer , I might ask him to mould the lower front wings and maybe the rear arches ...to make a conversion a lot easier in the future ...I'm not looking at remoulding the whole thing or re-tooling at this early stage , but would consider creating a roller for a customer doing the mods to a standard kit for them on their own chassis ...

Gary
 

Gary

What can I say I have been lurking around this development. G46V8Mk1 lost log in details harder than a bank account to reset anyway back on!

Last post was declaring that we had gone far enough with the G46 and it was time to sell and then you come along with the formosa long nose. Could not bring ourselves to selling the G46 and I am so pleased we made that decision.

Just call me a customer from here on in. It must be satisfying for you it's must be everything you wanted the G46 to be, look forward to see this one complete and talking to you in the new year.


Peter

Looking good and the rear wheel arches really suit it. :icon_cool:

Looks really good and proportions are spot on K

Side mounted exhaust would look good, similar to Scotty's build.
It looks as if you have enough room to inset it as well.

re side exhaust the only thing i would add is you just cannot get the right exhaust tone. I had a copy of a Masserrati 300s exhaust on my 860 Monza looked ok but sounded like a spitfire, i have now opted for the straight through under floor 4 pipes like the Testarossa of the era. Like wise my Ram D type i would never fit side onto them too fluffy that has straight under floor the sound track is amazing.

I HAVE STARTED SORTING OUT AN EXHAUST ..There is nothing off the shelf for a 3.3 in a Scimitar with an alternative body ! ..so its lots of cutting , shutting , welding , grinding ...I have roughed out the whole system but need to do a bit of finishing on the welds on the manifold but its a bit tight and will be a lot easier to finish when the engine and gearbox are taken out ..A stock tube style manifold was supplied with the engine , it is a 6 into 2 system and was all angled backwards . so that it exited the engine bay in the 7 o'clock position on the drivers side ..I needed to exit in the 6 o'clock position , so the front 2 were left as is , kind of , the centre 2 moved straight down and the rear two reversed to face forward and down ...it was also shortened and has about a dozen welds to get it where I wanted it ... A 90 degree bend takes the front manifold back , its joined from above by the rear omanifold and a single pipe travels to the rear ...around about the rear diff . a homemade Y piece splits and joins the 2 cherry bombs that I joined together with strap iron and fitted bobbin exhaust mounts .

A subframe that bolts to the rear chassis supports the rear silencers , they hang below it on bobbins fitted front and rear ...when final fit of body is done the subframe will be part of the boot floor area too ...



no real pics to share of the system yet ,it was getting too dark but here's how the silencers were joined and where they ended up on the car ...apologies for darkened pics ...

http://preview.ibb.co/kFgKQG/IMG_20171204_134109.jpg

http://preview.ibb.co/kjcb5G/IMG_20171205_184155.jpg

HAD A GO AT THE HINGES TODAY ....I put the pedals in yesterday , using stock Triumph Herald pedals and a Spitfire accelerator pedal ... should be getting the new m/cylinders tomorrow but the bulkhead has been fitted up and reinforced to make sure that its nice and strong ... I fitted some seat belt mounts and did some welding on the frame etc.... but today was all about the hinges .

I have decided to do the hinges slightly differently on this one ...the hinges on Graham's car needed quite a bit of work to get right and I didn't want to go down that path again.

I joined the two hinges together using some steel rod and made a nice strong unit ...

http://preview.ibb.co/mR9Shw/IMG_20171207_154500.jpg

Then , using a scrap set of doors , I fitted the hinges to them , spacing them off the door using a spare set of hinge feet ...the hinges have been bolted right through the scrap doors as I will use them as the jigs to make the internal framework ... the proper doors will have hinge plates fitted with studs to locate the hinges ...I think ! ( could change !)

I then created the two pivot mounts in the A pillar / bulkhead area ...the hinges will have some 8mm steel spacers welded to them to act as pivots and be fitted using 8mm bolts ...My engineer mate is making the pivots for me , then I can weld them on but the trial run using washers , nuts etc worked very well ... I slotted the doorshuts to allow the doors to open to over 90 degrees from the shut but not enough to fold back and hit the bulkhead ...

crappy dark pics again , I'm afraid and wrong fixings , but it gives you an idea of the setup as it will finally be ....

http://preview.ibb.co/epqBQG/IMG_20171207_142254.jpg

http://preview.ibb.co/jatgQG/IMG_20171207_142337.jpg

I will start the door frames next using some tubing and steel rod ...

Good job on the stretching and splicing, Gary. It gives the car a whole new character. A 'multi-donor' approach is a good one, as it increases choice for the customer and (dons his flame retardant suit...) anything that allows fewer Vitesses to be broken is a good thing! Runs for cover...!

Very well done!

Managed to get 4 hours in on the doors today ...I have decided to slim the framework down a bit on this one ...the doors are having their return edges cut right back too ...the internal frame and inner body is all being finished in black , so frames that can be bonded on , instead of bolt on fixing when they were highlighted in silver , is possible this time .

The skinnier outer skin should look more like an aluminium body too ...at a glance !

So a couple of hours gave me this ....

http://preview.ibb.co/nhiAnw/IMG_20171209_144144.jpg

Using my scrap doors as patterns I was able to make the frames nice and snug and they are part welded but need finishing and tidying up , but I wanted to make sure they worked before I got carried away ...I need to add a latch mounting plate as well ...

http://preview.ibb.co/cbQ9Eb/IMG_20171209_144443.jpg

http://preview.ibb.co/hm4KEb/IMG_20171209_144255.jpg

The bolts holding them on will be replaced with welded on captive nuts and the hinges will affix to these using 8mm socket buttons...so doors can be removed with or without hinges attached ...( Grahams are welded on 0 so only come off at pivot point )

Nice work there!

Doors frames nearly finished , captive nuts welded on , plates for the slam latches fitted too ......then it was frames off , body off and engine and gearbox out ...I have finish welded the space frame augmentation , fully welded and box braced the gearstick mount , refitted the door frames , put an extra brace rod on the hinges and started cleaning the framework up ready to prime / paint etc.

should get some paint on tomorrow ...

then I can fit some missing bits on the engine , refit it into the car ....start to do gearshifter etc...and hopefully have the body back on by the end of the week and start to actually fit the car up and move forward ...

BODY WON'T BE BACK ON THIS WEEK NOW ....I'll take the opportunity to finish the floors etc whilst the body is off ...

frame and chassis has been primed ....

http://preview.ibb.co/mYiDfR/IMG_20171213_125134.jpg
free image hosting

and top coat of satin black on too ...( sorry about dark pic )

http://preview.ibb.co/e7X60R/IMG_20171214_164129.jpg
free image hosting

Hopefully get the engine / box back in tomorrow morning ....