Close Enough:
Took another deep breath this morning and removed the strap holding the rear passenger corner down.
Thankfully even the small amount of panelling work I have done is still strong enough to hold everything in place.
However, the real scary moment was still to come as I decided to take the car off the blocks and see what it looked like.
But first I had to wash down the mess I'd made of the house wall.
One of the biggest benefits of bonding the body shell on is that I no longer need to leave enough space for it along the side of the
Moon Rover.
As previously, this was all the space I had to work in along the driver's side.
Now that I've "pulled in" the sides of the body shell, you can really see how the bottom edges of the bonnet flare out.
Thankfully, nothing a Tek screw can't fix in the short term.
Obviously, in the long term, this section is being cut out and re-attached to the body shell.
Then I jacked the car up, removed the blocks of wood and then slowly lowered it back to the ground.
As I started to slowly push it forwards, I though the steering was very heavy.
Then it dawned on me that the steering lock was engaged.
So with the key in the ignition, I could steer it to the far side of my driveway to take some photos.
Normally, the front wall stops me getting any decent view of the driver's side.
So here are a few more.
Although it looks a bit more "slammed" at the back than I was expected, this is entirely my own fault.
As it recently dawned on me that I was meant to lift the driver's side at the back to keep things level.
( And NOT pull down the passenger side, which is what I actually did. )
Having said that, there is now the
slightest hint of an Austin Healey about it.
This is a photo
Mister Towed posted on
Mac's thread after seeing his two tone paint.
Which means, dare I say it, I might need to
raise the driver's side rear arch profile a tad.
The passenger side needs a bit of work too, mainly around the leading edge.
In the absence of a drone to play with, I had to stick my head out of a first floor window to take this photo.
Make no mistake, I love the way this car is finally shaping up.
But the main reason I wanted to push the car forward was to check the real alignment "on the road".
( Although the angle of my sloping drive still causes me visual problems. )
I quickly put the rear lighting in place, to see if it lined up.
And this is the final view, and as the title of this post suggests, it is close enough.
End of Part 1...