At last I've found some time to get on with my Speedster. Part of the reason for the delay was that I've just been so busy doing other things since I retired, like holidays abroad, visiting English Heritage and National Trust historic buildings and digging up the past in the fields near my home.
The other reason for the delayed progress is that I wasn't happy with the way my subframe and floorpan efforts were coming together. It looked fine, but I had niggling doubts that it was starting to get cumbersome, overcomplicated and might just not be up to the important job of locating the rear suspension.
As I've been following progress on the Old No.7 A6 GCS Coupe with interest, I had a bit of a lightbulb moment the other day as the answer has been sitting on my driveway under a tarpaulin for about the last four years.
I have an early Triumph Spitfire body that I had intended to turn into a GT-Sixfire by putting it onto a GT-6 chassis that I just happen to have in my shed, but tbh I'd rather build another special once I've finished my Speedster (probably an A6 GCS...) so I decided to sell both the GT-6 chassis and the Spitfire body.
Someone bought the body and then bottled it the night before they were due to collect it, but that's when the penny dropped and I realised that I should really use the Spitfire body as a subframe in the way that Dan at Tribute/Old No.7 do with their Triumph based cars.
I don't know why it took me so long to think of it, but I have now so I have gone at it today to see whether it will work with my 356 body.
First job was to remove the (fibreglass) rear wings -
This revealed a bit of a hidden horror in that a previous owner, after welding in new floors and sills, filled the sills with builders' expanding foam, which blocked the drainage holes and trapped water against the new metal
Thankfully, the sills survived the experience and the only rusted part is the non-structural bottom edge of the wheel arch liner, which I'm going to cut out anyway.
First trial of the body looked promising. This isn't a great picture, I'm afraid, but the back end grounded out about four inches too high as the Spitfire's inner rear wings were fouling the body while the Spit's rear valance made it difficult to lift the body on and off.
So, out with the angle grinder and chop, chop chop...
I eventually had to cut away the inner rear wings completely and part of the rear deck, while I also cut away the 'rear seat' area on the Speedster body so I could see what was going on inside. I'll reinstate that once it's all fitting together.
So, at close of play today, the body sits on top of the Spitfire frame perfectly, and the door apertures match exactly, which is more by luck than judgement!
Before packing up for the day I trial fitted the dash, and all that needs is for a bit of the Spitfire's dash panel to be cut back and that will fit perfectly too! I suppose the fact that there's only 8mm difference in the wheelbase between the Spitfire and the Porsche 356 helps
