Thinking Time:
Whilst I didn't even get a chance to peak under the covers at the car today, I have been thinking...
As I am reaching a point where some decisions now will have a knock on impact on others later.
When I first built the scuttle, I was forced to set the new bonnet lip at a slight angle.
This due to the fact the angles of the bonnet lip, and therefore the body shell were different on both sides.
Since then,
Mac has solved that particular symmetry issue by "adding" the bottom section of the bonnet to the body shell.
Clearly if I copy this idea then I could re-set the bonnet lip to a straight edge that runs parallel to the scuttle edge on the cockpit side.
However, there is a slight technical problem when I compare my build to
Mac's due to our different bulkheads.
This is what the inside of his body shell extension looks like.
Whereas this recent photo gives you some idea how far my body shell extends beyond the Spitfire bulkhead underneath it.
It must be possible to get around this, but it certainly will not be straight forward.
The reason I am thinking about this now is that I want to make more progress with filler on the scuttle.
Last time I deliberately kept the filler away from the passenger bonnet lip.
( And the fresh fibreglass on the new passenger corner windbreak lip. )
At this point I think I will carry on with the filler work across the whole of the scuttle and rework the lip if required at a later date.
As the other key question I have relates to how the bonnet itself is going to hinge / operate, so these two areas are related.
Obviously I am hoping either
Mac or
Swifty will come up with a working solution that I can then steal.
Taking of
Swifty, his build is motoring along and I finally got my head around the way he built his boot lid rain channel.
Unfortunately, I've haven't worked out a way of copying & pasting an attachment yet, so I can't put his photos on this thread.
I also plan to copy
Swifty's use of plastic conduit to form a round edge along the scuttle edge above the dash.
Although that brings me to the next decision which is how far do I continue that rounded edge.
The rear cockpit edge is almost complete and that is a "traditional" vertical lip.
Because I have widened the cockpit sides, I was toying with fibre glassing the panels directly to the side panels and then smoothing the body shell edge with filler.
Although I doubt this would look as neat as
Mac's handy work.
So if I use a lip like
Swifty then I would need to "tuck" the side panels underneath.
For now I plan to build the lip across the main section of the scuttle and leave the corners alone.
So despite putting some thought into this I still haven't committed to anything.
At least I feel like I am still making steady progress in the right direction (
touch wood).
Cheers, Paul.
PS
By complete chance I spotted the red, LHD, Ribble Navigator on Ebay
Here.