Scottie & Froggyman - Thanks for the vote of confidence chaps.
I'll certainly do my best.
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Well, it looks like summer is finally over.
As it is too wet to work on the car today, I have bit of spare thinking time...
Moon Rover:
Back in the Spring, I was really hoping to have reached the working 'Moon Rover' stage by now.
But in the end, I decided that the major body shell "cut & shut" work should take priority.
However, I have made significant progress towards this target over the last six months.
- The Spitfire bulkhead repair work was finally finished.
- I made a support bracket for my twin exhaust pipes.
- Repair work on the Spitfire rear wheel arches was completed.
( Which included extending the access panel over the lowering block. )
- The rear frame work was modified to fit over the Spitfire rear arches.
- The rear frame work was also modified so it could be bolted to the Spitfire bulkhead.
- The fuel & brake hard lines were re-routed and fixed to the chassis.
- The chassis had four extra holes added to allow the framework to be bolted into place.
- The two lowered floor pans have been welded to the rear frame work.
- The rear framework has been welded to the Spitfire rear arches.
- The original bumper "brackets" were removed and the front chassis cross member was repaired.
- A "hand support" panel was added to the rear frame between the two humps.
So on that positive note, I'll worry about all the work left to do another day.
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Sammio Spyder vs. Sammio Cordite:
Micky1Mo intends to re-launch the Sammio Spyder as a single body shell in Herald/LWB & Spitfire/SWB form.
This has sparked some debate in other parts of the forum about the merits of the original Sammio offerings.
Just so there is no mis-understanding, I want to make it clear here that I loved the original Sammio Spyder.
I also agree with Mr T, DaveCymru & others who say that the Spyder could be built into a lovely car with a bit of effort.
So I don't want any of my frustrations with the Cordite model to "rub off" on the Spyder in any way.
The truth is that if I had actually ordered a Spyder, I would be on the road by now and able to join the "Norfolk convoy".
I decided to mention this now, after I saw
Swifty post this photo on his build thread last night...
Attempting to mount my own pedals lead me to open a whole can of worms concerning the Cordite design.
( Having gone back to check my old photos, this was actually 2 years ago, late Sept. / early Oct. 2012. )
The good news is that my
Frankenstein build approach has made all of these problems go away.
In addition, it has actually worked out miles better than I could ever have hoped.
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Bonnet Hinge Arrangement:
Obviously I have also been following
Mac's build thread with great interest to see how his bonnet hinge would work.
Here it is opening part of the way (and more about that later).
In order to achieve this,
Mac has installed his hinge brackets at the base of the bonnet nose opening.
Which means I will have a bit of a problem copying him, as my "factory" hinge bracket are in the
middle of the nose opening.
My fear is any attempt to remove the metal "hoop" bonded into the nose will end up destroying the bonnet itself.
So I need to look into the options for adding extra brackets to the bottom of the hoop, or some other arrangement.
It also seems that the Spitfire's front chassis cross member has become the equivalent of the Herald's "rear out riggers" on a Spyder build.
I pulled a couple of photos from the red Ribble Navigator's ebay advert.
I must say I do like the front indicator set up on this car, although I will still use my classic Mini indicators.
But it is the photo with the bonnet up that I have been studying the most.
You can see that the ends of the chassis appear to have "fallen off" which helps the bonnet tilt fully.
It also looks like the body shell area below the nose opening has also been trimmed to improve clearance.
So I will wait until I have my new V5C before I look very closely at how my bonnet hinge will work.
Although a final decision on the hinge arrangement will allow other areas to be finalised too:
- Does the radiator need to be lowered, or will the bonnet clear it as it currently sits?
- Should I cut off the lower rear sections of the bonnet and use them to extend the sides of the body shell?
- Will I need to reduce the size of the front wheel arches to match my wheels?
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So as my 3rd winter of building outside approaches I feel I am in a pretty good position.
Obviously there is a ton of work ahead of me, but lots of good progress has been made in a number of areas.
So until I have some actual building work to report, take care, Paul.
