Friday - Part 2:
I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about how I will tackle the following:
- Bonnet rear edge re-profiling
- Front wheel arches re-shaping
- Joining part of bonnet to body shell
As the simple fact is these areas are all inter-connected and can't be done in isolation.
So my current thinking is to temporarily join the bonnet and body shell together.
Then "cut and shut" the areas that need fixing as a single, multi-stepped task.
So today I started to work on the practicalities of actually making this happen.
Front Wheel Arches:
Forget working outside, the biggest pain I face when build this car is my sloping driveway.
It is constantly playing tricks with my perception of what is "straight".
So in my head, the slope of the drive was setting the wheels at significantly different heights relative to the arches.
Passenger Side:
Driver's Side:
( Sorry the front wall stops me taking a matching photo. )
So how could I be sure where to measure the new arches from?
Thankfully I worked out a simple solution involving a bit of cardboard.
As the key "level" for me is the flat edges of the Spitfire bulkhead.
This is the line I want to use as a marker for the top edge of the body shell extension.
So my simple "system" allowed me to take the cardboard to the driver's side and mark that for comparison.
To my utter amazement, the bulkhead to tyre level is with in a mm (or so) on both sides, practically spot on.
The next question was what size of a gap do I need to leave around the wheel.
I quickly checked my Mondeo arches and they have a 3" gap.
I then made another cardboard template cut at a 3" gap, but with a 2" gap marked in red.
The widest gap in the photo above is 1.5" from the arch to the cardboard (or 2.5" to the red line).
I might actually split the difference and re-set the arches at 2.5" as the car is not at full "racing weight" yet.
Either way, any reduction in the current "gaping hole" has got to be a good thing.
In addition to adjusting the size of the arches, the front edge needs to be "tucked in" a bit.
As the "return" is not at 90 degrees at the front of the arch, compared to the rear.
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Epilogue:
It was only after I had packed everything away that I remembered there was another check I should have made.
I should have put the gap template over the bulkhead "level" template to see where they meet.
As this would give me an ideal height for the arch split / join.
This is
Swifty's extension.
Actually, while looking for that photo, I also found his rear arch re-shaping.
Whilst I would rather have a gap that is too big, rather than too small.
As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you think a suitable gap would be.
Cheers, Paul.
