Royale Sabre - Take two!

[Patrick]

Very nice

[peterux]

Thanks, Mick, Kon, Dpaz and Patrick for you words of encouragement

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A quick update of progress of trimming out the interior of the last couple of weeks.
So the next step was to cover the rear panel that sits behind the seats. (For anyone not familiar with the sabre, the hood drops down behind this panel when in the fold down position.)
Having stripped of all the old trimming, I started by covering the top rail of the back panel with some navy vinyl which was glued on the front and stapled on the back. The back was also covered in sound absorbing foam.

Rear Panel by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

I then glued a piece of carpet to the lower section. (Photographed in bright sunshine)

Rear panel by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

Before fitting the rear section of carpet I fitted the drivers side carpeting.

Carpet by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

After a lot of faffing about getting the seat belt mounting holes aligned with the chassis I could finally fit the rear panels in place. Before the final fitting I covered the rear body tub bulkhead in sound absorbing foam.

Rear panels by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

These MG Roadster door seal finishers make a nice addition. They are not a perfect fit but close enough.

Door seal finishers by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

Door seal finishers by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

A couple more panels on the drivers side to make/trim/fit and then I can move on to fitting the seat belts and the drivers door.
Due to the width of my garage I need to move my car across the garage by about 12 inches.

Next update in about 2 weeks....
..........peter

[peterux]

So as mentioned above I had to move the car across the garage by about 12" to give me space to fit the drivers door and I decided to retrieve the boot lid from the loft above while the car was out.. It was a nice sunny day so a good excuse to take another picture. It looks almost finished but of course at this stage it still had no driver's door or boot lid.

Moving by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

The first job before fitting the driver's door was to add some protection to the wall of my garage so I don't damage the door when I open it. I used a cheap yoga mat off ebay.

Door protection by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

I then fitted the driver's door which looks exactly like the passenger door so no photo's. But I didn't photo the door stay before so.....
The door stay on the Sabre is a simple device that passes through a hole in the hinge plate to stop the door opening too far. The original plating had rusted on mine so I had them chrome plated.

Door stay by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

Here you can see the door stay being fitted. A 6mm nut and bolt hold it to the angle brackets on the door.

Door stay by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

I then moved on to fitting the boot lid. I prepared the boot lid by first cleaning off some old masking tape and then giving it a good polish. I trial fitted the hinges to make sure everything lined up. The boot lid is very well engineered, being a double skinned GRP structure with metal plates bonded inside to take the bolts of the hinges and boot stay.

Boot lid preparation by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

The Sabre boot lid catch is taken from a VW beetle engine cover and I picked up a new catch at the Donnington kitcar show many years ago. The original builder made a bit of a pigs ear out of cutting the hole but you don't notice it once the boot lid is fitted.

Boot lid catch by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

I also fitted the chrome strip. (sorry about the bad photo)

Boot lid preparation by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

My son popped in on Saturday so I roped him in to help me fit the boot lid. I spent over an hour lining it up as the hinges are adjustable. Boot seal is not fitted yet nor the catch striker pin. I expect to have do some more adjustment once the seal is fitted.

Boot lid fitted by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

So that is the last major part of the bodywork fitted

Lots of minor jobs to do but nearly there......

....peter

[Dpaz]

Looking really beautiful, very envious!

[peterux]

Originally Posted by Dpaz

Looking really beautiful, very envious!

Thanks, Dpaz, it's a great looking car and hats off to John Barlow for his automotive design skills.

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I have aborted an attempt to install some seatbelts from a company called 'Universal Seatbelts' in Billericay, Essex. After many hours of trying to figure out how to fit them I came to the conclusion that they had been assembled incorrectly with the buckle and lower mounting point stitched in the wrong way round. I managed to reverse the buckle by folding the belt over and pulling it through the buckle but the lower mounting point is cranked so it's not possible to reverse the mounting. They are correctly 'e' marked but I suspect they are Chinese copies from a low quality factory. Having realised they were obviously assembled incorrectly I completely lost faith in them in case the internal mechanism might be wrong.
I then bought a set of Securon belts and they fitted without any issue at all. They have a definite feel of quality in the smoothness of the belt material and are highly recommended.
But first I had to make some spacers to clear the bodywork and rear quarter trim panels.
Seatbelts by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

I used a 25mm diameter steel bar which I cut to length before drilling the holes.

I had to purchase some longer 7/16" UNF bolts so here's a picture of the bolt head for the IVA inspector.

Seatbelts by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

This is how my top mounting looks now. The thick rubber strip is for IVA compliance.

Seatbelts by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

And, I found this bolt head cover in my box of bits left over from my Marlin Sportster build.

Seatbelts by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

I've now finished the carpeting inside the car and trimmed the drivers door card. These strange looking pieces are the 'A' pillar covers, shown here before I covered them in cream vinyl.

'A' Pillar trims by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

The chrome door pulls have hinges that do not meet the IVA 2.5mm radius rule so I made these temporary door pulls. Made from the strap from a charity shop handbag.

IVA door pulls by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

With the IVA test now in sight, I invested in a pukka tool to measure the 2.5mm radius rule for just a few pounds off ebay.

IVA radius check tool by Sabrebuilder, on Flickr

I shall now be taking a short pause from car building for a couple of weeks to do some essential diy and then I'll be back in the garage working my way through my final list of tasks before applying for my IVA test.

More updates to follow in a few weeks................

...........peter

[peterux]

Just when I thought I was close to applying for my IVA I had a thought that I should check if the IVA manual had been up issued. So I checked on the government website and sure enough a new version was issued on the 20 March 2023!

So I downloaded a copy and checked the Release Notes for Version 15.0.
There are 15 changes identified and most of them are very minor. So I went through each change and identified the impact on my Royale Sabre.
There are 12 changes that have no impact or are not applicable to my vehicle.
2 changes (Section 12 and section 16) now have an exemption from the 2.5mm radius rule for movable windows. They now only have to be 'blunted' which is good news as I won't have to disable the electric windows at my test.
(Mike on this forum, had this as a failure point at his IVA on his Marlin Cabrio) It's nice to see some common sense being applied.
The only other change is to the tolerance of the Speedometer. Previously, Speedo's were allowed to over-read the true speed by up to10% plus 6.25mph.
The new requirement is a tolerance of up to10% plus 2.5mph. Providing my ETB electronic speed is working and set correctly, then this shouldn't be a problem.
As I said, this analysis is for the Royale Sabre so if you are building something else you should check the changes as they may affect your particular kit car.

No build updates at present due to holidays, etc.


......peter

[JG]

Sabre unfinished project just listed on ebay

Not sure if its a good deal or not, seems to come with a lot of bits but you'd have to pretty much start from scratch I would have thought.