Another Cordite Is Born ...

[Paul L]

Frankenstein Rides Again:

Warmed up the jigsaw by extending the circle around the sides of the wheel arch template.



Mixed up a small batch of bonding paste and "topped up" some of the inside edges of the boot floor to body shell panels.



Not easy to see, but I also put some extra paste on the panel between the Spitfire wheel arch and the body shell.



Zip tied the template to the wheel, but the ties were not strong enough to hold it in position.

So I trimmed up a couple of plywood off cuts to prop it up in the correct place like so.



Then it was time to channel Young Frankenstein...



As I chopped up the wheel arch lip and then stitched it back together, one section at a time, starting with the right hand side.





Before switching to the left hand side.





And then finally meeting in the middle.



To give this overall look.



Then I could remove the template and see what it all looked like...

But first, here is what I started with "Before":



And this is what I have "After":



Is it perfect? - No.

Is it miles better than it was originally? - Yes.

Then I worked my way around the arch, loosening the screws & clamping parcel tape covered card over the gaps.



Next I jacked the car up and removed the wheel.



Unfortunately, after the first round of adding fibreglass matting across the inside it still looked the same.
( As I just couldn't get any decent photos inside the wheel arch. )



Still, at least I have started the healing process.

Next time I will remove the screws and add more matting to the inside edge.

Cheers, Paul.

[micky1mo]

Your right, miles better than the original, well done

[Psycho pops]

Faster , neater and cleaner than my chosen method, unfortunately lack of work forces further halt to progress this end, typical I have all the time in the world but no funds, keep at it officially overtaken me now
Pops

[Paul L]

Micky1Mo - Thanks.

Pops - Cheers, although I'm not convinced this approach was "Faster, neater or cleaner."

Good luck on the work front.

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Christmas Countdown:
Hard to believe that this day next week will actually be Christmas Day.

So, unsurprisingly, available car time is reducing, as my Christmas chores are increasing.

Thankfully the weather is on my side at the moment, so progress continues...

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Session 1:
First job of the day was to "calibrate" my disposable measuring containers.



Then it was time to remove the brackets from the wheel arch brackets.



I left the brackets in place at the bottom of the leading edge of the arch.



As I wanted to leave filling this big gap until after the other parts were in place.

So some more parcel tape covered cardboard was fitted to provide a former.



Then more parcel tape was added to the outside of the arch.



I then tidied up yesterday's fibreglass work on the inside, which was a very messy job.

I used a "work light" today, which makes it slightly easier to see what I'm doing and take some photos.

This shows what little room I have to work in, between the Spitfire wheel arch and the body shell.



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Session 2:
Added the second round of fibreglass matting on the inside covering all the screw holes, like so.



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Session 3:
Thankfully, by the time I could do some more work, the earlier fibreglass session along the inside had set sufficiently.

So I removes all the tape from the outside, cleaned up the joins with my grinder & counter sunk the screw holes.
( Which was a biblically messy job. )



Then I built up several layers of fibreglass matting in small sections along all the joins.



I still need to add a bit more matting (both inside & out), but at least some strength has now been restored to the arch.

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That was all for today, hopefully I can continue to tidy this mess up over the weekend.
( And finish off the bottom corner of the leading edge of the arch opening. )

So until next time, take care, Paul.

PS
I'm just heading back outside now to hose down my neighbours garden as it is covered dust from my grinder.

[jones]

Paul, this is looking great and already light years away from the what you started with - a great improvement!

[Roadster]

Originally Posted by jones

Paul, this is looking great and already light years away from the what you started with - a great improvement!

+1 from me

Once upon a time this would have scared you Paul but now you cut it out and rebuilt it in a day. Im guessing both arches completed before 2016.
Great job

[Paul L]

Jones & Roadster - Thanks chaps.

There was indeed a time when just the thought of cutting up my kit would have filled me with fear.

This is just one of the reasons why I enjoy this forum so much, as seeing other builds really inspires confidence.
( Especially the butchery stage that Tribute go through during their kit development. )

Also, these days, I am happy accept there is a limit to what I can achieve given my experience and "facilities".

That is not to say I don't try to do the best job I can, but rather that I can live with the fact the car will not be perfect.

Since the body shell has been bonded on, the number of positive comments I get from people 'passing by' has shot up.

All they can see is a car that looks like it really belongs on a 1950s race track, so that is a major achievement in itself.

So I have tried to approach re-shaping the wheel arches in a pragmatic way, knowing any job I do will be an improvement.

Without getting ideas above my station, I've also been looking at some photos of the Jaguar C Type.



In the photo above, there is quite a bit of clearance around the tyre in the rear arches and they still look good/period.

However, dare I say it, that the front arches on a £2.9m car are not centralised around the front wheel.

But the radius of the front arch is still consistent, which was not the case in my "Before" photo.

The other C Type photo that inspires me is this one, with the rear arch under load.



As my biggest worries about doing this work is the car is still not at its final "racing weight" & my sloping driveway.

So at this stage, I really don't know what the final gap between the tyres & the rear arches will be.

But I do know that the re-shaped arches will be round (ish) and centralised and that will certainly be good enough for me.

As for targets, I hope to have reached the filler stage on the passenger side before Christmas (weather & chores permitting).

Then I should be at least able to make a start on the driver's side before New Year's Eve.

Anyway, I have a busy weekend ahead, so let's see what car work I can squeeze in.

Cheers, Paul.

[Paul L]

Saturday:
This turned into one of those days where my available car time simply evaporated right in front of my eyes.

It had started well enough, as I was able to remove the last brackets from the leading edge of the wheel arch first thing.



Note:
I knew the alignment of this section would look pretty ugly at this stage, but it should be fine by the time I'm finished.

As it was too early to "fire up the grinder" to really clean up the mess, I just gave the "wound" on the sunny side a basic sanding down.



This was enough to allow me to add a final layer of fibreglass matting along the gap.



So far, so good.

As planned, I then got on with other stuff, when at my next opportunity to do some work, the fibreglass was still "tacky".

So rather than start adding filler, I had to leave everything as it was and head off on my next chore…

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#Dinosaur:
I had booked an appointment in the Apple store to get my old Mac's operating system and browser updated.
( Mainly because I was having problems uploading/storing photos for this build thread. )

What was supposed to be a "simple" wipe & reboot turned into an almost 3 hour technical problem filled nightmare.

More on this later…

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Noisy Toys:
By the time I got home, it was already getting dark, so there was a limit to what I could start/do.

So I decided to fully prepare the arch for the next stage, as it was still early enough to make some noise.

Using a combination of my angle grinder, dremmel lookalike & drill I tidied things up as best I could.
( Sorry the photo isn't great. )



Although I didn't take a photo, I used the plywood template to check how round the arch was as I was going along.
( This really helped me work out which "high spots" to grind down. )

The good news is that the variation from "round" is now just a few mm here and there, compared to the previous "spread" measured in inches.

Adding a layer of filler should reduced these difference still further and that will certainly be close enough for me.

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#Dinosaur - Part 2:
My build thread is pulled together using some relatively simple technology:
- Plug my camera into to the Mac so I can upload the photos I've taken.
- Edit/crop/delete/etc. these original photos until I am left with the ones I want to use.
- Upload these photos "on line" so that I can include them in my update.
- Paste the [img] links to these photos into my "words".
- Copy and paste the words into the Forum.

After a frustrating day NOT working on the car, I spend even longer trying to get my "upgraded" technology to work properly.

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End of Part 1...

[Paul L]

Sunday:
Thankfully, I finally managed to get all my technology working properly first this morning, so the build thread continues.

One reason I was so frustrated with Saturday was we were heading off to see my mum & sister today.

Still, I managed to get outside nice and early and gave myself just enough room to work in.



I actually had a layer of fibreglass filler covering the joins in the arch by 9am.



Luckily I had enough filler, as I'd forgotten to order another tin after the last time I used it.
( New tub now ordered. )



I didn't have enough time to start sanding the filler before we left, so I just covered the ares with my dust sheet.



This avoids any chance of the covers sticking when I packed up and headed out.

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No sooner had I walked back into the house from a lovely lunch out when the heavens opened.

By the time it was dry enough for me to get outside to start sanding the sun had already set.

And by the time I'd started clearing up for the night, this was what my workshop looked like.



So apologies for yet another round of poor photos...

This is the overall arch, which still needs a skim of normal body filler.



This is the trailing edge, which I think has worked out quite well.



I've still got to start repairing the "wounds" on the leading edge and that will then need a bit of shaping.



I will have to come back and hose down my garage wall tomorrow.



Until next time, take care, Paul.

PS
For the first time I have actually exceeded the 10,000 character post limit.
(Which I didn't even know there was.)

The reason for this?

The "upgraded" [img] code for each photo is now 100s of characters long FFS!

[slickshod]

H Paul ,I have been following your build and your progress and for a novice ! you are doing a pretty good job ! keep up the good work ,Pete.

[swifty]

Looking good Paul your glassing skills are going from strength to strength. It was a wise decision to alter the arches and in the long run will make the car look more balanced.

[jones]

Paul, Saturday looked good - unfortunately not sure why but can't see your Sunday pics.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by jones

Paul, Saturday looked good - unfortunately not sure why but can't see your Sunday pics.

That's odd, I can see them on my Mac, but not my daughter's laptop?

So I will have a play and see if I can get them back.

Did I mention I've been having a few IT problems?

[Paul L]

Jones - I've just recopied all the photo links and can now see them on both my Mac and a Windows laptop.

So I hope you (and everyone else) can see them too, but let me know if there is still a problem.

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Slickshod - Welcome to my build thread Pete & thanks for the kind words.

I know it has taken me a long time to reach this stage, but the last of the major alterations are now within sight.

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Swifty - Cheers and I guess I've now have a lot of practise working with fibreglass.

Although, deep down, I am still amazed how well everything joins back together to form a new single piece.

[Paul L]

Just Another Manic Monday…
Once again I was outside first thing in the morning in order to squeeze some car work in around other chores.

I started by adding fibreglass matting to both the inside & outside of the bottom corner of the arch.





Then I added a layer of normal body filler over the work I did yesterday.



While that was setting, I could make a start on emptying the porch of car stuff.
( As some of my wife's family are coming round for dinner tonight. )

Before:





After:



As I still needed to use my sanding blocks when the filler had set hard enough.



As usual, the finish is just to an MOT'able standard for now and the real body work preparation can wait.
( Although I honestly can't imagine how I will ever get a continuously smooth, rather than undulating finish. )

Even though I still have more work to do on the leading edge corner, I just couldn't resist getting some etch primer on.





There was just time to clean up my driveway and a large area of next door too).





As soon as I had finished outside, it actually started to rain, so today's timings worked out well.

I just needed to clean up the porch and that was it for today, as I have more stuff to do now before our guests arrive later.

So until next time, take care, Paul.

[Paul L]

Blustery Tuesday - Part 1:
It is never a good sign when the howling wind and lashing rain outside wakes you up in the morning.

So I had to wait for a break in the weather before I could trim the bottom corner of the arch.

Before:



After:



At which point it started raining again, so I had to down tools for a bit.

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Next I added some fibreglass filler to both cover the join and improve the overall shape.





There was then another break while I was waiting for that to set sufficiently.

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When I roughy sanded it all down.





I will leave this fully set overnight before I put the next layer of normal body filler on.

Then I put the wheel back, but do not be alarmed, the car is still on blocks at this stage.



Note:
I will need to remove the wheel again when I come to "seal off" the remaining gaps between the body & Moon Rover.

This allowed me to jack up the car, remove the blocks, lower the car back to the ground and push it across the drive.



The good news is the car feels really solid when I push against the body work.

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WARNING - Don't try this at home!

Whilst the photo above looks great, I almost suffered a complete disaster just minutes earlier.

Regular readers will know this is not a lightweight build by any means and my driveway has a slope on it.

Well I seemed to complete forget this, as I turned the steering wheel way over to the left and pushed hard.

I was quickly reminded of these facts as the laws of physics and gravity created a "runaway" car heading straight for my porch wall!!

I managed to grab the car and used all the strength I could muster (& then some) to bring the car to a halt with an inch, or so, to spare.

Then, after a lot of huffing and puffing, I managed to drag the car away from the wall & get it back in a straight line.

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End of Part 1…

[Paul L]

Blustery Tuesday - Part 2:
With that little drama over, I could sit inside the porch in order to take a better photo of the wheel arch.
( The front wall of the house prevented me getting any further back before. )

Note:
Obviously, there is still a little bit of work to do before the arch is completely finished.

However, I am still very happy with the way this has actually turned out.

Before:



During:



After:



At this point, I roped my wife in to take the following photo of my very basic suspension travel test.



Not very scientific I know, but hopefully the tyre should not foul the bodywork when it is on the road.

Next I had another look at the work required for the rear arch on the driver's side.





And while I was at it, I quickly checked the front arch on this side too.



Then it was time for yet another clean up of my drive.





At which point the sky was getting darker again.



So I just pushed the car back into position.



Thankfully I had all the covers back on before the next round of rain arrived.

So until next time, take care, Paul.

[Mister Towed]

Paul, I take it you set your rear wheel 'toe in' to where you want it before altering your wheel arches? Only that can make quite a difference to where the wheel sits within the arch...

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Mister Towed

Paul, I take it you set your rear wheel 'toe in' to where you want it before altering your wheel arches? Only that can make quite a difference to where the wheel sits within the arch...

Unfortunately, the short answer is "No I didn't".

I'd better not type the long answer, as it is basically the same three words above, but surrounded with every swear word I know.

Oh .

Paul.

[Psycho pops]

Lol, Paul stop swearing Towed is just showing off, I never touched mine.
a) because I never thought of it
b) because I don't know how to alter it,
c) because if I it was good enough for forty odd years how it was I'm not going on touch it now...
Maybe Towed can enlighten us more🏎🏎🏎🏎🏎