19-02-2018, 02:58 PM
(This post was last modified: 19-02-2018, 03:12 PM by cardiffrob.)
I've started a new thread to separate this from the thread Ian Williams has for his rebuild. Unlike Ian, I have little idea what I'm doing, and yet I work on the principle that if someone else can do something then I ought to have a go and see if I can achieve something too.
I started with a bare chassis and V5 that had lived in the loft of a shed in Pershore. It had last seen the light of day about 40 years before and was surrounded by spares from perhaps 5 broken cars. There was enough to build one car and the chassis was in reasonable condition.
I looked through Ebay, Youtube and Google for tips on how to build a body and bought numerous books on the subject. I elected to use a little ash, lots of Ali sheet and some forming tools to add a skin over a steel tube frame. the following pics hopefully will give some inspiration to anyone else trying to achieve the same result.
The engine seemed to be working with zero effort expended on fettling it. I stuffed it onto the chassis to start jigging up a body. A small steel frame gave me a starting point to form some structured pressed and beaten over MDF templates. I added some Ash to give a solid mount for the door hinges and side skirts. The rest of the bulkhead was formed from Ali sheet rivetted or bolted together.
The side skirts lowered the vehicle, cosmetically and covered the exhaust pie which then came through a hole in the skirt. This was formed by whacking the sheet with a rounded mallet over the end of a piece of drain pipe. Looked quite good. The rear deck and floor are Plywood but on reflection I really should have made it from steel to add more rigidity. Off the rear deck I hung the rear wings (£50 each) and then skinned the sides in Ali after adding a tubular steel frame. Wraping the edges over the steel frame was a fun job (not!) and I had to add some curvature in various places to keep it looking 'right'.
Post number 2...
The doors were made in the same steel tubing and the latch assembly is just a steel rod sprung into the tube with a catch, rather like the bolt on my Lee Enfield rifle. The removable hinges are old pulley mounts from a vintage aircraft so the doors can be removed with just 2 tugs. The dash was routered out of Ply and then the annealed 1050 grade ali was bashed into submission. The 120mph speedo was the correct ratio, if a little optimistic.
I still have some wiring to fix and to change the dynamo over to 12 volts once I start earning a crust again. I lost my job on health grounds a couple of years ago and money has been a bit tight. The front wings aren't good enough so the Mk2 version is in the pipeline, along with a new frame for the headlamps.
RP radiator since I couldn't find anything else suitable.
I started with a bare chassis and V5 that had lived in the loft of a shed in Pershore. It had last seen the light of day about 40 years before and was surrounded by spares from perhaps 5 broken cars. There was enough to build one car and the chassis was in reasonable condition.
I looked through Ebay, Youtube and Google for tips on how to build a body and bought numerous books on the subject. I elected to use a little ash, lots of Ali sheet and some forming tools to add a skin over a steel tube frame. the following pics hopefully will give some inspiration to anyone else trying to achieve the same result.
The engine seemed to be working with zero effort expended on fettling it. I stuffed it onto the chassis to start jigging up a body. A small steel frame gave me a starting point to form some structured pressed and beaten over MDF templates. I added some Ash to give a solid mount for the door hinges and side skirts. The rest of the bulkhead was formed from Ali sheet rivetted or bolted together.
The side skirts lowered the vehicle, cosmetically and covered the exhaust pie which then came through a hole in the skirt. This was formed by whacking the sheet with a rounded mallet over the end of a piece of drain pipe. Looked quite good. The rear deck and floor are Plywood but on reflection I really should have made it from steel to add more rigidity. Off the rear deck I hung the rear wings (£50 each) and then skinned the sides in Ali after adding a tubular steel frame. Wraping the edges over the steel frame was a fun job (not!) and I had to add some curvature in various places to keep it looking 'right'.
Post number 2...
The doors were made in the same steel tubing and the latch assembly is just a steel rod sprung into the tube with a catch, rather like the bolt on my Lee Enfield rifle. The removable hinges are old pulley mounts from a vintage aircraft so the doors can be removed with just 2 tugs. The dash was routered out of Ply and then the annealed 1050 grade ali was bashed into submission. The 120mph speedo was the correct ratio, if a little optimistic.
I still have some wiring to fix and to change the dynamo over to 12 volts once I start earning a crust again. I lost my job on health grounds a couple of years ago and money has been a bit tight. The front wings aren't good enough so the Mk2 version is in the pipeline, along with a new frame for the headlamps.
RP radiator since I couldn't find anything else suitable.