Main Bodywork

I hired a transit style van and drove down to Hampshire to collect the body tub. It was just a little long and I had to drive back to the midlands with the back doors partly open wondering if all the parts would still be there when I got home. On closer inspection of the parts at home I was a little disappointed with the quality. The tub had been in the barn at Findhorn for at least 6 months and had various knocks and chips to the gel coat. There was also crazing of the rear valance. All things that could be repaired but shouldn't have been there. The body also didn't sit neatly on the chassis. The chassis angle at the front was steeper than the body, and had very little longitudinal movement. I therefore had to use more rubber packing strips in places to get the tub to sit firmly on the chassis in order to fasten it to the chassis.

The next job was to cut all the various holes in the body tub according to the build manual for heater box, pedal box, steering column etc. I chose to leave the holes for the fusebox as everything seemed a little tight in that area. I cut the slot for the handbrake and lever and the handbrake to the cable. The gearbox hole was cut according to the manual and although tricky to measure it lined up nicely. The cowl was a very important item to fix correctly. It provided alignment for the bonnet tops and side panels. It could be moved in 3 planes and was only fitted by sandwiching the fibreglass cowl between the two sets of radiator mounts. It took me hours to be sure of the alignment of the side panels and to keep the cowl square. I still don't understand why it was so difficult be eventually found a suitable position. This meant that the side panels and bonnet panels would need a little trimming to get the shut lines and panel gaps rights.

Bonnet and Side Panels

The hinge was cut to length and the relevant P pieces cut out at each end. These would be attached on top of a small aluminium block at each end of the hinge, one on the cowl and the other on front edge of the body tub. My hinge was actually Stainless Steel even though all of the documentation indicated it would be brass. This meant that it didn't need chrome plating later. As my father had his own engineering business I got some help drilling the holes for the screws to ensure that they looked straight. He also made some stainless buttons for each end of the hinge. These were to meet the SVA test requirements having a minimum radius. I think that they look smart and I am very pleased with them.

The cowl badge was a little tricky to fit. I didn't want it too close to the hinge but that was the flattest part of the cowl top. I had to concoct a clamping arangement with a bolt and washers as the rear of the badge needed sinking into the cowl as it was stood proud of the back surface.

The side panels needed trimming to get the panel gaps looking right. I worked on a 3mm gap all round so that after painting the gap would look right.

They also needed some trimming at the bottom to clear the cross member and make a neater fit.

Also the bottom lip at the rear of the side panel was too short to allow a screw to be attached to the bottom of the body tub, so I made a plate and fastened it to the panel with one bolt and the body with another.

The bonnet catches were then fitted with M4 stainless bolts. At the moment I think these may be a little tight so they may need some adjustment later.

Wings and Valence

The valance was fitted without problems. The holes were predrilled in the valance and the centres transferred to the body tub. These were drilled with a pilot hole and attached using the hex screws even though they were a little awkward in places.

The rear wings were fitted using measurements in the build manual followed by the front wings.

There was no indication as to the angle that the front wings attach to the side panels. I didn't want them so high that the wheels were too low and equally I didn't want the wheels touching if full lock was selected whilst the suspension was under any load. I fixed them with the front lower corner about half and inch above the valance and I think that looked about right.

The rear wheels look a little lost in the arch but the whole car seems a little high. I am hoping that after a bit of use the suspension will settle down and they will look better.

The bar that is shown is the badge bar. This takes some careful measuring when mounting as it uses the same bolts that hold the headlights in place. If not careful the bar wouldn't be centred and the lights wouldn't be square to the front of the car. I also made up some support brackets for the front wings to add some rigidity. The mounted onto the shock absorder bolts and went up under the wing and attached to the bolt holding the side turn indicator light.

Access to the engine was now a lot more limited than it had been, so fastening the accelerator cable was a little tricky. The chrome air filter housings cleared the side panel by an acceptable distance. This was acheived by altering the thickness of the spacers between the carburttors and the manifold. This meant that the heat sheild was a little closer to the manifold than normal. Hopefully this will still give sufficient clearance so that the carburettors do not get too hot.

Woven Mesh Grill

The grill, for some reason, proved very difficult to get Findhorn Cars to deliver. It was part of the "Body Pack" bought in May but took over 4 months to get it delivered. I understand that the supplier changed in the meantime because the quality of these was questionable, such as flaking chrome. The grill supplied to me is Stainless Steel and whilst not having the higher polish of a chrome unit, it seems well made and will last much longer. As I was not in any desperate need to fit the grill it was worth waiting for the better unit.

As there is no method for mounting the grill in the build manual a little thought was needed. I decided to make six fibreglass plinths in the cowl around the opening. I drilled each one and tapped to take an M6 stainless steel bolt. The heads were cut off the bolts to create studs.

I filled each hole with fibreglass resin and screwed in the studs. Once set they were strong enough to stay in place when I attached the nyloc nuts.

The grill was then fitted and held in place with M6 stainless nyloc nuts and washers. There was one in each corner and one in the middle of each horizontal. This all helped to hold the grill tight against the cowl.

Should the grill ever need to be removed I would probably still have to remove the cowl though.

 

Running Board Trims

I thought about a few different options to fit onto the running boards protect the paintwork and hide the screws that fix the running board to it's support brackets. One option was to have a metal plate milled out with NG TF. In the end I decided that old fasioned rubber strips would be fine and would suit the car better. I trawled the internet and found some I liked on the Woolies website. These were the correct width (16mm)and had a three ridged rubber insert instead of the usual dome.

The end caps were also from Woolies but were for the wider 22mm. By careful squeezing I reduced them to 16mm and then filed the bottom so that they were flush with the running board. The aluminium channels were screwed to the running board using self tappers. These projected through a little and although they won't be seen I have filed the points down. The end result is a neat job and I think that the end caps make a neater job than the treads supplied from Findhorn.