*hums imperial march theme tune*
WELL... "Nothing goes according to plan with projects" is perhaps the understatement of the year/century/millennium.
The chaps doing the body work, not only took 10+ months before they finally let us collect the body, but they haven't exactly done what they said they were going to. So, we now have the body back, it needs a lot of work, but at least we can start the build.
All of a sudden I found myself in a position where I needed to gather up some parts I had been storing away and get them to the workshop ready to mock up the body on the chassis.
So, out comes the manual gearbox & billet adaptor plate!
A little trip down to Insane Creations to fit it all and then sling it on to the rails and sit the body on it.
When hooking up the adaptor plate.. I was then enlightened to the fact I had in fact purchased the plate for a left hooker! WHOOPS! Starter motor holes are on different sides!
Fear not, when there is a will there is a way and the plate will get machined out to fit. The most important part being, the manual box is now attached for mock up!
Mere moments later this happened...
Followed by this...
And a final picture for good luck...
The plan is starting to take shape, the rear of the chassis will take a little stretch and this can be worked in when the rear notch is done. The front doesn't need stretching but we are going to drop the grille shell in front of the cross member to give us more room for the radiator and suspension. gives the overall look of the car a slightly longer nose but still looks right, well, in my opinion haha
The firewall will be cut and the engine set a little back inside, not too much only an inch or so. There is now tons of space in the cabin thanks to the manual box and where the gear lever naturally falls is a bang on driving position in the car! RESULT.
The body is a little too high on the rails in these pictures as there is a temporaty cross member holding the body up, the engine isn't on quite straight and leans too far back and the grille is on wonky. So all the parts are just propped up to try and get a feel for what it might look like.
It will likely be a little while before another update so feel free to relax and move back from the edge of your seat (this is a note to myself) and when the next exciting instalment happens I will be sure to post about it.