if your crap when it comes to engines then i recommend a 1.6 16v ade. need no modifications as such, just bolts straight in
if your crap when it comes to engines then i recommend a 1.6 16v ade. need no modifications as such, just bolts straight in
or the x18xe1
February 2010
Not worked onthe car for a while - mainlky due to house projects and the weather being too cold - also I think taking a break from stuff like this gives you a new perspective of things.
The last time a worked on the car I'd rebuilt the front ens using proper Punto slam panel and modded the wings a little. When I went back in to the garage at the start of February I took one look at the wings and decided I really wasnt happy with the welds around the lights - these parts were originally hand fettled and some of the 1st welding work I did - however after much sanding and adjusting the welds on the drivers wing cracked - I'd also without realising it applkied a fair amount of filler to even the wings and wheel flare out. I wanted shot of this and wanted to return back to as much bare metal as I could - for strength and weight and ease more than anything...
So out came the grinder...I removed the original light surrounds
I'd already acquired some original Punto surrounds from a scrapper so just needed to weld these in the old surrounds place -
The Punto profiles are a little shallower than the original Nova wings however I can get away with a thin skim of filler to balance them out and they fit the lights perfectly!
Once completed it became very clear that the bonnet which I'd been messing with for "years" really didnt look right. The plan was to make a master and then take a mold from this to make a fibreglass skin to fit to an original Nova bonnet. However I'd never been sure how I'd securely finish off the gap between the front of the new bonnet and the existing Nova boinnet from the underside. I'd need some kind of reinforcement and anything I considered would either crack the extra frontage (about 6") or add too much weight.
So - after watching an feww episodes of chop shop (!) I decided to bin the bonnet and make a full metal skin - merging a Nova and a Punto bonnet together!
The benefits of this are obvious - the Punto curves will contour the lights perfectly, strength, weight and I can "merge" the 2 under structures together to make a solid reinforcement for the skin.
The biggest problem was the 2 swage lines on the Nova bonnet - these fade to the front of the car where as the Punto ones fade from front to rear. The solution was to extend the Nova ones into the Punto sections -
A little tack welding later...
its alive!!!!!!!
well done ade, keep it up
this was repeated on both sides -
which left the big bit in the middle. The Nova bonet curves down sharply at the front so I needed to level this off a little -
This is just the skins Im using at the moment - the under sides have been separated...
I then merged the Punto centre sections to the centre of the Nova bonnet. I had to cut about 7cm out of the Punto bonnet which is a fair bit wider...tacked them in place...
The swage lines were then tacked in place
The front grill area isnt straight or level yet because I need to work out the grill dimensions as well as the bit that will be folded back to seal the underside to the outer skin...
Nice idea on the bonnet mate. That's Chop Shop as! Right down to the two different painted panels and the tacks!
If it works though.
Once the top section was done I sanded back the welds and tidies up the underside...
I then added the 2 grill side panels. These clean up the line between the lights and the grill and meet the bumper when in place.
These were roughly tacked in place as I need to build supports from behind to reinforce them.
I now needed to start building a reinforcing layer to support both bonnets.
I separated the underside from the Nova bonnet leaving a single bonnet skin -
and welded the front of the Punto underside together to match the slam panel profile -
Before I could fit the underside properly I needed to remove some of the warping left by the welds. Bonnet skin is thin and with so much work being done it buckled in places...so out came the hammer and dollys...
Its as flat as I can be bothered with at the moment - once the understructure is secure the whole bonnet will receive a thin skim of filler the level it out - at which point I can fettle it further if necessary...
I then started working on the under side - how to join a Punto understructure to a Nova one...
You've been busy!
a quick shot of the wip of the front end with mock grill and bumper in place...
I like what you have done with the lines in the bonnet, being carried forward.
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