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Its nearley september!! Lol. Hows it goin mate? you done anything else recentley to the car? oh just out of interest are you goin to be painting the car again yourself? and what colour is it goin? or gonna stay red? good luck anyway mate, this is the best thread on here, totally original.
Done a little more to the bonnet - basically I thickened it up. the reason being (after a few posts of the usbject on this thread) - if I took a cast from the original one the new skin wouldnt just bond straight onto the spare bonnet I have - simply because the thickness of the fibreglass would obstruct it.
So I've beefed up the original design with a 3mm layer of acrylic sheet curved and bonded to the existing design. It's been bonded and filled along the gaps/edges - just needs shaping the checking for accuracy however compared to the original design I've already noticed a slight difference from one side to the other.
It's my wedding anniversary over the weekend so am going away (weather permitting) so probably wont start any proper work on the car till the following week - then it will literally be all hands to the pumps!
Current thoughts on colour is BMW Dakar yellow (or similar) with gunmetal/anthracite lower valance/skirts and wheels...
September sounds like a close deadline but its basically 9 months - plan to have the car and kit ready to spray by April (ish). Whilst its away I'll work on the dash and interior...
ade
Wednesday 09/01/2008
Day off work so attacked the bonnet (again) - had some problems getting it balanced correctly - the drivers side for whatever reason was slightly higher at the edge where the wings meet when compared to the passenger side. the odd thing was the thickness of the bonnet on that side was the same as the other - managed to figure it out as a combination of too much material underneath catching on the top of the light housing and the wing not being properly aligned...
Now that both sides are the same height I needed to ensure the front corners were the correct shape and met the lights at the right angle - this was (and is) a nightmare as everything needs to be measured then check by eye...almost there though - just the drivers side corner needs blending a bit more.
Thankfully once this is done thats the bonnet pretty much ready to be moulded. I'll give it a coat of paint and level everything before hand but the new increased thickness means I can now just take a copy in fibreglass and then bond it directly to the donar bonnet I have spare.
Also got a couple of packages delivered today - my new rear 1/4 panels and drivers full sill arrived courtesy of www.beeversautopanels.co.uk and I also got some items from www.frost.co.uk - comprehansive auto restorers, included some special little grips for welding called intergrips that hold your panels in place ir awkward places without the need for clamps!
Thursday 11/01/2008
Spend most of the evening sanding the corner from the previous day - finally managed to resolve my bonnet corner issue and both sides are now within 5mm of each other which isnt bad considering...
I applied another primer coat and checked for further adjustments - of which there are several - most to do with the 2 curves line details on the bonnet - also the detailing on the front needs tidying up a little...
Heres current pics - they look very similar to the prev ones I posted prior to thickening up the bonnet however the front is a tad different - plus both sides are now balanced...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...onnet20001.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...onnet20002.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...onnet20003.jpg
Now the top of the bonnet is pretty much done I should sort the underside out however its pretty much done as well - just needs tidying up - but I really need to leave it till I've sorted out the grill area out (incase I extend it under the bonnet).
I need to work on the wings and sort out the parts that will go round the lights and then extend the tops...
Heres what I'm up against...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...onnet20006.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...onnet20005.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...onnet20004.jpg
I've modified the wings slightly to account for the depth of the new lights but what I'm not sure about is whats the best way of filling the gaps? Iit needs dont really want to bodge it as I want it to last and the thicker the filler the bigger the risk of cracks so I'll probably need to fabricate some kind of metal support and skim it with filler.
the 1st task is to extend the line fron the wing to the back of the lights and up. I then need to extend the corner to blend with the curve of the bonnet. Then I need to sort the lower section - the current Nova corner where the grill clips are fits very snuggly underneath the light base so I'm looking at extending this out so the bonet has something to clip on.
I'm not 100% sure how this is going to blend in...time to rattle the brains I think...
Anyone ever made fibreglass wings??? mmm
I think Dan and a few others were on about standard size F/G wings, obviously you get the wide ones...
Could you not chop up some punto wings and sort of tack that on? Maybe lead fill it?
mmm not a bad idea - although dont really wanna have to fork out for a set of punto wings...will hunt about
Looking good mate, the gaps at the front do seem to be one of those annoying little niggles though, obviously using plain body filler would be a recepie for disaster cause it'd definetley end up cracking, perhaps the best thing to do would be to get some fibreglass wings and mould the front of them to the shape of the lights with some more fibreglass and a skim of filler, it'd definetley be a whole lot easier than trying to make some metal supports, the other option of using the front half of punto wings isn't a bad idea though, granted you would have to buy a pair but theyre not expensive, however it may be difficult to get it looking nice after tacking the front half onto nova wings (lining everything up etc) look forward to seeing the result whatever you decide to do.
I'd cut the required bits off a scap punto and tack them on with the welder, then use FG to blend the two together.
Sunday 13/01/2008
Decided last night to make 2 light surrounds for the corners of my wings. Deliberated for ages about making fibreglass ones but that would be too complicated and long winded and cost more in materials in the long run. Buying Punto wings was too expensive and a waste - also the angle of the corners although correct is slighthly steeper (downwards) than the angle I'm using.
I recently picked up a set of GM front wings from a guy off here and as a result I had a spare set of patterns wings. These werent a great fit however I got to thinking perhaps I could lob the front corners off these and modify them with a bit of hammer and dolly work and weld them on to the front of my new wings...this I felt was the best course of action.
So I set about my old pattern wings.
The idea is to cut a section from the old wings leaving enough material to allow me to adjust the flow of the front part of the wing to bring the new section up behind the new lights - which actually protrude a little outside the "natural" curve of the existing wings. because the angle of the new front section is shallower that the front part of the Nova wings (which drops off sharply) the differences in height between the new welded section and the existing wing can be belnded in with a skim of filler - no more than a few mil thick.
The 1st task was to make a card template of the basic shape around the rear of the punto lights and then the angle across the front. I then needed to modify the angle of the corner. The nova wing corners are stubby and well rounded unlike the punto ones which are sharp and pointy. After chopping off the front 1/4 off the old wings and flattening back the undercuts of metal and set about hammering the stubby nova nose into a pointy punto one. Took about an hours to get the basic shape.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../wings0002.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../wings0003.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../wings0004.jpg
I then needed to cut the excess metal off leaving enough to make the new undercuts and to follow the line around the light housings and underneath the lights. This took a further hour of fettling and filing and bending.
The nova corners also have to detail lines that run contours down the wing. these had to be adjusted so further fettling was needed...
Heres the semi finished result -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../wings0009.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../wings0010.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../wings0013.jpg
I also did the other side -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../wings0014.jpg
The both fit really well.
Heres a pic of the parts I made today -
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../wings0007.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1.../wings0037.jpg
Theres still a bit of work to do on them both - I need to clean off the black primer and then sand them smooth to ensure theyre both level.
I'll then tack weld them into place and then a bit more hammer and dolly work will be needed to ensure thet sit smooth and level with the corner of the bonnet and the tops/sides of the lights. I'll then weld them up.
Both corners will no doubt get a light coat of filler to remove any dips etc but I'm happy with the current results - much quicker and stronger than fibreglass!
Ade