06-10-2020, 09:51 PM
At the outset of the project we deicided it was going to be a fabric-bodied car. My strengths (and facilities) are very much around timber framing rather than metalwork and a fabric body suited the style we wanted to create.
I wasn't keen on the "floating floor" principle that Cup models and other bodies use so I have gone for a conventional steel floorpan & bulkhead with everything else being timber or ply.
Whilst I believe restorations should replicate period materials and techniques wherever possible, special-building gives a bit more freedom. So before the chassis arrived from Ruairidh I laminated a pair of wheelarches in best quality ply. Three layers gave 10mm thickness for the arch itself and another 6 layers gave 20mm for the battens which follow the edge of the body.
I spent some time working out a technique that holds the laminates extremely tight whilst drying as the final quality depends on excluding any air gaps. The finished arches are far stiffer than Austin type steel ones and make it easier to transfer the strength to the sills.
The sills are similar to Gordon England type - plywood either side of ash battens. In this case straight on the inside, curved on the outside.
At this stage everything is un-trimmed and only clamped together - the arches etc all have to be cut to size. So too does the front of the transmission tunnel.
After years of sketching and planning it was good to actually build something!
I wasn't keen on the "floating floor" principle that Cup models and other bodies use so I have gone for a conventional steel floorpan & bulkhead with everything else being timber or ply.
Whilst I believe restorations should replicate period materials and techniques wherever possible, special-building gives a bit more freedom. So before the chassis arrived from Ruairidh I laminated a pair of wheelarches in best quality ply. Three layers gave 10mm thickness for the arch itself and another 6 layers gave 20mm for the battens which follow the edge of the body.
I spent some time working out a technique that holds the laminates extremely tight whilst drying as the final quality depends on excluding any air gaps. The finished arches are far stiffer than Austin type steel ones and make it easier to transfer the strength to the sills.
The sills are similar to Gordon England type - plywood either side of ash battens. In this case straight on the inside, curved on the outside.
At this stage everything is un-trimmed and only clamped together - the arches etc all have to be cut to size. So too does the front of the transmission tunnel.
After years of sketching and planning it was good to actually build something!