20-10-2020, 09:37 PM
(This post was last modified: 20-10-2020, 09:42 PM by Peter Naulls.)
On to the scuttle and roof. I've kept the scuttle as short as possible to accentuate the length of the bonnet, taking care not to have a clash between the opening bonnet and the roof peak!
The roof rails tie all the door posts together and begin to make a structure. I added vertical battens above the doors to strengthen this area as this is a weak point on vintage Sevens; making the rail completely rigid lessens the chance of the door apperture racking out of square.
Once the roof rails are screwed and glued the jig serves no purpose and can be removed. Quite an exciting moment seeing the internal space defined at last.
The side-to-side battens are prone to warping so I always halve the timber for these and reverse one half. This means that if there is any tendency to warp the two halves tend oppose each other.
I have deviated from Austin convention by making the longitudinal battens from laminated ply; because the roof is shorter on the Coupe the curve is more pronounced and bending ash was going to be problematic. I would never do this on a restoration ... but this is a special so I have more lattitude. The battens were laminated to the correct curve so none of the component parts of the roof are under any strain.
The ali housing in the roof peak is for the wiper. I've a feeling the upholsterer won't like this so we may revert to a wiper at the bottom of the screen. Keeping our options open!
The roof rails tie all the door posts together and begin to make a structure. I added vertical battens above the doors to strengthen this area as this is a weak point on vintage Sevens; making the rail completely rigid lessens the chance of the door apperture racking out of square.
Once the roof rails are screwed and glued the jig serves no purpose and can be removed. Quite an exciting moment seeing the internal space defined at last.
The side-to-side battens are prone to warping so I always halve the timber for these and reverse one half. This means that if there is any tendency to warp the two halves tend oppose each other.
I have deviated from Austin convention by making the longitudinal battens from laminated ply; because the roof is shorter on the Coupe the curve is more pronounced and bending ash was going to be problematic. I would never do this on a restoration ... but this is a special so I have more lattitude. The battens were laminated to the correct curve so none of the component parts of the roof are under any strain.
The ali housing in the roof peak is for the wiper. I've a feeling the upholsterer won't like this so we may revert to a wiper at the bottom of the screen. Keeping our options open!