Building a Special Body

[Ian Williams]

Thanks for the comments.
Mark I do not have a drawing I would suggest that you will need in the region of 6" above the axle dependant on the use you intend for your special, possibly slightly more for a trials car. Basic measurements of my body are as follows; height from chassis to top of scuttle 25", width at dashboard 25 1/2", width at instrument panel 34 3/4", width at seat back 35", widest point 36", Bonnet length 34", cockpit opening 29", total length about 10ft. Bear in mind that I have used a steering column 4" long than std and moved the dashboard back some 2" or so from its standard position immediately behind the engine block, as a result some of my measurements won't work on a more conventional layout. If you go right back to the beginning of this saga on the old forum I posted details of how the design of my body evolved, the buck, and lots of information on how I have gone about its construction, jigs I have made and used etc. There are coach builders drawings of various Austin body styles available on the A7CA web site, you may find some of these useful as a starting point.

[Peter Naulls]

Ian,

I very much appreciate the quality of your work - very encouraging but a very high bar for the rest of us to follow!

Forgive me if you've covered this before but have you moved the pedal positions back? I imagine the 4" longer column puts the steering wheel very close your chest - either that or you have long legs?

Peter.

[vintage_racing]

Stunning workmanship, please keep posting the picture and updates.
Ben

[Ian Williams]

Hi Peter,
Well I have fairly long legs but at just under 6ft not exceptionally so. I kept the pedal pivots in their normal position and played with the dash board position by changing toe board angles, difficult to describe without showing you, not sure how much you can pick up by studying my pictures but it works well. I covered extending the column on an earlier post, it puts the steering wheel a little over 2'' further back than my Nippy with a similar seat back to steering wheel relationship as the Nippy, although I sit correspondingly further back in the special. So in answer to your question yes wheel reasonably close to my chest but not excessively so and fairly typical of a vintage sports car.

[Peter Naulls]

Thank you Ian, very helpful.

Peter.

[sebring115]

Hi

Thanks for those dimensions, they really help with the proportions etc, I really like your A7 body so it will help me a lot.

Mark

[Renaud]

Hi Ian,
Thanks a lot for sharing your work with us.
May I ask what paint you use on ali please. Any primer? Your black looks beautiful. Btw I do like your green rad surround too.
Renaud (in very windy Brittany)

[Ian Williams]

Hello Renaud, long time since I have seen you here welcome back! I use a black etch primer on Aluminium which is important to get it to stick, even so scotch brighting the entire surface first is important. The etch primer is also thin enough not to loose detail as you would with a modern high build primer, the black top coat I use is a PPG two pack, I add differing amounts of flatting agent to the paint depending on the level of gloss I require. For example the floor pan and petrol tank have 25% flatting agent and the wheels only 10%, to my eye full gloss is just too shiny! 
I am actually wondering now if you were looking at the etch primer before I had applied the top coat?

   

[Renaud]

Hello ian,
Thanks for the welcome back!
I was referring to that kind of splendid finish you achieve there:



Apart from your skills at metal forming where I'm a lot far away (behind!) I'm also a lousy painter but I always think that I can get better!
I fear that your paint products could be difficult to get here maybe.

[Ian Williams]

That is just the etch primer Renaud, I could probably replicate similar in the top coat with something like 50% flatting base, however I have gone for a 25% satin finish, the photo actually makes it look shinier than it is! I would have thought anywhere that sells to the Automotive refinishing trade will be able to assist, unless the EU have banned these type of products in France they are commonplace in the trade.