Sadly all the local paint shops are shut down due to the virus including the one that made a balls up of the primer. The body shop I was originally going to use closed in December after getting into financial trouble. However the building itself was still owned by a friend of mine and he came out of retirement to help me out. We got it done in two days. It’s had a quick flat and polish, but we haven’t gone crazy. It’s supposed to be an old racer and will improve with a little patina
Last edited by SiJackson on Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Very nice job. Amazed that the painting only took two days.
Very authentic looking car, you must be pleased with the result.
Out of interest did you make your own roll bar as it looks like the legs are wider apart than a Hawk supplied item.
Peter C
peterc wrote: ↑Wed Apr 15, 2020 2:28 pm
Very nice job. Amazed that the painting only took two days.
Very authentic looking car, you must be pleased with the result.
Out of interest did you make your own roll bar as it looks like the legs are wider apart than a Hawk supplied item.
Peter C
Thanks Peter.
The actual top coat took two days including polishing. I spent around 70 hours prepping for paint and priming before that.
I’m pretty pleased with it. There are a few things I would do differently with hindsight, things that will no doubt annoy me over time, but I guess they can be redone. That’s what winters are for though I guess
Yes I built the cage. It’s slightly wider than Gerrys to give a little more protection and a bit more room from the forward brace which looked a wee bit close, it’s also slightly lower to fit under the hard top. It was made out of T45 certified tubing. I had a bit of bother bending it too as a tighter radius was causing it to crimp on the inner radius and flatten on the outer. Both wouldn’t be very desirable in an accident. There’s also a pretty substantial set of tubes behind the rear bulkhead cover which door bars can be fitted into if needed, and braces going back into the boot and mounting to the rear chassis mounts.
I had it out for a good run this morning. A few minor issues, fuel leaking out of the breather being one, the tank was pretty full and under hard cornering it must have been sloshing around quite a bit. Maybe going to try filling the tank with foam.
There was also an oil leak from the dizzy. I whipped it out and put a second o ring around the body and it cured it. Finally one of the boot hinges fell off, it looks like the thread has pulled through. They are not the best quality.
Apart from that I was pretty impressed. Handling and road holding is much more modern in feel than I was expecting. The steering is nicely weighted and precise (almost Alfa GTA good) with just enough feedback without being fussy. The thing I was most surprised with is how it handles poor road surfaces. There is one particular section of road I use, a series of fast flowing bends, heavily potholed, patched and quite badly repaired that is harsh in anything other than a Lexus, and despite very thinly padded alloy seats and wood rimmed wheel, it floated over them without any trouble. Only the glass in the Lucas fuel gauge rattling to give any indication of a poor road surface.
The engine is a little cracker. Lots of low down grunt and pulls hard all the way up to 6500rpm. It idles smoothly in traffic and quite civilised at small throttle openings. Mash the pedal though and it makes a hell of a racket! Next stage is to go to 8 stack fuel injection.
All in all I was very surprised. I expected it to be raw and feel very 60’s, like the Big Healeys I’ve driven, but it was so much more usable and dare I say it, un dramatic. I can imagine that fuel consumption aside it will make a cracking companion for the 1100 mile round trip to Le Mans in September.
Got to hand it to Gerry, not only do these things look great and build up beautifully without hassle, but they actually drive really incredibly well. It’s one thing getting the aesthetic right, but to get the engineering right, and end up with something you WANT to drive rather than just look at (hello E-Type, I’m talking about you) is a pretty impressive feat to pull off with such conviction.
I’m a very happy guy tonight.