WAC275S RESTORATION

Page 7

Preparing the Shell

8/04/04 and 12/6/04

I have not been able to publish updates of late as I have a new computer and transferring the websites (I have 3) over to it has proved to be rather tricky. After much jiggery-pokery I am back to the old computer for now!

Work on the car has been slow but at last work has resumed.

Fitting the spit for the first time.

The first major news is that the car is now on a spit. The "Tilty-Jiggy Thing" was making life pretty difficult so a Rotary Spit was made using plans from the Dave Bullman article in Car and Car Conversions 1981.

Would you believe that I had actually kept these mags for years only to lose track of them only recently! Luckily Richard Connew's excellent TR7 & TR8 Internet Owners Club justified it's subscription fee as it contains a complete "reprint" of all the articles. This has proved to be a God-send and a curse at the same time because what started out as a purely cosmetic transformation has gotten out of control!

The "Tilty-Jiggy Thing" is lowered and removed. Much relief when the whole thing didn't fall over!

Over she goes...	Rear axle removed, Oh Dear...Trailing arm mounts not looking too hot!

Footwell "cocoa tin lids" removed, underseal removed then re-welded back in. Footwells plated over for strength and protection.	General bodywork repairs and paint stripping in progress.

Doors and bootlid removed...then... One small step for man, One giant leap for car-restorers...

The fibreglass wheel arch extensions are fitted to the front wings. Not a major task in itself but after 18 months of stuff coming off the car this is the first time something has been actually put back on...

Doors come off...	Wheel Arch extensions go on...

Are we going to cut holes in a rust free double bulge bonnet? Yes we are!

Could have used a fibreglass bonnet but true to the original I have opted to keep it all metal.

The works bonnets also had the centre strengthening struts (underside) removed to save weight but this makes the bonnet quite flimsey so have left that alone, for now at least.

Engine "kill" switch and bonnet pin apertures.	Exact location of the bonnet pins seem to vary slightly from car to car but this is as correct as it can be, bearing in mind the bonnet pins themselves are thicker now then they were 20 years ago.

Photo's below are of Works TR7V8 SJW540S

Thats all for now.... 13th June 2004