Okrasa Special

[Barry]

Just got back from a very productive hour's worth of chatting with Steve. He's come up with the reason why I've not been happy with the area immediately behind the vent.

Will not show up enough for the cameras to catch I suspect, but essentially I'd not got the various sweeps / curves to work very well: something I'd vaguely been aware of right from the early wire stages.

Should be a fairly straighforward fix, and we have indeed drawn a certain inpiration from the 250 .

I'll take shots anyway when the changes are made.

One thing that has been confirmed is that the welding method that I did the course for last year works a treat: the vent area as above is made from two parts, and the welding went very well indeed. Don't want to tempt fate of course, but for a first try using this method, coupled with some other tips they gave me, it made a huge difference. I can see that with some more practice (and I think I might be in for a bit), the welding might be a bit less of a hurdle than I'd feared.

Current plan is to get the car outside as soon as this side is resolved, and at least partly finessed. We'll then get an idea of a) The shape / proportions etc, and b) Just how good the panels need to be in terms of quality before we can think about a bare metal finish.

[Pandora]

looking fantastic chaps, and I'm glad to see you got some styling tape for the door lines etc - usefull stuff, eh?

I think a vent in the style of the 250LM or similar would look good, there is something a wee bit too fussy about the current mocked up one.

and yes, the benefits of a fixed front and removable bonnet far oustrips the benefits of a complete lift off front

Al

[Darren65]

Oh yes, and Darren, Steve keeps showing me pics of the 250, so we might still end up getting some inspiration from this direction yet .

Well I didn't expect it would be from the MR2!!!

Darren

[Barry]

[Barry]

looking fantastic chaps, and I'm glad to see you got some styling tape for the door lines etc - usefull stuff, eh?

Yes, very useful indeed, we're also using the wide tape to hide all the metal that will be formed into the arch flanges (which is in the pictures, but the tape is hiding it very well).

[steve wright]

Well it's been a long old winter from the perspective of the Special. I've come to appreciate the effort that really goes into creating a car this last couple of months, and have a new found appreciation for what's called perfection.

Barry has spent the last few weeks toiling away with the various panels, endeavouring to get everything to work, and dialling in a level of perfection I must admit I did not expect with the bodywork. Five drivers door skins bear testament to that! I think I'm also going to change Barry's name by deed poll to "The Artist, formerly known as Barry Carter" because what this lad can't do with metal frankly is not worth writing about. I know he will poo-poo this as soon as he sees this thread, but I've seen the inside of enough restoration shops to know that this boy is the nuts. Anyway, waxing lyrical over, here's where we are today.

I'll leave Barry to fill in the details but suffice to say we've moved a whole lot closer to finishing the drivers side. We've also decided to paint the car: not for any reason other than I realised that when I masked the roof with black tape it shrank the roof dimensions drastically, and can see it will look far more cohesive if it's painted in one colour. Anyway, enjoy....







As a footnote, I should also give a big thank you to Macualey who penned the original drawings - we're still finding detail and inspiration from them today, which is testamony to his skills.

Cheers,
Steve

[Darren65]

I think I'm also going to change Barry's name by deed poll to "The Artist, formerly known as Barry Carter" because what this lad can't do with metal frankly is not worth writing about. I know he will poo-poo this as soon as he sees this thread, but I've seen the inside of enough restoration shops to know that this boy is the nuts.

+ 1 and I'm sure that's the same for everyone he's done work for.

I've been gobsmacked by quality of the work he's produced on my car, so much better when you see his work in the flesh - the photos he sent through never really did it justice and I'm sure that's the same with the Okrasa. He's also achieved legend status with the guys in our bodyshop and that's from long toothed professionals who know what they're looking at.

The Okrasa is looking great Steve, I think going with paint is a good move, the end result is going to be pretty awesome - in fact all your toys are very, very cool

Looking forward to seeing more.

Cheers,
Darren

[911hillclimber]

So pleased to see this progress, starting to really shape-up now.
Lovley flowing lines and curves, all very Sophia Loren, and i bet they have been caressed a million times in the cold garage!

Painting is a good idea simply from my view to make the car useable in general terms as a raw alloy body will suffer quite quickly.

How about door latches/handles?
Are you using 'reach-in' releases (like Mk1 and 2 Sprites) or Ferrari type finger hooks?

The other side will be easier I'm sure and the bonnet/engine cover interesting!
I can't recall if you are pivoting the whole rear clam for access and easy fixing?

As ever, a great thread.

Barry an artist driven by perfection?
Beyond doubt. In one pic is that him in the background hugging his wheel?? It must feel like he is welded to it.

[sisu]

Good to see you are able to leave Barry to take his natural course on things.

[Barry]

Not been on DDK for a couple of weeks, so just catching up now.

Thanks for the kind comments everyone. We had a lovely moment last week: Steve had just arrived back from a trackday at the very moment I had hung on the panels and removed the temporary (narrow) wheels, revealing those gorgeous drums.

There's still a degree of fettling to try to get the refection-lines to flow a little better, and we need to confirm that we've got enough shape (bulge) down the side, but otherwise we're just about there as a roughed out shape. I need to go and use a friend's tools to form up the sill, then the base of the front wing and quarter panel can be flanged (we're having a sill-join in line with the door bottom a) to make constructions easier, b) to make panel replacement in the future easier, and c) to make the side of the car look longer and lower.

The door turned out to be a real sod, particularly as the blank is some 3 1/2 feet long, which is really too much to wheel by oneself. It also has a reverse curve right at the top, a crown near the top fading to zero shape by the bottom of the panel. If you just wheel the top of the panel, the middle literally buckles inwards, so the whole panel has to have a fading wheeling pattern. I found it very difficult, and it's such an important panel that it just has to be right. As the metal itself is relatively inexpensive, it makes sense just to try and try until it works. I have to say, it drove me to distraction at the time, but I've never learned so much from one panel before, and it's brought my wheeling along quite a bit. Quite looking forward to doing either the other side, or even just one more for this side applying all of the lessons.

I did do a few pics of the wheeling of one of the new rear wing parts, which I'll post up with comments at some point, as I'm aware that the thread has been a bit quiet recently.

Thanks again .

[scotal]

The door turned out to be a real sod, particularly as the blank is some 3 1/2 feet long, which is really too much to wheel by oneself.

Out of interest, when you have 2 people wheeling do they both need to know what they're doing, or is it a case of a knowledgable bloke on one end doing the work, and a grunt on the other stopping the panel falling on the floor?

[Gary71]

I was the grunt for a while in a past life many years back

I used to support the other end of the Aston V8 bonnet sections whilst the were being wheeled up. Most of the time though they used two skilled guys with one taking the lead. I have no idea at all how to do it myself!

[steve wright]

Graham, missed your question on door handles. we're going for '66 VW bus push button as the opening mechanism, but no door handles - we'll put a 3 inch long recess three quarter of the way up the quarter panel which will be about half an inch deep which will allow you to put your fingers behind the trailing edge of the door skin. Diffiuclt to describe, but very much along the lines of the 904. Cheers, Steve

[smallspeed]

have you seen the door handles on the fiat barchetta? they're like a slim chrome strip with a button at the trailing end. the button effectively releases the chrome strip, which is a pull handle.. that might make for a nice hidden type of handle to save recessing the rear of the door / the bodywork?

top picture is what they look like when opened, bottom one shows what they look like installed..

[Gary71]

This is absolutely the handle you need for this car, but re-engineered to fit from the rear and sit behind the skin.