After 16 years..............

[Mitch]

Turkis is such a great colour. I'd like to see it sitting on those Torq Thrust beauties

[markm]

Wow, left it for 12 years. Looking good though

[Ralph]

I have just noticed the date on one of the photos - it appears I got it slightly wrong, it's not twelve years of hibernation just eleven!

[rapido]

And now ?

JLC

[Ralph]

Not much to report really but I thought that I would give a quick update.

I have managed to get together the boxes of parts from the strip down fifteen years ago and some other left over parts from two other cars that I broke up earlier on. From our initial assessment it seems that I have most parts but no doubt there will be a fair few items missing as even when I acquired the car some of it was in plastic storage boxes.
The inside of the shell has been totally stripped of coverings and is now being cleaned up for a coat of satin black. I know that this may seem a little ‘arse about face’ but when the car was painted I had different ideas. Luckily there were no nasty rust surprises lurking underneath. A few odd holes have been welded up and I am just waiting for the roll bar to turn up so as any necessary reinforcements can be completed before the satin black is applied.





The B.F.Torino Safari seats are now with the car and can be mocked up too.



I have decided initially to run with the steel wheels and have had some tyres fitted – 205/60 on the 7J rears and 185/60 on the 5.5J fronts.



Once the car is on the road I will try and fit the American Racing Torq Thrusts but there may be some clearance issues on the rear even with the mild machining that I have had done to the back of the rims. Here they just look so cool on this blue car.



Some more food for thought – I do like the custom paint on this SWB car recently spotted for sale on Bring a trailer.



.

[Ralph]

A little progress over the last few weeks.

Whilst looking for a half roll cage I couldn’t find the style that I had seen on some cars in the US readily available so my options were to make one from scratch or modify another design. I went for the latter option and purchased the S/T type of bar. The diagonal brace was removed, a lower harness or crossbar was added, the baseplates were beefed up and the front legs were lengthened so as it fitted closer to the roof & the angle of the legs was made more upright. Once the mounting points in the shell were strengthened the cage was removed and powder coated satin black. The cage went from this:



To this:


Moving to the other internal areas all of the old paint and superfluous brackets were removed before it was treated to some satin black. The ashtray was welded up in preparation for the one piece kneebar before more satin black was applied. The gauges were cleaned up and the bezels repainted.





Now to the biggest (in my opinion) step forward so far. I fancied something a little different to stripes but wanted some form of custom paint. I appreciate that it may not be to everyone’s taste but here is what I dreamed up and which was painted by Neil Melliard.







Three pearl white scallops hand pinstriped in green applied the old fashioned way – no vinyl was used here! The pics don’t really show it but there is a little metalflake thrown in there too. The detail in the front corners of the bonnet may look a little odd without the horn grilles and indicators but once these are fitted the curve should flow through. I think that these should look equally as well with the wide steels or the Torq Thrusts.

I have just got to up the pace a little now as it has been nearly six months already!

.

[Bootsy]

Love the graphics

[sladey]

+1 on the graphics


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[Lightweight_911]

Lots of great details on this car Ralph - keep at it !

[Ferry Man]

Three pearl white scallops hand pinstriped in green

Lovely.
Nice work. Keep it up.

[Mitch]

+1 and bet those front wing stripes look good from the driving seat too!

Nice work.

[Nige]

Nice update Ralph, I like but I think I'm going to be well into my 50s by the time this rolls out of your workshop

BTW I'm 39.

[Bootsy]

BTW I'm 39.

Yeah, pull the other one.

[Ralph]

Nice update Ralph, I like but I think I'm going to be well into my 50s by the time this rolls out of your workshop

BTW I'm 39.

Nige - I am just shy of 46 and I hope to be driving it before my 50th. My son who is 11 tells me that he will be finishing this car off!

[Ralph]

A little progress/update as of September.

Fuel tank stonechipped and painted:



The remainder of the underside stonechipped and blacked:



Rear light housings mocked up - a load of work required to get these fitting nice:



Rubber seals going on and a little more blacking:



Side glass in:



Front mocked up:



.