Thursday, April 01, 2021

Car gone today 😢

Five years since my adventure of building a GD started and three years since it was finished, this car has now been sold and was shipped to its new owner in Nottinghamshire today. The car was transported in a closed PRG trailer by Andrew at Zoom of Chester. Great service if you ever need your car moving and you don’t want to drive it.

The car can be seen later this year at the Newark car show in July 2021 and no doubt in the lanes around Nottingham. It maybe even have its new roof, air scoop and a few other modifications. 

Monday, September 28, 2020

130,000 plus page views

The counter has passed 130,000 page views for this blog. Thank you for visiting.

Not surprisingly the most viewings are from the UK, followed by Russia (!), USA, the UAE and Germany.

Saturday, September 26, 2020

Cobra bound for a new home!

I have taken a deposit on this great car. Will be sorry to see it go, but things move on in life. 

Hope Steve enjoys it as much as I have and that it will have a good home.

AK with lick of paint

The previous blog showed us putting the body on Terry’s car. Just look at it now - what a stunner! 

Edit April 2021 - this car is now featured in the latest Complete Kit Car magazine, including on the front cover.


Saturday, February 22, 2020

Clothing an AK

Went over to Terry’s in Pateley Bridge to help lift the body onto his AK chassis. James was driving (almost finished his AK), but a boat would have been better after the heavy rain - floods around Otley.

Anyway, with help from Stan we managed to get the body on, although it was touching the near side manifold when in place. So another phone call to Jon at AK and a further challenge on the build route for Terry!
Stan, James and Terry ponder. What’s that then?
The body over the chassis, ready to fit

Saturday, January 25, 2020

Side screens

The wind wings were left off and the mirrors were removed from the windscreen. The wind wing hinges were refitted to the windscreen.
Side screen with guide to cutting
5mm Perspex sheet was used for the side screens. This had guidelines drawn on it by GD - note that it says ‘guide only’. The cutting will depend on how you
have installed the hood, so the cut line WILL be different from the lines GD have drawn, unless you are very lucky.

The Perspex was cut, using a slow speed on the jig saw, replicating the screen rake angle, but allowing an extra 3mm clearance for the hood bow. The front edge of the side screen almost touched the windscreen frame. The bottom edge of the side screen was set about 13mm from the door top, to allow for the rubber seal - I used a piece of wood taped to the door to space the side screen from the door. The bottom rear part of the side screen was also cut to create a 13mm gap to the door at this stage. The side screen was temporally taped in place.

Side screen temporarily fixed with tape and hinge. Note the tape on the doors holding the wooden spacer
Holes were then drilled to mount the side screen to the hinges and these were temporarily secured in place to make sure that the cut was right. No seal was required between the side screen and windscreen.
Side screen hinge
Next the top stitching was used to help mark the top of the side screen, so that it could be tucked under the lip of the hood when closed. The factory markings on the Perspex were incorrect for my screen. So after numerous measurements and remarking, the cut was made. This was a time consuming job. An “S” transition was used at the top rear to create an overlap of roughly 70mm to the rear (screen to hood) to allow rain etc to be blown off to the rear.
The correct cut line is the thinner line near the top, so DO NOT cut to the line drawn. As it says it is a guide only.
The Perspex was removed and cut to shape. The side screen is flat, so does not follow the shape of the car - it sticks out a little at the bottom rear, but being Perspex there is some flexibility here. So it will need fixing at the rear to pull it into shape. This will also stop the side screens lifting when the hood is in place or when the screens are used without the hood.

GD recommend a turn catch that bolts through the side screen and turns behind the elbow of the hood frame, but this limits the side screen use to times when the hood is up! The bottom of the screen cannot be fixed to the door top, otherwise the door will not open (due to the windscreen angle). So I have yet to decide how to fix them - possibly a turn lock that goes behind to door top or some Velcro that goes from the side screen to the top underside of the doors.

The edges of the Perspex were sanded smooth, then polished with a fine body compound, before the rubber seal was worked into place on the bottom edge. Here I applied a little Vaseline to the rubber seal and then worked it into place. Patience and some strength is required here! Finally, clear anti-scratch film was applied both sides (inside and out), at the top of the side screen (tucked in edge only), to prevent scuffing when used. The screen was then refitted to the car.
Here you can see the bottom rear sticking out, until a catch is fitted
Side view
View from front

This process was then repeated on the other side of the car.

I decided to use ‘glove box’ locks for the side locks. A hole was cut in each side screen to the ‘across flats’ size of the lock barrel, then filed to a square to take the locking mechanism. This stops the lock turning in the sidescreen.

The side screen catches were next. First I removed the existing catch part and made up a longer catch from aluminium bar. This was cut so that 50mm was extending towards the door top and 65mm to the other side (115mm in total). Shrink wrap was applied to the longer side to act as the handle. A square hole was cut as the pivot 50mm from the short end, before attaching to the lock (see below).
Catch made to fit lock.
Next the catch position was marked onto some masking tape on the top of each door. The slot size was marked from the escutcheon (I used the bulkhead escutcheons from GD) onto the tape and the screw positions marked. A slot was then cut with the Dremel. After filing out the slot a little, the masking tape was removed and the escutcheons fitted in place using two screws.
‘Bulkhead’ escutcheon one door top
Finally the side screens were re-attached and the catch positions checked.
Screen in place with catch

Monday, December 16, 2019

Hood (part 5)

The centre of the Tenax fastener holes were marked on the fabric where it fitted to the moulding. This was just above the dip between the boot and the rear wing on each side.

The hood fabric was carefully removed from the car. To finish off the hood, the fabric over lapping the hood bows was stuck in to the channel and surplus fabric trimmed off.
Fabric stuck into channel and clamped in place
Fabric trimmed so that it is only stuck to the front face of the channel
Holes were punched in the corners of hood fabric, where marked. Next I made up two tabs out of plastic, using a photo from Andy as a guide.  The screw thread of the spring cap parts of the Tenax fasteners were pushed through the tab and then the fabric. I tried to screw on the “nut” part with a Tenax fastener tool. Although the plastic was supplied by GD, I could not get the plastic and hood fabric between the two parts of the fastener as they were too thick, so this part was abandoned! The idea of the tab is to stop the piping curling up at the corners, so I will have to live with this risk. The Tenax fasteners were therefore fitted without the tabs.

The stud was fitted to the moulding. The nut that goes onto the stud behind the moulding was fiddly to attach to say the least!
Tenax fastener fitted. I have now removed the crease by tensioning the material.
The hood was refitted to the car. It was then that I noticed that the locating peg from the front off side screen bows had pulled out of the bow. So another job to refit it. (Note: Decided to buy a new bow from Europa rather than seek out a welder to fix it).

Inside view
View from front
View from rear
Job finally done - after three attempts at getting the tension right to get rid of the ridges in the fabric - had to pull the stuck fabric off the bow, remove the adhesive and then refit!

I was told that the first time the hood gets wet DO NOT put it down until it is dry, otherwise you will never get it back on. So I won’t risk it, but presumably it will help further tension the hood by getting it wet.

Now for the side screens!