Step Covering Replacement

Hi

Last day home today so I have been busy finishing bits off and getting the garage clean. 

Had a nice time away shame it snowed.

Otterburn Castle Hotel

While away I was thinking about the stainless covering for the step and whether it was the right thing to do; to fit my modified cover running up the wing or to have a regular stainless step. 

So I made up a normal Kallista stainless step from a piece of thin stainless.

I folded the stainless over the step with my homemade folder and fit in place.

I then had the leading authority on car design look at both and to decide which one she liked and the lady picked the original Kallista design, so what's a man to do; go along with your wife's decision of course.

I only had the one piece of thin stainless, so to make the new covers I used the stainless from the modified cover and cut off the sides and the lower part of the front where it folded under the step frame. This meant there was no sides just a top and front, not a problem as this is all you see anyway, I had also made the frame a little wider than the original as the modified cover was to lie on the top of the wing and the extra width was to make up for the sides of the original aluminium cover.

The first side was made and glued on to the frame, I was very pleased with the results and started to cut the other to fit, unfortunately on the last inch of the cut I had a kick back on the grinder and scored the stainless. I was not best pleased and went on ebay to find some more stainless.

Unfortunately the firm I used before does not sell on ebay anymore, so after a search I found a firm called Inspiredsteel that would cut to size and bend for you, after a few emails I had my order in and it was delivered yesterday. I also decided to change from plain stainless to mirror finish, it was a bit more expensive at £50 inc delivery but not much, as I would have had to pay for the bending as my folder won't handle 1.2mm plate.

I ordered slightly larger than required so I could grind to fit and used impact adhesive and lots of clamps to glue it together, .

Because of a lack of clamps I laid one step on top of the other and tightened down.

The mirror finish stainless steps would look great by themselves but I thought I would try to make them look a little different from all the others with some art work, I have been etching and coloring glass as a hobby for years so thought I would give it a go on stainless. 

For a test piece I scanned the Panther design from the logbook and etched and painted it onto a piece of stainless.

For anyone who wishes to know how its done.

You first scan your design and import it into a design program as a bitmap image then convert it using the program to a vector image, this is a mathematical image as opposed to the bitmap being dots and allows you to manipulate your design. I then drew the stripe lines. Copied and reversed so I had one for each side.

The image is then sent to a cutting machine where the image is cut into a roll of resist.

You can then transfer the resist onto the material to be etched.

The image to be etched is peeled off leaving the resist, you can now blast the design in the cabinet not going to deep but enough to allow the paint finish to be below the surface of the material.

Of course you don't need a computer or a cutting machine to do this, you can draw it out by hand on a piece of vinyl and use a scalpel to cut it out, still need a blaster though. 

I then mixed some decent black paint, I had a tin of One Shot pin striping paint which should last a lot of years and airbrushed onto the design.

When the resist was peeled off I was more than pleased with the outcome.

Very difficult to see in these photos.

I test fit one side to see what it looked like, I was hoping to use the original separators, unfortunately one of them was broken, must have happened on removal so I had to make my own out of the wing piping rubber. 

I shall glue these onto the edge with silicon to be part of the step.

I still need to do a little fettling to get things to fit perfect but it does look pretty good, not for long I bet once its on the road.

I am also thinking of fitting 22mm tread from Woolies in three sections and having the aluminium extrusion colour coded to the body colour, then if any standing is done it's on the rubber and not the mirror finish.

I have taken it back off now and covered it again with vinyl for protection.

Well that's all I have managed this time home, my sound proofing for the scuttle has not arrived yet so I will have to fit that when I return and then it will be almost ready for paint.

See ya Paul

Scuttle Fitted

Hi
I finally have the scuttle fitted, well its not screwed fully down yet but the bonnet stop bolts are tightened and everything fits so that's good enough for now.

I had expected to finish the scuttle sooner but un-beknown to me there is apparently a clause in my marriage vows that states that when your wife has taken a weeks leave you are not allowed to spend every waking minute on the car. So I have had to be a good husband and go shopping and walks etc, tonight we are off to have dinner and stop the night in a Castle in Northumberland so she's very happy.

The scuttle painted up quite well and for a change I am quite pleased with the Hamerite finish.

I spent some time time yesterday cleaning the under bonnet parts up and painting them black to keep in theme with the engine.

I have spent this morning getting everything fitted in place, the biggest worry was that the hole for the drive pipe would be in the wrong position, it wouldn't need to be out much and the wiper drive would miss the upper hole. Which would cause a bit of a problem as the pipe would be either to long or short, getting new pipe would be easy enough but I don't have a flaring tool for the pipe end. No problem, it fit perfect and I have fitted one of the drives in place to make sure, I still need to fit a grommet around the pipe but where I have put them I ain't got a clue also the bar that fits in front of the air scoop has decided to go into hiding but I am sure it will turn up when I am not looking for it.

That's that mostly finished and I am quite pleased with the outcome, it looks better up close so I have made a video of the scuttle in place and also progress on the wings and steps.

See ya Paul

Scuttle 3

Hi

Almost finished.

It has taken a while and one hell of a mess due to all of the grinding dust so next job is to pressure wash the garage again and clean my lovely shinny engine bay.

The scuttle fits quite well although if I was to start over I would do a bit of re-designing on the rear section where the back is slightly bent. I can see no requirement for this apart from looking good, what the bend does is to  bring the back upright in front of the rear box section frame, so instead of the scuttle being supported by it, it misses it completely. 

I have spent the last couple of days drilling the holes and slots for bolting the hinges and boxes down, these where just a matter of marking off from underneath and drilling, my slots aren't to great but they will be hidden by the hinges.

I decided against the extra rib in the back as there ain't no one going to see it.

I have fitted the window wiper motor and have figured out how to fit the drive rod.

The drive is fairly easy to strip down, just the 2 nuts to remove from the cover then slide the pipe off, the drive mechanism then simply winds itself off the drive screw.

Do the same with the other drive and pipe, and you are left with the flexi drive and the drive pipe cover.

I marked off the scuttle where I thought the drive should go through and drilled the hole a little large as I shall use a grommet to seal the hole. So, when I refit I shall slide the grommet onto the drive pipe, slide the drive pipe through the hole in the scuttle then re-build the drive sections and hopefully get the scuttle to fit.

The power block for the wiper motor is quite large so I shall use the same method as the drive, I have cut a 30mm hole and shall slit a grommet to allow the wires to slide in then superglue it together.

That's the metal work all finished, I cleaned it all up with thinners and mixed up some ally filler and filled the gaps where the sides where fitted and any other areas that needed a bit of help.

Once all sanded then a couple of coats of etch primer.

Its amazing what a coat of paint covers, you would think it was a pressed panel.

I rubbed the primer down and had a search of my paints, the good engine paint I had was mostly used but I found the nearly full tin of Hammerite I had originally bought for the engine but did not use. I set up my spray gear and mixed the paint with thinners then 3 coats later it looked great.

 A little bright but the paint is still wet and will dry a little darker and less shinny, I hope.

The turned corners look good, no sign of the welding.

See what its like tomorrow when dry and fitted.

I remember when removing the heater just how difficult it was and refitting will be a bit of a nightmare so I am thinking that it maybe a good idea to fit this loose and remove it when the centre carpet is down so as to aid the fitting of the heater, much better access from above. This causes a bit of a quandary as I should have this and the bonnet in place for the spray. 

Will have to think on this.

see ya Paul

Scuttle Build 2

Hi

Managed to get more time in and have mostly finished the scuttle, although it is not as good as I was hoping for.

What I suspected about taking the measurements from the original was correct, I am around 15mm out on either side of the back end. I spent some time figuring out how to fill the gap and remembered I had some 90 deg angle framework in the loft which with a bit of work fit quite well.

I have shaped the end to match the rise in the scuttle and slipped it under the edge.

I marked of the scuttle edge first so it was parallel to the angle section and trimmed it off, you can see the 15mm gap on the scuttle base, this method left a gap at the round edge which needed filling.

I bent and beat a piece of plate over a pipe until it filled the gap and tacked into position, to get it to fit easier I made the transition between the new section and the back of the scuttle by flattening the angled back section.

Once tacked I removed the scuttle and welded and filled in any gaps.

It fits quite well and cleaned up Ok.

When I started the other side I realised that instead of making the angle iron infill in two sections I could make it in one, so I left it quite long and with a bit of trimming and bending I manged to get it to bend and fit quite well.

As you can see in this shot it fit quite well.

When I was happy with the fit I welded it all together and cleaned it up, I then marked and cut all of the cutouts from the original and fit in position.
I marked all the way around the back and sides and trimmed the excess off, you can see it fitted with the trim in position around the edges.

It is basically a perfect fit but still not quite as good as I was hoping for mainly because of having to fill in the side's but still not the pigs ear I was expecting.

It was to have been powder coated but I have decided against this as I am going to use filler on the edges where the angle iron fits underneath and then sand smooth.

I have also ordered some 2mm soundproofing for the underside to stop any rattling.

So tomorrows jobs are to drill all of the holes before priming and painting, a nice red I think to match the engine.

see ya Paul

Scuttle Build 1

Hi
Home again and the sun is shinning (for now).

I picked up the new scuttle this morning, not quite the finished article but a couple of days work will transform it.

I had it made from 1.2mm Galvo steel with the main bends folded in, lot of cutting and welding to do and the reason is because off all the damage to the original.

I could have left it and made repairs with fibre glass  and if I make a pigs ear of the new scuttle then that's what I'll do.

I started by masking off the areas to cut so I can see the pen marks and marked off the centre then the outer angle and cut.

I took the measurements from the original which; as I found out on my first test fit, this was not the best idea as I would have had a better fit by laying on top of the bonnet and scribing the sides as the original scuttle base is rather a loose fit.
The main work today has been cutting the drop section where the bonnet hinges fit. I measured off and cut out a flap on either side.

I have slit down to the red marks and made the cutouts, the rise of the scuttle at the back is around 25mm so I raised the back and supported it at this height; measured the gap of the cut out and cut the steel.

I then tacked the pieces in position and trimmed of the outside to fit.

You can see better in this shot, there is now a tapered gap running down that needs to be filled.

The speedo cable is a bit of a problem as it runs over the frame work and stops the scuttle from sitting flat on the frame work, this is what the two ribbed sections on your scuttle are for. One is a dummy but the other allows the cable to pass freely, so I cut a piece of box section and a notch in the scuttle for it to fit and welded it in place.

 I only need one but for symmetry I shall cut and fit a second.

I now needed to test fit, so I re-masked and marked of the curve around the edges and cut these sections out, there are also a number of small cutouts at the front which I marked off and cut out.

You can see the gaps on either side, these do not run at the same angle as the bonnet sides and will need trimming when the side uprights are made, also the base could have been wider. I really should have scribed instead of taking the measurement from the original scuttle.

While I had it in position I marked of the holes for the bonnet stops as I need it bolted down to make the side's fit correctly. I drilled the holes and used the offcuts from when I cut the angled width and welded them into the gaps on either side of the raised section.

I did all of the welding from the underside, mostly because I am a pretty rubbish MIG welder, and it is all joined together with spot welds then ground down, not what I am used to doing as it looks rubbish, but all that will be hidden.

I have bolted it all down and the fit is pretty good.

Still needs a lot of work then cleaning up but I hope to carry on and make the side's tomorrow if I get the chance.
See ya Paul