Tuesday 26 July 2011

Red is the colour of my love...

Well things have been cracking on and it looks like the car will be finished in time for the Hebden Bridge Vintage Weekend which I have entered the car in...

So, to begin the exhaust is on, the carb fettled with (including new DS23 jets - c.10% more fuel mix). It looks and sounds absolutely incredible. Combined with the bored out exhaust baffles in the front box it now revs so easily and loses those revs like a real racer. Graham has done some top work on this and I'm happier than I thought I was going to be (which was pretty bloody happy...)

This is how it looked before with the twin downturned pipes. They looked pretty but would be absolutely buggered if they took a hard knock when racing.



And this is how it looks now, upturned with a skid plate...




Above is a front to back shot - the original flexi metal bead hose is now welded onto the fully bespoke system. It is straight through from the front box to the tailpipe and has been mounted as close to the underside as is practical for racing. More shots below...





Next up is the improved ventilation/airflow on the front. At the moment it looks like this:



The pair of intakes at the bottom feed air directly to the inboard front disk brakes. The one above it is a general radiator intake (I think) and the black metal with the single circular hole is where the registration was mounted. On that piece Graham will be drilling some auxilliary ventilation points and also feeding through the mounts for the front spotlights.

Next the chassis. These photos give a good view of the nearside renovation/strengthening that has been done:






So now onto the colour. I changed my mind so many times about this over the first 4 weeks but after seeing the bodywork today I know I made the right decision. The pics below are still wet and have had two coats (for the paint visible on the interior. The exterior is being painted later today/tomorrow and will be three coats. The colour is absolutely perfect in my opinion and I can't wait to see it all back on the car...

(These pics were taken under odd lighting while paint was still wet)

Interior and shut of front nearside door:


Interior of offside rear wing:


Interior of nearside door:



Well that is about it I think. 11 days and counting until she's ready, I am finding it hard to think about anything else at the moment...

2 comments:

  1. Fantastic progress. Can't wait to see it. Will the roof still be black? Also have you got a laminated or toughened glass windscreen?

    Phil

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  2. Hi Phil, yes, the roof is staying black. I will also be picking up a spare pair or rear wings to be cut out and just used for racing.

    As for the screen, a friend told me about this water repelling laminate that can go over. Im waiting for some more details on it but it sounds good.

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