Progress with TC8485

[SteveW]

I thought that it was about time that I did a quick progress report:

After a long battle with the rear wings, they now fit. One problem was that it turns out that I didn't have a matching pair - further evidence that my car had been in a crash. I ended up having to cut and reprofile one of the wings to get the sweep of the curves at the rear to match. They now both look the same to me and end up that same height off the ground. For the moment they are finished in 2k epoxy primer and they will stay that way until I'm ready to block sand and apply the paintwork.

[SteveW]

I've also finished the engine except for the carbs. I'm working on the dashboard at the moment and I've trimmed it, fitted the edge chrome and the main instruments. The centre panel is well on it's way to being completed and a new dashboard wiring loom has been sourced and is ready to fit. More pictures to follow.

[antijam]

Looking good. I'm impressed with the fit of the rear wings to the tub - are you using original parts?

body.jpg (86.13 KiB) Viewed 1953 times

The fit of most repro wings is very poor in the area arrowed - the wing profile is wrong.

I had to let in wood and metal on my tub to get a reasonable contour match that could be hidden by the piping.

[SteveW]

They are original parts, but I suspect not all from the same car. The closeness of the fit is down to two things

i) a lot of trial fitting. Like you, I reworked the profile a bit to get it to fit (although not a lot).

Ii) I took the pictures from further away than you did

I prefer to spend time repairing the original parts than using reproduction ones as I agree that they are not as good. I had to do some cutting and welding on one of the wings due to rust. However, the inner wheel arches were too far gone and I had to buy new. They were a terrible fit and by the time I got them right I had might as well have made them from scratch myself from flat steel sheet!

[timandgerda]

Looking good Steve. My rear wings were shot and I didn't have replacements when building the tub so am now struggling to get a decent fit on the curves. I am working away for a couple of weeks but will give you a call when I get back so we can compare notes! Cheers, Tim.

[SteveW]

Hi Tim, It would be great to catch up and compare notes. Long time no see. I'm tied up the last weekend in August and the first weekend in September though.

[timandgerda]

No worries - I will give you a call then.