OK forget renewables for a mo .. here's a slight diversion on project 'Sports Car' build to date. The pics take a while to load so please be patient the quality is worth it!

Project car was inspired by Ron Champions 'Build a sports car for £250' which when Ron Wrote it you could probably just do if you had the same tools and facilities. Its based on Mk2 Escort running gear and has a steel space frame chassis clad in aluminium. The whole project is made by me by hand, no its not a kit or plan build - if you want one let me know!

Underbonnet showing home made pedal box with ignition locally mounted. Steering cranked link is from Fiat mated to homemade shaft and bearing block. Centre box is aluminium water trap for heater, the original fan and element just fit in a homemade shroud in the bulkhead.

Single Weber twin choke feeds 110 BHP crossflow. The original engine is rebuilt to retain single donor status. Homemade pedals and box, carb linkage uses very modified donor and new bits. Works well.

Suspension is homebuilt unequal length wishbone, triumph bushes, cortina uprights and brakes all fully reconditioned. Mudguard stays are significantly upgraded and attach to the hubs through the unused 8mm holes.

Radiator is from the donor 1600 Auto, ground and angled to fit. Cooling fan is citroen and pipes are stainless sections fitted to cut standard pipes. Fan switch is homemade (see diecast box) using original u/s sensor housing brazed into SSteel tube. Sports transistor as sensor..

I wanted a period 60's look, simple uncluttered; the original instrument pod now sits flat behind the teak veneer dash panel - may change this later. Ingition is unique in relocating the switch with lock to hub level, the donor column plus electrics are all retained. Exhaust is donor with pipes cut and rewelded and new stainless sections grafted on, sound great! Silencer is bought item.

Not shown is axle, modified with 5 links on 4:1 diff, the prop is a new Reco and gearbox is 5 speed type 75. The placement allows an unmodified stick to be used, this may needs revising when its on the road. Handbrake is donor on Morris travellor cables, quite a find as these fit perfectly; OK I had to shorten the drum ends . Access to tunnel is three cover plates and the rear panel unbolts as well. I used 16 gauge steel for floor,tunnel and back, its truckloads stronger for road use and more rgid as well. The inner panels are vinyl clad aluminium with aluminium capping pieces. Chassis trailing arm attachments are braced as are the damper attachment points, both these were bending beforehand. Electrics use the standard donor loom split front rear but is shortened and rewrapped as appropriate. Most of the internal joints were remade, heat shrink sleeving is used extensively, most connectors were renewed using production crimp tools.

The donor vehicle was a high spec Ghia and most of the electrical features are now mandatory. The centre dash retains the original switchgear, its a bit untidy at the moment but will polish up. Indicator side repeators are placed along the same line and make use of the chassis tubine, against a high polish they really show up. Windscreen wipers are mini mated to the donor switch, heater fan has 3 speed electronic control, plumbing to heater has yet to be done and air inlet is likely to change.

Since these photos were taken the cars steadilly being bought up to full polish. The initial polish takes about an hour per square foot to do properly. Theres' 5 square metres to do so any power polishing tips would be greatly appreciated.
For now I'm staying with the stock 'rostyle' steel wheels, suprisingly they have just the correct period look and will be cleaned up and sprayed silver (or yellow or red) other cosmetics like the carpet and rear 'boot' are outstanding details to complete.
The screen is the next major item to do; but fit one and SVA insist on all manner of regs to go with it, I may just fit fly screen or one that lowers fully for now. Of course it occasionally rains and the weather proofing equipment just isnt in place yet; you could keep dry in my old Midget by travelling at 40 mph plus..this theory was later revoked to include 'in a light shower' following a thorough drenching in the lake district (it always rains in the lake district - well you wouldnt have lakes otherwise).

A lot of effort went into making the panels fit very closely around the suspension parts. The first rule is to treat Ali like pastry ie it will permanently change shape if leaned on, will 'pull' the material when cut and scratch very easily. My system was to make pattern from brown wrapping paper, tial fit to the chassis letting it take up the natural curves and modify by sticking on correction pieces. Transfer the pattern to the material by using a thick black marker and cut out all the black, you'll have to correct your hole shapes and straight lines. To get the right finish, I used a dremel with remer/mill bit attachment finishing with 400 WetDry then polished (Solvol) - nice. The polished ali looks georgeous but its a nightmare once fittted, working on and around the project requires utmost care. already the lawn-mower found a 'lost' exhaust nut and threw it at the rear panel denting it... Next time round I'm doing it all steel.

Happy building

Dave

Update .... since these pics were taken I've added and developed extra detail, some visible most functional, try the new detail gallery (top right) for hot close ups of your fave bits .. if you want a higher definition pic, mail me.

Additions are:

Heater Plumbing; in keeping with wild pipe bending (see exhaust) I routed the external circuit in standard 15mm DHW copper joining to the various bits with short lengths of rubber heater pipe. The copper/flexi junction is made secure by soldering on a compression ring to absolutely ensure the joint wont seperate. I painted the finished items black for now, in future these will be plated. Worthy of mention (as I happened to have one to hand) was the golf gti oil cooler pipe which is a perfect fit from inlet manifold to the feed copper, honestly it could have been made for the job. (pics to follow) The system was bled by jacking up one side by about a foot, now summer evenings wil be tolerable ..

Fuel pipe; The pipe run in the engine bay shares the same chassis tube as the heater pipe run so once the bulk of the heater pipes had been eliminated the pipe was securely held with nylon 'P' clips, it is the original donor tube and still fine for further use. The whole run is now tidy, safe and secure.

Brake pipes; I could not get the air out of the brakes and put it down to the original layout not using both front ports on the master cylinder, I had used one outlet which split to feed both front calipers and blanked the other one, now a single pipe runs to each front caliper from the master on a new reduced length route.

Seat belts; the roll bar carries the seat belt top anchors, I added a central brace and bolted on both belt sets... I hate the things, they look great but hold you absolutely rigid and being a round sort of person have a tendancy to slip off.. frankly they're crap for anything other than pure racing (for skinnies).

Front lamps; I finished moulding the lamp retainers so the cable is completely hidden and runs inside the cross brace tube, its also a detachable assembly with pluggable elecrics, however to remove it the top cooling hose has to be broken so its now got a security feature as well.

Indicators: Had to make use of that ugly angled joint on the front frame top tube ends, I bought a standard round indicator rather than the smaller m/cycle type. This was mounted to a backplate and welded to a short length of 6mm round. After grinding and shaping the finished result is acceptably period and I get to be able to remove the nose cone with no electrics tangling about..

Paint: More Red, changed the roll bar and support bracket with new mid bracve to this brighter scheme.

Wheels: Ive sandblasted just one wheel, the standard wheel is a bit of a design classic and cleaned up looks .. pretty acceptable, still torn between red or silver, the silver has it for now..perhaps alloy three spokes will come along when Im wealthy.

Exhaust: Its going to be red, comments for heat sheilding have also beeen raised so I'll experiment with some of the wound on material.