My Type 54 to sort of 47 Conversion

[RoddyMac]

I managed to get two days work on the car this past weekend, but it still doesn't look like much has been done.  I've put the body back on the chassis to make sure it still fits, and lo and behold it didn't.   The angled mounts at the firewall were in the wrong spot, which pushed the body too far forward.  Five minutes with the angry grinder corrected this, but it means that I'll have some welding to do on the painted chassis.  I also found that the front tires were rubbing on the lip of the wheel arch, again a few minutes with the angry grinder took care of this (after reading the post on the wider revolution wheels).  It's looking like I might not hit my mid September goal of primer, but I will get another two days next weekend to work on the car. 

Anyways, here's a pic of how the car looks now.




Rod

[RoddyMac]

I had a helper this past weekend and she actually enjoyed it! 





She's managed to get most of the filling and sanding done on the body tub, which means I might get to prime the body next Sunday.

I tackled the seatbelt mount plates in the rocker panels, the head of the mounting bolts had to be cut off with the angry grinder as there was nothing holding the nuts on the back side.  I had made a pair of replacement plates a few weeks ago, and they fit like a glove.



Next up was replacing the firewall, I spent most of Saturday grinding out the  existing fiberglass that held in the beaver board.  I then spent the rest of the day cutting up some plywood to fit the tub and glassed both sides with cloth.  Monday saw me install the pieces from the cockpit side.  The panels will get glassed in on the engine side once I pick up some more resin. 







At the end of the day Monday the car looked like this:



If I can convince my helper to help out again next weekend, the car should be all one shade of grey.


Rod

[BDA]

Things are coming along nicely! Having a willing helper is definitely a very good thing! 

[RoddyMac]

I managed to meet my goal of primer on the weekend, but I did find some more filling and repairs to do.  Unfortunately there are a ton of pin holes, so there will be more prep work before even thinking about paint.  Sunday morning the car looked like this:



And by the afternoon is looked like this:



The little bit of primer missing on the nose of the car is due to a minor fiberglass repair. 

I also got to work on the front panel repairs and did some minor repairs to the RH door.  The LH door and engine cover will get worked on later this month.  I might have the whole car one colour by the end of October, fingers crossed.

Rod

[BDA]

That's great progress!! That's got to feel good! Keep up the good work!

[EuropaTC]

It's amazing just how much things change when you get even a basic primer coat on. Just losing the obvious repairs and previous colours to get a nice, uniform matt beige makes a heck of a difference. To me it always seems like "hey, this might just work...."

Brian

[RoddyMac]

Brian,
I totally agree, when we were finished work on Sunday it looked like a ton of progress was made compared to the past few weekends of filling and sanding and it actually looks like a car again.. 

The question now is what colour to paint it, I was leaning towards white with a green stripe. But lately I'm thinking about painting it the same blue as I had painted the Eleven but with a white stripe across the nose like the Rob Walker cars.  Decisions decisions....


Rod

[Chuck Nukem]

WOW!!!! Looks great dude!!!

[Rosco5000]

Fantastic Rod!  You are making some great progress.  I'd like to see the car in person one day.

[460384]

Brian,
I totally agree, when we were finished work on Sunday it looked like a ton of progress was made compared to the past few weekends of filling and sanding and it actually looks like a car again.. 

The question now is what colour to paint it, I was leaning towards white with a green stripe. But lately I'm thinking about painting it the same blue as I had painted the Eleven but with a white stripe across the nose like the Rob Walker cars.  Decisions decisions....

Great work. I think you can do both, top half blue and lower half white with a gold stripe in the middle, like the 47 built by the Technical Shop Happy in Japan. It will look very nice.

Tom/Colorado
Rod

[460384]

Rod,

Below is the link to the blue/white Europa in Japan for your review:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pUp9BI_uJw

[RoddyMac]

Tom,
Thanks for the link, the video answered a question I had about hooking up the brake pipes to the pedal box.  But, I'm not too keen on the Sprint paint scheme, I think it belongs only on Elan's (just my opinion).  I did paint my old Plus 2 two tone like the Sprint, but I was never really happy with the way it looked.

 I do like the white with green: 
https://thegaragista.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/jpf13-153.jpg

Then there's this one in blue, albeit with a yellow stripe:
http://www.conceptcarz.com/images/Lotus/66_lotus-47_Num27-DV-08_MH-01.jpg

I wouldn't paint the wheels a dark colour if I go with the blue, but with the white they sort of disappear.    The pro's for white is it hides most imperfections in the prep work of the body (think waves and small depressions), the pros for the blue is I already have 3/4 gallon of the blue paint (solvent borne).  The con's for the white are I don't have any, and the cons for the blue is whether I can get another gallon of the single stage paint.   I don't know of anyone that mixes solvent borne paint here in the great white north other than industrial suppliers, and they can't do "custom" colours, only things like black and industrial grey.   

Rod

[BDA]

That blue looks a little purple to me, and it looks like an S1 rather than an S2 the title says, but It's a beauty whatever color or model it is!

[jbcollier]

It's not an S1. Probably an S2 modded to look like a 47.

[BDA]

The dash, no turn signal warts, and the pop-out windows are what made me think it was an S1. What is the clue that it is really an S2?