cheers for the comments, it does feel good to finally see it coming together
Been busy today working on the last few things, mainly the roof which I am glad to say with the grp section of the roof bonded on I have been able to get the layer of holding carbon cap on, still lots of work over the next few days to get it looking lovely and infused. The carbon section wraps the grp roof around the metal section to clamp all the composite layers together
Tell me about it... In fairness I have no weight in the car to keep it down and the coil over's are not wound down yet and I will not be dropping it till it has been through the biva just ask I don't have ground clearance issues as I don't want to have the test postponed or stopped because race car
Managed to get a couple of coats of resin on the roof and it seams to have gone very well and has absorbed fully into the mat. Got another 5 coats to go then I will polish the high parts back and finish with 2 coats of 2K clear and I will then polish it back to a lovely high gloss finish.
Getting closer, this is driving me insane! Only 3 more coats and it will be ready to polish back and make shine. Hoping I can get the car in the booth Monday so I have somewhere warm to work so I can bake the layers on quickly and in a few hours get it done.
As you can see it is looking smooth and the reflection is looking about right.
Decided I needed to get on with my engine parts which are left to make so today while working on the beetle I managed to put some time into the blower outlet. Still needs lots of grinding back to get it really smooth but I am quite pleased with how it has come out so far. I am hoping in the next few days to have the welds all polished back and I will pop down to a friends and have the tube rolled ready for the silicone pipework also need to trim the end of the pipe as its a little rough at the moment.
Little pipe out the side is the the bypass valve but I got tired so couldn't be bothered to finish tidying that side up. Will be looking nice and shiny in a few days and then off for a black coat to match the blower - blower will be going again as I have scratched the paint off over the years...
It's time to say that the body work is now done, the roof is now finished in a satin dark silver mat which I am really pleased with. Looking forward to putting it back together...
I have to say I am really happy with the roof and glad that I didn't leave it just carbon, really hoping that assembly is ready and I can relax, take my time and make it look lovely. Ready to finish this now and drive it.
Not sure what actually happened with the day but with all the faffing around, feeling cold, and fitting a seat - spending time sitting in the seat. Got the door and bonnet on now and its looking like a car but this is all
Oh gosh what a day! Had to make some more changes to the custom wiring loom but the loom is in now as well as most of the breaking system, heating system and lots of other bits. Looks like it is now coming together and I am looking to trial the wiring loom next week to see what happens when I put the old ecu in as it may be dead but I do have another ready if this is the case but I will need to do some coding.
Also started to wire the digital dash in too but there are so many wires!
Also started to make the new door seals and putting lots more on the car
Can I be rude and tell you to slow down? Take your time and enjoy assembling what you have created as you really are at the best stage, most of the hard work is in and you are assembling a vehicle that most normal people will walk past. This may sound wrong after all the effort but your car looks like a factrory build, I hope you still have this in 20 years to look back and say "I made that", Lord knows what you will be building then.
One thing I have always wanted to do is build this into a second glance car with people knowing something is different but not being able to know. Lots of people come into the bodyshop and ask me how I made it longer or wider... There are lots of little things on this car which make it different to the factory version but I guess the line OEM+ is what I am going for, nothing lary or that stands out just simple clean lines and changing things which from the factory wouldn't be done like welding the A panels and scuttle together which removes the odd join line.
Think your right about enjoying my time putting it together, however I am probably in for a back operation in a few months and after that I am not really aloud to lift anything so I would like to have this done so when I am well again I can drive it
Currently also building a 1973 Beetle and then there will be a classic mini and maybe then I may do something with the MG ZT-T but not ever another roof chop!
After over 4 years of the car being dead I finally got around to hooking the little feller up to a battery and to my shock the sparks where huge then I realised that the starter motor was connected to the positive and the body on the same connect, glad it was as simple as removing the one wire...
Plugged the laptop in and there was full communication with the ECU, BCU, ABS and the air bag system so it looks like all the modules are alive and working
All the doors are now fitted and aligned correctly
I then also managed to get the rear boot door on too as well as the custom one/gp bumper which I made quite a while ago and had forgotten what it looked like on the car, really pleased with it though