Seats and bodywork

 Well, that was definitely the biggest gap there's been for working on the car. I guess that's what happens when you buy a second house and spend every bit of money and time getting it ready to be lived in!! Still, I got a nice office out of it and both kids got a room upgrade. 

Anyway, on to the car. I have been working on the seats on and off, but that'll be a separate post. This is going to be related to this;

This is the rear bodywork as it will sit on the car. It took a fair bit of fettling but to be honest I'm happy with how it sits. I have had trouble with the dimensions though. Setting things up with a centreline shows that the two sides are not in parallel. This could be how it's been stored (for MANY years) or it could just be the mould. Either way it took a lot of moving, positioning, clamping etc. 

The main task for this is to build the outriggers. There will be one each side and one at the back. The ones at the side will fit inside the body, and I need to fix the body to the bottom of them (more on that later). Here is a diagram showing a small steel section running in the right location;

As you can see there is a gap from the chassis to the outrigger. This is fine and actually desired, because I'm hoping to squeeze an exhaust in there!!

That will be either side, running the full length of the body. Using many clamps and braces I could see how it would be when it was fully installed, and it feels really stable. Well, at least in the Y and Z directions, the X direction at the top needs more work!!

The rear outrigger will be similar to the book;

This is just for measurement, there will be a decent amount of triangulation here. 

Along with this rear outrigger, I wanted to trial fit the tank;

This is where the book suggests it should go, right behind the diff. It looked 'ok' but I wasn't overly convinced. It seemed to intrude into the rear compartment, and the distance to the filler cap was excessive. I think it's only here on the Locost cars because it's the rear most 'thing' and they want to preserve the space above it for luggage. The Healey bodywork has a different setup so it doesn't need to be set so low.

In any case, there was a far more pressing matter;

The swirl pot actually ends up being the lowest point of the car!! you can see from the picture that even when I mount it as high as possible, the swirl pot is still in line with the bottom of the chassis, But because the Healey back end sweeps upwards, that means that if somehow I hit the ground then the swirl pot would be first to strike. 

Of course, I think I'd be in more trouble than simply losing a tank full of fuel (the wheel itself would need to come off and various other things break as well), but together with it not making best use of the boot I decided to move it;

Having it above the diff makes so much more sense. First the filler is a lot shorter. The tank itself is on some pretty substantial metal (it's the diff cage after all!!). The swirl pot is safely away from being vulnerable, the diff is easily accessible, and lastly the boot space is much better utilised. I doubt the proximity to the occupants will matter, after all one of the Toyota's has their tank running down the middle of the car!

So I have the measurements and the metal cut for the side and back outriggers, they'll get welded up soon (along with suitable triangulation). I now need to figure out how to fix the bodywork. My first thought was rivets, but they'll pull through the bodywork. Even using rivets with  washers will be challenging due to the thickness that they'll have to go through.

But then I thought back to my original plan which was Sikaflex/Tiger Seal. Bonding the body to the bottom of the braces would be easier, I just need to make sure it's strong enough. 

Well, that's it for now, this was a really productive day and it meant I could get a lot done. At some point I need to get the front out of the shed and do a similar bracing exercise, as well as understand the gap between the front and rear. I know from earlier discussions that the wheelbase of the original bodywork is shorter than the car I've built, which will mean an extra section in the middle. Oh, and while I'm talking about sizes, the wheels are very likely to stick out the sides of the body. I don't mind, I was torn between the narrow body Healey and the wider example from the likes of Sebring etc.