And So It Begins....

[SanRemo78]

There's a cut off date for fog lights. 1978 you don't need them (Stratos gets away without them) 1979 (some date?) you need one on the offside. Although I think you can get away with one centrally mounted one. Somewhere in the back of my mind I think there's a "construction and use" rule about the spacing of foglights. Wiring is straight forward, relay power supply has to come via the light circuit. The current rules are slightly different, when the foglight is switched on they must not re-illuminate after the ignition is switched and back on until the switch is pressed again. Not that I anticipate using the car in fog.

Guy

[SanRemo78]

Shell is back. Not unexpectedly the screen surround was rough. The donor surround will supply some cuts but it’s going to need some fabrication. A new roof panel without sunroof would be ideal but I doubt there’s one available.
Floorpan looks great with a minor repair being needed on one jacking point. Rear arches have had repairs and filler which isn’t surprising but wasn’t expected. Minor repairs needed to both front inner and outer wings. Sills not as bad as I thought but will need new metal in places. Rear turrets slightly worse than expected and some holes in the B pillar. Boot and bonnet (bar the pin holes cut into it) are mint. Petrol flap a waste of time but there’s a new one to fit. Rear panel is horrible. Ideally I need a new one if anyone has a lead for a reasonably priced one I’d appreciate it! Pictures to follow.

Guy

[SanRemo78]

In no particular order!

[SanRemo78]

Screen and inner wing top

[SanRemo78]

Front crossmember and left sill/B post

[SanRemo78]

Rear panel, both sides. Not pretty! Anyone got anything better or a lead for a new one?

[SanRemo78]

Tops of the B posts. Bugger. Rear arch too.

[SanRemo78]

Left sill and rear arch

[SanRemo78]

Left sill - dented and slight crease and left front inner arch.

[SanRemo78]

Floorpan and boot floor - superb!

[SanRemo78]

Floorpan and front bulkhead

[SanRemo78]

Mint bonnet but rally pin holes need plating. Why why why! Easier for a previous owner to do than fix the release cables! Muppets.

[SanRemo78]

Rear turrets. Not as bad as feared. Seen lots worse!

[SanRemo78]

Front crossmember, outer skin in one spot gone. Unexpected as it’s perfect everywhere else but knew it was there after the valance came off.
Floorpan had a spot I wasn’t expecting. Hey ho.

[SanRemo78]

I didn’t get a good look at the doors but two will be easily repaired, one will be spare. No pics of the boot lids but both usable. I need to bring one home to fit a HiFi spoiler to.

Unfortunately time on the Beta is going to be limited for the next week - Geoff is off to Italy next week. Told him to bring a rear panel back with him.

Parts refurb had ground to a stop. The Pandas back axle broke one of its spring pans yesterday so I’ve got to strip that out and repair/replace and the Alfa needs a new rear wheel bearing or two doing. Good job I’ve got the Stratos replica to fall back on! Newark kit car show this weekend and the Lancia AGM the Sunday after!
Guy

[SanRemo78]

Life is getting in the way with Hawk Cars at the moment so updates and progress will be slower than hoped! The fabricator has been working on it, I hope to see it Friday or Saturday before the BetaMeeta do! Unfortunately he has said that the screen surround "rescued" from the VX Coupe at Mark's is in a terrible state and won't supply any repair cuts. However it is giving him dimensions an profiles to work from so it wasn't a waste of time removing it!
Guy

[SanRemo78]

Well things at Hawk cars really are delaying progress for me. Just got back after 11 days down there. Went to see some progress on the shell. The outer skin of the left side pillar has gone and the inner steel cut out and replaced. The top of the near side inner wing has also been repaired beautifully. The spare screen surround is being used to build up repair panels which are then going to be cut out and grafted into the shell. Progress is slow as Geoff gets other work that pays better on a daily basis!

[peteracs]

Hi Guy

Glad to see the progress, now if only I could get my guy to actually start on the HPE that would be a bonus.

Peter

[HFStuart]

Not sure why but I can only see some of those if I download them.   Good to see someone else grappling with rust though! Fascinating the different places the coupes go compared to the Spider.

[SanRemo78]

Popped over to see the car for the first time in a month today. Twice. I'll get to that...

I've been tangled up with Hawk Cars for the last 6 weeks since Gerry had an accident in the workshop resulting in a 6 week stay in hospital. This means I'm spending at least a week a month down South helping out. It's been traumatic.

So yesterday I got a message asking for the front screen as Geoff was rebuilding the steel around the aperture. The pillars are three layers of steel, the lower one was okay, the middle not great and the outer skin scrap. The inner has been replaced now and the VX one I retrieved from Marks is being used to provide a repair section. Except for the two lower corners which are having to be fabricated. I got there to see the work with the screen and the surround in the Alfa and it was immediately obvious that the profile Geoff did wasn't quite right, too tight. So the plan is now to remove the remains of the original scuttle and stitch the new one in so it can be done in situ.

I'd just grabbed the stainless screen surround and gone over with it. But it didn't seem to fit very well. It wasn't until I got home I realised I had two sets and I'd mixed them up. And they're different profiles!!!!!! The original is wider by 5 or 6mm with a crease in a slightly different place.  So back to Geoffs with the (correct) other half, offered it up and it's a much better fit. It just confirms that the corners need redoing but the positive is that Geoff now has the correct profile to work to.

Should have taken some pictures for comparison and I'll do that next time I have them together to show the differences. Anyone seen this before? Wish I could remember where I got the thinner profile from! Probably Kevin Plowman...

Guy