After deciding to make one of these wonderful creatures
(its a lot cheaper to buy one as they always loose money!) the next thing
to work out is what to make it out of. At the time I had a nice reliable
Range Rover Vogue, poor thing, it had no idea what horror awaited...
The first phase centered on basic preparation and trial fitting everything,
working out where bits should go to get the best results and also to work
out cable and pipe runs. This is where basic mistakes can be made resulting
in problems with fuel being overheated by being to close to exhaust etc. |
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The chassis had some rot at the rear cross member (very poor
design) and in closer inspection I found that it wasn't entirely straight.
So I added a replacement chassis to my list of bits. The Tomcat space frame
is jig mounted and welded to the chassis and I trim all the unwanted bits
off such as body mounts and the rear overhang. The back end is finished
off with a defender rear cross member. |
| Because the radiator was going to go in the back, a large
air duct is incorporated into the cab roof. The panels are trial fitted
to check clearance and to position the bonnet hinges and the small brackets
needed to hold all that lovely green fiberglass on. Here the chassis tube
work is coated in the first few coats of primer. |
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Here you can see the range rover radiator held in place while
I work out how to mount it. Lights and other electrical bits are trial fitted
and cable runs planned. The rear top frame rail ended up being moved down
about an inch so that the rear body cowl would fit! Space for the fuel tank,
battery, exhaust and screen wash tank is allocated. Rear bulkhead is formed
from sheet ally. The rear lights are trailer spares and cheep (which is
probably why I had to modify them to work). |
| This picture is supposed to show the spare wheel positioning.
I also have arch liners held up on boxes whilst I make brackets for them.
All the body panels, including the arch liners, have to be cut to fit. Every
car is slightly different and the method used to mount the panels is entirely
down to the builder. This degree of freedom inevitably leeds to excessive
thought and overly complicated solutions! it is vital to discus any designs
with chums who will tell you when you are being stupid. Everything has to
be positioned not only so it will work, but also so that it can be accessed
easily for servicing or repair. |
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The interior starts to take shape, the range rover steering
column goes in as do the floor panels which are sheet ally. I bought all
the panels ready cut and bent but unfortunately none of them fitted very
well and I ended up re-making most of them. The transmission tunnel is used
to support the coolant pipes, fuel pipes, cables and brake pipes as well
as support the gear selector and hand brake leaver. I made this from sheet
ally with the sides bent in two planes so it was rigid and did not require
a support frame (its strong enough for me to stand on) and I incorporated
an inspection hatch to make transmission fiddling easier. |
| The axles are on and run through a full sweep of movement
to check there is adequate clearance. The seats are in and the belt mounts
attached. The fuel swirl pot, high pressure pump and other engine related
gubbins are mounted on the passenger foot well . In the first instance I
mounted the Vogue transmission oil cooler at the front (later it was moved).
You can still see the tubular detachable cross member here, that is removed
for engine installation and replaced with a combined cross member and sump
guard. |
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Lucky I like welding. The front has a detachable cross bar
which is indeed detached in this photo. The engine and gearbox assembly
was put in place and held up on a couple of straps whilst the engine mounts
were tack weld in place, then the whole lot is taken out so I can finish
the job. It was at this stage that I found out that the transmission brake
fouls the seat mountings (there are many different sizes of transmission
brake, I had the big one!) so the seat support rails were cut out and new
ones put in with the lap belt mount fitted behind it. The transmission tunnel
had to be reworked to put pockets in in order to go round all the components
and still leave room to put the seat bolts in. |
| Here you can see the pedal box area shaping up, later I would
cut this all out and start again! |
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The powertrain awaits its home to be prepared. |
| Once everything was fitted, it was time to take it all out
again and finish all the welds off properly, fit the remaining bracketry
and get some paint on it. |
| So now the frame gets coloured in and bits start to be bolted
in properly.... |
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You can see the air duct which gets cold air to the radiator,
many people mount the radiator directly to this opening but that puts the
weight quite high up (its about 30kg full). I have mounted it high enough
to be out of the way but no higher. Also, I have welded some hinge brackets
on the forward edge of the top frame bar, this way I can hinge the rear
body cowl up and over the cab roof. |
| The fuel tank sits over the rear axle, eventually it will
be re-mounted 90 degrees round to allow better exhaust clearance. Coolant
header tank mounts on the space frame. |
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Rear dampers and springs in, arch liner mounts on, must be
time to start on the body support frame.. |
| The powertrain is in, time to fit the intake gubbins. You
can see the twin fan assembly at the back here. They are on a frame that
hinges forward to let me hose the mud out of the radiator. |
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The front wing goes on, I decide to space the rear edge out
about an inch so that it fits without cutting the rear edge of and loosing
its strength. |
| The wing needed a little further support, but I didn't want to put a heavy
metal frame in (because of weight and also I want the panels to flex when
I hit the scenery rather than break). The solution is in careful mounting
of the inner wing to give it stiffness and some flexibility. |
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This is a shot showing the dampers view of the brake servo
and master. The pedal box is now about an inch further back and tilted slightly
to give good clearance. Of course, if you use later servo and master then
there is no problem as it is about four inches shorter in total! |
| There's that bit in Apocalypse Now where Marlon Brando says "the
horror, the horror". |
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With all the body panels on it became apparent that I had
to do something about the lights! Other than a slightly bug eyed look it
was quite nice to reach this stage, although there is still lots of work
still to be done at least it looks like a car finally. Time for a cup of
tea! |
The next step was testing at Avon Dasstet... |