Hand Formed Aluminium Body

[John Bonnett]

A couple of our members have asked me to mention my current project which is a special body fitted to a Reliant Kitten chassis. I'm still asking myself why on earth I chose a Kitten as the basis because it is unsuitable in just about every respect. But, I'm nearly four years in now so there is no question of going back.

Power is from a standard 1.6 litre Ford Sigma mated to a Type 9 gearbox fitted with close ratio gearset. It has Jenvey direct to head throttle bodies and a DTA Fast ECU, all set up on a dyno and ready to go.

The rear of he body is just about finished and I'm currently working on the wiring loom. 

Here are a few pictures, the first being an artist's impression which is a computer generated render on the frame I made standing outside the workshop.

[yorkshire_spam]

Awesome work as ever @John Bonnett

[Nick Jones]

Great to see it on here John 

What is the next move?

[John Bonnett]

That's really kind of you Nick, thank you. What's next? Start up which really will be a red letter day. I just have the loom to install which actually isn't a trivial task. I'm using as the basis, the loom from the donor Fiesta with all the unwanted circuits removed and the two fuse/relay boxes, one in the car and the other in the engine bay. The one in the engine bay is mounted but before I do any more on the loom I am fabricating the battery box for the Odyssey Extreme battery which will mount on its end against the bulkhead.

[Nick Jones]

18 minutes ago, John Bonnett said:

just have the loom to install which actually isn't a trivial task

Yeah…. “just” doesn’t belong in that sentence! Wiring is fiddly and needs to be done right for reliability and tidy appearance. I have every confidence that you’ll achieve both 

[Mark]

Excellent work John. You do like a challenge! Unlike a lot of us who have an idea, vision, and do nothing, you jump straight in there and make it happen. Great.

Is that an Se5 or 6 in the background? always fancied a 5.

[Martin]

Unbelievable your skills.

[John Bonnett]

Unbelievable stupidity Martin but thank you anyway.

Mark, thank you too. Yes it certainly is a Scimitar, an SE5 a cracking example which I was lucky to happen on it. I bought it specifically for a road trip with two other couples with classic cars but unfortunately, it didn't happen because one of our dogs was very poorly and we couldn't leave him. It was at a time of high expenditure on the project with all the silicone hoses, PTFE lined fuel lines and countless anodised AN fittings to complete the plumbing so I decided to move the Scimitar on and it now has a good home in Worthing. In my view the Scimitar is a quality motor car and hugely underrated, certainly under priced. How many mainstream cars of that era had a Watts linkage rear end? Like you, in my view, the 5 is the best because it has a better dashboard than the 5A and both the 5 & the 5A are more compact and sportier that the 6 which is a gentleman's touring car rather than one that can be hooned around a circuit or up Prescott like the SE5. I loved the sound of the V6 which I prefer even to a V8. The achilles heel of the V6, particularly the early ones is the Tufnol or plastic timing gears which if they fail have catastrophic effects. I changed the ones on mine for alloy which gave a lot of peace of mind.

[RedRooster]

John wouldn't it just have been easier to buy a Volvo P1800 in the first place... 

Pity your now where near I could have done the loom for you. 

[JohnD]

I am green, John, just green.  My garage skills are akin to pick-axing in comparison!

[RogerH]

That is simply nice -  very nice.

 

Roger

[Hamish]

Omg that’s amazing John. Don’t tell me you fab’d  all that aluminium!! I love the dash and centre console 

true artisan. Not sure what I’m doing on this forum it’s for skilled and imaginative folk.   

[John Bonnett]

Blimey, I'm overwhelmed, all totally undeserved but thank you anyway. I don't think I'm doing anything that anyone else couldn't do if they wanted to, and put their minds to it. I am self-taught, didn't start until I was 60 and now I'm an old git of 80 so if I can shape metal anyone can. And it's great to meet up with all my old Club Triumph mates.

[Nick Jones]

You are too modest…. But, just carry on and throw us the odd pic to show your progress  

[Hamish]

1 hour ago, John Bonnett said:

 didn't start until I was 60

Now he tells me he is over 60 !!

didn’t see that coming either  

Speak soon on TR3 matters I’m sure 

H

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Great job John.

And what a pretty car too. A bit like a smoother Triumph Italia. Lovely

Going to let me take a mould off it so we can make a few carbon fibre shells?

Keep up the good work.

[John Bonnett]

It'll need a good coat of Bondo before any moulds can be taken 

[Nick Jones]

You going to set you painter mate off on one again? 

[John Bonnett]

I see it's a month gone by since my last offering so what progress has been made in that time? Not a huge amount is the honest answer but I am pleased with what has been achieved. The battery box is now finished and installed together with some wiring. The loom is  attached to the engine bay fuse/relay box and clipped to the scuttle. I've fitted a charging point from a BMW which might prove useful given that the battery terminations are not very convenient for attaching crocodile clips. I'm using saddle clamps and tie wraps to anchor the loom which work well and make it easy should any further cables need to be added.

The accelerator pedal is now to the cable and the throttle linkage

The steering column pillow bearing needed a bit of tweaking to bring the two column sections in line and this took an inordinate amount of time to achieve. They were fine originally but the column mounting bracket must have moved a tad when it was being fully welded, not much, but enough to cause misalignment.

[Nick Jones]

Ah... all the fiddlesome details that interfere with the fun part of massaging sheet metal into interesting curves.....  Good progress being made though - in spite of certain distractions 

[Escadrille Ecosse]

Must be something wrong with me. I actually enjoy making and fitting the loom

The issue with the steering column less so. Very frustrating.

Looking forward to that 'elle va' moment.

[John Bonnett]

4 hours ago, Escadrille Ecosse said:

Must be something wrong with me. I actually enjoy making and fitting the loom

The issue with the steering column less so. Very frustrating.

Looking forward to that 'elle va' moment.

Moi aussi!!

[John Bonnett]

First, I'd like to start by giving a big thank you to Nick for his help and guidance in negotiating the minefield of wiring the ECU. All done now, I'm pleased to say and here's a video of the engine running. The engine is a 1.6 Ford Sigma from a MK1 Focus purchased a couple of years ago from Nick's local scrapyard. I don't know whether I've been very lucky or if all Sigmas are as good as the one I have but it really is a gem. Just listen to it. Disregard the tinkling sound which is from the trumpets which are loose. I'd removed the air box backing plate to access an earth point on the block and hadn't nipped them up.

The ECU has been programmed on a dyno and the set up of DTA Fast ECU and DTH T/Bs has lifted the power of the standard engine by an amazing 36%, a huge increase for relatively little outlay.

 

[RedRooster]

First start up is always good 

[Mark]

30 minutes ago, John Bonnett said:

The ECU has been programmed on a dyno and the set up of DTA Fast ECU and DTH T/Bs has lifted the power of the standard engine by an amazing 36%, a huge increase for relatively little outlay.

That's excellent!

Throttle bodies sound throaty 

Big leap forward, Great work.