A little while ago, I joined the Saskatchewan British Car Club (SBCC). I thought the club was based in Saskatoon, which is over 3 hours drive, but it turns out there is also a Regina chapter, which is much closer to where I live. A couple of the club members got in touch with me and lo and behold, one of them owns a Bugeye project! Doug (the Bugeye owner), invited me up to his home last night. His project is stripped to the bare metal tub, just waiting for him to finish his GT6 first. I got an awful lot out of last night's meeting. Aside from meeting a couple of new friends (one of whom owns a REALLY NICE E-Type!), we talked about the sheet metal work I need to do on my car. This included both the floors and the rear shroud (the area behind the seats that was cut away. See picture) Of course, we had talked about this on the phone prior to me going up, so I came prepared. His Bug was sitting there just wanting attention, so I attacked it with a measuring tape, card stock (to cut templates), and a contour gauge. I measured out the shroud as well as the dimensions and cross section of the support beam beneath it (which was also cut on my car). Then I took his brand new, uninstalled floor pans and traced them into cardboard templates as well. The plan is to buy some sheet metal -- I'm guessing 20 gauge, though I'd be happier with a bit thicker, such as 18 ga -- and fabricate the body parts that I need. Since I'm supposed to be a body-man, I SHOULD be able to do this, LOL! During the course of the evening, we were discussing this plan, it came up that Doug has an english wheel. He lent it to me! First time I've met the man, and he's lending me tools! I LOVE this part of the country! And this club! So I'm going to have some fun making (hopefully) symmetrical body parts! While I was there, we also discussed rotisseries. Doug has one, but he needs it for his GT6 at the moment. But he did have the brackets to mount his Bugeye on the chicken-spinner, which he also lent to me, which will save me a ton of measuring and fabricating. Doug's rotisserie is made of wood, mostly 2x6, and I got all the measurements I'm going to need to build one once my body is down to the tub. (I mean my car body! My own body already has plenty of "tub"! Just ask my wife!) So yeah, really excited right now! Of note... I didn't take any pics at Doug's, aside from my wife in Bob's beautiful Jag. Sorry. Pics below are some of the templates I made. Dumb, I know. I got caught up with talking cars. Video on Youtube here: (just showing the gauge of the sheetmetal) https://youtu.be/A8cCGV-2g74
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AuthorMy name is Ash. Archives
September 2021
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