catsx11 wrote:Good stuff Nige!
You'll be ridding the plinths to the indicators, no doubt.
Basic question though…what do you use to cut the fibre glass and what for the steel/aluminium?
Is there a good (cheap) one-tool-does-all (Dremel or something) - for occasional use? Rotary or saw action?
Hi Alan, Mmmmm, good question, as I can be a bit on the lazy side, I try & avoid hard work wherever possible & tend to use power tools quite a bit. Having been doing this sort of stuff for over 40 years now, I've become a bit of a dab hand at trying to make things easy. I used a 4" angle grinder with a 1mm thick cutting disc, set on a low speed to trim the fibreglass. I also used the same principle for cutting out the metal shapes for the front valance. I tend to cut them just slightly over size & then use a flap wheel on the grinder to take the edges down to the "cut line". In doing it this way, I was able to cut out all of the shapes for the valance, including the vent/scoop in under 15 minutes. If you were to use snips it would take a lot longer, & be more dfifficult in trying to avoid distorting the panel you're cutting. I did use a 3" hole saw in a drill to cut the holes in the front valance though.
To cut out the steel arch lips, I used an air shears. It's basically like a pair of scissors powered by air that can cut out various shapes without distorting the metal. Most of the time is in the planning stages & I tend to mentally work my way through things before I go anywhere near the car. Once everything is planned out, it's just a matter of following "your" procedure to do things. The actual planning might take longer than doing the job. To do the front valance to the point where it is in the photos took me just under 3 hours start to finish, spread over a few days. The wheelarches took me 15 minutes per side. It probably took me longer to set up the tools & tidy up afterwards than to do the actual job
I really enjoy doing this sort of thing & I'm constantly planning what I need to do & the easiest way to do it. Unfortunately, I tend to get a bit ahead of myself sometimes in the planning stages, as you have to be able to plan well ahead of where you are, to ensure that you don't do something that will cock up something further down the line, hence me asking about hardtops. As an example, I've figured out how to reduce the width of the rear end of the car to visually resemble the 289, but in doing so, it's unlikely that a standard hardtop will fit it snugly. No big deal though, as I can modify it to fit around the rear end of the car once it's modified.
BUT, I needed to know how it was meant to be secured at the rear. Now I know it's secured by mounting points which are attached to the birdcage, I can make sure that I incorporate that into the birdcage fabrication, whilst making sure it all fits within the modified body correctly. I now need to find out how the split boot is hinged & latched, as again, that'll impact upon the fabrication of the birdcage further on down the line, along with fitting correctly with the hardtop
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Don't you just love a challenge......
cheers...Nige
Would you go for the hardtop too?? 
