Body - Timber Framing - Ready to Chop

I have channeled the coupe body already which means the body has been allowed to slip lower down over the chassis. This reduces the overall height of the car and gives the illusion of the car being closer to the ground.

The next stage is to chop the roof. This not only lowers the car further but it also changes the proportions making the car look a bit more agressive.

Before you can do that though it is essential to brace the body with wood so that the whole thing doesn't collapse once the roof is cut away. As you can imagine the roof is like the brace across the top holding all the sides together. Without that the sides would just flop around.

These next few pics show the timber framing inside the body. Next stage is planning where I am going to cut....more on that later but not until Stan "the fibreglass man" Andrews has been to give me some much needed advice.

Lastly, today has been a bit of a sad day. I lost my workshop mate. Sophie our cat who just loved being nearby, was a real good companion. It didn't matter if I was writing this blog in the study or if I was working in the shed. She was never far away.

Unfortunately today though she appears to have been hit by a car and had a badly broken jaw and what looked liked some pretty major internal injuries, so we had to put her down.

Anyone who has called in and helped me with my hot rods will recall her sitting in her favourite spot in her basket on top of my parts storage cupboards. From this vantage point she could see what was going on outside, through the venetian blinds, and also had a great view from which to watch all the goings on. It didn't matter if it was hammering, welding, grinding, fibreglassing, painting, swinging a few tools or just polishing, she didn't seem to mind the noise and was always there.

Here she is helping me blog....

And here she is in that favourite spot on top of the storage cupboards in the shed.

I'll really miss her.

Body - Comes Home

I made a trip out to Kumeu  on Friday before the big weekend of the Kumeu Classic Car and Hot Rod Show got underway. I managed to catch up with Lynda and Robin from Koop de Glass and to see the body in person for the first time. Pretty exciting!

Here's Robin and Lynda with their cool truck!

As you can see they are doing plenty of parts they have some stuff for Falcons, Torana's and the likes of Ford Pop's. They also have quite a range of Model A, 32 Ford and of course 33 Ford stuff like mine.

I wasn't picking up the body until Sunday afternoon as I wanted to leave the body with Robin and Lynda so they could use it to display and hopefully take orders over the weekend. It also gave me a chance to get the chassis sitting at ride height and also to put up my stands that I'd made a while back that have the height and angles that the body will be modified to follow. If you double click on the next photo you will be able to see them a bit more easily. The top string is the line the roof will follow and the bottom string is the line the bonnet will follow.

Late Sunday afternoon it was back to Kumeu to pick up the body. Here you can see my mate Bill Dobbin helping with lifting duties.

That was before Robin came and showed us how its done "Flintstone Style"

Then with an easy lift, Robin, Bill and his son Jamie, had the body sitting on the trailer, ready to be strapped down.

Ahhhh home at last and sitting in position on the chassis. Now you can see those lines. Remember the top string is the roof line.

Here I have put some arrows on the body showing where the roof will come down to.

The top arrow shows where the roof will come down to and the two lower arrows show where the bonnet line will come down to. 

The dropping of the roof will be achieved largely by chopping the roof off the car, shortening it and dropping it down at the right angle, but this will also be contributed to and the bonnet line will come down as a result of lowering the body over the chassis. To do this I will need to cut the flange (I will cut along the line in this next photo) that the body sits on the chassis with. This will let the body slide down lower.

Lowering the roof is known as chopping and lowering the body over the chassis is known as channeling, so ultimately the car will be chopped and channeled.

Okay so at last the body is home....am I happy? You bet I am! Cheers.

Body - Comes out of the Mould

I have just received pics from Robin and Lynda at Koop de Glass of the Coupe body coming out of the mould.

Pretty cool! Here are the pics they sent through, but first......you might remember the process.......The shiny black finish in the photo below is the surface that the fibreglass was to be laid up onto. Before this happened though it was coated with a releasing agent so that the fibreglass body didn't stick to the mould. You can also see in this photo a bit of grey towards the back.....that is the finished colour of the body being brushed on to the mould. It seems weird that it went on first and that it was being brushed on, but what happens is that finish (gelcoat) is making contact with the the very smooth and shiny mould so it will come out looking smooth and shiny like that too. Any brush marks will be on the underside where the fibreglass will be layered. Now with all that in mind.....here comes the finished product.

In these first two pics the body is still in the mould about to be released.

The first part of the mould is unbolted and carefully pulled away from the new body. You will recall the release agent that was applied will help to ensure the new fibreglass didn't bond with the mould.

Small wedges are tapped in between the mould halves to ease away from the body.

You can really see the body now.....lookin' good.

Not far to go now!

And here she is in all her glory! Wow it looks great!

Back inside to try fitting her up on a chassis.

I have to say I am pretty pleased and I am looking forward to the Kumeu Classic Car and Hot Rod Festival where I will get to see the body in person for the first time.....and also get to bring it home. Thanks Robin and Lynda its looking good and I can't wait. Only 16 sleeps!