Safe Sexy Beast
It’s time to practice safe sex. Making the beast a safe car and keeping it sexy was always going to be a compromise and difficult.
The wheel arch flares are an illustration of this issue. The front wheels have been widened to 8 inches. These means the top of the wheels now extends beyond the bonnet wheel arch. A big no no for road use. So the arches would need extending. This is not as bad as it first may seem and the rear wheel arches are higher than expected leaving a large gap between the wheel and the arch. In this instance the desired compromise was quick and easy to achieve.
Firstly a template was made with a five hole drill pattern. This was made with a very flexible clear shatter proof plastic. Using this type of material allowed the template to be bent to match the curves of the bodywork wheel arch, while viewing exactly where the arch extension would mount.
Template and Original Arch Extension.
The wheel arch extensions were originally chrome. YUCK! So they were stripped back primed ready for painting white once mounted. The template was then used to drill the arch extensions. The holes were M3 clearance and counter suck. the the bodywork was drilled with M3 clearance. Using M3 set screws the wheel arch extension is then fixed to the bodywork.
Now the set screw heads were trimmed and the holes filled and sanded. Finally the gap between the body and the extension was filled.
Rear Wheel Arch Extension Preped.
Next the wheel arch flares and old body work were primed ready for the final paintwork.
Primed Flares.
Once painted, cut and polished the wheel arch extensions look as if they should have been there all along. The great news, as far as the rear is concerned, is that the new extensions lower the wheel arch by 48mm. This will tidy the rear of the car giving it an even sexier look.
Finished Rear Arch.
The next safety issue is the roll hoop. This could have simply been an steel tube or a chromed steel tube, but to keep the Le Mans style of the car the roll hoop needs to be encased in GRP. This creates a chicken and egg situation. How to get the roll hoop fitted after the bodywork is fitted and then encase it in a stylish enclosure. Well this car has been designed with a solution but this solution is by no means a simple one.
The roll hoop cover comes in two parts and will need joining once the roll hoop is in place. As the two part cover is not part of the main body the fitting will require some extra bits of kit.
Roll Hoop Cover Inserts.
Using four 2” wide 1.5mm thick aluminium strips as inserts inside the main bodywork roll cover stubs should enable the main hoop cover to be secured accurately to the stubs once the main roll hoop is fitted.
Roll Hoop Cover Bottom Section Mounted.
The aluminium inserts are riveted to the main bodywork stubs and now form the fixing plates for the two halves of the roll hoop cover.
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