Tub and More

Fri.08.12.06. It has been a boring but very necessary day, cleaning and polishing basic components such as the engine front plate (essential when fitting the cam) and the distributor clamp. A big yawn, but somewhat of a buzz knowing that old original parts have once more been rescued.

Mon.11.12.06. The body tub has been turned on its side to assist the cleaning of the underside. The base of the tub is in remarkably fine condition. There were absolutely no areas of damage to the marine ply base, even the edges had not been penetrated by moisture preserving the laminates utterly intact. This was in part due to the fibre glass matting that had been used to wrap the vulnerable extremities of the platform therefore protecting the structure of the timber from both road dirt and the sixteen years of damp storage. Several sponge mats placed on the workshop floor prevented the tub from being damaged throughout the procedure. The base was then washed and scrubbed using first of all petrol followed by 80’s glass paper to eradicate the most stubborn of grime as well as clinging muck. An angle grinder removed the protruding heads of the obsolete nuts plus any other metallic extrusions that formed the untidy parts of the original construction. Unbeknown to Chris whilst he was he was happily grinding away the ferocity of the sparks had accidentally ignited the residual petrol fumes from the earlier cleaning process.

As the flames gradually climbed up to his knees I managed to draw his attention to the fact that he was actually on fire. His tunnel vision by and large prevents him from seeing anything that is below waist level; the flames not being an exception were dancing merrily around his feet before he even noticed. Only leaping to one side was he able to douse the spreading conflagration. I do forget sometimes that Chris does have a real problem with objects that are low down usually outside his field of vision. He is continually stumbling, tripping over ground level objects because he is unable to actually see much of what is on these lower planes. I recall leaving Humphrey Moons showroom on one occasion when Chris, having said his farewells, turned hastily to find himself tumbling headlong into an open topped MR2 leaving his feet waving in the air. Climbing out he then caught the wing mirror with his case almost breaking it from it’s’ fittings. Apologising to Humphrey he then, the second time around, fell clumsily onto the car breaking the mirror clean off. To which Humphrey responded “Chris, if you really want that mirror so badly you might as well take it with you.”

The underside of the tub has cleaned up tremendously well. The rough edges have been smoothed to create a perfectly flat surface which is now ready to take the final coat of Hammerite. Any other square, crude angles will be masked with aluminium to soften the contours to also aid ‘the floor to ground’ aerodynamics. Colin often refers to the significance of ‘air flow’, ‘downward pressure’ and many other racing details but he really can be ‘Billy Bullshit’ at times.