The Cunning Coupe

[Manky Monkey]

Looking fabulous Tony. So will you be out in it next season?

[cunningplan]

Looking fabulous Tony. So will you be out in it next season?

The way its going, yes no problem. I have nearly all the bits, (Only the exhaust to sort out, where did you say you got your bends from??) the trailer has been sorted. So hopefully one of the first (If not the first) track days up SCR.

[Manky Monkey]

Let us know when cos I'd love to see it in action.
My exhaust bends came from Custom Chrome, (not the bike accessory supplier, the ...exhaust bends supplier). Tried to order more recently but couldn't find their website.

[cunningplan]

Theres quit a few people waiting to see it run, will have to make sure it all works before I go to the track. Used to run the old car at a local industral estate every time we made any big changes before to took it anywhere.

http://www.custom-chrome.co.uk/

[cunningplan]

just updated and now on http://www.cunningplan.net/thebuild4.html
(now on page 4)

[SteveRedd]

haven't seen this for a while.....looks great

[cunningplan]

Life is full of compromises and the car is just the same
Before I went to The Shed this weekend, the plan was to put on the front end and make it rolling, but Steve needs to use the shed for a couple of jobs and with the car going to be just under 21 feet it would be awkward for him to move around, so we used Saturday to sort out the tinwork.
Steve had already made the under pan and rear side panels, but had not made the front panels as he did not know how I wanted them due to the shape of the chassis, follow the bends? Or go straight across to the engine plate? I went for the first option, as if the top cover was off, the latter would leave the edges sticking up, which could get damaged when working on the car, this is going to make the top a little harder to make, but not much.
Once we had cut out the panels, we worked out where and how many fasteners we would need and where best they went. This decided, the tabs were welded onto the chassis and the panels were put back on, marked through the tabs and then drilled, we next riveted the springs to the tabs and trial fitted the panels. The fasteners will not be fitted to the panels until after painting.

The Cunning Coupe

The Cunning Coupe

 Sunday morning, we put the chassis on stands and levelled it off, the axle was put in, a bar was put through it so we could mark the centres of the wheels to mark for where we need the tubs, we then got the body from out of the other shed and just lowered it on top, we could see it was not going to work. A quick measure of the axle put the top of the tubs 2 inches below the window frame, so it was put the kettle on, sit back and have a rethink.
The only way it was going to work was cut out the roof.

The Cunning Coupe

It was another sit down and then grab the disc cutter and make the first cut, from then on, there was no going back.
After 10 minutes of cutting, the job was done and the body was sitting back over the chassis, we propped it up then walked around adjusting it until I was happy with the way it looked. We marked the centre line of the wheels, drilled a small hole each side and marked for the tubs (They will be round at the top with straight sides down to the bottom.) We marked the bottom front of the body level with the chassis, we then marked where the end of the chassis was, we drew between these, then up at the rear to the end of the body.

The Cunning Coupe

It was another stand back and another look, you know what? I quite like it!!! It was a “compromise” but a good one.
Not only do I think it looks good, but also due to the way it sits, I don’t have to extend it anywhere near 10 inches now, and have decided to extend the bonnet section to the engine plate, so I phoned Paul up and ordered a longer bit of bonnet than I have now.

The Cunning Coupe

It’s the Wild Bunch AGM and I have a couple of MSA seminars next weekend, so will be going up the weekend after. Don’t know what’s planed yet but will update soon after.
(My site has been updated.)

[cunningplan]

http://www.cunningplan.net/thebuild4.html

[Manky Monkey]

Looking good Tony. That brother of mine's a talented bugger ain't he.
One question. Will the top of your wheel arches cut into the bottom edge of the windows as marked? Lifting the body that couple of inches would've left the window shape intact as you say -why wasn't that feasible?

[cunningplan]

Looking good Tony. That brother of mine's a talented bugger ain't he.
One question. Will the top of your wheel arches cut into the bottom edge of the windows as marked? Lifting the body that couple of inches have left the window shape intact as you say -why wasn't that feasible?

sickening sometimes 

The whole idea of cutting the roof was to get the arches into the window, thats the look of that type of car.
the car I'm basing mine on

[Manky Monkey]

Ahh, I see. Carry on!

[tbone]

And now you climb in and out of the sunroof too! 

[cunningplan]

And now you climb in and out of the sunroof too! 

Thats the other good thing to come out of it

(That JAP motor went for 20 quid in the end, was going to bid, but did not know if anyone else on here was bidding which would have knocked it up some)

[cunningplan]

Bloody postal service, all our plans for the weekend in ruins, don't they know theres not many weekends before the season starts  . What do they go and do (Parcel Force that is) go on strike so Steve could not get the tubes needed for the front end. (Was not delivered to the stockest)
So we had to re plan what we were going to do. Steve had already knocked up the wheelie bars (Including jacking point) so first it was to make a stand for the car to sit on in the pits (The cars must never just be sitting on jacks while they are being worked on or started in the pits.) there is only about 3 inch's below the chassis at the back and then it slopes up from behind the axle, so we not only had to make the stand, but also make it so it don't move.
I found some 50 x 3 mm flat and bent that to fit across the chassis, I used flat as the car has a full belly pan under the rear, so this will be covered with rubber to stop damaging this, we then turned the chassis over and drilled a hole each side and Steve welded in a dowel (Sticking out about a inch) I put the flat next to them, marked them up and drilled the holes for the dowels. As the car would not sit at the same angle every time its jacked up (And sometimes the front might to be jacked as well) so the top needed to swivel. Steve made a pivot at each end and made the legs.

The Cunning Coupe

While he was doing this, I had finished the seat and fitted it to the chassis, Steve was right to say it would look better going over the chassis, also its easier to fit as I can bolt in the seat and fit the cover on after. (Also I can quickly take it out if it rains or gets wet and needs drying.)
Sunday was set to make and bend up the top panel, we had sorted out some pipe to bend it around and fitted this to the bench. we used a bit of scrap alloy to see if it worked and it did of a sort, even though the tube was 4 inch, the bends turned out bigger, but as we had tried it on scrap, we could re measure it and then bent the real panel. Time we had finished this, it was time to get off home, before I did, I marked up where the panel was going to be cut and Steve did  that on Monday.

I have a long trip to make this Saturday (About 400 miles) to pick up the wheel tubs and the extra bit for the front. The weekend after is the Riders/Drivers meeting which I have been asked to attend, so it going to be the weekend after before my next trip to the shed.
The steel is now in and Steve will be picking it up ready to make up the front end, this with fitting the tubs will be on the list of what to do that weekend.
More photos and write up still on page 4 of The build on my site

[Manky Monkey]

Tis a thing of beauty is that Tony.