Updating my McCoy

[pompeyal]

Hi sanzomat, glad you like it, I find if I need to do anything I am not sure of I just research as far as possible and try out different ideas away from the car, I am fortunate enough to have access to a machine shop and two great welders, in the next episodes of the build I leave anything to do with these facilities and start relying on my small amount of past experience and take on the bodywork, I hope you like that as well. If you want any tips don't hold back, ask and I will see if I can help, thats the good thing about these forums, the info you can reap is brilliant and most people like to pass on there knowledge, it don't cost anything apart from a small amount of time

Regards Alan and yes I am from the Portsmouth area...

['The Gaffer']

Electrics are always fun, not, but you are doing the right thing in labelling the wires.

[pompeyal]

Well I have been pondering on and off about the headlight originally fitted to the McCoy, they do start to grow on you after looking at them for so long, but you here from people, clan owners as well that they preferred the rectangular head lights that were fitted to them, well yes I think I agree they do look better than the round ones, I also looked into having pop up headlight so I got some from a Mx-5 but when trying to fit them, I discovered with having the Honda engine in the bay they would not fit, so they are for sale, then I decided I wanted to change the front styling so got a new pair of motorcycle rectangular head lights that would nicely fit..

So I started and cut off one of the healight pods to see how they would look..







OK they would work so I started to put some shape into the wing using expanded foam...









Hmm that may work.. but I would have liked them lower in the wing so I reworked the foam and glassed in flush following the wing shape









No.. I had another thought, that's trying to be too much like a clan, so the I thought about twin projectors, so I ripped out what I had done and had a re-think...

So out came the card..







That could work, it measures up and a pair should fit in there.. but first I had to build up the inner wing which had previously cut away to accommodate the sub-frame to cover the near side engine mount..



With that done I set off to reshape the wing, firstly getting some perforated aluminium, cutting it to shape, covering it in cling film and clamping it in place







Then fibre glassing in...





So if anyone would like to purchase a pair of rectangular headlight, brand new in the box then these are up for grabs....

[pompeyal]

Once set I could trim the glass back to follow the shape of the bonnet







Now to even up and put in some strength..





And now to build up the top of the wing..

















Well I at this stage finally decided what I wanted to do, I had seen the technique done years ago with the custom boys and what they did to there rear lights on the hotrods, so out again with the cardboard and a piece of ducting of the right diameter and come up with this..





So I took some measurements and made this template mould and covered it with lino..









Then I clad the whole thing in cling film and cut the glass to suit, mixed up the resin and.....



out popped this

[pompeyal]

Next was to cut it to fit and glass it in..





Then to cut the inside to suit the light,









oh I forgot to say I had got some Hi-Lo Hid units from E-Bay..







Now to cut for final fit and glass it in..









Add a build of glass to bring up the height,,







And cover with gel coat, this is where it all went wrong, the gel coat didn't harden for some reason, I applied heat, left it for a week but still it was a sticky mess..



So I ended up having to scrape it all back, cleaning up the mess and I applied filler instead..





Rubbed it all back and applied a few coat of high build filler primer

[pompeyal]

In the mean time back at work I had to come up with a way to adjust the headlights so out came the cardboard again...



Well that was the idea for the brackets now for some adjusters, so I knocked the up..



Then some pivots and fix it all together and see what happens..







That all seemed to work so to make them in stainless

















Had the corners welded and then assembled them..









The base bracket is only a temporary one until I finish the wing and can come up with a plan to fit them under the wings.

A few more coats of filler primer and rub down







Yeah well pleased with that..

[pompeyal]

It looks good with the light in place..



Now for the other side..off with the old pod and clean up









Bonnet fit check..



Removal of paint around areas to be glassed..



Re-shape the perforated aluminium that was used for the other side, recover it in cling film and position then clamped it in place







Now for the glass..





When set cleaned up to the bonnet profile as before



Now for the support





Made another pod and cut to shape..





Cut body to fit..



Prepped and glassed upper wing..




And that's where it ends for now, the resin in the tin has gone off for some reason, not sure why yet, can't be the age of it, I will ask at my suppliers when I see him again..... I hope you like the build so far, it has been a long journey and I still have some way to go so the diary will now continue in real time, what you have read up until now covers the last twelve years, I promise it will NOT take another twelve years to finish it....

[pompeyal]

Well off to the glass suppliers and I was told the resin may have been contaminated, he was probably referring to me doing it but no, I didn't so no joy there then, I have bought some more and some gel coat and continued with the off side wing.....

The pod was glassed in and allowed to set the layered up to build any low spots but keeping a small under-flush amount in readiness for the gel coat, as it is difficult at this stage to judge the final shape, I have laid on some gel coat and when it cures I will rub it back to see how much more and where I will need to build the low areas, hopefully I should have the wing in shape by the end of the weekend....









A bit more done , I just need to sand out the hole again to build up the shape to be the same as the near side....









Once I am happy with the shape I will then be cutting up the bonnet to fit into the new profile and remove the old bulge and build in a new one to suit the extra height required for the Vtec engine..

I prepped up the offside light port by cleaning back to the gel coat and plugged the hole with a coil off lino wrapped in cling film, then weighted it so that it fitted snuggly, then flooded the space left to just over flush with the wing with gel coat, when it has cured I shall shape it back to suit the near side port..







A couple more hours spent on the wing, I removed the plug, sanded back the gel coat rounded the edges and filler primed, it looks much better now and the same shape and size as the other side...









Next I shall tackle the bonnet, I will probably reshape the bonnet I have then make a mould from it then make a complete new one, I am sure that will be more successful than using a patched up one.

I have done a bit of work over the last couple of evenings and firstly I wanted to sort out the hole for the gearshift. The original shift was for an early mini and required a gaping cut out, first I made an expanded foam plug then covered in cling film, supported the plug from under the car and glassed over the hole, then a coat of gel and recut the new hole to suit the new Honda gearshift.

[sanzomat]

All looking good. Only 1 comment. I expect you've probably checked but with the headlight units set so far back from the leading edge and quite low will you have a dark patch in front of the car? Can't help wondering if the frog eye look was partly to achieve the minimum headlight height.

[pompeyal]

Thanks for the comment sanzomat, I did check the regs on the height and mine are still within them, as long as it passes an MOT I am not worried really about light as I will only be using it as a track day car and occasional meets during the daylight hours. At the moment it may be the pictures deceiving you but the front of the car is about 2 feet off the floor looking up.

[pompeyal]

Making a new bonnet

I cut out the original bulge   from the bonnet and sanded back the ridge that was left, I will refill the hole flat with glass over the weekend then tackle the areas each side to reform them to the shape of the wings, after that more cuts and shaping for the new bulge to clear the Honda cam cover.









I have cleaned back the underside of the bonnet, sprayed a sheet of PTFE with release agent and gaffer taped it over the hole, prepped some gel coat and applied to the bonnet...













two sheets of chopped glass mat cut to size and the corners clipped



2 sheets of glass applied and 2 hours later hey, hole filled.....





next the sides...

First I gave the patch a sand over then prepped up the sides, one at a time I cleaned paint from the areas I needed to glass the side patches, sprayed release agent onto the PTFE sheet as used on the hole and clamped into position, applied the gel coat and after about an hour I applied 1 sheet of chopped mat, I will be beefing that up when I have trimmed to shape and formed the flange....

[pompeyal]

I hope you guy's are enjoying my diary, I have been wowed with the number of views in such a short time, I am nearly up to date with the diary as far as the build goes, once I have updated as far as I am with the build I shall then keep it up dated as I go along.....

[Iancider]

It has been a master class!

Ian

[foggy@smr]

Very interesting... More than I would be taking on, and makes my rebuild look small... lol 

[pompeyal]

I have had other thoughts on how I should approach making a new bonnet, as I had half a sheet of 9mm MDF kicking around I though I would try to shape it into the form of the bonnet. There is a double curve on the existing bonnet and unfortunately it doesn't correctly follow the curvature of the wings, reason being is from the original light pods forward, the curvature wasn't in close proximity of the wings so it wasn't obvious, now that the new bonnet is, I will need it to follow the wing curve precisely. I placed the board over the car covering the engine bay and weighted the corners to encourage the board to deform.



To help along the process I draped a damp sheet over the board



Over night there was some movement in the shape of the board so to encourage it even more I re dampened the cloth and added more weight





Continually dampening the cloth in the morning and evening the spring back has reduced quite well so I have started reducing and re positioning the weights. I will be continuing this until the board stays in the form required without the aid of weights.



The double curvature is also happening so when finished it will not just look like a one dimensional curved board.

[sanzomat]

Loving the assortment of heavy things used to weight it down. Half expected to see a garden gnome on one corner...

[pompeyal]

I think if I had interest in garden gnomes I wouldn't be able to do what I do.....lol

[Moleman]

I'm also thinking we may need your help when we need something machined for the Go Inspire project. 

[Iancider]

I had to shape MDF for a house archway a couple of years ago but found it really easy if I used a wallpaper steamer.  Hot and wet it is really pliable and it takes the memory out of it really quickly.  Heat principally on the outside of the bend to aid the stretch.  Once cool and dry the new shape is set without tension or any temptation to return to the old shape.  I guess to that slight cross curvature would also be possible via this method because it becomes so soft.  A compound cure is likely possible.

[pompeyal]

While the board was in place I got under the car and drew round the profile of the bonnet ready for when I needed to cut it.





I have continued soaking the cloth and moving around the weights, reducing the weights until I thought there was manageable spring back.









Then off with the board and ready to cut the profile.



During the night the board had dried and it had lost a lot of its shape so I cut the profile anyway



Then sanded the areas at he touch points to make it fit the hole.







Once done I marked out the cut lines for the bulge cut around the lines and placed some spacers to lift the bulge.







Once cutting out the bulge lines the board has started to reshape itself to the wing profile, I am sure with a little bracing from the underside the required shape can be achieved, I am now toying with the idea of making the bulge vented..... more work there then

I have cut out 5 ribs and marled out the curvature across the car and cut the profile on each



Then the plug was marked out for the fixing positions then drilled and assembled




When all attached the whole thing was placed onto the car and using brackets and blocks, it was set so the profile was at an equal height off the car





After that I pulled the plug down onto the brackets and then from the underside I made brackets to lock the whole thing to the car, then a coat of primer to seal the MDF in readiness for shaping the sides and front of the bulge and once done I will put a small radius around the edges in readiness for the gel and glass.

[pompeyal]

Now to deal with the gap at the front, first was to cut out a piece of ply to take the shape at the front



Then the leading edge was sanded down to remove most of the step were the ply meets the MDF



Next was to fit the board, it was placed into position and wedged at the rear to maintain the shape at the top then screwed at the front to secure.



Next it was off to the shop to buy some modelling clay, this was applied over the board and around the edges to smooth out the required shape.







This was then left to cure over night........................... total disaster in the morning the clay had shrunk something rotten and cracked all over the place leaving all that work a total mess so it was all removed ready for a re-think, mind you I wasn't really happy with how it looked anyway so nothing really lost apart from more time.



I made up some fibreglass strips in readiness for my next cunning plan..



A change of thought so as to add some shape into the bulge, I removed the board then cut it to form vents, hmm that may look better I thought so the next thing was back off to the shop.





Arrived home now armed with plasticine, that won't dry and shrink so back with shaping, I was going to shape the plasticine into what I liked and make it a bit smaller than required, cover it with cling film and glass over, then remove the plasticine,  refit and bond in the glassed shape and apply P38 over to finish and sand to blend.

Right off I went









Hmm this if starting to look like a naff American muscle car, not the image I wanted so had to have a re-think.

Ha I know, I have a intercooler scoop from a Suburu, I could incorporate that I thought, so I removed the plasticine and placed it onto the bonnet to see what I thought...





That's it.. it will keep the looks of an old English sports car, Aston Martin, Austin Healey sort of thing, so got the old grey matter working again and made a start...

More MDF was required so back to the shop....

First cut to rough size and mark out the shape and lay in place,



Then mark out the underside of the front edge for feathering then sand the front edge down







The front edge was sanded down checking the profile at each line to check progress until about 2mm thickness of the front edge was left.

[pompeyal]

Trial fit of front board and a quick look with the scoop, starting to take shape so I think this is the way to go....





Drilled some hole and countersinks then screwed into place in readiness for sanding back the front lip of the bulge







Well now you are all up to date with the build so far, still a long way to go though...

[Swampy]

Hi chap ... awesome build lots of detail ... loved the use of the copper pipe with nylon bushes to template the exhaust!
I was trying to remember where i saw the stunning chap in the blue overalls earlier on one the thread. I too worked at mclaren in 2013. He had a black rx7 i believe then ... Say hi to him from me (Rich from Bristol).
Keep up the good work.

[pompeyal]

Hi Rich, yes that's my boy, still got the Rx, 423 BHP now with the BIG turbo upgrade we fitted to it, bit of a pig to get it to fit but again with a bit of fabrication and wrapped knuckles we got it all in, its a real monster. Thanks for your comments, I do like to think out side the box if you know what I mean. Mike is still at McLaren and loving it, he is auditing the cars now and sometimes brings them home, first the 12C spider then recently the 657 LT, I've still to get a ride out in a P1 but I am sure that will happen one day. I will let him know you said hello...... Just spoke with him, he said which Rich ...lol.... he knows a few

['The Gaffer']

Great detailed build thread. Thanks for taking the time to post

[pompeyal]

Thanks, glad you like it, still some way to go but if it gives anyone fresh ideas and helps them along the way, thats what these forums are all about...

[Bulldog Bri]

Very interesting re-build Looking forward to seeing it on the road.

[pompeyal]

Not half as much as me Brian....

[pompeyal]

Next was to prep up for adding filler, I applied filler primer around where I was to fill to give a bond surface for the main filler and allowed to dry. When it had a good day to dry I then started to apply around the open areas in the bulge and over the fixings until enough filler was in position ready for the next stage.















I left the filler to go off and started to rub it down into shape..





When enough was taken back to get the shape a coat of filler primer was sprayed over the filled areas, this shows the uniformity of the shape and imperfections..









Next when the primer has had a good time to cure I will go back over with filler to cover the areas I have missed and fill out where the shape is uneven...

[pompeyal]

Now to sort out the imperfections, more filler applied where required



Then rubbed back...





Then another coat of filler primer....











Just a few more times round I think and some pockets added to accept the scoop then it will be ready to seal, then for the mould to be made from it...

[Iancider]

Now I am impressed with the pace as well as the content.  Whatever you are on - I want some!

Ian

[pompeyal]

Now I am impressed with the pace as well as the content.  Whatever you are on - I want some!

Ian

I am on a promise to myself, I am looking at getting me an Aston Martin Vantage but not until the McCoy is finished, or at least on the road, so I can garage it, so give yourself some incentive and go for it......

[pompeyal]

Bonnet continued

Put down some satin black to highlight the blemishes....








Rubbed back and filled the bad areas...




And a fresh coat of black..









Looking the part now, there are still some very small marks but I shall buff them out from the mould, next to get rid of the blue paint from the scoop, I used nitromors but it was a real pain, that stuff really doesn't work like it used to, in fact it is that bad I shall not ever buy any again



Then for a coat of black...



and just to get an idea of the final thing .......





Next to shape the fixing points into the plug for the scoop then it should be ready to make the mould from it.....

['The Gaffer']

Nitromors used to be scary stuff, bit like superglue used to be. All too safe now

[Facial Hair Optional]

Nitromors used to be scary stuff, bit like superglue used to be. All too safe now

Yes I seem to recall using it when I had my Elan, you had to be very careful how long you left it on for!

[Moleman]

Still looking good though mate. 

[Iancider]

Nitromors used to be scary stuff, bit like superglue used to be.

Mmmmmm.....

EthylMethylMethacrylate

[pompeyal]

Bonnet continued

Right , I hope all had a merry Christmas and received all the parts you require to finish your projects, I have sent the wife back to work and now I can continue with mine....

The scoop for the bonnet has protruding fixing points so I fettled out the plug to suit



Once completed I gave it a quick coat of satin black to find more imperfections and also sealing the bare MDF.



More filler required, so applied around areas to fill any imperfections, hmmm been here several times and getting quite fed up with chasing my tail, I have decided that any small problem areas that remain will be cleaned up from the mould, first I will only need to do some light rubbing down and second the gel coat will be more forgiving as the gel coat is a lot harder than the plug.



Final rubdown and repaint... mask around the car and plug supports and ready to go..



Applied a liberal amount of mould release agent....



Now to hope for the best, a covering of gel coat, I really hope it all releases after all this prep work....



Now the waiting game for a good few hours and then for the glass......

[pompeyal]

Bonnet continued

Right the mould has all been glassed and support rails fitted....





Once cured the plug and mould was lowered to meet the car......





The profile looks good and then.......

Aaaaarrrggghhhhh.... I need a break

[pompeyal]

Bonnet continued

Right worse nightmare ever but needs to be tackled, the plug didn't release from the mould, well after a rant and a day off I took in the job of trying to recover the mould with limited damage, I ripped off the supports and then scored the surface of the plug, then put some water in and hoped it would soak in and give me a chance..



After an hour and a lot of scraping out the MDF I thought this is not working too well...



After another 2 hours I decided to try something else, scrape it out dry...



2 hours later that got most of it out...



Now for the steamer.....



Another hour or so.....



And another...



Most of it out and now to think about the paint, into work tomorrow to ask my welder for the details of the paint stripping spray he has recently has had good results from...... No more messing with nitromors...