Well I have a bit to inform you all, but no real progress as such. It wasn’t long since after my last update (months ago, I know) when I was browsing the Spyder website and I saw an update from the owner Mick informing that due to increased costs and suppler issues that the car was no more. My heart dropped and I was genuinely gutted to be reading this update from Mick, so I instantly got in contact to ask what options I had and if there was anything I could do to help. Mick informed me that his local fabricator had ceased trading and that his chassis plans had gone the distance when the building was cleared and adding to that the costings from new fabricators had left future production unviable and dead technically. He did say that the body tub was still possible from his suppliers but he needed to get an updated price from them. I waited a week or so but eventually got a body tub price and proceeded with the order asap. Luckily for me the body fabricator is only 30mins drive from my mam and dads house in the midlands and so as soon as I got the word to collect I hired a van and went on a road trip.
The body tub is really good fibreglass quality and just like my Cobra it’s not wafer thin in areas, like some on the market. So it should be a doddle to get it prepped for paint when I reach that point. I do have some customisation to fabricate on the front nose cone but that will give me something to tinker about with when the chassis continues.
So the chassis…. With Mick out of chassis kits in stock and his plans gone I was left a bit stuck. I had committed to the build and cut my chassis outriggers etc… to accept the body, so I have to either progress and start designing my own chassis or cut my losses and figure out what to do with everything I had so far. After some email communication with Mick and some meetings with local to me steel fabricators I was able to get a break through. I won’t count my chickens yet, but hopefully in a nut shell I’m going to help Mick keep it all alive with the help of the illusive “North South Cost Divide” Mick spent some time making up some drawings to help me make a chassis kit to finish my car, and after speaking with David from a fabrication company near me we are in the process of converting these drawings onto CAD and hopefully being able to make future chassis kits for people through Mick directly. I should then hopefully be able to pick the chassis kits up as and when needed and ship on a pallet to whoever is taking delivery, because this is just basic logistics on top of slightly cheaper product costs we are hopeful to keep the cost down and keep the kits affordable going forward. And lucky for me at work I have access to pallets and a forklift to make shipping easier, so fingers crossed and keep looking for an update soon on the chassis…. I hope.
With a body tub now in the garage, I suppose I have something to tinker with in regards to the changes I want to make. Another Spyder owner (Paul Ward) fitted an S-Type grill to his build and in my opinion got the look for the front end absolutely spot on. And after a few trawls through eBay a good few months back I found the grill style that I wanted specifically with the stainless steel woven mesh. And like on Paul’s car I intend to fit the grill upside down in comparison to original fitting on the Jag and create the illusion of a starter crank handle hole by removing the Jaguar emblem. This is going to require some fibreglass laminating and filling in order to get the fit of the grill and the lines of the front end correct. But as you can see in the image with the grill mocked into position I think it will look spot on.
Now I have something to mess on with the next update shouldn’t be too far off, but Christmas is immanent and then the winter which brings its own pain of freezing garage temperatures… time to make a log burner in the garage also!!!!
Hello to Harry also who surprised me at work last week with a completely out of the blue “I’ve been reading your blog…. “ comment. Glad to know someone is reading all this. Haha
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