Louis' Manx Project

[danny gabbard]

Hell louis I'm in BFnevada and we have one. Try finding one and send a pattern to them, Alot ez'r than bandsawing and hole sawing the things out. and its pretty cheep.

[louisb]

Okay, I will look for one. Thanks for the idea.

--louis

[bullitt]

the blue monocoque article manx is simply wonderful. but i firmly think that after all that job, on such an important car, the owner should have choosen a best vintage tire solutions, with thinner rims at the front.
 

[RobtheManx]

the blue monocoque article manx is simply wonderful. but i firmly think that after all that job, on such an important car, the owner should have choosen a best vintage tire solutions, with thinner rims at the front.
 

Agreed , so many vintage tyres being remade now , why use modern . And Coopers too !

Rob

[Lee.C]

OR you could just spend 5 years searching like i did 

[louisb]

Finally got some time lately to do more work on the Manx pan. I welded in the flat inserts last week. I still need to dress the welds but I am happy with the results. I also modified the seat mounts. I am using the Speedway mounts but I was unhappy with the angle that the seats were at. So I whipped up some brackets which will give the seats a 20 deg tilt and welded them to the mounts. This should make them more comfortable and give me a little more head room as well.
















Next I need to mount the seats and seat belts. I plan to weld some 1/8 inch flat stock to reinforce the seat mounts. Other than some body supports that should be the last of the welding. I hope to have the body to the sand blasters in the next couple of weeks.

--louis

[Hotrodvw]

Nice work dude.   

[louisb]

Finally some progress now that the weather has warmed up. I am about half way through with the fiberglass repairs here. I ran out of resin so I have to wait till next weekend to go any farther. I am using the West Marine products and I am happy with them so far. It takes a lot of the guess work out. I have a couple of small repairs to make and then its time to mount it to the pan. I am waiting on England to thaw out enough for Rob to lay up my fender sections. Hopefully they will get here by March.


Seems like every buggy I see has this area butchered:







One of the PO's more questionable repairs.













Laying up the 'glass:


































Lots of sanding and more epoxy filler:
















Once the repairs are done I will lay a coating of Featherfill on and block sand everything.

That tip from Danny Gabbard to use baby powder to close up your pors to keep the itching down when doing fiberglass works really well.

If anyone is interested in the West Marine system, here are two short vids on how it works:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/6N7YMr6E564" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/6N7YMr6E564</a>

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZrxhGYXEjkA" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/ZrxhGYXEjkA</a>

I will warn you though, its not cheap.


--louis

[Lee.C]

Nice work dude 

[chopperdentist]

Really good work!! Are yo going to rebuild the rear fender too?

[louisb]

Yes I plan to repair the fenders. RobtheManx is going to make me some replacement fender sections when it warms up. Then I will just have to graft them on to the body.

Thanks,

--louis

[Hotrodvw]

Coming alog good Luis!   I want one of those........be a kick in the pants.   

[louisb]

Still working on fiberglass repairs but I think I am nearing the end. Got word last week that my new rear fender sections are on their way from England. (Thanks Rob!) Here are some pics of some recent progress:



































Back end is finally done. Before and after shots:








Here I glassed in some fender washers, 4 per side, to the headlight mounts for better support:




I still have the hood and fenders to do plus getting it mounted to the pan, then its just some cosmetic stuff and it will be ready for primer.

--louis

[danny gabbard]

Louis, do your self a favor and regel coat the outside of body and seal up all repairs, So they do not soak up and you see sand scratchs in the new paint 6 months later.

[louisb]

Louis, do your self a favor and regel coat the outside of body and seal up all repairs, So they do not soak up and you see sand scratchs in the new paint 6 months later.

Hi Danny

Thanks for the input, I will look into that. So far all the repairs have been done in epoxy resin and I was planning to put a coat of Feather Fill primer on next. I have heard good things about using Feather Fill on fiberglass.

--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

Looking good! I hate working with fiberglass but I'm determined to give it a try one day. Running stock 67 turn signals front and rear?

[louisb]

Hey Zach,

Your work on the blue car is making me want to get this done and get back to my '66 project. Fiberglass is easy to work with but man it itches. As for the turn signals, peanuts in front and '67 rears with LEDs.

--louis

[Zach Gomulka]

That's good to hear! It's giving me the itch to get started back on my '67 as well. 11 years of ownership has given me lots of (bad) ideas

[louisb]

Started working on the Hood mods/repairs today. I had purchased a gas cap that was original equipment on AC Cobras for use on the Manx. I have to say I was a bit surprised at how large it was when it arrived. It didn't look that big on the website. Determined to use it though I decided to sink the gas cap into the hood to help lower the profile.


Areas I need to repair. The buggy had been wrecked some time in the past and some repairs were made. I originally planed to just grind out the old bondo and use some epoxy filler to clean up the repairs. But as I got further into them it was obvious that most of the repairs were substandard and would have to bee redone.










Some cracks in the dash:







I cut out the original gauge area and plan to replace it with an engine turned stainless panel:




My gas cap, mold and a big hole in the hood.













First test fit showed that the hole needed a little clearance around the cap latch. Great thing about fiberglass, if at first you don't succeed, grind it out and glass it back up.







I still need to glass in the little area I cut out of the latch but over all I think it looks pretty good. A little epoxy filler to clean it all up and I am done.







Time for a Guinness.

--louis

[Jon]

Very cool mod!

[louisb]

Painted my wheels last weekend. They came out pretty well with the single stage paint, no runs, but I do have some orange peel. Not sure if I will try to color sand them yet or just live with it. 







--louis

PS: After I painted them my friend Bobby pointed out that the set I had widened did not have any valve stem holes. 

[Zach Gomulka]

I'd say live with the orange peel, it's a Manx! But the valve stem hole, now that's a problem

[louisb]

After a little reading on the interweb I found out I could just drill a 5/8" hole. I started last night slowly working my way up but then realized my 5/8" bit is for a 1/2" drill and I only have a 3/8". Sounds like a trip to HF is in order. 

--louis

[danny gabbard]

Don't fill bad louis, I was watching OC Choppers , One of the two times I could take those Idiots. They built a bike, painted the tank and were assembleing and realized they forgot to weld a fuel bung in tank.

[louisb]

Don't fill bad louis, I was watching OC Choppers , One of the two times I could take those Idiots. They built a bike, painted the tank and were assembleing and realized they forgot to weld a fuel bung in tank.

I used to watch that show to see the fab work but I cant stand it now.

--louis

[Chris W]

I would think about running the stem on the inside. It would look clean, little harder to fill though.

[Zach Gomulka]

I would think about running the stem on the inside. It would look clean, little harder to fill though.

But the fronts still have it on the outside. Might as well make it match.

[Chris W]

Did not see that, I agree.

[louisb]

I will say that getting the wheels done has been an eye opener. I figured it would be cheaper to go with steel rims than a set of mags. (My first choice was Crager SS rims) But after buying the rims, having 2 widened, having them sandblasted and then painting them with real paint it has been almost the same price. And that is if I don't count my own time. I probably have $700 in the rims now and I am not totally happy with them. Mind you I could have saved a bunch by going stock width, hand stripping and painting them with rattle cans.

--louis

[louisb]

My friend Bobby came over today and after 4 hours of cussing we got the body mounted to the pan and the seats bolted in for the first time. The body has always been a little narrow, this was evident from the fact that the stock seat supports had cut into the mounting lip in the past. We tried a couple of things to get it to fit, including using a bottle jack and slowly stretching it for the past week. No matter what we did the body was about 1 1\2" narrower than the back of the pan. So it was decided to cut the shell on each side at the rear corners and spread the body out some. You can see the cuts in the pics and this allowed us to get a perfect fit of the pan and body. I will use some fiberglass cloth and fill in the gap hopefully next weekend. Once the body was spread out the seats fit much better so we drilled the holes. I still need to weld in some 1/8" stock to reinforce the mounts. I also want to weld in some 1"x1" tubing around the perimeter of the pan when the body bolts go to strengthen it. That will be the last of the welding on the pan. (crosses fingers)
















After we bolted the seats in we just had to climb in and sit in it.  :lol:  It felt really good to have the body finally bolted to the pan.

--louis