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well there it is as i got it off ebay from bristol for the princely sum off £225 and enough fuel in it to drive it home all be it with no mot
got out the tape measure a pile of tape to mask off areas i wanted to cut away and find my lines and started hacking away.
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after a few hours of cutting it was time to dig the welder out and start to put a bit of shape to things.
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i wanted to use as little filler as possible to avoid cracks so where i could just weld it and grind back i did.
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so having put a bit of strength back into the back end hopefully it isn't going to fold in the middle or hit you in the back of the head should a rear end shunt occur.
while we are here cutting the rear lights was a piece of cake with a 1mm slitting disc and a tidy up with a flap wheel, reseal with some windscreen bonding and fannys your aunt.
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i appear to be missing the photos of the rest of the extra strenghth that went in and the sheeting of the back
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bodywork wise the car was solid and quite straight with a few small dents here and there and a scab or 2 on the sunroof, 1 patch of welding to be done under the drivers side sil cover about 2x3 inches being the only real rot.
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just visible in this photo.
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a nice bright orange with some carbon fibre was the colour of choice until an orange and black prelude appeared on ebay the night i painted this on
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here's where the headache started, the stuff i used to clad the top of the pickup with is an aluminium/plastic composite and it expands in the sun at an allarming rate and kept cracking on the edge
after about 10 attempts to stop it i gave up and came up with the roll bar to hide what i knew would happen again.
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the lip all around the edge will hide the crack that keeps appearing, its all sealed again with bonding so it wont rust where it cracks as the bonding will just stretch and shrink back.
so off to the paint shop next for a coat of yellow rather than the orange i loved, painted by C N BODYSHINE a local firm ran by a mate and his father they did a stunning job and i can't thank them enough.
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all i have to do now is build it back up
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i cut the rear and rear side windows from a sheet of bronze tinted poly carb, edged the inside in a black window primer and bonded them in, look perfect
the headlights looked terrible so i covered them in some fly eye but the lights from the ukdm one i have will be going in 1 day.
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and the sign writing, not to everybodys taste i know but i built it as an advert for the garage and it's certainly done its job.
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i have a few niggles with it, boot leaking water where i havent fitted the seal, haven't finished the interior at the rear, painted the wheels satin when i should have done them gloss, rear lights get fogged up from a pinhole somewhere but other than that its all turned out fine.
will i ever get the turbo fitted ?
will i ever peel the sign writing off ?
will i stop using it for picking up 8x4 sheets of ply ?
will i stop filling it with scrap to weigh in ?
i didnt build it as a show car but it turned out very nice indeed, it seems a shame to risk wrecking it using it as a work horse but i just love driving it.
it turns heads where ever it goes and attracts the sort of attention on the local bypass you cant help grin to yourself about as it leaves the local idiots reaching for 3rd gear as you disapear into the distance.
personally i love it
