I knew this wasn't going to be easy, but I'm a bit stuck....

The main tub and sidepods sit fine, but for the life of me I can't get the (Classic) bonnet into a good position - it seems to be about an inch and a half too short!

If I move the main tub forwards as far as I can without the arches touching the wheels, and pull the bonnet backwards to get a nice shut line with the main tub, the front wheels still want to clash with the arches. With a bit of shuffling I might just get the whole lot to clear the wheels, but I think I'll have a nasty big gap behind the bonnet about an inch wide.

I'll get some photos up this afternoon. I think I remember someone on here saying they had to stretch their bonnet to get it to fit because it had shrunk?

My bonnet's been stored flat since it was delivered, and was collected within days of it being ejected from the moulds, so I don't think it should have spent much time sitting upright and therefore shrinking.

Here's a picture from Rob Collingridge's site showing his car in profile. He's managed to get clearance around both wheels (even under full lock), and a decent shutline at the scuttle, but I can't see how I can achieve the same. Hmm....puzzled, and a bit worried.

elegant looking motor

Looks like it could pour down at any minute just now so I might postpone any bodywork stuff until it brightens up. Its much easier to do it outside.

I did manage to take a couple of photos after my first attempt to fit it. They're not the best angles, but they sort of show my problem.

Here's one side - I can probably move the bonnet back a little from this position, but not too much before it starts to foul the front wheel....


Fury Bodywork 2

And the other, which seems to be a better fit, though its hard to tell what the rear arch clearance is like.


Fury Body 1


Better photos to follow once the rain disappears.
Jek

How old is the chassis, they actually shortened the chassis to make the bodywork fit better! You could trim the front arches to make them larger so could pull bonnet back, the shape of the front arches let you get a way with that, or get the rear wheelarch flares so you could trim them and move tub forward

Hi Austen,

Interesting, I didn't know that. Its a BGH era chassis, circa 2010. I'm going to check the wheelbase this afternoon (and nervously compare measurements on both sides).

Trimming the front arches might be tricky. The Classic bonnet changed slightly when Steve had the moulds revamped, and it now features small arch extensions which could make if difficult to change the profile neatly. Trimming the rear is maybe something to look at though.

Jek

[Edited on 18/7/12 by JekRankin]

I had to trim the front of the front wheel arches on this fury shell.

Then I made up some alloy arch extensions to cover the overly large 15" wheels

Jek,

arh just noticed that on the pictures, looks a nice addition to the bodywork, but buggers up trimming the front arch! I think yu will have the longer chasiis if its from back then, but would need steve to conform this. It doesnt help though as you are still stuck with this problem. you could always try a lemans style bonnet if you get really desperate?? Or how about making an infill piece piece in the bonnet/scuttle area?? Where does the bonnet line up with the side pods if gapped correctly to the wheels? What wishbone bushes are you running, rose or metalastic? if roses joints you could move rear suspension forward with spacers?

Mini, yeah thats what most older furys have done to the front arches to make them fit.

Thanks for the photos Douglas. I'm running 13" wheels and probably a higher ride height than the hillclimb car, so hopefully I will have just a little bit more clearance. I think one of the issues is that the rear of the tub is sagging under its own weight a bit. Things should improve if I support it a bit better.

The car is on metalistic bushes, so no scope for adjustment there unfortunately, though I think you could probably move the rear wheels forward about half an inch by fitting a rose joint to outboard end of the rear upper wishbone and adjusting the spacing of the upright and wishbone at the bottom.

Yeah I quite like the arch extensions on the bonnet too, the quality of finish and layup has improved dramatically since the BGH stuff.
I'll give Steve a ring re: the shortened chassis. It does sound more like a Steve era improvement, though I think the chassis may have been re-jigged during the BGH ownership, so perhaps they did it then.

Jek

[Edited on 18/7/12 by JekRankin]

So you're trying to get a good bonnet to scuttle shut line... good luck with that! Mines gaps between 15-20mm.

Sorry, but thats the way they are and I've not seen one with good shut lines yet that hasn't had the front of the arches trimmed. That said trimming the lower back edge of the tub helps a lot and given the compound curves doesn't effect stiffness very much. One thing I would add is don't rely on measurements too much over your eye, as the tubs aren't symetrical.

I've just had a chat with Steve which confirms what you said about the longer chassis Austen.

During the development of the IRS chassis where the welded steel panelling was replaced with aluminium panels, the chassis was mistakenly lengthened by exactly one inch.

When Steve took over the project he had the jig shortened back to the original and correct length, so the body should fit new cars properly.

So unfortunately, it seems its a problem affecting all IRS cars from the KCW and BGH eras. Not the end of the world, but the big shut line does spoil the finish a bit, so I'll probably trim a bit from the back of the rear arch to try and minimise it.

Haha, yep once you take a measuring tape to it, you really begin to appreciate just how skewed some parts of the body are!
Looks fine once you stand back and see it as a whole though.

Hi Jek,

Have fun......

Have you 'fixed' your rear tub yet? Mine is bolted /screwed down to give a 'good' rear wheel / arch position.
Steve gave me some rough measurments from the scuttle to the instrument panel mounting frame which helped.
I then marked the front edge of the scuttle and trimmed it down by about 15mm.


Sill_Trial_fit

The bonnet I am prepaired to cut if required. As others have said, the bonnet / scuttle shut line is going to be a challenge.
My body shell is the era of your first one. Quite thin and flexible - if you know what I mean....

The sill front edge / wheel arch line up, but I do not want too much of a gap above the wheel, but to get the shutline
as good as possible, at the moment it is quite large and I will have to make do.
Once it is IVA'd I may well re-fit the bonnet which may involve a cut and then getting it resprayed.
This will then repair any stone chips of the first years driving.
I think Claire2 said that she stretched her bonnet over a periiod of time.

At the moment, my bonnet is loosley fitted with one bolt in the bonnet mounting frame either side just for 'storage',
final fitting will occur when I have finished modifying the exhaust sill with some air holes, mesh and heat mat, but I may concentrate on the internal holes.


What_Gap

Looking at Robs white fury that you show, His rear tub looks like it is quite forward relative to the wheels. The gaps front and rear of the wheel are not equal. Great looking car all the same.

Keep us posted with the build, looking good.

Len.

[Edited on 18/7/12 by avagolen]

Hi Len,

Thanks for the pictures. I haven't fixed the main tub in place just yet, I'm going to get everything trimmed and drilled first, then take it all off to mould in the rear light recesses (gulp!) and finish off as much of the mechanicals as possible.

Raising the rear of the tub a bit gained me a little more clearance, so I think I may get away with only having to trim the return edges down a bit at the front, but the unfortunate consequence is that the rear wheels sit very far back in the arches. I also think that if I put a rose joint on the outboard end of the rear upper wishbone, I can move the rear wheels forward by about half an inch, which would at least remove half of the unwelcome extra wheelbase. Need to have a think about this ploy a bit more though.

Its a bit of a shame the chassis length issue was left unfixed for so long. It surely wouldn't have taken too much time for any of the previous owners of the project to chop an inch out of the jig and could have saved us all a lot of arch trimming :-(

Jek

[Edited on 18/7/12 by JekRankin]

Why not get 8 new wishbone pickup brackets (bloke on eBay sells them for £2.50) and weld them on infront of the existing bracket, sorted