Volvrarri: p1800 with tube chassis and v12

[275nart]

Amazing work as usual, and I know what you mean Vimes. You make it look easy!!

Thanks!!!

I am waiting for my new E wheel to arrive to further work on the fenders and nose but I have been busy building the headlight buckets and side marker buckets to be welded on to the nose later on. Here are some photos.

[ryeguy2006a]

Fantastic work! All about the details.

[kawasakii]

Bending the wire is is quite a tedious process,, But this is an amazing work. I am eagerly following along to see how the body comes together.

[wfo guy]

What brand of E wheel did you purchase?

[275nart]

What brand of E wheel did you purchase?

I will post when I have it all! It's a big boy with 5" wide anvils. Unfortunately the anvils were damaged in shipping and I'm having them cleaned up.


Rt side fender vent is constructed. Had to make this little crude hammer with some bar and a piece of coil spring to get in that very tight corner. Now to do the other side!

[ryeguy2006a]

Great work as usual! Love seeing this come together. Can't wait to hear that engine fire up.

[275nart]

Thanks! You and me both. I want to finish the nose and all the framework to hold it all up off of the chassis (that frame will also support the radiator, oil cooler, etc. and further facilitate getting it running)

[Steve Chryssos]

This is remarkable. Thank you for sharing your build with us.
Steve

[Mattilacken]

Wow! What a build! Incredible craftmanship and skills!

[275nart]

Thanks fellas!

[Larry Callahan]

We love the build so much that we just featured it on our Facebook page.

Check out our latest Facebook post!

I can't wait to see you drive it.

[275nart]

We love the build so much that we just featured it on our Facebook page.

Check out our latest Facebook post!

I can't wait to see you drive it.

Wow thank you Larry, what a nice surprise!

The new proshaper wheel is here and the anvils have been restored (they were damaged heavily in shipping!). What's different than almost all the others you can buy is the the upper adjuster (instead of on the bottom to use your foot) and 5" wide upper wheel and lower anvils vs 2 or 3". It moves the metal a lot faster and you don't need to use a rubber band on the top wheel when you want to "arrange" the metal, just extra light pressure on the top wheel and bending the metal down as you roll it through.

[ryeguy2006a]

That looks like a really nice piece! Looks incredibly heavy just sitting there.

[275nart]

I am long overdue for an update here! I've been all over the place working on different tasks.

I have been further tuning the front fender and headlight corner panels in the reverse area. I'm sure many of you noticed before it just wasn't flowing well. I took an angle grinder to the buck and some of the wires and tweaked it so the reverse can sit down more. It's about 90% there I think now. As for the fenders I still think I need to wheel a lot more in the top of the peaks of the to pump it up. It's just a little flat still. I'm also planning to add the crease line that runs along the peak of the fender from the a pillar to the headlamp bucket before the whole front is welded together.

I finally got to making the fender to cowl transition pieces also. I'm really pleased with all of that. I was scratching my head too much over it instead of just buckling down and going for it. Both side fender vents are now made too. The dashboard is pretty much finished off besides powder coating the frame and doing something about the padded top ( of course I can get it running without all of that though)! I made a little shroud to transition the steering wheel hub to the dashboard taking reference from some other vintage ferraris. All the major chassis electrical systems now work as well. Lighting, HVAC, gauges, horn, hazards, turn signals, electric steering, wipers etc. and I really tried to tuck all the wiring as much as possible underneath the dash.

I have realized some major changes will need to be made to the nose grill opening area as it is just not accurate to the real car. I'm thinking using steel tubing to make the perimiter of the grill opening and work off of that and I can also use it as a hammer form to some degree. There's a test panel to show you where the nose really needs to extend out to. If anyone else has more creative ideas on that let me know!

[ryeguy2006a]

Love the progress and attention to details! Gauges look great. Part of me hopes you don't paint it so that people can see all of the effort you have put into this car but it really deserves a beautiful paintjob.

[Bob in St. Louis]

Thanks for the update. I agree with Ryeguy, the "DeLorean look" would be cool on this one.

[275nart]

Thanks! That has been the plan actually. Leave it raw with the welds planished out then maybe polish it down the road and add some kind of ceramic coating to keep it fresh

[Vimes]

Looks great. A suggestion, the wires up front imply you're aiming for a small hood. If you made the hood longer, it would give you a LOT more room up front for working on the engine. You could bring it all the way down to the front fascia, or halfway down the headlights. As it is, if you ever had to remove the engine you'd be doing a lot of half inch moves to clear it all.

[275nart]

Thanks, the trans can come straight off and the engine can come straight up no problem! It's a pretty narrow engine (60*). I get your point but it would bother me to no end if the hood shut line was too different than the original!

[275nart]

Well I haven't gotten to the grill opening situation yet, I keep getting side tracked going one step forward and several back. I decided after looking at the car and studying photos the headlight opening was just not correct, the shape or the size. These things really look like fish bowls! Luckily I had the material to work with since I needed to go larger! I beat up the metal a little more than I like but I think I should be able to clean it up when it comes time still. Sadly I will have to make new buckets too...

Here's a good comparison- right side is now ammended and a pattern was taken and then flipped to the left side to match.





both fixed






- - - Updated - - -

And now for something I was really excited to work my way through. The cam tail/taillight panel with recesses for the lenses. I ended up making a simple little hammer form with 3d printing and flow formed them in. Not perfect, and there were a couple tears in the really stretched areas that were a bear to chase out and weld up, but overall really pleased! Making this panel revealed that I will have to make some changes to the wire form in the rear to match the real car, but not a huge deal.

proof of concept:




now on the actual panel (I have already wheeled it out and tipped all the edges pretty close). I pre-stretched the area to be hammered a little bit before annealing and then flow forming all the way.