i haven't been on here for a while as i got bored with the "that wont work" and "you're doing it wrong" posts. the old thread is a mess.

so i will start a new one.

i bought the S800 at the end of 2007 as a modified road going car. it was road registered and i used it for a couple of weeks although the engine did have issues. being that it had had a hard life and not quite original i fancied a bit more power. S2000 engine will probably be a bit overkill but why not?

i sold the original engine and transmission





didn't look as good underneath.




suspension bolts missing and washers the incorrect size!


before i did the front end properly.





the inner metal front part is missing . i cut that part out of the scrap S800 i bought before i stripped and sold that one on




(before i welded in the front inner frame. crash damage still present)











and the transmission tunnel was already beaten up like this before i fitted the larger engine.




as you can see the front end was a mess.

grill never fitted


does now


the grill fits much better. it isn't quite fitted as a metal fronted car as i have it overlapping the nose but that was the tidiest way i could fit it to this front end. as you can see to the right of the grill the headlamps were never fitted very well either. more time consuming work to align and sort the headlamp bowls to fit properly.







i needed to make a new door panel. reason being the old ones are no good and i have actually modified the drivers door for a little more shoulder clearence



then using part of the old door panel i made a new one





there is a 3mm thick rubberised layer under the vinyl to give it some depth. iv'e also nut-serted the panel clip holes to bolt the new panel on directly. 5mm nut-serts fit perfectly.

iv'e also got the passanger fibre glass door skin fitted. it was a little more difficult to align as the skin was too far back on the frame originally making the panel gaps huge at the fromt and non existant at the rear.



now fits much better. a little bit of filling over the rivets and thats the body almost there.

i also decided to flare out the front arches as these '70s fibreglass wings aren't quite the right shape. they went in at the top of the arch so the tyre stuck out.





and has a roll bar




body is pretty much there now and ready for paint.


oh and the engine fits

 

iv'e had a set of Porsche wheels for a long time as they have the same PCD as the S800 but iv'e never been sure how to mount them without having special wheel nuts made.





they only cost me £100. they are 15x6 and with the 195/45x15 low profile tyres they are the same rolling radius as 185/60x13. they will be used as track wheels.

iv'e has a set of Porsche aluminium wheel nuts kicking around for ages. recently iv'e been measuring up as i will be changing the wheel studs to a larger diameter for a bit more strength. then i had a brain wave.

machine the ball end off the Porsche nuts and use them as spacers. don't know why i didn't think of it before.




just 19 more to do


the wheels will need a tiny amount drilling out for the shanked nut to go through but it'll locate perfectly and means a cheap set of alloys for track use

here we go. this picture shows why the arches need flaring a little. due to how the fibreglass wings have been made the arches go in at the top.







these are the vents i'll be using



a little bit bling so they will be sand blasted and painted body colour.



iv'e got the pipe to connect it to the engine bay just need to make a backing for the vent









thats the dashboard finished

the speedo and rev counter are now electronic. the needles will zero when the ignition is switched on. the little panel under the parking brake light is the control panel for the rev counter with shift light.

i decided to fit the metric temp gauge i had kicking around. all gauges tested and working.

 

made a nifty clock from a 1955 Machmeter. also fitted a stopwatch the same as used in the Red Arrows




top left corner





plan is to make it look the similar to as it was but without the graphics.


i also have this to restore and use as a tow vehicle



318 4 speed.

plan is to have them both on the road by the time they are 50 years old. Barracuda in 2016 and the S800 in 2017.

 

More pics needed! Glad to see this here, in more ways than one, as I think I saw your clock suggestion somewhere a year or more ago, and it was the inspiration for mine:




Thanks! Neko.

 

there are some great wartime aircraft clocks out there. very radioactive though. iv'e got a few WW2 clocks which send the gieger counter mental when placed close. not to be opened up and cleaned without precautions. particals must not be inhaled or injested.

British


German




later clocks are fine though. and they are designed to fluoress under UV light.


my S800 in a former life



previous owner










anyone thinking this swap looks easy, it isn't. you always have to look two steps ahead to see what any of the modifications done may affect or cause problems down the line. i'm building the car so that a different chassis could be swapped back in to refit standard S800 running gear and pretty much easily undo the engine swap. but that wont be in my lifetime as i intend to never sell this car.

anyway







steel insert to replace the rubber bush






and the special shocks i had made to move the mounting point nearer to the wheel



i decided to go rose joint instead of track rod ends are rose joints are readily replacable and it means i can adjust to tune out bump steer.





high tensile bolt through the middle, job done

had a few bits painted already. i'm also changing all the glass for perspex

 

Just a sugestion. Can you mount your fender vents from the back of the the fender. I like the idea of painting, but feel it would look even better mounted that way. My first post in the Classics thread, a visit long overdue.
Nice ride, digging the S2000 swap. It's going to be a monster.

 

they wont look right fitted from behind, the wings are fibreglass so the thickness isn't even. they are fitted as a nessesity due to how tight the engine is in the engine bay. that point on the bodywork is in a low pressure area hence you see a lot of vents in that area.



hopefully the S800 will be very docile when driven normally. i'm fitting a full interior with Kirkry race seats.

spare will be in the back under a lift up panel


which i have already made


dry cell battery will be in the passanger footwell. keeps the weight low and between the wheels


heavy gauge aluminium to cover it.


vented discs and Wilwood brakes for the front


and for the rear i'm making a hybrid axle from a Ford Atlas axle (as fitted to Capri's etc) and Ford P100 drive shafts and brakes. that gives me 10inch drums and i can modify the halfshafts to the standard S800 PCD to be able to use standars S800 wheels if i want to.

 

even though the S800 is supposed to have competition history, no one has found it yet. the previous owner had known the car since the 80's and didn't know it had been bright green at one point in its life.




iv'e got quite a history file with the car from 1989 which shows the 52,000 miles, which is probably genuine, as it had spent 12 years in storage between 1992 and 2004. it has holes in the bodywork where it has had a roll cage fitted at one point but nothing about any competitions. it was reregistered in the 80s so did have a different registration number. the old number was LTV640F but that comes up blank.

these photos were in the history file with the car and hopefully the aim is to getting looking pretty much the same

 

by the way i spanner on high end classics for a living






i restored the Burgundy GT40 a few years ago after it had been sat in the Beaulieu Motor Museum for 30 years. it is a rare MK3 road version with higher headlamps and a longer tail for the luggage box.



built the 427 side oiler on this Cobra


monstrously fast. i can see why they got the reputation.




Did a fair bit on 49FXN over the years.


mainly work on Jaguars



XKSS i restored a few years ago vvvvv





lightweight E engine with mechanical fuel injection




just thought you might be interested

 

Indeed! Count me interested... For a moment there, I thought I was going to see the XJ-13. I used to spanner on Porsche Cup, Targa Tasmania cars, and the odd road racer as freelancer, but nothing particularly exotic. Neko.

 

Amazing work! That looks like a dream to drive once you get everything sorted out! I wish I had a quarter of your skills to tackle a restomod like yours!

 

Wow, good job

 

just thought you might be interested [/QUOTE]


Yes mate... always interested in those type of classics too ! Will start a thread on our S Series cars shortly.

 

In on this build.

 

 

Looking good mate
Interesting to read that the wheel PCD is the same as Porsche.
I have a 1966 912 Porsche with a couple of sets of rims, and as I bought an S600 today, I'll have no problems fitting some wider wheels later on

 

(5x 130) and NSU TT, that's about it though...






I think either the hub, or similar needs slight reaming, but otherwise the Fuch and steels bolt straight on. 14 inch only though I suppose...

 

I have a set of 5.5 x 15inch steel rims, yet i think that would make it look like a 4wd car!
I'll leave the original rims on

 

in the process of buying an S2000 to break for the engine. there was no point getting a good engine till the S800 was ready for it. that time, which has been long coming, is now here

 

Looks tremendous. I like the black in-fill panel. Neko.

 

cheers. I went for gloss as everyone usually goes for satin black.





and now have an S2000 to strip of its engine and gearbox

 

Be sure to stash the S2000 in a barn somewhere, so someone can find it and add the latest electric / hydrogen hybrid drivetrain in 2052... And someone can complain about it. Neko.

 

This is funny, but oh so true.

 

chassis now in



they normally have 22 rubber mounts attaching the body to the chassis, i'm making them out of ally to solid mount the body.

 

Other than spacing, I see no reason for the rubber as being so small I imagine their vibration isolation benefit slight. Track work though? No need for sure... Neko