Matt Builds A Tomcat

There’s a little work to do before painting can commence – namely grinding off some of the protuding welds to make sure they don’t get in the way of the bodywork, skimming off some of the welding splatter with a flathead screwdriver and wiping the whole thing down with thinners to get rid of any grease.

Begone, lumps!

Next, some primer – we stood it on it’s side first to do the underneath, and now that we’re in a nice warm workshop it was dry enough to turn it back the right way up within the space of a cup of coffee. We used an engine hoist when getting it back down again but it’s light enough to do with two of you lifting if you don’t have one. We took the bolts off to make sure we didn’t get paint on them (the box section at the back has to come off to be painted properly anyway).

By the end of this, we were thinking that grey would be a good colour!

I decided to paint it black – my friend told me a red car with black bodywork would look like a ladybird. I’m not convinced he’s right, but the shop was out of red paint, so black it was.

This followed the same procedure as the primer as far as standing it on it’s side was concerned. We’re going to give another coat to the underside and to the bits you can actually see once the body is on (the door frames, window frame, rear cockpit frame and the two bits that come down from the roof to the rear of the car). We painted the rock sliders the same red colour as the propshafts, underbody protection and springs are going to be.

Done!

The next step (after a bit more painting) will be fitting the axles and suspension.

I’ve got a Tomcat! Shame it’s all in bits, but never mind.

In its new home with the roof and wing tops on

The chassis and rollcage just (just!) fitted into a 4.5′ car trailer.

You can see the pedal box to the left of the car.

Now it’s all back, and (now that it’s clean) into it’s new home, which is drier and has a somewhat higher roof.

The rear floor is just laying in at the moment.

Next step – prime and paint the cage. I’m having a colour dilemma, though – the bodywork is black, and I’d always intended for the rollcage to be black too, with certain bits (the coil springs and underbody protection) being red. Now I’m thinking that the whole rollcage should be red.

Various bits. You can see to top of the seats on the floor.

Hmm…

I’ve just got off the phone to Paul and the bits should be arriving this afternoon, meaning the Tomcat is ready to pick up tomorrow!

Work commitments mean I can’t fetch it that early, but on Monday it’s back to Nottingham again.