D-Type: gluing up the monocoque shell

This took some bravery as the rear wheels won't fit over the spindles once the upper half of the monocoque is in place, due to the way the rear fenders obscure the top of the wheels. I much prefer putting wheels on last to prevent problems like snapping axles off while wrestling with something else, or in the interminable handling that comes of finishing up, but in this case the rears have to go on early.



In turn this required resetting the rear axle, which was tilted such that one of the rear wheels was off the ground, by removing and regluing the right side trailing arms; it also required making little thin-wall tubular spacers out of brass tube because the wheels are loose on the spindles. There remains a problem of the rear track being significantly narrower than the front, in direct contradiction to my good friend Mr Google who states unequivocally that track, front and rear, was 50 inches. I'll leave this alone however; the appropriate fix would be to sand down the rear inner fenderwells which are thick due to the nature of resin casting.

Following the mating of the two monocoque halves, the first step was final coats of blue and clear, which in  turn required more taping. The photos unfairly make the finish look sloppy, although to be fair it isn't exactly show quality.



The under hood area was then completed, including fuel injection, exhaust manifolds, subframe, radiator, oil tank, water and oil plumbing, etc. It's all coming together, slowly but surely.



Oh and I also had to make another hinge for the fuel filler door, because the first one came apart after too much fondling :). I updated my last post to reflect this and to propose a solution. Apart from not fondling it, I mean ...