Pembleton 3 Wheeler - Update 30.03.16

Evening,



I know there wasn’t much love for this first time round, but thought I’d share an update anyway – even just to help me get down what I’ve done. I know the Pembleton is a bit of a ‘kit car’, but it really is a million miles from all the doggy 70’s things left out there. I’d like to think of it as more of a special – the frame is bought, suspension is 2CV – then you make the rest up as you like. You can probably imagine that this is the short version of the build...


Anyway, I've dad a good go the last few months and it’s pretty much taken over my life.


First - everything off:



It’s been in a shed for so long, everything needed cleaning and re-painting. I ended up taking pretty much everything off and starting again. Including dash out:




Prep for a new one:





And in:




This was the first chance to see the colour i’d chosen too – LR Keswick Green. Looks good on the dash, so fingers crossed on the car. MSVA isn’t as strict as SVA dash wise, and it’s geared for bikes, however I still needed a dip switch and horn which could be operated with my hands on the wheel. I’d bought a good indicator lever without dip from the US and didn’t want to mount something extra, so it meant both dip and horn became foot operated.....




Next were the electrics. I pulled out what was left of the 2cv setup and started again. All new wires bought from autosparks, with the vintage style braided cloth sleeve (although they’re just modern PVC wires underneath). Loads of companies (like CBS) offer a pre made wiring ‘module’ but they’re always low on relays for my liking, and the Pemb doesn’t need anything for fans, radio etc – so it seemed like a good idea to start from scratch.

The fuse box was from CBS – split into 3 parts – 6 fused direct lives from the battery, 6 fused switched lives, and 12 earth connections. Hopefully it will make fault finding nice and simple...




I’d decided that a hinged bonnet was the way to go. The best method I’d seen was to silver solder a thread onto a section of hinge. The rear mounting is fixed, but the front has a knurled nut underneath which means you can pull the whole bonnet off quickly.

The Pembleton forum is very helpful, and a chap near to me offered the use of his metalwork tools (guillotine, folder, bender, press etc) and helped cut and make the bonnet.





I’m trying to convince my wife that we should take it to France next year. To help with persuasion I removed the rear bulkhead fitted by the first builder, and made this rear floor with mudguard – I’m no expert but it must take an extra pair of shoes compared to standard....







As the chassis was so old – it wasn’t intended to pass a MSVA (no seatbelts!). This has meant some visits to other owners of new chassis and having to make a central support stay to hold the belts. The plumber in the village had been round one night and offered to weld my new support in. He’s only 300 yards away and this gave me some motivation to get it ready to drive down and get the work done. Fuel lines went in and electrics connected up.

Moved outside (sounds simple but the cow shed door is 4’ and the car is 4’6”. Anyway - it was soon out, if backless...




(The battery is just there for now - will be moved).

After a successful drive (with no silencers ) it was soon back with the frame welded in.





This gets me to last week – I was planning to paint it next spring, but progress has been so good I thought I’d do it this year. My old man is bloody good as painting, but it still meant we were fighting the ends of winter and I had to get a shift on. Que a few weekends of very late nights getting the back panel and rear measured/cut/drilled/de-burred/bonded and riveted.




to this....





Fitting the fuel filler is another story, but basically the use of marine fuel hose and a marine boat floor filler did the job.


We sprayed the primer on Monday:




Hopefully top will go on tomorrow and Thurs, weather dependent. The cow shed isn’t too warm, but hopefully not too cold to paint with cellulose. The plan is to get plenty of top on and then there is something to cut back, even if we get some bloom. My main enemy in there is dust – I bought some polythene sheeting and made a false roof out of it, which should stop most the curse word falling from the roof.


Next is still wires , exhausts and lights etc. Quite keen on doing some sticker work and going for a real pre-war racer look – although apart from a white roundel I’m not sure how. Ideas?



Cheers


Phil

Proper cool

That's some proper tidy work there. That fusebox is lovely, soooo neat!

Bit late now it's in primer but all that lovely bare alloy and rivet lines made it look like it was begging for a bright yellow nose like a P45 Mustang. And maybe a bombslut. Everyone likes a nice bombslut, don't they?

This is fabulous! Managed to miss your first posts but will bookmark it now. Love the instrument panel, definitely less is more, subtle. I think the 30's racer look will be perfect, can't wait to see it finished.

Really liking this, especially the copper (boiler?) front nose! Are you thinking of switching the wheels for spoked ones? I realise its hard with a citroen PCD and 3 studs but it'd be so worth it I reckon, WII fighter style. Looks great, bookmarked

Thanks for all the love - means a lot!

Love the idea of a P45 Mustang theme  - the Aluminium looked good bare, but in places there was just so many marks from years of storage, it wouldn't have been worth keeping I don't think  - It needed something to cover it a little!

Nose cone is a copper boiler cowel - well spotted! 100% going for spoked wheels. You can get a 3 stud splined adapter and run something like MGB wheels, but they're heavy and (imo) look too clumsy on the car. The aim is for 19" Austin 7 styled spoked wheels painted black. Hopefully all other accessories (exhaust, lights etc) will be black also, just don't wether to go for matte or satin.

It's had an extra coat of primer today, a couple of lilac to body up and four of Kewswick Green. Looks absolutely amazing and I'm so pleased with the finish so far. There's plenty of paint left over so the plan is for a few more coats tomorrow to try and get some depth to the paint.

Sneak preview....




Thanks again,

Phil

quality, i love all the exposed rivety-ness.

will the engine be outside like the morgans ?

looks good remember one on a car is born.

Love these! Only spotted this thread now, really tidy re-engineering going on there, rear storage is ace. Are you mounting a spare on the rear?