1965 Lola T70 Inspired scratch build - CanAmSA Build thread

You might ask, why a build thread for a car that seems to be complete. That is because so far I have only completed a "dry" unpainted build.

Why has it taken me so long? As is the case for many peoples projects I have to split my time and finances between holding down a job, maintaining a home and keeping up with all the other responsibilities of life. I also participate in other car related and motor sport activities.

I raced 2 stroke karts, up to national level, for many years. More recently I have mechanically rebuilt and raced a street registered Birkin 7, the blue and silver car below. Birkin's were kits built in Durban South Africa, initially under licence from Lotus, and thus share a lineage with Caterham. My car was originally built in the 80s, so qualifies as retro? Although the Mazda 12A rotary motor is highly tuned, it's not really a race car and I intend to replace the drivetrain for MX5 eventually as its really too noisy and raw for the street as it is. I take the windscreen off for the track.

I'm lucky to have friends who invite me to share or race their cars, one of whom owns the orange and silver 7 below. We have shared this in the annual 3 hour race at our local track the last few years.

Another friend has a good stable of race, rally and classic cars which I help him with on occasion. The Jaguar XK 150 I show below is unusual for South Africa in that it is left hand drive. A sublime car to drive which I particularly enjoy as my father had one just before I was born. On the track this year we are campaigning the race Escort below. These are my only other retro credentials.

I have had help and advise from many people over the years, in particular from the participants on 2 car building forums. These being www.locostbuilders.co.uk and www.gt40s.com.

Sadly the traffic on locostbuilders has dropped off to a trickle over the last few years.


On the other hand gt40s.com is still very active. I have a thread there where I documented the long blood sweat and tears story of making the pattern, moulds and parts, if your should like to read more about that www.gt40s.com/forum/lola-t70-lounge/19604-canamsa-sa-stratch-build.html.

Unfortunately it seems that the locostbuilders site, that i used to host all the early photos,  has just fallen over so the photos are not visible.

Very cool fred W B .

I love the T70, and the rest of the cars you posted are really nice too.

I'll check out your thread on the FT40 site later.

What a cool car!

Thanks for the kind responses Guys.

Unfortunately the photos have disappeared from the other thread so a short version and some photos here to explain how I made the pattern.

In order to measure the 1:18 scale model I made up a 3 axis measuring jig from alloy channel section and flat, steel rules, a straight edge and a digital vernier. Then with the aid of a colleague Andrew, I measured the offset of the body surface from the datum base at every point on a 5 mm x 5 mm grid, and recorded the measurements on a large piece of paper.

Andrew then used this data and many reference photo's I had found in books, magazines and on the net to draw the body surface in Inventor - one sentence that describes many hours of work. I even corresponded with the owner of a real T70 in the states with regard to some of the details. Originally I had not intended to attempt an exact replica, to stop any pedantic's telling me I have this and that detail wrong but once I went to all this trouble, it seems a pity not to get it as right externally as I could.

We than used that data to produce drawings of many flat body sections (stations every 100 mm in the length) and some longitudinal stringers to position them, in DXF file format. These parts were then cut out on a CNC router from 8 mm plywood sheet. I have a friend with a router that can handle 8' x 4' sheets. The plywood was recycled from packing crates used to send stuff from GM Brazil to a GM plant here in Port Elizabeth.

Once all 67 wooden parts were in hand I put the buck together. The parts were drawn with slots so that they clipped together and self aligned. I had 350 polyurethane foam blocks cut, to glue into the spaces to form the surface. The foam was sanded to shape and covered with filler. Following some adjustments to the shape it was then covered with a layer of chopped strand mat and resin, to give a solid base. This was then sanded to fair it, then coated with polyester auto body filler, and sanded again. Then the whole lot was sprayed with surfacing compound and finally finished to give a suitable surface for moulds. I did all the sanding and polishing, from 36 grit down to 1200 grit, by hand with a long board and sanding blocks. Got through 50 kg (110 lbs) of body filler.

Excellent work. Saw this at Singleton car show last year. It’s a Lola kit car (no idea what model). Built by the husband of my wife’s friend.

Yes, thats a GD. Very nice kit. I'm not going to put Lola badges on mine

This is an extract from some correspondence I had with a Dutch guy who built one about 2011. I was quite chuffed with myself about it

"When I was at GD's the MD Andy Burrows asked me about the fellow from africa that is making his own bodywork, I offcourse knew right away about whom he was talking, so we chatted a bit, seems that have been topic of discussion in the UK kitcar scene aswell.

Andy said that he really liked the effort of doing things right, and also said that "one should give him all credit on perseverance, outstanding""

Wow. Superlative.

John

Took some record pictures of the complete chassis. Not shown are 2 diagonal bars that bolt into the front of the side sill structures