1978 Reliant kitten rebodied in hand formed aluminium

I really wish I could show you but I have to be honest and say that there are no designs or drawings. I have no drawing skills which is quite a disadvantage so I am having to make it up as I go along adding a bit and if it looks okay leave it and if not remove it and try something else. The big difference between mechanical work and bodywork is that mechanicals are either right or wrong. With bodywork you have to spend a long time looking at it and deciding if it looks right to you and if it is what you are trying to achieve. All very much in the eye of the beholder.

To make things even more difficult I decided to base the body on a MK4 Fiesta windscreen which are inexpensive, laminated and electrically heated. Although the Fiesta is in modern terms a small and reasonably narrow car it is considerably wider than a Kitten and it was difficult to see how it might work without widening the track which was something I didn't want to do. Similarly with the wheelbase, any changes would not involve any modification to the chassis.

I've a huge way to go but the journey so far has been fascinating and hugely involving. Without getting too involved in the minute detail, over the next days I'll post a few photos and words which I hope will be of some interest.

Likewise, I'm following. Don't gloss over the minute details, though...that's where we learn stuff!

I can work some designs out with you if you like. Are you dead set on the Fiesta screen though? Even classic car screens can be had heated and I´d think they´d possibly be more future proof. You could always widen the track with wider wheels and thereby create a wider body. What´s the wheelbase of a Kitten anyway?

Oof! I once tried peeling an orange in my pocket.... Sorry, no pictures!

I'm in all the way


OVIMOR

I like compact attractive little cars that are nimble and I try to follow Colin Chapman's philosophy that a light car doesn't have to be particularly powerful to excel on the road or circuit. To this end I decided on a 1.6 Ford Sigma engine that has an aluminium block and weighs just 8okg. Okay,  considerably more than the 34kg of the Reliant engine but lightweight compared with many others. For some reason, these engines are not particularly popular among special builders although have been used by both Caterham and Westfield. So low demand probably equates to low resale value which enabled me to buy two fully dressed engines from a scrapyard for £200. The standard 1.6 makes 100bhp which has to be good value. With throttle bodies, a decent management and exhaust system we could be looking at around 150bhp with no other modifications. 

1st Motion have built for me a 5-speed type 9 with a close ratio gearset and this is mated to the engine using an RWD/Westfield alloy bellhousing. I'm retaining the Reliant rear axle which I am assured will be good for 150bhp BUT....... the casing is not very strong and will not tolerate a Panhard rod and the loads that it imparts on the axle. But a 4 link system is vastly superior (in my opinion) to a leaf spring arrangement so I needed to find a way round the problem. 

When I bought it, my MGB GT V8 with standard rear suspension cornered like my old Hilux with the truckman top fitted. Initial understeer followed by final roll oversteer which was very unpleasant. After having driven the 300hp Frontline Abingdon Edition MGB I was blown away by the way the car handled which was in no small way a result of the clever rear suspension. This was a 6-link system. They don't list this in their catalogue and normally only fit it to cars they build in house. But probably in view of our respective backgrounds in motorsport, Tim Fenna the MD of Frontline encouraged me to buy the 6-link rather than the 5-link omitting to mention that it was another grand more expensive. But worth every penny because it transformed the car and the driving experience. So why mention this? Because that's the system I decided to use on my car. It's called the Mumford Link, not unlike the Watts linkage but instead of having a bracket mounted to the diff casing, the bracket is mounted to the chassis. A couple of photos attached. I was able to use the existing leaf spring mounts as the pick ups for the trailing arms. I've fitted Gaz coil overs with adjustable spring seats.

Brilliant !!
In for the long haul on this one,
Looking forward to seeing future updates
Nigel

Awesome stuff. I'm in for the journey.

AL.

I don't think the Fiesta screen frame would have fitted the concept terribly well and foremost, I didn't have it when I made the frame. I did use the rear aperture though.

Having tacked the screen frame in I filled in the gaps so that it would have the strength of the tubular frame behind it.


The screen sits nicely all round.




A big benefit of using the Fiesta scuttle is the steering column mount. I'm using the Fiesta column with an extension to mate up with the Kitten steering rack.





I fitted a pillow block bearing and formed the footwell.








I had to reproduce the profile of the Fiesta A post which I managed in the folder .










The finished footwell.

... unfold ... ?

You must be thinking of Cardboard Aided Design lol




OVIMOR