How I Made My Scuttle Panel Mod 1

8/14/2019 How I Made My Scuttle Panel Mod 1

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My ever changing Scuttle Panel

I did not want a GRP scuttle panel, as you will see, I am very prone to changingthings as I go along and I still have not got the hang of welding fibreglass. I wanted touse 13x13x1.6mm ERW because it is strong and relatively easy to bend.

I used the rear profile of my nosecone to get the required shape and expanded thisonto a sheet of Contiboard.

The holes are for attaching the clamps to hold the ERW in place as I bent it. After bending the rear hoop, I used a jigsaw to cut away the board to get to the next profile.I then bent the forward hoop. This bending was not as easy as I thought, and nearlyemptied my store of expletives.

I made the lower frame of the scuttle simply by clamping 25x25 ERW onto thechassis top rails and welding together. I clamped the rear rail in place and used alength of ERW to get the slope correct and adjusted the height of the rear rail to get 1 of slant on the bodywork. If I left it horizontal, it would appear to slope down tothe rear just a trick of the eye.


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I then welded the front hoop into place and checked the slope again

I then skinned the resulting frame with 22g mild steel and welded it into place.


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Under the front lip of the forward hoop I welded a strip of 30x2mm mild steel strap tomake a lip for the bonnet to sit on, and welded in a bulkhead with the same 22g steel


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Now was the time to make the hole for the steering column. I used some more of the30mm strap and made an oval and welded this onto the back of the bulkhead, andchain drilled out the aperture.

I made it oval so I would have some adjustability in the height of the column should Ifind the car uncomfortable to drive with a set position.


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The scuttle was now finished.

Or so I thought..

Several months later when I had completed loads of other parts of the car, the scuttle

looked, well, a bit dull. The bonnet lip was also too small to support the bonnet whichI had just made.


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Back to the drawing board!!

I riveted a 30mm stainless strap to the front of the scuttle to increase the landing areafor the bonnet with the intention of adding self-adhesive foam to even up the panelgaps.

The rest of the car was now aluminium, and the poor old scuttle was mild steel

painted in Zinc 183 anticorrosion paint just not right. I am sure we have all had thatfeeling. Adding the stainless strap at this point was not a good idea, I should havedone it later.

I now knew that the only option was to skin the scuttle with ally, better corrosion protection and shiny

I started by cutting a template using masking paper. You can see that the bonnet isstill being reminded what shape it should be, held down with ratchet tie downs!


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I then covered the scuttle with brushable PU seam sealer, very similar to Tigerseal, but in a tin. I cut out the shape of the scuttle in ally and tied it down until the seamsealer went off.


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I trimmed off the surplace ally (down to a 13mm overlap) and folded the edges over using a flipper, riveting with 3.25mm rivets as I went along.

I then removed the scuttle and started on the front edge in the same way.

I used cheap plywood to protect the surface of the ally as I clamped the ally prior toriveting.

I removed the protective film and took a few shots


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I refitted the scuttle and added the foam strip


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Another modification was using one of those slip driveshaft boot to allow neat entryfor the wiring loom, the hole was cut and protected with edging strip.

This shot shows the scuttle in place with the finished bonnet in place and my much- prised Alfa Romeo 156 repeaters (remember the fuss I made when I got them?)


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And finally, my next change of plan, I decided to paint the scuttle!!! I have photoshopped the proposed colour scheme, I will use Rover Trophy Blue, you know,the one that all the XT 75 seem to be painted.

As you can see, I am no expert in Photoshop.

Things I would have changed are

1, I would not have fitted the steel skin!!2, I would have added 13x13mm stiffeners between the forward and rear hoops3, I would have used Tigerbond to attach the ally to the frame, but still rivetedthe edges of the ally as described.


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4, I would have made the scuttle a little taller, despite the 1 slope, it still looksa little flat and there is a definite angle between the front of the bonnet and thenosecone5, If I knew it would have been this much trouble, I would have bought all the

panels in GRP self coloured and I would have been on the road months ago!!!

Mark Allanson [email protected]

PS All finished and SVAd and 3 years of motoring under its belt

How I Made My Scuttle Panel Mod 1

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