Kimjon

Now sporting more patches than the Coromandel has. But the cunty jobs are mostly behind me now, with the rust repairs all but done. *showing my boomer side, with finger in photos

Framing up the pillars, creating a strong door frame and drip rail. Welding...Welding...more Welding. Followed by grinding, grinding and more grinding... I've cut the frame supports to follow the contour of the body. This is stage one, tacked in.

Still fuckloads to do, but small steps...

And meters of welding later...

Think that's the rust repairs done. Lots more welding, metal shaping, fab work, followed by even more hammer and dolly work to go...

Catch up with photos 4m of welding and the roof is back on...

My overly complicated drive train. I want to keep the vespa motor absolutely stock in terms of it's cases, footprint and mounting etc. My logic is so I can swap it out with another stock or modified vespa motor in the future if required. There's a bit of time invested in this, and I have no idea if it's actually going to work.

Rust, rust...rust. all cut out, fresh steel put back in.

Here's a photo for scale, to see just how small the Ape really is. @flyingbrick's reaction to it yesterday looked like he'd ordered a Ford F150 off wish.com and only to received this in the mail. As a male who's used seeing disappointment on the faces of others, this didn't come as a shock to me.

And fuck yeah...my favorite part of this build so far!

That's not terrible. The transition is harder than I'd prefer, but I'm sure I'll be able to lay some mig weld on the inside corners and grinder down the outsides to smooth it out a little bit more. Calling it a success.

Now to fit a round peg into a square hole!

DIY chassis machine. The left side was initially 150 further back. I got 100mm with a jack and blocks of wood. This got me another 45mm, leaving it roughly 10mm out from one side to the other. I can live with that, as a lot of cars aren't even that close. And I'm starting to chase my tail, as I can get it in one dimension, but not the other (X and Y)...but if I get X right, Y changes etc. So 10mm ...meh...send it.

Took advantage of the roof being off. Conveniently, it now fits in the English wheel, so I rolled out the golf ball sized dents someone had put in with a hammer. 90% of the dents are out now, and nothing a bit of filler or high build primer can't fix. It actually came out much better than expected. And I think I retained the basic dome geometry of the roof.

Getting shit done... Test fit looks good. Meters of welding can wait until another day.

More rust removed...

Heavy duty internal structure to support A pillars and roof.