Brooklands Bentley

Today I finished off and welded on the belly pan frames. This also gave me a chance to put a floor in and try it on for size. Everything seems to be good as far as access and ground clearance is concerned. It also gave me the chance to figure out the height of the body and ponder proportions.

The depth of the body at the dash hoop is 600mm, This is from the bottom of the belly pan to the top of the cowl. This is in line with the Stevensons plans (575mm nominal) and also the overlay that I made. However. The rear hoop needs to be a little higher than this to clear the engine. Plus, the front grille also needs to be a little taller so that it has the right proportions, as currently it is a little too squat. The body lines of the Bentley also have the rear cowl in line or in some cases lower than the front bodywork. Currently the rear hoop is 75mm higher than the front hoop, which obviously does not look right.

I also squared off the rear of the chassis and mounted the engine. It's only tacked in at the moment as I think I am going to try and drop it a little lower in the frame. This will allow me to drop the rear hoop a little, which combined with raising the front hoop will bring everything in line. I'm hoping that this will give the correct overall proportions and be visually correct.

I've got a full day to spend tomorrow so I want to try and get all of the chassis and steering stuff finished off so that its rolling and steering. That will leave me a couple of days to try and get some bodywork on it.