New panels

[NickT]

Hello All.

I,m new on here. I,ve had my 1971 Vitesse convertible for the past 3 yrs and in that time i,ve replaced or upgraded pretty much all of the mechanicals on her. Inc drive shafts,brakes,bearing bushes and assorted engine parts.

I,ve been umming and arring over whether to now sell up and go for a Stag as i fancy a V8. Have now decided to keep what i have as am too attached to her now. think i,ve seen too many stags lately but have,nt seen a another Vitesse. So pretty exclusive if you ask me eh.

Anyway sorry for rambling just wanted to give some background.

Gonna restore her bodywork now instead. My question is about lower rear wings i,ve seen on Rimmer and James Paddock. is that the whole wing or do you have to get the lower forward part and the wheel arch repair. Got some good guys to do the work but i need to source the panels.

Anyway thanks for reading

Regards Nick.

[dave.vitesse]

T.D. Fitchett Ltd are another supplier worth considering. They bought some of the original Triumph tooling when the factory closed and are the source of a number of the panels now available.

Good luck with your project. 

Dave

[Pete Lewis]

And keep Chic Doig in the frame   often good for dedicated parts

http://www.chicdoig.co.uk/

[Colin Lindsay]

Regarding Nick's original question: yes you can buy repair sections as well as the entire panel; it all depends on how competent you or your welder are to join them invisibly!

I'd agree with Pete re Chic - he will make sections of panels and not always the obvious bits, so you can repair a large or small area depending on your needs.

[Dick Twitchen]

Nick,  The Southern Group has several long term Vitesse owners who have been, and are, going down this route.  Worth coming along to a meet and talking to them direct about their experiences.    Few too many Stags come but ........

Dick

[Badwolf]

On the subject of fitting panels, I have been following the restoration of a couple of Jowett vehicles on the Retro Rides forum (thanks for the links Karl). The very experienced restorer ('Grumpy Northener') advocates the use of Kent Rapd Bond for bonding steel although he does weld (beautifully). Is this stuff strong enough to bond body panels. I did post an enquiry on my restoration thread about its strength (spitfire headlight support panels), but only got a couple of posts giving advice. Never used it yet, but are modern bonding products really as good/strong as the manufacturers reckon?

[Colin Lindsay]

 

I'd be very surprised if there isn't a modern adhesive strong enough to stick body panels together, however it probably all depends on whether they're thin modern metal or Triumph metal...

I'll watch this one, given that I can't keep the stainless trims on my GT6 bonnet down - they insist on lifting at the front, just an inch or two, so any adhesives that I haven't used so far will be next on the list. (Still covered in Tigerseal from yesterday's attempt, and they lifted off immediately after 24 hours setting time, once I removed the straps tapes and weights holding them in place.)

(I've just edited this as I've had 50% success... one down, one up!)

 

[Badwolf]

Colin. Have a look at this page, quite a way down...

http://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/204767/jowett-jupiter-accident-repair?page=4

And this one, near the bottom of the page..

http://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/204767/jowett-jupiter-accident-repair?page=6

 also this one, 

http://forum.retro-rides.org/thread/204767/jowett-jupiter-accident-repair?page=7

again near the bottom, a heliva way to make a door fit in a tight space..