After much enjoyment getting a Jupiter door to fit with anything that looked like a half decent panel gap, welding a new bottom to the A post and building a bottom hinge from bits we had something that was starting to look a bit like a Jupiter. The B posts were literally just that, a bit of pressed steel that looked like the end of the door. No reference except about 50mm of the old sill, which is a different size to the new one. The only option was to build the locking mechanism and catch plate, clip it to the end of the door, guess where it should go and weld a temporary support to the sill. Shockingly this works and the drivers door opens and closes. Because the chassis is on a single post lift, and the doors are in the middle, it had to come out of the garage to be turned round.
Time to roll out the big guns.
Interesting fact: If you put a trolley jack exactly in the centre of the chassis X frame, on the 6" square plate that Jowett provided, you can spin the car round and round and round at will with very little effort. This probably won't work if you have an engine fitted, or a boot, or much bodywork. It doesn't take much to amuse a Yorkshireman.
Back in the garage it was simply a case of repeating the process on the other side. At the moment the doors are welded shut, and welded to the floor to keep them where I need them. The tops of the B posts are bolted together to keep it all square while I fit the panels between the doors and the sides of the boot. Basically working backwards from the B posts.
The rest of December will be taken up with the rear steel panels, boot floor, taking the doors off again to sort the bottom skin and cutting the sills to length. I'm planning on getting the rear aluminium clamshell and boot lid out of storage in January, by which time I should have somewhere to mount it.
Thanks for reading,
Have a great Christmas.
