1974 Reliant Scimitar X30XE : Scimega

[155ringman]

Congrats! That first fire always feels great!!

[stevietuck]

So whats left to do then?? Do I need to sort out my spare room so you can visit next weekend?

[DWDarkWheels]

A few wee jobs still to do, Stevie

Today I tidied the engine bay wiring. Well, 'tidy' perhaps isn't the word, but I seem to have got most of it into the tray where the battery usually lives. I'll probably make a cover plate for all that later.







So where is the battery? The Scimitar has a couple of nice compartments in the boot, so the battery is back there now. I had made up a lovely GRP box to drop the battery below floor level....until it was pointed out that's where the exhaust would go.

[stevietuck]

phew! so i don't need to get the hover out yet lol?

[DWDarkWheels]

Mar 9, 2014 18:15:07 GMT stevietuck said:

phew! so i don't need to get the hover out yet lol?

I see you're in Moray, though. I remember passing through there a couple of years ago, stopping in Cromarty. Without doubt the sleepiest, most deserted town I've ever encountered on a Saturday afternoon

[DWDarkWheels]

Some pics further away from the small detail to remind me I'm trying to build car.







and a bit of main dealer extortion

[qwerty]

Fantastic work, engine looks so at home in that bay.

[georgeb]

Mar 14, 2014 20:03:16 GMT qwerty said:

Fantastic work, engine looks so at home in that bay.

+1. Quality installation.

[Phil H]

Drain plugs aren't cheap, are they, Darryl?

Yep - your installation is a bit tidier than mine

[DWDarkWheels]

Hey, Phil Even the girl on the Vauxhall parts counter was embarrassed when she had to break the price to me. The price wasn't unexpected to me though.

Lots of progress on small jobs of late.

The Omega expansion tank isn't a good shape for the space I have left. I reckoned a small car from the same manufacturer in the same era might have similar outlets, perhaps even designed by the same bloke , so I bought a Corsa B one on Ebay. Cheap too.
But does it fit? Oh yes! I had to put the bonnet on to make sure it shuts : there are mm to spare. Even lining up the bonnet was much less of a task than I expected.



I painted and fitted the radiator cheeks, then came up with an idea for a bit of airflow towards the air filter, using Scimitar ventilation hose and bulkhead flanges. It'll do for now, but might need a rethink once the car's in use.



Purchase number 2 is a universal washer bottle kit, that I've not fitted, but will go down in the front tray.

Purchase number 3 is a Mountney classic steering wheel and boss.
I've bought this now as I need to match that with wood for the dashboard, so I can start assembling the dash. It's one of those odd situations where you start at the end and work back, if you see what I mean.

[retropower]

first time i've seen this - absolute class!

[DWDarkWheels]

Thanks! Such feedback from professionals is much appreciated.

[stevietuck]

Keep up the good work bud

[DWDarkWheels]

Thanks once more, Stevie.

I've been working up to a Big paint day.

The car got another 180-grit rub-down last week. This morning the car looked like so....kinda cool in a Retro-Rides patina kinda-way I thought.



Over the course of today I've rollered on 2 litres of Rustoleum, which I hope is the final coat.





It's tricky to get a good picture of white paint, but hopefully it looks shiny

I'm pleased with that. Some areas I overdid a bit, but best to leave it alone now. If I'd sprayed the car I'm sure I'd have made mistakes too. Anyway, at less than £300 for all the paint and materials, I can live with the result.

Now I need to leave the car well alone to let the paint dry.

[Deleted]

Paint finish looks right good and will be a change from the usual red or yellow.

Really high standard in the engine bay and the hole jobs better than OEM

[DWDarkWheels]

Thanks very much, Rob. It occurred to me the other day the only original thing in the engine bay is the wiper motor.

[Anglia68]

The paint job looks really good and the engine installation looks totally pro.

[stevietuck]

Paint looks really good bud and it must feel great to have done it all yourself

[DWDarkWheels]

Thanks Anglia' , Stevie.

With the car's original lights, and the bits I kept from the 2 SE6a's I broke, I had enough tidy parts for a full set of headlights, bowls, chrome rings. It's nice to re-use stuff you already have. Rather than muck about with old connectors, I did buy some new headlamp connector blocks from SVC www.s-v-c.co.uk/. With some soldering we have something starting to resemble a car.

[sonus]

Looking very good! Wouldn't be surprised if you would start getting request from magazines for features very soon! Certainly beats a lot of cars featured already. Can't wait to see this finished