Ford Prefect V8 Hot Rod - Running Boards and Interior

I thought the running boards would be easy, turns out they weren't. I started them some time back but needed some fairly decent thickness steel to make the tops for them. They were to be welded to the chassis rails and the exhaust tubes that gave me the rounded edge so didn't need to be massively thick but as they have to take the full weight of a person I decided 2mm was the stuff to use. I purchased 2 pieces, each 1300mm long and 8 inches wide, while I was at it I bought the 4 pieces of 1mm steel for the inner door skins, I will give them some shape and character with my newly acquired bead roller.

I have to say I got really pissed off with my steel supplier, who I will not name as I wish them no harm. I had been in there to ask about steel, I told them what I wanted and said that either 1 or 1.2mm would be fine, I did not enquire about cost at the time. He made a note and said he would call me in 1 or 2 days when it had been cut. It was over a week, I hadn't heard anything so I called them, he confirmed it would be ready the following day. I was both shocked and horrified when I was handed a bill for over 160 quid, I wasn't expecting it to be half that. When I enquired as to why it was so expensive I was told that because it was 1mm they have to roll it one more time than 1.2 so it is actually much more expensive. He went on to inform me the bill would have been about 60 quid less if I had gone with 1.2!!! To say I was pissed is a massive under statement. That's a big hit on a budget build and one I could well have done without. Next time I will definitely get prices first. although I will probably look for a new supplier, he could have told me of the price uplift at the time of ordering, I would definitely have gone for the 1.2 had I have been informed of the price difference at that time.

Anyway, I had some 209l welding rods that I had already bought for the job - you need these if you have to weld mild steel to stainless and my tops were mild steel, the exhaust tube stainless - the only stuff I could find. I used my MIG welder for where he new steel had to be joined to the chassis rails. I cut the shape of the board tops with my trusty old jigsaw, it took a while but made sure the new metal met the old precisely, which made the welding job a lot easier and made for a proper neat job. I did make a really stupid mistake on one side, I wanted to cut off some surplus pipe from the end of the exhaust tube and forgot to take in to account the curvature of the front wing that goes over it. As a result I cut off too much and then had to weld it back on again - oh well, mistakes are bound to happen.

That job is done now, paint has been applied, just to help stop it rusting really, thin ribbed rubber sheet has been ordered and will be glued on to make it nice and safe even in the wet.

I am very pleased with how it looks, it transforms the appearance and makes it look a lot more original, which is how I had the vision in my head nearly 3 years ago now.

So with that done my attention can now turn back to the interior, the one area where I have the least of the required skills needed. First job will be to make the inner door skins out of that ridiculously expensive steel, I have to be really careful here as any mistake will be both time consuming and expensive. My plan is to start by trimming the panels so they fit the door outline, simple. I then need to make holes in the two front ones for the door opening lever / closing handle, again simple job. then I have to mark a pattern on the skin to give me a guide to follow with the bead roller. I am going to keep it fairly simple and intend to use the largest bead and the smallest bead to break up the plain panel, give it strength and interest. I have not finalised the pattern yet and want some more practice with scrap material before I start. I have modified my bead roller to make life easier, it has been significantly strengthened and I have added a tractor steering wheel to make one man operation a possibility, the crank handle that was supplied with it was useless, I couldn't reach it when the handle was pointing away from me. silly design.

Anyway, I wanted to fit the doors to make sure thy opened and closed ok and thought I may get a better idea of what bead rolling I wanted to do, it didn't really help too much, although it did make me realise that with the door shut and the seat well forward there is very little room between the door and the seat bolster, I need to be very careful not to do any outward beads in that area, it will just make matters worse. I have been trying to find suitable seats that are about 1 inch narrower than the ones I have but have not found anything thus far, I will have to go with what I have.

I have now removed the passenger side door and put it in the other workshop ready to be trimmed, marked up and rollered, I need to boost my confidence before taking it on, it will be my first time and I can't afford to mess it up.

The other major challenge I have is how to do the roof / headliner, I am struggling to see a way forward on that at the moment. ave a weird idea of my own involving those jigsaw play mat things - they lock together, are flexible and slightly stretchable, they might help me get it sorted. I may buy a small pack and see how they work out. You can buy a standard head liner but it's 300 quid and then you need a load of steel bows and wood inserts, you are in for 500 quid and then it will look like a standard Prefect, I want something different.