Well this should cover some past history and the current rebuild of my 'Vert.
30 years ago - The Beginning.
First a few sketches, being a commercial artist everything is usually figured out on paper - I was going for a kind of a pseudo Heb-Cal-Look. This is the sketch I drew for inspiration, similar to the style of a speedster kit, except I didn't like in those kits how high the deck comes up and blocks your rearward view, so I made up my own.
In 1986 I found a '74 sedan in the Buy & Sell for a decent price, quit cigarettes, and spent the next 8 years knee-deep in sunflower seed shells. In a small, hence the choice of a bug, old drafty one car garage I proceeded to "Chop, Cut, & Rebuild".
Of course after diving into it there was way more rust than anticipated, out with the torch! Off comes the front hood, fenders, apron, next the roof, and 4" from the windshield, Then body off the pan to replace pan halves. In the meantime many trips to: California Import Parts, Calif meets, Seattle meets, etc. to aquire the part$.
First a plaster buck was made on the car to shape the rear section, then a mold was pulled from that, and subsequently a final piece was made from the mold.
Re-assembly, not quite as fast as taking it apart, although I managed to do it all completely by myself, fiberglass, body, paint, mechanical, and engine rebuild. The money saved on labor covered the cost of more TOOLS!
A one-piece glass front-end was modified, 1 1/2" added to each fender width, inner fender wells, and extra bracing for street use. New pans and body patch panels welded up. Body and pan mated up.
Mocked up a MGB folding top too!
Bodywork is very time consuming! Painted Light Jade Green, ( a '74 Ford truck colour) inside and out.
Four inches were removed from the windshield and the doors got cut down also.
The interior has Tercel seats and custom door panels I made to match. I took a piece of 1/8" aluminum to make the dash. It has upholstered inserts inthe same gray naugahyde as the door panels. I made the door pulls from wood covered with nauga and aluminum inserts to mimic the curve of the door panel. Found an English-made steering wheel, made my own custom adapter & horn and re-polished and covered the wheel with gray leather. While I was making the adapter I thought I would turn some other interior items on the lathe, dash, window winder & shifter knob, e-brake handle & button, and roller gas pedal.
I rebuilt the engine into a 1641, mild port/polished heads with a three angle grind, 009 distributor, and an Engle 100 cam. Currently has a 34 pict on it but I have a pair of Kadrons waiting to go on. Since there are less air vents I added extra air cooling via a marine bilge blower through the firewall.