New Spirit Long Body is built and shipped

[sstock]

Good morning,
I ordered the new body back in January after I heard Spirit was tooling up for a stretched version. This body is 5" longer than their original. They added two inches behind the dash and between the door and then made the door 3" wider. Also, Spirit hung a driver's door on it too for me. I had their body insert installed for rigidity as well as ordered up a uphostered seat. Here is a pic right before they crated it up. Should get it in a week or so.

Steve

 

[putz]

You are going to love that body.

 

[Francis Blake]

Congrats on your purchase, you are doing this up right. Every thing spirit makes is the best.

 

[fordsbyjay]

I really like the look of that but does it appear to be short? Their thighs are barely below the side of the car.

 

[sstock]

I really like the look of that but does it appear to be short? Their thighs are barely below the side of the car.

I'm thinking those are some tall boys in there.

 

[butch27]

Now that body retains the "T" look.

 

[Cool32]

The body appears to have low sides and the seating is high.

 

[EX JUNK]

I really like the look of that but does it appear to be short? Their thighs are barely below the side of the car.

And I believe that is without any upholstery which would make them sit even higher.

Jim

 

[EX JUNK]

The body appears to have low sides and the seating is high.

Some people would rather sit ON their T rather than IN their T. I much prefer the latter. IMHO

Jim

 

[benT]

Steve: It looks like your gonna have a nice ride! The extra legroom will be welcome for sure. What are your thoughts on style, color etc? Also make sure to post some pics when you get it home!

 

[sstock]

Steve: It looks like your gonna have a nice ride! The extra legroom will be welcome for sure. What are your thoughts on style, color etc? Also make sure to post some pics when you get it home!

Hi Ben, I really like the blue on your 27, so there is a pretty good chance that will be the color, still on the fence as to tire wheel choices and short or tall windshield, The kit is in but I couldn't pick it up due to my work schedule, looks like Monday-hopefully. My plan is to get it here and start assembling and see from there. I would like to do some coating Ben, when I get there, do you mind if I give you a yell to work out the details?
The guys sitting in the body are indeed sitting on the upholstered seat

 

[benT]

Hi Ben, I really like the blue on your 27, so there is a pretty good chance that will be the color, still on the fence as to tire wheel choices and short or tall windshield, The kit is in but I couldn't pick it up due to my work schedule, looks like Monday-hopefully. My plan is to get it here and start assembling and see from there. I would like to do some coating Ben, when I get there, do you mind if I give you a yell to work out the details?
The guys sitting in the body are indeed sitting on the upholstered seat

Shoot me a PM when you have some questions. As for the color, I love mine, but last time I priced it out I about had a heart attack. Napa is carrying a new line of custom paint called Planet Color that has some pretty awesome colors and the price seems much better than the DuPont Hot Hues I used. They sell it by the pint (to get around the EPA) in a quart can.

 

[hulkamania]

Shoot me a PM when you have some questions. As for the color, I love mine, but last time I priced it out I about had a heart attack. Napa is carrying a new line of custom paint called Planet Color that has some pretty awesome colors and the price seems much better than the DuPont Hot Hues I used. They sell it by the pint (to get around the EPA) in a quart can.

They are sitting on the upholstered seat. The passenger is 6'3 and has long legs. That is Larry our welder. I will get some better pictures.

 

[sstock]

They are sitting on the upholstered seat. The passenger is 6'3 and has long legs. That is Larry our welder. I will get some better pictures.

Took delivery of my Spirit Extended Bucket kit this last Monday. The shipper was not kind to it in transit. They put something heavy on the well marked body shipping crate and it ended up coming through the top of the crate damaging the both doors and springing both sets of hinges. . Anyway I removed the doors today and fixed the hinges and rehung the doors and all is now well. My first impressions of what I got from Spirit is top notch. The frame is very stout thick walled and the welds are impeccable. Body work and door fit and finish leave little work for me to do to get it ready for paint. This thing will be a snap to get going. BTW, the body measures 56" from front of the cowl to the back of the body, and 48" of legroom from the firewall to the back of the seat insert(where the butt hits the seat insert bottom)BTW, Josh tell Larry he did a heck of a job on the welding on the frame and brackets.
Here are a few pics:

A Ford 9" with 31 spline axles, way overkill, but thats what I wanted.

A T bucket with two opening doors, how spoiled can I be?

Check out the door fit

 

[fordsbyjay]

It's a very nice looking piece.

 

[butch27]

Wow: Look at those welds!

 

[putz]

Looks like robotic welds to me. Great product.

 

[Schreiner23]

Now that you have that body, how does it feel when you sit in it? What is the wheelbase? How about a pic or two with you in it for reference?

 

[sstock]

Been alittle over a year since I posted up any pics of my project. The car has been assembled titled and licensed and driven for a few months with about 400 miles on the odo. Here is a not so pretty pic--but it goes down the road really straight and drives and stops well.

So then last month, I disassembled the car for paint and was left with the running gear which most was powder coated:

I built a wooden body stand on casters and rolled the body up to my neighbors house. Here is a pic of my long time friend and neighbor Jim doing the bodywork. He has been restoring cars and tinkering since the early 70s, there isn't anything Jim isn't good at when it comes to this stuff. He is self taught and a quick study. I know very little about auto finish. He was excited about my project and wanted to do the body finish, but not as much as I wanted him too. Hestarted by roughing up the gelcoat, filled the low areas with Rage extreme filler

Blocked it out and sprayed 2 coats of featherfill on it. We let it sit for a couple days out in the sun before guide coating and block sanding.

Here is a neat way to hang the doors on an engine stand. Jim built this to hang his corvette doors for prep work, then tweaked it for my doors

Finally as the body sits now. The car has 3 more coats of primer, it has sat three days now and the plan is to block it out with 320 then again with some 600 wet, clean it up then seal it. Hopefully if we can get some good weather there will be some base coat on it really soon.

 

[Dirt-T]

Keep the updates comming.