Nat, I always look forward to you going over to some body shell or other part and "pointing" and giving a detailed explanation. I never think of your detail descriptions as "waffling on". Bringing Marc back for the paint shop tour is a great move. Retropower just gets better and better 👍👍.
I built a new workshop 21 years ago and at the time provided a workstation for every tradesman. My idea was to move the staff around the vehicles instead of the opposite. Although I retired 9 years ago I’m pleased to say the benches ( manufactured by Bott) are still providing excellent service. I can assure you although yours are a different manufacturer, the concept is absolutely fool proof and will improve your production ( and staff morale) immensely.
When Stu retires it’s going to be a great loss to not only the business but the industry as a whole in saying that you have been able to assemble an amazing team
So you now have the Dreamteam on the Jensen! Oh, and I really enjoyed the timelapse of the the guys pulling apart the Audi. Top work again from Jamie 👍
i did 10 years fabricating with that exact make and model of guillotine, brilliant bit of kit so long as you know the limit. we used to do 2mm stainless and you had to clamp the sheet in the front to stop it pulling. the boss loved it as well as 4 sides to the blade so only once in a blue moon had to have them ground.
@DoubleD132. I used to have a pal who worked in a general engineering and fabrication company. He told me that they cut thin sheet steel on a cropper. What’s the difference between this guillotine and a cropper?
so pleased you're considering the body lines of the original shape on the saab, looks so much more cohesive, you did it really weel with the allagro(s) too ......the design of the widebody scimitar is a great example of the opposite!
Personally I would angle the rear edge of the air outlet on the back of the Saab to match the angle of the taillight instead of being vertical, I think that would flow better with the original lines of the car and also match how the front air inlet follows the angle of the indicator
Nat, we all universally love the work Retropower and the crew produces, but while I'm sure many of us appreciate your detail in some of the processes that your guys carry out 27:25 is another talk on something already covered in another long video. Similar to the many, many talks regarding the HVAC for several weeks in a row. Please know that the vast bulk of your audience is here watching every week and simple update next week after the long description would be more than fine to cover the current state of play (perhaps with a 'If you haven't seen what I mean here, look back at last week's video' comment) All the best. David
Hi, Saab rear end looks amazing, maybe take point from Audi s1 rear end where the rear vent ends below the rear ‘bumper’ and original the Saab lines come from within the vent area
I reckon on the Saab the rear wide arch could end further forward a bit to give the original rear profile space to breathe and not confuse things. Maybe a vertical cut so it’s a really clean look
Youve certainly fallen in love with the Bunker tool chests, it will be interesting to see how they perform and how any modifications improve them for your needs. Not really visible on our screens, but if the workshop floor is as uneven as you state, would it ever be practicable to level it - perhaps in 3 or 4 metre wide strips - working from the back wall of the workshop towards the front door ? Maybe hive some work off to the Den to facilitate this ? Finish with a retouchable paint for brightness and smartness ? This would slso present sn opportunity to install lightboxes in the floor .... ? Regards, and good luck.
Cal, have you seen the wide body Saab’s that Saab dealers in Australia offered as a package, back in the early 80’s I think it was called the Saab 900 Enduro
Those Saab renders look incredible. I have said for decades that the ONLY car three spoke wheels look good on is a Saab. The renders show I was right. Edited to add that I am thoroughly happy with my orange 2nd gen key fob. It came in a couple of days, and it is very well made indeed. The quality is top notch as is the expected norm from anything RetroPower.
that colour on the allegro, I'm pretty sure our family Ford Cortina estate was that orange colour - MLK 865P, funny i remember that, but cant remember what I had for tea last night
Great stuff. Please take time to say how long certain processes take such as the jag wing/door issue. I spent many years in the rest game and dabble a bit now. Many don't appreciate how long this kind of work can take.
Yep, the amount of money some bokes spend on their Snap-On toolboxes boggles the mind. Sure, they're pretty good, but they're not 4x the price of the next best option good. And that's for the "basic" models! I know one bloke who'd spent more on some empty tin boxes in the late 2000s than was the price of my parent's house when I was a teenager! (Sure, they bought it in the 90s but it's on 5.65 semi-rural acres)
On the Saab design, I didn't see any version where you'd leant the rear vents back to mimic the 45 degree angle of the rear lights, seen from the side. Might be worth a try. Also I feel like the inlet on the front of the rear quarter is too big for a brake duct. Makes me think of mid engined cars. Looking really good thought. The hard swage line down the side looks great.
I agree that the rear quarter side vent is too big and too high. It should be below the colour break and be more angular and less curvy. Will the bonnet still be clam shell with the shut gap down the sides on the straight side lines?
I admire the work of the retro power team absolutely top notch, but as a business i just can't get my head around how you can make it pay with the running costs of business now days and the amount of time that go into design and manufacture of parts., I'm in the motor trade and find it challenging to cover running costs and expenses.
Designer here, have you tried the Saab front lights on the same horizontal plane? The height offset jumped out at me. Love it regardless. The shot at 59.19 also looks effective with one single lap unit in each headlight.
Surely copper plated brass won't be a very durable finish (and will tarnish) for the console parts of Project Churchill. Wouldn't it be better to use aluminium with copper coloured anodizing?
Why aren't OEMs hydro dipping aluminium? It gets cold/hot like an S2000 gear lever in the sun or in a cold damp car due to it's thermal conductive properties. Look at a modern Bentley/Aston/Royce centre console construction to see how to use the materials.
How do you decide which car, and how much of it, to use as a base for another vehicle, as with the SAAB? Sometimes it seems like you'd be better off engineering something completely from scratch then sticking the right panels on the outside!
You’ve hit on one of the biggest challenges! Once you delve under the surface though, it often/usually makes sense to use an existing platform of some sort. It’s not so much the obvious “big metal bits” that are the area of importance, it’s more the vast number of parts that an OEM has developed with that platform, which would otherwise have to be designed or specified individually. That can be an absolutely enormous task! Think subframe/axle mountings, engine mountings, steering system etc etc. being able to “pillage” that from a donor platform greatly simplifies things and helps achieve a much more refined result with less development time
I think that the Saab's taillight cluster, sits too low, similar to the Mk2 & Mk3 Capris. It now looks as if the tail is hanging/dragging... The position of the Mk1 Capri's, both facelift & pre-facelift, was perfect and symmetrical with the rest of the tail ends of that specific model.....
An E30 filler flap? Oh no, the rot is integrated into the car now! Give it less than three years from finished car handover back to the owner until it's on its 5th owner since, slammed, "stanced" and straight-piped, and has been drifted into so many other cars, tyre walls, and sandtraps to the point that the car is barely even recognisable...
Nothing at all. Just seems like duplication when you are already reading water temperature for the engine ecu anyway, so may as well use that input rather than using an additional one
The Saab is killer! That’s coming from a mk1 escort owner. I’d love to see you create a tutorial series documenting coach building techniques. Even pay someone to go back through your process video, and create hyper tags, so when searching of Google/ TH-cam, user can find metal forming techniques You know it’ll get 10 plus rewatches by each user. I know I have to watch videos a few times before it sinks in. 😂 Love your work 🇦🇺🤛🏼🤜🏼😎☮️🍀
Yes, but actually no. We looked at that option. Firstly a rust free inner wheel arch would be required from a donor BMW e30, then it would require unpicking from the filler recess. Due to the number of spot welds this would make quite a mess of the donor piece. By the time that is repaired to a satisfactory standard, and the part sourced, bought, shipped and cleaned, it’s quicker and more efficient to make one
Amazing work on all aspects of the projects. But I just have to say if the owner of Churchill actually smokes cigars in that beautiful leather interior it would be like slashing a Picasso painting. Sacrilege...
@22:15 is that Bobby standing on a beer bottle crate that is itself placed on top of another object that is in fact NOT a safe working platform? A bit of yellow non-slip tape does not a safe working platform make, lads!
Why keep those horrible ugly overrider blocks on the Interceptor bumpers in the first place? Do they have any trickery in them, like parking sensors or something? Otherwise the bumpers would look so much nicer and more elegant without them.
£7,500 for a tool box, it would be cheaper to take the week off work and make a mega toolbox! Bloody Snap-On prices are a joke, but the joke is on the buyer and it's not funny !!
You two guys run the most boring TH-cam channel going all, you do is stand there and talk. You never really see, the work that goes on, or into the customizations, or renovations that you do. You'd just stand there with a cup of coffee in your hand and waffle.
I have been playing with cars for over 50 years, but the amount of fearless metal work almost gives me anxiety! Hats off to your work. Cheers!
Nat, I always look forward to you going over to some body shell or other part and "pointing" and giving a detailed explanation.
I never think of your detail descriptions as "waffling on".
Bringing Marc back for the paint shop tour is a great move. Retropower just gets better and better 👍👍.
I built a new workshop 21 years ago and at the time provided a workstation for every tradesman. My idea was to move the staff around the vehicles instead of the opposite. Although I retired 9 years ago I’m pleased to say the benches ( manufactured by Bott) are still providing excellent service. I can assure you although yours are a different manufacturer, the concept is absolutely fool proof and will improve your production ( and staff morale) immensely.
Those front splitters on the Allegros look great. Can't wait to see these cars rolling!
They would be totally at home in Essex
When Stu retires it’s going to be a great loss to not only the business but the industry as a whole in saying that you have been able to assemble an amazing team
The quality of your work is absolutely outstanding,superb
Good sleuthing by Stu on those Jensen bolts. What a relief not having to figure out how to get the tailgate to fit.
So you now have the Dreamteam on the Jensen!
Oh, and I really enjoyed the timelapse of the the guys pulling apart the Audi.
Top work again from Jamie 👍
i did 10 years fabricating with that exact make and model of guillotine, brilliant bit of kit so long as you know the limit. we used to do 2mm stainless and you had to clamp the sheet in the front to stop it pulling. the boss loved it as well as 4 sides to the blade so only once in a blue moon had to have them ground.
@DoubleD132. I used to have a pal who worked in a general engineering and fabrication company. He told me that they cut thin sheet steel on a cropper. What’s the difference between this guillotine and a cropper?
Good Industrial Engineer, designed those tool "boxes"! COMMON SENSE & EFFECTIVENESS!
Lovely equipment...
Please don't forget the show and drive for each finished vehicle as this is what is the best for me, to see a COMPLETED vehicle on the move.
Sunday evening in Italy with a glass of vino and this pops up 😎
In Spain too .....
so pleased you're considering the body lines of the original shape on the saab, looks so much more cohesive, you did it really weel with the allagro(s) too ......the design of the widebody scimitar is a great example of the opposite!
Never before has the humble fuel filler cap been so extensively waffled over! And here I sat, transfixed! 😂
Saab should be project..”Pie in the sky” !! Very Crabb 👌😂😂
Cal... Um, I mean Luke.. The Churchill console is going to look amazing 😍
Personally I would angle the rear edge of the air outlet on the back of the Saab to match the angle of the taillight instead of being vertical, I think that would flow better with the original lines of the car and also match how the front air inlet follows the angle of the indicator
Yes, that bothers me too! 😊
I calibrated that damn ATL fuel sender about 20 times until, for no reason, it just seemed to work
Awesome m8....luv seeing her driving....can't wait to hear hear at full chat
Cary
Nz
Nat, we all universally love the work Retropower and the crew produces, but while I'm sure many of us appreciate your detail in some of the processes that your guys carry out 27:25 is another talk on something already covered in another long video.
Similar to the many, many talks regarding the HVAC for several weeks in a row.
Please know that the vast bulk of your audience is here watching every week and simple update next week after the long description would be more than fine to cover the current state of play (perhaps with a 'If you haven't seen what I mean here, look back at last week's video' comment)
All the best.
David
Greetings from Denmark
The Jensen is the only car where the fuel flap hinge wears out , @ 10mpg it's a daily job filling it.
Hi, Saab rear end looks amazing, maybe take point from Audi s1 rear end where the rear vent ends below the rear ‘bumper’ and original the Saab lines come from within the vent area
My mum had an allegro which was orange with 3 doors , oh and it was an estate with black vinyl roof 🙈😎 horrendous but she loved it .
I reckon on the Saab the rear wide arch could end further forward a bit to give the original rear profile space to breathe and not confuse things. Maybe a vertical cut so it’s a really clean look
Good job so far and update there Nat on the Jensen, awesome! Can’t wait to see how this will terminate.
I love Churchill’s built-in humidor. Naaaaaaice :-)
Youve certainly fallen in love with the Bunker tool chests, it will be interesting to see how they perform and how any modifications improve them for your needs. Not really visible on our screens, but if the workshop floor is as uneven as you state, would it ever be practicable to level it - perhaps in 3 or 4 metre wide strips - working from the back wall of the workshop towards the front door ? Maybe hive some work off to the Den to facilitate this ? Finish with a retouchable paint for brightness and smartness ? This would slso present sn opportunity to install lightboxes in the floor .... ? Regards, and good luck.
Cal, have you seen the wide body Saab’s that Saab dealers in Australia offered as a package, back in the early 80’s I think it was called the Saab 900 Enduro
Those Saab renders look incredible. I have said for decades that the ONLY car three spoke wheels look good on is a Saab. The renders show I was right.
Edited to add that I am thoroughly happy with my orange 2nd gen key fob. It came in a couple of days, and it is very well made indeed. The quality is top notch as is the expected norm from anything RetroPower.
If you are using PWM you may need to fit supression capacitors to the motors to damp any radio noise from the switching
29:29 coming soon! New BMW E30 style ash trays! Available in the RetroPower merch shop soon! 😂👍
28:35 Retropower goes Lynchian 😂
I was at first glance wondering why anyone would want a sausage holder in their center console.
Great fix on the tailgate Stu.
The ElAggros are looking like a remarkably stock result, for you guys!
Great video 👍 The Saab swage line could taper up at the rear and mirror the rear spolier upward angle 😊
that colour on the allegro, I'm pretty sure our family Ford Cortina estate was that orange colour - MLK 865P, funny i remember that, but cant remember what I had for tea last night
Great stuff. Please take time to say how long certain processes take such as the jag wing/door issue. I spent many years in the rest game and dabble a bit now. Many don't appreciate how long this kind of work can take.
Still find it fascinating how Allegro's in 2024 are causing such a stir what great looking things they're going to be
The SAAB. One of my lecturers in Southampton said that you can tell how much work has gone into a mechanical design because you don’t notice it.
Yep, the amount of money some bokes spend on their Snap-On toolboxes boggles the mind. Sure, they're pretty good, but they're not 4x the price of the next best option good. And that's for the "basic" models! I know one bloke who'd spent more on some empty tin boxes in the late 2000s than was the price of my parent's house when I was a teenager! (Sure, they bought it in the 90s but it's on 5.65 semi-rural acres)
Rust removal for the Jag Bonnet subframe structure, have you tried something like a pulsed Laser cleaning machine (Yorkshire Car Restoration)?
On the Saab design, I didn't see any version where you'd leant the rear vents back to mimic the 45 degree angle of the rear lights, seen from the side. Might be worth a try. Also I feel like the inlet on the front of the rear quarter is too big for a brake duct. Makes me think of mid engined cars. Looking really good thought. The hard swage line down the side looks great.
I agree that the rear quarter side vent is too big and too high. It should be below the colour break and be more angular and less curvy. Will the bonnet still be clam shell with the shut gap down the sides on the straight side lines?
It took me waaay too long to identify the eyeball in the fuel filler 😅
😂😂
Touch screens.........
Moving the rear lights similar to how you've done the front might be a better solution, you could even duct through the light.
I admire the work of the retro power team absolutely top notch, but as a business i just can't get my head around how you can make it pay with the running costs of business now days and the amount of time that go into design and manufacture of parts., I'm in the motor trade and find it challenging to cover running costs and expenses.
☕️in hand feet up lets see how you’ve done this week 👍🏻😉
Good job.
I'm only watching this because I saw carbon allegro
Designer here, have you tried the Saab front lights on the same horizontal plane? The height offset jumped out at me. Love it regardless. The shot at 59.19 also looks effective with one single lap unit in each headlight.
I am sure Nat has a different brain to the average human, just how does he retain that amount of information? love the time laps videos.
28:37 Eeek!!
Jensen Fuel filler, would it not have been easier to cut the filler recess from a scrap E30 and weld that into the Jensen rear 1/4 panel?
on the Saab why don't you bring the rear spoiler around the side of the car into wheel arch?
I was thinking something very similar. Sort of blending that swageline somehow into the bottom of the spoiler.
On sofa watching this, missus on here knees doing her job.
Sundays are awesome
Behind the number plate fuel filler cap like on an Australian Falcon.
Surely copper plated brass won't be a very durable finish (and will tarnish) for the console parts of Project Churchill. Wouldn't it be better to use aluminium with copper coloured anodizing?
Try 914 Porsche tail lamps, or VW 412 coupé
What ever happened to the "hot rod" V12 Type you were doing, was it ever completed?
Why aren't OEMs hydro dipping aluminium? It gets cold/hot like an S2000 gear lever in the sun or in a cold damp car due to it's thermal conductive properties. Look at a modern Bentley/Aston/Royce centre console construction to see how to use the materials.
How do you decide which car, and how much of it, to use as a base for another vehicle, as with the SAAB?
Sometimes it seems like you'd be better off engineering something completely from scratch then sticking the right panels on the outside!
You’ve hit on one of the biggest challenges! Once you delve under the surface though, it often/usually makes sense to use an existing platform of some sort. It’s not so much the obvious “big metal bits” that are the area of importance, it’s more the vast number of parts that an OEM has developed with that platform, which would otherwise have to be designed or specified individually. That can be an absolutely enormous task! Think subframe/axle mountings, engine mountings, steering system etc etc. being able to “pillage” that from a donor platform greatly simplifies things and helps achieve a much more refined result with less development time
I think that the Saab's taillight cluster, sits too low, similar to the Mk2 & Mk3 Capris. It now looks as if the tail is hanging/dragging... The position of the Mk1 Capri's, both facelift & pre-facelift, was perfect and symmetrical with the rest of the tail ends of that specific model.....
How will you go about the sabb _audi what will it be register as
Did you give up on gas struts for the Jensen tailgate ?
An E30 filler flap? Oh no, the rot is integrated into the car now! Give it less than three years from finished car handover back to the owner until it's on its 5th owner since, slammed, "stanced" and straight-piped, and has been drifted into so many other cars, tyre walls, and sandtraps to the point that the car is barely even recognisable...
I have an MGB in the same colour, vermillion,
Mr Button seems to have caused some confusion how you spell Jensen the car????
The windscreen in that Saab looks outa sorts. It's the first thing I see when I look at it.
Whats wrong with a thermo switch in the radiator to turn the fan on and off ?
Nothing at all. Just seems like duplication when you are already reading water temperature for the engine ecu anyway, so may as well use that input rather than using an additional one
The Saab is killer!
That’s coming from a mk1 escort owner.
I’d love to see you create a tutorial series documenting coach building techniques.
Even pay someone to go back through your process video, and create hyper tags, so when searching of Google/ TH-cam, user can find metal forming techniques
You know it’ll get 10 plus rewatches by each user.
I know I have to watch videos a few times before it sinks in. 😂
Love your work
🇦🇺🤛🏼🤜🏼😎☮️🍀
Why not involve some design college students in the process? I think it would be generally beneficial.
Would it not have been easier to cut and paste a the whole of the bmw filler hole and flap ?
Yes, but actually no. We looked at that option. Firstly a rust free inner wheel arch would be required from a donor BMW e30, then it would require unpicking from the filler recess. Due to the number of spot welds this would make quite a mess of the donor piece. By the time that is repaired to a satisfactory standard, and the part sourced, bought, shipped and cleaned, it’s quicker and more efficient to make one
The Allagro under bonnet paint finish is far superior to the original exterior finish,
Anyone catch the brand name of the tool boxes please??
Bunker
I would ditch the overriders altogether on the Jensen for a much cleaner look. Those things are fugly. 🤢
Amazing work on all aspects of the projects. But I just have to say if the owner of Churchill actually smokes cigars in that beautiful leather interior it would be like slashing a Picasso painting. Sacrilege...
Sunday is now complete. We're all Jensons vehicles built so poorly?
They’re British aren’t they ? 😂
Plus five mins about toolbench ….
Stu lost his hair ,####
@22:15 is that Bobby standing on a beer bottle crate that is itself placed on top of another object that is in fact NOT a safe working platform? A bit of yellow non-slip tape does not a safe working platform make, lads!
Why keep those horrible ugly overrider blocks on the Interceptor bumpers in the first place? Do they have any trickery in them, like parking sensors or something? Otherwise the bumpers would look so much nicer and more elegant without them.
If there is ‘so much going on’ in the metalwork shop, why waste so much time advertising a tool box?
Because we wanted to!
£7,500 for a tool box, it would be cheaper to take the week off work and make a mega toolbox! Bloody Snap-On prices are a joke, but the joke is on the buyer and it's not funny !!
It is pretty crazy isn’t it! I paid about a fifth of that for it second hand.
Cigar holder. Ffs...
I'm probably in the minority.. but I do not like the SAAB. Sorry.
another video where the title has nothing to do with the4 content, unsubscribed
the same every time it's on screen ... the rims on the Saab are so ugly they distract from the design of the actual car
You two guys run the most boring TH-cam channel going all, you do is stand there and talk. You never really see, the work that goes on, or into the customizations, or renovations that you do. You'd just stand there with a cup of coffee in your hand and waffle.
😂😂 it's a fantastic youtube channel.
They can't film everything. They have work to do. It's not a TV station or movie maker company.
Don't like it? Then bugger off and watch something else.
Ahhh Nat and Cal don’t feed the trolls. Suggest to us what you consider an amazing youtube production in this sector!
Lmao, why are watching then? 😂