Kit Car Builder September 2007 page two

Kit Car Builder, September 2007

		We did watch a Thunder Ranch technician install a C-Clamp on the Spyder frame table in preparation for welding together a 3-inch-diameter tube by 0.125 inch thick-walled 550 Spyder frame.

		Yet another Thunder Ranch craftsman attached a fill neck to the topside of a fuel tank.

		On one set of shelves, handlaid fiberglass 356 Speedster bodies will be assembled soon.

		Storage of some more Speedsters, 550 Spydera, and even a yellow /orange 718 RSK body means there are orders for still other Thunder Ranch cars, which are all build to the owner's specifications. Prepping the body for primer and paint, a Thunder Ranch employee sanded the 718 RSK body.

		Not only does Thunder Ranch stockpile bodies, they also have spare suspension components and various frame tubes at the ready, which will become 356, 550, 550A, and 550A-6 chassis.

		Here's an in-progress 718 RSK body that has recently found a home on a frame. The car will be assembled, the doors, trunk, and hood hung, and the paint / body work and prep will be performed. The body and panels will then come back off the frame, where they'll be primed and painted.

		Thunder Ranch paints its bodies using DuPont basecoats and clearcoats. Once the shells have come out of the paint booth, Thunder Ranch's detailers cut and buff the body shells to a brilliant luster.