After positioning the roof where I wanted it to be, and shortening it to get the windshield slope I was looking for, I made a simple windshield template out of some tubing. I then searched the wrecking yards to try to find a windshield with the correct curvature. I ended up using one from a Peugeot 309. (You Americans probably have never seen one, which is no great loss!) The beauty of it was that, not only did it have the correct curvature, but if I let the base of it stick down in the cowl, I didn't even have to cut it to shape! This is wonderful, since cutting a windshield usually means breaking a few, before you get one that stays in one piece.

I then made a new windshield frame to place the glass flush with the sheet metal. The glass will be glued to the body, instead of using weather-stripping. The front of the roof also had to be modified to get a smooth transition to the windshield. As I want the roll cage to be as invisible as possible, plus being placed as far out against the body as possible, due to strength and stiffness issues, all stock roof pillars and beams are discarded. Instead, the roof is welded directly on the roll cage tubing.

The cage is made of SAE 4130 chrome moly tubing. The home made bender I used for the Volvo wasn't up to the job, so I had to get a new one in the States, when I was there on a business trip. I bought one from Pro Tools that works well. I work as a design engineer at �hlins Racing, designing shock absorbers for, among other things, NASCAR use. I also go to tests and races, which has given me a few memorable moments, such as riding with Tony Stewart in his Winston Cup car on a short track, sitting on the floor, with no seat, safety belt or helmet. Intelligent, right? If I had wanted, I could have reached out and filed my nails against the wall, going by at 150 mph!

Here you can see how the windshield sticks down in the cowl . While putting the windshield in this way, I realized I could design a hidden wiper system, if I integrated the cowl panel with the hood. The silly lids in the fenders will also be a part of the new hood. This is something that will clean up the looks, I think.

In May 2002, I had the roll cage tack welded enough to take the car down from the jack stands, where I had it carefully leveled. I winched the car up on the street, put on the roof, the hood and a door and a fender, to see what it would look like. The car hadn't seen daylight for several years, so this was a big psychological step! It looks a bit funky with the high stance, due to it not having the engine, interior and so on, in it.

With some cool 17" wheels placed in front of the car, some boards underneath it, to simulate a lower ride height, and a cardboard spoiler, it definitely starts to look pretty good, don't you think? With some work on the computer, I ended up with my lead picture on this site. This decision, to pull the car up on the street and take these pictures, for sure was a good one. These pictures are what has kept my faith in the project through the darkest moments, when contemplating giving up cars and starting to collect stamps or spending my evenings looking at soap operas instead!

Due to head clearance issues, there is not much space for a proper roof diagonal bar in the cage. Instead, I put this longitudinal bar in, and added some corner reinforcements. In addition, the roof was welded to the cage via 33 pieces of flat iron stock, each one with 3 spot welds, giving 99 spot welds total. I think this will be at least as strong and stiff as a diagonal bar.

The roof is being welded to the cage.

This is what it looks like from below. Each flat piece of bar stock had to be individually filed to the correct shape and thickness to make it fit to the roof sheet metal with minimal gap.

A view of the rear part of the cabin, with the bracing of the rear strut towers.