It’s either a classic car lover’s wet dream, or their worst nightmare
At the end of January 2022, Pilot Productions approached us to ask about a bold new production. Julia Croft had partnered with Auckland Live, and CNZ, to present an interpretation of Thelma and Louise. But of course, what’s Thelma and Louise without the car?
That’s where we came in. Pilot had found almost the perfect car, and they just needed us to make a few minor modifications to get it show worthy . . .
By late Feb, we had a ’77 Triumph 2500 delivered to the workshop in near drivable condition. The only problem was, this was a sedan, and the show needed a convertible.
Our first order of business though, was getting car to be as lightweight as possible, and Ray was in his element! We completely stripped out the engine and driveshaft, removed the fuel tank, and drained any and all fluids.
We then stripped out the interior to start strengthening works.
In a sedan, the roof does a fair amount of work in providing stability and stopping the sides collapsing in, and we were about to cut that off! To prevent the worst from happening, we welded some threaded rod from the B pillars to the base of the car, curving it to allow the seats to sit back in.
Next we welded RHS under the car, both along and across to stop the car buckling down the center, and keep the floor as rigid as possible.
A challenge for our engineer – the car was to be lifted, so we had to ensure the lifting beams we welded underneath could support the weight of the car, and two people moving around the car whilst it was suspended in the air!
Once we’d checked that and had happily finished welding underneath, the moment of truth arrived and we cut the roof off, with the car supported on four points as a practical load test (well if we’re honest, mostly so Ray could weld under the car).
To our immense relief, not only did the lifting points hold, the roof came off with no issues, and suddenly we had a beautiful ‘convertible’ on our hands!
On the home run now, all we had to do was reinstall the interior, polish the car to the perfect level of worn and take care of any minor rust!
We’d like to thank the team at Theatrical Solutions for providing the lifting mechanism.
Showcase photos by Andi Crown. Progressive photos and video by author.
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