Contents of the Chieftain folder.
The Chieftain was the second car that I designed to be built from a set of plans. It was made to resemble a World War 2 Geep. (Copyright/Trademark laws forbid me from using a “J”). The base vehicle was a Triumph Spitfire/GT6, or a long wheel base version could be built on a Herald/Vitesse. The beauty was that virtually no mods. had to be done to the base chassis, apart from cutting bits off. The base car body could be removed and the new Chieftain body dropped on. The plans on the CD are incomplete, mainly missing the “Words” section. One page of the actual drawings is missing, but I’m 100% certain that you could build the car with what there is. ALL the pages are there to enable you to cut out the body panels (from half inch ply) and join them together, along with the drawings for the scuttle top, front wings, inner wings, bonnet, bonnet frame, windscreen frame, and the overall dimensions of the front grill. The grill I used on the prototype was a replica for a genuine WW2 front grill made in steel. These were surprisingly easy to get hold of, even in the UK. I think there are still people who sell them. However, several people made their own, either from MDF, (Heavily painted for protection), of from steel strip. (Some of the genuine WW2 vehicles actually had steel strip grills.) It is a very easy body to construct, the panels are fixed together using angle iron and the whole of the tub section is basically a box (of a rather fancy shape) that drops on the chassis.
Again, like the Arrow, the plans could
be scaled down and used to build a “Kiddie-car”.
35 Pages. First produced 1982
Changes that I would make if I
were to do it today.
The only thing that ever looked
“Wrong” to me was the back of the car. Where the sides met the rear panel
was a 90 degree square corner. It would look much better with a 6 inch radius
curve.
Like the Arrow, there are a few mechanical changes needed to make it pass
today's legislation.
The pages are as follows:
Page 0 Front cover
Page 1 Outriggers
Page 2 Rear bumper bar
Page 3 Radiator mounting frame
Page 4 Mounting outriggers
Page 5 Footwell floor
Page 6 Transmission tunnel
Page 7 Spine board
Page 8 Rear wheel arch front
Page 9 Footwell outside
Page 10 Footwell front
Page 11 Footwell inside
Page 12 Footwell top
Page 13 Rear wheel arch inner
Page 14 Boot floor
Page 15 Rear wheel arch top and
slope
Page 16 Rear panel
Page 17 Main body sides
Page 18 Petrol filler recess template
Page 19 Inner front wing
Page 20 Pedal box
Page 21 Mods to pedal pivots
Page 22 Mods to pedals
Page 23 Bonnet
Page 24 Bonnet framework
Page 25 Bumpers
Page 26 Windscreen frame
Page 27 Overall dimensions for front
grill
Page 28 Scuttle top dimensions
Page 29 Front outter wing dimensions
Page 30 Blown up view of main parts
Page 31 Pedal arangements
Page 32 Lower steering collumn
bracket
Page 33 Handbrake compensator pivot
plate
Page 34 Headlamp and indicator
mount plates
There are also 14 additional photos included that were not with the original plans.
