Quote:
Originally Posted by YerDugliness
The Kirkhams are handbuilt cars, for sure, even if the bodies are handbuilt in Poland. As such, it seems to me that there could be inconsistencies and minor differences between each one. Could that account for the small differences in the location of the fender seams?
Just a thought...
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Larry's thought here and I agree with him, is that the underside of the OP's fender appears to be completely consistent with a Kirkham aluminum body based upon where Kirkham put the seams.
Further what we are saying is that other manufacturers of aluminum bodies place their seams more consistent to one another. Top dead center of fender.
So in that sense, it would be harder to differentiate an "AC", North Devon Metal Craft, Brooklands/AC Heritage or Panel Craft body from one another because they all apparently put their fender seams top dead center and attach the fender flare as a separate piece. That is 5 manufacturers that have their body seams different than Kirkham.
So Kirkham seams seem to be placed in their own unique way that is different the 5 manufacturers I mentioned above and apparently makes it trivial to look under a front fender of a Kirkham and you know for certain that it is not NOT an AC, NOT a North Devon Metal Craft, NOT a Brooklands and NOT a Panel Craft body.
Now I have not seen a picture of the seams on a Kimmins body or a McCluskey body so I can't comment on where they put the seams. So could another manufacturer put their body seems in the same place as a Kirkham body. Maybe? Is that likely? I doubt it.
I did point out in an earlier post that I heard Kirkham has apparently changed their tooling over time to reduce the number of panels to construct their cars so that would mean the seam locations on early Kirkhams could be different than later Kirkhams. However the picture of the Kirkham body that Larry posted is consistent with the OP's body seams.
To summarize:
- At least 5 different manufacturers make bodies that are consistent with one another.
- Kirkham seams are unique and different that the other 5 manufactures mentioned.
- Kirkham makes bodies that are consistent with one another (although apparently their tooling has changed over time)
- The OP's body seams are consistent with Larry's picture showing Kirkham body seams.