The bodywork for Hopper H3 has now been completed and the task of rebuilding the car has commenced.
For further reading on the Hopper Special:
Hopper Special - Making a stir on your debut
Lea Francis: A competition engine
It surely was a grand day when it returned to Scotland and although the sun did not shine for us, nothing could dampen our spirits that morning.
Great effort had been taken to retain as much of the original Ian Hopper designed bodywork as possible, even when the repair of a panel involved more work than making another from scratch. The panels saved included:- Front-end/Bonnet/Doors/Dog-hatch/Boot/Air intakes.
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| Bo'ness International Speed Hillclimb 1953 |
The distinctive duck-tailed mudguards as used on the car were also re-made to the original design.
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| Powder-coated chassis and support members |
The original bodywork had detriorated over the years in certain areas, the rear-end being worst affected. The alloy skin had been attached directly to the tubular chassis and supporting members of the body and as neither of these had been painted when built, suffered from local corrosion.
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| H3 as found by Mike Cowie in 1977 |
Apart from a few small repairs and fully powder-coating, the chassis was exactly as it had left the Bellshill premises of Joe Potts some 70 years ago.
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| Ian Hopper(second from left) with the completed rolling chassis |
Considering the abuse the car was given by subsequent owners, it says a lot for the build quality of the original car. The workmanship in the rolling chassis is without equal and this at a time following WW2 when materials were either unobtainable or in very short supply.
Hopefully both Joe and Ian would secretly be proud that the car has survived all this time.
Let the rebuild begin.
