Wyoming GTM Underway

[beeman]

Get a new one and convert this old one to a powdercoat oven.

Great idea!


been busy with new honey projects

I hear you, spent the last 2 days cleaning the barn and building a goat pen. Cleaning took the most time... :cool:

https://s12.directupload.net/images/200430/rjrdu4b3.jpg

https://s12.directupload.net/images/200430/qzbmzrc2.jpg

[jamesfr58]

Beeman

Good job those kid aught to have fun with that. Here is my car or anything that hits the floor new puppy, well not so new now she has been here for 4 1/2 months now. She sleeps by my desk and pretty much follows me everywhere but still chewing and acting like puppy so if its on the ground she think is hers. She even chewed my glasses that feel off the table before I got them back, that was expensive dog chew when I have to replace them.

127488

[jamesfr58]

Hardrocker

Not a bad idea on the powder coating oven will have to think on that one....

[HardRocker]

Not a bad idea on the powder coating oven will have to think on that one....

Here’s a thread to the one I’m copying. Post #6. I put casters on the bottom so it’s easy to move around.

https://ls1tech.com/forums/tools-fabrication/1668428-diy-powder-coating-oven-build.html

[jamesfr58]

Finished fitting parts to rear end of the car and removed the body to fix several issue with the front end, to much fiberglass on passengers side by A pillar and it wont sit down, need to fix cracked fiberglass in passengers side door sill and glass inside the body for my 1/4 window plugs and where my roof scoop to engine compartment cut out is located. So we removed it today and set it on the body buck, along with the front end that I built a buck for using an old bedframe we used in downtown bed races and some of the left over lumber form the body buck. Can work on each now off the frame while I finish installing the roll bar padding and a couple of other small items I left off the car until now. Below is the body and nose sitting the buck:

127585 127586 127587

Upon removing the body I found this mess and have one major cleanup job removing all the dust (fiberglass & body filler) that got everywhere even though I had the interior and engine covered with old sheets. Knew there was going to be dust but there was more that I figured I would find. So here is what I looks like now before I started cleaning the old girl up;

127588

[Shoeless]

I tell ya what, you guys with these large shops really make me want to give up the living close to the ocean lifestyle, move a little further west to get some land, and get a shop set up :cool:. Maybe one of these days when I can no longer handle launching the boat by myself and end up putting it in a marina.

[jamesfr58]

My wife wants me to give up the Wyoming place and move to the beach, but I keep arguing the point that I would have a shop if we move. So I am winning but might lose one day. With thing the way the are now in the world, she agreed that living in a small town in Wyoming has not been a bad idea, for now....

As far a shop goes had to have some place to go and work in the winter which is cold and long where I live in Wyoming. If no shop I would spend all day in house with wife, not sure how that would go and need to practice social distancing to shop work our well.. LOL :rolleyes:

Here is picture I was going to post earlier showing the back hatch with Shane's aluminum hatch glass replacement and my LED lighting system I installed for engine bay and I have light in the front as well. Figured they would look good in car show and work like hood light if needed. I can change the color so that is kind of cool;

127624

Hatch popper is attached to body and stays with body when removed, worked out good when removing the body to work on it;

127625

[dlud]

Nice job on the hatch popper. I plan to put one on mine. Are you using the manual cable hatch release as well? If not, any plan for a manual release in case of a dead battery or solenoid failure? Are you installing a popper for the hood as well?

[jamesfr58]

dlud

I planned on putting a secondary manual popper in the rear wheel well, just in case. On the front I was planning on installing a manual popper only but have not made up my mind yet. In any case I would also install a back up manual release as well because if the battery goes dead this is the part I will need to get into. The plan is to shave the doors and they will gave poppers as well so if battery dead will need to be able to access the front hood area with no power.

Got to the shop today and worked on some items on the chassis that I needed to complete with the body off. Since I modified Shane's (VRaptor Speedworks) hatch props I relocated my CAI tubes to give enough clearance for the hatch props to work. Had to cut off the existing brackets that hold my CAI tubes and move them down about 1" and they were just tacked in with the body on. Had to grind off the only brackets and finish welding the new bracket in location. It took more time to cover the car and protect everything with weld blanket that it did to do the job.

127699

I also removed the second tank up front that the two ports on the radiator were hooked to and just looped a hose from one poet to the other. I am using hood vents from Shane as well and they would have hit the second tank so it was eliminated and the bracket I welded on the frame to support the tank has been removed so no issue with clearance now.

127700

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

On the ports at the top of the radiator, you're going to need some way to purge the air out of there. I normally install a short length of hose with a petcock installed so that I can open up the petcock to bleed the air out.

[crash]

On the ports at the top of the radiator, you're going to need some way to purge the air out of there. I normally install a short length of hose with a petcock installed so that I can open up the petcock to bleed the air out.

Yep. Same way we do it.

[jamesfr58]

Thanks Guys,

Well guess I forgot about bleeding the air out.... I could do it with the second tank in place by opening the top, so when I decided to remove it guess I just plumb forgot about that part. It did work well with the second tank air escaped through vent tube to tank in rear of could bleed air through the second tank by unscrewing the lid a bit, could watch air vent and close when I got antifreeze starting to come out lid. Thanks to the both of you for reminding me, try to remember all the little thing I might have missed or need to fix or address, but things still slip through the cracks. I will fix this issue and should be good to go on the cooling system.

[jamesfr58]

Since I have everything on some sort of stand, I am still doing body work on both the hood and the body. Been working on the hood today (something different) and have assembled one of the hood vents from Shane at VRaptor and started to fit them to the hood. Below you can see the rough cutout, with blue tape line the final shape, will sand to final shape. You can see the assembled vent next to the cutout, it has not had the 8115 fillets applied yet:

127877

Sanding done to final shape and vent held in place with cleco's for now. Will assemble the drivers side, cut out for vent and insure they both looks the same before starting to make everything solid.

127878 127879 127880

These vents really open up the area for air flow and heat escape from under the hood, they are larger and open and built so that they should scoop the air from under the hood and force it out. Thinking of covering them with carbon fiber 3D or 5D vinyl, was going to just paint them black but might look good looking like carbon fiber....

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Very nice! I wonder if you could get your CF look with hydrodipping on those? Seems like trying to vinyl wrap those would be a real challenge....

[Shoeless]

I really want to CF skin these and the other vents that I'll pick up from Shane. I saw a car he did this on at least the hood vents and it looks SHARP!!!

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Yes, those do look sharp....and require a ton of work!! I had a waterjet place cut the individual louvers out of CF sheet and then bonded them to the aluminum louvers. Seems simple enough, but requires a ton of work to get all of the edges finished out. I only have so many spring clamps, and only so much room to put clamps on anyway....so the 7 rows of louvers on my Gen I Hood Louvers took 7 days to bond the CF on......bond and spring clamp one row, let them cure overnight, bond and clamp the next row and let it cure overnight, etc, etc.....

[Shoeless]

Yes, those do look sharp....and require a ton of work!! I had a waterjet place cut the individual louvers out of CF sheet and then bonded them to the aluminum louvers. Seems simple enough, but requires a ton of work to get all of the edges finished out. I only have so many spring clamps, and only so much room to put clamps on anyway....so the 7 rows of louvers on my Gen I Hood Louvers took 7 days to bond the CF on......bond and spring clamp one row, let them cure overnight, bond and clamp the next row and let it cure overnight, etc, etc.....

Good lord that is a process, but the end state looked awesome!!! I did wonder if you simply covered them or did what you just explained. That answers that question :)

[jamesfr58]

I have had things hydrodipped before and they cam out looking good. Think if I get the right base color before hydrodipping they would come out looking almost like CF. Have to check it out and may hydrodip them, was going to paint them black but though the CF look would be much better.

[jamesfr58]

Shane,

Getting ready to add a vent off one of the small outlets on the radiator and was just thinking what to do with the other outlet. I have not added the crossover between the two heater core lines to insure water is on the back side of the thermostat and got to looking and it is really tight at the rear of the car. So, my though was taking the other radiator outlet and running it to the return heat line to thermostat housing and using it for the crossover and making the tie in between the two on the front of the car where I have more room. Any thoughts on making the crossover this way?

[jamesfr58]

Was a good afternoon, got down to the shop mid afternoon and finished the hood vents. They came out really nice and as mentioned really open up the area for air flow from underneath the hood. The vents were supplied by Shane at VRaptor Speedworks, easy to assemble and worked out and fit as outlined by Shane. Also fiber glassed and filled up the emblem indention on the nose, wanted the nose to look clean so closed it up. So here they are completed and installed with cleco's for now. Haven't yet decided if I am painting them or maybe hydrodipped to look like CF.

127914 127915 127916 127917

[beeman]

Looks great, what did you fill the emblem recess with? HSRF or something else?

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Hey James,

Was a busy day yesterday, so I didn't get to your question. IMO, trying to tie in that upper radiator port and running that clear back to the engine is probably not the best......for the same reason that most people relocate the coolant tank to engine bay....because the way FFR had it set up at the front was too far for that vent hose from the radiator to the steam vent was too far to be effective and it caused air to be trapped in the engine.

[crash]

Hey James,

Was a busy day yesterday, so I didn't get to your question. IMO, trying to tie in that upper radiator port and running that clear back to the engine is probably not the best......for the same reason that most people relocate the coolant tank to engine bay....because the way FFR had it set up at the front was too far for that vent hose from the radiator to the steam vent was too far to be effective and it caused air to be trapped in the engine.

I am of the same opinion. HOWEVER, another member of the PDG race team insisted on running a line from the top of the radiator back to the header tank. So far, in 10 years of running, this has not created any issues, but I will note that we still have to purge the system using the petcock so I also still believe that the added line from radiator to header tank does not do anything to enhance the system. Bottom line, it won't hurt anything, but is not needed and adds no benefit.

[jamesfr58]

Dave,
I sanded it down and filled the hole with fiberglass to almost flush then finished it to full flush with the body with metal glaze. It worked out well and is solid fiberglass except for a skim cost of the metal glaze. You can see the hole filled with fiberglass:

128002

[jamesfr58]

Worked on the lights and got all the holes opened so they would fit, would not fit any of the holes and, on the drivers, side the backing plate was off center. Then took a look at the park/turn signal lights, well not sure what or how they decided to make the hole 2 3/8” and even at that it cut some out of the side wall on the passenger’s side. The lights supplied by FFR were bigger than the space to fit the lights in, they would not fit on either side and would have basically but the entire end off to fit the in the space.

So, my fix, I closed the holes with fiberglass and faced the off with metal glaze and will recut the holes for the parking/turn signal lights and go down in size to a 2” amber LED light. This should allow it to fit and, in the end, look like the main low and high beam lights look when mounted in place.

128003 128004 128005

[beeman]

Do all of the light buckets come precut for the lights? I checked the "cut body openings" box back when I ordered my Roadster, figured it would be precise and save me time. It didn't.

[jamesfr58]

Dave,

Yes they all came precut and they were no where near right between the inner bucket and the body, they are bonded together. Today I flipped the hood over to repair damage to the both inner headlight buckets. The on on the drivers side was really damaged. I have now fiber glassed and repaired them, will post some picture when I have them cleaned up, but have the headlights fitting now and when my 2" parking/turn signal lights some in I will recut the the hole to fit the smaller light and it will fit in the space allowed from FFR. Even the headlight buckets molded into the body do not match will have to build the drivers side up to match the passengers side. Here is some of the damage I am repairing:

128129 128130 128131

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

As James mentioned, yes, the headlight and park light holes are cut in the headlight buckets, but none of them are quite big enough to fit the headlights or park lights. We normally bond the buckets to the hood and then use a large hole saw with 80 grit stuck to the outside chucked in a cordless drill to hog the holes out so the lights fit. You want to be sure that you have clearance all the way around all of the headlights (for both the inner and outer holes in the bucket) so you can adjust/aim them properly. If you don't create enough clearance or have your headlights centered in the holes, you will not be able to adjust them so they aim where they need to.

[jamesfr58]

Still working on the hood and the head light buckets, on my Gen II GTM the headlight buckets if that is right terminology, came glued in on the underside of the hood as you can see from the picture below. The buckets are in the inside and the headlights from the body side are molded into the hood and not removable. As you can see from the picture FFR did not seam to worry how they fit when they were attached to say nothing about the damage or cracked fiberglass on the buckets I assume happened in shipping.

128248

Fitting up Shane’s (VRaptors) headlight brackets on the buckets on the underneath side of the hood. These are to ensure the proper thickness for the headlight clip to onto and hold the headlights. The buckets as manufactured and provided by FFR are not of uniform thickness to ensure the clips will properly seat when installed, and again that is not tanking into account the damage or thickness change repairing the damage. Once they are put in place with the 8115-panel bond, they provide a uniform thickness to clip and best retain the attachment point for the headlights.

128249 128250

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Yeah....the underhood structure of the headlight buckets is always pretty thin fiberglass. That's much of the problem with trying to get the headlight retainers to work....if the fiberglass is thick enough to get the retainers installed without cracking the fg, the fg is likely too thick for the retainer barbs to snap into and they fall right back out. If the fg is thin enough for the retainers to clip into and the barbs to hold, it's likely so thin that it will crack/break when trying to install the retainers. That's what the aluminum reinforcement plates are for. The alum is the proper thickness for the retainers to latch into and strengthen the area so you can install them without breaking the fg.

I feel like I should be paying you as my paid spokesman, James!! Thanks for all of your advertisements!! :D

[jamesfr58]

Well, finished fixing the fiberglass seams on the bottom section of the hood. The first picture is what it looked like before I started working at removing the lose parts and chasing the bad seam jut about to the front canard. The second picture is after the fiberglass repair, sanded and ready for body filler to make it all match.

128296 128297

Then when sanding down the seam on the other side I found a place about 11/2” below the rounded edge that had some bubbles. Started chasing the bubbles to get to good fiberglass and found an area 2: long and a little over a 1” wide that was riddled with air pockets. Removed all the bad material back to fiberglass and repaired this seam, sanded it down and it is now ready for body filler. I was surprised at how large the area was that the fiberglass was bad but got it repaired.

128298

Then found an area at the back of one of the wheel wells that was only as think as the gelcoat, it may have had a little and I do mean little fiberglass but not nearly enough. Ruffed this area and filled in in to increase the thickness and match the surrounding fiberglass.

128299

I expect to find some voids but there were a lot and not a good glue job on the seam. I the area if the wheel well the fiberglass not being there was strange. I guess it really pays to inspect all the seams well along with the edges for air pockets, voids, and bad fiberglass as I found on the hood.

[jamesfr58]

Not much going on the last few days but got down to the shop this afternoon and started to see if I could make the hood vents supplied by Shane look like carbon fiber. They are a work in progress now but hope to have one finished by this weekend. Thought I would share a few pictures in the different stages. Since the will install with 8115 and want a good bond the outside ring that bonds to the fiberglass hood will remain aluminum as well as the side you cannot see with the hood down. I will paint everything else place except for the surface area to be bonded.

128448 128449 128450

Waned to see what one looked like done this way and still can hydrodip if I decide to go that way.

[jamesfr58]

Here is the finished product out of the shop and in the sun light. When looking at it from the top of the hood you should not be able to see any aluminum, and when mounted and hood is finished the remain parts will be coated with the hood using a polyurethane bed liner to seal and cut down on the noise.

128466 128467 128468

One more to go, since I have one done and kind of figured it out I hope it does not take as long (12-14 hours) to get the second one done. Shane what do you think of my CF hood vent solution? May not have been the best way to make them look this way but one solutions for someone else to try if they want.

[claybags]

James, they look fantastic! Great job.

Cheers, Jeff

[beeman]

Nice job, they look great in the photos. Is it 3M vinyl?

[Shoeless]

Love the pics in the sunlight, that is turning out nicely.

[jamesfr58]

Dave,

Yes it is 3M vinyl, a 3D version with gloss finish. Plan it to clear coat with the car when done and that will seal the whole thing including the edges that were hand painted to match the vinyl.

[Jkviper]

Looking good James, really like those louvers and how you finished them.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Yeah, those look great! Very nice work. I get requests like this from some of my customers from time to time, and some have a hard time figuring out why stuff like this takes so much time. Those are going to look sweet on the finished car!

[jamesfr58]

Shane,

You are right about taking some time to build for sure, and thanks to everyone who commented on them. Thought about it for a while and figured I could make them look like CF even though they are aluminum.

Have them both done now, one is finished and painted black and hope to paint the other one tomorrow. Had to take a picture side by side, to show the change the pattern on the blades. Was hoping they came out the way they did, and took a shot of the black one finished and setting in the slot in the hood. When both are done and in place, I will roll the hood back upright and take a few pictures.

128560 128561 128562

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Wow.....perfect job of mirroring the CF pattern! Those really turned out sharp!!

[jamesfr58]

Thanks Shane,

You don't happen to have a pattern of design for fender vents? Mo make everything match would like to put the same style, type of vent's in the fenders. FFR does not have any of the fender vents they sell and they are still closed I believe. Or have another question, how did you do the vents in the white care featured in Reincarnation magazine? They don't look like the FFR vents flipped upside down but to look like the hood vents flipped upside down and modified. I like to the look of them not sticking up above the fender but would install aluminum vents along the style of the hood vents and back hatch glass replacement so everything matches. Thanks again for the comment.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

We did not install the fender vents in the white GTM....the owner did those before bringing the car to me. I believe that maybe quickracing used to sell them? If I remember correctly, they splashed a snowmobile engine cover to make those?

No, I have not ever made aluminum fender louvers for the GTM.....but something tells me I'm about to? Did you have any particular shape or size in mind, or do you want me to do my own thing and make them compliment the hood louvers?

[jamesfr58]

Shane,

I am sure you really know best since you have built more of these cars than anyone else, but here is what I was looking at.

I believe you are right in making them compliment the hood louvers. I was offering up some ideas, but you are more than welcome to design them, and I know qualified to do your own thing and make them compliment the hood louvers much better than I can. So please feel free to let your creative juices flow and see what you can come up with.

I made three temples (all dimensions on one templet) to try out on the hood just to see what they looked like before I ask the question.

Below is the first one, it is 20” long and 6” wide at the wide end, and 4” wide at the small end, it maintains the same centerline and has even taper from one to the other. The cross marks are spaced at the same spacing as the Hood vents when completed:

128636 128637128638

The second on is again 20” long and 6” wide at the wide end but has an uneven taper and is only 3” wide at the small end. Everything else is the same as above. It added a bit of shape to the vent so laid this out as well as shown below:

128639 128640 128641

The third on was reduced to 17” long, and again 6” at the wide end and 3 3/2” at the small end. This on I only made a templet of and is not show on the car hood but might be better being shorter.

128642

I would imagine the blades would not be as large but would protrude through and show like the hood vents. I have no idea what the dimensions are on the FFR fender vents and tried to make something functional and not remove to much material from the fender.

I figure a screen would be required on the underneath side to ensure debris does not come through the vents from the wheels and onto the hood or window.

[jamesfr58]

With all my babble above Shane please work your magic, do you own thing and make them compliment the hood louvers. I intend to cover them in the same manner used on the hood vents so hopefully they will compliment each other. Plan on paint the care a Tangerine Pearl to CF should look great.

[jamesfr58]

This is off topic but did not get much done today except looking at fender vent mentioned above. It was almost 90 degrees here today for a change and time to get the cars out that have been stored all winter as a couple of them needed work when I put them away last year before winter. So though I would let every see some of my collection.

This is a 1932 Ford duce coupe, but sorry to say it has a 350 backed by a 700R4 transmission, the trunk cable froze up and will not move so it needs to be replaced. Drove it around a little today to blow the cob webs out!

128643

This one is a 1966 Chevy Nova with a 406 racing motor (400 SB bored 60 thousands over) and more set up for the drag strip. It has the hurts sequential shifter (slap shift) on a 3 speed transmission. It has some sort of oil leak so it is in the shop now. Need to find and fix the leak and adjust the lifters they are making noise.

128644

Still have to work on these three to get them going, 1973 Barracuda with a 509 stroker and original 3 speed transmission, 1970 Dodge Challenger with a Viper V-100 (550 HP) backed by a 6 speed tremec transmission (was a tight fit had to notch fire wall 8 1/2" to fit and add tubular steel frame up front) and last a 1956 Belair with a 455 BB and air ride, the convertible top even works and it has Vintage Air as well.

128645 128646

But my favorite of all is the one I am building now, not modifying on someone else build. It has been fun at times, challenging at time and some time infuriating but at the end when it is all finished and I can say I built this one from the ground up it will have been worth. What I really need to do is sell a few of the other as neve seem to have time to drive and fix them all and I am going to need room in my winter storage building for the GTM so something has to go.....:)

[Shoeless]

Good lord James, you got a couple projects there LOL. I think my wife would have some serious words with me if my collection grew that much :p

[jamesfr58]

Oh believe me my wife has had a few word over the years. She has been pretty good though about going to car sow and auctions with me and for a while she even got into it. Had to explain that when you bought on at auction it was not hey we won but this is really going to cost. The 1966 cobra you have seen in some picture of the shop was one she wanted.....

But now as we get older it is time to pare down and keep a couple and let the rest go. The 32 duce was a purchased frame, fiberglass body tub and metal front end, it was built but the others were purchased and them worked on or modified.

The Barracuda was purchased from the builder in AZ and has won several best of show awards. This is my wife's favorite and we will keep this one and the GTM when done. It was featured in the August 2015 Mopar Action magazine. Here are a couple of pictures;

128658 128659 128660

Still up in he air about the 32 but the rest I plan to sell or auction off and reduce the number we have. It has been fun buying and selling over the years but time have changed and was getting ready to list the 66 Nova and a 1986 Chevy K-20 4x4 that has a frame off restoration, has been shaved and chrome blacked but then the virus hit so still holding them.

But with all that said I have always wanted to build and now am building a FFR GTM. I have wanted to build on for years but figures as long as I was working full time it would take way to long so waited until semi retired and now building my dream car (the Cuda runs a close second) and enjoying the build. Can't wait to get it finished and take it to some car shows, and hopefully the wife will still want to go with me and let other especially the younger ones what can be done if they really want to. We need to help generate and cultivate the younger buyers and builders if we what the car culture to thrive and survive going forward......

Just some though and a hobby, sport and love for good old American muscle... :p

[beeman]

Cool stuff, James. All those cars have a story and a personality.

[jamesfr58]

Still working on the hood, I was surprised that there was so much difference between the passengers and drivers side head light buckets where the turn signal was supposed to go. As mentioned before the lights FFR sent would not fit in the space without having to cut part of the side out to get them in. I got some 2” amber LED turn signal lights to replace the 2 ½” lights from FFR that must be converted to LED using the parts sent with the lights.

So, I have been working on building up the driver side area around where the turn signal to make the two sides match better than the way it was shipped. They had completely different contours that anyone could see, check out the pictures below and you can see the difference even with some of the build up done.

128865 128866
From the side

128867 128868
From the front

128869
Even though not finished here is what they look like with the LED turn signals setting in the mounting holes. Also have the hood louvers cutouts edges rounded and ready to mount the vents.

[dlud]

Interesting. I had not noticed the contour difference before.

[jamesfr58]

Check out the head light buckets now, took a while but built the drivers side up to match the passengers side. might not be exactly the same but pretty darn close and way better than before.

128906

128907
Passengers Side

128908
Drivers side

Also while working on the hood found this group of air bubbles between the thin gelco and fiberglass. These holes are right in the middle of the hood not near a seam where I usually find them. Shane is definitely right you really have to check the fiberglass out. Had these not have been found and repaired I would assume the thin gelco would have cracked, popped off with paint on the car and left a real nice mess to try to repair. Or I could have a body they built on Friday.....:p

128909 128910

[jamesfr58]

Another milestone, I have the body (hood), not much but making progress. Hood is about ready to go on the car, have all the seams done, headlight buckets done, well almost done but ready to go onto frame and will finish there as will have to make a few modifications I am sure. But at least I got some paint on it, going on three years but making progress......

129000

[Aman]

A huge milestone! :)
And great work with the headlights! I don't have fibreglass experience, so when you post your findings and solutions it's very educational, thanks for taking the time!
Aman

[Shoeless]

Milestone for sure James!!! Thanks for continuing to post your progress. I know it take time to post updates, so its much appreciated.

BTW I was reading back over your posts and I think I'm going to order up some similar engine bay and interior LEDs from the same company as you did. I wish they had a kit that did an engine bay and interior kit in one, so I don't have to have separate controls, but looks like I'll need to combine a couple kits to get what I'm going for.

[jamesfr58]

Well it looked good last night when I closed up the shop but today here is my nightmare..... This is the drivers side head light bucket, it looked good in the picture I took last night and not sure what happened but this is it today. So, started sanding it down again, will start over with high build primer, smooth it down and reshot the black for the drivers side head light bucket. I wiped them down after final sanding, cleaned with Denatured Alcohol, blew it off again with air and started painting. Same procedure on both sides, high build primer, sand to 400 grit smooth then start shooting the black. Might have been a chemical reaction but not eve sure of that. We will get it fixed but if anyone knows why the crackled they way it did please let me know. Started sanding it down again back to fiberglass and will as mentioned start over.

129080 129081

[beeman]

James,
If you are using the Infinity Box, I would add a 5 Pin Bosch relay for the DRLs. You can place the relay anywhere you want that is convenient. You will just need access to a +12v Hot In Run power-source, you can splice into any HIR wire since your DRLs are LED and draw negligible amperage. Wire this to pin 30. Your DRLs are wired to pin 87a. Pin 87 would be unused in this case. Pin 85 goes to ground. Pin 86 is spliced into one of the headlight +12v leads to the low beam bulb. This will activate the relay coil and kick off your DRLs as soon as your low beams power on.

https://s12.directupload.net/images/200527/pl736qz5.jpg

129090

[Presto51]

Well it looked good last night when I closed up the shop but today here is my nightmare..... This is the drivers side head light bucket, it looked good in the picture I took last night and not sure what happened but this is it today. So, started sanding it down again, will start over with high build primer, smooth it down and reshot the black for the drivers side head light bucket. I wiped them down after final sanding, cleaned with Denatured Alcohol, blew it off again with air and started painting. Same procedure on both sides, high build primer, sand to 400 grit smooth then start shooting the black. Might have been a chemical reaction but not eve sure of that. We will get it fixed but if anyone knows why the crackled they way it did please let me know. Started sanding it down again back to fiberglass and will as mentioned start over.

129080 129081

Hard to give a good answer without knowing what paint system you used, from primer, up to the black paint.

With that information we can give a good estimate, as to what happened.

Before you disregard my statement/question, I was an automotive collision line painter for 24 yrs. Made a lot of mistakes, corrected mistakes, and seen a lot of, what the hell happened here.

Ron

[beeman]

The only thing I can think of is denatured alcohol adequate to get all the contaminants off?

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

My best 3 guesses:

1. The primer you used is not compatible with the paint you used.
2. You did not allow enough time between cleaning with the alcohol and painting and the primer was still holding alcohol.
3. The primer was not yet fully cured before you painted and the uncured primer reacted with the paint.

Sounds like Ron is your best bet here.....

[jamesfr58]

Thanks to everyone for your comments, still learning this paint thing but hopefully I will get it figured out.

Ron,

I was using a Summit Racing high build primer:

This high-quality primer is a flexible acrylic coating for priming metal, aluminum, urethane, and plastic. It provides excellent filling and hiding properties, and is quick drying, plus, it offers superior adhesion. The primer's high solids formulation means faster build and easier sanding. If you want a better finish for your painting project--first, use Summit Racing® high build primer.

And Summit Racing Paint, Single Stage, UV Stable, Acrylic Urethane, Gloss, Black:

Summit Racing® single stage paints are top-of-the-line automotive and fleet color systems. These single-stage urethane topcoats are available in a variety of color packages. Urethane paints are catalyzed systems, offering a premium finish with exceptional durability that far surpasses enamel-based systems. Manufactured with top-quality raw materials and advanced technology, these paints will never yellow with age. They are designed to be used in a single-stage application or in combination with a urethane clear coat (except hot rod black) for additional durability and gloss. Summit Racing® single stage paints are also highly resistant to harmful UV exposure, dangerous chemicals, everyday weathering, and aggravating stone chips.

It might have bee contamination from the denatured alcohol, the primer was dry as I sanded it smooth then cleaned with alcohol but may have had more on micro fiber cloth on the drivers side. I cleaned the passengers side first the drivers side but started painting the drivers side first, then moved to the passengers side. The passengers side had more time to for alcohol to dry before putting the color on.

Never painted before so this is a first time for me and a learning curve to get it right. The good news it was only one head light bucket I need to fix instead of a much larger piece. Thanks for the input as I need all the advice I can get on this subject of painting.

[jamesfr58]

Beeman

Thanks for the information on the DRL wiring using the Infinity Box system. This will help as I was not sure and had not really investigated the issue yet but it was coming up soon...

Got to fix the paint first, but still moving toward getting it finished by end of summer if I don't get sidelined with work which might happen....

[beeman]

James,
Not sure about using alcohol for painting prep, I always use a wax/grease remover followed by a tack cloth. But I'm definitely an amateur. Your local Autozone should have something like this. Something like this, lots of brands:

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1573/3909/products/Matrix-Pre-Paint-Wax-_-Grease-Remover-MX-8000__56256.1316465524.1280.1280_1024x1024.jpg

[Presto51]

James,

I would agree with Beeman on the grease and wax remover and not use alcohol. It may take extra time to dry but better suited for this application.

Now guessing about the bad reaction that you experienced.

If you used this, Summit Racing® 2K High-Build Primer SUM-UP220G with activator and reducer, first guess would be that the re-coat window might have closed on you if you didn't let it harden all the way. Once the the chemical reaction begins, you should let it finish curing, (unless the instructions say you can do a wet on wet coat). So when you introduce the paint which carries it own activator, you usually get a fight between the two, and the reaction is crinkle finish.

If you want PM me your phone number and we can discuss in greater detail.

Thanks

Ron

[jamesfr58]

Beeman

Thanks for the tip on the pre paint wax and grease remover. That I did not know so I will get some to use next time.

[jamesfr58]

Ron,

I will get some pre paint cleaner and stop using the denatured alcohol, looks like that is much better option. But since you mentioned it I believe you are right on missing the recoat window. I was painting and had to go take care of something up at the house, went back down to the shop and I know it was over 1 hour before I went back down and decided to finish painting. After reading your post above I did some more reading on the paint and recoat time. It stated that I needed to have all the coats on in 1 hour or less with approximately 10 minutes or so between coats. After the recoat window closes it said I would need to wait until it cures (they state 7 days) to recoat if needed. So I assume I messed it up and as you mentioned missed the recoat window because it did just as you said above.

Thanks for taking the time to respond and address the issue I was having it is greatly appreciated. Having never painted before this is all new and I am learning and I will PM you with my contact information as I can use as many good tips as I can get. Really appreciate it.....

I did sand all the paint off today and recoated it this evening and it looks as if it will come out fine this time, but was a lot of hand sanding those multiple shapes in the headlight bucket, lots off little pieces of sand paper and no finger tips left....:p

Here are a couple of pictures all the work of sanding it back down to bare fiberglass then prime and repaint, looks better now...

129160 129161

[HardRocker]

Ron,

I will get some pre paint cleaner and stop using the denatured alcohol

Prep-Sol used to be the thing to use but then we found mineral spirits worked just as well for a lot less $$.

[jamesfr58]

Finally got some of this painting figured out, finished the headlight buckets today they are painted and clear coated. After trying and redoing these small areas I think I might change my mind and have someone else do the finish painting of the GTM. It took me for ever to get these done after trying once and having to sand them back down and start over again. I want to give a shout out to Ron for his advice and tips on painting, he was I believe spot on about missing the painting window. This time I kept close track of the time from start to finish and the amount of time between each coat and they finally cam out like I wanted them. Ready to get the fender vents from Shane ready and install both the hood and fender vents. Once that done the hood section will be ready to go onto the car and will finish after I see what modification I have or want to make. Here are the headlights buckets completed:

129319 129320 129321

[jamesfr58]

Received the new fender vents from Shane (VRaptor Speedworks) and starting to install them in the hood. Thought I would post the progress as it goes along as they are new and let all see what they look like and how they (or at least I am) installing them.

As I am sure everyone already knows there is nothing the same from the passengers side to the drivers side when it comes to measuring pieces to fit on one side or the other. After laying them out with a templet and taking multiple measurements I finally had both places in approximately the same spot on the top of each front fender. There were some real difference in some of the measurements both others matched so they looked good. I have them outlined in blue tape that I use to ensure a strait cut, and have cut both fenders, they are ready to final fit the fender vents.

129451 129452 129453 129454

Here is what it looks like with cutouts complete

129455 129456

Waiting on some more CF vinyl to arrive, will apply to vent pieces flat them bend louvers to right angle before installation.

[jamesfr58]

Finally got back down to the shop this afternoon and managed to get my fender vents ready to install. Had the grand kids all weekend so entertained them this weekend. Anyway, this is the new fender vent made by Shane at VRaptor Speedworks as it looks when shipped flat.

129705

Here is one of the vents fully assembled and ready for final fit.

129706 129707

This Is the vents sitting on top of the fender, as you can see when the braces are added to shape the vent it conforms to the shape of the fender well. Below is picture of passengers and drivers side fender vents to show how they fit.

129708 129709 129710

And of course, I took picture of the hood vents and the fender vents siting on top of the hood to show what they look like. Have some work to do when I flip the hood over again then can install and will show more when they are installed in the hood.

129711

Another great product from Shane who delivered for the idea to product in around 24 hours. They will match my main hood vents and complement each other when installed.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

I assume you've test-fit them from below the hood where they will be installed? Do the louvers end up above the surface of the hood? Does the perimeter of the louvers clear all of the underhood bracing on your hood?

[jamesfr58]

Shane,

I have fit them up to the underside of the hood and they clear all bracing and fit the templet quite well. When they are in place the louvers are level with the top of the fender and don't really stick up above the fender, they look as if they will mount and the louvers will be level or a very small amount above the top of the fender. I believe they will work and fit as designed to be even with the surface of the fender for a clean look when installed and functional do the same thing if not better than the ones supplied by FFR. Thanks for the quick turnaround, they look great. I will post some new pictures when all vents are mounted in place.

I did cover these vents flat, before they were bent into position and cut the vinyl out between the louvers. Covered in one piece was a lot faster than the way I did the hood vents one at a time.

[jamesfr58]

Dang weather turned again and one would think winter is coming was 40 this morning but did get down to shop and fitted all the vents, the hood vents and the new fender vents from Shane at VRaptor Speedworks. The are not attached permanently yet as I need to make sure all edges are rounded and match from side to side, but they are in place against the bottom of the hood. Here are a few picture of the vents in place.

129732 129733 129734

[HardRocker]

Prep-Sol used to be the thing to use but then we found mineral spirits worked just as well for a lot less $$.

btw reading the data sheets both Prep-Sol and Mineral Spirits are 99% Naptha.

[jamesfr58]

Been practicing my social distancing form the wife today…. LOL, was in the shop prepping and paint the underside of the hood with Ratptor bedliner. I am using the tint able version and orange pigment; it will help protect the fiberglass and should provide some sound deadening as well. My plan is to paint the car a Tangerine Kandy or Tangerine Pearl orange is not to far off or I can even paint the final car color over the bedliner. So here it is mask off and prepped for the bedliner, and painted orange. About done with hood section until I put it back on the car, will finish the body section and remount both then on to the doors.

129987 129988

[jamesfr58]

Thought I would post some pictures of the fender vents being covered with CF 3D vinyl while still flat. I cover the whole piece then trim away the bits and pieces to the shape of the blades on the front and back side. Also cover the inside of the braces that one will see walking up to the car and prep the backside of the braces so they can be held in place with 8115 fillet and will then paint the back side or the brace black. The exposed aluminum edge on the blade get hand painted gloss black and they look almost like the real thing. The 3D vinyl flex so you can cover the pieces flat then bend the blade into the proper shape unlike CF skinning that will not given give after it is applied.

130089 130090 130091

I am thinking I might try to CF skin the aluminum glass replacement on the hatch as it is now fixed and it will not need to move again.
On another note this is one of my shop helper sometimes, the one in the picture is a 5 yr old Golden Retriever and I also have a 43 week old Brittany, still 100% puppy and never sits still for very long. Old Annie in the picture she help by taking the nap you want to take, she get up every now and again and move a few feet then time to plop down again !! :)

130092

[beeman]

Vents look great!
We have boxers, would be counterproductive to bring them into the shop!

[HardRocker]

Annie is a beauty and classic textbook golden! We are golden rescue people, have had 3 so far. The car is looking good too.

[jamesfr58]

Good thing to do HardRocker, they (all breeds) need a little help now and again. We have a little cross breed that was a rescue, a Chiweenies that as taken from California during fires 8 years ago. He has been hanging out here with my wife ever since....

Here is another piece made by Shane (VRaptor Speedworks), the replacement front grill for my GenII. Got it prepped and ready for covering and paint, will finish building and get it ready to install.

130244

[jamesfr58]

Got a few more pieces done today, the grill for the diffuser and got the blades on the front grill cover done but still need to do some hand painting. Making progress and might even get it done by years end if I can keep working at it with out interruptions.

130273 130274

[Shoeless]

That really looks awesome James!!!

[jamesfr58]

Thought I give an update on the fender vents, got them finished painted and today worked on forming the rock screens and getting them to fit. Below pictures show the vents with the rock screens formed and sitting on the fender vents. Was going to paint them black but as luck would have it, I ran out of black paint so I get some tomorrow finish painting them and permanently attach them to the fender vents.

130385 130386 130387

This is a shot of the underside of the hood with all vents setting in the proper location.

130390

Also got the edge painting finished on the front grill that was supplied by Shane at VRaptor. It is covered with the same 3D vinyl as the hood and fender vents, so everything matches.

130392 130393

[beeman]

You are really moving along, keep it up! Vents look great. How is the rock mesh attached?

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

I figured on bonding the mesh to the braces on each side of the louvers. Plenty of surface area there to bond to and won't be seen from above.

[crash]

Since we are talking about the mesh, just an FYI... we only use stainless steel mesh now as the other options(this perforated aluminum and the galvanized mesh from the Home Depot typically used for attic vents) do not hold up well if you run sticky tires that throw up a lot of rocks. We get a couple of years worth of use out of the stainless steel mesh, but only a few races out of other options. I buy the mesh we use from McMaster-Carr. Probably not an issue on a street car, but if you plan on doing quite a few track days you may want to go ahead and upgrade from the beginning.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Excellent point, Crash.

[jamesfr58]

Well, finally got back down to the shop today, have been tied up with work all week but got done Friday night so got a chance to pick up where I left off….

Got the rock screens painted and installed on the fender vents with 3M 8115 and ready to install. Also finished the front grill and have it sitting basically in place. It fits well with the top and bottom tabs holding it in place. I will not install this until the hood and the grill area are painted. It is upside down in the pictures but give you and idea of how it installs in the car.

130610 130611 130612

Here is a look at the hood with the hood vents being installed, the front grill in place the fender vents with rock guards setting in the proper location. I do not have enough cleco’s to install them now so have to wait until tomorrow to install fender vents. I will post a picture on the hood upright once the fender vents are installed.

130613 130614

Mike you make a good point, I don't plan to run mine on track but if the material they are made of becomes an issue I can remove and switch to SS screen or mesh.

[dlud]

Will you install the hood and fender vents before paint?

[jamesfr58]

Dave yes I will install the vents prior to paint, I can and have made sure I can seal them off for painting the color, the will remove covering and clear coat everything including the vents. This will ensure a seal at the edges of the louvers and seal the CF 3D vinyl.

[jamesfr58]

Good day in the shop today got most of the items done on the hood until it is installed on the car. Everything is in place with exception of the headlights and turn signals, the front grill is just setting in place and will be installed after the hood is painted. Know there will be some work where the hood meets the body but will get to that when both body sections are back on the car. Here is a view of the hood from the front and from the drivers view along with the front grill, as it will look when installed.

130691 130692 130693

Close up of the driver's side looking down the hood, gives a good view of the hood vents and the fender vents.

130694

This one is a shot across the hood showing the vents and then a shot level with the surface of the hood of the fender vent. Close up of the fender vent from the drivers view and an elevated view showing the rock screen looking through the louvers.

130695 130696 130697 130699

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Things are coming together very nicely there!! Nice work!!

[dlud]

Very nice!

[jamesfr58]

Well decided to go ahead and build the wire harness for the front lights since it was easy to reach on the stand. Here is what I came up with...

131037

I think I mentioned earlier that I was changing the turn signals to 2" round amber LED lights as the ones they shipped in the kit were to big for the hole and I seemed like a better idea to close off the original holes and go down to 2" LED's. They are just little 2" round light that use rubber grommet to mount. I had to close the back hole off, added a piece of aluminum recut the hole at 2" then come up with a wat to mount them. Used a piece of aluminum strap and stuck them to the light with 8115 then can mount with screw from back side. Still have some orange to paint to cover up the aluminum around the light but other than that they are installed.

131038

[dlud]

Looks great. What are you using to attach the wire loom to the underside of the hood?

[jamesfr58]

I am using a loom clamp like the one shown below but I remove the adhesive part that is supposed to stick the clamp down. I then drill a few 1/8” holes around the base and rough it up with 40 grit sandpaper, then stick it to the body using the 3M 8115 panel bond. It works great but you to have to remove the foam sticky pad and rough the plastic up at a minimum but the holes insure the panel bond come through to the top the I kind of smooth that out and it is sealed top and bottom. Hope this help or give everyone another way of attaching wire loom to the body.

131054

[jamesfr58]

Well just thought I was done with the hood wire harness, forgot about the fog lights and in fact had never even stated to fit them so when back today and got the fog lights assembled, installed and added them to the wire harness. So, once I figured out, I just left them out I went to find the fog lights and mount brackets that came from FFR and after about an hour of looking I decided I must have at them. Then I had a premonition, I got a set of fog light brackets form Shane at VRaptor Speedworks, and after looking for them for a short time I did find the brackets but still no lights. But I did find a set of fog light with angle eyes that I had purchased some time ago and got them out to make these fit. I had to modify the mount brackets as the fog lights are smaller and mounted different. After some head scratching, I came up with a plan so here they are mounted in the hood.

131160

Wire harness modified and installed, only had two black loom clips so hold temporary with white ones until I can get some more black loom clips.

131161

Had to check out the wiring so here it the angle eyes on, think I will wire these as driving lights. Then here are the fog lights on, with angel eyes off.

131162 131163

Then checked out the turn signals, this is a view of the amber turn signal LED that I made to flush mount, then the passenger’s side turn signal, then the driver’s side turn signal.

131164 131165 131166

So now finished with the pre-install items before putting it back on frame and finish fitting. Have some work to do on the body before I put it back on so guess I will work on that tomorrow.

[beeman]

Nice and clean. I like the angel eyes.

[jamesfr58]

In the shop this afternoon, set the hood assembly aside to finish the work on the main body I need to get done prior to putting it back on the frame. I had a crack in the door seal on the passengers side so started chasing out the crack, it was located where they put a screw to ship from the factory. Come to find out the body or at least the lip that sits on the frame is about half the thickness in the area where the gelcoat is removed. The cracked and broken area was larger than I though once the gelcoat was removed so will need to make repair here.

131301

Crash, thanks again for the advice on how you hook up the two small outlets on the radiator verses how I had it looped back into itself. Broke into the cooling system yesterday afternoon and completed my bypass for to keep coolant on both sides of the thermostat and as recommended installed a valve to bleed air. Refilled system and the valve works good, allowed the air to bleed out until coolant came out the top. This is what my cooling system looks like now and again thanks Mike. :)

131303 131304

[beeman]

That is quite the bleeder valve! It may be difficult to control the outflow, you may get a hot coolant geyser. If it doesn't work well, try a screw type valve, will only let a trickle of air/water out, this one might be a good replacement:

https://www.yourcustomcar.com/coolant-bleeder-valve.html

[jamesfr58]

Beeman, you are quite right and I had the ball valve already so used it to refill the system and plan on changing it out for a mini 3/8" needle valve. It will reduce the size and allow for better flow control, have it ordered just had not arrived yet so the ball valve worked to get the system back up. I will just clamp off the line to the valve and change it when it gets here. I can tell you for sure that using a ball valve in not really a good idea. I bled the air and as soon as you begin to crack it open the coolant is a coming out and all over the place if not really careful including on you while operating the valve.

Thanks for the link it looks like it would also really work well and less pieces to get a hose that exits the bottom of the car from the valve to keep the overflow when you bleed out of the nose. If i had not already ordered my stainless mini needle valve I would order the one you just sent the link to. Again thanks

[jamesfr58]

Had to really work this week and did not make it down to the shop until Saturday afternoon, but I did get a few things done. Have been working on the main body now in the body buck. So, got back to repairing the crack on the passenger’s side where the door opening sits on the frame. Took a while and had to fiberglass upside down again but got some of those glass beads and can make it thick enough not to run all over me. Here it is completed, I also learned a trick from my friend who has a body shop. The gray sealer is thin but when you spray it on the repair it lets you know right away if you have any pin holes or missed area. Much easier to see the defects and it is really light so sands off easily.

131747 131748

Got the area in the hatch flange done where I sanded through it to get the hatch to fit.

131749

And fit the drivers side fuel cap and flange. Had to and it down some and build up a couple of places to get it so sit nice, only one more to go!

131750 131751

[Edgeman]

Just have a look at my page on the fuel caps. You actually need a backing plate from the bottom ring or they will separate. The one I had separate was just silver soldered together. These are actually aircraft caps, I believe. You also have the newer style of caps.
https://edgemansgtm.weebly.com/rear-hatch---mirrors-other-body-stuff.html

[jamesfr58]

Edgeman

Your advice is sound for sure, by the time I got the cap to lay down on the body by removing some fiberglass in some places and building up in others the area where the cap bolt on was thinner than I would have liked so I am planning on making a aluminum backing ring for the installation. On another note, the fuel caps that they sent with my kit appear to be made from solid aluminum bars stock so there are no welds, but since you mentioned it I will double check them again.

Have had to work all this week and had medical procedure done end of last week so have not been back down to the shop but will get a chance this weekend so I will make sure I check them

[jamesfr58]

Edgeman

Here are a few pictures of the fuel cap, it looks to be machined out of one piece. If any know if it is not please let me know. Will make backing plate as mentioned above.

132394 132395 132396

[jamesfr58]

Been looking for a place to put my LED backup light and did not want to cut any more holes in the back of the car. So after looking at it for a while I came up with this idea to mount them on one of the blades on the diffuser vents in the rear of the car. It came out pretty good, checked them in the dark and will be able to see just fine. They are about 3/4 of the way hidden but still shine on through....

132397 132398 132399

[KGTM]

I do not understand how the rear diffuser works with some much of it cut, I thought the whole idea is to create down suction and help with smooth hi to low pressure, this was one reason I did not put fans or cuts there., otherwise might as well not bother expect for looks as it is a pain in the ... to removed every time you need to do any thing from under the car.

[jamesfr58]

Finished the wire harness for the back-up lights and have both LEC lights mounted in position on the diffuser. After building the harness that will stay with the diffuser hooked them up to insure they were working. Will put weather proof connector to attach them to the power and ground. Painting the aluminum parts on the diffuser now and this piece will be finished until final assembly.

132526 132527

The diffuser is designed to let hot air out of engine compartment, the low pressure area will suck air out of the compartment as it spill over the diffuser when it starts to increase in pressure downstream of the diffuser. The blades of the lovers still give you the same amount of surface area in the sections where the louvers are. The diffuser should still work as designed and my diffuser is attached via 1/4-20 stainless screws and threaded inserts mounted to the body after adding aluminum backer in fiberglass for the threaded inserts, so removing take little time at all.

[jamesfr58]

Oh forgot to mention the cutout shown on the flat part of the diffuser is where the rear tie down is welded to the frame. Tie downs were furnished by Shane at VRaptor, almost forgot they were there and would have been hard to tie the car down with it covered up!! :p

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

I do not understand how the rear diffuser works with some much of it cut, I thought the whole idea is to create down suction and help with smooth hi to low pressure, this was one reason I did not put fans or cuts there., otherwise might as well not bother expect for looks as it is a pain in the ... to removed every time you need to do any thing from under the car.


In reality, for the diffuser to work to make usable downforce, it would have to be a smooth transition and much shallower angle to the bottom surface of the car. It is neither one of those things, but it still an area of low pressure that can at least be used to pull air thru the engine bay. On a street car like this, I'm guessing that adding the diffuser louvers to the diffuser is basically a choice of giving up 10 pounds of downforce in order to lower engine bay temps by 100 degrees.

[jamesfr58]

Finally got a change to get back down to the shop this weekend (work let up a bit finally) and started putting the car together and take it for a test run since it is summer here now. First thing was to but electrical system back in place so here are a few pictures of the different system working.

Engine Bay and Front-End LED Lighting, can change color and motion if desired.

133339

Cockpit Lighting, can also change color if desired.

133340

Cockpit gauge lighting for switches

133341

Cockpit with engine start ready to engage on my RFID system. The larger switch on the right that is no lighted up is the button for the E-Brake system, it lights up when engaging and disengaging and is red in color.

133342

I will need to check clutch one more time and bleed if needed and re-install the drivers side seat and I should be ready to take it for a spin…..

[beeman]

Looks awesome, James. I really like your LCD screen in the center console, you incorporated that well.

[jamesfr58]

Got out to the shop yesterday afternoon and doing some final mechanical work to clean up wiring and put the last bitts on the car, test the functionality and get it ready for a test run. Weather is great up here in Wyoming so no better time than now. All wiring in and complete now, here is the nose of the car complete with install wiper motor and new wire pulled in for driving lights that will come on with ignition.

133595

Here is a short video of the wiper motor in the different functions all working as it should.


https://youtu.be/O6qwrDTCPVo

Had to take the heat gun and heat up the neck on the washer bottle to bend it way from the aluminum separating the radiator and electronic compartment. It was right up against the wall but now has plenty of clearance. Below is a before and after picture, heated it up and held in place until if cooled.

133599 133600

Spent some time adjusting the wheels both back and front to get them somewhere close to the final alignment or at least enough to drive it and will schedule a full alignment once it is road tested.

133602 133604

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Just a note on the wiper motor. That whole mechanism that makes up the wiper pivot....when you apply resistance to that (like the wiper blade dragging across the windshield), it changes the length and geometry and park position.....so be careful when making your adjustments to the length of the rod that connects the wiper motor to the pivot that is attached to the body at the bottom of the windshield. I always do this "by hand" to make sure that the motor isn't going to destroy anything when you turn it on. It helps to have 2 people on this. Attach the rod linkage to the wiper motor and hold it out in the clear where it can't run into anything. Now have a helper turn the wipers on while you hold the rod, trying to resist the motor from turning. This will "cam out" that wiper pivot to it's "running length" and once that happens, have the helper cut power to the wipers.....not just turn them off, but cut power to them. If you just turn the wipers off, the cam will return to the park position. Now that the cam is locked in the "running length" position, you can connect the other end to the wiper arm and rotate the motor by hand while watching your wiper arm motion and linkage angles and get the correct adjustment on your overall rod length. You want to make sure that the rod never comes close to getting in a straight line with the wiper arm linkage. If that linkage goes "past center", then your wiper arm will end up going round and round instead of back and forth....which would destroy your windshield, cowl, hood, etc.

Once you are satisfied with that adjustment, disconnect the linkage from the wiper arm and have your helper turn the wipers back on and hold resistance on the rod while the helper turns the wipers off so they can return to the park position. Now you can manually disengage the linkage from park just by rotating it a bit by hand. Now hook the rod back up to your wiper arm and push it back to the park position and make sure that the rod/linkage doesn't all bind up on itself underneath the body. I know that all sounds confusing, but if you don't do that, you could easily do thousands of dollars of damage when you turn the wipers on if you don't have them adjusted right.

[jamesfr58]

Shane

Thanks for the write up on setting the wiper motor it is greatly appreciated since they say nothing in the manual or anywhere else that I know of on how to set the park and insure the wiper does not attempt to make a full circle scraping across the hood. To reinforce the importance of this forum and the information being shared this is a good example for everyone of the knowledge that can be gleaned and utilized by the builders on this forum for experienced builders as yourself. Again thanks....

Also though I would post a picture of my two shop companions as it is hare to get them both together. I posted a picture of our Golder Retriever before but here they are both together chilling out in front of my shop cooler on a hot Wyoming day....

133685

[jamesfr58]

Put the last item in the nose under the hood that I had not yet installed. I do have an inReserve in the car but since I always like a backup, I installed an onboard 2amp charger/maintainer. I have these installed in my Polaris General and another off-road vehicle and they have come in very handy several time when we are on extended trips. So, the plan was to install on in this car as well. Got it installed today so here is how I have them installed in the other vehicles as well, so I only need to hook up extension cord to ensure the battery stays charge or to charge it if too low and don’t have to drag a charger around in my trailer.

133707 133708 133709

[Shoeless]

That's a pretty trick little battery charger you got there. I can imagine on the long winters with the cars sitting, this comes in very handy. I have a large one on my boat that runs 4 big batteries and keeps me good year round when the boat sits over the winter.

I second the input from Shane. I literally have a separate word doc with an index table up front that has all my build notes in it for sections I haven't got to yet. Any time Shane gives us feedback like this, it goes right in my build notes word doc for future reference.

[jamesfr58]

The company that makes the charger also make several versions that charge at different amperages. The are sealed and pretty much weather proof, the one on my side by side gets water inside the hood all the time and keeps on working. Not sure they would work underwater but bet they would for a while. I have on on my pontoon boat that charges 2 batteries separately one on the motor and one on the trolling motor keeps them up in the winter and recharges the trolling motor when using on the lake. I really like these chargers and they are not really expensive as some but not like some of the cheap ones. I get them on Amazon since everything I get almost always has to be shipped into my little town.

[jamesfr58]

Made some carbon fiber backing rings for the fuel filler cap assembly. Once I got the caps fitted to the body the fiberglass is thinner so made some backing rings as suggested Edgeman and I agree they are needed to keep fiberglass from cracking in this area.

133777 133778

[jamesfr58]

Starting to make all the small little bits that it takes to finish a car. Started working on a custom shift boot that would work with the modified center tunnel section. First thing I did was knock my sewing machine out of adjustment so spent a few hours going through it and resetting the clearances and timing. But got through that and made the shift boot, still need to figure out exactly how to mount all of it but have an idea.

Here are the patterns made for my square hole on the center console.

134087

Got is sewed up and fit into the shifter cover temporary.

134088 134089

This is the shifter cover and boot sitting in place, will attach the boot to the cover and install as one piece.

134090

[KGTM]

Boy, this look great. need to you to finish my Dash.

Note about the wiper video, these is some action missing from the end of the part mode, no sure how to explain it, but it does some funky move before it stops that I do not see in you video.

Mostafa

[jamesfr58]

Shift boot installed but not fastened at the top yet, will have to remove it again later to finish installing the remain dash parts, but you can see how it looks setting in the car now. Thought about machining a **** gate, and still might but for now going with the boot.

134153 134154

[Shoeless]

That looks amazing James!!! BTW my billet buttons came in the mail the other day from AUS and they are awesome.

[rev2xs]

Got out to the shop yesterday afternoon and doing some final mechanical work to clean up wiring and put the last bitts on the car, test the functionality and get it ready for a test run. Weather is great up here in Wyoming so no better time than now. All wiring in and complete now, here is the nose of the car complete with install wiper motor and new wire pulled in for driving lights that will come on with ignition.

133595

Here is a short video of the wiper motor in the different functions all working as it should.


https://youtu.be/O6qwrDTCPVo

Had to take the heat gun and heat up the neck on the washer bottle to bend it way from the aluminum separating the radiator and electronic compartment. It was right up against the wall but now has plenty of clearance. Below is a before and after picture, heated it up and held in place until if cooled.

133599 133600

Spent some time adjusting the wheels both back and front to get them somewhere close to the final alignment or at least enough to drive it and will schedule a full alignment once it is road tested.

133602 133604

Apologies if i have missed this earlier in the thread, but what are the brake lines you are using?

[jamesfr58]

rev2xs,

I am using steel brake line tubing that I slid a spring sleeve over the tubing made to protect the lines from wear it they get up again anything. It is just an added precaution, and there is no sleeve where they run down the tunnel only where they are exposed.

[jamesfr58]

My short story for today:

Well, you know how we say we are done with a specific part of the car, right up until we discover we still have part to mount or parts we just forgot about. I only thought I was done with the hood section before putting it back onto the frame, guess what, I was wrong again…… I still needed to find and mount front laser shifters (2 ea.) and radar detector (1 ea.) for the Escort 9500ci system and incorporate them into the hood. I was working on the back laser shifter to finish wiring and locate it before I put the body back on and the light bulb went off in my little pea brain, damn forgot to put the equipment up front that needed to incorporate into the hood. So back to the drawing board, locating a location and designing mounts for each piece.

So, here is the mounting system I came up with to incorporate them into he grill supplied by Shane at VRaptor and locating the mount for the radar detector. And a test fit into the grill.

134256 134257 134258

Once I knew they would fit and look good tucked up into the grill I remounted the grill in the nose to insure everything would clear and they looked like I envisioned them. You can see the mount for the radar detector I am still working on. It will be tucked up into the top section of the nose and will work behind the fiberglass and will be out of sight.

134259 134260

Well, that all folks for this chapter of finally got that done, oh dang forgot something I needed or want to do, so stay tuned for the next chapter of I lost my mind again.....

[jamesfr58]

Finished the install on the laser shifters in the grill and mounted the radar detector under the hood. Here is how they came out, and also figure out how to mount the grill using machine screws so it will be removable if needed once on the car.

134311 134312 134313

Getting ready to go to the lake for 10 days, taking pontoon boat and just get away for a while. So just working a small thing on my punch list and getting ready to head out later this week with friends and family to play in the sun since we have not been anywhere since the whole COVID thing started.

[jamesfr58]

Well back from the lake and getting ready to finish checking everything I can on the GTM prior to taking out for a drive. Had to post this and know it is a little off topic, but lake trip was adventure. I bumped into the wife while backing the truck (her truck with a topper) and bumped into the wife. It knocked her down and broke her arm in three places. Spent 3 days in urgent care and orthopedic doctor’s office taking care of the arm issue. I told her she need to work on sticking the landing better, she did not think that was the issue but insisted it was my driving. Could not see her she was standing in the only blind spot at the corner of the topper. Anyway, all good and headed home to pick up where I left off.

134854

Then we had a summer winter storm, the temperatures dropped from 106 F to 36 F in a little over 24 hours and it snowed in some places up here in Wyoming got up to 12” of snow but all will be gone as we will be back up in the high 70 to 80 degrees range by end of week. So we need to forget last week altogether and start over this week………

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

I think I can sum up your whole post for you with a number:

2020

[Shoeless]

Shane sums it up perfectly.

Personally, I'm trying to get my GTM ready to fire up the engine by Christmas, but if I actually get to that milestone point I may push it to Jan 1, 2021 :cool:

[beeman]

James- hope your wife recovers quickly.

[jamesfr58]

Thanks for the words of wisdom and I think I will go along with Shane and can agree 2020 says it all !!

Had follow up x-ray today and everything still looking good so should avoid surgery and just a cast for another 7 weeks....

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Shane sums it up perfectly.

Personally, I'm trying to get my GTM ready to fire up the engine by Christmas, but if I actually get to that milestone point I may push it to Jan 1, 2021 :cool:

By then you may have converted it to look like something from Mad Max.....

[Shoeless]

By then you may have converted it to look like something from Mad Max.....

HAHA hell yea.

James,

Glad to hear x-rays went well and no surgery.

[jamesfr58]

Well, thought I would stop by and see what’s been going on, need a break from my added duties as cook, house cleaner running domestic errands since the unfortunate accident that put my wife in a very large cast (guess it was my doing so should not complain) and she cant lift any weight, cant twist of even a bottle cap and other than that is doing good and it looks like we may avoid surgery. They are going to remove the large cast next Friday this week and put a short arm for who knows how long but she will be at least able to do some things.

And I figured out how much it cost if you run over your wife with her truck! ……. Got to get ride of the instrument of destruction and get a new one…. So, she got a new Jeep Gladiator (her choice) I only get to pay the bill.

135733

And helping with the grandkids, they are a hand full and she cannot pick them up.

135735

Hope to get back to the shop sometime this week and pick up where I left off a few weeks ago. Wanted to drop in and get caught up on what happing in the GTM build world since I have been out of the loop for a few weeks. Got that ball valve off the cooling system vent and got my needle valve mounted and run down to the bottom of the car. Have done just a few little items but I do have a question for anyone who has a better method of bleeding the clutch slave cylinder on my G996 transmission.

I have bled it five time I think, and it is still really soft but at least it is starting to work, I can get it into gear with the engine running but the wheels start turning immediately. I have been using a power bleeder and not sure I am getting all the air out of the line.

So, I am open to suggestions or any better way to insure I am getting all the air out of the line and the slave cylinder working as it is designed to do. Hope someone out there has better idea………

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

I bought a cheap oil can....you know, the old metal cans with the pump lever to dispense oil? Fill oil can with brake fluid. Suck most of the brake fluid out of your clutch reservoir so it doesn't overflow. Remove the slave cylinder from the trans and orient the slave so that the banjo bolt (or however the clutch line/ braided hose is connected to the slave) as the highest point. Use a piece of small rubber hose to connect your oil can to the slave bleeder. Open up the bleeder and start pumping. Have a helper watch the MC to make sure it does not overflow and also tell you when the bubbles start coming up and when they stop coming up. Pump until the bubbles stop coming up in the MC reservoir and then pump some more....until you pump a bunch of fluid in with no bubbles coming out. Now leave the bleeder open on the slave, disconnect the oil can hose from the bleeder screw and tip the slave up so the bleeder is the highest point. If there was still air in the slave that didn't get out thru the banjo bolt, it should go to the top and gravity bleed out of the slave.....let it gravity bleed for a few seconds to make sure no air bubbles come out and then tighten the bleeder screw. That should do it. You can't disconnect and start over or you're going to just pump new air into the slave....this all has to happen in one shot or you'll have to start all over....so make sure you fill your oil can completely with brake fluid and have a large enough oil can that you don't run out.

[Presto51]

Well, thought I would stop by and see what’s been going on, need a break from my added duties as cook, house cleaner running domestic errands since the unfortunate accident that put my wife in a very large cast (guess it was my doing so should not complain) and she cant lift any weight, cant twist of even a bottle cap and other than that is doing good and it looks like we may avoid surgery. They are going to remove the large cast next Friday this week and put a short arm for who knows how long but she will be at least able to do some things.

And I figured out how much it cost if you run over your wife with her truck! ……. Got to get ride of the instrument of destruction and get a new one…. So, she got a new Jeep Gladiator (her choice) I only get to pay the bill.

135733

And helping with the grandkids, they are a hand full and she cannot pick them up.

135735

Hope to get back to the shop sometime this week and pick up where I left off a few weeks ago

Well look at this way, your wife now has the man slave that she always wanted :rolleyes:

Hope she gets well fast

Ron

[jamesfr58]

Presto51,

You are right about that, the only good thing is I know tis won't last forever....I hope !!

[jamesfr58]

Shane

Thanks for the procedure you outlined above, I will give this method a try and since you have done many of these I would bet it works. All I knew for sure was the method I was using was not working. Again thanks for all your help and assistance to our GTM forum and builders group....

[RR46]

Re bleeding, if you tried bleeding five times already and Shane's method doesn't work don't underestimate the possibility of component failure. I fought a Pcar with the same type of transaxle over and over until I decided a long shot to replace the master which fixed the issue immediately. No sign or reason for any failure it just wouldn't bleed right. That master was not made by Wilwood though but the car manufacturer.

Super trick idea with the small lightweight onboard charger.

While you have the body off, advise: Pay as much or more attention to noise insulation as you do on the visual appearance, interior etc. My GTM was done with focus on fun track days where earplugs and helmet take care of noise, but for the occasional coffee or lunch drives I wish I'd have put more serious rather than casual effort into sound deadening before it was buttoned up. Can still work on it, it's just harder now.

[KGTM]

Did you removed air from master before installation? if using upper port then is really hard to remove air from it if not removed in advance of installation.

or block the port and make sure master is good and no air.

Even with power bleeder it help me to push the paddle few time although is is supposedly not needed.

Mostafa

[jamesfr58]

Well though I would get back into the forum as see what has been going on. Nothing good to show and I appreciate the advice on bleeding the slave cylinder hopefully now that I am back home, I will get back into the shop this week. It is great to see everyone progress and catch up the ideas here on the forum.

I have been in Wichita, Kansas, my mother had a massive heart attack no to lone after my last post and I left to go help my father and attend to some of there business while she was in hospital. She did make it through the heart attack and is now home recovering. Really did not want to travel with everything going on but made the trip and made it back so all good.

Now just need to figure out where I left off, bleeding the slave cylinder is one task and put on my working clothes and get back after it. Hope to start posting some more progress soon and I hope everyone has a safe and good thanksgiving as we have a lot to be thankful for, especially if we are sitting down with family at home verse where some others will send the holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving to Everyone…….

[beeman]

I hope your mom continues on to a full recovery.
I just bled my clutch slave cylinder. Took 10x...no, 20x...as long as I thought it would. It finally dawned on me that the Porsche gearbox is inverted, so there was no way I was going to get the air out with the slave mounted. So I removed it and flipped it so the bleeder was up. Then I started pumping the pedal and... "POP!"... Blew out the dang piston from the slave. So I welded up a sheet metal fixture to hold the slave with a stop to prevent the piston from popping out. Pumped the pedal again and... "POP!".. The slave bent my sheet metal fixture and blew out the piston again! Fixed it again (deep socket and mallet) and welded a brace to the fixture. Finally got the dang thing bled. Firm pedal and releases enough to roll the chassis in gear. I haven't seen any fluid leak past the piston... Time will tell if it will hold up after blowing out the piston 2x...
Moral of the story.. Learn from my mistakes!

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Yeah....you don't want to ever pump the pedal with the slave cyl removed. The only time we do that is with 2 people.....one person under the car who first loosens the bleeder screw and once it's loose, the other person slowly pushes down on the pedal. At that point, you're not trying to create any pressure.....you're just pushing the pedal enough to push fluid thru the bleeder screw. We do the entire bleed process with the slave cyl hanging loose below the car. Pumping the oil can to reverse bleed from the slave up to the MC....as well as bleeding by pumping the clutch pedal......none of it puts any pressure on the slave cylinder as the only time we push down on the pedal is slowly with the bleeder screw already opened before we begin pushing.

[jamesfr58]

Well, it’s been almost a year since I worked on the GTM in any major way. It has been to long but back at it again. Between my wife’s broken arm (the one where I bumped into her with the truck), then both my parents got COVID between Christmas and New Years (both are over 80) and having to take car of that issue, my wife had to have a hip replaced in April and I had health issue for a couple of month (not COVID) and trying to look after a project in West Africa I just never seemed to find the time but we are back at it now.

Thanks to Shane at VRaptor I believe I finally go my clutch slave cylinder bleed and now working. He sent me a procedure to bleed from the slave cylinder back up to the master cylinder and it is now working as it should. So, for the first time the kart is moving under its own power. Still need to set ride height but GTM is moving under power.

It got dark so decided to wait until tomorrow to take it out for a full road test, but here it is moving on its own……

Will get some more pictures tomorrow

[jamesfr58]

Here is a video of the GTM moving in the shop clutch works and shifted into gears, may need adjustment on shifter but will fins out tomorrow.


https://youtu.be/aa79sSDtTWY

[jamesfr58]

My son and his wife were there to watch with two of my grandkids, so was great to have it work first time with all watching.

153477

Had to make a small cover for the transition plate to engine block at the starter location. Transition plate was made by Kennedy Engineering for my 996 G2 transmission and there was a good size opening that rock etc. could get up inside by flywheel. Nothing fancy but functional.

153479

[jamesfr58]

Was a good to take the GTM kart out for a test drive weather was good and went to the annual local car show as a cart so people that have been asking what I was building could see it without the body. It was hit with the kids and the younger generation at least in my small town in Wyoming. But did get to drive it around and did not seem to me many issues, one with the shifter adjustment got to work but needs adjusting.

So here is a video of leaving the barn and returning to the barn, back inside shop for a few adjustments. I was really pleased with the way it performed so far now just need to get it in gear and finish.

Leaving the house head to town for test drive and to the Newcastle Show and Shine car show.


https://youtu.be/HDvZWt0Q7cA

Here is the GTM at the car show with my RC GTM on the table to everyone would know what it would kind of look like when finished. Once we start painting the full-size car, I am going to paint the RC version to match the full-size version.

153510

[jamesfr58]

Coming home after the car show and putting the GTM back in the barn……


https://youtu.be/KjKctvRz3Ew

My dogs are wondering what is coming up the road, they haven’t heard it much so they all had to come check it out…..

[Shoeless]

Hey James,

Welcome back, again :). That is so cool you were able to take your go cart out to a show with the RC version on the table. I actually tried to register mine the other day so I can do similar, but the county I live in slammed me with it has to be done and fully inspected. They were not joking around. So any out and about for me is totally not legal. I already got hit up by one Sheriff, but he was totally cool and didn't even ask me if it was registered. He kind of knew I was out and about with the laptop testing it.

[jamesfr58]

Sean

Know it is different in every state, county etc., the good thing for me is it was easy to do in Wyoming, I already have title and registered and all they wanted was the fee and sales tax on the purchase price of the kit...go figure cause I know other like you require build logs, inspections and a pile of paperwork to get one registered.

I did have a blast with all the kids and teenagers that though it was really cool to build a car like the RC car they took a lot of pictures. Thanks for the shout out :)

[Jkviper]

Welcome back on the build James, looking forward to seeing the progress!

[beeman]

Good to see you are back on the GTM project, James. I've also been away from mine for about as long as you finishing up my track Corvette and my Lotus Esprit turbo project, it's 95% done. Tino (LCD Dash) just completed my digital dash for that car, it's currently somewhere between Canada and Indiana. He did a phenomenal job with it!

[jamesfr58]

Got some items knocked out over the last couple of days after the first test drive, I found a few items I needed to adjust and clean up. Had to adjust the depth and gate on the transmission, it would go into R,1,3,5 easy but was having a hard time getting 2,4,6 and I needed to move the gate toward 5,6 to allow more room when getting into R. All adjustment made now shifts into all gears with no issues.

Finished the diffuser and got the back up lights mounted so this piece is ready to be installed. I smoothed the bottom non carbon fiber side as it was very rough and fiber bumps in different locations. After sanding, painted the parts you can see from behind the car in black and will clear coat prior to final install. This is what is looks like reworked and finished.

153735 153736 153737

Finished the wiring in the rear of the car as you can see, I passed the wires though the body mount to center them and keep away from exhaust. All wiring is also covered with heat shielding to protect from engine and exhaust heat. I have tested all the door poppers, window up/down backup lights and rear camera to insure everything working one last time.

153738 153739 153740

Also added power and ground set to front of car for front camera. After driving I know I will not be able to see the nose of the care or how close it is when pulling up to a parking spot with pole etc. So decided to add a nose camera in the front grill to ensure my dumb self does not run into something in parking lot or parking where they have parking poles. Though this would be a really good idea as I could not see the end of the nose on my test drive.

[jamesfr58]

Though I would show what I came up with to bleed the air from the radiator system in the front of the car. It is a stainless-steel needle valve that allows me to really control the bleeding of the cooling system. It worked out quite will and is much better constructed than the bleeders they sell for autos.

153741

It is good to be back in the shop if I can only remember where I put some thing away to make sure they did not get lost. I did either such good job at hiding them, or my mind had a brain short circuit over the last year and scrambled the information because it took me 4 hours to find the back-up camera and another 2 hours to find the back-up lights. I hid them well :p

[jamesfr58]

Beeman,

I did get a build on a 1986 square body with LS Swap done and sold as well as working on all my kids cars. The hung a sign on the door of my shop "Dad's Garage open 24hour a day" so had 2 pickup and 1 mini van in there for extended periods of time. Let me tell the pay a Dad's Garage is really bad.....but I at least made them try to help and hope they learned something. Also got 66 Nova finished and sold so now back to my car want to get it done this winter and ready to drive come next spring. Darn sure you don't want to try and drive it in our Wyoming winter weather, that would be really exciting if not a complete train wreck.

[jamesfr58]

Took the GTM out this weekend again for test drive and the adjustment on the transmission worked well it now shifts into all gears as it should. But with that being said, I found out why the speedo was not working, someone for got to put a constant power wire into the Dakota Digital GPS-50-2 that I was going to use as info to speedo. And, discovered I forgot to pull three wires into the doors for the push button door opener from inside as wanted them to open with the popper form the inside as well as outside.

So, and I am sure we have all done many times, well except for maybe Shane who has built so many he may not have the same issue, its take everything a part and fix these issues then put everything back together again. By the time I am done I should be able to almost disassemble and reassemble the care with a blind fold on… :(

153832

Well off to the shop to finish the task of hopefully finishing the last few thing I forgot then back onto the body work. With winter coming want to insure it is mechanically complete and can work on the body through the long an usually snowy winter in Wyoming.

[jamesfr58]

Getting ready to take the GTM to alignment shop, so does any pone have the specification that work best for aligning the GTM? Have heard it is difficult to meet some of the specifications so was wondering it there is one that can be achieved and works well. Also on ride height is there a preferred setting for adjusting the ride height? My thanks in advance for any information on these two subjects.

[Shoeless]

Getting ready to take the GTM to alignment shop, so does any pone have the specification that work best for aligning the GTM? Have heard it is difficult to meet some of the specifications so was wondering it there is one that can be achieved and works well. Also on ride height is there a preferred setting for adjusting the ride height? My thanks in advance for any information on these two subjects.

Amazing timing, I have started to work on my alignment in my garage and was about to post my progress. I'll share from all the notes I've gathered and saved along the way.

With respect to ride height, as you want to set that first, you want to set the front to 4.5" and the rear to 4.75". You measure the front from the 2" square tube at the front by the footwell and the rear from the 2" square tube at the rear by the fuel tanks. I got this from Shane and just set this on mine.

This next part I believe is from Crash and I'll just copy and paste it from my notes.

START HERE WITH ALIGNMENT
Front toe 1/8 toe in. No more though.
Front camber -.5 to -.9 degrees. If you put in too much you will get bad tire wear depending upon driving conditions.
Front caster AS MUCH AS YOU CAN GET! Normal car would be 3-5 degrees, but the Vette goes extreme at 10 degrees!! No way you can, or should, get that on a GTM.

Rear toe 1/16 to 1/8 toe in. 1/8 in the rear is alot and if you go too far with toe in or have ANY toe out in the rear the car will want to rear steer all over the place.
Rear camber -.5 to -.9 degrees again depending on tire wear from given driving conditions.
Rear caster is really not an issue because the rear upright should not be going through the travel that caster effects much if at all, so as long as both sides are straight up to a little positive caster, that should be fine, and both sides should match.

Hope this helps.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

What Shoeless said. The only thing that I would add is on rear camber. If you're running very wide rear tires with very short sidewalls, you're going to find out that if you dial in anything more than -0.5, the outer part of the tread is not going to even be touching the ground. On cars that are running something like 18's with 305/30's in the rear, -0.5 seems to be pretty decent. On cars that are running something more like a 335/20, we actually set them closer to -0.3 just to get the outer third of the tire to even touch the ground. That also depends on what you plan to do with the car. Yeah, if you're going to track it hard, then I would dial in more caster. But for the street, IMO, not much sense in running a 335 tire with -0.9 camber because at that point, you're essentially really running a 275 rear tire with the rest of the tire just hanging out in space.

[Shoeless]

What Shoeless said. The only thing that I would add is on rear camber. If you're running very wide rear tires with very short sidewalls, you're going to find out that if you dial in anything more than -0.5, the outer part of the tread is not going to even be touching the ground. On cars that are running something like 18's with 305/30's in the rear, -0.5 seems to be pretty decent. On cars that are running something more like a 335/20, we actually set them closer to -0.3 just to get the outer third of the tire to even touch the ground. That also depends on what you plan to do with the car. Yeah, if you're going to track it hard, then I would dial in more caster. But for the street, IMO, not much sense in running a 335 tire with -0.9 caster because at that point, you're essentially really running a 275 rear tire with the rest of the tire just hanging out in space.

Thanks for throwing in that additional pointer on the rear numbers Shane, I'll update my notes :cool:

[crash]

Just for reference, we run a 320/710 18 rear and a 300/660 18 front.

[jamesfr58]

Thanks guys for the information it will be useful in getting my alignment set up, appreciate the advise and assistance.

[jamesfr58]

Was a good day today got the nose wire harness all built and temporarily installed as I hope they will be in the finished product. I did go ahead and get a very small Esky camera for the nose since as mentioned before I know I will not be able to see the nose. Here is picture of the little camera:

154176 154177

Here is the nose with the wire’s harnesses installed back to where the nose hinge will be located where I will make the connecting between, the nose and the main body. The plant now is to use watertight connectors to connect the nose with the body.

154178 154179

[jamesfr58]

Here is the nose with the front grill work installed, it is screwed and bolted to the opening and contains the front Esky camera and the two-front module for the built in Escort 9300.

154180 154181

Have a little fiberglass work to complete while body in on body buck and hope to have the body back on the GTM in a few days to continue the body work and fitting the remaining interior items as well as start building the doors.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Very nice work!!

[jamesfr58]

Remade the back body mount as the first on did not match up well and caused a distortion in the body. Want to thank Shane for his advice on how to mount to rear of the car that was published on Shoeless thread as it make more sense and is a much better to mount and work with the rear of the car than in the build manual.

154305 154306

I will mount the body and make adjustment to the rear mount plate so that is matches the angle of the body when setting flat on frame. Mount the plate to the frame than set the body to requires specification and mount body to plate. I took Shane’s advice and am using a piece of 14ga steel for the back mounting plate.

Did not like the way it mounted so really starting over with both brackets used to mount rear of car hopefully it will look better and mount easier this time.... :rolleyes:

[beeman]

I like that idea of a rear mounting plate!

[jamesfr58]

Shane

Do you cut both door striker brackets off to get body moved up and into position? I did have with the passenger side and cut that one off already but have not cut the drivers side yet. Have completed some fiberglass work on the body on the body buck and was getting ready to remount body to frame and position. But thought I would ask about the drivers side as I don't think I had an issue with this side the last time the body was on but if needed I would cut the drivers side before remounting the body.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

No, I don't think we've ever cut the driver's side striker bracket off. It always seems to be right where it needs to be. We only cut the passenger side one....and it normally ends up needing to move forward around 1/4"-5/16" or so.

[jamesfr58]

Thanks Shane that I what I thought remembered from the last time I had the body on the frame but was not for sure. I mentioned I have removed the passenger side and will locate it once the body is in place. Still have to trim off the excess on the door hinges before I remount the body but think I am ready after that to place it in position and center it up.

Have another question on the exhaust grills you fabricate, was wanting to know how you place them and attach them to the rear of the car. Looks like they have tabs or part of the grill is bend 90 degrees then the grill is attached to the body with panel bonder. But thought I would ask...

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

I made the exhaust grilles the exact same size and shape as the original FFR perforated mesh and fitted and bonded them in the same way as the mesh. On "newer versions" of the mesh, I cut the top and bottom parts of the grille off since they really weren't doing anything.....so on the newer versions, the grilles are centered on the exhaust tips, then just the outboard ends are bent to match the opening (probably closer to 60 degrees) and then they are bonded to the body along the inboard and outboard edges.

[jamesfr58]

Added one more thing to the wire harness on the nose, as mentioned after driving I decided to install a front camera and did not want to pull more wire into the interior so install this Bluetooth video transmitter that will allow me to see the front end on the head unit or on the table installed in the console. Hopefully this will keep me from running into parking block or curbs.

154992

Since this was the last item to be added to the nose, I finished trimming around the wire harness clips that I installed using panel bonder and add a few more after turning it over and seeing ho the wire loom was held up. There was a few places I wanted to reinforce to insure it was secured to the nose.

154993

The nose is now complete from a wiring point of view and will add multiple pin connectors on each side to connect to the main body. This will allow me to remove the nose if needed.

[jamesfr58]

Here are my carbon fiber corner reinforcements for the top corner of the hatch opening. Hopefully these will add some strength to that area to hopefully keep them from cracking as they have little support in this area at the top of the hatch opening.

154994 154995

[jamesfr58]

Guess I should have added they are sitting on top of the flange at the hatch opening in picture. I panel bonded them on the bottom side of the flange so they are hidden underneath the flange and will not interfere with the hatch.

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Here are my carbon fiber corner reinforcements for the top corner of the hatch opening. Hopefully these will add some strength to that area to hopefully keep them from cracking as they have little support in this area at the top of the hatch opening.

154994 154995

We do the same thing here with some 14ga steel.....

[jamesfr58]

Before the body goes back on, I decided to try and mitigate some of the issues that may or may not show up after the body is finished. When I had it on the first time, I noticed the back portion around the license plate area and cutouts for exhaust would twixt and move easily. To help stiffen the body and hopefully help prevent cracking at the corners in the cutouts for the exhaust I fabricated a stiffener with short wings on the bottom that wrap from the large flat portion of the license plate area to under the flange at the bottom (the one you use to level the rear end) and used panel bonder to bond it on the back side of the license plate area.

155076
This is the aluminum plate sitting in place on the outside or rear section prior to installing inside the body

I sanded the underneath side of the license plate area to knock down the roughness and prep it for the panel bonder. I also roughed up the thin aluminum plate (6061 T6 0.40 thickness) to get rid of the protective coating on the aluminum and help with the adhesion of the panel bonder between the plate and the body.

155077
Plate is fitted and held in place with cleco's, will fill the holes after installation.

Was just an idea I came up with to add additional support to prevent the flexing and hopefully reduce the possibility of cracking in the corners at the exhaust cut outs. The corners are rounded with 1/4” round file but figure any additional strength I can get is a good idea.

[jamesfr58]

And it give you a nice flat area to meet up with the steel angle for mounting the body to the frame... :)

[jamesfr58]

Well after reading my earlier post I realized I call the aluminum plate size 0.40, well did I get that wrong or at least my fingers did. The stiffing plate was a piece of 6061 that was 0.0403 inches thick. My brain pulled a vacuum and I just missed that one.........

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

LOL....so did I......I read it how you meant it since I suppose that's what my brain assumed that you meant.

[Shoeless]

Haha didn’t even notice .40 thick, funny what our brains can put it together the way we meant.