JohnMac
06-09-2021, 06:50 AM
June 9, 2021… the weather’s really warming up and we’ve finally turned the ac on in the shop. George has been busy working on fabricating a aircleaner setup for the Sniper EFI. Because the Sniper requires a taller intake manifold, there’s not much room between the hood and the efi inlets.
We’ve mounted the hood which presents another set of issues- the fit! As many have found, the hood doesn’t fit the body and on the passenger side, it’s about 3/4” high. We’ve got the hatches mounted but the hoods another problem. When we mounted the body a couple week ago, I found that the kamm tail didn’t fit tightly against the chassis plates. I used a deadblow hammer and tapping the mould area around the kamm tail was able to move the body about 1/4”. Attaching the taillights tightened everything up. Another problem was the chassis mount for the door latch bolt. It was 1/2” lower then the driver’s side and created a real issue adjusting the passenger door. Thankyou FF5!
Yesterday I assembled the headlight buckets, pretty easy. Our kit came with cutouts and the passenger side headlight cutout was oval instead of round. Another job for the grinder.
Last week we ran up to the Simeon museum to take a look at CS 2287, the first one. It’s pretty much in unrestored condition. Some interesting features: the spoiler has a rectangular cut out on the back side the width of the stripes which vents air out of the interior. Also there are no vents on the sides of the kamm tail. Remember that this car was sold to Phil Spector and driven on the street. The interior is very stark as you’d expect of a race car. It’s run frequently and is in drivable condition. The suspension uses leaf springs ft & rr as upper control arms. The driver’s seat is angled very slightly to the left and there’s not much foot room on the passenger side. Another interesting aspect is how far forward the engine sits in the frame, unlike FF5 chassis. Wheels are knock-off pin drive magnesium and probably not very airtight as the lf front was flat, or was it the lf rear? One area of the replicas that’s always bothered me has been the shape or the bodies around the top corner of the windshield. On the original this corner area is more rounded and actually makes the cor look different and a bit squat. This probably has to do with the windshield. By the way, we temporarily installed the windshield in the body and unlike others found it fit very well as did the rear hatch. The windshield on the original is glass and the rear is plexiglass and riveted in place. There’s no latch in back- a spring loaded pin holds the hatch down.
Mac Morgan
We’ve mounted the hood which presents another set of issues- the fit! As many have found, the hood doesn’t fit the body and on the passenger side, it’s about 3/4” high. We’ve got the hatches mounted but the hoods another problem. When we mounted the body a couple week ago, I found that the kamm tail didn’t fit tightly against the chassis plates. I used a deadblow hammer and tapping the mould area around the kamm tail was able to move the body about 1/4”. Attaching the taillights tightened everything up. Another problem was the chassis mount for the door latch bolt. It was 1/2” lower then the driver’s side and created a real issue adjusting the passenger door. Thankyou FF5!
Yesterday I assembled the headlight buckets, pretty easy. Our kit came with cutouts and the passenger side headlight cutout was oval instead of round. Another job for the grinder.
Last week we ran up to the Simeon museum to take a look at CS 2287, the first one. It’s pretty much in unrestored condition. Some interesting features: the spoiler has a rectangular cut out on the back side the width of the stripes which vents air out of the interior. Also there are no vents on the sides of the kamm tail. Remember that this car was sold to Phil Spector and driven on the street. The interior is very stark as you’d expect of a race car. It’s run frequently and is in drivable condition. The suspension uses leaf springs ft & rr as upper control arms. The driver’s seat is angled very slightly to the left and there’s not much foot room on the passenger side. Another interesting aspect is how far forward the engine sits in the frame, unlike FF5 chassis. Wheels are knock-off pin drive magnesium and probably not very airtight as the lf front was flat, or was it the lf rear? One area of the replicas that’s always bothered me has been the shape or the bodies around the top corner of the windshield. On the original this corner area is more rounded and actually makes the cor look different and a bit squat. This probably has to do with the windshield. By the way, we temporarily installed the windshield in the body and unlike others found it fit very well as did the rear hatch. The windshield on the original is glass and the rear is plexiglass and riveted in place. There’s no latch in back- a spring loaded pin holds the hatch down.
Mac Morgan