Gaston's Build Thread

Folks,

I'm a little late to the party here. I received my kit the first week of June, since then I have been wrenching, cursing, obsessing, about this project every second of the day. I've certainly thrown all caution to the wind related to my other responsibilities. Job, what job? I truly believe this is the most fun you can have with your clothes on.

That said, I'm almost three months into this project and I'm almost at the go-kart stage. Attachment 32921


You may ask why start a built thread now? Simple.. I feel guilty. This community has helped me so much along the way and I feel its only right to contribute something. I'm not very disciplined or organized so I fear I may not be able to share as much as some of the amazing people on this forum, but I have taken a ton of detail photos of both the good and the bad. I also installed a time lapse camera to document the project.

At the end of the day, I hope this helps at least one person. Thank you for your help so far.

It all started with my girlfriend (now fiancé) surprising me with a trip to "Build School"
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I of course brought my buddies along

I decided to go with Breeze (QA1) double adjustable shocks all around. made the mistake of installing the rears with the adjustment knobs facing out. They interfere so remember to have the knobs face in.
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Willwood brakes all the way around. Relatively easy to install until I decided to go with stainless hard lines etc. Stay tuned for that story.
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Dry fit the dash. Went with the Casey design dash. It's much heavier gauge and tricky to bend, but it's worth it. I will post pictures of how we bent it. We used a torch, some custom brackets, a can of beans, vice grips and a case of corona. Attachment 32939Attachment 32940Attachment 32941Attachment 32942

I discovered rivet nuts, installed a full under dash pannel, and got some real leather from the upholstery shop.

Here's a picture of the front stainless brake lines, the reservoirs for the brakes and clutch, and the FFMetals heavy dash panel (a must have). The stainless break line kit from Jegs i purchased came with everything but it required 37 degree flairs since all the fittings were -3AN. I had to get a new set of dyes for my already pricey flaring tool. I read a ton of post on this and the other forums. Getting good flares in stainless takes some practice and muscle. I triple checked everything I did, yet when we went to bleed the lines we had leaks. Tightened everything until it felt like it would snap and we still had leaks. Eventually I just gave up, tore everything apart and formed all new lines. Same issue with the leaks. Turns out that if you think it takes a ton of muscle to flair the stainless it takes just as much leverage to tighten the fittings. Lesson learned.Attachment 32944Attachment 32945Attachment 32946

More brake and pedal box plumbing

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e-Stopp parking brake system install. I've search all the forums looking for some ideas and learnings from anyone who installed an electronic parking brake system with little results. Only think I could find was a couple of builds that put the unit in the trunk. I did not want to lose any usable space in the boot.

The following is me flying blind on a transmission tunnel application. Quite proud of how this is turning out.
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This is looking really, really nice. Let us know how the e-Stopp works.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DaleG

This is looking really, really nice. Let us know how the e-Stopp works.

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+1 on the eStopp! I haven't seen anyone install one yet, and would love to see how it all turns out. Thanks.

Regards,

Steve

Folks, Here are a bunch more pictures of the e-stoop installation. It's all "dry fit" and working perfectly, all I need to do is powder coat the simple mounting plate I fabricated and clean up a bit. The wiring bit is easy. Power to the control box, connect two wires to the actuator and one wire goes to the ignition which is critical. This ensures that you cannot engage the brake with the ignition on and the parking brake will automatically disengage when you turn the key. Im using a Tremec TKO 600 and as you can see there is just enough space, but plenty of clearance within the inner tunnel for the actuator on the drivers side. I mounted a simple bracket under the rear of the tunnel above the drive shaft (I was nervous about the clearance but turned out there is plenty) that combines the two cables into the one from the actuator. Basically the same setup at the manual parking brake handle just mounted horizontally vs. vertically.

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Folks, Here are a bunch more pictures of the e-stoop installation. It's all "dry fit" and working perfectly, all I need to do is powder coat the simple mounting plate I fabricated and clean up a bit. The wiring bit is easy. Power to the control box, connect two wires to the actuator and one wire goes to the ignition which is critical. This ensures that you cannot engage the brake with the ignition on and the parking brake will automatically disengage when you turn the key. Im using a Tremec TKO 600 and as you can see there is just enough space, but plenty of clearance within the inner tunnel for the actuator on the drivers side. I mounted a simple bracket under the rear of the tunnel above the drive shaft (I was nervous about the clearance but turned out there is plenty) that combines the two cables into the one from the actuator. Basically the same setup at the manual parking brake handle just mounted horizontally vs. vertically.

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Thanks for all the e-stopp details! It looks pretty tight in there, but it all seems to work.

I know the directions call for a lock-out to avoid braking while in motion, but couldn't it act as an emergency brake under normal operation? Just curious...

Thanks again for all the details!

Regards,

Steve

It really is a parking brake not an emergency brake, that said the actuator engages gradually and can be adjusted so I'm toying with the idea of adding an emergency switch to the lock out which would allow you to engage it while moving if things got ugly. I'm not sure that it is necessary since I have separate master cylinders for the rear and front brake system and a pretty sturdy gearbox.

it does look tight in the pictures, but it's actually not bad at all.