Despite everyone telling me the baby would mean the end of the GT40 project, we've actually managed to make quite a bit of progress lately.
Since my Father-in-law John was in town to see the baby, we thought we'd put him to work. He's been welding and fabricating since before I was born, so it was awesome to get his help. We managed to sneak into the garage on quite a few occasions. A job that takes him 1 hour would take me 1 day. What a champion!
One of the jobs we wanted to get started was fitting the steering column. The old column was looking pretty ordinary and was not fitted particularly well.
After a trip around the wreckers with a tape measure, we discovered that a 2007 Toyota Yaris steering column would be a good fit.
Now, before you flame me for the sacrilege of fitting a Yaris rack to a GT40, allow me to explain. First up, this rack has tilt AND reach adjustment. Secondly, it is collapsible in an accident. Thirdly, as a bonus, it has power assistance. For the grand total of $150 (including the steering computer) it was something we couldn't knock back. When you consider a Yaris weighs 1045kg, but has the engine over the front wheels, it shouldn't be too much stress to steer the GT40 which weighs about the same, but has bugger all weight over the front wheels.
The power assistance will take a bit of work to get it going since the steering computer requires speed and RPM signals sent via CAN bus. This will be a bit of a challenge for me, but is something I'll enjoy doing. Having power assistance is not completely mandatory and the car can easily be driven without it. Therefore, it can be turned on later down the track. No problem.
Fitting the column took a fair bit of trial and error on John's part, but didn't take that long to have it in and welded in the right position.
On to the next hurdle. The cooling system is done! Fortunately, my TIG welding skills seem to have improved enough for me to be able to braise with no filler rod. However, adding filler rod to the equation still leads to ugly welds. More practice needed. I've managed to modify an old sewing machine pedal for use with the welder. This has made the welds much easier to control.
While I was doing the welding, Tim got cracking with the remaining jobs on the engine with the aim of firing her up ASAP. In goes the first oil. We gave Tim a hard time about his very 90s shorts. :)
The engine was then ghetto-wired to an old battery and hooked up to a jerry can. Pushed out to the driveway and attempted to start. The good news was that it cranks, has oil pressure, is getting fuel and fires occasionally. The bad news is that it's pretty much firing on one cylinder only. We tried different coils, checking the timing, checking the firing order, adjusting the carby, but have had no real improvements. In the end, we've put this down to a dodgy distributor. It's still the original distributor, so it's no surprise. Fortunately, John has a brand new one in Townsville that will be here this weekend for our second try. Fingers crossed I have videos soon.
Awesome work, I'll have to come check out the progress!!
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