Well, it's been a very long time between posts. A lot has happened for Dad, Tim and I during that time. Tim has been buried in studies and I have been busy with family, work trips away and this purchase....
Unfortunately the GT40 has sat gathering dust. Finally, a couple of weeks ago, the planets aligned and we were all free to pull it out and do some work on it.
First up, we started her up. Yep, the 350 still runs.
Next, we decided it was time to put the roof back on. This has been sitting around the back of the house for years.
It turns out the firewall fouls on some of the extra bracing we added, but we had already decided that the fibreglass firewall would be replaced with Aluminium.
After a short session with the angle grinder..
The next job was to build a frame around the front of the engine. Originally the car had a small cup fitted over the nose of the water pump, right near the driver's left elbow. We want to improve on this with a flat firewall. Here's the frame tacked in place.
And that was the end of day 1. She looks so much better with the roof back on.
After a bit of thought, we soon decided that we were not happy with the new frame. It eats up far too much of the limited cabin space. Our solution was to install an electric water pump and relocate the alternator to the lower right hand side. We've also decided that we will be installing an electric compressor for the air conditioning up the front.
Within a week, I had this Davies Craig EWP-150 with SBC relocation kit on my door step.
So on the next weekend, I removed the old mechanical pump with some help from an offsider. Believe it or not, she was only a few weeks old when we started the 350 for the first time. She's now 4...
There is plenty of room to install the new pump behind the driver's seat.
So on week 3, we got stuck into the remaining panelling. Tim did most of the work, while I finished off the damn fiddly passenger's side wheel arch.
I then started to look into the fuel fillers which I picked up a few years back. Originally this car had a fuel filler in the rear under the clamshell, but we will be installing them each side in front of the windscreen like they should be. We will need to cut out holes in the front body to fit the new fillers. I soon discovered that the front body has warped or its mounting points have moved a bit with the modifications we made to front end. We need to get this back into the correct position so that we cut holes in the right spot for the fuel fillers.
Last night, I ordered a pile of new goodies which are on their way to my door:
- 140A alternator (required to power the air con compressor)
- Alternator mounting bracket
- Single crank pulley for ribbed belt (the old crank pulley is huge)
- Engine air filter (finally)
Also, I picked up a handbrake mechanism from an R33 Nissan Skyline which should work well. Now that this has arrived, we can make up the centre tunnel and then get on with the rear firewall.
It's been a long time, but we are enjoying getting stuck into the GT40 again. We just need to keep the momentum rolling now.
