New Shiny Stuff

Just a pic to remind us how good these things look. 

It's been a few months since the last update, but we've managed to have a couple of sessions in the garage. Keen eyes may notice different castor wheels under the rear. The old ones were disintegrating and I managed to source some nylon castors to bolt in. Very disappointed with the quality of these go-jacks. One day, I'll have a better system to get the car in and out from the under the shelf. Castor wheel carnage below...

Anyway, enough ranting about the go-jacks. Since my last post, a few more goodies arrived. 

Air Filter

We finally have an air filter. I'm pretty happy with how it looks and it fits well inside the rear window.

Alternator and Rear Firewall

Next, the new alternator and crank pulley arrived. Unfortunately, nothing is truely "bolt on" with a kit car. Whilst the alternator attached to the engine easily, it fouled on the one of the rear angled bars. Out with the angle grinder... We made the decision to chop it out, because we've added a fair bit of extra bracing in the rear and all other GT40 kits I've seen do not have these bars.

Here you can see the problem...

Last weekend, Tim and I managed to spend half a day in the garage. Tim got stuck into the rear bulkhead, while I worked on the fuel fillers. You can see Tim's chopped the second bar out and welded in a bar across the bottom to bolt the aluminium sheet to.

Yesterday, I finished it off and removed one of the coolant lines to lengthen it.

Fuel Caps

The original fuel filler for this car was under the rear clamshell near the hot exhaust. What could possibly go wrong...

A couple of years ago, I picked up a nice set of polished aluminium fuel caps to go in front of the windscreen where they should be. I've been looking forward to putting these in. First up, we spent a fair bit of time drawing some marks on the body to make sure they're both symmetrical. I then cut out a template and set it up.

After a dead Dremel and more cutting, it was done.  Here's a test fit. I wedged some spacers underneath to lift the fuel cap. Unfortunately, the flat panel that the fuel cap bolts to slopes downwards slightly on this car, so we will make up spacers to get the fuel fillers level and at the correct height.

Yesterday, I did the passenger's side, welded in additional bars to bolt the fuel caps to and cut out a bit more clearance around them so that the front can hinge open without fouling on them. I'm pretty happy with the result. I'll bolt them in once the front end is in the correct position and the aluminium sheet is in.

It's time to get on with it!

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..

 We've left a small amount of the fibreglass in place that we will seal against the new aluminium firewall.

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. 

Julian approves...

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.

Finally an update!

Well over a year has passed by at lightning speed and not much has happened with the GT40. So what the hell have we been doing? Well, it’s been one hell of year. First up, we did a massive family trip to the USA. One fortunate off-shoot of this, were these awesome fuel fillers that I managed to pick up off a US eBay seller. They’re not strictly true GT40 replicas, but they will look great and do the job. They arrived at the house we were staying at on the very last day we left. Phew!

On return from the trip, I hit the garage with the intention of getting stuck into the car, but discovered it was a bit of a mess and soon got side tracked into organising the garage so that it’s easier to work in and find things. These homebrew malt jars make good screw storage and the old fresh wort kit “cubes” can be cut open to store spray cans, etc.

Soon after this, I was sent on a last minute work trip to Zambia, which took us through to Christmas. Over Christmas time, I discovered my Stagea had a radiator leak. Whilst the radiator was out I decided to do the timing belt, plus a full service of every fluid in the car: 10 different fluids in total! These are the casualties of the dreaded RB26 harmonic balancer bolt. Eventually I hired a big torque wrench to crack it. It probably took me a month to get the car back on the road.

Once the Stagea was fixed, we decided it was time to upgrade the wife’s car. I twisted her arm (not that it needed much twisting) into getting an MY11 Subaru WRX STi. A quick trip down to Sydney and it was ours. We absolutely love it.

So finally, in recent times I have been able to do a small amount of work on the GT40. It feels damn good to get stuck into it again. Currently, I’m trying to build the panel that goes in the top of the passenger’s side wheel arch. It’s a complex shape with several bends.

First up, I was lazy and took the template from the driver’s side, saw that it looked close enough so decided to cut out a new panel from it. I soon discovered the sides are not symmetrical (no surprise really). So next I created a new template.

And cut it out. Bending these requires a lot of patience and a bit of improvisation. Normally, I can only do 1 or 2 bends in my little bending brake. The rest of the bends have to be done with improvised methods. Thank God I chose to use 1.2mm Aluminium.

Here’s the result partway through the process.

So after making this one, it turned out one of the angles was a bit off. It looks OK in the picture, but it wasn’t a good fit. No amount of clamping, trimming or forcing would make it work, so it was back out with the jig saw to cut the same panel a third time. Lesson learned here is to take the time with the template. If it is slightly off with card, then you can guarantee it won’t fit with Aluminium. Thankfully this time it fits. Third time lucky!

So that’s where we’re up to. Dad has taken the dash home, so he can work on that in his spare time. I’ve been sent away with work again, but am hoping to pick up the pace now and get things progressing. I just need to remind myself that it will be an absolute joy when it is eventually finished. I think the current plan is to keep knocking over the remaining panels in the front end, fit the fuel fillers and then put the roof back on so we can work on the rear firewall. The clutch is done, brakes are nearly done, throttle and steering are done. So I’m really hoping that we might be able to move it under its own power sometime soon.