LONG OVERDUE PROGRESS REPORT

It has been 3 months since I recorded the progress on the car due to the fact that the summer has kept me hopping with other things.  However progress has been made, so here are a few of the high points:

This engine is much wider than the chassis was designed for and a few changes had to be made.

On test fitting the engine the valve cover was hitting the passenger footbox.

Cutting the interfering section out.

 I picked up this little sheet metal shear/brake/roll off of craigslist and it works great.

New piece cut bent and fitted.

The inside section of the driver side footbox had to be redesigned and new pieces fabricated.

Lots of room?

Actually it is better than it looks.  Nearly 1/2" of clearance.

I will have to modify the oil dipstick just a bit to make it easier to get in and out.

 The drive by wire throttle was installed by fabricating a bracket that mounts it much higher than the cable throttle used by older engines.

Another potential problem I found was the original mount bushings for the steering rack put the rubber boots so near the frame uprights that they rubbed and surely would be eventually damaged.  I turned some Delrin plastic replacements that moved the rack out about an 1/8" and down about 1/4"

and now the BIG news!

The engine and transmission are installed.

Easy with a forklift.

One of the nagging questions has been whether the headers made by Stainless Steel Headers Inc. would fit.  They were designed to work for the roadster and had never been tried in a coupe.

Well they just fit fine!  The headers in the picture are not the ones I will install but were sent to me for test fitting purposes.  Tomorrow I will send these back and they can start on my set.  My headers will merge into a 3" pipe instead of exiting with the 4 pipes the roadster uses.

THIS IS GOING TO TAKE A WHILE

Dave Smith, owner of Factory Five racing (maker of the car kit), has stated several times that they "sell projects".  
Years ago I interviewed an engineer for a job opening at the company I was working for.  On his resume he proudly stated how he had worked for nearly a year designing an alternator for GM.      

A YEAR TO DESIGN AN ALTERNATOR?

Then I learned that he was part of a TEAM that had done the design work on an ALTERNATOR.

Back to 2014.
A few months ago we purchased a new Toyota Avalon Hybrid with all the bells and whistles.  It is a marvel.  Blind spot monitor and alarm, radar cruise control, backup camera with cross traffic sensors and alarm.  If the radar senses a potential collision it will tighten the seat belts and apply the brakes.  It is averaging 43 miles per gallon.   Braking energy is used to charge the batteries. The doors unlock automatically when you touch the door handle (if you have the key on your person).  Etc, etc, etc.

All of that and in 6 months there hasn't been so much a hiccup.

So now I get it.

My car is a project, not to be confused with a modern production model coming off the assembly line.

It seems that usually when I start to assemble some part of the car, I find that things don't fit as well as they should, or I find myself thinking that I want to make it different than the way the kit was intended.

Case in point:

Saturday evening I replaced the engine oil pan with a custom one needed to fit the frame of the Daytona.  15 bolts to take it off, 15 to tighten up on the new pan, 10-15 minutes tops.  Well 2 hours later after grinding, test fitting and grinding again, trying to figure what part was interfering with what,  it is installed.

 I put tape down and then rubbed the oil pan around in place so I could see where the interference was.

 And after all was done, now the oil level sensor wire won't reach the sensor.

Yep, now I get it.  No team of engineers spent a year designing and testing every inch of this "project".

Don't misunderstand, I am not disparaging the maker of this kit in any way.  I love doing this and am very pleased with what is emerging here.  This will be a custom built one of a kind vehicle, that will require rework, more maintenance, have bugs, and more than a couple of my custom designs will probably have to be tweaked or even thrown out all together and started over. 

 I am OK with that.

AN UNEXPECTED TURN OF EVENTS

So its been a while since the last update, mostly because little progress has happened on the car.
About the only physical build progress was the installation of the fuel lines.  A few pictures are still necessary for such an insignificant advancement because of the cool little clamps that I made.
As illustrated here:

Actually there is more to report.  

The car has gotten too heavy to be suspended up on the rotisserie so it is now on the ground on all fours.

 Its really nice to have a forklift next door.

And no, I didn't make motor noises....

But now to the title of this post, a few weeks ago Brenda and I found ourselves driving through Salt Lake City after a vacation in Moab, Utah(what a beautiful place).  It just so happens that CSX 2299

(#2 of the original 6 Daytona Coupe race cars) is in a wonderful little museum about 30 miles SW of Salt Lake.   It was a transforming experience for me.  I spent nearly an hour in front of this wonderful piece of automotive history. 

 And now it seems that I have to paint my replica the original blue with a white stripe.  

MISCELLANEOUS PROGRESS

Up until now each post had a reasonable theme that could be used for a title.  The above will have to do for this one.

The wheels and tires arrived and I'm pretty happy with how they look, although the wheels might need to be painted to match the car color.  Time will tell on that.

So I decided to paint all of the visible sides of the sheet metal parts the same color as the main body color.
First the panel surface has to be scuffed up and cleaned so the primer will stick.
Before and after.

Then an etching primer.  I know that this is not very interesting to most of you, but it does document the primer and process used for future reference because as soon as that can is empty it will go in the garbage and do you think I'll remember what kind it was?

The color is Martin Senour # 56-82209-A Sterling Gray Metallic



First painted and permanently installed panels.

 

The plan was to get black anodized rivets but after looking at the shiny ones that came with the kit I liked them better.

Thanks to friend Jeff M. and nephew Evan K.,  I have the use of a very nice tubing bender and flaring tool for installing the brake and fuel lines.  Here are the latest pictures of the brake lines.

Master cylinders

Left front

 Front crossover

Rear split

In an effort to keep the engine compartment as uncluttered as possible I ran the brake lines underneath instead of through the driver side firewall.

Front split.

My brother Jeff was here last weekend and helped finish brake lines and the gas tank installation.

SUSPENSION AND BRAKES

I have to say it was pretty exciting to start assembling without the intention of taking it all off again.
The front suspension spindles went on and off several times though when I didn't like the look of the ball joint grease boots.  I ordered some custom models and am much happier with the fit.

Rear suspension.

Note the board which is prying the mount open slightly to make room for the upper arm.   Yes I can walk and chew gum at the same time.

 The rear spindles are from a 1989 thunderbird and came with 4.25" diameter lug bolt circle.  They went over to the CNC mill to drill holes for the 4.5" diameter lug bolt circle.   Now The front and rear spindles match.

 Suspension complete!

 Front brakes, can't wait to scrape the paint off those discs.

The front discs are 2 piece units that have to be bolted together.  To make sure they stay together the bolt heads were installed with Loctite and also have little holes drilled across them for safety wires.  No way they will ever come loose now.

Rear brakes installed.
 

 Love this feature on the front discs.  With a little practice a person could change disc pads in probably less than 30 seconds.