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  #41  
Old 01-14-2011, 03:32 PM
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heinke heinke is offline
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Default #22 is actually #3943GT

The #22 car that I posted pictures of is actually chassis #3943GT. I was fortunate to have access to this car when I started the C5 GTO project. I took many measurements, pictures, and templates from the car. Without access to it, I wouldn't have been able to do what I've done.

There was one day when I wanted to go take more measurements and the car was unavailable. I was told that it had extensive front end damage and was at body shop for repairs. I wonder if there's any correlation to the incident in France Mark mentioned. Maybe or it could have just been a bad day at the track.

I went to the Monterrey Historics at Laguna Seca in 2004 when Ferrari was the marque. There were 17 GTOs present and raced. I took pictures until my camera was full. My heart skipped a beat when one of the GTOs went off course on the downhill after the corkscrew. Fortunately, it didn't hit anything solid.



I'll have to put the 2011 Concourse on my calendar.
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  #42  
Old 02-02-2011, 02:36 PM
Overkill Overkill is offline
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Default Insulation

The thin material I mentioned previously is Keep Kool, 350 degree melting point, 0 flash point. Available from Prorod prorod940@sbcglobal.net

5'x10' is $60

John
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  #43  
Old 02-02-2011, 03:58 PM
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Default Tunnel insulation

Two steps forward, one step back. That’s how it goes sometimes on projects like this.


Based on feedback from forum members, it became obvious to me that the insulation I’d installed in the firewall and tunnel areas was inadequate. One of my worries was that I’d scratch and scar the aluminum sheet during replacement. I came up with an idea that worked good, so I’ll pass it along. I was worried that during drilling to remove blind rivets, there would be collateral damage to the surrounding areas. I used a single hole paper punch to put holes in masking tape and then positioned the masking tape with hole over the blind rivet. This actually worked great even for those pesky rivets that weren’t easy to drill.


I decided to use more “industrial strength” insulation and sourced it from McMaster-Carr online. It has a trade name of KAO Wool and is made from alumina silica ceramic fiber. At $84 (plus shipping) for 15' by 2' it's not cheap but not too ridiculous either. It has an upper heat rating of 2000 degrees Fahrenheit and K flow rating of 0.70 Btu/hr. x in./sq. ft. @ 800°. I purchased it 1.5 inch thick and density of 8 lbs./cu. ft. This type insulation is what’s used in industrial ovens and such.


Tunnel with interior panels and old insulation removed.







Tunnel with new insulation installed.





So this insulation forms the outside of my heat barrier plan. My plan for inside heat barrier is to have the SS headers and exhaust pipes ceramic coated (e.g. Jet Hot type coating) which is suppose to reduce the heat radiated from them by about 400 degrees. I’ll also probably put some SS shielding in place where feasible given space constraints. Hopefully all these measures will keep heat from penetrating into the passenger compartment or damaging other components.
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  #44  
Old 02-07-2011, 04:07 PM
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heinke heinke is offline
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Default Filling in the holes

There's not much metal shaping in these, but here's some progress pictures sheeting off the chassis outside.

First, I filled the spaces with 1.5" rigid insulation foam, fit up some 3003 .040, beat the edges around the corners and riveted it in place. The main trick that worked well was using nylon tie down straps with ratchets to pull the aluminum tight on the bottom and edges for drilling and riveting.





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  #45  
Old 04-08-2011, 03:04 PM
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Default Engine Compartment

There just seems to be an endless stream of things to figure out and solve when you’re hand building a car from scratch. I’m at the stage of paneling in the engine compartment which has also prompted me to figure out and run plumbing lines. While I’ve tried to keep the car simple, I have added a couple of options that involve quite a bit of plumbing: inter-cooled supercharger and air conditioning. Each of these has its own radiator and tubes that need to be run up to the front of car.


First, I filled in the engine compartment side area behind the suspension with a piece of anodized sheet. It doesn’t look like much but took a couple of hours as I had to raise a section for engine coolant pipe mount and cut a slot for brake line to pass through.







Next, were two pieces that fill in above it up to the hood opening in the body. These were complicated due to inter-cooler coolant line that had to pass through, shape that had to be put in with a tipping wheel, and edges that had to “surround” chassis tubes. There’s also another mount for engine coolant pipe that pokes through the middle of the panel. I had to trial fit and trim these panels about a dozen times before they fit right.





I haven’t pulled off the protective plastic yet, but it’s certainly starting to look more like an engine compartment. Now for the drivers side…
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  #46  
Old 04-18-2011, 02:40 PM
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Default Plumbing, tubular metal shaping

The C5 GTO has a very long nose section. This together with a fairly extreme engine set back (front of engine is about a foot behind front wheel center line) makes for a long distance between engine and radiators (all three of them: engine, inter-cooler, A/C). Instead of using long rubber hoses, I opted to build out the plumbing with metal tubes. Some tubing is stainless steel and some is aluminum. While I have hand tools to bend the smaller tubes (up to ¾”), the large ones are made up of several pieces required cutting, welding, and finishing. For those, I started with a collection of pre-bent 304 stainless muffler tubing.





I found a trick (not an idea original to me but a good one) that’s worth passing on. Since stainless isn’t magnetic, you can’t use magnets to line up the pieces during tack welding. The trick is to take an old hose clamp, knock out a few teeth with a chisel to make a “window”, clamp the two pieces together, and tack weld in the window. You need to be steady so you don’t tack weld the clamp in place and yes, a decent supply of old clamps will probably come in handy as they do start to warp and break after a few welds. The good news is that you get perfect alignment (harder on corners than straights but still possible) between the tubes.





I’ve found with a good metal finish, it’s possible to completely hide the welds and bring the tubes up to a mirror finish. My welds are proud as I used filler rod during welding. I didn’t want them leaking and I didn’t want visible pits when finished. In my experience the best tool for grinding the welds on these tubes was a bench grinder with a well dressed stone. If careful, I could take the proud off without leaving gouges. A quick dress with a hand file, sand with emery cloth strips, wet sand with fine paper, and finish on a cloth buffing wheel. Here’s a picture showing a joint from weld to finish (PhotoShop used to merge 4 pictures, not to alter content).





Here are the fully formed (but not yet polished) coolant tubes.





Here they are installed in the car.





You’ll probably notice that I had to weld in a fill hole in the top as the engine coolant outlet sits higher than the radiator fill cap.
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  #47  
Old 08-03-2011, 02:35 PM
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Default Chassis Progress

As is the case I’m guessing with every hand/home built car, you make a lot of progress but it just doesn’t show it in pictures. I’ve been working steadily on the C5GTO project over the last few months (except for a bout with appendicitis and emergency surgery – another story altogether), but the pictures don’t really show much . I’ve been doing some engine work, painting, detailing and assembly. Not much of what I’ve been doing is “metal shaping” but hopefully you’ll find this stuff interesting.


The front and rear suspension are now done and assembled on car. It’s suspension from a 1998 C5 Corvette with coil-over shock conversion in place of leaf springs. The use of coil-over shocks enables me to set the ride height and coil pre-loads on each corner individually. I filed off the forging/casting parting lines, sandblasted and clear coated the aluminum A arms.












The 2004 Chevy LS6 engine is getting outfitted with an SOHC conversion in addition to a supercharger. With the engine accessories, supercharger and SOHC belts all fighting for the same space, it’s taken a bit or work to figure out positioning/routing on the front of the engine. I plan to metal shape some aluminum pieces to cover up all the electronics/coils that mount on top of the valve/cam covers.





The chassis is now “push-able” so I rolled it out of the garage for a picture. I sure like the look of it much better down on the ground instead of up on jack stands. The aluminum siding on the chassis is just to keep the weather/water out. It’s only visible through a couple of small side vents with the body in place.








And lastly, the engine compartment that is where I’ve recently been doing some metal shaping. I chose to use anodized aluminum sheet there so I had to be very careful not to scratch it during cutting, shaping, and mounting. All the chassis needs now is to put the engine in place so I can stop making those vroom, vroom noises with my lips and start making them with 5.7 supercharged liters of fun!!!
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  #48  
Old 08-03-2011, 04:48 PM
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nonhog nonhog is offline
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Awesome project. I love it. Am curious about the engine. Your quote

"LS6 engine is getting outfitted with an SOHC conversion"

Why the SOHC conversion? Don't get me wrong it is very interesting. Just wondering if its a "how cool is that" type of thing or is there HP and/or reliability benefits.

All for modifying everything!
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  #49  
Old 08-03-2011, 08:16 PM
ShawnMarsh ShawnMarsh is offline
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Your project is coming along wonderfully! It's a very beautiful car with what appears to be a he'll of a chassis/engine combo. I just moved back to Newark, I may have to stop by and check it out if you'd allow me to!
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  #50  
Old 08-03-2011, 10:06 PM
bobadame bobadame is offline
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Default

You're building a pretty special project there Joel. Thanks for the update.
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