Garage Prep I

My solution for body shell storage is to hoist the back 2/3 portion of the shell to the top of my garage. I asked Factory Five technical support for dimensions and weight requirements.

1. 14 - 15 feet long
2. 74 inches wide
3. 150 - 175 pounds

I had our handyman Ted install angle iron across 2 joists for strength.

He installed 4 three foot lengths with a width of 7 feet and a length of 10 feet. The idea is to lift by the wheel wells and door openings in the shell.

Next, I went  to Lowes and purchased a swivel eye pulley plus hanger. Each are rated to 400 pounds.

I attached the pulley to the hanger, then used two 200 pound rated cable ties to attach the hangers to the angle iron.

Just add rope and tie offs, and we have pullet lift more than capable of handling body shell for storage. It is probably a bit over built, but I really don't want to wake up some morning and find it resting on the garage floor.

The Donor Car

The GTM is a Factory Five chassis with parts from a Corvette C5 (1997 - 2004) bolted on. The major systems that require donor parts are as follows:

1. Front Suspension
2. Rear suspension
3. Rear CV Joints
4. Emergency Brake Assembly
5. Fuel Delivery
6. Cooling System
7. Brakes

Plus miscellaneous parts (e.g. wiper motor, steering column, mirrors, power windows). There a couple of ways to get these parts.

1. Factory Five has a donor parts list complete with part numbers. You can go to GM Performance Parts and purchase each part. This could get a bit tedious.
2. You can purchase a C5 with a salvage title and pull the parts off yourself. The idea is to sell off the rest of the car that you don't need once you have picked the carcass clean.
3. You can purchase a GTM donor parts kit. FPARTS provides a donor kit based on used parts. They tell you what they do not provide. SMC Performance provides a complete kit of new parts. They also sell kits for smaller subsystem (e.g. front suspension).

The donor parts are the first things I intend to purchase. My plan is to go with the FPARTS kit, clean it up, and replace anything that seems marginal with new parts from Gm Performance Parts. 

I am going to see if I can get a few things n the donor parts kit:

• Telescoping steering column
• Fuel tanks from 2003 or newer C5.

Since I am going with the big wheels, I plan to add the Z06 brake upgrade kit to the build. (Some builders have ground off the Corvette letters on the Z06 upgrade kit.) So brakes from the donor car are not a big deal.