Shaved handles

<<  Exhaust Vent                                                  Side Scoop Louvers  >>

Major System Category: Body (Doors)
Task:
Parts:
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs:
Time Requirement: 3 hours
Date Started: August 23, 2013

Date Completed:  August 24, 2013
Shaved door handles means that the normal latch/handle arrangement used for opening a door doesn't exist anymore. The exterior handles are not installed. This does present a problem, because the doors come with an oval pocket to for the external door handles.

This the cut out acrylic template after it was buffed and sanded. Yes it is clear (that's the point) so the shape can be easily traced.

I am going with a door popper system. Briefly the door popper opens the door latch (which is internal to the door) when a solenoid fires and contracts the steel cable connected to the latch. Once the latch is released, a plunger on a spring that is installed through the body shell pushed the door open. As a precaution, I need to rig a manual cable to open the door in the event the battery is dead. Hopefully, the InReserve system performs as advertised and this never happens.

Traced pattern on scrap fiber glass.

I used a clear acrylic piece and a permanent marker to roughly trace the opening for the door handles from one of the doors. This is one of those times that something is identical between both doors. I cut the template out of the clear piece and sanded the edges until it fit easily in to the door handle slot. I used the acrylic template to trace two patterns on fiberglass scrap, and produced two fiber glass plates that fit (after some more sanding and shaping) into the door handle openings.

Cut out plates for door handle openings.

I then set the doors so the outer surface faced up (remember to support underside with something so there isn't undue pressure on the rear pillar). I used LocTite's fiberglass and aluminum epoxy. One tube was more than enough for both handles. I worked it along the edges. Next I set the fiber glass plate in place and attempted to make it as level as possible with the door surface. It doesn't have to perfect at this point, just close. If you spill some epoxy on the door, that's okay as well. It will get cleaned up in next paragraph.

Fiber glass plate epoxied in place. I used the angle grinder to eliminate high spots.It was high on the right hand side.

Since summer is still in full force, I set up the doors on a table outside the garage. I took the opportunity to sand and prep the doors for primer using the orbital sander. This allowed me to get rid of excess epoxy on the door surface. The plates I cut from scrap fiber glass were not completely even (as they came from the exhaust vents I cut in the body shell). I worked off the high spots with the angle grinder. I needed a light touch with this, otherwise, I would have done more damage than good.

Doors after the second layer of bondo was applied. Time for a quick run to let everything set up and dry.

Finally, it was just a matter of applying bondo, sanding, more bondo, more sanding until there is no indication that a handle socket ever existed.

This was pretty close to the finish. I applied some glazing compound to handle a few low spots.

Exhaust Vent

<< Rear Body Louvers                              Shaved Handles >>

Major System Category: Body (Shell)
Task: Cut the two openings for the exhaust.
Parts:
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs:
Time Requirement: 1 hour
Date Started: August 22, 2013

Date Completed:  August 22, 2013

I had not planned on cutting the exhaust vents at this point in time. However, I went through my collection of scrap fiber glass (basically, pieces that have been trimmed from the car already), and discovered I didn't have a piece large enough to cut plates for the shaved door handles. It didn't occur to me right away, but the exhaust vents offer a large enough piece for the door handle plates.

Even though I flubbed drawing the line, I did cut it straight.

This is a very straight forward task (that requires a modicum of ingenuity to get done). If you think that's a contradiction, then you haven't been building a GTM for the past year. The build manual instructs to measure 8.5 inches from either side of the center indentation where the license plate is mounted. Note: The indentation is slightly trapezoid  so measurements need to account for a slight difference top to bottom.

Here are the cut out pieces for the exhaust vents. Now I can form the plates for the shaved door handles.

I used a Dremel tool and a die grinder with cut off wheels to make the initial cuts. My preference is the Dremel tool, because it is easier to be precise. There some difficulty in getting the small Dremel cut off wheel inside the indentation to get all the way through the fiber glass. Once I had some initial cuts made, I was able to enlarge from the inside portion of the body shell. I had to be careful so I didn't get a cut going at an angle. Next, I took a reciprocating saw to finish the cuts, then a sanding block to smooth out the cut edges.

Old license plate just to see how it would look. 

Windshield Wiper Harness - Circuit 3/5

<< Wiper motor and Washer Fluid Tank                    Hazard Wiring - Circuit 4/6 >>

Major System Category: ISIS Wiring
Task: Connect steering column controls to wiper motor and washer pump
Parts:
Power Cell: 3
Circuit: 5 - WHITE
Master cell: TAN/BLACK
Prerequisite Tasks: Install the steering column
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 2 hours (alone) / 4 hours if you have your 4 year old grand son help
Date Started: August 17, 2013

Date Completed: August 17, 2013

Zachary wanted to cut wire. He cut this piece into teensy-weensy pieces.

One of the things that has been bugging me for the past week or so is how does the washer motor in the windshield fluid reservoir get power and signal. It seems like a simple thing, but I hadn't really dug into the problem until today. Zachary, one of my grandsons, was here to help. He did a great job cutting up wire. In fact, he demolished two scrap pieces of yellow and green wire.

Circuit drawing of the wiper motor and control stalk.

The manual has a section on the windshield wiper harness. You can't really tackle this task until both the wiper motor and the steering column are attached. These two assemblies form the end points of the windshield wiper harness. The wiring on each end of the harness is slightly different.

Steering column wiper harness. The lower yellow, green, gray and pink wires extend to the wiper motor. The second yellow splices into the door popper circuit.  The purple is not used.

The steering column harness can be traced from the control stalk on the right hand side under the column and over to a plug. It is zip tied together with other wires for a while. What you want to find is the following:

• Pink (washer pump)
• Gray
• Dark Green
• Purple (not used)
• Yellow (there are two wires) (power)

This is the bundle coming off the wiper motor.

The wiper motor has a wrapped bundle of wires coming out the front of the motor pointed towards the front left corner of the car. This has the following wires:

• Gray
• Dark Green
• Purple (not used)
• Yellow (power)
• Black (ground)

Terminal block at hte wiper motor. The yellow, green and gray are spliced together. The black is spliced into a master ground/ The red extends on to the washer pump.

The build manual indicates the purple wire should be cut because it is out of specification for the GTM's wipers. My solution was to not extend tthe purple wire at all. 

1. I wired up a terminal block that can be mounted under the steering column and ran wires to the wire motor, where I wired up a second terminal block. 
2. I extended the gray, dark green and yellow wires between both terminal blocks. 
3. I extended the pink wire only from the steering column terminal block to the washer pump. I had to attach a blade socket to end of this wire.
4. I ran the ground for the wiper motor in place of the pink wire on the second terminal block.
5. I extended a ground wire (with a blade terminal) to the washer motor.
6. The wiper motor ground and washer pump grounds are extended to the same terminal ground block used for the InReserve and Horn.

Washer pump with power and ground leads.

Power Window Motor and Tracks

<< Door Hinge                                             Door Latch >>

Major System Category: Body (Door)
Task: Install power window motor
Parts: Power window motor and tracks
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs:
Time Requirement: 4 hours
Date Started: November 19, 2012
Date Completed:  November 19, 2012

There is a right and a left side power window motor and window track. The easiest way to figure this out is to read the labels. At least, one label should still be present. After you figure out the drivers and passenger side motors out, the next challenger is to figure out which end is up on the window tracks. I'm sure this is obvious to some people, but it was a mystery to me.

This is the power window motor. Attached by cable are the window tracks. It  has the form of a floppy hour glass shape. I would check the pulleys where cable runs to make sure they are secure and not chipped. I think that last thing anyone wants to do is to back in here to fix something like that.

The manual says there are two bolts that need to be removed from the top end of tracks. The suggested method is to pound out the bolt by placing it over a socket. The bolts on my tracks were frozen in pace, I and was concerned that pounding on the track might deform something. So I used a cutting wheel and drill to remove the bolts. I've since purchased a Drill Doctor, because cutting out harden bolts has done a real number on many of my bits.

The kit includes brackets to attach the window tracks to the internal frame. I've held off on this until I get a sense for how the window is going to interact with the rest of the door. I have read numerous build logs where the windows refuse to go down all the way. This indeed may happen to me, but I'm going to make a good faith effort to get the window to go all the way down into the door.

The final thing that needs to be done is to re-position one of the cables running out of the motor. What you will notice is that once the motor is attached to the frame the cable going towards the rear window track is awkward. I don't think this is in the manual, so I read it on a build log (I apologize because I don't remember which one it is.). There are five big screws that hold the plate in place for the cables. These screws and plate need to be removed and correct cable needs to be moved one channel upwards. The cable is still going to be tight, but it is workable.

This is the window motor cable system with the plate removed. the cable with the green tab needs to be moved to the next channel. This is a tad intimidating the first time through, because I figured I might really mess things up. If you take your time, it is fairly bullet proof.

The photos in the manual are pretty good about how to attached the motor to the "C" shaped fitting on the brace. The main consideration is leaving space for the glass to descend (width wise). I have approximately 1/2 inch left for the glass to move up and down between the motor and the inside of the door. It seems there is more room on the drivers side door than the passenger side door. Again, it does not appear that doors are symmetrical.

Thie window motor is attached to the internal brace. Note the access plate for the cables faces the sound proofed panel. These screws line up with the brace. Again this is fairly straight forward. What is awkward is the uncertainty of how this all going to work properly. I suspect that the window tracks in the GTM are at much tighter angle than they are inside the Corvette door they came from. I haven't dismantled my Corvette door to find out. I'm not that curious! You can also see the power connect (orange tape) on top of the brace.

The power connector to the motor can be removed. This makes it easier to attach a ground and positive wire to the leads. (Remember, there has to be power to the motor, mirrors and door poppers. This is a good time to get the electrical work down. The wires feed out through an opening cut above the top hinge. Once I have things set, I and going to reinforce the area between the bottom of the power line opening and the top of the hinge slot. The fiber glass is real thin here. I used my 12 volt test battery to check the motor and the tracks. They move real good without any glass installed.

Hood Hinge

<< Mount Body Shell                                                    Mount Hood >>

Major System Category: Body (Hood)
Task: Mount the hood
Parts: Corvette donor hinges
Prerequisite Tasks: Everything under the hood.
Additional Costs:
Time Requirement: 1 hour
Date Started: September 26, 2012
Date Completed: September 26, 2012
The hood hinge is a combination of the Corvette donor parts and the Factory Five kit parts. The hinge bolts to the mounts at the front of the chassis that sit on either side of the the condenser, radiator and fan assemble inside the inner wheel wells.

Corvette donor hinges. The bumper pads are still attached. The strut mounts for the Corvette struts are pointing up at the bottom of the photos. The Driver is on the left and passenger is on the right.

Factory Five hinge plates.  The Driver is on the left and passenger is on the right.

The build manual photos are pretty good. They show the Corvette pieces, then the Factory Five pieces and then the assembly. I labeled mine D(river) and P(assenger) to keep everything straight. I have adopted this nomenclature for virtually everything in the car. This works better for me than left and right as it is really easy to get turned around.

The Factory Five hinge plate attached to the Corvette hinge. This is the driver's side assembly.

I removed the Corvette struts and left the bumper pad attached to the hinges. I don't think the bumper pads serve any purpose on the GTM. Certainly the strut mount for the Corvette struts are not used.

Hinge assemble attached to the driver's side. Note this is between the inner wheel well and the front tire. The old strut mount is pointing in and the Factory Five hinge plate faces the front of the car. The hinge plate needs to lay flush against the fog light pod inside the hood.

Factory Five uses carriage bolts and nylon locking nuts for the assembly. This proved to be a major help. As I found myself later loosening and tightening things down as I worked to get the hood straight and attached. My trusty ratchet wrench and really long extension got a work out!

Passenger side assembly.

I have to admit I am a little dubious of the long term strength for the hinge to hood connection. The hinge itself is well engineered and can handle the weight. My concern is the fiber glass that the hinge connects to. I estimate the hood weighs around 75 lbs. I've already had one clumsy accident where it tipped over on me and sent my work table cartwheeling into the drive way. The calamity was loud enough for the neighbor across to the street to poke her head out the window to see if I had killed myself or something.

The final task is to attached the bulb seal. The kit has various types of  seals. This is the  one mounts  to the top of aluminum. It has a sleeve that slides over the edge of an aluminum panel. In this case the inner wheel well.

The nice thing about the hinge set up is there is room for error and correction. The manual says not to tighten down everything, but sooner or later the time comes to raise the hood and see if things hold together.

Rear Parking Assist _ Circuit 2/7 (optional component)

<< Forward parking sensors                     Mount Headlights and Turn signals >>

Major System Category: Electronics
Task: Run cables for rear parking assist sensors
Parts: Optional part (parking assist sensors)
Power Cell: 2
Circuit: 7 - BLUE
Master cell: TAN/RED
Prerequisite Tasks: Mount the body
Additional Costs: $50
Time Requirement: 1 hour
Date Started: September 1, 2012
Date Completed: September 1, 2012
The GTM rear window is about as wide as a mail box slot. In terms of being useful for parking maneuvers, I am not planning to count on it. As the body is a major part of the build, I would like to avoid hitting things (like curbs and walls). Earlier this year (as part of the planning phase), I purchased parking assist sensors.

The parking sensor cables are enclosed in the wire loom running along the lip of the body shell. I  simply extract the  cable at the necessary point and taped it (temporarily to the body shell). Orientation: facing rear of car from inside the engine compartment.

I don't plan to rely solely on the parking assist sensors and my good luck. I also plan to install forward and rear cameras to assist moving the car about in tight environments. I ran the wiring for the parking sensors, wrapped it in wire loom. When I did this, I fully anticipated that I would be ordering the ISIS system by the end of the month. However, one of the things I promised not to do was compromise safety. I ended up redirecting my funds to aluminum fuel tanks and foregoing the fuel tank modification outlined in the build manual.

I have the control box taped to the inside of the body shell. Orientation: Taken from inside the engine compartment.

I bundled the four sensors into a wiring harness, and labelled the four sensors as follows:

• Left
• Left Center
• Right Center
• Right

These designations correspond to the control box. The sensors themselves adhere to the inside of the rear body shell using 3M automotive adhesive tape. I may have to augment this with Car Goop. The interesting thing about having the shell mount is that I can see how much room I have to play with. There is actually more room than implied by the chassis.

Speaker cable running along the rear roll bar member routed up from the passenger side. There is a enough slack in the cable to run this to the driver's side. The roll bar is behind the firewall and rear cockpit glass, so I will have to route the speaker cable over that for final installation. Orientation: Passenger side roll bar taken from the engine compartment.

I located the rear box on the passenger above the splash panels. I plan to attach the control box to the inside of the body shell. For now it is held there with Gorilla tape and a clamp. I connected the power leads. These sensors get their power from a patch to the reverse lights. I always figured I would run the speaker cables into the tunnel and punch through the tunnel wall into the cockpit. I discovered I can run the speaker cable up to the roll bar and secure the speaker inside cockpit on the roof. It will be covered by the headliner. This is a much more elegant solution than my original concept..

Acrylic mounting plate. Orientation: From inside the engine bay facing the passenger side. You can see the  rear passenger coil over on the right of the photo.

Update: I got around to finding a permanent home for this module.I cut a 5 x 5 inch acrylic square (I have been working with acrylic to mold some pieces for a center console compartment.) I mounted the sensor module on the acrylic using 3M double sided tape, then I mounted the acrylic inside the splash guards on the passenger side. This is slightly aft and below the ECU mount on the passenger side. I cannot finish mounting the sensors to the back body shell until I'm done taking it off and on (or until late 2014).

Same place with the sensor module mounted. If anyone has any doubts about labeling  cables, rest assured that all I had to do was read my labels and reconnect them to the correct ports on the sensor module. This is a whole lot easier than tracing the cables back to the other end.

Fuel Tank Finish Panels

<< Rear Splash Panels                                      Brake Line Bracket (Front) >>

Major System Category: Fuel System
Task: Install the two angle panels that came attached to the chassis on delivery
Parts: Fuel Tabk Panels (LH/RH)
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 2 hours
Date Started: July 26, 2912
Date Completed: July 26, 2012
There are a couple of gotchas on this one. Two pieces of sheet metal and rivets and silicone. This is familiar territory. The gotchas involve the rivets on top as you get close to the chassis tubes angling down. A full size drill is not going to fit.

Driver's side panel. Taken from inside engine bay.

Passenger side panel. Taken from inside engine bay.

There are many surfaces that need to be drilled and riveted. This is best done sitting inside the engine bay. If you can elevate the car some the engine mounts are waist level, you will save your back. As it is, I busted four drill bits on these two panels. I think it was just a real bad night.

Front Tie Rod

<< Mount Front Coil Overs                               Rear Splash Panels >>

Major System Category: Brakes & Suspension
Task: Cut and attach front tie rod
Parts: Steering rack and outer tie rod
Prerequisite Tasks: Mount front suspension
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 90 minutes
Date Started: July 21, 2012
Date Completed: July 22, 2012
There is good news and bad news about the most of the steering components.

The good news is that pretty much everything appears to be sourced from Flaming River. This means parts can be readily replaced.

The bad news is most of these parts need to be modified to fit the GTM.

Tie rod connected to suspension after trimming 1 inch. There is still a little room left for the jam nut.  Orientation is passenger side front suspension.

Here's the problem. If you wind the outer tie rods all the way to the end of the threads and attempt to bolt it to the front suspension, the rods are too long. I checked SpyTech's Blog (because I knew I had read this somewhere), and he recommends cutting 1 inch off the tie rod as a starting point. I looked in the manual and I couldn't find the spot where it instructs you to cut the tie rod. I'm sure it is in there, but I couldn't find it. I followed SpyTech's instructions and everything worked out. This may be something I read on the forums as well.

This is the driver's side. As you can see we are pretty close to the end of the threads on the inner tie rod.  Orientation  is driver's side suspension.

All I had available was a hack saw, and I used that to trim the passenger side tie rod. After that dreadful experience I figured there are easier ways tot handle this. I went down to Loews and purchased a 3 inch diamond cutting wheel for my die grinder. Wow! I trimmed the driver's side tie rod in 2 minutes. Wear safety glasses for this one! Sparks fly all over the place.

Another look at the driver's side suspension a few minutes before I mounted the tires. Note the orientation of the shocks. This is opposite from the manual. I suspect the printed manual has other items that do not reflect engineering changes or design modifications. There is a great deal of forum discussion regarding the coil over shocks.

For some reason, you end up taking a little bit more off the driver's side tie rod. I had to trim two more times. In both cases less than the width of a dime. I eye balled the alignment for now.

Rear Splash Panels

<< Front Tie Rod                                                      Mount rear suspension >>

Major System Category: Chassis
Task: Install four panels
Parts:

• Rear Splash Guard Front Lower (LH, RH)
• Rear Splash Guard Center (2)

Prerequisite Tasks: Kit Disassembly
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 2.5 hours
Date Started: July 9, 2012
Date Completed: July 9, 2012

The hardest thing about this job is opening up the box with all the packaged aluminum and realizing there are lots of aluminum pieces in your future. Most of these are marked in black marker with the part number on the detailed inventory. There were a couple that require the old process-of-elimination trick.

This the orientation of the splash panels. This is driver's side  rear.  The front of the car is towards the left. The rear of the car is towards the right. The panels fit around the attachment points for the rear suspension.

Splash panel traced and drilled.

Final install after coating, silicone and rivets.

Once you figure out the orientation of the panels, this is pretty straight forward. I think the manual could benefit from better photos or more photos. One of the items I don't understand at this point is the rear splash guard centers stick up over the frame. I am thinking these must be bent or rolled over some where along the line so the body can be remounted.

Consideration: These pieces must be installed before the rear suspension.

Steering Rack Installation

<< Kit Disassembly                                                              Inner Wheel Wells >>


Major System Category: Steering
Task: Install steering rack to chassis
Parts: Steering Rack Assembly
Prerequisite Tasks: Kit Disassembly
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 90 minutes
Date Started: July 1, 2012
Date Completed: July 1, 2012

Many have told me that build manual is like the code in Pirates of the Caribbean -  more suggestion than rule. The manual references two part numbers, but I could only find one in the detailed inventory. I figured everything I needed for the steering rack would be in the same box. So I hopped in the Boxster, rambled down to the storage locker and retrieved the box.

Steering rack assembly sealed in plastic.

The assembly is a single piece that requires you to install some bushings and sleeves, then bolt it to the chassis. The steering column orientation is self explanatory.

Bushings and sleeves.

Bushings and sleeves installed on the assembly.

Orientation is looking at the chassis from the front. The blue tape indicates where the assembly is attached.

Assembly attached to the chassis. Torque to spec (see Appendix A of the manual).

Issues: This is a very straight forward task. A couple bushings, a couple of bolts and tighten everything to torque specification. It pretty much went that way on one side. These are the issues I ran into.

1. The powder coating was bit thicker on one side. I took the die grinder and opened up the hole. 
2. The sleeve was too tight for the bolt. I mounted a 1/2 inch drill bit and opened up the interior of the sleeve.

Kit Physical Inventory

<< Arrival                                                                        Kit Disassembly >>


Major System Category: Misc
Task: Physical Inventory
Parts: All
Prerequisite Tasks: Take Delivery
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 1 - 2 hours
Date Started: June 29, 2012
Date Completed: June 29, 2012


The driver shakes your hand and wishes you good luck. So here you are with a dream, a body and chassis, a bunch of boxes and an envelope. (Clue: Open the envelope.)

Each box is labeled with a general description (e.g. GTM Options, Seats). There are a couple of heavy boxes, but nothing that you can't handle by yourself. I was lucky. My friend Vern came over after work and helped me get everything stowed away in my storage locker. A ten by ten space easily holds everything plus my rims and tires. The rest of the donor parts are in the basement.

I know most of you forgot about the envelope, Who cares about paper work, when you have a GTM sitting in your garage! Go get the envelope. Trust me!

The envelope contains two things. A detailed inventory of all parts and what box they are in. So go get your three hole bunch and insert this in your three ring binder. The other thing it contains is any additional instructions for the build manual. BTW: Where is that build manual? You have 20 boxes. So you have a choice:

1. Read the detailed inventory.
2. Shuffle through 20 boxes.

Imagine that. The detailed inventory identifies which box contains the build manual. Go find the box, open it up and look for something roughly square in a white cardboard box. There were four such boxes in box number 1 (the box identified in the detailed inventory). I found the build manual on the third try. (I hope I get better at this.)

One thing that isn't in the envelope is your certificate of origin. On the first page, there is a notation that Factory Five is mailing you the certificate of origin and chassis serial number plate.

As I mentioned previously, I have a build spreadsheet that I maintain on Google Drive. This allows me to access it from multiple devices and locations (e.g. smart phone, tablet, laptop). Since I have multiple storage locations (e.g. man cave, storage locker, neighbor's garage) and there are a lot of parts to keep track of, I created a new page that identifies box and/or part (e.g. splitter) and the location. Nothing fancy, but trust me you're going to working on this for a while.

Okay. Enough paperwork. Go back to drooling over your car.

Between Purchase and Delivery

I purchased the kit ten days ago, and it is due to arrive in eight weeks. In terms of physical preparation, the build site is ready (and has been for the past several months). One of the first planning steps I performed was to analyze the build manual. I derived 142 major tasks as result of this analysis. Those tasks relate to the basic car, no frills build that incorporates a donor parts kit. Since I decided to go with a new engine, a donor parts kit was a cost effective solution for my approach to the build.

Besides the donor parts kit, I have purchased a radiator, numerous electronic gizmos, wheels, a big brake kit, Porsche 930 CV joints and probably some other stuff tucked away with the Corvette donor parts. I have the donor parts list, I have a generalized parts list for the basic kit, then there are the additional parts I've purchased and the options added to the kit. In my master spreadsheet I have 3 worksheets dedicated to parts lists. The Factory Five kit comes with a inventory sheet and each of the boxes are labeled. I still need to do a physical inventory as one of the first tasks.

The other thing I did was review the initial major task list and add to it the additional tasks created by options I have added to the build. Currently, the number of major tasks is somewhere between 185 and 190. I've created a list of the major tasks. My intention is to link a blog post to each task that shows what I accomplished, what additional costs are involved and how long it took. Hopefully, I will also develop considerations for different tasks as I go forward. The intent is to create a comprehensive build log for the GTM. I also hope it is broad enough to a generalized build log for other component car builders.

The first tasks I need to perform are intermediate tasks between dismantling the donor and starting the build.

1. Remove and store the body shell.
2. Perform a physical inventory.
3. Remove the sheet metal parts that are delivered attached to the chassis.
4. Powder coat all exterior exposed parts.

I really hope this doesn't take too long. I really want to start turning bolts and getting the build to the point where it is off jack stands sitting on four tires.

The Build Task List

The idea of a kit car build is daunting. Professionally, I am a database administrator. I wrench on my Corvette and Boxster as a hobby. The idea of a tubular chassis, boxes full of parts, an engine and transaxle getting dropped off by the Fed Ex guy should be enough to make me reconsider. Let's start with some givens:

1. The GTM will probably cost more than the Ferrari 355.
2. There will be times of great frustration.
3. Things will break or get messed up during the build.
4. It will take time.
5. It will cost more than I think.

So how do I figure out if this is even possible? Buy the build manual. For $10 Factory Five will sell you the GTM Build Manual in PDF format. There are lots of pictures. The first 200 pages deal with salvaging parts from a donor C5 (more on this later). The next 500 pages explains how to build the GTM. Here is the break down:

1. There are 142 tasks defined.
2. Some tasks are much more involved than others.
3. They cover everything from attaching the suspension, mounting the engine, running the brakes lines and wiring the car.
4. Less clear is the build order for these tasks, and dependencies between tasks.
5. There are no considerations provided (e.g. LED lighting options, dash board gauge packages, powder coating exposed parts).

There are many things listed in the build manual I have never done. There is nothing in the 142 tasks that I think are beyond my modest capabilities. Here are my conclusions:

1. The wiring, drilling, riveting and wrenching are straight forward enough.
2. I don't have to build the engine or transaxle. I just need to purchase them, get an extra pair of hands and mount them in the chassis.
3. The GTM is based on a Corvette C5. I already have a C5. Many of the parts are familiar to me. I get how they attach to the car.
4. My familiarity with the C5 makes the GTM seem much more accessible. I get the technology, and I understand how to maintain it.

There is one other thing, it will cost more than I think.