Cockpit Rear Window Construct

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Major System Category: Body (Shell)
Task: Finalize rear cockpit window
Parts:
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs: Set Belt restraint bar  $200
Time Requirement: 2 hour
Date Started: November 1, 2014

Date Completed:  January 11, 2015
I needed a break from the wiring problems, so I started working on parts of the car that I could finish and put aside. The rear cockpit window is such a part. One design change I made was to go with a racing 4 point restraint system rather than the Corvette 3 point system salvaged from the donor vehicle. To make that work I needed a restraint bar.

The seatbelt restraint bar.

This is a hefty piece of gear with attachment points welded for easy bolt on to the chassis.

Painted black.

I purchased a restraint bar from one of the other GTM builders on the Factory Five Forum. The restraint bar bolts through the rear cockpit window frame and directly into the chassis. It is a great design. I started on this on my final 2014 trip down south to the new build site. The build manual calls for the application of a cloth covering. I decided to just paint the frame and the restraint bar black. I had a small paint booth already established and proceeded to the paint the parts

Rear cockpit frame. I would suggest mounting this in the car, before working with it so you understand the orientation.

Painted black.

On mt next trip down, I moved all the glass to the new build site. This included the cockpit rear glass. Some people have replaced this with clear Lexan, I decided to stick with the glass. The hardest part of the installing the gasket is in the half circles on either side of the frame. I started the gasket on the straight portion of the frame and worked my way around.

Gasket tool provided with the Factory Five kit. Use it. It makes the job easier.

Gasket installed.

Factory Five provides a gasket tool. It works to a point. The trick here is to get as much of the window into the gasket as possible. I tapped the edge of the cockpit frame on the floor to drive the window further into the gasket. This got it far enough into the gasket so it seats into the gasket. A friend suggested you could uses soap to ease it into place. The gasket tool comes in handy to pull the lip of the gasket over the edge of the window. 

Rear frame, window and restraint bar. Obviously, the blue tape is there for protection. It will be removed on final assembly.

Everything bolted together.

Rear Stereo Speakers

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Major System Category: Electronics
Task: Build speaker box for rear speakers
Parts: Wood Board
            Carbon Fiber Vinyl
            Infinity Reference 3032cf 3.5-Inch
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs: $75
Time Requirement: 6 hours
Date Started: January 14, 2014

Date Completed: January 21, 2014

Initially I was going to just go with speakers in the doors. There really isn't a good place to mount rear speakers. I started to look at the rear quarter glass. These are really worthless in terms of seeing anything. I plan to rely on mirrors and cameras to see what's going on around the car. Vraptor Speedworks sells a NACA duct that provides air into the engine compartment. I plan to replace the quarter glass with these ducts and use the ducts to push air directly into the cold air intake.

Everything seems so straight forward when you start out. I am just fitting the box together using clamps.

This solves two problems as it now gives me a place to mount the rear speakers. 

The tricky part was getting the hole centered and big enough. I came across a great multiple hole saw kit for about $12 that handled everything from 1/2 to 6 inch holes. 

There are no mounts for rear speakers in the GTM design. There are only mounts for door speakers built into the inner door liners. I 6.5 inch speakers for the doors and 3.5 inch speakers for the rear. Time to make rear speaker mounts!

This is sanded on the seams, glued and screwed together. The speaker wires are running through the small hole in the back of the box. I also have a rubber grommet installed to minimize chaffing. 

I found a sturdy 1 x 12 x 48 pressed board at Home Depot. This is your basic 7th grade shop project where you need to build a box. I managed to mess it up a little, but eventually I had box with a center hole to mount the speakers and rear hole to feed to wires through. I purchased enough board to fix the mistakes. I secured everything with wood screws and glue, then I sanded it down used wood filler to take care of the gaps on the seams and level things out.

I am prepping to wrap in vinyl. I made 45 degree cuts in the vinyl so I could wrap the box.

Since the box is going to be two rather large frame posts and the quarter windows are going to be dropped from the design, the visible part of the box is basically the speaker and the edges leading away from the speaker. This doesn't have to be a perfect job. It just has to look good from the top. Of course, now I have two tan colored boxes. This is where carbon vinyl wrap comes in very handy. This doesn't cost a fortune and it is relatively easy to work with.

Finished product. Now all I have to do is get the GTM transported to the New Southerns Man Cave this summer.

I wrapped the boxes before I installed the speakers. Once I had the component pieces assembled, it went pretty fast.

Transaxle Delivery

The Transaxle arrived today. It isn't just any transaxle. This one is a manual 7 speed, model 991. It is the same transaxle found  in the current production Porsche 911s. As far as I know, my GTM is the first one to sport this transaxle.

Shipping crate dropped on the Northern Man Cave floor.

This journey began March 2013. I am writing this in November 2013. I responded to a post of the Factory Five Forum (a place I have been too busy to visit over the past several months). A couple of phone calls later, we settled on a deal to purchase the 991 transaxle, plus clutch, pressure plate, fly wheel, mating collar and modification for inverted operation. Basically, this is an all in one deal designed to handle the 525 HP ls376/525 slated to end up mated to the 991.

This the normal configuration for the 991. In the GTM this is inverted. Note the blue drain plug and the shift markings.

Gbox LLC is a small shop in Boulder, Colorado. They deliver what they promise. The transaxle comes backed in a custom built shipping box. There is plenty of padding to keep things from banging on the way from Boulder to the Northern Man Cave. The top is screwed down. The best thing about this shipping arrangement is there is no shipping pallet to dispose of.

The 991 tilted on its side. The shift lever is in the middle of the transaxle. The black circle on the end is where the transaxle is bolted to the frame.

The current build site is very limited in space. Even though the engine will not be purchased for a while, it is necessary to get the transaxle into the chassis. My friends Matt and Gary came by to help me get the transaxle into the car. Normally, you take the body shell off the car to mount the transaxle. It turns out the opening under the engine bay in the chassis is big enough to slide the transaxle into the chassis. There is approximately 2.5 inches clearance. The lack of an engine is the only way this works. Again, I'll repeat the recommendation - put off the engine purchase as long as possible.

Mating collars for the 991 and an LS block. This is a custom piece. You can see the GBOX Logo at the top of the photo.

We positioned the 991 vertically with the bell housing flat on a plywood sheet on top of a dolly. We rolled the transaxle under the lift and eye balled the location to be approximately under the opening in the chassis. (B TW: Rolling the transaxle on a dolly is a lot easier than trying to find a grp on this beast and manhandling it anywhere.) We lowered the lift until it was just above the top of the 991. This means the bottom of the lift is a little more than 2 feet off the floor. Gary climbed up on the lift so he could give us a visual looking down through the hatch. I got on my knees so I could get a visual as the lift came down. Matt watched it from another angle.

Clutch already bolted to the pressure plate and fly wheel.

I brought the lift down really slow. We made a couple of minor adjustments (and we needed all sets of eyes on the transaxle to make sure we didn't do something bad). I got the bottom of the lift about 3 inches off the floor. This leaves the transaxle about halfway up to the cross member where it is cradled in the chassis.

Fly wheel. I so glad I just have to mount this in place.

Earlier, I measured the transaxle cross member and the opening on the transaxle bracket. It turns out the 991 needs an opening of 3.5 inches, and my bracket only has 2/75 inches. The transaxle bracket is the removable piece that can be swapped out between aither the Mendeola SDR or the Porsche G50 transaxles. The 991 is different enough that the bracket needs further modification. Last summer I jad the Vraptor pieces welded in place for the wing. I removed the bracket before the guys arrived to help. This made it easier, because this all comes down to brutal force to get it mounted.

These are the tabs that the transaxle needs to bolt through. They have to be cut out and moved so the inner diameter is at least 3.5 inches. When I dropped it off at Crystal Welding, I explained the situation and we agreed on the technical measurement of a smidge over 3.5 inches for the inner measurement.  

Now it gets tricky. The three of us looked down through the hatch at the transaxle. It is sitting there and it was kind of a Now-What moment. I clambered over the edge of the hatch and first stepped where the engine mounts reside. Matt leaned over the back end of the body shell, and Gary helped find things as we needed them. He thought about trying to heft it up. In the end, I tipped it backwards on the cradle. We had to be extra careful not to damage the drain plug. So I ended up standing on the dolly - this proved to be one of those dumb things that worked out okay.

I couldn't done this without these guys! Matt and Gary did a great job!

Matt held the back end of the transaxle, Gary had the 2x4 wood blocks and straps ready, and I tilted the 991 towards the cradle. Unfortunately, not only did the 991 move, but so did the dolly, the plywood sheet and my feet. I kind of did the Fred Flintstone run in place under the lift with a 200 lbs transaxle in my hands. Fortunately, we had enough leverage and the transaxle moved (relatively easily) into place. The dolly eventually slid out from under me and I was on stable ground. We strapped the and braced the transaxle in place, declared victory and congratulated each other on a job complete.

Here she is strapped and braced in place. I should have the transaxle bracket back in a couple of weeks, then she will be bolted into place until it comes time to install the engine.

Hazard Wiring - Circuit 4/6

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                                                                             Weather Pack Connectors
Major System Category: ISIS
Task: Hazard lights
Parts:
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs:
Time Requirement: 3 hours
Date Started: November 7, 2013

Date Completed:  November 7, 2013

The hazard lights are one of those circuits that runs the length of the car. This circuit was assigned to Power Cell #4, which did not get installed until Fall 2013. However, the planning and preliminary wiring for this circuit took place in Fall 2012. I had to think about how this was going to work out 14 months prior to getting this done.

Hazard circuit terminal block. This located on the center aluminum panel in the front bay. This photo was taken prior to mounting Power Cell #4.

I decided that once I had the hood installed and centered, it was never coming off the car again. I made this decision for a couple of reasons:

1. There are too many systems tied into the hood (e.g. head lights, fog lights, signals, sensors, grille).
2. The hood is not symmetrical. Prior to mounting the hood, I spent three days with the cross hatch laser level figuring out that it was off center. Once I had it mounted on the car, I decided I was not taking it off again.

The yellow wire in the lower left is the hazard circuit coming out of the left front turn signal and going through the conduit along the hood above the grille.

The hazard lights are located on the four corners of the car. Regardless of the power cell location, I was going to end up running wires a long way. I have gotten better at the concept that even though car is approximately 16 feet long, a wire run like this is probably closer to 20 feet due to path down into the tunnel and back up around the engine bay.

This is the other side of the hazard circuit coming out on the right front of the car. The yellow wires run to the other signal then through the conduit to the terminal block.

I mounted a terminal block where one side is daisy chained (i.e. all sockets are wired together on one side). This means a single power lead distributes power to all ports on the terminal block. Based on my design, I knew where Power Cell #4 was going to be mounted, so prior to purchase I built the hazard circuit terminal block next to the power cell location and wired the circuit into the front signals. I also ran wires to the rear of the car for the rear signal lights. This conduit comes out at the rear of the tunnel close to the cable box for the manual parking brakes. The rear power leads are split to go around the engine bay and up to the rear lights.

The yellow wires are the rear leads from the terminal block. They run under the Vintage Air unit through a large conduit to the rear end of the tunnel. The braided cable is the cross over pipe for the fuel tanks.

By law (as I understand it), the car is required to have a physical hazard switch. The switch is slated to be mounted on the center console below the touch screen and forward the gear shift. Since I am using ISIS, I just need to run the signal wire and a ground to this switch to complete circuit.

The hazard circuit (yellow wires) split to the left and right into conduits that work around the engine bay to the rear lights. The rectangular item in the lower left background is the cable box for the manual brakes. These run under the engine.

These are circuits enclosed in wire loom that run around the engine bay and next tot he splash guards.

Gen II GTM Front Grille

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Major System Category: Body (Hood)
Task: Install front grille
Parts: Vraptor Gen II Grille
Prerequisite Tasks: fender louvers
Additional Costs: $78
Time Requirement: 3 hours
Date Started: October, 10, 2012
Date Completed: October, 12, 2012
The GTM has to have a grille. This is a sports car with great lines. I don't remember if the Gen II has a screen mesh or just leaves things open. Either way, it is kind of ugly. After all, who wants to look into the front of a car and see the radiator? The grille adds cost to the kit and mesh is a cheap alternative. This is not a criticism, just a fact. A builder on a budget can go either way.

The grill come with three brackets. The center is a bit bigger than the sides. The end with the hole in it is the  top of the bracket.

The brackets need to be bent a certain way. I used a vice to make the bends.

The front grille is another Vraptor design. This is a totally optional part. The car will function without this addition. However  anyone building a GTM is going to consider using some of what Vraptor has to offer. On top of that Shane is a great guy. He posts frequently on the forums. He will answer questions via email. Stuff always shows up fast. I think I am on order #4 right now.

This is the grille prior to installation. She is painted and bonded at this point.

One thing mentioned in the instructions is that the front end opening (where the grille is mounted) is not centered on the hood. It is off by about 1 inch (sigh). Basically the instructions advise that you can center the grille to the car and look weird, or you can center the grille inside the opening and look okay. (Again, I do not understand why the hood is so off.)

This is the grill opening with the three brackets in place. I was just getting a sense for where they needed to go.  Clearly visible is the radiator, AC condenser and fan assembly (yuck!). 

This is the grille centered inside the opening. Once I started working on the front end of the hood, I just kept going.  October was basically spent working on the hood.

 The grille mounts on the inside lips that form the opening. The test mount was with the parts unpainted and held together with Gorilla Tape. I raised the lift to chest level and went to work. I think I even ran the laser level to see the center of the hood versus the center of the grille opening. Once I was satisfied that everything was going to be okay. I used 3M 8115 panel bond to permanently bond the grille and painted it gloss black.

A different angle.

Headlight and Turn Signal Mounting

<< Rear Parking Assist                                                 Wire the head lights >>

Major System Category: ISIS Wiring
Task: Mount headlights and turn signals
Parts: Kit head lights and turn signals
Prerequisite Tasks: Hood needs to be mounted and bolted into place
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 4 Hours
Date Started: October 13, 2012
Date Completed: October 14, 2012
The manual that came with my kit comes with a Gen I procedure to mount headlights and turn signals. While there are some similarities (you mount them in the front), the Gen II configuration is different enough to make me wonder if anyone at Factory Five actually tried putting in the signal lights they send with the kit.

Headlight with the adjustment screws installed and the h9 HID plug installed.

The headlight bucket on my hood is not removable, there is no foam core between the inner plastic and outer fiber glass, the holes are pre-drilled.

Rear view.

A removable headlight bucket has the charm of being removed to the bench where some very precise cuts can be made. Most people will have the hood bolted to the chassis. This requires the builder to work around the side of the hood to gain access to the headline area. Not a big deal, but it does make it harder to measure the holes for the headline pins. I had some good moments drilling holes, and some really bad ones. The pre-drilled holes are smaller than the headlight diameters. I am sure this is done on purpose, because a snug fit is desirable. I used a drum sander on the Dremel to open up the inner and outer holes.

Front view

The mounting sequence for the adjustment pins are the same. This is pretty easy. One thing I added to my procedure is once I had three adjustment pins mounted and pushed into the inner plastic portion of the headlight bucket, I slathered them with Goop to keep them in place. Once I figured out what I had to do to make this all work, the next three headlights went fairly fast.

Mounted. 

The turn signals are a different story. The signal lens has three ears mounted evenly around the back flange. The manual shows that there is enough room to push/tap the lens into place and use screws to secure the lens to the inner plastic wall of the headlight bucket. NO WAY! There is absolutely no room for one of the ears. It took me a while to figure this one out. Once I cut off one ear and removed a significant chunk of material on the inside opening, I was able to get the turn signal lens into place.

Roof (Sound Proofing)

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Major System Category: Sound/Heat Proofing
Task: Apply sound proofing materials
Parts:
Prerequisite Tasks: Need to be finished with an area
Additional Costs: $100
Time Requirement: On going
Date Started: September 21, 2012
Date Completed: September 21, 2012
Sound proofing the roof is very straight forward. I cut four strips. The first three were a foot wide, the last was around 8 inches wide. I ran them front to back up to the slot for the roof scoop. I had to piece material at the front of the roof where it arches. This took about an hour, and proved worthy of a photo op.

B-Quiet sound proofing applied to the roof.

I'm sitting in the car, working on the sound proof. Notice the Fred Flintstone feet hanging out the bottom. Yaba Dada Doo!

Front/Center Undercarriage Aluminum

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Major System Category: Body (Undercarriage)
Task: Install center aluminum panels in cockpit
Parts:
Prerequisite Tasks: N/A
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 1 hour
Date Started: August 28, 2012
Date Completed: August 28, 2012
I am at the point where, I am planning to drop the body on the chassis. This is a decision driven by budget and funds. The next major purchase is the ISIS power system. This is going to have to wait for another 60 days, before I have enough money put aside for that purchase. The nearly 60% price increase was not anticipated in my budget, and this has thrown a minor wrench in my budget and schedule.

The easiest way to mark this panel is front under the car. Drop the panel into place and start  tracing the  cross members.

I want to finish up the fuel tanks, AC and coolant lines as much as possible before moving into body work. On the subject of fuel tanks, the longer I stand under the car examining the Corvette tanks and the FFR modification, the more convinced I am that they will leak like sieve. So I am opting for the aluminum tanks that do not rely on RTV silicone to hold everything together. I had to get to this point in the build, before I understood the real problems with this approach.

These panels are the ones that rest on the cross member between the foot well and the rear floor pan. They need to be installed before the tunnel aluminum goes into place. As I have installed the rear half of the tunnel aluminum, and I have built the foot well boxes, it seems like it is time to get this done.

Cross members covered by this piece. Orientation: Passenger side cockpit.

The nagging issue for me is how thin this floor piece is.just 1/16" aluminum. This seems a little flimsy.

Lots of rivets! Orientation: Driver's side cockpit.

Coolant Line Routing

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<< Clutch Line Routing                Cockpit/Tunnel Aluminum (rear) >>

Major System Category: AC & Cooling System
Task: Run the hard coolant pipes through the tunnel
Parts:

• Hard coolant pipes
• Corrugated flex pipe
• Spectre 7810 pipe adapter
• Corvette lower radiator hose (to adapt for upper radiator hose)

Prerequisite Tasks: Mount the radiator
Additional Costs: Insulated pipe wrap ($50)
Time Requirement: 60 - 90 minutes
Date Started: August 1, 2012
Date Completed: August 1, 2012
My strategy for the build is to do as much as I can prior to engine install. This is also part of my budget and cash flow strategy. I am 12 to 14 months out from my engine purchase, this means I am going to a number of tasks that terminate with the engine, but will remain incomplete until the engine and accessories are installed. The coolant lines are an example.

This is one of the hard coolant lines wrapped in insulator tape. I zip tied the ends and attached the appropriate connect sleeves. 

Consideration: The hard coolant lines are the main supply and return for engine coolant. This is going to run  through the tunnel. Consider insulating the pipes. I used a wrap that is rated to 1500 degrees. This is probably overkill, but heat is a problem with these cars.

Both wrapped hard coolant lines resting inside the tunnel. Orientation: the engine bay looking forward.

I wrapped the hard coolant lines and zip tied the ends. These pipes take up a fair amount of room in the tunnel. There are a number of other lines that run through the tunnel, including emergency brake cable, soft coolant lines, wiring, cable shift (or control lines for the paddle shift). I have not permanently tied anything down. I want to see how everything lays before installing the insulated clamps.

The 1/2 and 1/4 inch lines connecting into the radiator. This area will get more  crowded as  the AC lines get run.

After the coolant lines are in place, I installed the Spectre 7810 hose adapters on both ends of both pipes. If you don't have a lift, then I suggest installing these prior to placing them in the tunnel.

Lower radiator hose clamped to the radiator and uncut at this point.

The manual specifies the lengths for the front end corrugated flex tubing. I basically, gave myself an extra inch on the front end. There is some wiggle room here. The length requirements on the rear are shorter. I ran the flex tubing through the half moon shapes in the radiator aluminum. 

Coolant line run from the upper radiator to the hard line below.

Consideration: Ensure everything remains below the line of side on the inner wheel wells. The bulb seal for the hood goes on top of the wheel wells.

The item I am missing is the Corvette donor lower radiator hose needed to make an elbow from the driver's side upper radiator connection. A quick couple of clicks on my mouse, and found what I needed at Corvette Salvage. This part showed up a couple of days later. I went ahead and used a Spectre 7810 hose adapter to connect both ends.

Clutch Line Routing

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Major System Category: Transmission
Task: Route clutch line to rear
Parts: Coated clutch line (same as brake line)
Prerequisite Tasks: Install master cylinders
Additional Costs: N/A
Time Requirement: 30 minutes
Date Started: July 30, 2012
Date Completed: July 30, 2012
The clutch line is pretty much the same task as routing the rear brake lines. There were no real issues here. I ran the clutch line all the way to the end of the car. This is one of those tasks that has to wait for the engine/transaxle purchase.

I spray painted the brake line red in a couple of spots. This is my method of keeping things straight. I plan to tag every line running though the tunnel.