Keith's RCR GT40 Mk I Build

Chuck

Supporter
Congrats Keith! Now the fun starts sorting out all the details . . Just in time for spring. Took me about six months to get the registration process completed (Illinois). Hopefully it wont be as long in your state.
 

Keith

Lifetime Supporter
Thanks everyone for the kind words.
It appears the sun will shine again Sunday so I hope to get out in it again and maybe get some video.
After talking to Fran I have decided to install the rear window that he provided. I ordered the nutserts today and i hope to get it fit this weekend.
Now to decide on the rear view mirror........
Keith
 

Keith

Lifetime Supporter
I took the Gt40 to a car show this weekend sponsored the local Vette club. I am still working the vin/registration process so I don't have a license tag yet but this show was less than four miles from my house and accessable from "back roads".

A friend offered to follow close behind in my Cobra so away we went........ The trip was pretty uneventful except for the part where I decided to turn on the AC. I had charged and tested the AC during the build but I had not had it on since the body was painted. The first blast of cool air brought enough sanding dust with it to make me look like a snowman. It looked like a powdered sugar donut had exploded in my face!

The GT40 was surrounded by people from the time I parked it to the time we left. We had to move people away just to get some photos. The car drove well, handled well and was a BLAST to drive. I can't wait to get it out on the road and get the speedo calibrated.

And yes, taking home trophies from a Vette show is fun too...........

Keith
 

Attachments

  • GT40 454.jpg
    GT40 454.jpg
    142 KB · Views: 2,274
  • GT40 460.jpg
    GT40 460.jpg
    139.3 KB · Views: 1,331

Randy V

Moderator-Admin
Staff member
Admin
Lifetime Supporter
Nice work Keith!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

On the dust though.... Geeze I just about choked thinking about it!!!:stunned:

Hopefully not too much fiberglass dust....
 

Keith

Lifetime Supporter
It has been some time since I last posted. As I need some floor space in my shop for a new project I decided to install a four post lift so I could "stack" cars in the garage.
I wanted to back the cars in and did not want to get help each time I did so I installed a hoist on the wall behind the lift so I could just hook up a cable and pull the cars either on the lift or in under the lift.
I know it looks a little odd but it really works well............

Yes, I do drive the GT40, I like everything about it except hauling my 250 pound body out of the car................after a year I believe I will never find a way to gracefully exit.

I the past year or so since I have been driving the car I have made only one modification. I modified the fuel tank vent/roll over valves with barb fittings so that they vent through a piece of fuel line routed inside the rocker panels under the car. When they vented up by the fuel fillers I could sometimes smell fuel inside the car under hard deceleration. With the valves venting under the car that does not happen.
Keith
 

Attachments

  • DSC01677.JPG
    DSC01677.JPG
    152.5 KB · Views: 1,214
  • DSC01675.JPG
    DSC01675.JPG
    140.1 KB · Views: 1,111
  • DSC01676.JPG
    DSC01676.JPG
    134.6 KB · Views: 1,038

Dwight

RCR GT 40 Gulf Livery 347 Eight Stack injection
I am going to give a little update on Keith and I hope he does not mind.

Keith retired in Jan.
Bought himself a retirement present, CNC milling machine. He is staying busy make stuff out of aluminum.

A couple of days ago he came over and did a four wheel alignment on my GT 40. He did in a couple of hours what I could not do in weeks!

Thanks Keith

As he was leaving he asked if I wanted him to machine the parts for inside door release handles. Of course the answer was yes.

Keith is a great guy and has been a lot of help on my build.

Dwight
 

Keith

Lifetime Supporter
Well it has been a long time since I have fired up my GT40. I have been helping Dwight a couple of days a week getting his GT40 ready for the paint shop so we though it was about time to get mine out of the garage and into my shop.
We rolled it out last Thursday and pumped the seven year old gas out of the right tank and added five gallons of new gas. The optima battery had been on a tender for ten years and still had power so we turned on the fuel pump gave the throttle a couple of quick pumps and turned the key. It started and ran without a hiccup. (Dwight took a video but I was unable to get it to post)
Drove it down to my shop and took a couple of photos, the old gal looks pretty good.IMG_2588.jpgIMG_2587.jpg
I have a few items to do before I get it on the road, the left fuel sender did not work but I took it out and exercised it and clean it up and it now works fine, I am adding a blue tooth backup camera, I am adding a polished aluminum radiant heat shield on the underside of the rear clip above the engine; and lastly I am going to replace the wiper system with a one piece marine type unit as the one I installed during the build has never worked properly (the cable drive skipping over the wheel house gear when he wiper is under load).
Other than changing fluids and a really good clean and polish it should be road worthy.
Dwight is insisting that I add the cooling fans to the engine compartment with a timer as others have done to their RCR's, still undecided if I will do that or not.
I hope to post a few photos of the mods over the next few days.
 

Keith

Lifetime Supporter
In my previous post I mentioned that the original wiper system had worn out the plastic gear drive (wheel box). To effect a permanent fix I removed the old system and installed a Wexco marine wiper motor that eliminated the need for the cable, tubes and wheel box. The hole in the spider had to be enlarged from 1/2" to 5/8" and an aluminum spacer was machined (1" OD and 5/8 ID) approximately 2.150" to space the 3" motor shaft to my spider. I cut the wire pigtail from the old system and wired it into the new motor so it was just a "plug an play" with my existing wiring. The bracket on the rear of the motor has to be bent/ twisted to make it parallel with the upper bulkhead you can visualize the bend necessary by putting the wiper shaft in the hole in the spider from the top then look to see how much bend you will need on the bracket. Once I got the bend on the tab correct I drilled a 1/4 hole in the upper bulkhead and used a 1/4-20 bolt 2.5" long along with a 3/4 OD and 1/4 ID spacer to fill the gap between the bulkhead and the bracket and a nylock nut.
I had to order a new wiper arm as the marine wiper motor has a special size drive but there are several vendors out there selling the Wexco wiper arms.
IMG_2604.jpgIMG_2603.jpgIMG_2602.jpg
 

Keith

Lifetime Supporter
One of the things that has always bothered me when looking at the interior of my car has been the 2.5" open holes in the sides of the cable shifter box. I had a thought yesterday that those holes may look a lot better with some polished aluminum covers. I had enough 3" diameter aluminum bar to make them IMG_2618.jpgIMG_2613.jpgIMG_2612.jpg
so I turned two on the lathe and polished them. A few little dabs clear RTV holds them in place.
Keith
 

Keith

Lifetime Supporter
One of the other items that I had thought about but never completed was a shift pattern indicator. I have looked at a lot of different shift knobs with the shift pattern on them but they all looked like they did not belong in the GT40, and, I was sort of partial to the shift knob I made.
I had a little time yesterday so I wrote a NC program to engrave a plate with a shift pattern. My original intent was to polish an aluminum plate and engrave it then fill in the engraving with black paint. My proof part was a piece of aluminum with gloss paint. After testing several fonts, this one appeared to be the most readable.IMG_2621.jpgIMG_2622.jpg
Seeing how good this one looked on the car I went with it and did not make the polished aluminum one.
Keith
 
Back
Top