Roaring Forties #36 - Mark Worthington's GT40

[Mark Worthington]

Thanks, Pat. I'd love to see a similar set of pictures documenting your build. Seems to me you're doing one hell of a nice job.

BTW, everyone, my inspiration for replacing the suspension fasteners with AN hardware came from a thread Pat started on this site. And from Carroll Smith, of course. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[John Schneider]

Damn you Mark.
That car looks great. I was going to post pictures of my RF but now I have to wait until your thread gets buried in the treads a bit.
Don't want anyone laughing at me you know [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]
John

[Hershal Byrd]

Awhaa Shucks Mark ! Now I won't be able to wear a hat for three days.... Thanks for the kind words. I can't say enough about your family and the hospitality I recieved from them . But you know what, Luke is cool. I mean he rally is a cool kid. Tell him I Hi for me and I can't wait til you guys get here for your visit.

Pat, I had an equal experience at your home. Please tell the clan I say Hi! I got a kick out of buying all them tools for your project, especially the air compressor. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
John, you got nothing to be ashamed about, You're car is going to be great as long as you don't paint it one of them hidious colors you been talkin' about.. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
I have really enjoyed being a part of each and every one of your builds and meeting your families. I do these things just for that reason. I'm glad I'm able to help all you guys and I look forward to helping anyone else that needs it. The deal is the same..Just get me there and give me a place to sleep and I'm glad to help. Believe me, It's because I enjoy doing it.

Hersh [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Ron Earp]

Hershal,

you truly are a great assest to the community!! I don't know anyone else that would go to such lengths to help fellows out with getting the cars done - traveling all around and staying in remote locations. I for one appreciate it and thanks for all the help you and Robert have given.

John, I'm with you. I'll wait for this thread to go down a bit before posting pics of mine! [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img] Actually, the thing that keeps me from posting pics is that fact Julie controls the digital camera around here as I don't have the software to download the photos!

R

[Hershal Byrd]

These kinds of posts are always the hardest to answer. Ron, I honestly am doing what I luv to do. I believe in Robert's product enough to help those that bought his kits. You would have to know about the way kits were percieved years ago to understand. I personally see where Robert came from and did what most others have not been able to do. He is a GT40 enthusiast first and has experienced the ups and downs of building shoddy kits. because of this he has taken the challenge of building something that can be finished and reliably used. I was elated to say the least when I saw his kit for the first time. Something that I had never seen before, a kit that was complete and required no fabrication on the builders behalve. When I took delivery of my kit I was like a kid on Chritmas morning, I worked on that kit everyday almost and I never cussed it. It went together fast. I completed it in under 8 months.
I must have been doing something that Robert liked as he asked me to be his Distributor for North America back in August. I took the position because I new I could help more customers and make some new friends. I honestly look at you guys as family and you all know you're welcome to come out here to visit.
Not only do I have the RF family but I also have GT40s forum members as family. This site and the people on it are what it's all about for me. We may disagree on some things but I still think we have to many other things in common. I learn everyday from this site . The UK guys are great and I'm always stealing some of thier ideas. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
I can't wait to go visit over there so I can put some faces to the names. The samething is true about the Ozzies. They are truly a happy bunch and I will hopefully get the chance to go down there and meet them.
The thing I want to see the most is an event where we all will be able to bring our GT's and have a good time!

Hersh [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[HILLY]

Hersh,

Be sure to visit North Queensland when you make the trip to OZ. I am sure that we can arrange a bed and breakfast and even a spot of fishing on the Great Barrier Reef.
If it was around the new year you may even be roped into fitting body panels on RF 083 [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Hershal Byrd]

Thanks Peter for the invite. I certainly wouldn't mind
doing a little work on your panels for some fishing. I luv to fish. I go to Key West Florida every year just to go fishing.
I have plans to visit Australia in the new year. I will post when I know the dates.

Hersh [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[cobra1]

If any one else has trouble of finding/relocating holes in panels when replacing or reworking panels I have access to what we in the Aircraft Manufacturing buisness call hole finders. They are made to pickup existing holes and to drill in replacement panels.
Thanks
Nathan [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]

[Jools]

Nathan please tell us more? When re-building my GTD,I spent many an hour with various pieces of cardboard,tracing paper...Blu-Tack! trying to find the existing holes.If you know of a funky gadget to help with this you must let us know...occasionally when racing, exuberance overcomes ability and we have need to " modify " the existing body work!!

[Ron Earp]

You can make a simple thing that does this. Take a strap of aluminum, about 6"x1" and hold it in half so you have a 3"x1". Drill a rivet sized hole through both pieces near the end of the "open" end. Put a rivet in one of these holes, and leave the one on top of it open. Now, if you put the rivet into a hole the other piece can overlap on your work piece and you can use a punch or pencil to mark where this hole should be. I'd shoot a picture of it if I could get the camera working.
R

[Mark Worthington]

[ QUOTE ]
You can make a simple thing that does this. Take a strap of aluminum, about 6"x1" and hold it in half so you have a 3"x1". Drill a rivet sized hole through both pieces near the end of the "open" end. Put a rivet in one of these holes, and leave the one on top of it open. Now, if you put the rivet into a hole the other piece can overlap on your work piece and you can use a punch or pencil to mark where this hole should be. I'd shoot a picture of it if I could get the camera working.
R

[/ QUOTE ]

The device Ron described is shown in pictures 4 and 5 in this thread.

[Mark Worthington]

As promised, the next few posts are some pictures of the Gulf flares that we installed yesterday. I was fortunate enough to enlist the help of our own Datonabill, AKA Bill Hough. Bill has been doing fiberglass work on race cars since I was a kid, and he did the molds for the FFR Daytona coupe. It sure is nice to have expert assistance of this sort.

Here we have test fitted the fender flare, temporarily held it in place with three clecos, used a sharpie to mark the outline of the part on the rear clip, drilled holes from the inside out to define the location of internal bulkheads, and used a jigsaw to cut the old part out of the car.

[Mark Worthington]

Here's a comparison of the fender flare we cut out and the new Gulf flare.

[Mark Worthington]

After some sanding of the opening in the rear clip to neaten things up, we put the flares back on with clecos and some body putty. After the putty dried we removed the clecos and Bill went to work with more sanding in preparation for fiberglassing. Note how bill has feathered the edge of the flare where it meets the rear clip; he has also "dished out" the rear clip such that there is a shallow trough at the flare-clip junction into which fiberglass mat will be laid.

[Mark Worthington]

And this is the result of our day's work, after Bill had laid up the exterior fiberglass. He used torn strips of mat cloth and vinyl ester resin. He also wetted the mat cloth on cardboard and placed the wetted strips onto the car, rather than wetting dry strips on the car. I've done fiberglass work before, but I learned a lot from Bill.

[Mark Worthington]

Remember that Daytona coupe I told you about, and how Bill is the guy who did the molds for FFR? Well, here's a picture of Bill's car in my yard. We kept the nice cars (Bill's Daytona coupe and my M3) well away from the garage because we kicked up a serious amount of fiberglass dust. I was able to relate to Bill a trick that Hershal Byrd taught us here on the forum...the use of a leaf blower to clean out a dusty garage in a hurry. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] Now I'm going to go use that blower to get rid of a few million leaves in my yard. No GT40 for me today!

[HILLY]

WOW Mark, their big. You will need some serious rubber to fill those holes. What size were you planning on using??.

[Mark Worthington]

I'm using 315/35/17 Goodyear F1 tires on custom 11-inch wide 17-inch BRM replica wheels out back. One of my "some day" projects, to be undertaken after the car is complete, would be to order a set of "track" wheels which would be 12-inch wide CCWs equipped with 335/30/17 tires.

[patbarry]

Good looking little project there.