Kiwi scratchbuilt

[Russ Noble]

Thanks Dave and Scott.

Have just finished the heat exchanger. It sits across the car in front of the motor and feeds into the intake for the waterpump from the radiator return which runs along the right hand side of the car. The trans fluid runs straight through the centre making it easy to clean out, if necessary. This should maintain trans temp at engine intake temp and means that when warming the motor up in the pits, the trans oil will also warm up. The other 5/8 " intake feeding into the curved waterpipe is the return from the header tank.

Also finished is the scavenge return manifold for the drysump pump. Thanks again to Geoff at Hartz Marine for coming to the party with the alloy welding.

[Molleur]

Beautiful fabrication! Got me thinking dangerously now.

[Russ Noble]

Thanks for the compliment Molleur.

Last night and today's effort. Chop the rear body and modify to clear the gulf spec rear wheels. Basically the existing wheel arch was cut off and remounted to give wheel clearance at max bump. Friday night the top of the arch was glassed in a couple of inches wider and Saturday night I played around with segmenting the front of the righthand arch, as in the first three photos.

That came out well so today the balance of the arches were segmented and taped up in place, held with some plastic strips and glassed up on the inside. Tomorrow night tape and plastic strips will be removed and hopefully all will be well.

The guy from the organising committee for Ruapuna came around last week, checked the car out and gave me an entry form to send in for the Skope SFOS meeting. So at last all good there. Entry for Levels Raceway at Timaru has been officiallyaccepted. So now the pressure is on to be there. I'm not sure there are enough hours in the remaining days.........

But if I get there, the last pic should be the view seen by the other competitors!

[David Sturch]

Russ,
Are you going to do up another mold of the back end with arches in place?
Dave

[Russ Noble]

Dave, yes that was always the plan. There's a bit too much bog and CSM in this one, and the front.... I'll make new molds and run off another lightweight front and rear and keep the current ones as emergency spares.

Progress today has been good. I took the tape and plastic retaining strips off and the flares were smoothed out and bogged up and sanded back. Also some of the cutouts in the rear panels and for the tail lights were done. So far so good, I've still got to do the out turned lip that merges the lower front of the flares into the standard body. Too difficult to do that until I had the rest of the flares properly fixed. Won't have time before 6 Feb to do the matching lip on the sills. That can wait till later.

[David Sturch]

Russ,
Look's good, you guys have nice big shops to work in. I will getting a lathe next and a press. One of my best aquistions was a small 5" Cambell Hausfield orbital sander. I set it up with the Norton Hook and Go. (Velcro Pad) I buy the Norton sanding dics in bulk. They cost a bit more but they last a long time.(Don't gum up) The sander runs about 10,000 RPM and runs smooth compared to the cheaper Chinese units around. I found you can sand more with out your hand going numb. The only drawback it has is that it has no vacume attachment so it is a bit messy. Keep up the good work,
Dave

[Leon]

Hi Russ,
I'm a new member to this site and have been looking at your build log. It goes without saying that impressive doesn't begin to describe what you and Lim have achieved. I'm starting a project to build a Can-Am replica and one of the things I thought I'd better do was find a place to race the thing. My first stop was SCCNZ and they have a class for such things (Super Sport) but were not really keen on a full on Can-Am car competing. So went to HRC and you probabily know the reaction I got from them, although they did put me in touch with Russell Keach, which was great. but reading your thread it would seem there is hope with the "Classic Car" Fraternity, so any help to find out what is involved in getting to that stage in the future will be greatly appreciated. It will be some way off so I will just keep watching your build and and when I have something to post I will start a Build Log of my own.
Keep up the great work, its always good to see the "KIWI CAN DO" attitude on display to the world.
Leonmac.

[Russ Noble]

Leonmac,

By HRC, do you mean the Historic Race Commission of MSNZ?

If so they can be rather obtuse!

My first enquiry to them came back with the reply that the car had to be a "nut and bolt replica, all genuine parts"

When I reiterated that I was building a "Retrospective Special" as defined in the Motorsport Manual and sought further clarification, I was told I could build it, but "it would only be eligible to race with other historic hotrods of it's type" (My emphasis!)

A Retrospective Special must be built using only parts and technology first available in the period it represents, but, IMHO, there is quite a bit of latitude so long as you are complying with the spirit of the regs. If you PM me your email address I will forward the correspondence I had with them.

Once issued with a COD as a Retrospective Special it should be accepted at all classic race meetings in the South Island. Not sure about the North Island though, they've got some funny ideas up there.....

SCCNZ Super Sports is a catch all for anything that doesn't comply with the Sports 2000 regs. I'm sure once you built your car you could race it there, afterall the "catamaran" car doesn't comply with any regs and they let that race! I haven't checked out Super Sport lap times but if my car could do competitive lap times to the top Super Sports cars, I would consider doing that series

All the best with your venture.

[Phil]

Russ;
Awesome looking now that you are fitting the body, those flares look great. I am wondering though when you have time to sleep.
Cheers
Phil

[Russ Noble]

Phil, the body is a bit of a mission and is taking much too long. At times I descend into the depths of despair! I really need to have the body fitting nicely and all the numerous chassis brackets totally finished in the next few days to have any hope of meeting the deadline. Sleep is something I need more of, and I don't work very well under pressure, particularly when sleep deprived.

Nevertheless, I continue to make progress due in no small measure to the help of those around me. I am fortunate in having good friends who provide moral and practical support when I get overwhelmed by the task and the time frame.

Some more alloy fabrication is completed today, water header tank, water swirlpot, and fuel surge/reservoir/de-aeration tank. The surge tank mounted directly on and feeding into the regulator. Leon helped out with some of this.

[Phil]

Russ:
Just joking with you a bit, but the work looks great and I envy your commitment to staying on the case. I can identify with the fact that sometimes it looks overwhelming, I am just starting to fit my body, and the fun is just beginning. Sometimes I look at the whole project and wonder where to start, but I try to do a little each day even if its just setting some rivets or whatever to keep the momentum.
I look forward to seeing your posts, keep up the excellent work.
Cheers
Phil

[Russ Noble]

Last night was another late one. Amongst other things, I made a start on altering the front clip to single nostril. Lim mounted up the fuel swirl tank and water header tank and started on the seat belt mounts and bonnet pin mounts.

[Russ Noble]

Another massive day today has brought me back on target for SFOS. The schedule for this coming week entails cleaning and painting and skinning the chassis. There were lots of partially welded brackets etc which prior to commencement of painting would need final welding first. They have generally all been done today. There are still seat belt mounts, fuel tank mounts and mounts for the fibreglass sills and a handful of other brackets etc, as well as some extra diagonal braces yet to be done. Completing those is going to be tomorrows project. That'll be the chassis finished and I'll put it on the scales. Today I also continued with glassing in the nostril.

Ruapuna, only three weeks out from the event, have finally accepted my entry for the Skope SFOS meeting and allocated me my requested race number 40.

Chassis back up on the table this morning and Lim is wondering where we should start first.....

Space is pretty tight between the sump and the trans adaptor plate and I had to modify the crossmember to provide clearance to the sump.

Lastly, flow restrictor to replace thermostat and housing ready to go.

[Leon]

Hi Russ
Thanks for that info on the COD papers, Looks like an interesting process and I think the HRC (Historic Racing Club) is different to the "Comision" you are referring to as the names in that list of officials were not the same guys I spoke to. these guys are the Club based in Auckland that have bought back the F5000s and say they cater to all Historic single seat/sports/Can-Am racing cars.
The SFOS is not as far away as I,m shore you would like it to be so I won't bother you and Let you get on with the task ahead, I will be watching your progress with interest and if I lived a little closer I would offer a hand or two.
Good luck. Leon

[Russ Noble]

Two Leons! That's confusing. Leonmac and Haroo. Leon (Haroo) has been helping me on the car a night or two a week lately. Lim has been there every night. The last few nights we have been working on average until 2 am but tonight we were all finished by about 11pm.

Something of a red letter day, the construction of the spaceframe has finally been completed with all the bracketry added! So time to relax a little and contemplate. But only for a little while!

I put the chassis on the scales as pictured complete with front and rear subframes and it came in at 125kg or 275lbs. About 10kg heavier than planned, but includes the rollcage, so not too bad.

Pic 1 - Lim and Leon hard at work.
Pic 2 - The big moment, doing the last weld!
Pic 3 - Chassis rear view
Pic 4 - Chassis side view
Pic 5 - Chassis front view
Pic 6,7,8 - Chassis from different angles
Last pic - Camera mounts in middle of rollbar flanked by shoulder harness mounts.

I'm hoping to get some good race footage of Ross' car in action. Question is, 'do I have the camera facing forwards or facing back?'

Should get the chassis painted tomorrow and make a start skinning it. So far, so good

[Straight 8 Racing]

Russ,

Point the Camera out the side, it is less provacative than out the back and less optomistic than out the front. You also get to see the expression on Ross's face as

1. You pass him
2. He passes you


Either way good luck with the closing stages of the build. Regarding the heat exchangers we have purchased two leaf blowers which we hook up to the side air scoops with flexible ducts to move some air around the inside of the rear clip whilst we warm up engine & gear box in the pits.

Iain

[Maurice Butler]

Originally Posted by Russ Noble

I put the chassis on the scales as pictured complete with front and rear subframes and it came in at 125kg or 275lbs. About 10kg heavier than planned, but includes the rollcage, so not too bad.

did you allow for the weight of the welding rod on your plan?
something has to hold all that steel together.

Impressive

[kiwi ka]

Russ
A couple of quickwords of encouragement, nobody ever said it would be easy and the feeling when it becomes a complete entity is awsome. Looking at your chassis and well you know the efforts put in to achieve, its almost sobering seeing what it all boils down to, a pretty expensive bird cage. Looking forward to catching up on race day.
Great effort all round.
Cheers

[Russ Noble]

Originally Posted by Iain Pretty

Russ,

Point the Camera out the side, it is less provacative than out the back and less optomistic than out the front. You also get to see the expression on Ross's face as

1. You pass him
2. He passes you


Either way good luck with the closing stages of the build. Regarding the heat exchangers we have purchased two leaf blowers which we hook up to the side air scoops with flexible ducts to move some air around the inside of the rear clip whilst we warm up engine & gear box in the pits.

Iain

Good advice on the camera Iain!

Leaf blowers!? I might just use a bit of kiwi ingenuity and open the rear clip! Sorry, I'm just a poor low tech country boy.......


Ah, Maurice, it's always the obvious that gets overlooked!! And thanks for the offer of the carport for Ruapuna and Levels That will make life so good for Ross and me.

Russell, I will look forward to catching up again. Have you got your car entered?

Thanks for the encouragement all you guys

We painted the chassis today. Satan black! A special brew Scott would be proud of......

First pic. An action shot of Mike, an old hot rodder from way back, who is just putting the final touches to the masking tape so I can bond my panels to a nice clean metal surface.

My driveshafts arrived today, just in the nick of time I would say..... A wee bit of a saga. Dans Performance Parts is an online store for sandrails etc. I think their products are good but their communications are crap! But I could be wrong!!!!!

As I was time challenged and they weren't replying to my requests for airfreight shipment, I decided to get them sent to Bill Musarra who would then post them off quickest option to me. One snag, Dans will only ship to the billing address on the credit card so Bill graciously accepted my suggestion that he buy them and forward them on to me.

Since it was Bill's credit card, and I wasn't sure how good the driveshafts were, I got him to buy two pair, as I plan on giving this thing death and didn't want to be sidelined by twisted off driveshafts! I have no worries about the 930, only the driveshafts, but they look nice and are well machined and are supposed to be from 4340, and the price was right. Probably made in China.......

Well, there's still a lot to be done and not much time. All the pieces in the jigsaw are coming together nicely. One of my NZ suppliers, who shall remain anonymous, has yet to send an item promised for this time last year! No doubt when the summer thaw strikes Gore in a day or two, there will be furious action!!!

[Dave Deerson]

I had the same issue with Dan's.My shop is only on the other side of town from my house,and the UPS delivery times are unpredictable to residences.I always get my shop packages the same time each day.Even though the billing address and the delivery address are the same zip code(and just a few blocks apart!) he would not fill the order. I used Makenzie's Offroad in Calif. instead,they had the same 300m shafts. I also had purchased the HD 930 C/Vs from them earlier on in the build.
Chassis looks great,don't get tired yet! There is still alot more to do,but this is the best part of it as all the bits go back on for good.Also the bits are nice and clean/painted. I know what you are up against,I built my car up from a bare chassis to running on track in 6 weeks last summer. So I know about long hours in the shop and not turning the lights off to go home until the sky starts to get lighter. Then wake up and go at it again!!!!

Dave D.