Howard B's RCR 40

[Howard B]

Getting Started

June 19, 2008

Tools:
Shop manuals
Reynolds freezer paper
Water soluble marker pens
Painters blue masking tape (1 and 2 inch)
Resources:
All you guys who have built RCR 40s, Chuck and Ryan, Ron McCall, Mark Reid, Rob (Vintage Venom), Dean Lampe, Keith Wilson in Huntsville, Bill D, Tom in Germany, Chris Kouba, Ron Earp for starting GT40s.com, Fran, the guys and Casey at RCR for a putting out a great car, and every other guy building that has shared their excitement of the build on this forum. I have probably read them all and can’t remember all of your names. Please don’t feel slighted. It’s your inspirational posts that fuel my passion for the build of my own project. I just wish you all lived in my neighborhood so we could cruise together.

Notes:

Before I got started on the build I created a shop manual that was comprised of the manual provided by RCR and notes and other build tips from every other builder doing an RCR 40 build. These are great for tracking progress and writing notes in the margins to remind me of tasks left incomplete or to mark changes and discrepancies. Thanks most appreciatively to all you RCR 40 builders for making all this possible.

When a task is finished I mark it in the shop manual so I always have an idea on what is left to be done.

I ordered my chassis powder coated and to keep it relatively clean and minimize scratches during the build I lined most of the surfaces with “Reynolds Freezer Paper”. This can be purchase in any grocery store. I taped it to the chassis using the low glue content “3M Painters Masking Tape”. I put the plastic side down against the powder coat. It provides a number of advantages:
·Protects the powder coat from scratches
·Creates a writing surface for calculations and placement of parts
·Creates a reference point for exact marks for the placing of panels and accessories
·Can easily be removed and replaced when damaged
·Record the location of hidden parts on the back sides of chassis walls to remind you where not to drill in any location
·Saves marking and removing the markings made directly on the chassis
·You can cut and drill directly through the paper
You get the picture.

[Howard B]

I consider myself a novice since this is the first I car I have attempted to put together. I am attempting to do 95% of the build by myself using everyday tools. I don’t own a lathe or welder. I am using an engine builder to assemble and balance my engine from parts I have collected and friends help with other tasks I am not skilled enough to accomplish myself. Thanks to all you guys for helping me out.

These are pictures of day one at RCR. Fran is putting the baby blanket wrap on the car for the ride home.

[Allen English]

Congratulations on the RCR 40 - Have you decided on a color yet? What trans axle and power plant are you going with?

[Howard B]

Body Prep Work Begins

Week 1

Tools:
Jig saw with variable speed
3M Block sanders
Wood block sander
Butterfly hole saws
Hole saws
Drum sanders ½ “and 1 ½ “
Dremel tool
Electric variable speed
Hack saw
Small hand hacksaw
Vacuum cleaner (5 hp) with the large filter
Belt sander
Dry Erase Marker pens and pencils
Flat and half round rasp file.

Supplies:
Sand paper of various grits (60, 80, 100)
Dust masks
Jig saw blades

Procedure:

1.Mark out cuts before you begin to sand and hack away. Leave enough room for finish sanding.
2.Cut out the heat and vent intake openings on the back clip. Starting by drilling corner openings with the hole saws on the drill.
3.Use which ever cutting tool works for you best, the jig saw did a lot of the straight line grunt work cuts, other saws and sanders were used for corner work. It is pretty straight forward.
4.I use the belt sander to quickly dial in the cuts to the marked lines on the long straights. It is a variable speed belt sander and the slower speed work best for control. The trick is to avoid removing to much material.
5.As everyone before me knows this creates a lot of dust, therefore my vacuum cleaner is always on and dust control is of high priority. I either hold the vacuum nozzle or prop it to capture as much dust as possible. I clean the filter frequently. I have several filters I can use and clean them later. Even with the vacuum cleaner on fine dust escapes and settles when you walk out. I continually do cleaning runs in the garage. I guess I should break done and farm this part out. Nahhh! That wouldn’t be any fun.
6.Smooth sand all the molding seams. This is not a hard job since the RCR seems are quite small compared to other kit cars I’ve seen. Be careful not to sand flat spots into the round contours at the peaks of the rounds. Filling divots should be a breeze.
7.I used the small drum sanders in the round corners on the electric drill to have more control when I got it close to the stopping lines. I used the dremel tool and small drum sander to knock off lumps and irregular spots and burs. I suggest you use the tools you are most comfortable with.
8. I used the file and sanding blocks for more sharply define spots.


Time required: Lots of hours spent over several days and weekends, and there is still more to be done. I do this job when I have a little time to kill or I am thinking of other solutions for the car. This has nothing to do with body alignment.
Total: At least 36 – 48 hours easily.

[Howard B]

Hi Allen,
I thought I would sneak in and place some posts while folks were sleeping.
To answer your questions: Color is still up in the air, I like the classic Gulf colors, midnight blue, or the other color scheme on my shop manual, Grabbre orange and dark orange, with white meat balls like on my Parnelli Jones 302.

The engine is a new Boss 302, stroked to 327, with the Dynatek EFI.

Should be a hot car.

[Howard B]

Allen,
Oh yeah, add in a ZF!

[Fran Hall RCR]

Who's sleeping.??..too busy reading your posts...

[Howard B]

Body Alignment

Tools:
Jig saw with variable speed
3M Block sanders
Wood block sander
Drum sanders ½ “and 1 ½ “
Dremel tool
Electric variable speed
Vacuum cleaner (5 hp) with the large filter
Belt sander
Dry Erase Marker pens and pencils
Flat and half round rasp file.

Supplies:
Sand paper of various grits (60, 80, 100)
Dust masks

I read and attempted to follow the consolidated body alignment hints/practices that Chuck composed on this forum in Chuck and Ryan’s build. I read every RCR40 alignment posts under the sun. Thanks one and all for posting what you did and how you did it. In the end I was still left with doing the job…myself. It required the patience everyone spoke of, thankfully I am a patient guy. It still took oodles of time. I lost track and I am still tweeking the job. This job was done after initial measuring and sanding of the rear clip to “get’r close”.

I didn’t do wheel alignment first since the rocker panels are all the way back to the chassis I could not see the point and didn’t personally have the ability.

Procedure:

1.Align rocker panels first.
2.I placed blue 3M painters tape along the top edges of the rocker panels.
3.I measured out where the feet (in front of the doors) of the front clip should end once aligned with the front edge of the rocker panels.
4.I marked those points out on the tape as “starting” reference points. These are close to given measures which should not change or change very little.
5.Next I measured out the width of the base of the doors and added those to the marks on the tape, starting an extra 1/8 inch from the front clip foot mark. This too should not change, but maybe very small amount for sanding.
6.Next the same was done for the “B” pillars of the spider. These are a constant width. Again the gap space was marked on the tape first then the width of the “B” pillar.
7.The space left over is for the rear clip and the last panel gap behind the spider. “It is what it is”, no marking required.
8.I locked down the rocker panels to have a secure starting following the measurements for the width in the RCR assembly guide.
9.Instead of a prop bar inside the spider to support the spider from sag (I kept knocking it out, and I got a little irritated with continually putting it back.) I took some cedar shims and wedged them between the spider and roll cage. It took some experimenting to get it right but the problem went away quickly after that.
10.With the spider and rockers secured (Thanks for the hint Mark Reid) I moved to understanding how the front bobbins worked in relationship to the front clip, spider and rockers. After several hours of monkeying around the front clip position was becoming perfected in relationship to the rockers, spider and subsequently the doors, which I had set in place with the weather strip installed.
11.I marked the bobbins with a Sharpie and the top of the aluminum wall they are perched on for a return reference point.
12. The doors did not align properly because they weren’t hinged in place, just riding the weather strip.
13.As an experiment I released the rocker panels to move freely in and out. I discovered with the front clip alignment pins holding the foot of the clip in place, moving the rocker out only slightly I could closely align the door with the rocker and still maintain proper clip alignment. I use some painters tape on the door tops to stabilized their position in the door openings. Happy days!
14.The clip was brushing tightly against the spider with a goofy gap between them. I release the spider and allowed it to move freely unattached to the chassis in the front. With a slight adjustment to the spider all was corrected. I marked the new spider location and set it in place with the screws. Life is good!
15.The back pillars of the spider were temporarily secured for fit with screws and a shim on the left side to accommodate the oddity of the rear clip being slightly too high on that side.
16.The rear clip was aligned and posted in another script

Time required: Lots of hours spent over several days and weekends, and there are still more fine adjustment to be done.
Total: At least 36 – 48 hours of thinking and working time. I know if I do another car, I’ll be ready and cut the job by at least 15 minutes next time!

[Howard B]

Fran,
Don't you get enough of this stuff all day long?
Cheers,

[EGLITOM]

Howard

well done on the alignment

TOM

[Howard B]

Thanks Tom.
You are one of the inspirational guys whose build I have been following. I wish I had you skills my friend!

I have written my posts so they can be highlighted with a mouse and copied to an MS Word document. Folks can build their own shop manuals cut and paste other great tips from these build logs into their manuals, such as yours.

I have got to head out to work,

Later,

[Chuck]

Howard: Your seams are looking good! If you can do that body alignment job you can do anything . . . .

Chuck

[Keith]

Howard,
Welcome to the Build Section. Nice work on the body fitting, it has really been the most challenging part for me and I am not done yet.
Keith

[Howard B]

Thanks guys, but I am not quite there and need to make some adjustments! Patience is the key.

I have twenty four items already written with fotos. If find them verbose I need you guys to speak up and I will shorten the descriptions.

Later,

[Allen English]

Howard,

From talking with others that have the DynaTek system is the way to go for sure and is the same system I have on my motor. The paint scheme is the hardest choice to make I think, heck they all look so good in most any color combo. Keep the post coming....

[Howard B]

Switch Plate Design and Mounting

Week 4

Tools:
Straight edged tin snips
Pencil
Scissors
Tape measure
Work-mate work bench
Body hammer
Straight edge
Oak board for shaping the plate
Jig saw (variable speed)
Sanding block
Small drum sander
Electric drill (variable speed)
Hole saw
Drill bits

Supplies:

Construction paper
Brushed aluminum sheet (approx. 1/16 in. thick with protective plastic cover)
Button head hex screws with nylok nuts(forgot to write the size down)

Commentary
I studied different switch plates from other builds and from pictures of original cars. I had a hard time making my mind up and chose a brushed aluminum switch plate. It is not fancy but still attractive to the eye. If I don’t like it I can easily design and build another and swap it out. I also didn’t like the flat look of some of the switch plates I had studied in other cars close up. The RCR dash panel is not quite flat. It has a slight round to it that looks comfortable. I liked the contour. Intuitively to me it seems to visually fit the dash and the themes of the car. I chose to try capturing the subtle round in the switch panel. You may not see it in the pictures, but you can see it mounted in the car.

Procedure:

1.I followed the RCR build manual with some exceptions.
2.I marked out the switch panel cuts in the dash and performed those tasks.
3.I rough cut construction paper into the shape and size of both switch panels using the straight edge, pencil and scissors.
4.Lay the construction paper into the switch panel areas to trace out the corner rounds (oxymoron?) and get the proper sizing for fine cutting the construction paper mock-ups.
5.Test fit the finished construction paper switch panels to the dash.
6.I purchased sheet aluminum from the local sheet metal shop to complete the job and had some left over since I bought it out of their scrap bin. If they have to cut it off a fresh sheet it costs more. This may differ at different shops, but I live in the big city. The price was $12 and change.
7.Lay the mock-up paper switch plate on the aluminum in the correct direction, sunny side up. Trace it out on the aluminum and use as much of the factory edges as possible to limit your own cutting requirements. No, I don’t have a sheet metal break. Making nice cuts is a nice challenge. Trace out the panels on to the aluminum for cutting. Note, the aluminum doesn’t bend as quickly and nicely as the construction paper and requires more radius material to make the bend in the dash so add approximately 1/8 inch +/- to the sides of the switch plate pattern. I found this out after the fact but it is only noticeable to me and if I pointed it out to others.
8.Measure where the front round peak on the switch plate begins on the top side and ends on the bottom side. Use the construction paper mock-up to mark these points on both sides of the dash panels. A tick mark will do the trick and transfer these to the corresponding place on the aluminum sheet.
9.Using the BD Work-mate as a vice I shaped the switch plates gradually coercing bends length wise between the tick marks on each side tom form a rounded 90 degree bend for the main bend radius.
10.Then I shape the flats of the plates in a similar manner with less definition.
11.Trial fit the plates to the dash.
12. Sand and file the edges smooth.
13.Mark and drill out the attaching point holes. Set the panels in place on the dash. Drill through the holes in the dash and attach with the screws.

Time required: 12 hours

[Howard B]

Allen,
After speaking to Dean Lampe and you I think the EFI is a good choice.
As for the color scheme I have been waffling. You are right they all look good.

Chuck,
I feel I can do anything after the third and fourth try!
Like the paint on your car.

Howard

[Howard B]

More pics of the body prep work, cutting holes and making gaps. The body work has been quite time consuming, just like everyone else has mentioned. I must say it's not as bad as doing pointless tasks at work, at least in the end you will have a GT40! I can't say the same for some of the grunt work at my other job.

[Howard B]

More gaps...

[Craig White]

Sensational Posts Howard.

Boy your not mucking around.

Thank you very much for posting your build progress. I will be watching it progress with interest.