Keith Baker's Southern gt on the build

[Keith Baker]

The ZFQ gear assembly and rod is covered by a removable aluminium cover, once cleaned up it should smarten it up.
The cills will be fitted with ally trims to give an original look.
I thought I might be held up waiting for the engine but after making a list of outstanding jobs, realised I have tons to do.

[Keith Baker]

Started putting the body together yesterday just as a trial fit.
I may have to move the radiator back about 10mm as the bracketry touches the rad and I still may need to get the front back a bit more.
Removed the rear uprights as the wheel bearings seem a bit tight, I'm going down to SGT early in the week to sought these out.
Also collecting the long awaited AP brakes.
Air con engineer is coming tommorrow to crimp the hoses to the fittings that would be hard to get to as things progress.
It's getting tight for space now, will probably need to start laying upside down in the cockpit soon, fond memories of back aches.

[Keith Baker]

Went to SGT today and picked up the AP brakes & a few bits.
As regards to the drives being to bit tight, Mick stripped them and after a few measurements decided to add 4 thin shims to reduce the preload on the rear upright bearings.
By all accounts the front bearings are shimmed a bit but the backs usually not
The one advantage of this is that if the bearings wear or settle over time a shim can be removed easily.
These John Wisher / SGT uprights are well made.
Pics of the AP Brakes will follow when I have put them together.
I think Mick @ SGT would prefer a little more time to make the parts I need as things move along quite quickly.
' A little pressure wont do him any harm '

[Mark]

Stop pressuring them Keith, I need them to focus on my parts! LOL

Seriously though, I am so impressed with John Wisher and Mick Sollis.

Very impressed with your progress. Keep up the good work.

[Keith Baker]

Hi Mark, I think I stole all your parts while I was there.

' Joking '

[Keith Baker]

Brakes collected and decided to trial fit.
Had a small problem but easily rectified. The machined tolerances for the brake bells were so tight that no allowance had been made for the 6 drive pins and the centre of the drive shaft. A small modification was carried out.
The hole diameters were 12.75 mm thereabouts so I drilled them out to 13mm and finished the drive pin holes with scotch brite on a mandrel, the result was that they slipped over the pins with only interferance fit. The centre was then put on my lathe and a couple of thou was machines off.
Still a snug fit and they went on a treat. Mick at SGT agreed that he was going to have a little more free play machined into them in future.
As for the rear Brembo hand brakes they to were out of alignment slightly and I will be making a new steel bracket for brembo to upright as I think SGT's alloy one needs beafing up.
I will make some stainless spacers to suit in the next few days.
All in all they there very good.

[Keith Baker]

Started to put the body on today, when I last built a GTD 40 back in 1998 I remember the body taking me about a month start to finish so I wasn't quite looking forward to aligning this one even though I have built a few cars in between.
Nevertheless a positive attitude is required and you must start from with the exact settings and keep to them and hopefully it will come together.
This body was about 3 years old and although it was new when I purchased it had been sitting around at my works.
Anyway the spider centre section is the first stage and the measurements for the SGT are the same as the old GTD .
Once your happy with the centre I moved onto the rear section.
Although someone else had fitted the quick release / cotton reel fittings it didn't line up correctly so of it came and they were redrilled.
Doing this on your tod is not easy but with the help of a fork lift supporting the rear deck it's ok.
After the rear deck was in the rough position the front deck and doors together were fitted.
The doors took about 2 hours each to hang as the hole for the brackets were not correct so a drill and file job sorted it.
I reckon after one day the body is about half way done with shut lines getting better.

[Keith Baker]

Just a quick Remember,I know it sounds bloody obvious but when fitting the body DONT cut off more of the panel than required ,just enough to get a clearance . If you do it's harder to put it back in.

[Keith Baker]

I thought I make an extra effort this week and get the body as near finished as possible and some of those small jobs out of the way. Well that went to S##T whilst using a riv nut gun I used too much pressure and it stripped the ally thread out and crushed my finger. The blood was everywere and nearly the top of the finger on the floor.
I had it dressed next day and they said I should have had it stitched but it was too late now.
Anyway not wanting to be beaten, I managed to get the body almost there but I reckon at least another day to finish it.

And the Shut lines will take a little more time

[DARREN]

I hope you took the time to clean up after your accident...

[Jon]

Ouch!

[Keith Baker]

I did, thankyou.
I got blood on the car so that was cleaned 1st.
The worst thing about the finger was not the pain of the slice but afterwards whilst leaving the work area in a reasonable condition I dropped the broom on the tip of the same finger.
How can it be that of the overall mass of the human body the broom hits an area of less than 15mm square.
FATE ?

[Keith Baker]

Anyway back to reality.
I have no idea of the requirements in other countries for putting a self build car on the road but in the UK it's the dreaded IVA.
It sounds like some kind of incurable decease of your chap.
Fuel caps need to be lockable and that's not such a bad idea with the price of fuel today. It costs me more to fill up than my 1st house cost.
SGT have a solution for the IVA which is quite tidy and you can remove the lovely original style caps and have the lockable ones for inspection. I fitted the 1st one in about 2 hours and the 2nd in about an hour and although fiddly with my dodgy didget it went well.
parts consist of modified 2" inlet, adaptor plate with riv nuts installed, lockable cap with gasket and nuts
You can have the two together , the best of both.

[GTRene]

very nice Keith, I was wondering a long time about those not lockable fuel caps, I was thinking, one of the first things I would do when I buy such GT40 is make those with some sort of lock.
This is one idea, thx for sharing.

and ow, good luck with your finger.

[Brett James-McCall]

Hey Keith, Just don't forget to take off the top cap and block the drill holes up for IVA

[Mackan]

Hello Keith!
The car looks nice!
I am thinking of buying a body from southern if they sell them separatly?
how is the fit? can you recomend it?

Keep up the good work!

/Markus the swede

[Keith Baker]

Hi Markus,
I got the body about 3 years ago from Lee Dawson. Lee made all the bodies originally for GTD and has all the moulds.
I believe the moulds were quite used and had been repaired but I think my body
( the car body not my own ) is in very nice condition.
SGT use Lee Dawson for there bodies and I think Mick at SGT would be more than happy to supply you with one,
You wont go far wrong
The fit is good.
Keep in touch

[Mackan]

Thank you for your advice, my chassie will fit GTS tuning (i hope) i hope the southern body isn´t that far off....
I will contact Mick for more details.

/Markus

[Keith Baker]

I had another day working on the car yesterday and I think I'm almost there with the body. I have one or two small alterations to be made but it's minor surgery. The near side cill is too long by about 20mm and I remember this problem years ago when I built my 1st GTD 40 . It's an easy modification to do and I will post pictures when I do it.
Also I fitted the fuel pipes to the tanks, fiddly now the space is getting smaller but it's easier to remove the side panels. Once the clips are on there on for good, I hope.
The door catches suppplied by SGT are stainless steel and when polished will look nice.
Aligning these is not easy as the door lock to bulkhead measurement can vary but you get there in the end.I had the catches welded my self, one is ok the other too long , so had to cut it down and I'll get it welded again.

[Keith Baker]

Rear AP brakes assembled with a stainless steel spacer of about 2mm to align the Brembo hand brakes with the disks.

Also I'm looking for this type of latch
see interior/exterior on the forum

Cheers