Scott's RCR40 Build

Here I go. I tried to read all the build logs and save links to all the great ideas. Hopefully, I can add to the knowledge base. Or maybe inspire others that they can build one too!

Some particulars: ZF, SBF, Avons, BRMs. Color? too early but always liked P1036.

It is now home in my garage to take apart and organize all the parts. It is a tight fit so I will need to move out some cars...or move and get a bigger shop. A big rolling table/dolly is first on my list.
 

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Good memories when my car was like that. Good to see another RCR40 starting. Looks like you have a few cars in there already. Good idea on the rolling dolly, I could not have done mine without one (but I am lazy!).

Have fun and get started!
 

Randy V

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Fond memories at the beginning of what will be an incredible journey....
Congratulations on your purchase!!!
 
The blue car in the background is a 1965 Koch Chevy Special. A one-off sports racer that won the 1967 Road Race of America Championship for D-Mod at Daytona running with a 153ci Chevy II engine with a Porsche 356 rear end. It now has a fresh Chevy II-based 181ci engine putting out over 240HP on a 1300lb car (and a freshly built 356 swing axle to help handle the HP and Torque.) The first picture is of its current configuration last year at Indy. The second picture is how it looked in 1967.

I will be racing it this June 10-14 at Indy at the SVRA Brickyard Vintage Invitational.
 

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Starting to take it apart. It is amazing to just look at the chassis. A work of art! Steel parts will be going off to be powdercoated.
 

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I built the rolling table today. Dimensions: 2 feet tall (plus rollers), 39" wide, and 60" long with a shelf on the bottom.
 

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With the table built, I then carefully planned how to get the car on the table with an engine hoist, jacks, etc. until I backed into my car lift. Duh.... Why not strap it under the lift and lift the car up and slide the table under it. Now the car is on the table, the wheels are off and safely stored and the dismantling can begin...
 

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Randy V

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Pretty creative Scott...
You might want to be careful with the load you put on those casters as the wheels are pretty small...
 
Randy...good point. Each caster was rated at 375lbs. so I figure I am good for up to 1500 pounds. That ZF will be coming off tomorrow.
 
Well...no excuses now. I threw a rod through the block of my race car engine after losing oil pressure while on the high banked corners at Indy . Now I have lots of time to work on the GT40 while my engine gets rebuilt. It should be ready for Road America in September.

I removed all of the rear suspension components. I was going to powdercoat the pieces but the stainless steel and aluminum pieces polished up nicely. It is all back together awaiting final adjustments. Next is to remove the front suspension and install the sponson fuel tanks following Chuck's detailed instructions.

I live in the Houston area and it gets hot...so to encourage working in the garage, I installed a LG portable A/C unit. From the outside you can see a flush 6" square louvered exhaust vent, which was installed on the inside of the garage door panel....a pleasant place to work now!
 

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Actually made some progress today....

A/C:
Vintage Air upgraded their evaporator unit to now provide servos to direct air to the floor, dash, or defrost, which meant I had to create a new template to cut the holes for the 3 dash vents and the 2 new defrost vents. This will also require some modification to the defrost part of the dash to mate to the 2 new defrost vents.

Fuel Tanks:
I removed the front suspension and started working on the fuel tanks. I tapped the holes for the sending unit for 10x24 stainless screws then cut the access hole in the sponson for the sending unit and pickup tube - being careful to leave enough room for the firewall to sponson angle bracket. Now on to the other side.
 

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D. Nye

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Scott, Looking good! You are making it look easy which it is not. The AC system is a tight fit as you know. Keep up the good work.

Don
 
Finished installing the fuel tanks (referencing Chuck's install).

Before installing the tanks, I cleaned them and then squeezed six 3.5" x 6" x 7" blocks of safety foam through the sending unit hole to nicely fill the space. I then attached the sending units with 10x24 stainless steel screws. I use VP110 racing fuel in my race car and the foam has lasted over 6 years. I don't expect it to last quite as long with ethanol in the fuel.

The tanks are securely sitting on 1/4" rubber blocks (from McMaster Carr, 40A durometer, very little compression) with 1/2" blocks on the vertical sponson wall and 3/4" blocks on the outside wall. I fabricated aluminum brackets lined with 1/8" rubber to hold the tank in place and installed them at the back and front of the tanks - using nutserts so that I can remove the brackets and tanks without having to remove the rocker panels. I will compression fit the top rubber blocks when the tanks are full.

To ensure that the tank placement was correct, I installed a short section of the 2" ID fuel filler hose through the sponson opening and onto the fuel tank intake.

Tanks are nice and secure. (picture angles look weird due to the camera angle!)
 

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Here is an example of the new evaporator design test fit into the dash. The defrost outlets are evenly spaced around the center line of the chassis. If you look closely, you can also see that the windshield wiper mount has been moved from the right side to the left for my left-hand car.
 

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Well....just fit the dash and should have noticed that the defrost indentation, while centered, the middle splitter section is offset to the right for the right-hand drive car so my carefully placed defrost vents spaced on the center line of the chassis are off. I will just have to move the splitter to the left.
 
I fit the doors today...it went amazingly quickly and easily! (spider and front clip also in position) This is what I did:

1. For easy adjustment of the hinges during the fitting process, I created 2 plates for each hinge with holes drilled and tapped to accept my 1/4 inch bolts, which I put on the outside of the hinge so that I could easily loosen and tighten the bolts from inside of the car. I then drilled 4 holes in the frame aligned around each corner of the hinge, tapped, and inserted a #10x20 socket screw at each hinge corner. I could now easily move the hinge in and out from the frame by twisting the socket screws and adjusting the bolts.

2. I mounted the hinge loosely.

3. I installed the weatherstripping.

4. I placed the door in the proper position taking into consideration the position of the spider, front clip, and rockers. Yes, my tires do fit and turn in the wheel well.

5. I adjusted the hinge to fit the door by moving it in/out with the socket screws and up/down and front/back with the bolts (all from the inside) so that the hinge fit the door that was already positioned where I wanted it and tightened it all down. I ended up with a slight forward tilt to the hinge so that the door does not sag when opened.

6. I then removed the door from the hinge (I use a 10" bolt). measured the spacing required for between the frame and the hinge and created aluminum spacing plates. I drilled two holes to permanently affix the hinge in place. I then removed the socket screws and plates, installed the spacers and installed the hinge.

7. I attached the door to the hinge and did any fine tuning with the adjustable plates on the door.

8. I have a nice fitting opening/closing door!
 
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