Alex's SLC build thread

[Alex]

Alex:

A good piece of advice I got form Howard and Cam, make sure the steering wheel is centered on the seat, your legs will go a bit sideways to reach the pedals and that is not a problem , but the steering wheel MUST be centered to the seat , otherwise it will not be a good driving experience. Strong work on the brake lines.

Yes, lots of useless parts indeed!! FYI the ones that hurt me the most , time, financial and pride wise were the ones associated with the parking brake, the factory supplied set up WILL NOT, and I repeat WILL NOT hold the car in any kind of slope, (Cam told me and I did not listen) no matter what changes you try to make, I used the e brake , tried to maximize pads contact with the rotor, and the list goes on and on , nothing worked. I wasted countless hours and more than $3k , HUGE Ouchy, for nothing.

Finally installed an electronic Tesla parking brake and works perfectly, I think that was another $1k or so. So spent more than $4k for a working parking brake that will actually hold the car on any slope, I hope you don't make the same mistake.

Hector

thank you for the advice.
and i ordered the parking brake unfortunately. hopefully they have a better version today.

 

[Alex]

2006 passat rear caliper has an electric actuator, make a mount with a 1/4 steel plate. You can control it with an Arduino and a Pololu shield. You can even pipe in speed over canbus so the parking brake knows your velocity and can slowly clamp down creating an e-brake from an electric parking brake.

let see what i get when i receive my emergency brake from RCR. if not good, that might be going this direction.

 

[Alex]

Kurt, I forgot the whole purpose of the seat brackets was to get them more in-board. Those steel brackets you made came out great.

Alex, if you want to get the seat more in board than the stock RCR brackets take a look at Kurt’s build page.

If you still want to use the RCR brackets but need one or two more with the lettering in the right direction I think I still have them. Just pay for shipping and I’ll send them to you.

do you have RCR bracket laser cut reversed?
I don't see how I can use these brackets without reversing them, it put the seat way too far from the center

 

[Joel K]

do you have RCR bracket laser cut reversed?
I don't see how I can use these brackets without reversing them, it put the seat way too far from the center

Here is a pic, I think three were like this and 1 was the opposite… but to my earlier point, they still may mount the seat too far from center…

 

[Rich Kruger]

Ahhhhh the old my steering wheel is off center debate. Just for sh..ts and giggles check out a few of the cars you either drive or have access to. You will most likely find a lot of steering wheels off center from the seat. As a matter of fact there are hundreds of thousands of them driving around as we speak. Its just an accepted weird thing the major manufacturers aren't concerned with. As far as angling the seat to the column that seems much more invasive to have your head turned out of whack in reference to the actual direction of travel. Your dominant steering arm will naturally compensate as you may not have noticed in your daily driver.

One wind turbine asked another wind turbine what is your favorite type of music?
to which the second wind turbine answered I'm just a big metal fan

 

[Kurt Hoffman]

Thank you Kurt, I believe I have your drawing that I collected a year ago before ordering. where did you manufacture them?

I had them manufactured at a local sheetmetal shop that we utilize at my workplace. I know of a couple small shops in and around Greenville that should be able to help you out. Since my car is just sitting waiting on it's title we can pull my seats and brackets out and you can see how my arrangement fits differently in your car.

 

[venius]

Ahhhhh the old my steering wheel is off center debate. Just for sh..ts and giggles check out a few of the cars you either drive or have access to. You will most likely find a lot of steering wheels off center from the seat. As a matter of fact there are hundreds of thousands of them driving around as we speak. Its just an accepted weird thing the major manufacturers aren't concerned with. As far as angling the seat to the column that seems much more invasive to have your head turned out of whack in reference to the actual direction of travel. Your dominant steering arm will naturally compensate as you may not have noticed in your daily driver.

One wind turbine asked another wind turbine what is your favorite type of music?
to which the second wind turbine answered I'm just a big metal fan

umm your right Rich. I sat in my cars and inside most of em. (Not all) the steering wheel is a little off center from the seat and I noticed my leg rest against the center console in the smaller ones with just a little wiggle room also..

 

[Chris Kouba]

It sounds like a squared up driving experience is important to you.

The first GT I sat in (replica, never ridden in an original) had a noticeable steering wheel center to seat center offset, and seat centerline to car centerline angular offset. I know that there are lots of examples out there with big OE manufacturers where that's the case, but I wasn't going to have that happen with my GT. It seems silly to go through the exercise of building a car just for you and not have it exactly the way you want it.

If it is important to you, I would encourage you to make the effort. It can't be impossible, but it's something that you will confront every time you get in the driver's seat. It may take a bit of effort, but building a car isn't necessarily supposed to be easy, right?

Luckily for me it wasn't too hard to square things up. It's been a long time but I think it just involved re-positioning the column and specific placement of the driver seat. Figure out now what it's going to take and make your decision. I assume it'll be much more difficult to change once built out. It was something which bothered me, so I made the effort- but it's up to you if it's worth it.

 

[Howard Jones]

I used to race motorcycles a LONG LONG TIME AGO. The one thing I would not compromise on was driver controls and their placement. Same thing with my GT40 and the SLC. My advice is to center the seat and the steering wheel in relation to each other at all costs. I am talking about 1/8 inch or less. Believe me, you can feel that much, then do your best to place the brake peddle on the same centerline. Then when the seat, steering wheel, and brake peddle are as close as you can get it to perfect, place the shifter so it is just "right there" when you reach for it. This stuff really matters a lot IMHO. No compromise on that statement.

The GT40 is perfect on the seat-to-steering wheel relationship but the peddle box is off-set to the center just a little bit. I have found that that doesn't bother me that much.

I should add that when you are at the building stage getting this right isn't really that difficult. It may take a little time but hobbies should take some time. That is what they are for.

If I was in the market for a used home-built car and when I got in it and sat down the steering wheel was pointed one way, the seat and peddle box were on two other alinements and when I reached for the shifter it was way over there then I would have a very good idea what the quality of work was that went into the car. You kinda know that all the really hard stuff is AFUed.

"Ya............... thanks for letting me see the car but..................well it just doesnt fit me so..............thanks anyway."

 

[Alex]

Thanks all for all the advices.
I think I can deal with a small offset, but as it was, it is over 1.25" offset and it doesn't look or feel good.
First thing I did was to move the steering 5/16" on the left. if I do more, it will not be centered with the dash board. (I also center the dash).

Next step was mounting the interior seat bracket reversed, what bring the seat closer to the center console, but not enough to be center. I still have over 1/2" gap between the seat and the console.

Now my next step is to modify the interior bracket to be able to get as close as possible to the center console, for that I need to bend it. I used the second hole of the seat mount so I should be able to bent the RCR mount and use the top hole.

Of course to be able to do that I had to cut all the fiber of the tube first...

 

[Hector]

Alex:

Remember that if you have the gated shifter the center console does not fit at all, and has to be heavily modified together with the bracket for the shifter cables. I don't remember what shifter you are going to use. I did ended up using the original center console because I love the shape, but took countless hours to make everything fit , I also added padding for my elbow. You can see all the details on my build thread.

Hector

 

[Alex]

Alex:

Remember that if you have the gated shifter the center console does not fit at all, and has to be heavily modified together with the bracket for the shifter cables. I don't remember what shifter you are going to use. I did ended up using the original center console because I love the shape, but took countless hours to make everything fit , I also added padding for my elbow. You can see all the details on my build thread.

Hector

I have the RCR shifter. I will modify the console for sure, and I am planning to let the beautiful peace of billet showing the mecanism!

 

[Alex]

update of this week end
Installation of radiator with grommets. There is a little flex but not too much (hopefully enough). Bolt have nylon nuts and are not torqued.


I finally have the driver seat in place. Steering wheel as left as possible without looking off with the dash, interior seat bracket modified (still need to weld some gussets to reinforce) but the seat is 1/8 off the center consol. Seat and steering wheel alignment are 1/2" off, not really obvious and not bothering me anymore !
I also check clearance with the roof panel. The seat is 1/4 inch off the floor due to the sliding rail, it is the lowest possible with the modified bracket because the rail is almost under the bottom of the seat (in the side curve)



now waiting for hardware to do the passenger seat!

 

[Hector]

Strong work, just get'er done and move on to the next thing . Will serve you well.