Gardner Douglas GD T70 Number 26 - Paul's Build Log
- Thread starter paulmartinjones
- Start date
Ok, some progress to report. The front subframe is now fitted with ally and fitted to the car.
Thomas, hopefully the photos will answer your questions. There is a very small gap (about 1mm) between the main floor pan and the rear edge of the subframe bottom panel.
Next job is the interior and the ally bits that don't fit...... That probably won't start until next week as I'm racing this weekend.
Cheers all!
Paul
Thomas, hopefully the photos will answer your questions. There is a very small gap (about 1mm) between the main floor pan and the rear edge of the subframe bottom panel.
Next job is the interior and the ally bits that don't fit...... That probably won't start until next week as I'm racing this weekend.
Cheers all!
Paul
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when you get to the front anti roll bar stages of installation just double check you have the later strengthened (gusseted) version from andy. i hadnt and it broke the weld after a few trackdays, resulting in a lot of the front end bits n bobs having to come off to swap out the roll bar. i would imagine you have the revised version Paul but worth a check.
Looking good paul!
I can now see why my bottom panel doesn't fit. the fold thats in the rear of my lower pannel doesn;t as suspected belong there. thanks for these very clear pictures Paul!
I have the laser cut set also btw, but need to add that mine got delayed quite some time because Andy returned the first set to the cutter, he didn't like the edges or something, ah well quaility above all that is, and I like that!
must say thet initial fit is very good on mine however getting the to fit spot on requires quite some work, expecially the inner footwell and side pannels.... not to mention the sidepod closures, heaps of work but very rewarding!
One quiestion to chris: Andy specificly puts the anti roll bars in the options section, I have not ordered those (?yet?) with my chassis. I plan on doing 90% road kilometers albeit quick ones..... what's the bigget plus on the antiroll bars in the GD? I have drivven a 170bhp 498kg sylva striker for years without those and still that was quicker around corners the a stock caterham with them fitted.....
ps: what gearbox is that sitting on the floor paul? thought G50 but the rearend seems to be flat???
regards Thomas
I can now see why my bottom panel doesn't fit. the fold thats in the rear of my lower pannel doesn;t as suspected belong there. thanks for these very clear pictures Paul!
I have the laser cut set also btw, but need to add that mine got delayed quite some time because Andy returned the first set to the cutter, he didn't like the edges or something, ah well quaility above all that is, and I like that!
must say thet initial fit is very good on mine however getting the to fit spot on requires quite some work, expecially the inner footwell and side pannels.... not to mention the sidepod closures, heaps of work but very rewarding!
One quiestion to chris: Andy specificly puts the anti roll bars in the options section, I have not ordered those (?yet?) with my chassis. I plan on doing 90% road kilometers albeit quick ones..... what's the bigget plus on the antiroll bars in the GD? I have drivven a 170bhp 498kg sylva striker for years without those and still that was quicker around corners the a stock caterham with them fitted.....
ps: what gearbox is that sitting on the floor paul? thought G50 but the rearend seems to be flat???
regards Thomas
roll bars- i am tracking and sprinting and cant see how it would be very good without roll bars for what i do, the handling is great, despite it being set up by 2 of us in my garage with a laser floor leveller and string etc ! lol
i'd go for it and fit them , you can always set them to the softest position or disconnect them to try it without, but if you dont fit them its a fair bit of work to fit them afterward.
andy has a new clip of his car going round track which might show you how good the roll bars are,
GDT70 at Barkston Sprint track « GD Cars, Gardner Douglas Sports Cars
i'd go for it and fit them , you can always set them to the softest position or disconnect them to try it without, but if you dont fit them its a fair bit of work to fit them afterward.
andy has a new clip of his car going round track which might show you how good the roll bars are,
GDT70 at Barkston Sprint track « GD Cars, Gardner Douglas Sports Cars
That's a 930 waiting to go in. Eventually.....
On the road you will feel little from anti-roll bars. They are all about load sharing between tyres in different phases of the turn. That said I'll be fitting them on mine as it will see occasional track use, but they will be set to their softest setting for road use.
On the road you will feel little from anti-roll bars. They are all about load sharing between tyres in different phases of the turn. That said I'll be fitting them on mine as it will see occasional track use, but they will be set to their softest setting for road use.
hows it going at this stage paul, still enjoying the build? did angelsey on sunday in mine and it went very well, kept pace with a new 430 scudera and handled very well. my roll bars are still set fairly soft, as are the dampers, more like a road car setting while i get used to it on track.
hmmm point taken on the rollbars, I think I'll fit them eventually so might indeed be better to do it now.
why are you using a 930 Paul, and not a G50?
regards Thomas
why are you using a 930 Paul, and not a G50?
regards Thomas
Right now, not much. I am very frustrated as, bar the underside panels, EVERY one I have looked at since fails to fit the chassis. Some by a LONG way. I think Andy's laser cutting has left a little bit to be desired. One of the reasons I went for the GD is that Andy told me that the new laser cut panels would fit straight on for fixing - no messing about. I am rather frustrated that this is not proving to be the case. Also, I have discovered some problems with the build manual as now that the floor is final fixed, there are some fixings for the interior panels that I can't get to. VERY unsatisfactory.
I haven't had the chance to speak to Andy about it yet and I'm sure he will resolve the problems (aside from the fixings I can't get to due to the poor build manual) but it is very disconcerting.
I will write more when I am less emotional and see this in a more balanced manner. As I say, I haven't spoken to Andy yet and I am sure he will help me deal with the issues which are probably not as great as they seem in my current frustrated state.
It will be worth it in the end, but the easy construction I was assured of is not my current experience.
Give it a couple of months and I will be singing the priases of the GD product I have no doubt. I have no regrets here, just frustrations.
:stunned:
Holy moly! That's a pointy machine - I lost count of how many times I mentally understeered on to the grass but not a wheel went on it. Very precise :2thumbsup:
they are very pointable, you just have to be careful coming out of the bend with the throttle or they just keep donutting round! :thumbsup:
Hey Paul,
I very much hear you, had the same problem but have my own sheet metal bend/brake/sliproll, so mine was easily solved, I never got around on how it was supposed to be put together, I take now you have the same problem that we are doing something very wrong. (thought it was me not paying attention)
I couldn't be bothered to take this panel back to andy's as that normaly takes months in my case (shipping etc etc)
there's a lot of filing and stuff to do before the panel fit anywhere near perfect. it's doable to get spot on but takes quite some time.
I have almost got all panels in place now, just need to make the wiring looms for the rear lights/Omex710 ECU/Stack 8130 dash and then the side pods can be closed off permanently aswell.
I placed my order 18 months back, and am still waiting for the 2 inner arch panels of the rear wheel arches....... again I hear exactly where you're comming from.
anyway this panneling still beats any other I've ever seen, and that is quite a lot I think I'm entitelt to say.
Regards Thomas
I very much hear you, had the same problem but have my own sheet metal bend/brake/sliproll, so mine was easily solved, I never got around on how it was supposed to be put together, I take now you have the same problem that we are doing something very wrong. (thought it was me not paying attention)
I couldn't be bothered to take this panel back to andy's as that normaly takes months in my case (shipping etc etc)
there's a lot of filing and stuff to do before the panel fit anywhere near perfect. it's doable to get spot on but takes quite some time.
I have almost got all panels in place now, just need to make the wiring looms for the rear lights/Omex710 ECU/Stack 8130 dash and then the side pods can be closed off permanently aswell.
I placed my order 18 months back, and am still waiting for the 2 inner arch panels of the rear wheel arches....... again I hear exactly where you're comming from.
anyway this panneling still beats any other I've ever seen, and that is quite a lot I think I'm entitelt to say.
Regards Thomas
i think i was slightly more fortunate as i only live 45 mins away from the factory and could take down any parts with issues to clear it up straight away, or at least see the demo car and if i was trying to fit it incorrectly etc. i made quite a few journeys there. also i picked up my chassis with the bottom panels all in place as i was working in a very small garage initially and couldnt turn the chassis within it, so i picked up a very easy project to start on as such.
It'll be worth it in the end.
deffo paul. mine went very very well last weekend at angelsey and days like that make all the hard work worth while. straightline speed and handling also were on a par with a brand new ferrari 430 which must cost near 5 times as much as my build.
i found a few irritations with the build of mine, and then of course my old engine blew after 3 trackdays, adding another 6 months onto the re build. gets you down at certain times but its great knowing its a self built car at the end. if you press andy about any issues i'm sure he will sort it but he is busy so keep on at him if need be.
one of my probs was being supplied with really old version build pics, some of which didnt make sense. slowed me down a few times sussing out they werent right for my build. thats why i mentioned the roll bars previously, i went to the trouble of fitting mine to find out they broke on the welds and a newer version was already available, andy hadnt realised i had the older ones. little bits like that could be avoided i suppose.
despite having issues wth the build and mostly the panneling, it's still the best quality parts I've ever seen in the kitcar industrie.
I'm making the wiring looms now, when those are done the sidepods can be closed for all eternity! yippie!
where are you in the build Paul?
one other thing, the braking system with the 13" rotors will that fit underneath a 17" wheel? I cannot get it road resgitered with the huge image wheels on it, so plan on having some cast items for the time being but since they will be temporarily I'm not willing to spend a fortune on them.
are there alternatives at all for the AP system? Wilwood brembo Hispec or something?
regards Thomas
I'm making the wiring looms now, when those are done the sidepods can be closed for all eternity! yippie!
where are you in the build Paul?
one other thing, the braking system with the 13" rotors will that fit underneath a 17" wheel? I cannot get it road resgitered with the huge image wheels on it, so plan on having some cast items for the time being but since they will be temporarily I'm not willing to spend a fortune on them.
are there alternatives at all for the AP system? Wilwood brembo Hispec or something?
regards Thomas
mine runs 17" fronts and 18" rears but speak to andy as you need to be very very careful with the offsets or they wont fit. my first set of rims came with the wrong offset and fouled the arch, had to go back to image.
i also got a set of 18s recently (HRE) which are superb and a lot lighter than the image rims, but crikey they are expensive rims if bought new.
i also got a set of 18s recently (HRE) which are superb and a lot lighter than the image rims, but crikey they are expensive rims if bought new.
Problem seems that a lot of wheels litteraly break under stress of corner speeds, at least the cast image items do, in your opinion does tghat have to do with the quality of image or indeed the usage?
I'm looking at other makes also (team dynamics has a nice one out at the mo) but am unsure of forces versus wheel strength.
If I understand correct the 330mm discs + CP5200 calipers fit underneath a 17" wheel?
have you got a picture of the HRE"s on yours?
I personaly like the wheels that Steve had on his car before it went to italy what where those?
grtz Thomas
I'm looking at other makes also (team dynamics has a nice one out at the mo) but am unsure of forces versus wheel strength.
If I understand correct the 330mm discs + CP5200 calipers fit underneath a 17" wheel?
have you got a picture of the HRE"s on yours?
I personaly like the wheels that Steve had on his car before it went to italy what where those?
grtz Thomas
i have those rims, bought them from steve before it went !
image rims are ok quality, although i have my reservations about the "knock on" centres i bought with mine, wasted my money there as they cracked and are unsafe to use so i never had them fitted to the rims. metal is too thin and so it pulled the fixing screw through.
the HREs are superb quality but i think they would cost circa £3k for the rims alone now. they are much lighter than the image rims and very strong.
i can't really dismiss the image rims tho for price, and they do look very well, they should be ok for strength as far as i am aware,
regards
chris
image rims are ok quality, although i have my reservations about the "knock on" centres i bought with mine, wasted my money there as they cracked and are unsafe to use so i never had them fitted to the rims. metal is too thin and so it pulled the fixing screw through.
the HREs are superb quality but i think they would cost circa £3k for the rims alone now. they are much lighter than the image rims and very strong.
i can't really dismiss the image rims tho for price, and they do look very well, they should be ok for strength as far as i am aware,
regards
chris
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