SLC 24 Howard Jones

[J. Salmon]

Howard,
Nice work. I love the plan for the race car interior. I look forward to seeing that. I don't think Dad has decided what he is going to do in the interior, but I may make this suggestion. Sometimes less is more, eh?
-J.


BTW Craig, I don't know about others, but I have quit listening to you. I can't put my finger on it, but your posts come across as vindictive loosely veiled in concern for others. And did you rip off the Aspira name? Because that would be lame. http://www.gt40s.com/forum/rcr-forum-rcr40-rcr70-p4-mkiv/25555-whats-all-then-aspira.html

(Sorry Howard....)

 

[Howard Jones]

Here's my latest tig machine adventure. As we all know the seats that come with the car are adequate but can be improved on. The problem is like the GT40, not a lot of head room and therefor most of the standard seats on the market just don't fit.

I wanted to use a race seat in my car and so I started looking at the assorted seat manufactures web sites. The Kirkey intermediate road race seat looked like it might be the solution (reasonable price, $225, and so I could afford to experiment with it) except the head support was a little tall. Chop chop, three and a half inches out of the middle of the head rest and it fits nicely now.

It did require a home made seat mount. I included the pictures of it also. It came out pretty good. It is made of steel and is nice and strong and should last as long as I have the car.

 

[Alex]

If you hadn't chopped the head support down, would it have fit perfectly still? Or was the head support whacking the top of the rollbars (or similar)?

 

[Doc Kaler]

Nice seat fitment Howard. You're getting pretty handy with the TIG machine.

Alex, there are a couple of seat dimensions that are critical for fitment in the SL-C, one of them being the overall height not to exceed 33 to 33.5". The angle of the headrest as it takes off from the shoulder width and the width of top of the headrest will make or break some fitments as well.

 

[Jack]

Nice work Howard!

 

[Howard Jones]

The car was delivered with a make shift steering bushing mount so that it could be moved on and off the transporter and such. 1st pic.

Because of the angle of the special steering shaft that Fran made me, it located the steering wheel about 2 inches to the right of dead center for the seat location. As it turned out it was a little high also. Remember this is going to be a track car and so I told him I didn't want the standard steering wheel enclosure with turn signals and such. He supplied a solid shaft that was adjustable for length, quick release, and a GT40 style steering wheel as I requested.

I believe that it is very important to have all of the drivers controls as near to perfect as possible. This is something that comes from motorcycles. Handlebar, shift-lever, brake levers need to be dead on. At least for me.

So I am going to do the same thing with this car. Perfect placement of the driver controls.

Here's how I moved the steering wheel 2 inches to the left, at the correct height and absolutely periductular to the chassis. Can't have a cocked steering wheel.

First I determined where I need to center the wheel. It turned out that right in the center of the cage tubing under the dashboard was the correct height. I cut out a notch in the tubing and welded in a 2X2X1/4 piece of square tubing that has a plate welded on the front to match the shaft bushing mount and another plate on the back with a 1 inch hole through it for the shaft to stiffen the square tubing.

Then I bought another u joint, 3/4 inch shaft, and a second bushing from Speedway Motors. I made a bushing mount for the intermediate location and welded up all the pieces.

Works great, is very strong, and the wheel is right where I want it.

 

[Bill Musarra]

Howard,
You are doing some fantastic work. Getting the TIG skills down takes a lot of practice. I got to be fair on it.
If you are still interested in looking for a race seat I would suggest a look at Racetech. They are out of New Zeland and have a USA branch. I chose them because I wanted something more than the standard GT-40 seats. I just was not comfortable with them. I tended to want to hold on to something as it would go through any corners, and I didn't like the closeness of the head to the rear widow and other hard objects. Most of the other manufacturers only had the straight up seats which I would have to recline some way to make them fit in the car. They also were too wide for the width of the seat bay. I needed less than 19".Here are thier measurements.

​

A 22.5
B 17.8
C 15.4
D 18.6
E 19.8
F 26.9
G 20.9

Mtg. width front is 15.26
Mtg. width rear is 15.25
Weight is 10.5#

I am 5-9 and 160 and it fits me snugly. The SLC may need the more vertical seat. But if you need one that reclines some you will definitely want to look at their "Saker" seat. I tried one made for the Corvette, but it was too tall and hit the roll cage. However with the reclined seat(Saker), it was below the cage and fit the slope of the firewall perfectly. Its mounting bracket has mutiple holes on the base rail for positioning. It is set up for the 5-6 belt harness. One of the guys out of Virginia has a set for his car and uses the Saker for track days and the regular seat for show. They arren't cheap at $825 but definitely very comfortable.

Bill

 

[Cam]

Wow, nice work, plus a little Coor Light for motivation!

 

[Mesa]

Hell Howard, I'm going to have to get some welding done by YOU. Looks like you have surpassed my nominal "skill" set. Always nicely engineered as expected....good stuff.

 

[Doc Kaler]

Bill,

I added the RaceTech to the .xls file for those interested.

 

[Doc Kaler]

The new full cage front dash bar now travels over the steering column. Howard, you did a great job on your modification!

 

[EGLITOM]

Wow, nice work, plus a little Coor Light for motivation!

i doubt that. COORS LIGHT how can that be a motivation ??
may be it is used to cool down some welds ?
Get yourself some real beer.
New Belgium | Follow your folly!

A friend of mine is their technical manager. For a US beer it is not bad

TOM

 

[Jack]

I prefer Veltin myself..

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

Fat Tire Ale is really good....

 

[Doc Kaler]

Tom,

I prefer Negra Modelo to cool me down after I screw up some welds and a Michelada with Pacifico if I'm successful!

 

[Howard Jones]

The beer car is for practice welding. I guess you guys didn't see where it is welded back together around the top.

 

[Howard Jones]

Just fu#*ing with ya. I can't afford good beer and cool hot rods at the same time. A man has to set priorities. Next up foot, peddles, Then we will have the major driver controls in place. Then I am going to do something about the water-pump pulley clearance. After that Fuel system and exhaust system. Once all the big stuff is located then I can begin to work on the dash board, gauge package, and some of the electrical systems.

This is going to make a really cool big go-cart first drive around the block. The neighbors really liked the GT40 big go-cart lap around the block.

Then body, I never like the body stuff, Maybe Rob and I could switch cars.........

 

[Howard Jones]

Finished up peddle set install. I mounted the peddles on a 1/4" alum plate that was a little bigger than the footprint of the peddles. Then I drilled a series of holes in the alum plate on each side along with four countersunk ones on the back to mount the peddles. This will allow of tow inches forward and backward adjustment but with a solid mount.
Here's some pictures of the mount and install along with a view of the wheelhouse.

 

[Doc Kaler]

Nice and clean solution to adjustable pedals. Also easy to remove pedal box for servicing.

 

[Howard Jones]

I forgot to mention that the four bolts that go through the floor are screwed into threaded holes and then lock tighted. This make a peddle adjustment a one man job from inside the car without lifting it off it's wheels. Easy peezie.