Help - GT40 Space Frame Drawings and Plans

Frank

you miss the point they want to build their own frames, and asked for help. These drawings are just a basis for a scratch build low cost GT40 and have many similarities to the GTD's that you are so keen on.
I am sure that each builder will modify and upgrade to suite their own application and I encourage their enthusiasm.…

regards

Chris.
 
Frank, I appreciate what you are saying but chris has hit the nail on the head. There is a lot of gratification in building your own spaceframe. There will always be some modification required to turn a set of "preliminary drawings" into a fabricated reality. Particularly in Australia where getting an ICV registered is a daunting process, here lies the challenge, to get one through.

Thanks for the link ..... and moral support Chris.
 
Hey maybe someone could start a new thread titled Locost Gt40?
We could put the plans up and links to the cheapest body parts?
I'm sure that the Locost (Cortina) front uprights and suspension arms
could be adapted to fit the chassis?

I have a jig and plans on how to build your own rear uprights and I'm sure many people have drawings for many bits and pieces like outer door handles and so on. The thread could just grow and grow with everyones ideas. I think it would be a fun project for the forum to come togethor
and discuss the design of many parts of the Gt40 ,I know there are many very talented Guys on our forum. Might also be a fun way to build a not so serious track car or something similiar. I love welding
and making things and I'm sure there are many others out there aswell.

Maybe one of our manufactures might even like to supply a body/ glass kit like Chis has just suggested or have seconds panel they want to flog off. I know that DRB are happy to sell bits to anyone aswell.

Anyway just an idea.
 
This sounds like a very good idea Dave S. I have been engaged in a scratch built GT-40 for too many years already and I am still stuck with how to make such items as suspension parts and all the little things like door handles, etc. A separate category along with sub categories with individual scratch built parts and how to make them would be a big help to many I am sure. No doubt there is a lot of information already on the site with helpful tips but to search it out is very difficult and time consuming.
 

Russ Noble

GT40s Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
No doubt there is a lot of information already on the site with helpful tips but to search it out is very difficult and time consuming.

That's what it takes to do a scratchbuilt!

For every hour that I spend actually working on the car, I would spend two hours searching out info applicable to me. I have two Eastlight folders of information that I have printed out which probably represents maybe 1% of all the stuff I look at. All the information is out there on this site and others and in books.

If you don't have the determination and ability to search out the info, you will be lacking the determination and stamina to finish it.

There are two main reasons most people do a scratchbuilt. Firstly cost, one can start with a few hundred bucks worth of steel tube and maybe a grands worth of resin and matt and use your sweat equity to produce your chassis and body. Secondly you get to build a car to the exact specification that you require, you don't have to accept the manufacturers design/execution compromises that come with every kit. You will have to make compromises with your build but they will be compromises that suit your situation, not somebody elses.

Every scratchbuilt is different and I'm sure if someone wanted to do a 'LoCost 40' they could. But low cost and GT40 don't belong in the same sentence. I doubt very much whether one could build a reasonable representation of a GT40 (by that I mean SBF and transaxle not some adapted fwd) for much under $30k.

Also once you start building, you tend to upgrade your original ideas. The cost of my car has now escalated to about $50k because I decided to upgrade to a 500hp all forged 351 with good heads, roller everything and drysump. Plus a few other niceties like Koni double adjustables etc, etc. When I first posted on this forum I was asking questions about how strong the standard 351 rotating assy was, as I was going to run a slightly warmed over $1000 junkyard motor!

Over time the goal post move!

The idea of a seperate 'LoCost 40' info thread is good, but like everything someone would have to do it. Dave?
 
Russ I agree with everything you have said, I feel that a highly experienced scratch builder like yourself would be the man to lead Project Locost 40. Another man that springs to mind would be someone like Jim C who maybe could supply a suspension kit for those not game enough to weld their own.

What about a spread sheet that everyone could add the cheapest parts they can find so we could model up a costing example?

I also have access to chassis Torsion testing equipement that is WA DPI government recognised if it helps out.

I feel that a GT40 built for 30K-40K would be great and is Low cost compared to some of the kits.

IMHO most of the frustration with building a scratch car is finding the info,
thats why I feel a Thread dedicated to Locost 40 would be a good start?
Imagine all the info we as a community could come up with.

I built and registered a Locost years ago just to learn all about the ADR's and to see if I had what it takes to scratch build a car. It's a hard road building a scratch build, much harder than any kit to build, but the reward and feeling of achievement is well worth the effort.
 

Chris Duncan

Supporter
Back up what Russ says.

Scratch building is not for everyone.

I started with a goal of 5 years and $25K. Ended up with 7-1/2 years and $50K. The only thing good about it taking this long is that the cost was spread out over time, making it affordable to go all out in some areas.

The one place I went overboard was with programmable EFI. Induction and all the electronics spent about $8K. This could be done with webers for about $2,500. If I had cut some corners but without too much compromise could have kept it around $35K.

A GT40 done right is not cheap. You can go low budget on some things but other items like the ITB's just arent' right if you substitute a 4-barrel.

You do get some sweat equity though. If someone built my car starting with a full kit it would cost them about $100K. But it would have been done in about 18 months.
 

Russ Noble

GT40s Supporter
Lifetime Supporter
Kalun is right, one of the big bonuses is that the expenditure starts off small and is spread out over time. And the project always changes in that time!

My Kiwi Scratchbuilt has gone from being what was originally planned to be a road car to an all out race car. I was not prepared to make the compromises necessary to make it liveable on the street, although it will still be road registered.

As a result, when the race car is finished, I am toying with the idea of also building myself a nice road going version which will have a totally different chassis and have all the compromises street orientated. But still having suspension that would behave itself on the track. This is probably more along the lines that most guys would have in mind for their car. It will be built to utilise more off the shelf, more easily found and cheaper parts. Doing away with a lot of the specialist fabrication and machining that building a serious race car requires.

Although to make a nice looking job it will obviously need fabricated suspension arms and I will probably cast my rear uprights. Not sure about the front uprights yet.

Since I am now at an age where I should be retired and should have a bit more time on my hands, I had thought that I might produce a few bits based on my road going car and have them available for sale to guys who wanted to build something along similar lines. And for the suspension parts to also supply a diagram of where the pickup points need to be placed on their chassis, relative to the ride height and wheel sizes that they choose to run.

So as not to get too much thread drift on this thread I will start a new thread in the build forum labelled :-

http://www.gt40s.com/forum/gt40-build-logs/24812-kiwi-40-a.html#post223453

where anyone who cares to, can comment, question or make suggestions.
 
Last edited:
Dave, Great call mate. You are echoing my thoughts exactly. Scratch built and cost spread out over time = personal satisfaction.

Russ, looking forward to becoming a regular reader of the Kiwi 40 Thread.
 
Russ why don't you think about making a set of plans available for your
Kiwi 40 and supply parts that people can't make??
 
the cad drawing does work, but you need a body to do some cross referancing. namely the chassis is to wide, if you are building the chassis in australia you need to take in to account the differances with the thikness of the material (1" v 25.4mm 1-1/2" v 38mm etc.) also there are some pages missing.
we compared the drawings with ours and yes there is a lot of issues. but if you know how to run cad, you should be able to work it out, and with the help of the body.
david
 
Not to throw a fly in the soup. But... I know a lawyer (he's not really a bad bloke). We had a discussion on liability issues. The interesting thing he pointed out to me is that the notion of a contract or payment does not need to exist for liability to be present.
Therefore if I publish even freely, flawed information how to do a thing, you might attempt to hold me liable for the resulting harm.

I believe that there are a few lawyers on the forum is that your considered opinion?
 
To a certain extent it depends upon the jurisdiction you´re under.

But Keith is right, some kind of reasonable minimum legal standards should be adopted when issuing that kind of information:
- Disclaimer
- make sure the (potential) receiver of that information can get notice of that
disclaimer without circumstance

Best,

Marcus
 
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