Kurt H (hoffkm) SL-C build thread

lol congrats Kurt! Reminds me of my first start as well, I was so surprised that it fired up and stayed alive I kinda froze for a bit.

enjoy the car meet, prepare yourself for the insanity it will bring. My first event I didn’t stop talking for about 4 hours, people kept asking question after question. Have a buddy with you and have him make a Starbucks run for you so you can stay hydrated ;). Enjoy!
 
While trying to get to sleep last night I had a thought on what my noise might be. I checked my theory out over lunch break today. Pulled two of my transaxle mounting bolts out and sure enough the second one is slightly "ground down" on part of the tip where the flexplate is rubbing against it. I either measured wrong or mixed up some of my bolts when I mounted the transaxle. It takes like 4 or 5 different length bolts to secure it to the adapter plate (due to the design of the bosses on the Porsche case casting). Once I shorten that fastener and check all the others I should be good to go! (fingers crossed)
 
Took the SL-C to our local cruise night up town tonight. It was a hit.

I cannot say I wasn't warned.........."What is it? What is it? What is it? I am going to be hearing that in my sleep tonight. The car show only lasted two hours but I was non stop talking about and answering questions about the car. From what it is (I printed out an info sheet and hung it on the car, that helped some) to how fast will it go, how much horsepower, is that made by "Factory One" (yes, someone asked exactly that), what engine and tranny is that, to why are you building this? Mostly it was a lot of genuine interest in the specs of the car, who makes it, etc. etc. I would tell them it is made by "Race Car Replicas" and no one had any idea who that was. Tell them they made the cars for "Ford versus Ferrari" and everyone knew of the movie at least. Spoke at length with one gentleman who brought up his sand rail about my tranny setup. He is looking to upgrade the VW bus tranny in his sandrail as he is getting ready to supercharge the four cylinder engine on it. A Getrag G96 is just what he is looking for.

A couple of my friends and one of the organizers of another local cruise in (couple of towns over) talked me in to taking the SL-C over to another cruise in this Thursday so I am leaving her in the trailer a couple more days.

Couple of pics of the cars first time in the sun since bringing her home from RCR (these are from as soon as I rolled it out of the trailer, the crowds gathered soon thereafter):

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Everyone wanted to see the motor right away so after all the work I did to temporarily fit the rear clam, it came off after only a few minutes (wish I had the time to mount it to the hinges).

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Having the body on for the first time with more of the items assembled on the car has shown me a few things:

1) I have a lot of work to do to align the suspension
2) I am going to need to cut a lot of the wheel well inner lip away to clear my tires, body is rubbing in multiple locations (mostly due to suspension not being aligned yet)
3) alignment of the center spider section is CRITICAL to aligning everything else on the car, I am currently off about 1/4" at the rear and that is pushing the back of the rear clam over about 1" at the very back of the car
4) Have I mentioned before THIS THING IS LOW TO THE GROUND.
5) I have the ride height roughly set at 4" front-4.5" rear right now and I may increase both those by 1/2" before I am done. We will see how things turn out with the suspension set and the body fit
6) I have seen where many builders have needed "droop helper springs" to keep the shocks at springs aligned at full droop (car on a lift). To set my ride height I have enough preload on both the front and rear springs that they are still engaged at full droop. Am I missing something or maybe setting something up wrong?
7) Another thing I learned strapping the car down in the trailer is that you cannot reach under this thing. I had to remove the front clam to access the control arms to tie the car down. I am definitely going to be hinging the nose to make that job easier if nothing else. The race tail would make rear access easier but too late for that, plus I prefer the street tail.
 
Kurt. I had a similar problem with both my corvette and SLC when I loaded them into my trailer. I built drive up ramps front to back in the trailer about 5 inches tall so I could reach under either car and strap them down. Works out perfect. Just an idea.
 

Joel K

Supporter
Kurt, must have been a lot of fun today. Not sure if this is just the angle of the pics, your front roll hoop looks like it hugs the body A pillars quite well with a relatively small gap. Wondering if that was a modification that RCR did, you did, or just an optical illusion.
 
Kurt. I had a similar problem with both my corvette and SLC when I loaded them into my trailer. I built drive up ramps front to back in the trailer about 5 inches tall so I could reach under either car and strap them down. Works out perfect. Just an idea.

Dan,

Good idea, thank you. I’ll definitely consider that.
 
Kurt, must have been a lot of fun today. Not sure if this is just the angle of the pics, your front roll hoop looks like it hugs the body A pillars quite well with a relatively small gap. Wondering if that was a modification that RCR did, you did, or just an optical illusion.

Joel,

I modified my front roll hop by cutting it at the top and machining up some 1 1/4” long spacers that fit inside the tube to spread the ends out. Seems to have worked well if you noticed it. Thanks!
 

Joel K

Supporter
Joel,

I modified my front roll hop by cutting it at the top and machining up some 1 1/4” long spacers that fit inside the tube to spread the ends out. Seems to have worked well if you noticed it. Thanks!

Looks great, that’s a really nice mod.
 
Over this weekend I have managed to spend some in my shop on the SL-C (it has been raining all weekend, not complaining, we need it).

1) Trial fit the spider
2) Trial fit the rear clam
3) Finished more of the coolant system plumbing routing for the expansion tank (more fittings on order, due to be here Tuesday)
4) Trial fit, polished, applied Sharkhyde, and partially mounted a Canton Racing two in one expansion and overflow tank (need some 1 1/2" angle to make some brackets, all I have around the shop is 1", more shopping to do). I like that this unit is both the expansion and overflow tanks in one. It is fairly compact and fits well beside the engine with about 1" of clearance on the top to the rear clam. It is about 1/2" away from the header but that will have to do.
5) Temporarily plumbed the oil cooler
6) Test fit the exhaust
7) Fabricated and mounted the exhaust. I angled the horizontal tail pipe and mufflers downward towards the exit to help prevent condensation from running back towards the engine. I stuck the muffler out the back of the rear clam so that they would not drip condensation on the rear clam. This has a portion of the muffler body sticking out of the rear clam but I like the look. I will mount mesh around the mufflers to give the hole in the clam a finished look. Once I know there are no leaks I will Cerakote the pipes and mufflers and wrap the rest of the pipes in header wrap.
8) Primed the oil pump on the engine in preparation for first start

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I turned the motor over with the exhaust installed and I do believe this thing is going to be throaty and loud, just like I want it!!

The mufflers are Flowmaster Flow FX and are a straight thru glasspack design. I hope no little kids see those big opening as an invitation to stick a ball or something else down in there...........

Once the fittings come for the coolant tank I will finish the plumbing, run some temporary switches for starting the engine, double check everything, fill the tank with some fuel (just to get it above the lift pump sunction) and cross my fingers!!

To do list from the weekend for a later date:
1) figure out some muffler hangers, considering these welded to the mufflers and bolted into the crossbar over the exhaust: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/pye-tphv6
2) figure out where and how to mount the oil cooler
3) get the rear clam hinge mocked up and working so I can verify the clam will clear the mufflers when it open. According to my CAD model it should but that is not 100% accurate.
Kurt:
you did not have to modify any mounts to get the mufflers to fit? They look awesome, I a hoping for a smiler set up but with catalytic converters and quiet but nice sounding mufflers, hope to find the right balance, Great work!!!
 
do the muffler tips fit well into the rear clam outlet gaps? I did not see any views from the rear with rear clam on. Keep up the good work, you sure make up a lot of ground quickly!!! I just placed the spider onto the tub and it fits perfectly on the passenger side, but it "floats" a bit on the driver side. I am hoping bending down the aluminum floor overhangs where the spider sits will allow it to sit solidly onto the tub. Body alignment will definitely be a challenge, hoping you can show me the way .
 
Never mind Kurt, I saw your post # 150 and the fit of the muffler tips on the rear clam, sorry I did not go back far enough. Looks good.
 
Hector,

I am leaving my muffler bodies hanging out the opening about 1 1/2”. This allowed me to install them with no modifications to the chassis supports and brackets. It will also place the outlet of my tips past the rear bumper protrusion so no condensation will drip from the exhaust onto the rear clam. The mufflers will be cerakoted black along with all the rest of the exhaust. My plan is for no shiny bits on the exterior of the car.
 
I cerakoted my exhaust - it’s stood up really well and is somewhat abrasion resistant - I unintentionally discovered that ;) still looks new after a few years!

Cam,

Thanks for the info on the Cerakote. Glad that it is holding up for you.

Did you apply it yourself? I coated my LS7 headers after I welded the outlet pipes to them this past winter (indoors). The fumes the Cerakote gives off while curing are enough to knock you over. I have never experienced a coating before that wanted to kill me. After the over spray cleared I took off my paint respirator mask and even with my extraction fan on in my shop the fumes overwhelmed me and were burning my throat. I had to leave the shop and it took hours for it to become bearable enough to go back in. The coating was off-gassing some noxious chemicals the entire time it was curing.

I will be applying the Cerakote to the mufflers and pipes outside this time.
 
I had a shop apply it for me. IIRC the cost was fairly minimal, I remember being surprised it was as low as it was. Sounds like nasty stuff!
 
Hector,

I am leaving my muffler bodies hanging out the opening about 1 1/2”. This allowed me to install them with no modifications to the chassis supports and brackets. It will also place the outlet of my tips past the rear bumper protrusion so no condensation will drip from the exhaust onto the rear clam. The mufflers will be cerakoted black along with all the rest of the exhaust. My plan is for no shiny bits on the exterior of the car.
Kurt:
Glad you mentioned that the muffler bodies are hanging out, I did not appreciate that from the pictures, I do like that option without extensive mods.
I still have not decided on the exact mufflers or finish, but is good to know you can let them hang out!!! Thanks
 
Don't know if anyone said it yet but race ramps are a life saver on the trailer for loading low stuff. the ramps you made hurt my back looking at them.
 
Don't know if anyone said it yet but race ramps are a life saver on the trailer for loading low stuff. the ramps you made hurt my back looking at them.

I had looked at Race Ramps and just couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money on something so simple. The ones I made are constructed of 1/4" plywood, glued and screwed together, with multiple cross braces and longitudinal braces underneaths. I could drive my truck over them which weighs more than twice what the SL-C weighs.
 
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