Nicks Forte Scratch Build - to Stunning Mk1 GTD

NickD

Supporter
Finally feel like I'm making some serious progress. Spent a few hours Today checking the body alignment. With only the front and rear clips to properly seat down to the sill tops and a few mm's to trim off the bottom of the passenger door, all's looking like its finally paying off. Shut lines all looking good.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0966.jpg
    IMG_0966.jpg
    345.5 KB · Views: 945

NickD

Supporter
A little progress this weekend. Have been focused on the final body alignment prior to mounting the front and rear clips onto the parrot beak hinges. A little trimming to the passenger door (a few mm here and there) and checking the shut lines all around. All in all a slow pace given just how hard it is at this stage to undo and mistakes. Very happy with things at this stage with next weekend looking to the hinge placement.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1093.jpg
    IMG_1093.jpg
    150.2 KB · Views: 799
  • IMG_1094.jpg
    IMG_1094.jpg
    436.9 KB · Views: 790

NickD

Supporter
Finally bit the bullet Today and settled on my final Spyder position along with the doors. Once all these were fixed for the final time it was a case of dealing with the hinge positions for the rear clip. A real challenge of a job when your alone but after a couple of house, it all came Together as I wanted with all the shut lines nailed.

With the rear clip now easy to open, I can set about fabricating the rear exhaust components allowing the tail pipes to exit the rear bodywork exactly where I want and central.

If the rest of the Holiday weekend goes as well as this last few hours, I'll be well chuffed !
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1145.jpg
    IMG_1145.jpg
    182.4 KB · Views: 776
  • IMG_1146.jpg
    IMG_1146.jpg
    405.1 KB · Views: 760
  • IMG_1147.jpg
    IMG_1147.jpg
    457.2 KB · Views: 799

NickD

Supporter
Quite a lot of progress since my last post. Now have the front clip on and aligned just as I wished and its all looking good with all the body components on and in place so just some gentle fettling to get all the gaps looking good.

Popped the two SGT silencer casings in this afternoon and set the angle's etc. to the rear and tack welded in place. Will firm up Tomorrow. Have had the silencer casings sitting around for over 2 years so they will need a little rub down before the silica based coating goes on.

Then I'll pop on the chrome end pipes to complete.

Progress is slow but steady.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1224.jpg
    IMG_1224.jpg
    222.3 KB · Views: 702
  • IMG_1226.jpg
    IMG_1226.jpg
    224.8 KB · Views: 684

NickD

Supporter
Following on from Yesterdays progress it was time to finish welding up the silencer casings, remove the two years of storage surface rust etc. and then prep. Now duly shortened to the right length and then suitable primed and painted with a 2000 degree F Silica based coating, all's looking good. Now just the case of popping in the internal metal baffles and glass wadding to make them suitable for the eventual UK ministry of transport tests. Hopefully, that's another job done and dusted.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1228.jpg
    IMG_1228.jpg
    342.7 KB · Views: 680

NickD

Supporter
Have now taken the next step of suitably stuffing the silencers with a sound deadening material and mounting all items to check if my measurements meant they would duly exit the rear clip exactly as planned. Long story short, this is a job I seem to have got about as good a result as I could have hoped for. Yep, I could have saved myself a stack of agro and simply purchased an exhaust off the shelf which would probably have got me 90% there but its a scratch build and I intended to do as much as I could when I started out. Well chuffed ;-)
 

Attachments

  • IMG_1274.jpg
    IMG_1274.jpg
    362.7 KB · Views: 585
  • IMG_1275.jpg
    IMG_1275.jpg
    264.5 KB · Views: 626
  • IMG_1277.jpg
    IMG_1277.jpg
    420.2 KB · Views: 637
  • IMG_1276.jpg
    IMG_1276.jpg
    430.9 KB · Views: 630
I just signed up to the forum and went through all the pages of your build. top notch. i have been wondering, the steel used for making the frame was of what grade ? was everything you built done with seemless tubing? in your opinion a 4.0 ltr rover v8 is a good basis for such a car?
 

Ian Anderson

Lifetime Supporter
Glenn, perhaps I can answer that one for Nick.
I gave a car with a Morgan (Rover block) 3.9 full race engine by John Eales. Cost in total £10k, it runs fuel injection and gets 250 hp as it has Been dyno’d. For 2/3 of that you would get a Ford 302. And in a Ford GT40 should it not have a Ford engine?
When you come to sell your price will be lower than a car with a Ford in it.

That said I cannot bring myself to get the Morgan motor out!
Ian
 
In your opinion a 4.0 ltr rover v8 is a good basis for such a car?

So, IMO and without wanting to derail Nicks thread, No.

I'm not fitting a SBF to mine but the Rover V8 was one I looked at and dismissed early on.

Firstly it's really under powered. As @IanAnderson says, £10k for ~250hp. There are plenty of other (massively) cheaper engines that will give that "out of the box". I mean for real cheap you could do worse than just drop in an Audi V8 complete with matching gearbox.

The stock SBF 289/302 was rated for about 200-230hp so if you're not too bothered about power then just dropping a stock one in will give you almost the same power for less cost. With relatively little work you'll see 300hp+ and 400hp is achievable reasonably easily for less than you'd spend getting a mere 250hp out of the RV8. Hell for £5k you can pick up a blueprinted "Crate" long block SBF from Real Steel with 330hp. Another £k or so on ancillaries and it'll do that 330hp all week long.

Secondly, beware the path less travelled. It's all very well and good thinking "oh I can do this and it'll cost less" but in the long run its cheaper and easier to do what everyone else has because they have already run into all the problems. Yes people have fitted the RV8 into GT40 replicas but that was really when SBF's weren't available here and they've typically used the UN1 (which are getting a bit rare now) and using a different box to the one the chassis has been designed for brings all new problems. I've run into a whole load of problems (and additional cost) that I have created for myself. While I don't regret not going SBF, in hindsight if I was to do over I would.

Finally, while I would never suggest someone "build for resale value" as every build is personal what Ian said is also true, a GT40 with a different engine will be worth less. It can be worth it to you if you want something particularly special or different but in honesty the RV8 is not that special. It's only advantage is that it's light and highly available in the UK. It's not that light though, about 230Kg fully loaded and not that small either. A 1UZ for comparison (with all ancillaries) is 215Kg, smaller and makes 260-300hp (depending on year) without any modifications. You could well end up out of pockets both ways, costing you more fitting the RV8 to get the same power *and* then also losing more money when you finally come to sell it

Of course the other side of the coin is if you already have a 300hp RV8 sitting around doing nothing then while not ideal it is probably going to be worth it because that's something you don't have to spend on that can be spent elsewhere.
 

Neil

Supporter
Chevrolet LS series: lightweight, cheap, available, powerful, aftermarket parts available & cheap, small size.
 
Have now taken the next step of suitably stuffing the silencers with a sound deadening material and mounting all items to check if my measurements meant they would duly exit the rear clip exactly as planned. Long story short, this is a job I seem to have got about as good a result as I could have hoped for. Yep, I could have saved myself a stack of agro and simply purchased an exhaust off the shelf which would probably have got me 90% there but its a scratch build and I intended to do as much as I could when I started out. Well chuffed ;-)
Hi Nick,

Apologies if you already know, I think your silencer ends need a radius on them to pass IVA.

Regards

Nick
 
Hi, Seriously LS !
Doesnt this engine blasphemy belong elswhere, and not cluttering up Nick’s fine buildlog?

Sorry Nick:)

Kind regards
Morten

I built a Cobra with a LS1.. I love it. I know its blasphemous, but mabye I like it even better for it.. Lovely strong 6speed T56 gearbox, LSD diff, its a blast to drive a full modern EFI motor in a cobra.
 

NickD

Supporter
I thought I had more or less finished with the Engine and Exhaust assembly until I realised I had made a serious oversight. Given the Adapter plate on this Ford / Audi Conversion is made of aluminium as opposed to steel and given its thickness, it can't take the starter motor bolt threads as they would pull through. So, to my horror I found that the Starter has to be attached before the gearbox is bolted on as the Starter bolts essentially run from inside the bell housing. They are countersunk M10's. (also, any change in Starter Motor means the gearbox has to come off).

Yep, exactly what I thought when I realised how it had to be done. Never seen anything like it !

This then lead me to pull the entire ass end of the car off again just to get the starter fitted. Then to the next set of issues in that when I did put the starter on, the tolerances are simply too tight between the Flywheel ring gear and the Starter bendix. Video's links belo showing the difficulty in engaging the gear and then the horror of seeing the metal shavings flying off my starter gear as the harder flywheel ring gear began making a tasty appertiser out of them.



I have now actually overcome the issue by being able to slightly change the starter position by modifying the adapter plate.

A total nightmare of an experience from end to end.
 
Back
Top