A lot of work has been getting done. It's funny, every next piece of the body you move onto comes with a new unforeseen complication.
This is a big update as all the body panels are mounted except for the doors. (If you can't tell we are really excited to have this project going finally lol my wife is joking that she has been replaced by the car). This project has certainly done it's job of being a great excuse to spend more time with my dad across town. We have a "GT40 night" once a week after work, and squeeze time in on the weekends here and there.
The first thing we did was build a rolling table of sorts to get the car up off the ground and make it easy to move out of the way when it isn't being worked on. Nothing fancy, especially compared to the gulf livery lift built by
@Mstarkey3 LOL.... The caster wheels unfortunately have a pretty low weight rating. With 6 of these the table is technically only rated for about 2000 lbs... curious to see how they hold up. It rolls with ease, even over the cracks in the floor. So far we are really happy with it.
The first thing on the car we worked on were the rockers as these set up positioning for the rest of the body panels. Before we did this we set up the front suspension to the recommended specs and got the lower control arms parallel to the ground (thanks everyone for the advice on this. This turned out to be SO critical). Our new alignment tool still hasn't arrived so we had to get by with the Iphone level app. (It only measures down to the nearest degree so not terribly precise but good enough for now). Front currently set to -1deg of camber and +4deg of caster.
The hardest part of the rockers/front clip by far was getting the Toyo Proxes R1Rs (225/45/R17) to fit... for awhile moral was quite low as we could not make it fit well enough without major modifications to the front clip.
The breakthrough was setting the rockers just right, and slightly adjusting the position on the passenger side rocker leading edge so the entire panel could be set further to the rear. Very happy to report that the wheels/tires currently fit GREAT and the clip will possibly not even need trimmed. There may still be a very small amount of rubbing on the inside of the wheel well where the gas tank lid mounts, but only a fraction of an inch. The current plan is to circle back and make a new plate out of thinner aluminum and "dish" it so there is plenty of clearance.
With the rockers and the front clip set we got to work on the spider. There was some trimming needed. The same lip that
@Mstarkey3 had to cut off the rear of his spider was fighting us as well so that was first on the chopping block.
After measuring the spider about 100 times we finally committed and screwed it into the car with temporary self tapping screws. A 1/8" spacer was installed under each B pillar and two were used on each side.
It's incredible how much the spider tightened up after mounting it. It feels completely different and very sturdy. A big key for us in getting the spider to match up well with the front clip was to clamp down the B pillars FIRST, and then tighten down the front of the spider. It was interesting how large of a difference this made.
The rear clip was next, and this led to several new big issues. The first one was rear tire fitment (Toyo Proxes R1R 275/35/R17). The wheelbase was at 96" and the rear tire fitment was far from ideal initially as you can see below.
We figured at first either the rear clip was too short or our suspension was out of adjustment. We had it at -1deg camber and +6 caster but again the wheelbase was off by an inch. The first choice is obviously to dial in the wheelbase, however it was puzzling because we were out of thread on the lower rear trailing arms so there was no way to bring the rear wheels forward to get closer to the typical wheelbase of 95". We knew something wasn't right as even with the bars at their minimum length the lower rear heim joint on the upright had to be brought out quite far to get the toe in check. Lastly the lower control arm was visually angled strongly to the rear of the car. I don't really have the best photos of this to help explain... I need to be better about taking photos.
The point is there were many indications that the rear wheels needed to move forward a good ways. Long story short, after tinkering with the suspension for a long time, slightly trimming the lower trailing arm bars, and adjusting the suspension again to the same specs, all the pieces finally came together. It was SUCH a relief to have the entire body fitting so well.
Actually mounting the clip on it's hinges went smoothly, except the first time we tried to mount it we forgot the make sure it would clear the aluminum angle iron that spans the edge of the rear under tray when opening. When we went to shorten the rods holding the end of the under tray to raise it up we noticed the heim joints were bound up and the mounting brackets needed modified to reduce the angle.
Earlier this week we left off beginning to mount the doors. The hinge system looks great. I read a few people have had luck using one long bolt to keep each mount parallel which I might give a shot. Hopefully soon I will have updates on the doors being installed. Right away at it is clear a lot of material needs to come off the doors to help them fit.
I am excited to get all the body panels hard mounted so we can then start perfecting body lines and panel fitment. Going to be ordering door seals soon to help make sure we get the fitment just right.
Lastly, I would like everyone to meet the chief engineer/supervisor of this project. An Aussie is always the hardest worker in the room and demands perfection at all times. The true brains of the operation. I think we are in good hands...
