Dan's Build

[Frank Clark]

Re: Driver, footpeddles, & steering alignment. What did U do?

If you can see and reach everything well you will get used to any reasonable offset. I have owned factory cars with lots of offset and within a few weeks didn't think twice about it.

 

[Mark B.]

Hi Dan, did you ever find any pics of the new design sway bar install? I'm curious how it mounts and how it's different from the old design.

 

[Dan Carter]

I requested some install info and was told it mounts on the same horizontal axis as the brake lines (I think that references the new ones which run along the top edge outside the foot well (firewall). The steering mechanism runs in that same general area just below the brake lines. I have not seen any photos or pictures so I am not clear on what to expect myself. If I interpret this correctly I am guessing that the location of the most inboard brake reservoir may be in the wrong location. To make my install perhaps even more complex is I have the extended foot well, so I really am guessing.

 

[Dan Carter]

Re: Driver, footpeddles, & steering alignment. What did U do?

Frank/Mike

Thanks for the feedback.....the offset is new to us (more pronounced I guess), so just feeling it out

We double checked the dash and column last night. You are correct that if we offset the column, it would look funny and out of alignment with the dash center. I have set the seat as far down as I can and still allows me to fit and I only get about a fingers width of clearance between my right thigh and the steering wheel so its tight. Guess I have maxed out the drivers position. Glad I dropped 27 lbs this year......so belly is clear.....

 

[Ethan]

Re: Driver, footpeddles, & steering alignment. What did U do?

If you can see and reach everything well you will get used to any reasonable offset. I have owned factory cars with lots of offset and within a few weeks didn't think twice about it.

+1 my Porsche 964 has a really large offset. you get used ot it although every spring when out of storage it feels weird a little

http://rennlist.com/forums/993-foru...heel-centered-with-your-seat.html#post1332454

 

[Dan Carter]

Re: Driver, footpeddles, & steering alignment. What did U do?

I knew in building a car like this I would learn a whole lot of new stuff....this is just another on the learning curve. I had no idea.....bad news is now I look for it every time I drive one of my cars...darn!
:laugh:

 

[Ken Roberts]

I've have a set of these sway bars as well and couldn't find anybody that has installed them yet. There are no mounting points on the control arms for the end links. I'm not about to go experimenting with drilling holes in them. What a complete waste of a $1000. There is zero factory assistance with how and where to mount them.

 

[Ken Roberts]

The lack of info given out on installing them must be a liability issue. Wish I would have known that before ordering them. Not one person has installed them.

 

[A.J. Schreder]

Re: Driver, footpeddles, & steering alignment. What did U do?

I moved my column to the left about a half inch to center the wheel to the driver. I checked the dash, and it is nicely centered to the instruments. I also raised the column as far as I could go before any of the components on the column hit the bottom of the crossmember. This greatly improved visibility of the instruments thru the wheel. Instrument visibility may be worse in my case because I'm using a slightly smaller steering wheel (320mm). This has created problems with instrument visibility but is great for driving position.

I angled my adjustable pedal assembly so they are on the same plane as the driver, regardless if the pedals are all the way forward or back. The seat is angled somewhat towards the middle of the car, but your whole body is completely lined up.

This is the linear actuator for the pedals just behind the radiator. It is on the same angle as the pedals that it's connected to on the other side of the footbox.

Not sure if this shows it clearly, but the left corner of the slider assembly is almost touching the bulkhead but the right side is not. The 5 degrees Fran mentions is probably accurate

 

[Dan Carter]

Odd....there should be an engineering drawing or some type of design picture to share with us don't you think......the mystery continues. :stunned:

 

[Dan Carter]

Day 108. Haven’t updated in a month, so this is a bit long…sorry
Well off the build schedule, but have gotten a few things settled and installed.
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1. This being our first comprehensive build, we spent more time mocking things up than we expected, but in doing so, lots of questions raised and research conducted to understand needs and design items we never thought of. There is a lot to building a car….like you didn’t already know.<o></o>

2. As part of deciding how to align driver, pedals and steering column, seats etc, we added additional fiberglass to seat mount attachment points and cut plates for the inside of the seat slot to strengthen the seat install. Since the pedals will be hard mounted, a reinforcement plate was cut for bolting support once it is locked down. As for steering column placement, if you have the gentleman seats, the offset to centerline shifts about 2 inches outboard. We have everything marked, did a driver/door fit check and it is very close so final placement will be driven by interior component positioning……..more to follow here.<o></o>

3. Front and rear body shells were sanded and blocked. Overall the finish wasn’t too bad actually. We did reinforce a lot of body line edges as the fiberglass came very thin in places.
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4. Never actually saw any finished pictures of the new arrangement for the front brake lines, so we finished our own mounting. To prevent the flex lines from rubbing the body during extreme turns, had to go to a 15 inch female to female line.
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5. Just finishing the welding and polishing/pressure check of the stainless coolant lines. Not sure who recommended splicing the line in the forward wheel well with a hose connection, but we too made that cut and splice. If you go this route, strongly advise you put tires on and watch their spacing to your pipes and or hoses…its very close.<o></o>

6. Delayed placing the lines for aft brakes and clutch until we could see where the coolant system tubing aligns. Now that we have them designed, we can reroute the brake/hydraulic lines to accommodate coolant pipe layout.Factory lines have a splice mid-way down the side of the car, and like the fuel system servicing is high in our design considerations. Probably going to make that a solid line to avoid any potential issues with future leaks. Like many, successfully completing a double flare on stainless brake line proved to be hit or miss with less expensive flaring tools, until we broke down and purchased the Eastwood pro-flare tool. From the very first flare, they have all been successful, even the practice sessions. Highly recommend it if you’re going to work SS brake lines.<o></o>

7. Hopefully our axles are on the way. All that open space is tempting to stick something into it….so “patiently” waiting on their arrival.<o></o>

8. Fuel system plumbing completed. This proved to be quite the learning experience with so many ways and opinions on the best method.While internal pump placement seemed to be the most desired (by us anyway), serviceability won out and we built a plate to attach the fuel system to the car (for those who stuffed all this next to the tank, bravo…we could not). Working with Aeromotive was very helpful to design a system that fit the space and HP of the LS3, so compromises had to be made to design and placement.We went with Teflon lined tubing built by Goodridge (Pegasus Racing was the only place I could find it). This braided line is corrugated and very, very flexible. Aluminum hard lines were also a strong contender and after the final layout was completed, aluminum (despite its pros/cons) would probably have worked as well and for less money as the runs ended up being short and probably would not have been subjected to serious vibration. The PTFE lined hose connectors are shockingly expensive, but what is done is done.Also this braided hose has a carbon element designed into it to eliminate and static charge build up in the fuel.
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9. Emergency brake install also settled. We could never figure out the intended install using the OEM L brackets without drilling into the newly designed milled area on the hub mounts. The hubs are now milled both inside and outside (makes them lighter). If the mounting brackets are secured directly to the brake assembly, they align with the edge of the hub mount and one set of holes drilled for mounting penetrates a milled area exposing the backside of the mounting bolt (some builders never considered it an issue for them). My engineer (son actually) frowned on doing that, so we centered up the L bracket to ensure 100% metal contact for the mounting holes.In doing so, we had to have spacers built to center the E brake over the rotor and attach it to the OEM L bracket. Unless you plan to use the E-brake for drifting, this may be nothing to worry about, but it bothered us so we changed it up a bit.
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10. Radiator and shroud assembly mounted. We have the street sway bar system on order and we were advised that the new design fits somewhere in the nose section so we hope we are not consuming any of the space that it mounts too. Love to see a schematic of that new system.<o></o>
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Enough for now.<o></o>

 

[John]

Thanks for posting details Dan. It's helpful.

 

[Dan Carter]

I know I certainly appreciate it when folks provide details, so passing it along.

 

[Dan Carter]

E-brake Handle Assembly Pictures

Tried to find some pictures of the completed E-brake handle assembly and came up empty. Below are the parts I have, can anyone direct me to a picture mounted on the center brace...thanks.

 

[PeteB]

Re: E-brake Handle Assembly Pictures

The L brackets bolt to the floor on either side of the center beam and the C bracket bolts to the top of the L brackets. E-brake handle gets mounted to the C bracket.

 

[Eric McClellan]

Re: E-brake Handle Assembly Pictures

^^ Yep, mine were the same way.

Check out Gearhead Daily | Certified Car Guy Cool! or my build thread... lots of pics.

 

[Dan Carter]

Re: E-brake Handle Assembly Pictures

Thanks gents

A picture is worth a thousand words.

:thumbsup:

 

[Dan Carter]

Day 115

1. For the curious, below are pictures of the cooling pipes after design and welding. I included a few pictures of the installation for effect. Hard to take pictures that capture them but yes they were coated black.

2. Never got to see how the factory installed the new brake lines, but we went ahead and combined factory routing with custom rerouted lines to accommodate the fuel system plates and the install of he cooling tubes. Pictures as soon as I lock them down.

3. Sure taking a long time for The Axle Shop to drop ship axles. Can not imagine what takes so much time. :thumbsdown:

4. Does anyone have a wing install with the parts shown in the last picture? I can not find a bolt pattern on the Graz attachment that fits? :idea:

 

[Daniel G]

Looks great Dan. Thanks updating us with pictures. I'm also in the process welding my coolant pipes and final mounting of brake lines. Do you have any pictures of new brake line routing up front? Unfortunately I'm in the same boat as you.. I'm waiting on axles, clutch, lift kit, and a few other misc. items. Also what hold downs did you go with for the coolant tubes?

 

[Dan Carter]

Daniel

I will take pictures of hold downs for you, but I had them modified to fit 1.5 tubing.....

I can show you what I am doing for the front brakes and the updated routing for back brakes and clutch lines. Working on a minor adjustment to separate radiator line from fuel pump and brake line. I was concerned with heat transfer so I am correcting it right now. I will send you pics in the AM. :thumbsup:
Waiting on parts seems to be a common thread.....kinda puts a damper on things.

 

[Dan Carter]

Day 119

Brake Install Update

The following review is a blend of factory parts and homegrown brake line install. The factory decided to go outside the foot well for brake line runs on the front on my kit (note I have the extended foot box, which added some complexity). The reported logic was to improve serviceability.I suppose that could be an interesting discussion by itself, but let’s run with this premise.
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1. First any job is easier with the right tools.I needed three, a line straightener, a bender and a flare tool.If you buy all three top end tools you will spend nearly $600 give or take. So I prioritized the flare tool and went with lesser capable tools to straighten and bend, but the lessor tools did just fine.In picture 1, note the Eastwood Pro flare tool, a necessity in my book to make double flares in SS. The bend pliers are made by Lyle and the straightener was nothing more than 3 - 2x4 blocks with a 3/16 hole (poor man’s solution). The pliers gave be a bend radius of 3/16 (you will need a vice or incredible grip power) and the wood blocks did OK (a bit wavy on very long runs, but acceptable for short distances) but a top end straightener was $199 or so.
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2. The single biggest issue I dealt with is the bulkhead adapter on the front brake line run.As you will see, it is run with the 3AN male on the inside of the bulkhead, but this proved to be more of a challenge. As you can see in the picture I put the check valve outside the foot well so only the brake light switch needed to be plumb inside the foot well.Once inside the foot well, I discovered I needed to convert the 3AN male bulk head adapter back to 3/8 x 24 threads to connect to the pressure switch and then back to 3AN threads to connect to the master cylinder via flex line. My solution is pictured below; albeit not the final line configuration (I got to get my big carcass in that small foot well space). All bulkhead adapters I found were 3/8 x 24 inverted flare on one side and 3AN make on the other.Ideally I needed 3/8 x 24 inverted flare to 3/8 x 24 inverted flare on the bulkhead, but no one I talked to (Summit, Fragola, Russel, Earls) make such a thing. So I had to inject a 3AN flex line and then used a 3ANM to 3/8 x 24 male adapter to connect the pressure switch as shown.
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3. As for the aft brake and the clutch, you can see I came out the side and since I took the check valve outside as well, I came off the master cylinder as shown with flex line direct to the bulkhead adapter. I wanted to bury the side adapter further forward in the foot well to prevent my feet from possibly hitting the connection, but compromised from the outside (I would move them if doing it again). I will add a foot rest later to keep from hitting that interior line connection.
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4. Since I added real-estate for the fuel system, I chose to make the side line runs from scratch and move any line connections from the middle of the spider to areas accessible once the spider was installed. At each end point of all lines, I terminated the lines with brackets and bulkhead fittings secure to the frame.
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5. I have yet to tighten or leak check, but there plenty of places to have a leak so I am expecting a couple at least. I am also making a minor change to my welded radiator lines as they got too close to the fuel lift pump (poor planning on my part) and did not leave me enough room to run the aft/clutch line the way I wants. Basically I am adding an “S” turn to create more distance.<o></o>

 

[Jack]

Looking good Dan!