Dean's SLC build thread

[Dean Lampe]

Some of you have sent me messages about the mirrors in the first start video. Those are the standard mirrors, or at least they were. The problem for me was that I need excellent visibility on the track and the simple SPA mirrors are between $150 and $200 a piece! There has to be a better way. I think I found it. I used the standard mirrors and started cutting.

I used a belt sander to do the rough shaping then did the rest by hand.

The stands are just 6 inch tubes welded to some seat belt washers. The ID on the tube is just barely 5/16 so all thread will fit through it.

Here was the first attempt all bolted together. The angle on the mirror was slightly tilted up. You could easily sand the face to make it appear flat but that would not be the right thing to do. Instead, I built a base on the mirror body with some plastic epoxy and a fender washer for support. I did the same thing on the inside to keep the surfaces parallel.

Here is a look at the finished mirror with the correct base.

I used 3M 2 sided foam tape on the bottom of the mount to keep it from twisting and drilled a 5/16 hole in the door to run the all thread through and bolt from the bottom. Be sure to use a little epoxy on the nut in the mirror to keep it from turning. Also, you really need to double check what is on the inside of the door before you drill, just saying!

You can adjust the mirror by loosening the nut inside the door and then you can fine tune with the pivot inside the mirror. Works great!:thumbsup:

This still isn't enough to be sure I can see all there is to see behind me so I mounted a 7 inch Pyle LCD screen in the roof that will wire to a camera in the tale section. It was super easy to install and works great. If I cant see you in my side mirrors, I'll see you in my "rear view mirror".

Camera.

 

[Jack]

Fantastic job Dean! I may just have to use this idea with some small oval tubing I have laying around. Looks great!

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

We made the race car mirrors a similar way with chromoly aero tubing but we have a jam nut mid way up the stalk so it can be adjusted easily without removing anything from the mirror.
We also have a camera for the 01 car but did not install it as Ryan did not feel it really necessary.

 

[Dean Lampe]

No need to remove anything from the mirror to adjust, just loosen the nut inside the door. The nice thing about these mirrors is that you shouldn't need to adjust the housing anyway. It's like your car you drive everyday. The housing doesn't move, just the glass inside.

 

[Dean Lampe]

The tach wiring is a little confusing in the GM instruction manual. If you are not using the ISIS system, you will have to do some "fixing". I tried wiring the tach wire to the tach wire in the harness and it didn't work so I had to add the resistors to the 12 volt power then solder it to the GM tach wire. With that done, I connected it to the tach wire from the harness. It is working great now.

The red wire goes to my tach wire from the harness.

 

[Dave]

We also have a camera for the 01 car but did not install it as Ryan did not feel it really necessary.

That's because he probably only cares about what is in front and in his way.

 

[Dean Lampe]

The exhaust was a little harder to build. These are the LS7 flanges from Fran,

I needed to get that oval down to a round 3 inch and turn it 90 degrees in 5.5 inches! The first step was buy a couple reducers that went from 4 to 3 inch. I flattened the 4 inch and cut as much off as I could then welded it to the flange.

Here is the exhaust package that I needed to assemble from here.

I took the studs out of the manifold so I can remove the exhaust when I had it all tacked together.

I welded a section of 3 inch straight to the 90 fitting and completely cut one leg of the 90 off as close to the bend as I could. I then put it in the car and tacked it to the flange piece.

I bolted the fully welded piece in the car and marked where to cut to fit the muffler. Then I slid the muffler on and tacked it in place.

Here are the mufflers before paint.

They don't look like much for the tremendous amount of time it took to build them. This picture was taken as the sun was coming up around 5:15. I worked on it all night.

I decided to go with a high heat white. I always like the white pipes.

 

[Mesa]

No wonder it is "ungodly"
I don't see any mufflers....

 

[Jack]

Dean, do you feel that no hangers are needed on the outboard ends?
Great job on those.

 

[Grant S]

Your gonna need "beware of jet blast" decals on the sides of the car.
put some spark plugs in those O2 bungs and you'll have 8 feet of flame out the sides, After Burners, LOL. Looks like your going to be having some Great fun soon Dean, good work.
Cheers,

 

[Dean Lampe]

I'll probably add the hangers but the pipes really don't weigh much. I don't know if they would really be needed. They need to come off to put the gaskets in anyway. That's when I'll add the hangers. I had to order them but I didn't want to wait to fire it up.

There is a little muffler there, see that little bitty bulge!:thumbsup:

 

[Ben]

Without supports, would the exhaust crack from vibrations? Didn't the 01 car have issues with broken exhausts? Not sure if it was from a related problem though.

 

[JordonMusser]

Supports needed. The natural frequency of that exhaust is going to be very low...

 

[Jack]

Not related to hangers Ben. Simple problem that was taken care of already.

 

[Matt K]

I spy a JK hard top with a light bar on it haha. Do you own a modded JK?

Love the build. I saw the other thread with your thoughts after tracking it. Your SLC came out awesome :thumbsup:

 

[Dean Lampe]

I need to finish the build thread now that the car is done. From the point I left off to the finished product was just the little stuff. I'll see what pictures I have left to post. I want to post a detailed HD video of the car with the bonnet and hood off just so people can see the finished product and see some things that I might not have discussed in the build. From that point we can open it up to more of a discussion about the build.

Matt, your right, that is a JKU top. I do a lot of off-roading with my boys. It goes to a 2012 Rubi with all the goodies but that is for another thread.

 

[Jack]

Interested in how well your mirror "stalks" worked out. Video showed little to no vibration, but all I could see in them was the wing. Maybe "hippo ears" for a reason.

 

[Doc Kaler]

Jack,

I see Dean has a rear view monitor so the side mirrors may be more for rear-side viewing.

 

[Doug]

Dean,
Did you get the parts for repair, yet?

I'm looking forward to the video showing all of the parts of the car / build.

very inspiring project (and results)!

Doug

 

[Ken Roberts]

Dean in post #214 showing the fuel pressure regulator in the second picture it looks like your vacuum port is capped. This needs to be left open to vent to atmosphere.