Dusty's SLC Build

[Ken Roberts]

I highly recommend widening the front roll hoop. This will be one of your last chances to get it done. We all hate how thick the A pillar covers are and the fact they don't even fit without adding additional material. Joel developed a great solution (Joels build video 102). I copied it on my car.

Newer cars from the factory have had the hoop redesigned to help alleviate this problem. I don't know when the redesign took place unfortunately. Probably in the last 3 years. Just a guess.

 

[Murray Dowman]

I highly recommend widening the front roll hoop. This will be one of your last chances to get it done. We all hate how thick the A pillar covers are and the fact they don't even fit without adding additional material. Joel developed a great solution (Joels build video 102). I copied it on my car.

Newer cars from the factory have had the hoop redesigned to help alleviate this problem. I don't know when the redesign took place unfortunately. Probably in the last 3 years. Just a guess.

Ditto for me ( Thanks Joel ) - added 2" to width. 4130 section with spud to each side. Offset base plates to utilize existing mounting bolts

 

[Dusty]

in hindsight i wish i had done this widening when i had the cage work done by the fabricator. But at this point im going to let it stay as it is.

 

[Dusty]

A little advise needed

im having a little issue with the nose piece. Th nose piece seems to hang a little low in relation to the spider. if i use the splitter at the base that the nose piece sits, i find that the nose piece seems to ankle down in relation to the spider. solutions would be:

1. raise the aluminum radiator box assemply "up" by sliding the whole box up in relation to the aluminum tub

2. make a 1 inch spacer between the spliter and the nose piece

I tried to sit the spider as low as possible where the windshield frame sits on the foot box (remove any spaceres from the footbox and the windshield frame) but when i do that i end up with a gap at the back of the nose pice where it lays on the spider by the a pillar

i suspect i just need to do a little fiberglass work to make it all fit

 

[Ken Roberts]

Is this what you are describing? My nylon block is 1/2” thick by 2” wide. Came from the factory with it installed.

 

[Dusty]

thank you Ken!!!

Yes that's the solution!! I have been struggling with this for days.

I purchased my car partially assembled and was unsure of how the splitter was so supposed to attach. I assumed the splitter bolted below the aluminum. i bolt it above the aluminum with the uhmw plastic spacer everything will fit perfectly. i have sheets of uhmw here in my shop.

thanks guys.

and thanks to Superlight. I have called them many times to help me with small parts i'm missing/have lost. they never charge me.

 

[Alex]

I raised my front section by placing some 1/2'' plywood between the splitter and the front clip.

I traced it the shape of the front clip flange on the plywood, cut it up, and then had a bodyshop paint the wood gloss back .... 15yrs later still looks great and nobody can tell I used plywood on my car, hah.

Aluminum would be too heavy and a SOB to cut. Plastic would be a bugger to paint. But plywood is just right.

 

[Dusty]

OK, she is coming along. Body seems to be lined up OK but seems like the rear wheels are a little bit too much to the rear and the front wheels are a little bit too much to the front.

In this pic, the rear rocker panels are about 3 inches off the ground and the front rocker panels are about 6 inches off the ground so I need to adjust the springs but I need to figure this one out.

While the passenger side front fender seems to fit very well , the drivers side front fender doesn’t quite want to slide down easily next to the front of the window frame. It kind of binds up. I think I’m going to have to trim back the fender along the spot where it’s touching the window frame so that we get a better fit. as it is now, the front driver side fender rest a little higher than the front of the door. You can see it in the pic.

 

[Joel K]

Dusty, I had a similar issue with the passenger side front clam. The front clam was slightly warped but wasn’t hitting the spider as you describe. I put some weight on the area and over a period of weeks/couple months the fender relaxed and flattened out. Can’t remember how much weight, maybe 5-10 pounds. Now it lays perfectly flat.

Before…

After…

 

[Joel K]

Dusty, I had similar fit issues with the wheel base being a bit too long for the body, on post #295 documented how I adjusted the wheels to center in the body…

Thread 'Joel’s SL-C Build Thread'

May 20, 2018

Hi everyone,

I figure I’d get started and create my build thread. I ordered an SLC 8 weeks ago so delivery date is something like 8 to 16 weeks out

This will be my first component/kit car although at 19 years old I semi-restored a 68 Corvette. Did some body work, hand made the entire interior and some chassis work.

I started getting the itch to build a component car and started looking at various kits. I ran across the SLC on the web and thought it would be a very interesting and challenging build. Being a huge IMSA GTP fan I just think driving around town in a GTP car would be a lot of...

• Jkviper
• car carbon fiber fiberglass slc
• Replies: 558
• Forum: The SLC Clubhouse

 

[Mark B.]

Great progress, Dusty!
Regarding the front clip alignment, make sure you mock up your windshield before you try aligning anything with the front of the spider. Assuming you're using a glass windshield, several of us had to spread out the spider to help fill the gap between the spider and the windshield at the bottom corners. With mine, that had a bunch of knock-on effects including needing to reshape the front clip a bit in that same area since it was rubbing pretty badly on the spider. In hindsight I really wish I had gone with a lexan windshield and just slipped the inspector a bonus when I got it registered

 

[Dusty]

Still working on it guys
Because I put these bar braces/guards across the door openings this car becomes a little more complicated. As seen in the pictures, I’ve had to make a few modifications. I had to put these carbon fiber inserts into the doors so that I could remove material so that the door would close with the bars in place.

One of the benefits of having those door bars in is that I have these pick up points that I can use. I use these points to strengthen the fiberglass rocker panel door entry. The car is incredibly stiff now with these aluminum braces. Note that there are two of them in the door entry that correspond to the bolts securing the Door bars in place. To trim these out I used till it seat very low profile washers.

Not that with these doors, I also did not put any door mechanism hardware inside of the door. The door latch is in the fiberglass body. I used a door latch that has two triggers. Both cable actuated the door handles are from Speedway. Note that I mounted the Inside latch on my door bar and I mounted the outside latch just inside the intake in front of the rear fender. I haven’t yet thought of how I’m going to lock this car. I might just have to take the steering wheel in with me whenever I leave the car.

I’m still struggling about what I want to do for hydraulic cylinders to open the door. I bought some, but I don’t like the idea of how it’s going to distort this very lightweight door with the pressure from the cylinder. I might develop some sort of manual latch system that I deploy when the door is opened. Without any door hardware in the door, it’s going to be even lighter than normal.

 

[Dusty]

Note also that I am not using all of the fiberglass tub trim stuff. I chopped the tub up and I’m only using parts of it. Of course it had to be modified pretty heavily to fit around my door bars, but it’s gonna work.

Especially after I add the animal skin trim inside

 

[Dusty]

Note that I put some one by one square tubing, carbon fiber in the back and blasted it in to beef up the tub in the rear a bit. This stuff is crazy, strong and light.

Note that I have rust in some hinges for the rear of the car. On brass bushings. I’m going to shape these aluminum pieces with a little more class, but they’re very functional and solid.

I went kind of crazy with those low profile washers. I have secured the car body very well to the aluminum tub. There are four such washers holding the front down and two washers holding the tub down by the quarter panels.

In addition, note that the tub is connected to the body twice with the door mounts that I made

And lastly, note that I built these brackets around the window frame with those similar till it washers. The window frame is absolutely solid where it connects to the windshield roll at hoop. There is one washer on both side sides of the windshield hoop.

I similarly put one washer at the back corner of the door frame at the top. These washers are also held on with an aluminum bracket that connects the fiberglass to the hoop.

The whole car is very solid like this. And the brackets by the windshield allow me to slightly. Tweak the windshield to get a better fit.

As it sits, the doors are closing pretty darn nice. They will need a little bit of work, but overall they feel good.

 

[Dusty]

I’m very happy with how the whole thing is coming together. Thank you Superlight for giving me something to do at night after work. What a fantastic car.

 

[Shane]

It's really looking good Dusty. I really like the low profile washers!