Grimoire.E #10: Superlite GT-R Build

[Nick Diasio]

Timeline:
April 2021: Order Placed
December 2021: Informed of shortages delaying completion of car
March 2022: Updated clutch and Invoice for Graziano Transaxle
…
July 13 2023: Delivery
July 27th: Received pack list and list of back ordered items

Finally received my GT-R a few weeks back. I posted a timeline that I will update as I reach key milestones. I plan to post updates here as well as more detailed posts on my own site that should be easier to follow.
Specs:
Rolling Shell Weight: TBD
Finished Car Weight: TBD
Engine: TBD, V12 if it fits, other if not
Engine Management: Haltech Nexus R5
Transaxle: Graziano
Brake Package: Basic
Wheels: Forgestar Center Lock CF5V
Interior Options: Removable Side bars

Goal: Update and modify several parts of it while sticking to its original design when possible. I plan to use 3D scanners, CAD, 3d printers etc to build custom parts, and possibly make a resto-mod of sorts which sounds weird since it doesn’t feel old but the (original) design is already 20 years old! I’m a huge fan of the Ruffian GT40

**If I can find the time I’ll try to make this similar to a guide that others can follow, but despite having built quite a few things I’m no pro, so I’m happy to hear advice and suggestions**

Delivery July 13th:
The car arrived as a roller. Thankfully it had a steering rack because even then it was hard to unload. There was only an inch or so on each side and it didn’t help that the front wheels were pointing different directions.
What you get is a chassis with wheels, a fiberglass body, and an interior filled with boxes.

It seemed like a lot of boxes as first but after unpacking the car there was far less than I expected.

It looks menacing in the shop, every time I see it I’m surprised how wide and low it is.

 

[Nick Diasio]

Posted original thread in wrong forum. Reposting here

 

[Nick Diasio]

I’ve had a bit to look around the car more and the chassis looks fantastic. The billet pieces are beautiful and the welds look nice.

The fiberglass… not so much.
It’s covered in scratches and gouges, probably from sitting in the shop for so long. There’s a large paint bubble in the headlight bucket but otherwise no bubbles. That’s fine since I expected to be doing plenty of body work, but choosing a colored gel coat is relatively pointless unless you want a feel for certain shades of color.
My main concern is really just how misaligned the body is despite 2 year wait. There’s a few welded pieces on the rear bumper bar that don’t line up and the entire shell seems to be shifted 3/4 an inch to the left.
The rear wheels are toed in pretty badly but there’s no more adjustment to toe them out so they almost rub the fenders.
One door opens and closes fine but the passengers digs into the door frame.
I’m hoping these turn out to be minor things, and once i figure out how to adjust and align everything it will be fine, but we’ll see. I remember seeing a build thread for one of H’s cars and the body was shifted an inch forward.

Above is the rubbing door and below is the shifted body

Left wheel is sunken in and right wheel sits flush/ sticks out ^

Here you can see the rear wheel position in the fender well. The wheels are toed in so this accounts for what I hope is most of the misalignment.

Summary: SNAFU!
It’s a kit car and never in the history of my working on cars have aftermarket parts fit together without modification so I’m not too surprised, but it’s gonna be a lot more than just assembling parts. Should be interesting!

 

[Nick Diasio]

More photos
Overhead photo of the car.

The wheel wheel jacks have been very helpful for moving around the car in the shop.
After clearing out the interior. The inside is huge! Despite the space though, with the seat jammed up against the tunnel the seat is still not centered on the steering column.

Here’s the Two piece carbon seat. I only received one. The other is back ordered.

 

[Steven Lobel]

Pics are not showing

 

[Nick Diasio]

Pics are not showing

Thanks for letting me know I’ll try to repost them tonight!

 

[Rob Hurley]

Yep pics not showing. I'll be watching. Sounds like a fun build.

 

[Brian Kissel]

They were there yesterday, I looked at them.

Regards Brian

 

[Nick Diasio]

Yep pics not showing. I'll be watching. Sounds like a fun build.

Got them updated! They worked fine when i hit preview post last night so not sure what happened between then and now

 

[Nick Diasio]

They were there yesterday, I looked at them.

Regards Brian

i thought so too, glad I’m not the only crazy one

 

[Nick Diasio]

More photos. Have not worked on the car yet as we’ve been reorganizing the shop to clear some more space for it and get a 3 car lift in place.
Currently the rear clamshell is off and I’m printing some mounts to screw onto a wood frame so the body can sit on it properly and similar to how it sat on the car. here’s an image of the rear with the clamshell removed

Front clamshell removed

 

[Rob Hurley]

Looks great. If you are messing with the duck tail fittment. I found that that rear frame assembly can be bent into place rather than use shims. I stuck a floor jack under mine with a 2x4 to bring it up a bit. All the tig welding of the tub on mine was top notch but I think Fran had a newbee weld out the ducktail assembly.

 

[Jim B.]

Nick, congratulations!!!!
did you get a steering rack with your car? Mine was ordered 2/1/2021 and I have still not received my rack. it is the last of the backorder items I am missing and would help so much since I have to move my car around frequently.

 

[Kurtiss H.]

Nick, congratulations and welcome to the forum. I'm excited to see your build.

 

[Nick Diasio]

Looks great. If you are messing with the duck tail fittment. I found that that rear frame assembly can be bent into place rather than use shims. I stuck a floor jack under mine with a 2x4 to bring it up a bit. All the tig welding of the tub on mine was top notch but I think Fran had a newbee weld out the ducktail assembly.

glad to hear I'm not alone and that sounds much better. My flanges don't even bolt flush to the uprights haha. One side of the flange is about a cm off... Gonna be lots of finessing on all parts of this build haha

 

[Nick Diasio]

Nick, congratulations!!!!
did you get a steering rack with your car? Mine was ordered 2/1/2021 and I have still not received my rack. it is the last of the backorder items I am missing and would help so much since I have to move my car around frequently.

Oh man that's brutal. I got a rack thankfully but there are a ton of backordered parts I'm missing, I plan to just buy or fab aftermarket ones rather than waiting for this reason, but a steering rack is hard to fab.... hopefully fran will be shipping yours like he said in the other thread... hard to get a hold of him...
I've been using jacks that go under the tires or wheel dollies with 4 caster wheels to move it which would let you get it around inside. but if you have to send it to a shop. no steering rack has to make that "fun"...

 

[Nick Diasio]

Nick, congratulations and welcome to the forum. I'm excited to see your build.

thank you! Reading through your thread has been a good starting point

 

[Larry J Kishel]

Nick have fun these cars are really cool to build and this forum is filled with a lot of information so you don't make a mistake in the build. Believe me there will be times you will need to find something we all have done already.

 

[Jim B.]

I got a rack thankfully

@gt40fran can you comment on the order racks are being given out? I understand backorders but all along I have been assuming that the orders would be filled based on the order dates but that doesnt seem to be the case. Can you comment on the order they are filled? My last 4-5 emails to customer service havent been answered.

 

[Nick Diasio]

Been busy moving but in the past few months made some excruciatingly slow progress. We weren't a huge fan of the carbon seats that came with the car so we got some recaro podiums. They were backordered for like a year but it turns out as long as you don't care that the fia stickers are on the wrong side, you can buy 2 passenger seats with no wait.
The quality of the weave and clear coat is on another level and they look great. It seems like there may be a little less head clearance even though the seat is only a few mm off the floor.
While fitting them I found my floor pan to be pretty warped but that's a project for future me.
I'm 5 10 and can fit a fist between my head and roof, it gets a bit tight when wearing a helmet though.