Jimer's Build
- Thread starter TheJimer
- Start date
Its a cover...resin infused , light and pretty too
Jim-I'm sorry to read about your decision. Your build was as "neat" and well executed as any on the forum. I was looking forward to seeing you complete and enjoy it. I'm a little surprised as I thought you were making tremendous progress in a short time.
Anyone in the market would be hard pressed to find a better deal on such a well sorted build. The planning,engineering and project management of the build to get it to the same point takes as much and sometimes even more effort than drilling the hole and turning the wrench.
Best of luck.
Anyone in the market would be hard pressed to find a better deal on such a well sorted build. The planning,engineering and project management of the build to get it to the same point takes as much and sometimes even more effort than drilling the hole and turning the wrench.
Best of luck.
Ricardo thank you for the kind words; I consider that high praise coming from someone who pays as much attention to detail as you do! I have followed your build and have borrowed many of your creative ideas.
Thanks again,
Jim
So, now I am confused. I was already to build the shroud (mine fans are zip tied to the radiator with industrial ties). But in reading this thread it would appear shroudless is the way to go?
Seems like Fran is not in favor.
On another note, I am in the process of replacing my radiator hoses that connect to the cooling tubes. IN my setup, the previous owner added an electric water pump directly infront of the radiator to boost? pressure to the engine. Not really sure why it's there - but the hoses and metal pipe looks crude and I can see some cracking.
My plan is to replace these with stainless hoses (Thanks Tim for the pictures). Would this be a suitable arrangement given the many bends necessary?
Thanks
Ken Roberts
Supporter
Fan shrouds are best used for cars that are going to see street driving. If it's strictly a track car than shroud less is okay.
Kernie,
I used a fan shroud because I felt it offered the most versatility Even though I planned to occasionally take the car to the track; primarily it would be a street car running around town at slow speeds in a hot climate.
One of my concerns about zip tie to secure the fans would be vibration. The shroud afforded be a solid mounting base to secure the fans without any vibration problems.
Just my 2 cents worth!
Jim
I am personally confused on why we think a shroud would be needed? I currently run a lower hp V6 with a single 8" spal fan in a race car. I run it in the pits to just keep some air flow through the rad to keep it cool when idle and sitting there. When we are racing it is off and no shrouds let the most air through the radiator with no cooling issues at all assuming there is water in there. When I come in from full race mode and pit and just let it idle with that single fan there are no issues. I would think with a much larger alum radiator and the dual fans it should work great.
What we did find out is that you really want to shroud it before the radiator on the sides to box it in and direct the air into the radiator and not let it slip past it on the sides. This is to force the air through the rad and helps way better than the fans do.
Just my 2 cents. No shrouds on my car after the rad for the fans, but will have some before for sure.
What we did find out is that you really want to shroud it before the radiator on the sides to box it in and direct the air into the radiator and not let it slip past it on the sides. This is to force the air through the rad and helps way better than the fans do.
Just my 2 cents. No shrouds on my car after the rad for the fans, but will have some before for sure.
Re: Jimer's Build - SL-C "SOLD"
I've received numerous PM's wanting to know why I decided to sell my Unfinished SL'C. Rather then reinvent the wheel by responding to each of these inquires individually, I thought that I would just post an edited version of the response I sent to one of RCR's customers who expressed so much disgust with the delays in the delivery of his ordered car that he wanted to trade me his undelivered car (this is the second person that wanted to trade a UN-built car for my partially completed SL-C).
The following is my reply to this frustrated RCR customer:
Dear Mr. Xxxxxxxx,
Thanks for the compliment on the quality of my unfinished build. Sorry, I'm not interested in doing a trade and even if I were willing to do a trade; I would never consider anything that had RCR's and Fran Hall's fingerprints on it!
Your RCR saga is very similar to my experience with Mr. Hall; unfortunately, if history repeats, your nightmares are just beginning! I waited over 6 months for my promised and re-promised “16 week” prompt delivery! When I finally received the car, I had no side exhaust and no exhaust what-so-ever and no ETA of when I could expect these items.
Also I had no starter, no axles, no clutch, no flywheel, no throw out bearing, wrong shifter and cable linkage. And the saga doesn’t stop there; they installed the wrong front springs, supplied the wrong brake line fittings, and IMO, the engine mounts are a joke. When they finally did ship the shifter and linkage....guess what; it was the wrong one “AGAIN” and I had to ship it back at my own expense
Before I placed my order, I was working out a budget, I asked Fran both on the phone and publicly on the forum if the gel-coat was of a high quality that it would NOT require painting.....Fran assured me that I would NOT have to paint the car! B.S, you can see the fiber strands through the gel-coat, there are unfinished seams that need to be sanded. Additionally, I paid for body fitment and body prep; what a waste of money that was! This certainly was not the quality I was expecting.
Mr. Xxxxxxxx, based upon my experience of missing parts, I would strongly suggest that when your kit finally arrives, you very carefully go over the inventory list and cross check it against the actual parts. RCR gave me a two page parts inventory list. Absolutely every box on the reprinted factory check list was checked off as being shipped....even parts that I didn't order and even parts that didn't even pertain to the SL-C! Someone just went down the list and just marked every box without physically checking it against the corresponding part! [Note: In all fairness, since that time, Fran hired Dean as a Customer Service Rep. and I think things have improved somewhat, but the problem is as I see it; Dean has no authority and has to run everything by Fran and it appears to me that Fran absolutely refuses to delegate any authority and there just doesn't seem to be any adult supervision]
All of this understandingly upset me but I actually forgot all of that negative junk the day my car finally arrived and was I so excited to finally start my long awaited build that all of that other stuff would have been just water over the dam. All would have been good if Fran Hall would have only kept his word! However, Fran’s broken promises and what I perceive to be out and out lies continued to the point that I just couldn’t trust a word he said! This was intended to be a fun project but Mr. Hall managed to destroy that dream for me and this project turned into pure aggravation to the point that it started to effect my health. That's when I said: “it's just not worth it”!
To be perfectly honest; I'm probably more upset at myself for falling for Fran's crap! I thought that I did a good job doing my homework on RCR, because I could not find any negative comments posted on the forum. How naive of me! That in itself should have been a big red flag! I now realize the reason there are no negative comments on the forum is because Fran is the monitor of the forum and he deletes uncomplimentary posts a soon as they are posted. However, since I have gone rogue on Fran and despite the short time my negative posts stays up before he deletes them, I have received numerous private messages (PM's) from other SL-C and GT40 builders. As it turns out, I am not the one only with a negative RCR/SL-C experience! It Seems that there is actually a small army of
dissatisfied RCR customers (“anti-Fran- er's” ) that tell similar stories of having experienced delivery, quality control and unsatisfactory problem resolution issues. I have actually become friends with some of these very nice but extremely P_ _ _ _ _ Off People. The common denominator in all of our horror stories in my opinion seems be:
”Mr. Fran Hall could not tell the truth if his life depended upon it”!
Mr. Xxxxxxxx, sorry for the long rant but believe me this is only a fraction of my frustration; there is much, much more and the problems go much deeper!
I finally figured out what I believe SL-C really should stand for and that is....
”Super Load of Crap”!
Best of luck on your build and here's hoping that the worst is behind you,
Jim
NOTE:
In all fairness, there are some extremely talented builders on this forum that managed to turn this “Super Load of Crap” kit into a very refined machine. However, that was NOT accomplished at the commonly repeated Stacey David (Gearz TV) 2013 quote of: “build this SL-C kit car for about the cost of a new ZO6”; nor was it accomplished without much ingenious fabrication and many, many months/years of unanticipated labor! I'm pretty sure that the first thing that many of these clever people did was to throw away what I consider to be a completely useless RCR/SL-C Build Manual! Unfortunately, I don't posses the fabrication skills/tools, time or deep 6 figure pockets this kit requires to be what I would regard as a quality finished product that I could be proud to own!
I realize that everyone has a different aggravation tolerance level; personally, I could not tolerate doing business with someone I could not trust!
If history repeats, I suspect that this post will not last long before Mr. Fran Hall deletes it. If in fact that occurs, I'll just have to turn to the social media were Mr. Hall cannot control the delete button! If this information were available to me when I was considering doing business with RCR, I could have avoided a lot of aggravation and wasted money!
I've received numerous PM's wanting to know why I decided to sell my Unfinished SL'C. Rather then reinvent the wheel by responding to each of these inquires individually, I thought that I would just post an edited version of the response I sent to one of RCR's customers who expressed so much disgust with the delays in the delivery of his ordered car that he wanted to trade me his undelivered car (this is the second person that wanted to trade a UN-built car for my partially completed SL-C).
The following is my reply to this frustrated RCR customer:
Dear Mr. Xxxxxxxx,
Thanks for the compliment on the quality of my unfinished build. Sorry, I'm not interested in doing a trade and even if I were willing to do a trade; I would never consider anything that had RCR's and Fran Hall's fingerprints on it!
Your RCR saga is very similar to my experience with Mr. Hall; unfortunately, if history repeats, your nightmares are just beginning! I waited over 6 months for my promised and re-promised “16 week” prompt delivery! When I finally received the car, I had no side exhaust and no exhaust what-so-ever and no ETA of when I could expect these items.
Also I had no starter, no axles, no clutch, no flywheel, no throw out bearing, wrong shifter and cable linkage. And the saga doesn’t stop there; they installed the wrong front springs, supplied the wrong brake line fittings, and IMO, the engine mounts are a joke. When they finally did ship the shifter and linkage....guess what; it was the wrong one “AGAIN” and I had to ship it back at my own expense
Before I placed my order, I was working out a budget, I asked Fran both on the phone and publicly on the forum if the gel-coat was of a high quality that it would NOT require painting.....Fran assured me that I would NOT have to paint the car! B.S, you can see the fiber strands through the gel-coat, there are unfinished seams that need to be sanded. Additionally, I paid for body fitment and body prep; what a waste of money that was! This certainly was not the quality I was expecting.
Mr. Xxxxxxxx, based upon my experience of missing parts, I would strongly suggest that when your kit finally arrives, you very carefully go over the inventory list and cross check it against the actual parts. RCR gave me a two page parts inventory list. Absolutely every box on the reprinted factory check list was checked off as being shipped....even parts that I didn't order and even parts that didn't even pertain to the SL-C! Someone just went down the list and just marked every box without physically checking it against the corresponding part! [Note: In all fairness, since that time, Fran hired Dean as a Customer Service Rep. and I think things have improved somewhat, but the problem is as I see it; Dean has no authority and has to run everything by Fran and it appears to me that Fran absolutely refuses to delegate any authority and there just doesn't seem to be any adult supervision]
All of this understandingly upset me but I actually forgot all of that negative junk the day my car finally arrived and was I so excited to finally start my long awaited build that all of that other stuff would have been just water over the dam. All would have been good if Fran Hall would have only kept his word! However, Fran’s broken promises and what I perceive to be out and out lies continued to the point that I just couldn’t trust a word he said! This was intended to be a fun project but Mr. Hall managed to destroy that dream for me and this project turned into pure aggravation to the point that it started to effect my health. That's when I said: “it's just not worth it”!
To be perfectly honest; I'm probably more upset at myself for falling for Fran's crap! I thought that I did a good job doing my homework on RCR, because I could not find any negative comments posted on the forum. How naive of me! That in itself should have been a big red flag! I now realize the reason there are no negative comments on the forum is because Fran is the monitor of the forum and he deletes uncomplimentary posts a soon as they are posted. However, since I have gone rogue on Fran and despite the short time my negative posts stays up before he deletes them, I have received numerous private messages (PM's) from other SL-C and GT40 builders. As it turns out, I am not the one only with a negative RCR/SL-C experience! It Seems that there is actually a small army of
dissatisfied RCR customers (“anti-Fran- er's” ) that tell similar stories of having experienced delivery, quality control and unsatisfactory problem resolution issues. I have actually become friends with some of these very nice but extremely P_ _ _ _ _ Off People. The common denominator in all of our horror stories in my opinion seems be:
”Mr. Fran Hall could not tell the truth if his life depended upon it”!
Mr. Xxxxxxxx, sorry for the long rant but believe me this is only a fraction of my frustration; there is much, much more and the problems go much deeper!
I finally figured out what I believe SL-C really should stand for and that is....
”Super Load of Crap”!
Best of luck on your build and here's hoping that the worst is behind you,
Jim
NOTE:
In all fairness, there are some extremely talented builders on this forum that managed to turn this “Super Load of Crap” kit into a very refined machine. However, that was NOT accomplished at the commonly repeated Stacey David (Gearz TV) 2013 quote of: “build this SL-C kit car for about the cost of a new ZO6”; nor was it accomplished without much ingenious fabrication and many, many months/years of unanticipated labor! I'm pretty sure that the first thing that many of these clever people did was to throw away what I consider to be a completely useless RCR/SL-C Build Manual! Unfortunately, I don't posses the fabrication skills/tools, time or deep 6 figure pockets this kit requires to be what I would regard as a quality finished product that I could be proud to own!
I realize that everyone has a different aggravation tolerance level; personally, I could not tolerate doing business with someone I could not trust!
If history repeats, I suspect that this post will not last long before Mr. Fran Hall deletes it. If in fact that occurs, I'll just have to turn to the social media were Mr. Hall cannot control the delete button! If this information were available to me when I was considering doing business with RCR, I could have avoided a lot of aggravation and wasted money!
Ken Roberts
Supporter
I purchased my SLC from Fran expecting there to be back orders and the delivery time to be more like six to eight months instead of four. I have no completion date in mind either.
Fran doesn't have a lot of staff and he has so much on the go. I went into this build knowing these key points. Every time I have discovered that something was missing from the kit Fran has stepped up with no questions asked and shipped out the needed parts.
I'd say approx. 80% of the people that buy the SLC end up painting it. That in itself told me not to have high expectations in the gel coat.
I've been left frustrated a few times and needed to leave the build for a few months. It's the nature of the beast. How many people can say they have built a car.
If you set your expectations to an unrealistic level you most certainly will be in for many disappointments.
Fran doesn't have a lot of staff and he has so much on the go. I went into this build knowing these key points. Every time I have discovered that something was missing from the kit Fran has stepped up with no questions asked and shipped out the needed parts.
I'd say approx. 80% of the people that buy the SLC end up painting it. That in itself told me not to have high expectations in the gel coat.
I've been left frustrated a few times and needed to leave the build for a few months. It's the nature of the beast. How many people can say they have built a car.
If you set your expectations to an unrealistic level you most certainly will be in for many disappointments.
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So this is a bit old but in evaluating build effort I wonder if I am missing something. Not judging or question the builders motives to sell that is fine, to each their own I say, I am just trying to understand the build process and effort.
From the outside it looks like it was flying along, as far as fabricating I would call it minimal to say the least, then ran into issues with the gear box mounting apparently got impatient/frustrated/annoyed and threw in the towel? Cause up till then it looked quite easy and the mounting issues appear fairly easy to resolve. Again just looking in I may not see it all.
The other post with name calling aside, what am I missing in terms of "building"? Because if this is all there is to building these.. well that would be quire different other products and very appealing. Comparing to other cars like the Ultima, unless there is something I am not seeing in this post, these appear very easy to build and as they come as a roller a huge chunk of work is already done.
Like shockingly easy. Fitting and plumbing. Seems once the engine and gear box got resolved it one would be on the downside, lots of details left and finish work yes I get it but this seems like it was a month away from running?
From the outside it looks like it was flying along, as far as fabricating I would call it minimal to say the least, then ran into issues with the gear box mounting apparently got impatient/frustrated/annoyed and threw in the towel? Cause up till then it looked quite easy and the mounting issues appear fairly easy to resolve. Again just looking in I may not see it all.
The other post with name calling aside, what am I missing in terms of "building"? Because if this is all there is to building these.. well that would be quire different other products and very appealing. Comparing to other cars like the Ultima, unless there is something I am not seeing in this post, these appear very easy to build and as they come as a roller a huge chunk of work is already done.
Like shockingly easy. Fitting and plumbing. Seems once the engine and gear box got resolved it one would be on the downside, lots of details left and finish work yes I get it but this seems like it was a month away from running?
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PeteB
GT40s Supporter
Here's the rest of the build: http://www.gt40s.com/forum/slc-clubhouse/43279-aarons-sl-c-build.html
Ohh fantastic, thanks!
Michael Fling
Supporter
I wouldn't call the build "easy" unless have experience and knowledge beyond an average guy. I have been around/raced cars for 15 years. But I have never handled the mechanical part. It has been a challenge due to my own ignorance. Being patient is NOT one of my virtues. I have read, studied, asked stupid questions, and it seems I have done everything on the build at least twice. I am getting there with the help of many on the forum. Everyone on here is helpful. Allan's videos are my build Bible. No doubt Fran stays busy, but indeed he has done his best to be responsive. Be patient with yourself and create realistic expectations. I have been reminded by many on the forum and by Fran to never forget that it is the journey that really matters. My car is going to be very different than most. That is one of the cool things about the build… you can make it your own. If I can do it, I am sure you can.
yes it has been a journey for sure, its been fun, its been challenging, its been frustrating,
you'll spend a lot of time thinking about how to do things so they work for you.
its not a project you can do over night and you will may need to walk away from it from time to time but it will be a special car when your done and quite the accomplishment when your finished, No two car's will be the same, it will be your car.
you'll spend a lot of time thinking about how to do things so they work for you.
its not a project you can do over night and you will may need to walk away from it from time to time but it will be a special car when your done and quite the accomplishment when your finished, No two car's will be the same, it will be your car.
I really enjoy seeing what guys do with the SLC and the custom guys have created some beautiful machines.
With that said it has also been proven many times that when built "by the book" especially with our latest interior tub options , the build can certainly be done in a pretty timely manner and without a lot of head scratching...
With that said it has also been proven many times that when built "by the book" especially with our latest interior tub options , the build can certainly be done in a pretty timely manner and without a lot of head scratching...
The new tub does look amazing Roberto's car will be as nice on the inside as it is on the out. Allen has the build down pat, he putting together some very nice cars. There are for sure, some talented people on here, building some very cool things and with technology getting better and cheaper these cars will get easier to build every year. 3D printer technology will make you pretty much anything your heart desires. won't belong before its a common house hold appliance.
I bought the tub, very nice addition and when upholstered along with the dash and doors will look like a production car on the inside. I drove mine 2000 miles last year, took 4 months to build, painted here in my shop, love the car and the best thing I ever bought. Took it all apart last month, putting it together now, Ill be ready with a finished car in month or so, even repainted. Added electric doors, electric emergency brake, eliminated a battery, added paddle shifting, and the TUB.
I think the one thing that every one needs to understand is that a "build" will be very different for a Gary or Alan that has unlimited time to spend on the car. For those of us with regular jobs and family pulling at our time, the project can drag out MUCH longer, and be a whole lot less fun !
Just my two cents ..... It's not as easy as you think.
Just my two cents ..... It's not as easy as you think.
