Joel’s SL-C Build Thread

Joel K

Supporter
Congrats Joel! The first day is always a bit surreal I think. Just out of curiosity ... how the heck did they get the crate on if they couldn’t get it off the same way but in reverse?

Thanks Cam, yes a very exciting day for sure. From what I understand, they used the truck’s crane on one end and a forklift on the other to raise and pull/push into the truck.
 

Roger Reid

Supporter
Congrats. Make a template in the side pod area so tha after the body is off you know how much room you have to put stuff. Have fun.
 

Joel K

Supporter
Thanks Stephan, Roger, and Johan. Appreciate the congrats, planning on continuing the build thread from a perspective of a novice which is what I am. Hopefully it will be fun and also useful to others.
 

Joel K

Supporter
Had a chance to complete my inventory. In total it took about 13 hours. Since I am a newbie I am documenting my Build as such and will put as much detail in which may prove useful for other new builders.

When you order a car from RCR you will receive an inventory/ship list, a thumb drive, and MSO certificate. The thumb drive has a pic of the parts included in your shipment and the inventory list will list the components shipped, installed, back ordered, and or to be dropped shipped. I can say everything was packed well.

There are a couple boxes left that have multiple components in them that I still have to go through and match it up against the inventory list.

As of now I have inventoried over 100 items/boxes and am keeping a spreadsheet on where the items are located in the House. There is no way I could remember where all the parts are but in general I have all the smaller components in a double closet, larger components in the garage and all the Carbon Fiber, fiberglass, windsheild, windows and wheels all in the basement out of the way from damage.

I think the quality of the components are excellent.

Here is a pic from the thumb drive of the crate being loaded....
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Garage Inventory....
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Component Inventory...
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Carbon Fiber, Fiberglass, and Windows...
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Joel K

Supporter
Next step will be to build the body buck. Will not start that until after the holidays but wanted to store the body in a way to not put stress on it so mounted the nose on the spyder and used a box to hold up the very front. Then stood the tail up on it’s end which I think is a good way to store it temporarily. Also just using masking tape to hold the doors in place. To me, all the body panels fit extremely well.

Lastly, when the car is shipped, there is a lot of clear tape all over it holding the panels and windows inplace. Not sure if I read this somewhere but I used a hair dryer to heat the tape up and it pealed off very easily leaving little residue.

To quote Johan, this car is “Fran-tastic!”

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I'm a fellow novice when it comes to body work, fabrication, etc. and I'm looking forward to following along with your build. I've got 5 young children right now so I'm a ways out but I still login here every week day to follow builds. One day........
 

Joel K

Supporter
Latest update. Body buck is complete and the body is now mounted and fitted onto the buck. I had a few requirements. For my buck, these being the following:

1)Design it so the complete body is stored assembled. This will help insure the body gaps stay uniform over time.
2)I also like really looking at the assembled body and feel it will be motivational just being able to see something close to the finished product in the garage.
3)Movable-rollable so I can store it over the chassis and keep the other two garage spots open for our regular cars. When I want to work on the SL-C I’ll move out one of the cars and roll the body into the empty bay.
4)Making it movable-rollable will also allow to bake the body outside in the sun to help cure any bodywork down the road.

This took me about 25+ hours to complete. I don’t Work fast. I like to screw a few things together and then stare at it for 5 minutes, check my phone, check gt40s, etc. then get back to work.

If I used heavier grade lumber it would have been quicker. But instead I used a technique of gluing and screwing lighter weight lumber together which comes out pretty strong and straight. I used this type of table to build a large model train set and also a table to house a fish tank filter system which is pretty heavy so figure it would work well. In Hindsite I proabably should have used 2x4’s. I reinforced the long rails with some plywood strips I had laying around. All in all I am happy with the result.

Also, RCR installed the plastic alignment pin housings and drilled the holes for the stainless steel alignment pins. This made it easier to mount the front and rear clams on the spyder and buck and get everything to fit well.

Lastly, the fit and finish of the body is really good. Assuming nothing weird happends to the fit of the body overtime I think it will all come together very well. So far so good....

Body buck video...

Body buck pics...

Some raw lumber...
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Make the buck rails out of 4x1s and 2x1s
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Install the legs and wheels. Use some plywood to mount the leg supports and add strength to the rails...
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Lay the spyder and front clam on the buck. The front clam needed some cardboard under the nose since it sits on the splitter and is a bit higher than the sides of the spyder....
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Added the supports for the spyder so the body rests on the supports and sides rests on the rails. This took a bit of fine tuning but not hard to do....
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Added the rear clam and supports, the body looks and fits great....
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Used four mounts at the back...
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Body aligns really well...
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Now I can get to work. Next up is the fuel tank and fuel pump install. Going with a stock GM PWM fuel pump installed in the tank so it will be a bit of work.
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Ken Roberts

Supporter
Here are the two 90mm throttle body weld flanges I used for my LS9 install. The first one is used to join to the throttle body. It uses a O-ring.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/90mm-Throt...y-GM-LS3-LS7/252242691251?hash=item3abad604b3

The second one doesn't need a O-ring and is located up against the supercharger snout.

https://www.summitracing.com/int/parts/hly-300-221/overview/


I then drilled the flange bolt pattern mounting holes in a 1/2" thick plate of steel to act as a heat sink and help to prevent the flanges from warping when being welded to the elbow. Also you can see in the picture I drilled out the holes in the aluminum weld flange to take hardened steel 1/4"-28 nutserts. That way the repositioned T body can be bolted to this flange without needing nuts. The original holes were too large for tapping.

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Ken Roberts

Supporter
In the first picture you can see the weld flange is counter bored to accept the tubing for better strength. I had both flanges counter bored (they don't come like that).

The second picture shows the the flanges in place and ready for final fitting and orientation. The weld plate in the picture gets attached to the flange before welding.

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Joel K

Supporter
Thanks Ken, The LT4 has an 87mm throttle body so wondering if those plates will bolt right up to the supercharger and throttle body. What do you think?
 
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Roger Reid

Supporter
Anybody have experience sizing the throttle body when using a supercharger? 87, 90, 102 mm throttle bodies. How is the trade off power vs drivability? How about tuning difficulties with a 102?
 

Joel K

Supporter
The LS9 stock throttle body is also 87mm. I just measured the bolt pattern. It is exactly 104mm by 70mm.

The current trend for higher hp builds seems to be using a ZR1/LT5 throttle body which is 95mm. The mounting holes need to be slotted or an adapter is available.

https://paceperformance.com/i-23874711-12669871-lt5-zr1-throttle-body.html

https://www.lingenfelter.com/product/L270036914.html#.XDsH9lVKiUk

Great Ken, thanks for the help. After the gas tank work, this is my next to do on the build.
 

Joel K

Supporter
Work space complete and had some time to finish tearing down the chassis. Removed the cage and side impact bars, fuel tank cover, and now getting ready to start working on the build. I know the lift wasn’t totally necessary, but raising the chassis to a nice height will make working on the car more enjoyable.

Chassis walk around video...

Work space pic....
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Joel K

Supporter
First modification to take on. Since this will be a street car I am going with a stock GM fuel pump and as mentioned earlier intend to make it full emissions compliant.

I ordered a GM weld-in fuel tank ring in aluminum from VaporWorx and going to modify the fuel tank to fit a Gen5 ZL1 fuel pump. Based on what I have read, the pump mechanism in the Gen5 ZL1 is the same as the Gen6 which is the recommended low pressure pump for the LT4 engine which has the high pressure direct injection pump on the engine. The Gen5 is 3” shorter than the Gen6 so the Gen5 will fit well in the space I have in mind. Just need to confirm the Gen5 pump will work with the fuel pump module and then I’ll order it. Otherwise I’ll get the Gen6 fuel pump and shorten it.

A fuel pressure sensor along with the fuel pump controller uses PWM to control the fuel pump. Should be a quiet and reliable solution for a street car. It will also save some space since the LT4 has a lot of extra plumbing I’ll need to find space for an oil cooler, dry sump, and supercharger heat exchangers. So I have my work cut out for me. But taking it one step at a time.

Here is the plan. Looking to cut a chunk out of the driver side of the fuel tank to leave enough room to weld in the tank ring. The ideal depth to mount the ZL1 fuel pump is 6.5” so will need to cut out that section and weld in the new section with the pump ring.

Side view:
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Front view:
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Rear view:
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Also thinking about puting the evap canister and evap solenoid next to the tank:
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