Keith Baker's Southern gt on the build

Windscreen now fitted, no problems. Also fitted the two inner angle panels that stop the air and possible water from entering the front deck area.
I fitted a 25mm foam strip down the inner chassis rail and the same on the underside of the angled fibreglass trim. A slotted hole in the angle trim allows for adjustment and a good seal.
The two seal nicely when the deck is fully shut. It also stops any rattle with scuttle shake.
When it's painted it may get tatty but a new piece can easily be fitted.
Rubbed down and undersealed the rear deck wheel arch areas with body shutz to stop stone chips damaging the paintwork later.
Off to Spain tommorrow.. So " hasta la vista baby "

 

I modified the single fuel gauge to operate with both tanks. There needs to be a switch to change from one sender to the other, Hope I got it correct but I still need to calibrate the fuel levels later.
Part fitted the ally panels at the bottom of the doors that stop water entering the car.
Need to trim them a bit more and then get them powder coated.
I replaced the door handle operating rods ( there the ones about 3" long ) from nylon to stainless steel. The nylon ones kept bowing.
Finally fitted the door boxes and checked that all the handles operate correctly.
Fitted the wiper arm and checked the sweep of the blade.
Everthing seems so slow at the moment.
Still waiting for a date from SGT to get the car in for IVA.
Hopefully will get the car running soon though.

 

The cars now back at my works and the air con man arrived today and we installed the aluminium pipework at the front of the car. This is because there's a small gap between the chassis and the radiator, the two rubber air con pipes could have just gone through the gap but they would have been tight 90 degrees and bent and stressed the pipes.
Anyway new ally pipes are in as well as 90 degrees elbows out of the pump which have integral filling points.
There's room to fill with refrig gas, clears the exhaust and looks as good as it could.
" Pictures later "
Once the pipes are rubber protected where they go though the gaps they will be clipped.
Later after the engine is running It will be gassed up and tested.
I have the new drier unit but was advised not to open the ends or fit the trinary switch until it's ready for vacuuming the system down and gassing as moisture will get in.
Hopefully that will be next week.

 

Installed 2 relays today and associated wiring.
Relay 1 is the air conditioning relay that when energised pulls in the radiator fans that is essential for air con operation. This relay is energised by the Trinary switch mounted on the drier unit.
Relay 2 is for the front spot lamps, these I believe for IVA must only operate when the headlamps are on but as they will be covered up and out the way for IVA I wont have them operational. Later I will have them direct off the battery via a fuse, a switch on the dash and this relay.
Just need to tidy the wiring up and it's done.

 

[Andy Green]

Hi Keith,
Excellent work as usual. Can I ask what type & size battery your using as I’ve got conflicting information on what I should be using
Regards
Andy

 

Hi Andy,
Battery is a Varley red top 60 it's the largest Varley battery they do @ 51 cap / Ah
They work well but never let them run flat or there nackered, use a trickle charger all the time the cars not in use.
Fully sealed so you can install upside down if you feel you want to
Not cheap either at about £ 260 inc vat. Got mine through Demon 'Sneeks' less 10%
I always go for the highest amp rating I can get and sod the weight @ 17.5 kg

Cheers

 

Frank Catt and Geoff at Wealden engineering are coming up tommorrow, wer'e hoping to get the car running, testing oil pressures, water and fuel lines.
ECU is already set up from the Dyno test so it should fire up fairly easy BUT who knows.
Hope to get some photos of Frank actually working instead of on the phone and drinking tea.

 

[Malcolm]

Hi Andy,
Battery is a Varley red top 60 it's the largest Varley battery they do @ 51 cap / Ah
They work well but never let them run flat or there nackered, use a trickle charger all the time the cars not in use.
Fully sealed so you can install upside down if you feel you want to
Not cheap either at about £ 260 inc vat. Got mine through Demon 'Sneeks' less 10%
I always go for the highest amp rating I can get and sod the weight @ 17.5 kg

Cheers

They make a Lithium one now at same power but only 6 or so kgs.... £££££ however!

 

Cars running, needs tweeking after the IVA probably on a rolling road or the circuit.
Silly mistake by me held us up a bit.. put an NRV in the wrong way round so that fuel could not be drawn up to the pump...Removed the tank and turned the NRV around, anyway at least the NRV was tested and works.
Had a couple of fuel fitting leaks, one was a faulty goodridge fitting, the other was a loose fitting... I love the smell of petrol !
Plugs out, turned the engine up to 55-60 lbs oil pressure.
Water circulation was good.
Connection of the ECU live and it fired up pretty good.
Geoff set about the fine tuning of ECU and injectors while Frank drank all the tea...
" Joking Frank ".
I will post a video of the start up when I have learnt how to do it.

 

[Jayson]

Brilliant Keith. I look forward to viewing it, exciting stuff!

 

Picture of Frank and Geoff of Wealden Engineering setting up the engine.
Trying to download the video but unsure how too.
have put a post on this forum and hopefully can do it soon

 

Video of the very First start up of the SGT40
A bit slow to pick up so some fine tuning is still required but at least it's a runner
" Whoopie "

Start up of new GT40 - YouTube

 

[Brett James-McCall]

Very nice Keith I'm not jealous at all, no I'm not....

Nice to see Mr Catt in good form

 

[Frank Catt]

I was a bit like the air traffic controller in Top Gun, every time something important about to happen a hand reaches out with a cup of tea !!

 

[Mark]

Better than being like the ATC in Airplane though Frank!

"Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit Methamphetamine"

 

Frank, have you ever thought that the reason they hand you a cup of tea when something important is about to happen is so that they dont want you to touch it !




You know I'm pulling your chain old boy " you and your love child geoff did good "
You were not just there for the tea..... You had some cake as well !

 

I originally decided on first start up just to use the passenger side tank, two reasons, one in case I had a fuel distribution problem and 2nd it would test that the tanks were totally independant from each other.
After being a dick head for putting the fuel NRV the wrong way round on the passenger side tank I decided to check the drivers side tank and I had done that one correct, so I 25% filled the tank and checked for leaks then 50% etc.
I had a small problem with the cooling system which was assumed the dreaded air lock somewhere and tempretures climbing
It pointed to the thermostst area so I stipped it out and tested it in boiling water and it didn't open so I cut the centre out leaving about a 25mm hole, reinstalled and refilled.
The car ran for 45 minutes reached 90-110 with the fans on and off.
Bearing in mind it was nearly 30 degrees today that seems better.
It's time consuming doing all those little finishing jobs and there's still more I have to do.
I have an Aviad GT40 oil pan on the engine that holds 5.5 Quarts so I emptied all the oil and replaced it with same new ( Joe Gibbs oil ) to 5.5 qrts, removed the dip stick and marked the level on it.Then ran the engine, checked and topped up to the level with just over 1 qrt more this is the quantity that the oil coller and oil lines hold.
Checked ZFQ gearbox oil holds about 3 ltrs.
Roughed up the inner front wings and applied stone chip body shutz.
Waiting for the air con man to come back and gas up the system now the engine runs.
I have fitted some heat shield over various pipes and vulnarable areas and instaed of cable ties that would melt I will fit stainless clips.
The more the engine runs the sweeter it sounds I will do a dBa sound test later as I have a meter but initially the cars not over noisey... Is that good or bad ?

 

[René]

it sounds good to me that its not over noisy...
that way its easier on track-days were db limits get tough? or how you call that.
you still can hear the car enough and when you hit the gas-pedal its even more there

 

Did a bit today but not much to show for it.
Shortened a hose or 2, spring washer and nylock nuts that I missed off, things like that.
I cut down the steering column tube as the wheel was a bit close to me and my arms bent a bit to much.
Also finished some wiring jobs and fitted a battery cut out in the front area. Later I will fit one externally as well.
Re positioned the drivers seat again.
Headlights aligned as best possible but they will probably need re doing at IVA stage.
The engine builder and his laptop man are coming down on 25th to fine tune the engine as it's not as crisp as it should be and possibly a bit fuely. They can't come sooner as there setting up motors at Lemans.
" Get your priorities right guys "

Still waiting for a date from Mick @ SGT for IVA !
I need to get the car to SGT as there's little jobs that need Micks input and I'm just about at a stand still.
Once everthing is working I will fit the Immobiliser which is the small box next to the battery cut out.

 

After the car is set up it should meet the emmissions without problems.
The car is then booked to go to SGT @ Southampton for preparation for IVA.
Hopefully it will come back to me for about a week then off to the painters which is booked end of July.
The colour has been sorted although the picture shows it lighter than it actually is.
4 Off-white roundels and stripes on the cills only ,, no stripes down the middle.
The demo colour shell in the picture is a really good idea, they show off different shades and angles, seen them before with house of colour paints.

LOOKS A BIT LIKE A JELLY BABY