Kurt H (hoffkm) SL-C build thread

[Kurt Hoffman]

Yay, the wiring is complete (for now) or at least as far as I can go for now.

Many builders have run wiring on top of the footbox beneath the dash panel. I chose to run all my wiring inside the footbox so I can still access it with the dash panel in place. This was not easy for me to get to but I can get to it.



The one terminal block runs to the rear engine compartment, the other to the front. All wiring is thru a large 12 gauge, 12 conductor cable.

It may not be a first start but the "first crank" excited me just as much!

 

[Joel K]

Kurt, wow. Tremendous progress. Congrats on the first crank. Your work looks very well organized and neat.

 

[Kurt Hoffman]

Kurt, wow. Tremendous progress. Congrats on the first crank. Your work looks very well organized and neat.

Thank you Joel, I am trying my best to live up to the high build standards set by so many before me.

 

[Kurt Hoffman]

Here is my concept for rear fender wells. They will be fabricated out of 0.06" aluminum, edges bent 90 degrees for panel stiffness, they I will contour them using my shrinker/stretcher.

I will coat the tire side with bedliner and fill in any gaps with rubber strips if necessary (such as the top edge to the rear clam).

 

[Dan Carter]

Kurt

On my street tail I have fender liners to cover the entire well. The lower tail below the tranny is a collection point for street sand and street rocks. Since your building your own, you may want to take a look at that future problem.

 

[Kurt Hoffman]

Kurt

On my street tail I have fender liners to cover the entire well. The lower tail below the tranny is a collection point for street sand and street rocks. Since your building your own, you may want to take a look at that future problem.

Dan,

Thank you for the heads up. I will definitely look at that. Now that I think about it that area is a great big shelf custom made for collecting debris.

 

[Del]

Agreed Dan, definitely something to think about and attempt to avoid if you can

 

[Hector]

Kurt:

Your wiring looks awesome, It is next on my list , like you that is what worries me the most. I plan to have 2 large copper plates for grounding like Howard Jones did it. I have the infinity box system. I can't say I am looking forward to it .

 

[Hector]

Nice 3D modeling !!!

 

[Kurt Hoffman]

Hector,

Thank you for the compliments.

Yes, wiring is not my favorite task, that is probably why it took longer than I anticipated (as it has on every build I have done, you would think I would learn and could plan better). From what I have read the Infinity Box system is simple and straight forward and if you do have questions there are plenty of builders who have been thru it before on here. With my custom designed system I am 100% on my own.

The copper common ground bars/lugs is a good idea. I did not go that route but the critical items such as the engine ECU, starter, etc. are all grounded directly to the battery on my build. Everything else is chassis grounded just like most other cars on the road.

 

[Hector]

Hector,

Thank you for the compliments.

Yes, wiring is not my favorite task, that is probably why it took longer than I anticipated (as it has on every build I have done, you would think I would learn and could plan better). From what I have read the Infinity Box system is simple and straight forward and if you do have questions there are plenty of builders who have been thru it before on here. With my custom designed system I am 100% on my own.

The copper common ground bars/lugs is a good idea. I did not go that route but the critical items such as the engine ECU, starter, etc. are all grounded directly to the battery on my build. Everything else is chassis grounded just like most other cars on the road.

That's what I am hoping for, everybody has been super helpful. I like Howard's approach, I have had so many grounding problems over the years .
You are brave, but then again, when you are on your own you learn the most , I do like the sink or swim approach , hope the learning curve is not too steep.

 

[Hector]

where did you get the battery terminal splitter? , I need a couple of those. Where are you going to place the fuse boxes?

 

[Kurt Hoffman]

where did you get the battery terminal splitter? , I need a couple of those. Where are you going to place the fuse boxes?

Hector,

The bus bar is from Amazon.

Similar products are also available from Summit, Jegs, etc.

I have three fuse boxes. One that has power constantly applied to it is placed under the dash. There are two fuse boxes that are switched via a battery disconnect switch from Flaming River. One is mounted under the dash and the other is mounted in the engine compartment. All feed lines have circuit breaker protection in addition to the fuse boxes. I originally had another fuse box under the front clam feeding many relays but I replaced that arrangment with the MSD solid state relays.

I can email you my electrical schematics if that will help you in laying out your electrical system. I believe I had posted copies of them earlier in my build log but they have changed MANY times as I wired that car.

 

[Alan P]

I have you looked at these new relays? Pretty slick:

Kaizen Relay

U.S. Patent #11,220,229 The Kaizen Relay sets the standard for what an aftermarket relay can be. Whether you're a hobbyist who wants the best, or are involved in on or off-road racing including watersports, the Kaizen Relay is the solution for high current, solid state switching. Designed to...

www.kaizenspeed.com

 

[Brian Kissel]

Those Kaizen relays looked interesting. Then I went to their site and read this.
Manufacturer's Note: As of 2019 Kaizen Relays are assembled and tested one-by-one in Washington State and are available in extremely limited quantities and only to qualified testing partners. Please email any questions to [email protected]

Not sure, but I think the MSD ones Kurt mentioned above are quite similar .

Regards Brian

 

[Kurt Hoffman]

Alan,

I had not come across those. It is a nice feature that they are expandable. As Brian states though, the limited manufacturing and sales would concern me.

So far the MSD relays are working well in testing. It will be quite a while before they see road duty.

 

[Neil]

Those Kaizen relays appear to be power MOSFETs or IGBTs in a high-side or low-side switching arrangement. It would not be difficult to build one's own version of them. I notice that there is a dearth of information on voltage breakdown and current capacity. Voltage drop at max current is also missing.

 

[Hector]

Thanks Kurt, I will need a battery disconnect switch, I got the infinity box system, so my setup will be a bit different, I am about to dive into the electrical stuff, starting with the heater and a/c controls, the LS3 crate Engine has the plug and play harness , should not be too bad. We will see, lots of questions and posts coming up. Your wiring scheme is looking impressive. I am sure it took a while and lots of head scratching and changes, but that is the fun part, right?

 

[Kurt Hoffman]

Progress report:

I trial fit my seats after re-aligning the steering column. As Joel noted, the stock seat brackets force the seat a little too far over from the C/L of the vehicle. I stole his concepts and designed my own brackets dedicated for the angle I am fitting my seats at and with a similar offset to his. In addition to wanting the offset I could not angle the seats far enough back to fit me using the stock brackets so custom brackets were required either way.

I had one of our sheetmetal suppliers at work laser cut and bend them for me out of 12 gauge sheet steel. The steel is only slightly heavier than the stock aluminum brackets but with the offset bends I felt better using a stronger material than aluminum.

With the seat closer to the C/L of the vehicle I should be able to fit inside while wearing a helmet for track days. I'll test that here shortly the next time I have the spider on the car.

Next up was modifying and fitting the AC system under the dash taking ques from everyone who has gone before me with a couple of twists. I shortened the "box" that is bolted to the outlet of the Vintage Air unit as much as possible turning it into basically a cap. The coil on my unit sits far enough back into the main air box that I had room to cut the outlet holes into the main box instead of the cap that is screwed on to it. This placed the installation depth closer to the dash, further away from the firewall giving me more room to run the AC and heater hoses without having to swap the heater hoses to the opposite side of the unit.

Scribed line showing how much I cut off, this mod gained me about 1 1/8":

After cutting down and installing some seam sealer tape to seal the top to the bottom of the tub (never took a pic before installing the seam sealer tape, sorry):

Re-bent the heater tubes and re-clocked the AC connection:

Not sure if anyone has installed there unit with a bracket on the back side, this worked out well for me. The vintage air unit had nutserts to install the bracket here so I took advantage. Marking and drilling the hole in the tub was a major PITA but it is solidly mounted with brackets at two opposing corners:

 

[Kurt Hoffman]

Once the heater box was installed I mounted the Stanceparts pneumatic lift cylinders onto my front shocks. I had to modify the top spring cap of the shocks to spread the load out over the top of the Stanceparts cylinder instead of it simply being support by the locknut on the shock shaft.

The Stanceparts pneumatic lift cylinders work with the stock springs as they only add about 3/8" to 1/2" to the overall installed height.

Next I moved on to the brake and clutch lines, nothing fancy here, just tweaking the bends in the lines here and there and fastening them down.

And I got a start on the coolant tubes and the heater and AC hoses.

Passenger side is complete. I think my routing and 3D printed brackets turned out pretty good. It is a shame all this will be covered up and no one will ever see it.

Ran out of time to finish the drivers side.