New Gt40 from South Africa

[Christo]

Good day all

So after a long time I managed to get my hands on a GT40, major dream for many years. the car is I think from the old KCC that was operating in Johannesburg in the 80's and 90's. The car is based on the Granada or Cortina front and rear suspension, and that is where my 1st problem comes in. The whole car was setup with that suspension motor was a 351(removed damaged) mated to a vw audi box, cant seem to figure out what box it is or from what car it came. The plan is to redo the front and back sections to get the suspension in better working condition. Been reading up a lot on the forum the last 2 years and saw some info regarding the rear up rights, but there is almost no info regarding the fronts. Lets hope I can transfer this to the build sections with descent updates, Rome is not build in a day take care all

 

[Mike Pass]

The early KVA used the complete front axle from Ford Cortina Mk3. The rear trailing arm was from a Ford Granada possibly Mk1 or Mk2.
(The later KVA C type chassis had double wishbone front end which tapered inwards and the trailing link and reversed lower wishbone rear suspension with a fabricated steel upright with Ford Granada Mk2 hubs.Rear uprights were fabricated steel with Ford Granada Mk3 hubs)
The early KVA suspension and frame can be cut off and replaced with KVA C type or GTD type set up but it involves fabricating new framework, wishbones and making or choosing suitable uprights. As Granada Mk2 front uprights are getting a bit rare now it may be a better option to look at the Willwood Prospindles (Mustang Mk2) which have better geometry than the Granada Mk2 uprights and are readily available, can be had with 2" drop and a good range of hub and brake options.
CAV in Capetown may be able to help you with parts.
Cheers
Mike

 

[Davidmgbv8]

Have a look at Hard up Garage on you tube, who started converting a MkIII replica.
Good luck with your project.

 

[JP Verweij]

Ill supose Cortinas are widely available in South Africa, so must be the modification & racing scene.
SA had Cortina stuff back in the days we never had like interceptor kits.
Before you throw away your front suspension setup I would first investigate the options for upgrading your excisting setup.
Don't look for more work when it isn't needed. It usually ends up in slowing down the project, reinventing the wheel again.

 

[Fred W Ballinger]

Hi Christo. Nice to see another SA guy on here. Let me know your email and I can send you the original KCC build manual, such as it is. The transaxle is most likely from a 5 cylinder Audi 9000

 

[Kev Farrington]

Ken Atwell tried one or two different rear suspension sources, VW, Ford Granada or you could do what Ray Christopher did ( and I copied ) cut off both ends of the KVA chassis and weld in subframes to take GTD suspension or your own design. This dates back to when we all built our own cars. Cortina mk3,4 or 5 could be used for steering racks. Good fun back then working out what could be used. Ken always said if you need instructions, you shouldn`t be building one. There are quite a few unfinished one`s out there I believe.

 

[Paul Hendrickx]

 

[Paul Hendrickx]

 

[Christo]

The early KVA used the complete front axle from Ford Cortina Mk3. The rear trailing arm was from a Ford Granada possibly Mk1 or Mk2.
(The later KVA C type chassis had double wishbone front end which tapered inwards and the trailing link and reversed lower wishbone rear suspension with a fabricated steel upright with Ford Granada Mk2 hubs.Rear uprights were fabricated steel with Ford Granada Mk3 hubs)
The early KVA suspension and frame can be cut off and replaced with KVA C type or GTD type set up but it involves fabricating new framework, wishbones and making or choosing suitable uprights. As Granada Mk2 front uprights are getting a bit rare now it may be a better option to look at the Willwood Prospindles (Mustang Mk2) which have better geometry than the Granada Mk2 uprights and are readily available, can be had with 2" drop and a good range of hub and brake options.
CAV in Capetown may be able to help you with parts.
Cheers
Mike

Thanks you for the reply, yes I did contact them I was told there stuff does not work on this kit. Will phone again and have chat with him. The uprights is the starting point from them that I need to get

 

[Christo]

Ken Atwell tried one or two different rear suspension sources, VW, Ford Granada or you could do what Ray Christopher did ( and I copied ) cut off both ends of the KVA chassis and weld in subframes to take GTD suspension or your own design. This dates back to when we all built our own cars. Cortina mk3,4 or 5 could be used for steering racks. Good fun back then working out what could be used. Ken always said if you need instructions, you shouldn`t be building one. There are quite a few unfinished one`s out there I believe.

Hi Kev yes thats exaclty what I was thinking, my biggest headache is just the front and the back uprights. I browsed the forum abit and got some pics and drawings regarding the back up right with the A arm details. Just need to see what thickness plate would be best for that, but for the front upright info on that is abit scares. From there need to get the mounting points for the A arms once the back and front section is rebuild

 

[Christo]

View attachment 129080

If I must remove all the suspension parts mine will look like this

 

[Mike Pass]

The CAV stuff will not fit directly but some of their parts may be adaptable depending on what you do.

In the first instance try what JP suggested and replace the rubber bushes in the front axle and rear trailing arms with stiffer polyurethane ones and see how that works.

I can't see whether you have 4 or 5 bolts wheels/hubs but as the wheels are expensive it does not make economic sense to change them. If they are 5 bolt then I think the Wildwood Mustang 2 Pro spindles would fit as they do a range of hubs. Alternatively the hubs can be machined to accept your wheel studs pattern.

As you can see the early KVA frame is a bit basic and lacks torsional rigidity and would need to be be stiffened if you decide to put new front and rear chassis sections on. You would need to put the chassis on jig of some sort and carefully mark the location of the wheel hub centrelines.

Here is link to a GT40s thread about using the Willwood Prospindles

GT40 Build - GT Forte' space frame - Question about front suspension

Hello. I've just started poking around this forum and, I'm a noob when it comes to building kit cars (please be gentle). I've purchased and took delivery of a GT40 chassis flat pack from GT Forte'. Minus the roll hoop and missing horse shoe assembly, the frame is nice and tacked up (I can...

www.gt40s.com

I have attached info about the Willwood spindles. They do a range of hubs and brakes for these spindles. The 2"drop ones would likely be the way to go on a GT40

If you are going toe make a new frame for the front start with the steering rack dimensions to take care of potential bump steer issues. Keep the steering rack arm swivels in the same plane as the top and bottom wishbone mounting points.
If you wish to copy the GTD rear uprights I know someone who has a spare upright and they may be able able to take pics and measurements for you as he is making the one for the other side. You could drill them to suit your existing hubs.

Cheers
Mike

 

[Christo]

Hi Mike

If I can get some info regarding the back uprights that would indeed help thank you. Whats the cons using the front uprights thats on the car at the moment, if I redo the front section using the uprights(knuckles) thats on the car at the moment. I will be making new control arms mounting on to the uprights thats in place now?

 

[Mike Pass]

The initial thing is what bolt pattern wheels you have. That will affect your options.
Cortina Mk3 uprights are 4 bolt as far as I can remember. You can use the uprights you have. However the geometry (like the Granada Mk2) is not ideal. The king pin inclination is a bit low. KPI is the angle between the line drawn through the centre line of the top and bottom swivel joints and the vertical. The other geometry issue is that the king pin axis extended does not pass through the centre of the tyre contact patch - in fact it is a long way from that so you get tyre scrub.
I have sent you a PM (see envelope icon at the top of the page) so I can pass on details re rear upright.
Cheers
Mike

 

[Adrian Starling]

Any updates Christo, looking forward to hearing and seeing your suspension upgrades.
Thanks, Adrian

 

[Neil]

View attachment 129078View attachment 129079

Has anyone ever investigated the torsional stiffness of this chassis?

 

[Christo]

Where is all the SA people? Any on the group?

 

[max]

Where is all the SA people? Any on the group?

Did you get any further with your Project?

 

[Christo]

Did you get any further with your Project?

Hi Max slow progress, had a brain fart to start from scratch. So frame was rebuild and now I need to make everthing fit

 

[max]

Ah nice. any pictures from the frame now ?