First off let me say - When I signed up for the first car (remembering it was a pile of parts on the ground when I bought it) I knew it was going to be a long haul until I got my car and possibly even longer until I got all the parts. That being said, the car I ended up with in many ways is vastly different and improved from the "pile" <humor> that I ordered some 18 months ago. One of those improvements was (I think) partially influenced by my desire to use wider rear wheels, hence redesigned rear control arms. At times it was difficult to keep the faith and I thank those of you that helped me through with encouraging words. Being that my car is the first production example I wouldn't think anyone should base future delivery completeness of an SLC on the first unit produced, particularly since developments that will improve the car for all that order are still in progress. I would imagine that once the package has been fully developed the product will be complete when delivered.
Looking back.......I was itching so bad to get started, I would have been happy just to receive the rolling chassis and body in advance - without any parts. As I knew after I decided on wheels the next thing would be body modifications to cover the tires, and those body mods would / will take a considerable amount of time....
On to the fun stuff - Since the last post my temporary workspace has improved a bit with all the light fixtures repaired, 220 installed, wall sockets placed and a compressor brought in.
I have sort of been in limbo for much else to do since ordering the wheels from Forgeline and even with all my careful planning they called back to say - "it was discovered in the machining process one of the options you asked for was not possible". Poo, that added a week. In the meantime I was hoping some parts would show up so I could at least start making a some sort of mess.........as it turned out - yesterday I received my first shipment of parts. I got the dash, center consul and a kick panel cover. I see on other threads that it looks like the diffuser that allows a pivoting rear deck lid is done, if I squint my eyes just right some of those parts look like the maybe makings of lower door hinges and the A/C unit looks to be in stock.
Today I rough cut the windshield opening, trimmed and installed the dash then placed the readout, seats and wheel for effect. The dash clears the top of the foot box 3.5 inches at the near edge and a good 4-5 inches near the windshield (the sculpted areas will allow even more room). The reason I mention this is that others thought maybe there would be a lot of room under there to install stuff, like maybe electronics and such. The only trick will be to set up the dash to allow access. There are defroster slots molded into the dash but, I don't know if the defroster "manifold" will be included in future shipments. If not, once I receive the A/C heater unit to judge configuration I'll make up some manifolds.
As noted earlier - I was looking for some articulating seats for the car as I wanted to have maximum adjustability and comfort, I also feel driving a "race" car on the street with limited suspension travel would (IMO) get a little old a little quick. None of the seats I tried would fit without modification (Sparco, Recaro) and the one that would (Corbeau) was a little low on finish quality. So I ended up choosing Recaro because the chassis is pressed clamshell style that will lend itself to modification better than tube frame construction. The modification will be a fairly simple shortening and re-contouring of the headrest area to clear the roof.
Enjoy today's pictures