Tornado GT40 in Texas

I know this is trivial, but I feel like a milestone was reached today. The Tornado build manual says to put rivets in as soon as a panel is finished. I swore that I wouldn't put in a single rivet until final assembly and I am so glad that I didn't since I have had panels on and off several times while fitting all of the parts on the car.

Well, today I put in the first rivet. It may be a while before I put in more rivets, but it did seem like I'm on the finishing strokes in some respects.

-Bob Woods
 

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Hi Bob,
Car’s starting to come together and looking great. I totally agree with you about the panelling. I was 5 years into my build before I started any final riveting. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com<img src=" /><o:p></o:p>
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Andy and John,

I worried about car color for more than a year and almost selected different blues, but I finally ended up with the traditional Guardsman Blue by Dupont. The PPG Guardsman Blue is slightly different and appears more green (although it doesn't actually have green in the mix). I'm pleased you like it. The color and the finish is just stunning in my humble opinion. I will post some actual pictures when I get the rear clip back from paint. Everything else is painted.

-Bob Woods
 
Bob,
In your never ending quest for a good camera I may have an option for you. I purchased a Sony board camera for rear view on my DRB. This 1/3" ccd camera(38mmx38mm) will do just about anything you want with a rear view camera. It is a 12 volt setup(9-37volts) and comes with an adjustment piece that gets into the internals of the camera and allows you to make any adjustment you could want including mirror(vertical, horizontal or both). If you know anything at all about electronics you can set this camera up to an existing monitor via AV jacks(power and video). The video out cable is only 2 wires, the out line and ground. Any sales person at Radio Shack can show you how to add the jacks to the wiring.
I have a 4 camera monitor and one of the camera leads is empty, so I can supply the power and the video out. If you want to record the view a mini DVR can e used. On my monitor I can select 1, 2, or all 4 cameras at once for the screen. With one button push I can just have the rear view camera displayed by itself. Compared to the cameras that came with the monitor(400 tvl) the view is pretty good.
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I discovered this camera by watching FPV(First Person Viewing) from the RC community. They are the driving force for the miniaturization of cameras(Mobius and others). The Sony unit has been out for about a year and there are many reviews of it on Utube. I got mine through Security Camera 2000.It only cost $38
RunCam SKY2 800TVL FPV Camera 1/3'' SONY 960H Effio-V WDR Wide Voltage - SecurityCamera2000.com
The only drawback for this camera, is that it is only a computer board(thus the name) with a lens on it. You want the most shallow of lenses to get a realistic view of what the camera is looking at(3.6), and you have to mount the camera yourself. I made up a mount from some Lexan I had laying around.




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As you mentioned the weak link is the monitor. In order to get a really good pic from this or any other camera is to go to a I pad or similar. BTW in order to get a non fish eye pic with the Mobius you need to go to the "A" lens.

Bill
 
Thanks Bill, I'll check it out. I also bought a Dash Cam Pro for $32 (plus a lot of extras). I haven't tried it yet, but it has the camera, a built-in display, memory card, and battery. Having the built-in display might make it more user friendly as compared to a GoPro or Mobius for just recording driving.

-Bob Woods
 
One other thing Bob. The out cable for the Mobius is just that so it will work on any monitor. If you are interested in recording then you will have to go to the RunCam($54), or latest version the RunCam2($99).
RunCam You can purchase at Security Camera 2000 Surveillance Security Cameras and Video Security from securitycamera2000.com
These are 1080P HD cameras. They are the only ones that I know of that allow you to watch on your monitor and record at the same time.
Peter,
Most(read all) cameras with a170 degree lens have some fish eye image. If you look close at your images you posted the curve is in there. You have to get down to 120 or even 90 degrees to get a truley realistic picture as in a regular mirror. Look at my posting earlier. Your curve may be small but I think if you put that image onto a laptop or regular computer you will see it demonstrated better for you. That is the main reason I went to the cameras I have. The convex mirrors on the passenger side of most cars today are in the 170 range. Depth perception is off. I like the way you have placed your cameras. They will let you know what is not only behind you, but what is off to the side on the free way. May be a problem in stop and go traffic though, because of the lowness of the cameras. You may not see the car coming in the lane beside you a car length or two away in stop and go traffic.. I get that view with just one camera. I feel you need the height to see what is coming up in the lane beside you. Seems it would be hard to see a car in that circumstance. Yes?? No?? I put the 120s in my side mirrors and they allow me to see over and around the Gulf Flares. Again they are higher and out on the side of the car. These cameras are listed as side mounted cameras(adjustable).
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These were the first iteration of their mounting.
I took them apart and their size is between a golf ball and a ping pong ball. Easily mounted inside the housing of the mirrors(RX-7)

Bill
 

Rick Merz

Lifetime Supporter
It was great to see your car Saturday, your workmanship is first class. Looking forward to the first start in 2 months (just trying to keep you on schedule). :)
 
Thanks guys for coming over. It was good to see everybody. We really had some good conversations. Darrin, I hope to get to see your status soon.

Bob Woods
 

Dave Bilyk

Dave Bilyk
Supporter
Bob, I like your minimalist approach, it is probably what I would do from scratch, but since I am converting an existing Holley system to EFI on a timescale, I have thought about it, but opted for keeping the existing Low pressure system. In particular, the connected tanks idea still keeps haunting me, so I might do that later.
The first thing is that you are feeding the HP pump by gravity only, and the forward surge of fuel under braking seems to be a very real issue, if it does starve the pump, not only can you lose fire, but you can damage the pump. So you have to avoid this by any means.
If the inlet filter blocks, it will also cause the pump to cavitate, so watch out for that one.
The other thing I think you need to be sure of is being able to change filter or adjust something without draining the tanks and as a point of safety, fuel pickups are normally at the top of the tank, pipe dipping down to the bottom, so that any leak stops when the pumps are switched off. If the inlet side develops a leak, it could be unsafe as it won't stop.
I was surprised that you have foam in the small rear compartment, my DAX has the same small baffled compartment, but it is empty of foam I assume to allow a simple lever float level sensor to work there, with a baffle to help retain fuel under braking.
Dave
 

Dave Bilyk

Dave Bilyk
Supporter
Bob, if my post seems a little out of place, I was responding to post #72, for some reason I thought it was current.
 
Dave, thanks for your comments. You brought up some good points and since I haven't driven it yet, some are still to be determined.

On my Tornado tanks, there is a partition at the rear of the tank that is foam filled. The fuel level gauge is in front of that partition and there is no foam there. I'm concerned about the foam with our ethanol blend fuel. I have therefore made the side sills and covers removable. If I ever find foam parts in my filters, I will remove the tanks and saw off the top and add more ventilated partition plates in the tank and remove all of the foam. I started to do that before I installed the tanks, but pushed on without it.

-Bob Woods
 
Bob,
I know our cars are different but FWIW, as part of my "Annual", I drain and inspect the integral tanks on my RCR. I've had the black foam in the tanks going on 3 years now and there is no obvious degradation. Even with the packed foam in place you still get some slosh and when the tanks are full I can burp some fuel up the vents during heavy braking (on the track) so I'm rethinking the present vent system. The submersible hose, pickup, and pump (Bosch 044) are doing fine.

You can also use a borescope to look around for debris when the tank is empty, and if you don't want to remove the top plate. So that is an option but you'll either need to add an 'inspection' fitting (AN6) or use your vent line, if that is possible in your case. I also use it to inspect my cylinder walls through the spark plug hole....

Just get the car done and deal with the little things after the shakedown, or as I call it....phase 2. ;-)
 
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