Thanks for the tip,I showed your pictures to my upholstery man today and he gave me a few foam sample, I am going to try making the covers with foam and secure them to the roll bar with velcro first. Is a closed cell polyurethane foam used on boats that can be shaped with a knife and sandpaper.
Thanks for the tip,I showed your pictures to my upholstery man today and he gave me a few foam sample, I am going to try making the covers with foam and secure them to the roll bar with velcro first. Is a closed cell polyurethane foam used on boats that can be shaped with a knife and sandpaper.
Finally got all the driver door gremlins sorted out so I could install the door panel for the last time. Or so I thought. Looks like it will come off one more time so I can install some kind of wiper on the inside of the glass to keep if from rattling against the top of the regulator. And a little more leather stretching. But at least I got to see some color other than black, grey or foam.
I'm trying to get ready for a little show and shine this weekend. Ill be taking some pictures of the car about 95% done. But here's a couple I took this morning.
Well the 5th annual "Frank car party was today and it was awesome as usual. Good food, good friends, good music, great weather and cool cars. Most awesome was that I was able to let people see the GTM all put together. Lots of people at the party have been watching the progress over the last 4 years, but they always see it in pieces. Well the car isn't done but at least it looked like a car. Got tons of compliments and even more questions. Got to hang out with LSMan and his friends. Wish I was better at remembering their names but I remember the beautiful orange factory 5 Daytona they brought down. The day ended with the car blow up. Check out the Video highlights.
Well the 5th annual "Frank car party was today and it was awesome as usual. Good food, good friends, good music, great weather and cool cars. Most awesome was that I was able to let people see the GTM all put together. Lots of people at the party have been watching the progress over the last 4 years, but they always see it in pieces. Well the car isn't done but at least it looked like a car. Got tons of compliments and even more questions. Got to hang out with LSMan and his friends. Wish I was better at remembering their names but I remember the beautiful orange factory 5 Daytona they brought down. The day ended with the car blow up. Check out the Video highlights.
Installed one of Shane's engine covers after adding some quickie stickers. As usual the parts fit and quality are second to none. What a difference it makes.
Finished up the dash enough to make it to the party. The leather on the center console is just temporary.
I mounted a string of LEDs behind the front grill. I pulled the dash and most of the interior so I have access to the wiring. I mounted the under dash LEDs. Mounted the front hood release handle under the dash (just in case the electric sol ever fails). I sealed up some a/c air leaks under the front hood. Installed a nylon molding on the front air dam (for those times when I forget to lift the front end). There are no pop rivets on our car. All panels are held on by 8/32 stainless button head screws. So I screwed on most of the under body panels. I cut a hole in the front and rear of the underneath center panel , in an attempt to let air flow through the tunnel instead of just building heat. I think I added more things to the list than I checked off,
I've been wondering what I would do for the rear hatch lifting struts. The stock ones were never going to hold up the hatch and they had an annoying habit of pushing the rear hatch back. Since I did a one piece body we didn't use the front end struts and they are pretty stout so I figured I would give them a try. They worked perfectly. I have about 4 inches of clearance between the strut and the closest exhaust pipe when closed so I hope they don't get too hot and loose their charge. With this configuration, the struts push the hatch into the body, which makes the glass fit awesome. WIN WIN for once,
I also removed the rear tail light lens in preparation of finishing the light buckets. I kind of like the chrome look better than the stealth look with the lens on. What do you guys think. Should I chrome the buckets and make a clear lens?
Now that the calendar is out of my hair it's back to work.
Santa brought me some new front lifting rams. The original ones were just not reliable enough. But of course the new rams don't have internal limit switches, so I had to make brackets and mount some external switches to stop the rams at full extension and compression. Then had to rewired the control relays.
Mounted some LEDs under the hood that come on when the hood is open.
Finished mounting all our new LED switches to the switch panels and then installed them onto the the Rosewood console insert. Now I just have to make the trim ring for the AC outlets
Since I wanted to use custom door rubbers I had to move the pinch weld in. So I had exposed spacers all around the door opening. This forced me to make the sill plates wider and make cover plates for the front and rear of the door openings.
Then I go to the Ford dealer thinking I can just order up some brand new door rubbers for a 96 Taurus, install and I'd be styling. WRONG!!!! no longer available.
I'm sure there is a plan B (or is it C) out there, just haven't discovered it yet.
When doing the body I glassed in some round flanges sealed to the side scoops. From there I wanted to tube fresh air into an air box surrounding the stock GTM air cleaner. Here are some along the way pictures. Should have the finished pictures hopefully by this weekend.
The back of the box is not as close to the exhaust as it looks but I might need to do some more work back there. We'll see
Thanks for the compliment.
The air box is painted black like the engine cover. The chrome strips are left over pieces of .03 chromed stainless we used on the sill plates.
Steve
Can I ask why you installed the bracing that I have circled?
Seriously impressive work by the way.
Good eye Fraser D. We had to install those supports for a couple reasons.
1) I had to do some pretty substantial reinforcing to the rear hatch to support the weight of the wing when in the open position. When I did this it changed the shape of the hatch so it didn't fit the body so well after paint. I needed to lift those areas about 1/8".
2) When the hatch is closed I needed a way to support the weight of the wing besides the latch. So by making these supports I can have rubber bumpers on those lips to stabilize the wing. They also stabilize the rear fenders and to a lesser degree the whole rear of the car body.
Steve
Good eye Fraser D. We had to install those supports for a couple reasons.
1) I had to do some pretty substantial reinforcing to the rear hatch to support the weight of the wing when in the open position. When I did this it changed the shape of the hatch so it didn't fit the body so well after paint. I needed to lift those areas about 1/8".
2) When the hatch is closed I needed a way to support the weight of the wing besides the latch. So by making these supports I can have rubber bumpers on those lips to stabilize the wing. They also stabilize the rear fenders and to a lesser degree the whole rear of the car body.
Steve
Steve,
Thanks for the explanation.
I noticed on mine that area of the body was less than supportive of the hatch. In fact it felt that the more that I clearanced the hatch opening to accommodate the bottom radius of the hatch glass the more that it needed. I may do something similar.
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2011 FFCar 
Gen2 GTM
Almost makes me wish I lived on the west coast.
Linear Mode
