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JimS Daytona SC Build

72K views 324 replies 34 participants last post by  JimS 
#1 ·
Well better late then never :)

This is the build thread for Coupe # 487

I've been in love with the Cobra, Daytona Coupe and the GT40s for as long as I can remember. All beautiful cars. I originally wanted to build a RCR GT40.
I bought a Porsche transaxle and started planning and started designing a SBF supercharger Intake to have a super charged Gt40 :) But I came to the realization that the initial cost was just too far out of my reach, so I sold my transaxle and changed course somewhat:). Like I said I also was a really big fan of the Daytona coupe. I researched Factory Five and decide to go that route. I took delivery of my coupe on 4-20-2010. The waiting from time of order to time of delivery was a killer.

When I took delivery and started to really look it over from a body stand point, I have to be honest, I had buyers remorse :). I couldn't believe just how bad the seems are in person. But I soon got over and went to work.
 

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#53 ·
Engine coolant tubes

I have somewhat of a funny story about the top coolant tube. I was looking over the setup to try and figure out how I was going to route the coolant tubes. Once I figured out what I wanted for the top tube and knew I needed 1-1/2" tube, I thought I was going to have to ordering some. While I was sitting there looking at the car I happen to glance over to my pile of tubing odds and ends sitting in the corner and I saw some Stainless steel bathroom handy cap bars that I pulled out of the scrape steel gondola at work from them remodeling the bathroom. I hate to see nice pieces of SS tubing getting scraped :). Well it just so happens that those bars are 1-1/2 diameter and they have nice Mandrel bent ends. So I cut them up and used them for the top coolant tube:001_smile:

The bottom tube is left overs from the muffler build.
 

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#54 ·
Intercooler water pipes

I built the Intercooler. (IC) pipes out of 3/4" residential copper water pipe. I then powder coated it with Black Mini Texture to tame it down, so it doesn't stick out so much. The last picture shows the IC heat exchanger mounted up in front of the radiator
 

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#55 ·
Expansion tank and IC coolant tank

I don't have a picture of the IC circulation pump, but it is a Bosch Mercedes unit. It's a little better than the Bosch Ford Lightning pump.

On the Engine Coolant Expansion tank and IC coolant tank, I wanted to have them consolidated into the same tank from appearance, but be isolated from each other so ones temperature didn't effect the other. This is what I came up with. I was able to buy the thread bungs that the caps go on from Canton. This was nice, one less thing to machine and the price was very reasonable.
 

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#56 ·
Expansion tank continued

Title says it. In the last picture you can see the IC coolant pipes are now powder coated, no more copper color.
 

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#57 ·
Transmission

Transmission is a T5 G-Force, Bell Housing is a steel Quick Time. I'm using the stock through out arm with the end modified to accept a small rod end that is hooked to a push shaft that goes into a Clutch Slave cylinder, that I got from Speedway motors. I believe it is a 7/8" slave and I'm using the same size clutch master with the Wilwood pedal arrangement. Sorry to say I don't have pictures of most of this. I have pictures of the bracket I made that bolts to the side of the T5 and holds the slave cylinder. It seems to work fine, but I haven't really driven the car yet so we'll see.
 

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#59 ·
Coming from you Ron I don't know what to say, other than thank you. Your fiberglass work on your car blows my mind. The interior work is just simply AMAZING. :001_tongue:


Jim
 
#60 ·
Air Cleaner air box

Originally I was going to try and route the air inlet and air cleaner towards the front of the car and try to pickup fresh air up there, but it just seemed like it was going to be really tight.
I came up with the idea to build a box and set it on top of the passenger foot box. The plan is to cut the hood opening where the original Coupes have the rectangular opening for the Carburetor turkey tray. The opening that is at the back of the hood bubble. Then I will build a low profile duct that is attached to the bottom side of the hood and it will direct air over to the top of the air box. The air box will have a Bulb seal around the top of it that will seal to the ducted when the hood is closed, so it should be nice cool air from the windshield area "sort of". Hope this makes sense.


Jim
 

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#61 ·
SAI mod and Bumb Steer

I decided that it made sense to do this before finishing the car, rather than opening it back up later to do what I should have just taken care of. So I called Whitby, and talked with them, but they didn't have any of the mounts left that bolt onto the top of the spindle. They said they wouldn't have any for quite awhile so I offered to pay them for a print of those mounts and I would make them myself since I had come to a stand still. They thought about it for a coupe of days and decided they didn't want to do this, which is their prerogative. So I sat down at the tube and laid out the suspension pivot points based on allot of measuring on the car using big frame squares, straight edges, steel rules, and a car perfectly leveled to the concrete floor. Once I had this I began to layout the design of the SAI bracket. I had a general idea based on pictures I've seen. I have no intention on building these for sale and taking business from Whitby. Theirs are fairly priced and if they would have had them I would have bought them. So anyway I machined these, then laid out the brackets that needed to be welded to the frame to lower the upper control arm and move it outward. The really good part about this was it put the upper A arm pivot, Inner tie rod pivot and lower A arm pivot all inline with each other. The line isn't perfectly vertical BTW, but they are all inline. (That's a good thing to aid in getting rid of bump steer. So now that I had that taking care of and I had all the pivot points laid out on CAD I could see exactly where the outer tie rod end should be to cancel bump steer. So then I made some adapters to move the mounting point for the outer tie rod.
One hiccup :eek: By doing what I did It fixed 2 things, BUT it canceled steering Ackerman "oops" So luckily an FFR employee saw my post on this and gave me some advice. He said move the steering rack back against the X brace that holds the upper A arms. So I cut away the old rack mounts and drilled holes through the X brace and mounted the rack directly against it and got back some Ackerman. Not quit as much as they have on the new coupe suspension but not bad.
 

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#62 ·
Bump steer continued

These pictures show the mounts that were built to be bolted and welded to the spindle to relocate the outer tie rod to the proper spot to get rid of bump steer in my application.
 

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#63 ·
Fixing Ackerman

Like I mentioned in the SAI post, by doing the things I did to get rid of bump steer I actually removed all Ackerman, which is a bummer, but I got rid of bump steer which is a great thing to get rid of in my opinion.

So with advice from FFR I moved the rack back which they did on the new coupes and roadsters.

By doing this I got back some Ackerman " yeah".

Here's pictures of the X brace mods to move the rack. On the passenger side the bolt hole is right tight to the bottom side of the 2 x 2 tube so I knew it wouldn't collapse as I tightened the rack mount bolt, but on the drivers side it is kind of in the middle of the 2 x 2 tube so I knew the tube would collapse so I slide a sleeve that just fit over the bolt inside the box tub and welded it in so the 2 x 2 wouldn't collapse. You'll also notice I had to notch the 2x2 for the steer shaft housing part of the rack to clear.
 

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#64 ·
rear brake ducts

Finally got the brake ducts glassed in. They still need to have the front contoured to the body and then glass the front of the seam and finish, but one step at a time :001_smile:

The wood sticks on the inside of the scoop are cedar wedges to hold the scoop from collapsing or bowing in while the glass cures. Just wanted to make absolutely sure that it wouldn't bow in. Going to let the glass cure one more day to make sure, then I will remove the wood and contour.

I also took pictures that show the back. The red ridge around the outlet is Yarn. I used it to build up a bead that will help hold the hoses on. I coated them with resin, it worked good.
 

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#66 ·
Bump steer diagram that I used for reference

I meant to post this when I talked about the SAI mod and Bump steer.

This is what I used for a reference on how to get where I wanted to be for close to zero bump steer. Upper arm, lower Arm, and tie rod all meeting at the same instant center. This is what I went for and it worked for me.
 

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#84 ·
I meant to post this when I talked about the SAI mod and Bump steer.

This is what I used for a reference on how to get where I wanted to be for close to zero bump steer. Upper arm, lower Arm, and tie rod all meeting at the same instant center. This is what I went for and it worked for me.
I am not sure I thought I posted my question but looks like I didnt!

I have some questions here please;

1) on the photo it says the Inner mount Plane; what are these??
2) is the intersection point should be on the center of car? or any other location?

Thanks
Hakeem
 
#67 ·
Tough Crowd

You guys are a tough crowd, only 3 comments. :confused1:

Is there something you'd like to see that I didn't cover or something answered that I didn't cover?

I'm out of material to talk about until I get some more things done on the coupe, so now's a good time in thread if you'd like to ask something or have comments good or bad.


Jim
 
#73 ·
You guys are a tough crowd, only 3 comments. :confused1:

Is there something you'd like to see that I didn't cover or something answered that I didn't cover?

I'm out of material to talk about until I get some more things done on the coupe, so now's a good time in thread if you'd like to ask something or have comments good or bad.


Jim
Dont be Harsh on yourself :). me personally I am subscribed to your thread. I learn a lot. But as many said your work is advanced. I will be afraid to attempt and do the modifications :).

Keep up the good work and please dont stop!

Hakeem
 
#68 ·
Hi Jim

I think that you have ALOT of material to digest here....it's going to take some time for people to get their heads around some of it. You have to remember that each builder is only at one of the many stages you posted...so they can only relate to a few posts at most.

I think it is a great summary. Thanks for posting.

Marc
 
#71 ·
Well after digesting all that has been done, I have to say your fabrication skills are absolutely incredible!! You must have a background in designing, machining, TIG welding, etc. I don't think I would have tackled all of this, especially fooling with the steering.
 
#72 ·
There are some craftsman out there.. :) and then there is me.. :confused1::confused1::confused1: lol

Is brilliant.. :) well done and thanks for posting.

Chris
 
#74 ·
Guy's, all very well put statements. I'm such a feed back guy that I didn't stop to think about as Marc said different stages of the build, or maybe overwhelmed by some of the posts. I get so wrapped up in my build that I sometimes forget that everybody doesn't having the same back ground as me and some stuff may look completely confusing or overwhelming. My bad.

I will continue to post my progress and try to be as clear as possible on things I did, and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask, I will try to help in anyway I can.

Keep enjoying, and I'll keep trying to adding interesting stuff::001_smile:


Jim
 
#75 ·
Jim,
Truly amazing work! Your fabrication skills are off the charts. I for one was waiting for you to catch your breath and didn't want to interrupt such a flow of amazing posts. Get it all out, as I really can't wait to see what else you've done. Truly a great read and an amazing build. Great work! -- I
 
#76 ·
I like your approach on the dash. AS I've done several different approaches to making the dash I never thought about framing it the way you have.

Looks great, just like the rest of the build.

John
 
#78 ·
We're out here hanging on every word, Jim. Keep 'em coming!
I have a bunch of crazy ideas for mods but I'm taking my time to scope them out with my kit and learning all I can from posts like yours.
I especially like what you did with the AC. I was helping a friend with his 67 Firebird and noticed that a lot it extends under the hood. Why not!
:)
 
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