[Gbeck]

I mentioned to a friend that it has a pretty good bark. He asked me to prove it.

Startup Video

 

[Gbeck]

I've been doing many mods to my coupe, all directed toward making it a road trip car. One of the biggest mods has been to get as much space in the trunk area as possible. This included significant changes to the frame, a custom fuel tank, relocation of some parts and a good bit of aluminum fabrication. I finally finished the last of it yesterday and I'm thrilled with the results! I threw in a couple of suitcases, one full size and on carry-in size, to show just how much space is there. It looks like plenty for a couple of weeks on the road!

Fuel Fill Cover Complete by Team Limer, on Flickr

Storage Bin Complete by Team Limer, on Flickr

Trunk Space Galore! by Team Limer, on Flickr

Trunk Space Galore by Team Limer, on Flickr


The trunk rear wall and the side panels are all removable for access to the fuel fill tube and the rear wiring. There are also access panels to the fittings on the fuel tank.

 

[John Dol]

Wow Glenn that's really awesome!! Plenty of room to sleep if you ever get in the dog house too!!
your coupe is coming along great. When do you think it'll be on the road?

John

 

[Gbeck]

At the risk of jinxing it the plan is to be ready for some shakedown miles by the time the state gives me a title and tags. Estimate 4 weeks ... maybe.
I have a couple of significant things to work on till then. More later.

 

[Gbeck]

Sneak peek

 

[John Dol]

That looks great Glenn.
Are you able to get to wiring/gauge lock rings easy if something goes wrong? Only reason I'm asking is I'm glad I made removable panels on my dash so I don't have to take the whole thing apart. Recently struggled through a gas gauge issue and I had the gauge in and out numerous times. On yours I could envision a separate square plate that comes of the main dash structure for instance.
On mine the main gauge pod as well and the pods in the center console all come out individually,

HTH

John

 

[Gbeck]

I really like your dash, John. Especially with those signatures!!! I toyed with a layout like that but i kept coming back an arrangement I’ve seen in GT40s.
This piece will be mounted on brackets at the bottom that will let it pivot to a face-down position for easy access.

 

[John Dol]

Got it, yeah wasn't trying trying to persuade you away from the GT40 design, just making sure you have access. Good to hear you made that provision.

John

 

[Gbeck]

I really appreciate your input, John. I can't count the number of times during this build that I wish somebody had been looking over my shoulder!
I finished painting and assembling the dash. I went with satin black. It ain't perfect, but I'm really happy with it. I hope I can install it without messing it up!

Untitled by Team Limer, on Flickr

Untitled by Team Limer, on Flickr

 

[John Dol]

Slick looking, It'll be the only Daytona40 out there!

 

[Gbeck]

Here it is. And I love it!


The layout is inspired by the GT-40 dashboards ... gauges in a row across the top and switches in a row across the bottom. The tach is front and center with the speedo on the right and angled toward the driver. The tach and turn indicators are easily visible through the steering wheel. Indicators for headlight, high beam, fog lights and ebrake are easily visible but do not interfere with the view down the road. I despise a glaring bright blue high beam indicator in my face while driving at night!

And it folds down for easy access to the components behind the dash.


It pivots on a couple of bolts at the bottom corners and is held upright by fasteners at the top corners. Maybe sometime I'll straighten out that mess of wires back there. But everything works and is solid. Good enough for now.

 

[turbodon]

Glen

I have a question: In the photo of the dash pivoted out. I see what appears to be 2 wiper motors? Are they synced? Can you elaborate?

 

[Gbeck]

Don

Those are the Ongaro marine wipers. There is a controller that synchronizes them, its the white box behind the dash all the way to the right. The setup includes a switch that provides high, low, intermittent and wash functions. The motors are adjustable for sweep angle and park position. The only down side is that the motors take up a lot of space. They are kinda pricey, too.
John Dol has them. Mark Dougherty used them on a couple of builds too.

Marine Wiper Systems | Boat Windshield Wiper Systems | Boat Wipers

 

[John Dol]

Better system then the offering from FFR. Price wise not much different. It does take up quite a bit of room under the already crammed dash. You can even hook up a third wiper if you wanted to put one on the back too!

John

 

[Gbeck]

I moved the car (yeah, it's got a title so it's a car now) out in the driveway to take a some pictures and thought I'd share a couple of them.


It's gonna need a bunch of body work, but I plan to drive it pretty much as is for a while. This side shot shows a few of the mods that I've done. At a glance I think most of the changes are pretty subtle, aside from the missing side pipes and spoiler!


The interior is a little different too. I removed the dash support bar, built a custom dash, straightened out the steering column and modified the Russ Thompson turn signal assembly to move the steering wheel about an inch farther forward. The seats are mounted on sliders in a section of the floor that's been dropped 2 inches.

 

[John Dol]

Awesome Glenn, congrats on getting it titled. Enjoy the driving experience!

John

 

[Gbeck]

Thanks, John. It's not quite road legal yet. It still has to pass the annual PA safety inspection. I don't expect any problems with that, but I'm going to take advantage of the lousy weather to button up a few things.

 

[Gbeck]

For the last few weeks I've been paying the price for doing so much body customization ... the doors didn't quite fit! But it's all better now.
To recap, early on in this build I made the door openings larger by moving the door striker rearward by about 2" and lowering the door sill by about 2". This was all to make it a bit easier to get into the car and make more room in the door cavity for the window regulator. I mocked up the changes to the fiberglass and built custom door frames to fit the new door opening. So far so good, right?
Well, several weeks ago we pulled the body off the car and glassed in the changes to the fiberglass. After setting the body back down on the chassis the doors didn't close without rubbing the fiberglass! So I stripped the door frames back to the tubing and fabricated new panels for the perimeter; front side, bottom and rear side; that fit the new door openings with 1/2" space available for weather strip. Tedious, time consuming work. But that chore is behind me now!

I rewired the circuit that powers the fan when the AC is turned on. Contrary to the Factory Five guidance I had wired the fan to be powered by the fan relay in the Ron Francis fuse box. After reading about somebody that did the same and fried their fuse box I thought I'd better change my setup. I followed the wiring schematic from Vintage Air. The high current feed goes from the battery, through a 50 amp circuit breaker to the relay provided in the kit. I spliced this relay output to the fan feed from the Coyote Control Pack and then on to the fan.

I have a short punch list of things to get done before PA inspection. We're starting to get some nice weather and I'm eager to try this thing out on the road!

 

[JimS]

For the last few weeks I've been paying the price for doing so much body customization ... the doors didn't quite fit! But it's all better now.
To recap, early on in this build I made the door openings larger by moving the door striker rearward by about 2" and lowering the door sill by about 2". This was all to make it a bit easier to get into the car and make more room in the door cavity for the window regulator. I mocked up the changes to the fiberglass and built custom door frames to fit the new door opening. So far so good, right?
Well, several weeks ago we pulled the body off the car and glassed in the changes to the fiberglass. After setting the body back down on the chassis the doors didn't close without rubbing the fiberglass! So I stripped the door frames back to the tubing and fabricated new panels for the perimeter; front side, bottom and rear side; that fit the new door openings with 1/2" space available for weather strip. Tedious, time consuming work. But that chore is behind me now!

I rewired the circuit that powers the fan when the AC is turned on. Contrary to the Factory Five guidance I had wired the fan to be powered by the fan relay in the Ron Francis fuse box. After reading about somebody that did the same and fried their fuse box I thought I'd better change my setup. I followed the wiring schematic from Vintage Air. The high current feed goes from the battery, through a 50 amp circuit breaker to the relay provided in the kit. I spliced this relay output to the fan feed from the Coyote Control Pack and then on to the fan.

I have a short punch list of things to get done before PA inspection. We're starting to get some nice weather and I'm eager to try this thing out on the road!

Congrates on your progress Glenn. I hope inspection goes good for you.

 

[Gbeck]

* SOLD *

If anybody is interested in adding electric power steering to their ride I have the motor, controller and some parts available. See my ad in the Classified section.

Reason for selling: I absolutely intended to use this motor and controller. But I was offered a deal on a other unit that had a nicer way of packaging the controller, so I used that instead.

BTW, I will donate the entire proceeds from the sale to Race To Erase MS, the beneficiary to this year's Rally North America events.

EPAS Parts for sale