clarkspeed

The G-nose came with this crazy body kit I bought. It is exactly 4" wider than stock to match the 2" extended fenders. I decided to do the dam in glass to match what everyone was running back in the day. Like the BSR cars and Frisselle. It needed a few curves here and there that I could not get with pure aluminum fab. And if you have ever seen aluminum air dams, they look little getto. Funny that a lot of people did that back in the day too. My overall idea was to incorporate a lexan lower strip on the bottom that I could adjust up or down to achieve the lowest possible clearance. Lexan is the perfect material for the bottom of an air dam.

These are some pics on progress with the air dam. I kept looking at this wide body G-Nose trying to figure out a way to create a mold. Then I realized it is a fairly simple shape and if I took a sheet of thin aluminum I could hand roll it to get the correct contour. And even better, it would be a nice smooth finish to pull the final part without much correction. I ended up using 2 sheets riveted together so there is a small crease in the middle. I am smoothing the crease with body filler and rounding the corners so there is a nice smooth transition when I lay the cloth. As you can see I laid a ton of glass for this mold and added big cardboard ribs to make it rigid. I figure I will pull 2 or 3 air dams to start but it will always be available to pull more. I have been working on it on the side while I am trying to finish up other stuff. Dirty work.

I agree, mechanically, most of the parts last an exceptionally long time, even when abused. L6 engine with efi and all other. But it is a really old car now. Electrical things deteriorate over time. Electro-mechanical wear is an issue and unless preserved in a low humidity environment, corrosion at every connection. 98% of the time it is something simple to fix by troubleshooting with FSM, but sometimes, it will be very difficult to diagnose.

I laid out the entire electrical system in PowerPoint and put together a bill of material. I will purchase most from Waytek. I highly recommend. But I had a few surplus spare parts I loaded it with for the photo.

I loaded the switch panel with switches that light whan energized and circuit breakers.

Here are some shots of my test parts. It looks like most of my tolerances are around 0.010". I am starting an upgrade to hopefully bring that in. My goal is at least center drill hole locations within a few thousands. Surface finish can be as good as you want . The pics all all rough cuts without a finishing pass.

Another post. Getting much closer to my current state on the car. These photos show the electrical panel I 3d printed, tabs everywhere to secure wiring, window supports, panel to mount all the electrical components, and a pic of my messy shop.

Tell me about it. For my build I am trying to do all the work ahead of the spend. I only purchase parts that I need to weld around. My goal is to get to a completion state where I only need to final assemble and wire it up. I have this huge list of parts I will pull the trigger on as soon as I sell my other car. Most of that is shocks, wheels, tires, and gauges. But I am trying not to sell it so I can still race until this one is finished. That cross over point is getting closer. I am still not sure what I am going to do with the motor yet, but I have a few options.

Yea, I could see 320 duration as giving some vacuum issues. Then again, take my TPS values, they should get you close. Much of the low RPM, Iow load stuff is just to get it cranked easy. I recently purchased a 14point7 system to tie in with my data logger. I have not used it yet, but it was recommended to me buy a reputable tuner. The Innovate stuff is good too, but as in previous posts, goes back to how much data you want to collect and what do you want to collect it with.

Hell yes!

My 2 cents. You will probably learn just as much on the Megasquirt site as any book will give you. It is very extensive. I'm not sure you really need a TPS for ignition, most racers just run RPM (mechanical) advance. But I always liked adding some load advance because it does make things a little smoother on throttle transition and makes it "snappy" at throttle tip in. I would think you generate plenty of vacuum with SU's so a MAP sensor may be better than TPS for load? I don't know. I don't have any vacuum so I must use TPS for load. I run a curve similar to below with my EFI system. Pretty standard stuff, 32 degrees all in a 2750. I played with timing on the dyno and didn't get any real gains. More benefits playing with cam timing. You can convert my tps numbers to a % if you want. Should get you in ball park. Theoretically 12.5:1 is air/fuel for most power. I have always found 12.7-12.8 to work best and that is what I shoot for. Dial it in for full throttle at the dyno, but get a data logging O2 system so you can continue to fine tune it at events. I gradually fine tune low rpm and part throttle stuff over time or if you feel a stumble somewhere. Maybe you will get some better answers than mine. May need to post in L6 forum.

Here are some pics of the fuel cell area. The boxed in rear section was already in the car so I just made the panels to finish it out. I also fabricated a cage that will bolt from the bottom and has a removable top section.

Here are some photos of the body panels as I did a wheel check. These are 15x8 wheels with a 235-50-15 tire. I am planning on running 15x10 so it will be close. I really like this body kit, it is basically stock fenders extended out 2". It came with a cowl induction hood, G-nose, and a whale tail. I will run the G-nose with a custom air dam. I will probably sell the cowl hood. And I may consider the whale tail later.

I just ran some aluminum buttons that sit on top of my spring perch top hats. Holes and diameters seem about 0.010" off. But again I suspect the precision is fairly good and more a problem of accuracy. I think with the little practice I could dial this in if I need to. In the next few weeks I want to run some positional location tests to see how accurate I can center punch holes.

Accolades and recognition will never be overstated for a project of this magnitude performed by 1 person.

Thanks guys! That is the kind of cool ideas I need for this thing. Only problem is I inherited a heavy 1/8 thk x 2.5 angle iron fuel cell frame in the deck. I hate looking at it. I will need to rethink this, but that is what I had in mind was a flat "protection" panel starting at the aft suspension mounts and terminating at the rear valence and somehow still capturing the envelope of the cell. I think if I keep things flat with no vanes I might be able to get away with it. That tilted cell would definitely make fuel pickup much easier!

The only tolerances I have checked were just spot checks to see if I was in the ball park. Seemed to be well within .010". I have not run anything that demands better than that but a lot depends on the style of cuts you do. I am most off in the Z axis, but that is due to my inconsistent way of setting 0. Eventually I will add stops to the machine to eliminate that problem. If you build the machine correctly, success with metals is quite easy. But after running it into the ground for a couple months, I have found consistency to be the main issue. Anything that can loosen up will loosen up and it is not always easy to identify the problem. But by modifying a few parts, lock-tite, and a maintenance schedule for tightening, I am getting much more consistent results. When I am happy with that I will concentrate more on accuracy and precision. Although a few people have done it, I would not use this for continuous production work in metal. But it seems OK for some nice 1-off parts. I think a few guys have used their large format machine for cutting sheet metal shapes out of 4x8's which I found interesting. Derek, I had to Google GP03. If you are referring to the walls that is just plywood. If you are referring to the machine parts, it is just a good quality 3d PLA filament. I think it is one of the most rigid materials you can print with. You just can't leave your machine out in the Florida sun.

Here are some photos of panel cutting and fitting. Once I was satisfied with the layout of all the interior bits I started planning out the panels. I used 18ga aluminum for interior panels and 18ga steel for the fire wall. I started at the front and went panel by panel working my way toward the back like a puzzle. I took my time and tried to bend or bead panels that seemed too floppy. It came out ok. I am actually thinking I need to clean up the original chassis some so it looks as good as the sheet metal section. I put everything in with clecos and drill all the holes for rivets. All the removable panels have 1/4 turn fasteners. I was a little concerned about getting a good seal from the engine bay, but it seems ok. I was not sure about either welding or riveting the fire wall but ended up drilling for rivets in case I need to rip it out later. I will probably seal all the riveted panels with RTV or similar. Once everything was fitted I pulled it all out and put on a shelf. I think I will install the firewall before I paint the chassis, but paint all the interior panels separate. I have been thinking a lot lately about colors since I am getting ready for paint. I think I will go with a light metallic grey for the interior and gloss black for all the suspension parts.

I have been geeking out on this thing for about 3 months now and posting on other forums and FB. I even have a magazine interested in seeing my setup. A 3D printing colleague told me about this possibility about 1.5 years ago and it sounded like total BS. So I started digging around the internet and found the V1 Engineering website and their MPCNC (mostly printed CNC). It has a very good support forum and some amazing project results for a small investment. So I took the plunge just to see what it could do. I slowly acquired all the parts over a 3-4 month period. When I finally had a break on my 3d printer I ran all the parts needed. I assembled this thing in a couple hours, ran a test print with a Sharpie pen, then ran some pockets in wood. I immediately put an aluminum plate on the bed and it went right through it. My eyes were, and still are as big as saucers everytime I use this thing. I have now progressed to mild steel and seem to be advancing the machine capability for the rest of the user base. Just like the 3d printer, I have suddenly found 50 projects I want to do, and so far, just ripping through them. Truth be told, it is not a simple process to produce parts and it is not super fast, but if you have either machining, programming, design, or 3d printing experience, you are already ahead. And if just cutting flat plate, even better. And the satisfaction of seeing a machine you built making chips is better than sex. Well not really, I exaggerate, but I think it is still super cool.

I was thinking the same direction. I am building mine loosely to GT rules which allows for a flat bottom. So I was thinking about putting a close out panel there. But I'm not sure how I could work that around the fuel cell. I can't really work on that area now until I get it off the rotisserie.

I REALLY like your reinforcement of those panels. That rear skirt is so easy to damage. Mine is so wrinkled I may just cut it off and replace like the rockers with little heavier metal. As far as diffusers, they are pretty much illegal for many of us. I'm pretty sure EP does not allow either. But I would say that looks like a good way to attach one!

You are correct Jon. I assume vacuum bagging is the difference to make really light weight parts. As you can see, the door has a lot of resin in it and that equals thickness and weight. It's got to be 2 or 3 lbs heavier than it should be. And of course I laid in 1 or 2 more layers than I needed to.. I was just happy to get a ready to paint door out of the process. I am going to experiment with more cloth than matt with the air dam since I don't have any sharp edges to deal with. I think I can get to more like a normal FG part say from the 80's. As I mentioned in another post, I have a Z Trix hood and that thing mind boggling. I can't imagine it being more than 1lb heavier than carbon fiber. But the other thing I learned in this process is I don't like it! It is quite tedious mixing resin, applying layer, repeat, repeat, repeat. The bigger the part, the more you repeat. You can only get so much down in 20 minutes. I mix a quart of resin each round. So my conclusion is small parts and repairs are fine, body panels are a total pain in the ass. Much cheaper and easier to purchase, if you can.

For this build I decided to jump in with both feet and learn how to build fiberglass. I found out early on that I would need to build up a custom air dam so I decided to build out a door as a trial to learn the process. I have done plenty of small FG projects but never something large that involves building a mold tool. You can see the process in the pictures. First sanding and waxing the door (plug) and applying mold release. Then a layer of gelcoat and then laying down multiple layers of heavy matt until the mold has enough strength and rigidity not to break when pulling the final part. The only mistake I made was not smoothing out the original door. I thought it looked fairly straight but it turned out to have some waves in it. It also had some small flaws I thought would be easy to correct in the mold. I was dead wrong. It would have been much easier to correct the flaws on the original door than to work on the mold. You can see the final surface on the mold. Then I prepped the mold, laid in some layers and a new door popped out. It's hard to tell in the pictures but the surface finish turned out great. I added some cardboard rolls in the back to make it stiff. It is attached to the car with push button locks and pins on the bottom. For the final touch I 3d printed a door handle.

I think I used 18, it it pretty stout with the bend in it. It would take quite a hand punch to bend it.

And some really bad weld porn in this post. These were the rocker panels I had to build from scratch. I think I mentioned earlier, for body work I shoot to get close and make it up with very thin bondo to fill in any voids. No hammering of welds, just hours of grinding. I also threw in a rare rocker panel selfie with uncontrolled Covid hair growth.