DavD3 Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 http://forums.kitcarmag.primediaautomotive.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=kitcar&msg=182.1&ctx=0 In case someone would say it won't fit in engine bay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metro Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 Chelle is a member here and posts every now and then about her car. So not exactly new, but nice to see again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavD3 Posted March 5, 2006 Author Share Posted March 5, 2006 oops, didn't know that...sorry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
v8260 Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 nothing like a smooth bimmer engine under the hood. good looking car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EZ-E Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 Thats just unbelievable it still sits behind the front strut towers. Awesome. I can't wait to see video of it running, should sound very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeedRacer Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 We haven't heard much from Chelle in a while but she might want to add to this. I believe that Chelle extended the front of the Z car chassis on her car 7" and that is why the BMW V12 appears to sit so far back in the engine compartment. She has done an amazing job on that car and her car will end up looking more like the real thing than any other Z based replica I have seen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vashonz Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 The wheelbase was stretched 4.25" and the firewall was recessed to make it better proportioned and to make room to lower and move back the engine to lower and move back the center of gravity. I think its funny how one guy on there talks about the engine from the Z. "the nissan inline 6 that originally came in those older Z's are capable of over 1000 bhp (proof being that is the same block in the famed Nissan Skylines from 1990 through 2001) with a proven track record. I'm not knockin the BMW plant in any measure' date=' but thought i'd share that fact in case you know some import tunies who might want that old engine if you still have it. :)" "as for the datsun engines, most internal parts are indeed forged, if it's a datsun, you've got thier best parts, if it's a nissan (actual badging and manufacturer) then the crank and rods are forged. the pre-nissan Datsun engines are very sought after by the JDM crowd because of this. it CAN get expensive, but given these girls', i'm sure they could easily handle most of the nit-picky work to save labour costs. if there's a HIN or NOPI event coming to town near ya and need a few quick bucks, that'd be a good place to get the most for your money on the old engine (if you decide to get rid of it). the (real) pro drag and road-course racers would definately have interest."[/quote'] Man, I don't see why people are importing these skyline engines from japan, apparently I have a couple just sitting in my back yard. With their all forged internals getting all rusty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b__sosick Posted March 6, 2006 Share Posted March 6, 2006 That car, along with j solieu's rb26 260z, mike's 2jz z, and on3go's zs, are the reasons I get up in the morning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelle Posted March 19, 2006 Share Posted March 19, 2006 Hi guys, Yupp, that's our car It's been a while, sorry. The base blocks access andat night anymore I just don't get on often anymore. I get about 1000 e-mails a day between work stuff, personal stuff and spam so I usually turn on the computer after work and after other chores for an hour or two sifting through e-mail and never get caught up. I miss a lot I know. Anyway, mostly we've just been doing a few things to fine tune the car. I took out the padded dash I made as it didn't really have the look we wanted in the end. We wanted the interior to look like it was inspired by of an evolution of the original GTO dash and I felt it didn't retain enough feel of the original. We welded in a knee bar we could bolt the column and a new race pedal assembly in to. To that bar we added a smaller bar that serves as the attachment point for a new aluminum gauge pod and switch panels reminiscent of the original GTO dash. The race pedals are from Wilwood and use three seperate mastercylinders with remote reservoirs and a really interesting "balance bar" that allows the front to rear brake bias to be adjusted remotely. We had a race shop fabricate an aluminum fuel cell so we've been trimming in the trunk around that and finishing the interior behind the seats. They added a bar to the roll bar for us to mount the racing seat belts to and now all of that is installed. Under the hood we've been cleaning, powdercoating, and painting everything to make it look better in there. I've been adding some things under the hood to make it all work better as well like brake and intake ducting. We ground down all the flashing we could get to on the intakes and powdercoated them black and late friday night Haley was handpainting the raised ribs on them red. Oddly enough even though almost everything on the engine is aluminum, the valvecovers are stamped steel, so we stripped them and coated them in aluminum color to make them look better. Someday when we fabricate a new intake we may powdercoat them black to look more like an original, but with these intakes we felt black on the valvecovers would make it too dark in there. Yesterday we went kart racing so we didn't get much done. But today the schedule calls for finishing some of the interior trim and maybe a little of the wiring for the new dash panel. Here's a few pics from this week Chelle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehelix112 Posted March 19, 2006 Share Posted March 19, 2006 You two put 99.9% of guys I know that work on cars (including myself) to shame. Awesome. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BamaDave Posted March 19, 2006 Share Posted March 19, 2006 This is a very nice if not the nicest example of a Z-GTO conversion I have ever seen! I know you have spent countless numbers of hours into this project and it really shows. I hope when you’re at the point of showing off your ride that you will be rewarded for all of your hard work!Please keep the updates coming.BamaDave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Alpha 1 Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Chelle: Still have not heard for you in a LOOOOOOOOOOng time about thoose parts you said you were going to send. Your car looks great and anxious to get mine finished too. Tom Please respond back Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srgunz Posted March 20, 2006 Share Posted March 20, 2006 Chelle, A friend of mine (Wayne at Motion Products) has a Ferrari restoration shop up here in Wisconsin a few hours north of you. He has had a few GTO's in his shop. He built one GTO totally out of aluminum for a retired doctor in Illinois based on a different chassis. He has been racing that car in Vintage racing. He is ill now and understand it is for sale last I heard. Wayne recently completed this GTO built completely from scratch. It is owned by a guy in Madison, WI. You may know Wayne already. He would be a good source for anything GTO. His labor costs though not cheap is probably better than down by you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelle Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 Thanx Dave and Dave I'll try and post more updates, I just get really busy Thanx Tom, You know you can call me anytime. honestly that's the fastest way to reach me. One day last week someone at your work signed for a box I sent, it contained a bunch of 1977 wiring harnesses and a bracket I found in one of my boxes of parts .. the bracket is something I'm sure you could make - but it's nice to have something you can just bolt on.. the bracket holds the horsey in the grill I'll see if I can find the tracking info - it showed the name of the guy who signed for it. And I have been carrying around a pair of big big pieces that you can't get anywhere in the back seat of my car that I'm trying to figure out how to get to you. They are fiberglass and very light but so bulky that I can't figure out how to send them. Stupid UPS store said it would be over $100 but to me that's just insane. I mean they weigh a total of like 8 pounds.. I'll figure it out and find a way to send them if for no other reason than they are in the way filling my back seat up. I've been watching for a big enough box to fit them in at work but nothing has come along yet. I'm thinking maybe fed ex will be more reasonable but I just need to find a big enough box. I'm not worried about shipping or anything. I said you can have whatever odds and ends I find when digging through some of my boxes in storage. I do have a few things I may put up for sale that I just won't give away - but they aren't likely to be anything you'd need for your car. I think in storage I still have a 5 speed and gauges and wiring from a RHD 1976 fairladyz. and a few manual trans consoles The harnesses I sent you I left most of the relays and such attached. If you have a stock wheelbase I have a front strut tower brace. The wheels I can't get rid of yet as I haven't bought the new ones. SRGUNZ- Steve, I do most of my own labor :)Thanx tho. Where in Wisconsin is he? is that black GTO for sale now? is it the same one that was at indy last year? I would be interested in buying it maybe - I had been looking at two other F-cars, (both built from real ferrari parts) a P4 replica and a 700hp twin turbo 288GTO replica.. The hybridz will outperform it, but I would still be interested in it.. Can you forward some contact info? Or give him mine? thanx a bunch Chelle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chelle Posted April 5, 2006 Share Posted April 5, 2006 Steve, I haven't found anything online about the guy you mentioned.. please pass on my contact info if you can. With the engine mostly wired up and the intakes back on most of the work we have been doing lately has been on the dash, shifter, and pedals. We made some changes to the mounting for the pedals to make them more adjustable. Out of the box they can adjust about 5" front to back, but we added a means of raising and lowering them about 3" as well. The stock shifter lever was extended about 8" and a box to mount a shiftgate to was fabricated out of .080" aluminum. The dash itself is all fabricated and we just need to cover it. In the pictures the cover for the back of the gauge pod is not attached and the holes for the defroster are not cut out. Next we have to figure out if there's going to be any sort of console. Once we settle on the height of the shiftgate and decide what (if any)console will be there we will cut the shifter off to it's final height and polish it. Anyway - I'm late for work so here's a couple pics of the new dash - and one of our helper One of the puppies insists on being right in there with us when we are working on the car Chelle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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