Quietly Building

[Erik W. Treves]

now to remember where everything went...

[wallace18]

Very nice!

[Erik W. Treves]

got quite a bit done this weekend... all lights are functioning...hood is all aligned and gaps set... complete dash is in and looks pretty darn cool...still waiting on new steering wheel... got the driver's door on ... still have to install the power windows....a lot of fun ahead though...

[LCD Gauges]

Silver is so sexy! Nice job, it's coming together quickly.

[Taz Rules]

I love that paint scheme!

[Erik W. Treves]

getting really close.... had to cut and reweld the pass door....and then where I cut it actually interfered with the power window...oh fun... after about 5 hours I got it to where I wanted it..... both door cards are now in... dash is done with the tweeters installed... had to cut my exhaust from shane to get them to look right out the back... got the door poppers all working and the emergency external release for when the battery goes dead. I have a little more adjustments to do... I think the rear of the body is off a tad .. a little more right tire exposed that the left... so I will have to move the exhaust over a bit and shift the body over. Stereo sounds awesome. Rear deck is installed and the glass fits on the rear which was nice. Some how my front glass got cracked..so I will have to order a new one. Still a lot of details to get knocked out... but it really is starting to look like something now... everything works! I found myself today taking a break in the car listening to the stereo for a bit.... lol..

[Erik W. Treves]

SO close to done it's killing me

[pstevens]

Way to go buddy. Sounds good from Perry down here in Panama City Fl.

[Aceflo]

It's looking awesome. When you get this close, it's hard NOT to want to work on it. (at least it is for me when I'm working on projects).

[Erik W. Treves]

Well........ It's done

still a few very minor adjustments left to do...but got a healthy 26 miles on it today... runs really good, although 1st gear all of a sudden is now popping out under high acceleration...you can hold in gear just fine and no grinding...wondering if the cable shift is mis-adjusted some how.. all the other gears are fine. Under light /normal load it stays in fine... strange...anyway... that's the ONLY thing that went not as expected. Motor is strong (Wayne's tune is awesome), AC and heat still work great. Windows don't get sucked out, hydraulic ram lift works awesome, you can even hear the stereo, but who wants to listen to that when you have a nice set of KOOK's Headers back there running at full song...I still have a few more shake down miles to go... but I say done enough....

So a little story on this car.... it was purchased by the current owner to be built by another individual... that was 4 years ago. They went their separate ways and this car sat in boxes (not the original boxes I might add)....The owner contacted me; obviously frustrated about not being able to have his car built... I decided to tackle the car with the only limits being that I build it how "I" would build my own... love that! Fantastic person and a gentle heart...off I went...

You can see on this thread I moved along a pretty good pace. I thought I would be done a few months ago but the painter kinda jammed me up in delays... the other thing that really hurt and I took it completely for granted until now.... All of my previous builds have arrived with parts in their original FFR boxes.... Can I tell you how hard it is to identify parts you have never seen before, without marks on them, and picture to match them to!!! I can't even begin to count the number of hours wasted trying to identify what went where and which pieces of the Vintage AC unit I had and did not have. This is where Tony and Dan from Factory Five came in!!! Saved the Day! Dan knows this car inside and out! Thanks Dan! Tony just makes the world go round over there and he was always available...thanks buddy!

So anyway, after a little work, a LOT OF BEERS, several calls to Wayne Presley, and some perseverance.... I saved this GTM from certain death in the recycle bin... I have to say... I think it turned out really nice and seems to drive really nice (even with the small issue with the tranny)... I think the popping out of first will actually keep the car from being looped...lol.... I still LOVE my 289 FIA from FFR.... not sure I would trade that car for this one...lol...but the shape and sleekness of the GTM cannot be ignored....nice car for sure!!!

so now that I have filled you screen with my ranting and raving...lol... here ya go...

this is the weight with me in it. I weigh 151 with all my clothes on...so subtract that out...



SO the cross weight with me in it all adjusted out...pretty close to perfect...a little heavier driver puts it right at 50 - 50.1%

[Edgeman]

Very nice! I really like the color combo. Enjoy!

[mlkwd1]

Beautiful car and amazingly fast build. Nice job.

[Erik W. Treves]

Thanks!

[Jeff Kleiner]

I got one of those "Started by someone else who jumbled up all of the parts" projects to build a few years ago but at least it was a roadster which I'm quite familiar with. It still kinda' sucked though. Going in to a disorganized GTM as a virgin would have been tough...really tough! You done good my friend!

Jeff

[kabacj]

Well done Erik. Great looking car.

I really like the Aim dash setup. I am thinking about installing that in my car.

I agree with you that some cable adjustment should fix your first gear issue.

Your fast build (even with the disorganized parts from your second hand kit) just goes to show how quickly this car can be built.

Now what are you going to build?

[wallace18]

Super job! I can't imagine the build without getting it all from FFR to start with. My hat is off to you.

[TAG GTM]

Congrats Erik.....Beautiful car and great work!

[Cattrax]

Nice job. You have my admiration. I am working on a GTM kit that someone else started. Not sure I saved enough to make it worth while. I have 8 unmarked boxes and plastic tubs of parts. Plus when something does not work, no telling what they did. Much of the previous work does not follow the manual in the name of "custom build" and it looks like the shop hastily finished a few items and threw the body on to make it look like they were farther along. Enough of my rant.
Congrats!
Ken

[VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC]

Very nice!!!