explosion in the garage

[John Dol]

Not literally (learning from reality TV that you have to bring in viewers with captivating titles LOL),but a lot happened in my garage over the last 4 days.
Mark Dougherty actually came this time, since I was able to keep my calendar dates straight. My car was "ready for first start" although the wiring for the Fast EZ had to be done yet. Mark arrived around 5pm and after exchanging niceties we dove right in to the garage. The goal was first start, body panels on and first go cart ride. Mark is very talented in all things car related, and after spending 4 days side by side I would recommend him to anyone who's stuck, or wants to make some serious head way in a short amount of time. For me it was the latter, and I figured making these things happen would shave a year of my build time.
Head master Mark would work on the wiring and EFI, while student John took care of the simpler tasks. Mark was great in organizing me on the next task while also patiently explaining things.
I worked on the body panels mostly. Making all the cut outs and mounting the nose lights and hinge brackets.







Mark recommended making a 3/4" spacer for the fog buckets in order to set the nose at the correct spacing. Traced the bracket on a piece of wood and cut it with a jigsaw.

Put on the Russ Thompson turn signal stalk which is a really nice piece. Then installed the steering wheel.



Then we put together the door frames and hinges. We put the brackets on the frame in the middle positions first. Then we put the hinge on the door frame. This was followed by putting the hinges together and shifting the door frame so it engaged the striker in the center of the bear claw.



More to follow

[John Dol]

Made the rough openings for the vent and the latch hole. I got the latch lock brackets from Ron Schofield so I can lock my hood to prevent the paparazzi from taking unwanted pics of the engine bay.



Made the cut outs for the door hinges, side pipes and the kidney beans in the back. Also ground down all the seams on the body and nose with a flapper disk





I used different size whole saws to start the cutting processes on many cut outs. I looked for a hole saw that fit the curvature of the body part as seen in the next pic.



This gave a nice starting point and as long as you line it up properly the first time it is a big time saver. A rasp file (course and fine round and flat all on the same file) would finish it up.

[John Dol]

Here I cut out the rear lip to fit better around the gas tank. Also we had to re-glass the fender lips since they were very thin and one of them actually cracked.



That fixed the issue and made the body a lot more rigid.

Are you horny baby?!



In the mean time Mark had completed a lot of the wiring and we were ready for first start. We had about 7 "first starts" before, all documented on video. Then when it actually happened we missed the start of it!


If I look like a kid in the candy store that probably accurately describes the feeling I had when she came to life. The reference that Mark is talking about on loosing his hair was about the 2 foot flame we had shooting from the throttle body in the previous installment of " when the crank turns"

YAHOOOOOOOOOOOO she runs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[John Dol]

At the end of another long night we laid the body on the car for the first time in 4 years. That was almost as exiting as the first start. After looking at the frame for so long you almost forget how sexy this Coupe really is.



The next day continued with mounting the body, the doors and the nose.
Everything lined up pretty well although we cut out the back panel in both doors to make them fit.
Mark had dry fit the doors and ground the edges until there was a consistent gap around the whole door. Then we mounted the door on the frame with clamps. Now it was time to adjust the door so it fir in the opening just like the dry fit. When we reached that satisfactory I drilled four self tappers to hold it in place. This will allow for easy reinstall and removal when needed until I decide to permanently mount them.





Now it was time to drill the striker bolt through the body. From the wheel well drill through the striker bolt bracket. Then close the door and with a sharpie mark the striker bolt location on the door from the wheel well.
You can then lay the striker bolt cover plate on the door and scribe the opening on the door inside the plate.

[John Dol]

After the nose was trimmed sufficiently we mounted it on the car. In order to make it work we clamped the hood on the pontoon front side with vise grips. How ever far it sticks over the pontoons is what you reduce on the on the fire wall side. Make sure the hinges for the nose are in the nose brackets when you do this.

Now we needed to set the ride height and dial in the suspension. That meant actually pushing it out of the garage. The coupe in daylight you say?
Yes it was the first time since delivery that the coupe was outside. Really showed of the red frame in the sunlight.



This was before the ride height was set. Off road coupe! LOL
I really like the way the engine looks.

[John Dol]

Surprisingly the side pipes went on like butter. I had to pry the driver side headers apart with a screw driver but after that they slid on. As I pushed and wiggled on the pipes Mark then tapped the header connection with a rubber mallet. This worked the pipes all the way in. After reading a lot of the issues with these pipes that was a pleasant surprise.
Now I have to get the first go cart ride posted yet.

[John Dol]

And finally the first go cart ride Leaving and coming back.
You can hear the gears grinding when I down shifted to 2nd. We adjusted the clutch and on the second go around it was fixed.





How cool is that!?

Mark thanks so much for all the hard work you put in. This was a high light in my build so far.
John

[cChrisM]

That's awesome. Mark knows his stuff and fun to work with. Good luck with the rest of the build.

[Garry Bopp]

Very cool, John! You must really be pumped up! Lots of great progress.

Garry

[riptide motorsport]

Nice work!

[WIS89]

John-

Looks like you all never stopped working while he was there. That's a great deal of progress in a short amount of time!

Congratulations on the go-kart, and good luck the rest of the way!

Regards,

Steve

[jkrueger]

Great progress!

[QSL]

looking great!

[MRSQSL]

Look at all that progress! I'm so thrilled for you (and a bit envious). Keep up the momentum!!

[Movieman]

What grabbed my attention was Marks comment of "Check the brakes" on your way out of the yard.
Most people would miss that being caught up in the moment.
Just that says a lot to me about him..

[John Dol]

Thanks everyone, it was definitely intense but worth it!! Mark is a great guy and we kept each other going, but we are probably both still recovering. LOL He was just as committed to reaching my goals as I was which was very cool. Plus he's a barrel of laughs and looks out for my safety, what can I say.....
Julie don't be discouraged I'm in year 5 of the build and did some frame mods too. Nothing like you guys and they just take time. I'm sure once yours is off to powder coat you will have an explosion of your own! I'm just glad to be at this point, as I was envious many times of others getting there.

John