The carbon fiber parts being fitted and trimmed and or body molded around them. I did not take a pic of the rocker extension and front splitter before we cut it/fit it and stored them away (they get installed just before the car is done, but needs to be fit during the bodywork stage). So here is what they look like on the F5R car. BTW, the carbon fiber fixed wing is a one off, no others will be produced. Just that one mod should make me stand out among other GTM builds. *Edit, for the old timers like me, the Red car is the old body replaced by the yellow gen 2 body on the GTM owned by Factory Five.
The first pic was when the rest of the parts went into poly-primer. I was very happy to see it all in one color.
The A/C installed and plumbed, not charged but ready to go. Very tight fit, less then 1/4 inch to engine bay frame support and even tighter up front. I went with the blower relocate to make more room under the front hood.
The big blue tubs of what looks like puddy is actually the heat/Sound proofer. The tin that give the car it's rigidity needs to be coated or the road noisy is nearly unbearable. The product I went with was GT Matt, Awesome stuff and cheap (so happy with it I used it on the 818 as well). It goes on great and coverage is better than the more expensive options. What a difference, I have a video on my phone of a before after with a blunt end of a screw driver....night and day!
The gauge set came in, though I'll run out of gear at 186mph I "needed" the 200mph speedo. Ill post a pic of of them light up....way cool back-lighting. Traded even with a forum member that wanted the white gauges that came with the gen 1 package.
Mike did away with the fuse block from the Vette, no need for that big heavy box with the limited electronics the car runs. 5 fuses and no need for more.
Here is a buddy's GTM (Kempo)....those are his gauges light up. I followed his lead on the dash set-up. This is the interior I was trying to replicate. I went with the same gauges as Kempo as I really liked the look of these gauges over the stock white Autolight gauges that came with the kit.
Here is a photoshop done by Flowtogtm, very close to what I was doing, though wing and hood is different, but close enough that it became a screen saver on my ipad for many months. *He ended up going gray on his GTM at the end of the day*.
These are the wheels I purchased, I was given too much greif on the other wheels as looking to "bling". These wheel are a fantastic match for GTM and inexpensive, I paid less the 650.00 for all 4 shipped to my door. They come standard on the ARC Viper and the Ferrari race team uses the same wheels (though they are called Technomesh).
Here are some paint pics......Problem was..... the roof black was not done the way I asked. The mate line between the Copper and black was all wrong. So they had to resand the entire body, repaint the Carbon Ash and reclear the whole car. They were not happy with me!
Here it is resanded and the roof repainted. It is in the booth waiting my approval before the clear was sprayed. Notice how the dark roof paint lines follow the body lines in this pic, instead of cutting across the bodylines like in the post above.
Just a step back, I wanted to show before and after photos of the engine....amazing what a few bucks in spray paint can do. The red is VHT wrinkle paint (used by Ferrari and Maserati of New England to repaint paint scratches on their engines) it is a perfect match they said in both color and texture. The intake and rails were removed from the donor Vette Engine before I sold the engine off. I replaced the LS6 intake off the 04 donor (after 2001 all LS1 engines came with the LS6 intakes) with a craigslist LS1 intake I paid $50.00 for. The TB is from the 5.3. Of course I kept the ls6 intake.
Dusty in this process pic. Glass still needs to be installed. The carbon fiber.....front splitter, rear deffuser, rocker extensions, bottom close out panels and rear wing will be going on soon. I drop it off at the interior shop (they do corporate jets, and they are very close by) on April 30, 2012. Look past all the dust in these pics, lots of primer dust all over the place.
Kids were off school for the holiday....well the car took a back seat. I did get the door uprights painted black, installed the firewall, installed the door crash bars and got the door handles and both mirrors re-installed.
All wrapped up like a present. Picking her up from the body shop. The plastic wrap is distorting the shape a bit but I wanted to keep the dust off until it was out of the shop...... The back is not square and the wheels are really round. The black wheels will look great.
I have been asked several times what I think about co-part......
Copart sucks! However it is the best way to get to a large enough pool of salvage cars. They ding you for every fee imaginable, I think they stay up nights figuring ways to get a few extra hidden dollars out of your pocket. I have purchased 7 cars from them. Just know what your getting into and know that if you are careful..... good, correction, great deals can be had. Just get ready to be soaked by the hidden fees.
Put the new wheels/tires on and installed the Liqui-damp with my 9 year old son. He installed his first wheel/tire all by himself.
Tires are Toyo R1R. Very happy with them, came off ebay. 2 year old tires unmounted for 100.00 each brand new. Non current production years can not be sold as new so look at ebay for fantastic deals on new/old tires.
The sound proofer is new product from GT Sound Control called Liqui-damp. It is a inexpensive alternative to products like Lizard Skin (about 1/3 the cost for the same coverage area). Covered the whole floor, both fire walls, entire tunnel and all upright aluminum with about 2 quarts. Not only will it cut down on road noise and heat, but will definitely help eliminate interior rattles, squeaks and that aluminum tin sound. In my mind, the extra 10lbs in weight and $60 spent (including shipping for 1 gallon) is without question worth it. Took about an hour for my 9 year old son and I to coat everything.
Splitter and rockers installed. The black pieces really ties in the black of the roof and wheels. The splitter and rockers should come standard on the GTM, they add nicely to the over all appearance. Here is some pics. They are aluminum covered in vinyl wrap. Very durable and cost effective to boot.
Headlights and tail lights installed, just the fog lights still to go, got all of the rest of the powder coating done. The battery installed/wired. I mounted the battery tray high because where you put it according to the manual it is a bear to get to.
Few points.
1). Tried to tint the headlight covers with spray on tint (dumb idea). Cost me two new lenses.
2). I purchased a reconditioned battery from Interstate batteries, all sizes $40.00, still good 3 years later.
Little more done, all mesh is in, hood hardware installed, headlights lens are done and fog lights finally fit into place.
Funny point, the mesh is gutter guard material from Home Depot. Looks fantastic and allows more air in then the F5R stuff. Painted satin black it looks like a million bucks.
I painted all of the badges with Krylon plastic paint to turn all of the chrome to gloss black. Scuffted them up with a scuff pad and painted, still look like new over 2 years later.
I was playing around with interior ideas. Here are the cars I used for inspiration. I was between tan and black or Copper and black, the interior guy likes black and orange and in the end, he won out.
The interior (pics posted later in thread) came out incredible. In fact won best interior at the Factory Five open house last year.
Here is the day I dropped it of at the interior shop on 5/28. Lots of little detail stuff that goes invisible in photos was done in these pics. Anyway here is some updated pics as of today 5/28. Went black leather, with orange double stitch throughout. Glass goes in next and final tune is the 11th by Freddy at SMG in Hopedale MA.
The engine cover is another item made by Shane. I purchased the cold air kit for 1/2 price off our forum as the builder when with a different set up. Are you seeing the theme here, lots of parts were purchased from our classifieds at large discounts from forum members. Even the roof scoop was purchased for $50.00 off a fellow builder because he cut it wrong (to his liking) looks great on mine though as we made it work.
Last pic is a sneak peak of the interior design we went with.
By far the greatest thing I have added to date. Here is what it does, 4 point camara mounts (tiny) with on board recording (front, back, one in each side scoop) display and posting capabilities from the cockpit, on board diagnostics and code reader via Bluetooth wireless and wireless OBD2, onboard performance with display of lab times/1/4 mile/0-60/hp/TQ/ect, all of which appears on a fully customizable screen. Of course all of the Nav (with real time traffic updates, radar monitoring and real time speed trap notifications), all the media stuff and Bluetooth stuff too. How about access to 10 million songs. Another cool thing... Anything your iPhone can display including apps will appear and can be controlled on the touch screen. Even has drive-mate that uses the camera and hard drive to record loops of videos that will record if an accident happens, warns of blind spot approaches and lane departures (can be muted). There are so many apps that can be loaded and it can be used with any smart phone. Angry birds at 100mph anyone, ok maybe not.
The JVC KW-60BT is last years model, I paid $279.00 for it. This years model is only a little more $$.
All the apps were under $100.00, and I can use them anywhere, They are not car specific.
The bluetooth wireless OBD plug was $26.00, again, can be moved car to car.
All four cameras were $98.00
And the cables were $57.00.
JVC Mobile 2012
For Android Mini ELM327 OBDII Bluetooth Scan Tool OBD2 OBDII Scanner SHIP from USA | eBay
For iphone WiFi ELM327 Wireless OBD2 Auto Scanner Adapter Scan Tool for iPhone iPad E77 B 4 | eBay
2012 JVC receivers feature App Link for iPhone | CES 2012: Car Tech - CNET Blogs
Here she is finally tuned NA. Freddy from SMG in Hopkinton MA did the tuning. I think I will drive it like this for a few 1000 miles before the turbo go on. Currently has (358whp @6100 /339 TQ @3200 or roughly 415 crank) and at only 2247lbs that s a 5.35-1 weight/power ratio. I was hoping for 370-380 crank, this little 5.3 put out 45hp more then I thought it would with the mild mods I did.
I went a Cars and Copters (a Jimmy fund sponsored) car show. Over 4000 cars showed up. When I got there they put me in the exotic section (about 40 cars). I was between a Ferrari 612 and a Ferrari 348. Then this group of ultra high-end exotics came in, about a dozen of them. A Spyker, a Murcielago, 3 Gallardo models, V8 Vantage, a Gran Turismo, 2 Ferrari 458, 2 430 drop tops and a comp M3 drift car. They were put center stage in reserved spots. When one of them found out my car was there they offered to make room over with them. It was great to be welcomed "just like that". They walked past the 612 and several other worthy cars to invite me over.
When I was ready to leave, a 430 had pulled out and stopped in the main exit road filling the air with the most beautiful revs, behind him was a Gallardo hard top, then my GTM and a Gallardo Spyder behind me. The exit road was wide and had people on both sides hoping to see burnouts or hot-dogging. The cops were there and were just as content to watch. I gave a punch at the throttle a few times but it was clear the Ferrari was singing a whole different song. He threw it in gear and took off with the Gallardo right behind. I was a little hesitant but I layed into the go pedal too and quickly reeled them both in. The people on each side of the road just erupted into fist pumps and cheers as we rocketed by. The Lambo behind me was well behind by the time I had cleared the crowd and could look back. When the 430 and the Lambo in front of me went around the bend along the back of the hangers and exited out of the corner they layed into their cars again. When I could safety hammer in to the GTM the 2 cars were 300 feet ahead of me, again I quickly reeled them both in. I am absolutely in awe of the Lambos and Ferraris of the world but it is clear that Factory Five did an outstanding job with not only the looks of this beast but the performance of these vehicles put it right up there with the best.
God I love this car!
Edit, my daughter took these pics near the end of the show.
Every show the car has gone to it has been well received. I won best of show at last year and this year's Farthers Day car show (and I was interviewed my Dennis Gage for his TV show). Won best interior at The Factory Five open house. Even won best of show at a prestigious invite only show. I was parked between an original Porsche Speedster and a Ferrari 330 V12. Spectators had to pay $18.00 per person to get into the show. I was by far the least expensive car there and the GTM took home the top prize. Town Fair tire the sponsor of World of Wheels asked me to be the sole car in their both this past winter. The car was such a hit they asked if I could bring the 818 up for their 2014 show.
So there you have it, the thread is now up to date and the car is basically finished (still some small odds and ends still to do). I wanted to complete the thread for anyone coming behind me that wants to do what I did, enjoy the F5R experience while creating a one of a kind work of art but still being able to keep to a tight budget. Can a sub 40K GTM be built?.....I have proven it can.
Yes they are C5 offsets using the F5R supplied spacers. I paid $143 each including shipping. I will get you the name of the retailer when I get home tonight.
Yes they are C5 offsets using the F5R supplied spacers. I paid $143 each including shipping. I will get you the name of the retailer when I get home tonight.
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Originally Posted by Kalstar
