I don't like how much stress is on the rear body/fiberglass where it mounts to the gearbox subframe so I 8115'd a piece of unused hood to double the thickness. This guy on eBay accepted my $45 offer, cheapest I've seen it. Ordered some more, anticipating more 'bonding' time with the GTM... https://www.ebay.com/itm/225585734410
Shoulder surgery has laid me up, so nothing getting done that requires any significant physical effort.
Finishing up the headlight buckets, a few revisions for the internal feature that will support the DRL/turn signal LED strip. Each revision improving positioning of the LED strip with regards to visibility from the front as well as positioning relative to the Lexan lens and overlying bodywork. Also avoiding the beam of the projector headlight which requires more effort and packaging creativity. Latest revision on the printer now, only printing enough to index the lens, to speed up the print. PXL_20240107_235206251.jpg PXL_20240107_235130790.jpg PXL_20240109_014130534.MP.jpg
One thing to keep in mind is the flexibility of the LED strips you plan on using for the DRL/Turn Signals. The ones I chose from The Retrofit Source are flexible in one axis (the surface you would stick them to, but not flexible at all trying to bend left to right. Looks like you are putting a bit of a twist on the surface for them, if I'm looking at it correctly.
Pretty awesome being able to design, print, and iterate on the design until you get it just right. I love my printer.
One thing to keep in mind is the flexibility of the LED strips
You are correct, I have confirmed the flexibility of the LED strip in that plane. It may be hard to visualize in the 2D images, the strip will only curve in 1 plane. The iteration (3.0) that is printing now has even more curvature than the previous 2, to better match the contour of the adjacent bodywork. I went with a longer LED strip which has required some massaging to fit, to be clear of the bodywork, and to avoid the projector headlight beam.
Very cool! I'm going to have to look into investing in a printer down the road here someday......love the possibilities!
Shane Vacek
VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC www.vraptorspeedworks.com
Turn-key GTM, SL-C & Ultima GTR Built to Your Specs!
Offering a full line of GTM Upgrades and Custom Parts
You are correct, I have confirmed the flexibility of the LED strip in that plane. It may be hard to visualize in the 2D images, the strip will only curve in 1 plane. The iteration (3.0) that is printing now has even more curvature than the previous 2, to better match the contour of the adjacent bodywork. I went with a longer LED strip which has required some massaging to fit, to be clear of the bodywork, and to avoid the projector headlight beam.
Very nice!!!!
Originally Posted by VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC
Very cool! I'm going to have to look into investing in a printer down the road here someday......love the possibilities!
You totally need a printer Shane. Go look at the air hose that passes through the front wheel wheels on my GTM. I didn't want some cheezy install of zip-tying the air hoses to the A-Arm, so I designed and 3D printed two separate pieces that when assembled and epoxied together would hold the 90 deg air fittings, allow me to rivet them in place, and be the passthrough in the wheel wells. Then the carbon fiber button plate on the tunnel wall on the drivers side was designed and printed in several configurations before I sent the final design to a guy to cut it out of expensive carbon fiber. Possibilities are endless.
Shane Vacek
VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC www.vraptorspeedworks.com
Turn-key GTM, SL-C & Ultima GTR Built to Your Specs!
Offering a full line of GTM Upgrades and Custom Parts
Thanks, I think they will work well. I still need to do some post-processing/ smoothing of the ABS to make them look less "printed", but I'm very happy with how they turned out.
I actually found a local shop that can pull moulds and make my new hood and front fascia, less than 10 miles from my home.
Getting the driver's side matched to the passenger side. Gotta love cutting out previously completed work, but that's happened before on this build.
1st step was recreating the exact position and angle of the driver's side headlight. Lots of measurements, pencil marks, paper template, etc. Tried weatherstrip instead of clay to create the edge of the new bodywork, first layer of mud done.
dave, do you have a CAD design of what you envision your front to look like?
The last rendering I did still had the modified Yamaha R1 headlights, these headlights were designed to fit the shape of the front of the car and help address some aerodynamic issues and design issues. I wish I had a 3D scanner though...
Finishing up the last corner of the hood. Lots of measurements from midline and A-pillars, poster board template. Fiberglass shop owner is ready to receive the hood to make a mould then a part as soon as I get it done.
Wow. Exciting. Can't wait to see a finished product.
Thanks, Mike!
So the plan was to trailer the whole car to the fiberglass shop, this would prevent distortion of the hood that could occur with removal. Instead, I decided to build a frame on the outside of the hood to get it off the vehicle, now I'll build an inner frame to allow for removal of the outer frame. Then off to the fiberglass shop.
It's been so long since I've seen under the front hood...
Wow....tons of work and time involved there! Can't wait to see the final result!
Shane Vacek
VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC www.vraptorspeedworks.com
Turn-key GTM, SL-C & Ultima GTR Built to Your Specs!
Offering a full line of GTM Upgrades and Custom Parts
Sometimes you just need to admit defeat and leave it to the pros. Hood might be done next week. They are still blocking it, seems I missed a couple low areas, imagine that.
Cool! Not many people understand the amount of time and effort that goes into projects like that.
Shane Vacek
VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC www.vraptorspeedworks.com
Turn-key GTM, SL-C & Ultima GTR Built to Your Specs!
Offering a full line of GTM Upgrades and Custom Parts
Got the hood back from the fiberglass shop. Really happy with how the part turned out, nice mould too. Gray buck, orange gel coat mould, black part. Life is busier than ever, need to make time for the GTM.
Been trying to figure out how to tie the leading edge of the roof into the roll hoop behind the targa roof so it doesn't lift at speed. Wanted to keep the rear body removable so bonding it on was not an option. Bolting it on leaves unsightly bolt heads on the roof bodywork. But had to be bolted on, and I didn't trust bonding a bracket to the underside of the roof fiberglass due to the anticipated speeds this car will see. So vortex generators to the rescue. Fabbed up with m8 bolts, replace with low profile button heads, hide under the vortex generators. I did bond squares of fiberglass at the bolt sites to reinforce those areas. Now roof is flush with the targa roof weatherstrip.
With roof secure, the rear bodywork has found its "forever home". So need to finish up the rear. I never cared for the drop lip on the rear of the Gen 1 hatch, wanted a flush rear. So cut off the rear of the hatch and bonded it to the body. Will make a weatherstrip flange to allow the rear of the hatch to seal.
Now time to finish the exhaust. Center exit to allow for the rear L/R trunks. Note the easy trunk access. Measured the dual tip oval for a template, cut the oval template to allow cutting the two tiers of the rear bodywork. Final mockup of the Kooks dual exhaust. Love it. Mufflers will be perfectly parallel, not slightly diverging like in the pic.
All ready to tack. Wait, why is the left Kooks muffler factory weld 1/16" behind the right side one when the exhaust tips are lined up? Pulled everything apart and took another 1/16" off the offending side... Always something...
Turns out that the weld on the Kooks muffler isn't as accurate as I had hoped. I wanted the Kooks emblem facing up but will have to rotate them instead, so the welds line up when looking into the engine bay... 20240623_173857.jpg20240623_174038.jpg
Looks like you're making good progress! I had to do a similar mod to the rear lip of the hatch on a GTM here.....the whole rear lip was so crooked that I just couldn't figure out a way to use it as-is, so ended up cutting just the bottom portion off and bonding it to the body. Much cleaner look than the original design IMO.....as is yours. Yours is the way FFR should have done it from the start. Clean look and you can still access everything at the rear of the engine bay, unlike the Gen II hatch.
Shane Vacek
VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC www.vraptorspeedworks.com
Turn-key GTM, SL-C & Ultima GTR Built to Your Specs!
Offering a full line of GTM Upgrades and Custom Parts
Finishing up wiring/re-wiring the car, 90% done and much happier with the logistics of the wiring than what I had done previously. Have done a couple of other builds and gained some knowledge...
Finishing up the under hood components so I can get cracking on the body work. Non-traditional wiper setup, single Honda S2000 wiper mount, Toyota Celica wiper arm, Jeep Wrangler wiper motor. The metal mounts on the wiper motor are the perfect size to tap to M8 X 1.25 for custom mounting . Wiper motor found itself in an odd location so that I can store the target top in the frunk. New tool in the shop, this finger sander makes short work of removing powder coat for welding. I should have bought one years ago. Highly recommended and inexpensive.
Quite an assortment of parts there! Looks like it should work nicely!
Shane Vacek
VRaptor SpeedWorks, LLC www.vraptorspeedworks.com
Turn-key GTM, SL-C & Ultima GTR Built to Your Specs!
Offering a full line of GTM Upgrades and Custom Parts
Center air intake delete. Didn't realize that vinylester bonds pretty aggressively to plexiglass, was fun pulling that off after glassing. Next time I use a plexiglass dam/mould, I'll add masking tape.
Picked up a hobby mill for the shop. Only weighs about 1000 lbs with the base.
Center air intake delete. Didn't realize that vinylester bonds pretty aggressively to plexiglass, was fun pulling that off after glassing. Next time I use a plexiglass dam/mould, I'll add masking tape.
I use a sheet of wax paper. No seam lines on parts like the size you have there and much quicker to set up and remove when compared to masking tape.
Hood permanently mounted and functional. Now addressing the original side GTM body work, other than the door panel, that is currently free floating. Making brackets to tie the side body work into the main chassis taking care to line up perfectly at the gaps. Each body mount will have triangulation for strength at speed. A bit tedious but one step closer.
Hey, you're making progress. Sometimes it seems like things take awhile(and they do) but if you commit to just keep working on it, things will get checked off the list.
Just an aside as to how I did things in those lower fender areas. I extended the floor sheet metal out to the bottom of the fenders on all four corners in order to give them some rigidity. They won't move much at all in the vertical direction, so you just need to stop horizontal movement at the lower lip of the fenders. Sheet aluminum has worked well for me in this application.
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Originally Posted by beeman
