Matt in MN's Roadster

[mrglaeser]

Last Winter John Ibele was good enough to give my daughter and I a quick lesson in powder coating(thanks again John!). I really was intrigued with the process and ordered up an Eastwood kit, some powder (black in flat, semi, and gloss) and started playing around with it. I would say about 80% of the items come out right the first time 10% need a touch of paint to cover some small nook, and 10% need to be stripped and coated again. Those numbers are improving but I'm pretty happy with the results. But there has been a bit of learning.

First... Acid. I tried using Muriatic Acid to strip the chrome from parts. It worked in some cases. In others it dissolved the pot metal that was under a thin layer of some other metal. So for anyone else out there the Lemans cap (I did not ruin), the mirror post, and the lock bases are pot metal... Don't use Muriatic Acid to clean or un-coat them.


The bubbles mean something is happening it if looks like it's boiling pull out whatever is in there.



Actual Metal parts come out great


Pot metal... Yikes


One of the skills I'm getting better at is making funking hooks to haning the parts on. Here is a front turn signal bezel.


Anyway I have about 10 more parts to do and 1 to re-do and then on to the next thing. The Windshield and headlight bezels are to big for my oven so those will get sent out.

[mrglaeser]

Well 5 weeks since I wrote an update. Not a lot of progress at the moment. A lot of life keeping me out of the shop. I'm sure a lot of folks here know what that's like.

I did get the tire tires install on the wheels. Nitto NT555 G2s. For some reason I didn't take a photo of them out, but the shop wrapped the tire/wheels in bags and I thought it looked funny in the back of the truck.



I also fitted all the accessories, plugs, and sensors to the engine. Later I also got the belt installed again I forgot the photo.





Also I had an issue thinking 3 dimensionally and cut the hole for my dimmer switch in the dead pedal I made on the bottom.

[mrglaeser]

I guess that lets me say that I make'm nice because I make them twice.









Unfortunately my Black and Decker rotary tool gave up and died. And they don't make it any more. It was my 3rd one in 24 years bummer. The Harbor freight one was 20 bucks so I picked on up. So far so good. I bought an actual Dremel a few years ago and it was the worst of the lot and lasted just a few months.

[mrglaeser]

Finally we made one attempt to marry the Engine and the transmission. And by attempt I mean 2 hours of wrangling. We had a gap of less than 1/16th of an inch but couldn't push it in any further. The instructions say not to draw it in with the bolts so we pulled it a part to try again another day. I looks like the centering ring might have some imperfections so I'm thinking of polishing the inside of the ring and looking for any imperfections on the TKX where the ring/transmission should slide onto. It was so close to being on I am pretty sure that the splines line up. So the other think was going to look at was maybe the pilot bearing.

[mrglaeser]

Pretty good day on the roadster. Finally got the engine and transmission bolted together. Took quite a bit of effort. Gave up on using the floor jack and suspended it from the engine hoist. Way easier. Also putting the motor on dolly was nice for moving it around and lining things up.



And bolted together



I also cut out 6 1/8 steel spacers for the transmission. I've read that to get the pinion angle folks are using 5/8-3/4 inch spacers. So no I just need to drill a few holes and coat them and they are ready to use when we drop the motor and trans in.



Also a few weeks ago I got all the brackets, accessories, belt, and thermostat housing lined up and installed but I didn't take a snap. So here it is now.

https://mattglaeser.smugmug.com/Home...er/i-DPcvsd7/A

I also did a bunch of small things as well.
-Fixed a Zerk Fitting on the lower control Arm (Drivers side not that it matters)
-Powder coated one of the headlight trim rings
-Powder coated the dead pedal
-Fixed the Koolmat on the driver's footbox
-Reinstalled the now powder coated trunk brackets

I also broke a couple banjo bolts.. oops.

[JMD]

I'm enjoying reading through your build. Some great work done and I'm definitely stealing the 3M strip caulk idea to seal seams in the aluminum. Keep it up!

[gbranham]

I'm enjoying reading through your build. Some great work done and I'm definitely stealing the 3M strip caulk idea to seal seams in the aluminum. Keep it up!

For sure! I bought a 15 foot roll of butyl 'rope tape' on Amazon for $12. It's been awesome for filling in seams, especially in the upper trunk side wall area.

[mrglaeser]

For sure! I bought a 15 foot roll of butyl 'rope tape' on Amazon for $12. It's been awesome for filling in seams, especially in the upper trunk side wall area.

I actually had not thought about that area yet. I'll keep that in mind. Good hint.

[mrglaeser]

Ok still moving slow. Found the right bolts for the transmission mount. I find it strange these aren't in the instructions that come from 1/2 - 13 x 1.25 of 1.5

I finished the spacers for the transmission mount to transmission support. I created 6 1/8 inch spacers so I can stack them for whatever I need. I probably spent as much on drill bits as It would have cost to just order Forte's parts.



After some powder coating in the sandwich oven


Next I've always liked the look of wrapped headers. So I bought some stainless steal Fox Body headers and gave it a go. I think they came out pretty good. I'll do the J-pipes too soon.

Anyone else prep parts at the breakfast table?






I also greased the Zirk fittings on the front end, adjusted a power cable that was getting in the way in the transmission tunnel, and took the car off the dolly and on to jack stands. I just need to test fit the trans support, do a couple things on the brakes, put the wheels on and drop the car onto wheel dollies and I'll be ready to drop the engine in.

Also last weekend we had an open house at the Garage Condo Complex. Here was my version of a factory five 'in progress' display.


Got a lot of attention even though there were a lot of exotic cars to look at. Ferraris, Lambos, Lotuses, a Gullwing Mecedes, one family owns a whole building that has something like 100 Corvettes.

[mrglaeser]

20230805_094419.jpg20230805_093435.jpg

Here a couple shoots of the garage i talked about in the prevous post. Sad thing is none of it ever gets driven.

[mrglaeser]

I got a little more shop time this weekend. I test fit the Transmission support under the chassis. It will take a little work to get on of the front bolts in but should be doable without modification.

What was a lot of fun and satisfying was putting the Lemans cap back together. Started with a lot of freshly powder coated parts.



Top Done




Add the bottom





Next put the trunk and hood handles back together

[mrglaeser]

I was going to put the indicators together. They are pressure fit ordinally and don't seem to hold at the moment. I might try bend the metal out slightly or I might just use super glue. Also notice the powder didn't stick on one of the bezels so it needs to be stripped and redone.





Another evening meal of exhaust wrapping.

[mrglaeser]

Well I was hoping to get the engine for the last month but life keeps me from it for now maybe this weekend fingers crossed. So I have progressed on a few things.

I put in the support/fix from FF for the power steering rack.


Finally figured out the correct bolt size for the transmission mount (1/2 inch). They are a little long but since I'm using a GPS Speedo should be fine.


Used some DEI Sealer on the wrapped J-pipes and Headers and cured them in the toaster oven.




Re-powder coated the front indicator bezels and put them together with the lenses. I'm not super happy with the Silone I'm going to try using a clay modeling knife to clean that up, but otherwise ok.


Assembled the Shifter after powder and the tail lights

[mrglaeser]

Got the car on its wheel and onto wheel dollies for engine/tran install.


Mocked up the radiator and shroud


Had to trim the bottom of the shroud


I also trimmed off the extra square tube ground it down and primed the grind in prep for using the breeze upper kit.

[mrglaeser]

Got a little help from the girls today. First while waiting for my friend to come by so we could drop the motor in we put some rivnuts in the Breeze fan shroud.



They took turns





Then we hoisted the engine up and took the feet off I had put on it for the time being.



power tools make everyone smile



Once my friend 'little' Jon (he's 6' 8" and probably won't be comfortable in the Roadster) showed up we got to work putting the engine in. It wore my youngest out pretty quick.

[mrglaeser]

At the end of the day the motor was in. Probably around an hour and a half of efforts. Having done one I could do the next in 1/2 the tie I think. We were being cautious and debating each move. Pretty much un-eventful to be honest. I'm having a bit of trouble with on bolt on the transmission mount so I'll get my tap out and see if I can clean it up tomorrow. It also took us a while to figure out a way to pull the passenger side of the motor up in order to locate the tab/stub of the engine mount on the drivers side. The answer a ratchet strap.

Two notes:
1.) I would recommend buy a good engine balancer/leveler not the harbor freight one. It is a one time use tool. The plastic handle was worthless, and the metal part of the handle was bent by the time we were done. I oiled the thread pretty good so there wasn't much resistance. It's just so cheaply made.
1.1) I have the extended firewall. I think I would have the crank for the balancer/leveler on toward the front of the engine next time. It got really close to the fire wall.
2.) Also I would suggest if you are buying or renting a hoist get one that's legs are 42" or less out side to out side on the legs. I wanted to leave the car on wheel dollies so we could move it around. But the legs stuck out to far and I had to put the car back on jack stands to be able to get the legs under the car.

[mrglaeser]

Now that the engine is in there are a ton of smaller jobs to complete. So over the week I could sneak away to the shop for an hour here and there.

First I installed the transmission support and mount.


Next I installed the clutch cable - it took a little trial and error to get the tension right.





Another evening I installed the Starter. Unfortunately a washer next to the starter bolt hole interfered with the starter. So I took it off and ground it out a little and everything went together easy.

[mrglaeser]

More small jobs completed

The Alternator is wired up. I wish I had looked at this closer before installing the alternator. I probably would have re-clocked it to put the wiring out from under the brackets. But it worked out ok.





Attached the Holley Sniper Throttle Body.


Adjusted the wiring and connected the Water Temp, Oil Pressure, and Oil Temp sensors


Finally job completed for the week was installing the headers.
Sprayed the gaskets with copper sealer


it wasn't fun installing the headers. There is almost no room to get a wrench on the bolts, I couldn't get a socket on there. if it comes off again maybe I'll try studs instead. I figured this job would take 20 min and I wrestled with it for an hour and half or more. But that is a common occurrence on this project.





Pretty solid week getting things going. I also started on the cooling system and should get it at least fitted this week. Once that is done I'll move on to the mechanical throttle cable.

[Mike.Bray]

I used studs with 12 point nuts on my headers and they worked great. I don't think I would even attempt using bolts.

[mrglaeser]

I used studs with 12 point nuts on my headers and they worked great. I don't think I would even attempt using bolts.

Yeah it was a one-time show. It won't happen again. But they are on now. And yes 12 point would be amazing. That would have saved so much cussing, sweating, and crying.

[mrglaeser]

Now that the engine is in there are so many things I can do. I've been sneaking out to the shop over lunch, while the kids are in hockey tryouts, for an hour in the evenings, etc. So I feel like I'm making a lot more progress than I have in a while. Along with some of the other small jobs I posted about earlier I've also been plugging away at installing the Radiator.

Previously I posted about fitting the shroud and cutting off the quarter steel. I did get all the Breeze goodies shroud, upper hinge, lower cooling hose kit, lower cooling hose bracket, and lower support kits. I didn't do things in the exact order in the instructions but I think things came out pretty good.

After cleaning up the cross bar (forgot to get a pick of it all repainted) I fit the hinge and drilled the 4 bolt holes.


My oldest tapped the bolt holes and cut out the card board and covered the radiator fins. I then drilled the holes in the upper and lower radiator support.




Then I fit the shroud and hinge, drilled them out, and bolted it all together.




Next I bolted the radiator temporarily to the cross bar using a floor jack to support the bottom.

[mrglaeser]

I then adjusted the angle as close to 51 degrees as I could and used zip ties to hold the radiator in place. After that I started to fit the lower support. Sliding the hose over the bar, marking the seems for the tank on both sides, and cutting the hose to accommodate the welds.





After that I remeasured the angle of the radiator and fit the lower support bar in place. The results look pretty good.


Then everything got a good coat of paint.

[mrglaeser]

Then I carefully put everything back togehter and mounted the radiator






I also made a rock guard with some aluminum flat stock and stainless steal mesh. Fist I measured everything. Then cutout the frame and laid it out.


I tried using a lot of painters tape to keep everything in place as I drilled through the upper and lower frame. It worked pretty well on 3 sides. On the forth there was some slippage and a few holes got a bit wonky. No well will probably ever notice but I'm sure it will drive me just a little crazy. Not enough to buy more metal and do it again.



Laid out the frame and cut the mesh. It was completely square so I ended up trimming, and trimming, and trimming again to get it right.

[mrglaeser]

Popped the mesh between the top and bottom frame, rivetted everything up and boom it's ready to go. I will note a couple things. I had to use longer rivets to fit through everything, but they were to long so I took the rotary tool and cut them down. Also I over lapped the corners so on the top frame the longer aluminum pieces were the vertical pieces while the bottom from they were the horizontal. I think this gave it a pinch more structure. All in all it's a pretty solid piece.



I still have to paint it and do final install, but here is the test fit


A few other bits I got done this week.
Received and installed the power steering fitting from Breeze. I really don't like the length of the hose that came with the kit. I might have to see about getting some a little shorter.


Installed the dip stick.



And also got the Drive shaft installed.


Next up will be doing the cooling hoses, heater hoses, drive shaft safety loop, and the bigger project will be setting up the mechanical throttle linkage.

[mrglaeser]

A little more work went into getting all the cooling and heating hoses figured out.

The lower hose is the kit from Breeze and went in pretty simply. I do need to drill and tap a couple holes for the bracket on the x member but it looks really nice.




Then I tried using the hose from IE 427s video but it didn't work out as well for me. I think he was using a generic radiator so that could have been the difference. I ended up using a NAPA 9543. Worked perfectly. Two Cuts and it slips on the kit T filler (once I removed the hoses already on there)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CVTZ9tXNSw







Next I used Breeze fittings and Fragola premade lines and ran the power steering. I just need to finish with a little rubber hose section on the return.

[mrglaeser]

I put in the heater hoses including the shut-off valve.




I also finished the wiring for the fan and installed the overflow tank.


Lots of trial and error + I bought an extra hose to cut up, but overall a nice couple hours of work.

[John Ibele]

Good progress, Matt! You've got a nice clean engine bay taking shape. Your radiator screen turned out great; looks even better when PC'd black (too big for my toaster oven, so that was part of my last load to my powder coater before he closed up shop).

Good luck with the throttle linkage.