Bodywork Progress on the '67

[Johnny C.]

Awesome car. You are doing a great job with it. It is very well thought out.

[James OLC]

The hood pins are from the Ring Brothers.

You can visit their website or give them a call at 608.588.5377. Jim has been a great help with advice and makes some top notch products.

[James OLC]

Sorry that it has been so long since the last update - we are at that point in the build that doesn't really photograph well. Some people might find the work a little boring but some of it is really cool. In the last couple of weeks we were able to get the front spoiler / splitter together to the point that it's ready for final bodywork.

We also spent the last couple of days getting the coils mounted.

We started with these trick billet coil brackets:
These are prototypes that we had machined for us by Matt at RFR. The final product will be anodized but we wanted to evelate the design before moving forward.





Now I just have to find the ideal mounting location - something that is easier said than done.

[James OLC]

double post

[James OLC]

As above

[Bow Tie 67]

That looks very nice. Did you use the front two oil pan studs for mounting? You also mentioned splitter, when do we get to see it?

Matt

[James OLC]

You also mentioned splitter, when do we get to see it?

Matt

I guess now is as good a time as any.

The first stages of fabication, we based it on a stock spoiler and increased the rake slightly:

[John McIntire]

wow! that coil bracket is awesome! I like how you engraved the corresponding cylinder #'s into it

[James OLC]

well it took a little bit of thinking - and then rethinking after a bit of a misstep - but we were able to get the coils mounted today.

The bracket fits nicely below the rad:

[James OLC]

and with the coils in place:







and from the inside they nicely out of the way:

[James OLC]

Then we closed the sides in, trying to follow the curves of the lower fender as well as possible:

[James OLC]

and finished it off with the spitter itself at the bottom. This is just roughed in at this point; before moving forward with the bodywork Chris and Shane tweaked the corners and the base for a tight, flat fit:











I like that we found a way to follow the original design and take it to the next level. We will probably wind up with a couple of bases - one for the street and one for the track. It's probably not for everybody and that's fine but it fits with the OneLap build and should have a positive effect on the track.

[Mr.VENGEANCE]

i like it!!!

[MZ 500]

I like it too, I am planing something like that for my project but I am trying to come up with a way for EZ removal since I live in MI home of worst roads in the US. Keep up the good work.

[James OLC]

Well, the car is in the paint booth as we speak. It's been boarded for the fourth time and is getting it's final wet sand before paint. With any luck Chris will being laying down paint before the end of the week. I'll try to shoot some pictures today.

Since the splitter pics most of the progress has been subtle and is not really photogenic. We have got most of the engine wired and are waiting for four sensors before we can call it done. Plug wires are built and in place, and the AC lines are out being crimped as we speak (type... whatever). The exhaust is at the coater and the driveshaft is on it's way.

At the back of the car, we have the optima battery in place as well as the Safecraft fire bottle:



At the front we are looking at some bumpstop alternatives (some are more mundane than others while some are bordering on exotic). No decisions there yet (packaging is tight) but we did a bit of work on the steering arm - baer tracker mounting. One of the difficulties with wider front wheels on the stock subframe (and maybe aftermarket ones as well?) is that when using something like the Baer Tracker tie rod end and bump steer spacers is that the tapered stud is quite long and can interfere with the inner/outer lip of the wheel on the inboard side. Our HREs have nearly a 6" backspacing and interference was definately an issue. The solution is a minor modification to the steering arm and the use of a 5/8" bolt rather than the tapered stud:



Three things to note: (1) there are no any spacers for bump steer in place yet as the car hasn't been aligned at this point (2) a safety washer below the heim is a must and (3) ultimately the castle nut on the top will have a cotter pin in place.

Plenty of clearance now:

[James OLC]

Also up front Chris had been working on aligning the front sheetmetal and hood for the final time so we brought out the billet hood latch that Matt at RFR had machined for us:



We have changed the design slightly from this version but wanted to test fit the piece as was and make sure the the alignment and adjustment was there.



The final installation will use Ring Brothers hardware but i think the piece really adds a nice touch, especially since we do not need the safety catch.

[James OLC]

The new design is slightly more refined and matches some of the other billet bits that we have integrated under the hood:





It will use the DSE stud and maintains a locknut on the backside:



I'll post more pictures of this when it is back from the anodizer and installed but there is something that is cool about newly machined raw pieces. We are planning on doing a limited production run of these (and/or the original version) if there is any interest.

[James OLC]

The car is now in the booth and getting ready for paint. Chris spent the last couple of days realigning all of the sheetmetal and giving the car it's final boarding. He started on the first wet sanding (400 grit) today (he was on the drivers side roof when I took these) and should have it ready for paint by midweek if everything goes well.

[formula98]

For some reason when I open your post it is requesting a user name and password. So we can't view the latest pictures.

As soon as I posted this the pictures loaded, go figure!

Nice progress!

[BossaNova]

That hood latch is off the chain.
Congratulations on the paint.