GD427 in action

GD427 in action

Sunday, 27 March 2011

Fuel Lines tightened... wheels arrived

I've fitted the sensor on the intake and tightened all the fuel lines after having to remake one of them after mistakenly cutting it to length when it was supposed to be a bit long .....!

I've also picked up and fitted my own wheels after having Andy's factory wheels on loan until mine were ready. Hopefully next weekend I'll get a chance to connect the battery and add some fuel and we'll be running. That'll be a bit of a milestone for me and then tidy up a few wires (p-clips on order) and it's on with the body and cutting holes in the rear deck for the roll hoops. If you've followed this blog from the early days, rest assured I'll be using the correct size holesaw :-)






Thursday, 17 March 2011

Preparing to start the engine

Had a little tinker today and mocked up the fuel lines from the pump/regulator to the tank and from the fixed fuel line to the engine. I'm going to start the engine before I put the body on partly to satisfy my curiosity but also to check for leaks in the fuel line. All the joints can be accessed once the body is on but I'd probably have to do it from underneath.



I've also built a "starting box" housing water temp gauge, oil pressure gauge and rev counter along with several switches rigged up to mimic the the action of an ignition switch i.e. power on and start but also the action of holding the clutch down. My system includes a switch similar to that found in modern vehicles which requires either the gearbox is in neutral if automatic or the clucth held down if manual. This often referred to as a neutral safety switch and is the switch labelled NSS on the box.





I've also loosely mocked up the air filter assembly and you can see how the GD system draws cool air from in front of the radiator which should help performance. The air box will be bonded into the body when it finally goes on.





This was the first time that I've moved the body whilst on it's new frame which has been designed to allow me to move either the body or chassis out of the garage independently on each other.



I also wired the fan and fuel pump. Next job will be to tighten all the fuel lines, put some petrol in the tank, connect the battery and it should fire right up !

Sunday, 13 February 2011

Screen demist pipes

Weather was rubbish today so spent some time inside putting some waste pipe together for the screen demisters. These pipes which I made into "T" pieces, take the warm air from the heater and split this to the screen demisters and the footwell, one for each side. The "T" pieces are joined to the various components by flexible tubing. I found a website which allowed me to print some templates for joining two pieces of pipe together.

It was actually designed for much more complicated joins that I was attempting i.e different sizes, angles, offset etc. but very handy nonetheless.
After cutting out the template and marking the pipe accordingly, I made the cuts and glued them together. Once dry, I'll rub down the joints a little and paint them black...... don't know why, you'll never see them but it just seems like the right thing to do :-)

Sunday, 30 January 2011

A little bit of plumbing

Grabbed a little garage time today and started to put the main hoses together for the cooling system.

Before..



After...




I still need to run some additional hoses for the heater pipes but got drawn in and bought the bling polished pipes from GD. These mount to the chassis rails and just need hose connected at each end rather than a continous run of hose all the way round the front of the engine. I'll need to fix these solidly to the chassis so I'll do a little planning where to drill the holes and fit these next time.

Friday, 21 January 2011

Few more pictures...







Ta Daaaa....

My new arrival... !

GD Euro chassis with LS3 engine and Tremec t56 Magnum gearbox

Andy kindly lent me the "factory" wheels while waiting for my wheels and tyres to be delivered.

All tucked up safe and sound

I'll post some further pictures and a few more details once I've had a chance to take it all in... !

Saturday, 25 December 2010

Merry Xmas...

Merry Xmas. I had hoped to post details today of a major step forward in this project but Santa was unable to fit my Xmas present on his sleigh... The latest details from Santa's workshop suggests I'll be getting my present some time during the second week in January.

Best wishes for Xmas and the new year.