Paul Robertson
Supporter
I have been rather silent on this forum in the past but I wanted to announce the birth of our car. We recently finished Our SLC after 10 months (1500 hours) of pleasure. I had just retired and my son was between jobs so he moved home and we got busy.
It is orange, has Graziano transaxle, LS3 525, race tail and carbon fiber, well everything. I bought the car from a gentlemen who backed out a month before delivery so I only waited less than a month to get the car. Waited over a year to get all the parts to the car from SLC but that is another story.
Car is really built for track duty therefore all of the fancy carbon interior parts are up in the garage attic awaiting a rebuild someday. The interior therefore is spartan aluminum and yoga mat covered seats. WE are both over 6' 2"so the seats are pretty raked. We didn't do too many original novel things in the build. Probably the smartest thing was we opted to just clear coat the gelcoat which I thought would be an one coat deal but we had to put 3 separate coats to fill all the pin holes in the gelcoat. Turned out great and is really the way to go for the track.
We have put over 1000 miles on it since May 1, all track miles. The first 500 track miles were a bit rough. Suspension needed a lot of attention. Upped spring rates to 750F 850 rear, changed brake masters to 3/4 Front, 5/8 Rear. Changing the brake masters was really a good thing as it now stops well with what I consider to be reasonable pedal effort. Probably going to go with even stiffer springs depending on which track we go to. Took forever to get the bumpsteer quieted down. It still is not perfect in front because the the tie rod is hard up against the tie rod bracket that attaches to the upright and it really needs to go up a bit. Havent figured out how. Car has the extended foot box so will be tough to lower the rack. Any ideas out there? It took the better part of 2 days to align the car and then after experiencing some body rub issues on hard corners and changing out 3 wheel hubs we had to realign and re corner balance again. Good thing I am retired! FWIW, I cant imagine having anyone who was not pretty familiar with the car do justice in aligning it. It is a very tedious job that to do well takes some time. It is actually not that hard, just time consuming. As mentioned above in the first 1000 miles we have had to replace both of the right side hub assemblies and the left rear as well! Went back with Timken, we shall see how they last. In the end though the car really performs well.
Another thing that we made was a very simple low gear lockout (first, second, reverse) . It is a common door hinge from home depot that we bolted one side to the side of the gearshift frame and the other side of the hinge is spring loaded to flop down on the top of the gearshift frame when not in first or second. It will not permit moving the shift lever to the left far enough to go into the low gears. We put a sliding collar on the gearshift level that is attached by a stiff cable to the hinge so one can pull up on the "trapdoor" with the gearshift hand thus allowing entry to the lower gears. Ugly but pretty damn useful.
I really need to thank many of the folks on this forum who have come before me for their superb build logs without which I dont think we could have done this project. The knowledge in this forum is what gave me the courage to dive into this. I would also like to thank my son who had to put up with his dad for a year. It is a year I will always cherish.
It is orange, has Graziano transaxle, LS3 525, race tail and carbon fiber, well everything. I bought the car from a gentlemen who backed out a month before delivery so I only waited less than a month to get the car. Waited over a year to get all the parts to the car from SLC but that is another story.
Car is really built for track duty therefore all of the fancy carbon interior parts are up in the garage attic awaiting a rebuild someday. The interior therefore is spartan aluminum and yoga mat covered seats. WE are both over 6' 2"so the seats are pretty raked. We didn't do too many original novel things in the build. Probably the smartest thing was we opted to just clear coat the gelcoat which I thought would be an one coat deal but we had to put 3 separate coats to fill all the pin holes in the gelcoat. Turned out great and is really the way to go for the track.
We have put over 1000 miles on it since May 1, all track miles. The first 500 track miles were a bit rough. Suspension needed a lot of attention. Upped spring rates to 750F 850 rear, changed brake masters to 3/4 Front, 5/8 Rear. Changing the brake masters was really a good thing as it now stops well with what I consider to be reasonable pedal effort. Probably going to go with even stiffer springs depending on which track we go to. Took forever to get the bumpsteer quieted down. It still is not perfect in front because the the tie rod is hard up against the tie rod bracket that attaches to the upright and it really needs to go up a bit. Havent figured out how. Car has the extended foot box so will be tough to lower the rack. Any ideas out there? It took the better part of 2 days to align the car and then after experiencing some body rub issues on hard corners and changing out 3 wheel hubs we had to realign and re corner balance again. Good thing I am retired! FWIW, I cant imagine having anyone who was not pretty familiar with the car do justice in aligning it. It is a very tedious job that to do well takes some time. It is actually not that hard, just time consuming. As mentioned above in the first 1000 miles we have had to replace both of the right side hub assemblies and the left rear as well! Went back with Timken, we shall see how they last. In the end though the car really performs well.
Another thing that we made was a very simple low gear lockout (first, second, reverse) . It is a common door hinge from home depot that we bolted one side to the side of the gearshift frame and the other side of the hinge is spring loaded to flop down on the top of the gearshift frame when not in first or second. It will not permit moving the shift lever to the left far enough to go into the low gears. We put a sliding collar on the gearshift level that is attached by a stiff cable to the hinge so one can pull up on the "trapdoor" with the gearshift hand thus allowing entry to the lower gears. Ugly but pretty damn useful.
I really need to thank many of the folks on this forum who have come before me for their superb build logs without which I dont think we could have done this project. The knowledge in this forum is what gave me the courage to dive into this. I would also like to thank my son who had to put up with his dad for a year. It is a year I will always cherish.