Most liked posts in thread: The Phoenix - The GP Roadster Project

Today's parts haul: 2nd pair of H-sport control arms, bracket for headlight leveler, and replacement lines for BBK, all from the good folks at Detroit Tuned!



Also received a couple of Jegs fender pads, to attempt to protect my new paint once Locutus Mk2 gets back from the paint shop and I start the rebuild.

Tomorrow should be a pretty good parts day... stay tuned.

 

This is the most I've ever personally stripped any car...


I bet it's pretty light, like this.

Added my seat in, so fab guy can position the harness bar and seat back brace properly. Also, so I can sit in it and make race car sounds.


I was going to cut out extra sheet metal, left over from the folding top and factory roll hoops. Then I decided to let my fab guy do it, while he's in there cutting stuff anyway. Marked it for him.



Going in a few minutes to pick up my friend, the Uhaul tow dolly.

 

Slow progress, but progress. I'll be glad when the stripping is done... because it sucks, compared to building.

Spent a few hours today working on the convertible top. Was attempting to get the whole top off intact. Well, that didn't happen. But I made a valiant effort... Also removed the trailer wiring adapter and some other wiring stuff while back there.. and removed the boot door and all the trim in the back.

They don't really design the top (or most of the rear interior trim) to be completely removed without being able to cycle the top up and down at least a bit. Some of the bolts are hard enough to access when everything is working properly... When it's not... and when part of the car is crushed... ugh.

Here are three of the critical bolts. Which were hidden behind a crushed and stuck taillight, and a crushed and stuck hydraulic pump. After removing those, they were still arm-deep in a hole like one Indiana Jones would have to feel around inside...


Two of these three came out easy with a ratcheting box-end wrench. But the third was wedged against crushed sheet metal. I had to work it out with an open end wrench...about 35 degrees of rotation, flip wrench, another 35 degrees, flip wrench... repeat, blind, by feel, for 45 minutes. But finally got it.


Only to find that there were even MORE fasteners I couldn't see and couldn't access.

Eventually got things loose enough to shift around and cut out the critical parts I needed...


The "sunroof" panel, and the rear tensioner with pivots and latches. Plus some trim and stuff.


The "sunroof" panel will be used to build the front seal/latch portion of my "bikini" top. The tensioner assembly will be the rear attachment point for the tonneau cover.

 

And DONE!!!!

Looks amazing in person. Trust me

 

I might actually do the time lapse with the GoPro. That's a good idea. Just need to figure out placement and power.

 

Live feed is too much work. But time lapse with one camera... yeah, I can do that.

 

Actually, yes. I noticed the date when I signed the forms for the uhaul tow dolly and laughed.

 

Played around with the switch this morning and really like the dash vent location, and I think I can make it work. Will look great there, very clean.

Thanks Dick!

 

Had hoped to get the interior mostly finished up today. Instead, the steering column was a 2 hour job instead of a 15 minute job.

Determined that Blimey's column was buggered, after getting it mostly installed. So had to swap the key cylinder and steering angle sensor to the GP column and install it, and still had to fight it a bit. Ultimately better, because (a) Blimey's column was for an automatic and (b) the GP column has half the mileage and (b) it's another GP part the I can use.

Anyway, that ate my afternoon. I'll play more tomorrow, maybe.

 

About 4 hours today, getting ready to build the rear suspension.

These are the trailing arms off GP0769. Remember, that car was driven several winters in the snow belt... and it shows.



Several of the steel-to-aluminum bolts were seized when I pulled these off the GP. One was seized so completely, I wrung off the shaft of one the big, strong pivot bolts before it would budge. Wellzy drilled it out for me, picked the remaining steel threads out of the arm, and saved the threads. So now they're functionally OK, but they looked like crap, tons of corrosion.

So... BLASTED THEM!




It's amazing how nicely they cleaned up.

I don't want them to get gross again, so I'm not going to leave them as bare aluminum. I had considered powder coating them, but don't want to risk the heat weakening the already-weakened threads. So I decided to paint them instead. Picked a nice, neutral, "cast iron" color. Because there will be lots of other color elements in the rear suspension, the arms don't need to be flashy.


Five coats (two cans) of Duplicolor "Ceramic" engine enamel. This stuff is really nice, dries fast and makes a smooth, hard finish that should clean up easily and should be pretty durable.


They actually turned out better than I imagined.

I also degreased the rear subframe from Blimey (which is much less rusty than the one on the new shell), scraped and scuffed a few small rust patches, and sprayed them with rust converter. Tomorrow I'll cover them with chassis paint.

Also scraped, scuffed, and converted rust on the shell's front subframe, and on the underside of the shell where the cage A-pillar plates were welded in. Tomorrow I'll spot-paint the subframe, and will apply rust encapsulating undercoat where needed.

I sorted out all my suspension stuff, to get ready for the build tomorrow.


I also assembled my coilovers... pics of those tomorrow!

And, this came...


Very slightly used OS Giken STR clutch. From Ben Chaltraw's RMW Turbo Monster. He put this on to break in his new motor, then decided to go full retard on the turbo kit and upgraded to a dual disk OSG clutch to carry much more torque. This is almost new, but I still had Colin get the friction surfaces cut so it will be like-new when I install.

So I'll have a slightly used Cluchtmasters FX200 for sale soon.