Hints And Tips
The first and most important tip, which I can give is, fit the body as soon as
possible and certainly within the first three months of receiving it. The reason
being, that after this time the glass fibre is fully cured and it will be more
difficult to fit. I didn’t do this and it was very difficult to get the body
panels to fit. As the glass fibre cures it becomes stiff and consequently you
will find it very hard to make any adjustment to the panels.
I ordered a build table from
MDA.
This is an essential piece of kit if you don't want to have continuous backache.
It allows you to access all areas of the car easily and you also work at a
convenient height.
Whilst MDA supply a build manual it's always handy to have as much information
as you can when undertaking a project such as this. I managed to visit MDA on a
number of occasions and took digital photographs of a chassis, which they were
building, for a customer. Having these photographs on hand gave me the
confidence to modify the panels. Knowing that MDA themselves had to modify the
panels, was very reassuring. I’d be more than happy to share any of my
photos with fellow builders.
Use the WEB to your advantage. There is plenty information
out there, it’s just a case of finding it. If you have a question, someone out
there has the answer. There are two main GT40 clubs in the
The first stage with the MDA chassis, after stripping the suspension, is to start trial fitting the exterior aluminium chassis panels. These come already 'folded and cut' but I needed to do a lot of work to get them to fit correctly, in fact some of them will never fit as well as I would like. I found that taking that first step to cut my first panel was quite nerve racking, but once I had done one it got easier as I gained more confidence. Obviously if you have done any sort of metalwork before, you may find this a piece of cake, but I was very apprehensive about doing this, to start with.
It is essential to trial fit as many panels, at the same time, as you can to
ensure that all the panels fit together. I used self-tapping screws to
temporarily fix the panels to the chassis. I suggest that you buy at least 8 or
10 ratchet clamps, as you will find these invaluable. Get the sort, which can be
clamped using one hand. A lot of patience is required for this work.
After you are completely satisfied with the fit of the panels, take them all
off and remove the protective film from the rear side of the panel. Debur all of
the drilled holes; wipe down the chassis rails and panels with a cleaner. I used
neat Acetone, which I got from my local boat yard.
You must then apply a sealer to the chassis rails where the panel will come in
contact with them. Don't be afraid to use too much as you can always remove the
excess later. I felt it better to use that little bit extra than not enough. If
you get a water leak later on, you will have very little chance of tracing it
and sealing it. I used
WURTH
saBesto Bond + Seal', which comes in 310ml cartridges. You may
have to buy this direct from WURTH, but that's no problem. They deliver very
quickly. I wasted a lot of this material when only using part of a cartridge,
despite sealing the ends with tape and putting in a plastic bag. Whenever I went
to reuse it, they contents had gone hard. I eventually found out that to keep
the contents fresh the cartridge should be stored in a warm place, so I now keep
any partly used cartridges in the airing cupboard in my house. Any warm room
would do. If you can't get this product, your local motor factors will be able
to supply you with a similar product.
Also used ‘WURTH’s saBesto Super RTV-Silicone’ for all hose and pipe joints. This product is suitable for use with water, oil and petrol.
I would strongly recommend that you buy a couple of boxes of disposable latex
gloves, as it becomes a very messy job when applying the sealer. Baby wipes are
very good at removing the sealer from your skin. Also, you should apply a good
industrial barrier cream to your hands before starting any work on the car.
Another tip before you apply the bonding material. Buy some SCOTCH 3M
'SCOTCH-BLUE' Painter's Tape #2090. It comes in different widths but I used the
1" tape. Where you have panel joints that will be visible, apply the tape to the
panels either side of the join. This will let you have a neat edge to the sealer
when you remove the tape. You can also apply the tape directly on top of the
bonding material after it has gone off slightly and this will give a smooth
finish after the bonding material has cured.
After riveting and bonding the exterior panels you can then start thinking about
the interior panels. Before I fitted these panels I installed as much insulation
material as possible. I used 'Ecotherm' board, which you can buy from your local
builder's merchants. This is ideal material for sound deadening and it also
offers a degree of heat insulation. It cuts very easily using a pad saw. I cut
out paper templates to suit the areas where the insulation board was going and
cut the board from the templates. Use the 'Bond and Seal' to stick the boards
in. The more pieces of insulation that you can install, the better. This will
also help to cut down road noise and reduce panel vibration.
Fixing the interior panels is the same as the exterior panels. Very messy!!
Think very carefully before you bond the interior panels. The reason being that in future you may need to remove some of the panels to get at various parts of the car mechanics, I’m particularly thinking of the steering rack, steering column, pedal box and wiring. That’s a mistake, which I made and I’m now suffering the consequences of not having easy access to certain parts of the car. Be warned!!
To seal these particular panels, just use a normal domestic sealer, as you would use if doing DIY work. When you need to remove these panels you can just cut through the sealer with a sharp blade. Don’t apply the sealer until after the car has passed all of its government approval tests and you are completely sure that you don’t need any more access to these areas.
You may want to get
hold of some extra aluminium sheet, and some different aluminium extrusions as
there will be quite a few infill
pieces to make and fit.
Little tip! Don't put all the rivets in on the engine bay lower panels. Reason is that when you install the brake lines you will have to drill out the rivets to fit the 'P Clips' to hold the brake lines.
Before fitting the water radiator I would strongly suggest that you install the front wiring loom as this passes between the bottom of the radiator and the front chassis member. You have to get the two multi-pin connecting plugs through this gap and they won’t fit if the radiator is in position.
For some of the wiring loom I fitted smaller grommets than specified in the build manual; it says 20mm but I used ¼” (6.5mm) ones. Don’t see the need for such large ones to be used.
There is one point that you must check and that is that the pins on the wheel hub, which engage with the wheel, are Loctited in. My ones were only finger tight! Use Green Loctite for this application. This only applies if you have pin drive wheels. I think the basic rule is, don't assume that everything has been correctly torqued up.
When assembling different metals together, e.g. stainless steel to aluminium, it is essential that some form of barrier is present between the two metals. If you are screwing a steel bolt into an aluminium RivNut then coat the bolt with Copaslip. If you are putting a stainless steel plate on top of an aluminium plate cover the plates in grease or Copaslip prior to fixing. If you don’t do this preventative action, then the two metals will react and corrosion will take place. Generally speaking, whenever I am assembling metal items together, I always try and use Copaslip, even if it’s just a bolt on the suspension or into a chassis member. Using the Copaslip will make disassembly, in the future, much easier.
When you install your wiring looms, don’t fix them down around the facia area until you have wired up the instrument panel and then checked that they all connect together. What, I found was that I had not allowed enough of the front wiring loom to extend into the facia area and also that the wiring loom on my instrument panel was fixed down to tight, so they wouldn’t meet. This check needs to be completed before you fit the centre body section or the top aluminium panel to the foot well area.
A word of warning about installing the hoses from the coolant water pipes to the radiator. Don’t do this too early unless you are absolutely 100% sure that you have them in the correct orientation to match up with the hose outlets on your engine block. Better to have the pipes installed through the box section tunnel but not to actually fit the hoses. Also make sure that when you do fit the hoses at the radiator end, that the pipes in the engine bay are tight up against the rear bulkhead. You will probably have to trim the length of the hoses to get the desired effect.
If you have the standard wiring harness supplied as part of the kit, then it is more than likely that some of the connections will not be required.
For example, if you are using an MSD electronic ignition system, then you won’t need the ‘Ballast resistor’ nor its wiring. Like wise if you are using a carburettor with a manual choke then you won’t need the ‘fuel solenoid’ connections.
Before you try and adjust the coil spring settings on your shock absorbers make sure that there is no load on the suspension, and put some light oil (3-IN-ONE) on the threads and top collar of the shock absorber body. Using a correct ‘C Spanner’ will also make a big difference. For the ProTech shock absorbers, on my chassis, I used a spanner suitable for 2.25” ID spring.
If your engine has EDELBROCK cylinder heads be careful if you intend to use lifting eyes for the lifting of the engine. On my engine there are a set of holes in the end of each aluminium cylinder head, four sets in all. Three of the sets have 7/16” UNC tapped holes but one set had 3/8”UNC tapped holes. So before you buy your lifting eyes check the hole sizes in the cylinder heads.
When installing the coolant and heating pipes at the front of the engine it is much easier if the alternator is removed beforehand and then refitted after all the pipe work is installed.
If you are going to use an electronic speedometer with magnetic detection from somewhere on the transaxle, then I suggest that you install the signal cable before you install the engine. It is best if you use a light duty shielded cable to run from the transaxle to the instrument panel area. The shielded cable presents any interference from other electrical circuits. Remember to earth the cable at one end. I got my cable from the local radio/tv specialist shop.
If you are going to fit heat shield sheaths to the accelerator cable and other cables make sure that you order your sheaths with a large enough diameter to go over the adjusting nuts and clevis joints. I didn’t!!
Cover every single cable and wiring harness with split conduit or spiral wrap as you build them in. The SVA inspectors are very fussy on this item so don’t skimp with the protection. Even on the bits that you won’t see! Better to do it at this stage than try and retrofit them.