FEbruary-april 2013 - Finalizing the AC, Coolant, Brake/Clutch & Fuel lines
Ac Lines
I finally arranged for a local TIG welder (Braith Welding) to stop by and weld up my AC lines. I also ended up machining some bushings that would allow the two long 1 1/4" & 1 1/2" center tubes to be welded to the bent assemblies that come up under the steering rack. Originally these sections were going to be joined with the kit supplied rubber adapters. Just seemed like there were too many potential leak paths so I had them welded. All the welds turned out pretty good.
Brake and clutch lines
The brake and clutch lines were challenging as there were quite a few bends and not always room for error. I bent some of them a couple times.... :-( As I bent the lines I used coat hangers and extra brake line to lay out the necessary bends. It is almost impossible otherwise since once you put some of the bends in the lines you cannot put the line back into the chassis. As mentioned in the video I eliminated the kit supplied adapters to go from bubble flare to inverted flare on the front by incorporating the adapter right into the tube. This gave me quite a bit more room to clear the upper suspension arm. I also increase the bend in the banjo fitting attached to the donor soft lines to allow for rim clearance in the rear and for steering travel in the front.
Cooling Lines
These lines have been quite a journey. I think they finally are finished. :-) Most of my cooling system is different from the kit so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
Fuel Lines
Not too much special here. Biggest change from the kit is the fact that I am only using one fuel tank to eliminate the cross over hose.
Elevated Battery Tray
I had originally thought my battery might get mounted in the rear of the car since my cooling lines were taking up the real estate in the front of the car. After some browsing on the web I found a few GTM's built using a Odyssey battery which is substantially smaller than a std car/truck battery. I took dimensions from the Odyssey website and made a cardboard box the same size as the battery to help determine where I could put it. As you can see from the pictures I machined three posts to elevate the battery so it sits just above the cooling tubes.
REAR TIRES
I Since I purchased the Forgestar wheels from Factory Five I need to put some new rubber on them (they are a different size than the donor wheels). Tires this low and wide are pretty pricey compared to something for my daily drive so I started looking around for a good deal. I came across a few guys on E-Bay selling used high performance tires. They ranged anywhere from almost new to pretty worn. I wanted something with more than 70% of the tread left so it took a few weeks of watching. I ended up finding a good deal on a set of rear 335/30-18 Toyo R888's. They had been mounted and slightly used but were in pretty nice shape. After $60 for shipping I had a set of rear tires for $360. ...and they are wide!!!! Still looking for fronts....
Custom Radiator Sheet Metal
With the changes I made to the cooling and AC lines I needed a custom piece of sheet metal to deflect the air coming through the radiator and hood vents. Shane @ VRaptor (www.vraptorspeedworks.com) makes a ton of custom GTM parts using sheet metal so I figured he would be the guy to contact. After swapping e-mails with Shane we came up with a price that was very reasonable. I modeled the part up in CAD and created a drawing with dimensions for Shane.
Here is a video showing the finished custom radiator sheet metal.