Car #069

[ratrog64]

I envy you, I can barely find 2-3 hours a week to spend working on my car. But slow progress is better than no progress

One of the benefits of not being married and not having any children. Being self employed doesn't hurt either.

Depending on what time I get home from work, I may still be in the garage at 10pm a few times a week. I don't watch TV or do any social media stuff so most of my free time is garage time.

Any progress is good!

 

[ratrog64]

10.6.19

Got the seat mold finished up this morning and pull off the plug this afternoon. All trimmed up and ready to make a seat.

I also trimmed up my passenger seat which was the plug. I still need to trim up the drivers seat. You can see the difference after trimming in the photo.

Got one side of the canopy arms painted on Saturday along with lot and lots of sanding on the inside of the canopy. I still need to do some filling of imperfections and some patch work at the seam between the inner and outer canopy shell. Once that's done I'll sand one more time with some 320, seal with some epoxy and paint it satin black.

 

[ThreeTimeTom]

W hat is the roof scoop from?

 

[ratrog64]

W hat is the roof scoop from?

The roof scoop is something I made a while ago and was going to use on #114. That never happened.

I think I originally bought a cheap plastic scoop off eBay and then made a mold from it. Then made myself a glass part. I wanted to lengthen it to travel the entire length of the roof like you see on many supercars. Maybe next time!

 

[ratrog64]

11.15.19

Started working on my seats. Going to be a bit of work but I think they will be nice when finished.
These are a pair of original Cimbria seat shells I got from Brian when I bought the car.

Vinyl is black with orange diamond pattern stitching.







The seat bottom is a separate piece that drops into place.

 

[sector]

Very nice. Did you do diamond stitching yourself?

 

[ratrog64]

Went to my first cars and coffee early Saturday morning. Very nice collection of exotics there! There was also a mix of Hots Rods, modern cars and imports. Nice thing about the gathering is its starts at 7am and is wrapped up by 9 / 10am. Still have the whole day to go play. Oops, wrong car journal

 

[ratrog64]

Very nice. Did you do diamond stitching yourself?

A good buddy of mine has an Upholstery business and we are doing the work together. The diamond stitching is laid out with a pattern you can see on the table. Easier to do then you would think. Takes time but the machines do all the hard work. The gluing of the foam and stretching the vinyl on the seats is more work then the sewing. The seat back and head rest will also have the diamond stitch. Going to look pretty sharp when its finished. I'm also going to do a pattern repeat on the rear shelf behind the seats.

 

[ratrog64]

11.18.19

Got to spend a few hours today on the seats.









I think padding out the headrest like we did took these seats from 70's fiberglass seat shells to modern custom race seats.

Oh I'm so afraid what this is going to cost!

 

[letterman7]

That looks awesome!

 

[ratrog64]

11.19.19

Seats are finished. Seat backs and bottom are covered in an automotive felt with a bound edge. Even though you don't see much of it, it had to be nice. I didn't expect to do something this nice for the car but like everything else, it just get away from you.





Now this forces me to up my game on the rest of the interior which I originally wanted to be like a stripped out race car.

 

[sector]

Superb. Great work as always.

 

[ThreeTimeTom]

Looking gooood!!!!

 

[ratrog64]

11.20.19

Thanks Guys, Yeah I'm loving the seats!

I decided to lay up another rear visor. Not sure if I will use it yet on this car but I wanted to have it just in case. Once I trim it up I'll put it in place and decide if it fits this car and the vision I have for it, probably yes .... LOL

 

[ratrog64]

11.23.19

After getting the garage cleaned up after two weeks of part building I worked on the rear visor.
Trimmed up and ready for primer and paint. I guess I have decided to use it on this car too.



The odd color is because I used the last of my white gelcoat and what was left of a quart of tooling gel to make the last few parts.

 

[RangerBEH]

Wow I can’t get over those seats! They look amazing.

 

[ratrog64]

12.29.19

Got my proportioning valve plumbed in today. Keep in mind, this car is supposed to look like a race car, that's why its not hidden.









I also mounted an oil breather box. Rather then mounting in the engine compartment, I decided to do it a little different. Mounting hardware will be polished stainless carriage bolts during final assemble.

 

[ratrog64]

Thanks Brian

Wow I can’t get over those seats! They look amazing.

I think they fit the car very nicely! The orange stitching and blue racing harness will go nicely with the gulf racing colors on the body.



The shelf behind the seats will also have the black vinyl with diamond pattern stitched into the lids.

 

[ratrog64]

1.2.19

Got a parts delivery today. New fan shroud and my oil coolers.
I'm doing one on each side. Both will have a thermostatically controlled fan.
The exhaust will be wrapped and I may even make a heat shield if I feel its necessary.
I also got a few brake parts in to finish up my brakes.

 

[ratrog64]

UPDATE

Its been a few weeks since anything has been done on this car. I have been doing plenty on cars motors etc just not the 069 car.

The 114 car has gotten some attention as I have been doing a few things for the new owner so that has eaten up some of my garage time.

So the update for the 069 car is that in a recent VW parts acquisition, I came across a real goodie. At first I thought I'd just turn it and make a quick buck but like with everything else in life, nothing is certain.

The new power plant for the 069 car is going to be a real vintage Dino motor. One of the 6 motors I recently bought is a ARPM Dry Sump Race Motor. 94 x 87 stroke. At almost 2.4L I'm thinking this thing should be a beast. I will be doing a complete rebuild on the motor to freshen it up and to make it more street-able ( likely a cam change and new heads ). I still haven't cracked the case, fingers crossed its as good inside as I think it will be. A new transaxle will also likely be needed as well. Since I'm doing this car as a vintage Gulf-Sterling race car, I see it only fitting it has the power to back that up.







None of what I bought came with any info on its history or its condition, so its been a crap shoot so far. I've broken down 3 motors so far and have found lots of good parts. Only one suffered from oil starvation but its still mostly salvageable.