A huge thanks to
@ratrog64 for inviting me over to his place. I learned sooo much. I got to see the four Sterlings he had on hand and I have some things to think about...
1. Yes, I will drop my floor pans. I need to go no less than 4" Given that I have a longer torso and stubbier legs, I need to see if I can go further than that... I now wish I had not replaced my rusted-out messed up (28ga?) ones with new OEM (20ga?) ones.
@ratrog64 had a beautiful chassis hanging on the wall like some wild safari animal trophy skin. It was primed and dropped and reinforced/edged with 1x2 and looked awesome and his pans were custom 16ga. I was clumsily stumbling my way to where he already was and now I see where I need to go with mine.
2. His seating solutions were much better than what I had planned or ever imagined. I hear he has taken some criticism for them in the past but what was in the Gulf Car was perfect and is how I need to go. I may add some extra padding but that will be a very trivial task.
3. I need to loose about 70 pounds.
4. His canopy's pull-release to close in the Gulf Car is brilliant. I may choose a more comfortable placement than what he did but hey, it is all about what each person likes/needs.
5. I am definitely staying with the hydraulic over the actuators. The main reasons being speed and the ability to remain in place when cut off. This all has to do with the screw pitch. I just need to figure out a way to make mine less noisy than his as that is a big turn off for me.
6. I overlooked adding sprayers for my wiper. He has an elegant solution that makes a lot of sense and looks good.
7. I need to do some serious thinking about my intended A/C system. He put his coils in the front hood but this may likely interfere with my need to store my T-top roof panels there. I also neglected to consider evaporator placement. I am not a huge fan of putting it in the passenger side console but it is proven to work. Depending on what I find, I may have other options but this is a lot of homework for later...
8. His interior side panel pockets are large and spacious. More practical for accessing internal stuff (wiring, mechanicals,...) even if they do lack the bucket-pouch styling of the original pockets. Having switches and hardware mounted there is very helpful and practical so I have some things to think about.
9. The boat radio is a super cool and compact way to go. It makes me want to reconsider my plan to install a vintage AM/FM sideways radio - all of my modern digital music needs were going to be solved by a Bluetooth/FM transmitter.
10. My rear end is going to take heavy inspiration from the Gulf Car. I was smitten when I saw that.
11. The placement of his oil cooler and other such components is so practical. It also makes the changing of the oil filter a snap. His experience really shows in such pro moves.
12. The paint scheme on the silver car was beautiful. It really demonstrated what a show-quality car can look like (although the yellow one will be really sweet once finally put together). While some people may not like the rivets, it reminds me of the styling of the 1973/74 Panteras with the riveted fenders before they started welding the wider ones at the factory. The black hood completed that picture. It truly would not look out of place next to one of these - the rivets really do complete the picture. But I digress... The paint scheme and quality was so much better than the rattle-can job mine came with.
13. I have laid down the gauntlet on having a bigger-than-12-gallon fuel tank. I need to put my money where my mouth is. But this is a problem for a later phase of my project.
14. I have the wrong side glass. While mine is standard Sterling, it does not fit my frame at all. I will need to have some custom made to fit mine (and the T-top). I will likely need to start off with acrylic panels and later have the glass custom made. I also need to examine my current hinges as mine do not seem to want to fit my frame as nicely as his do. He has an excellent window pop-out hinge he got from someone on the site (injection molded job) and it is high quality. This will be added to my list of things once I get to the body work phase.
In short, my near term plans are to adjust the work done so far on my chassis and have the 1x2 bracing moved outward, replacing the current/default edge of the floor pans. I will also need to seriously drop my pans. I will see how low I can go without compromising my view over my dash (it is a GT wrap-around). I do not think I can recoup my money on the floor pans I have by modifying them. Otherwise, the air jacks are going nicely and the roll-bar is set with the extra bracing it needed. The engine mount plate has the spacers since the 912 transmission sticks out a good bit from the end of the forks.
There is always more but this will suffice for this update...
