Thread: Project Sebring GT Spyder

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The fuse block on my 40 was way up behind the dash on the back side of the firewall. It won't be there again. I'm thinking of building a center console that goes up to the dash and I will put it in the center there and it will have a nice door to open it. Laying on your back stuffed against the pedals with your arms jammed up in the there is no fun. Especially at night on the shoulder of the road.

You're doing great work and the car is looking so nice! Those side vents really set it off IMO!

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

Laying on your back stuffed against the pedals with your arms jammed up in the there is no fun. Especially at night on the shoulder of the road.

I feel your pain, literally! Mine is in the same place on the 46 and I regret that every time I have to check a fuse. My wiring is now a little over 20 years old and I'm having the occasional issue.

Thanks for the compliment. I'm glad ya'll are enjoying the build.

This is a fun build to watch. And you've been doing great work. I think we've all shared the pain of trying to reach a fuse and every year that fuse box seems to move higher and further than I remember.

Another little glitch I ran into while test fitting the body was with the door latches which lead to more unexpected work.

Being a kit car (now the more sophisticated name is component vehicle), the original latches were salvage yard parts. The latches came from a Chevette. They had some plastic parts that had deteriorated badly and others that had worn out because the doors were badly misaligned. The striker bolt bearing surface in the latch was forced to carry not only the weight of the door, but also the force needed to pull everything into alignment.



The plastic bearing surface just wasn't up to the task and adding to the problem was that over time the plastic had become brittle. It had crumbled and was falling out in pieces. Of course, there's also no telling how old or worn the latches were when the car was first built.

I guess when this car was built they were still common, but I can't remember the last time I saw a Chevette on the road or in a salvage yard. It had to be 15 or 20 years ago. They were cheap, throw away cars to begin with and most wound up scrapped. I didn't even attempt to locate any used latches, because they most likely would have been worn out, too. GM used a lot of the same or similar parts across their lineup, but I didn't want to spend a lot of time crawling around a junkyard trying to locate a crossover part from a 70's or 80's car. So, I turned to the street rod industry for something to replace them with.

I chose the Bear Claw style latches that are something of a staple in the street rod world. They are available in different sizes and action types, but their function is very similar to standard automotive latches used by many different car manufacturers. Actually, these exact same latches are used in industrial applications, too, where they are known as rotary latches. They are really not that expensive, either.

I ordered mine from Ball's Hot Rod Parts. I'm going to shave the outside door handles and needed a remote system as well as electric actuators for the latches. Ball's had everything I needed. The remote will only be needed when the top is up, though. Otherwise, I can just reach over the top of the door and use the manual interior handle. Those are going to be relocated and changed out also to make them easier to access.



The latches I received from Ball's appear to be high quality and I believe they were made in the USA. They are considerably smaller than the GM parts. They do eliminate the locking mechanism, but I don't need that due to the shaved door handles. Most folks wouldn't be able to find my "hidden" release button anyhow and it wouldn't matter much if they did. I will be installing an RFID interrupter on the main power relay and most of the car's electrical system will be dead until I'm close to the car.



I also bought Ball's installation kit that had a couple of bent and notched plates. I had hoped that these would speed up the work, but as usual, that wasn't the case. They were too small and I had to wind up making new ones. I was trying to keep the door striker pins in the same place as they had been on the old latches and that was what kept the Ball's parts from working.

The striker bolts that came with the latches were too short, also. As luck would have it, the original striker bolts from the Chevette latches were the same diameter, but longer. My originals were in bad shape, so I took a chance at the local parts store to see if there was anything available. Wonder of wonders, they actually listed replacement striker bolts for a Chevette and they were in stock at the warehouse for overnight delivery! Either I got real lucky or they interchanged with something more popular than a Chevette. Probably the latter.





After making the larger mounting plates as well as some plates to sandwich on the inside of the door, the latches went in pretty easy. It took a little fiddling to get everything adjusted right, but they work very smoothly. The doors latch up easily with no effort at all. That may change a little when a door gasket is finally installed.

After getting the latches in, it was time to add the electric actuators. I saw some latches for sale that had the actuator mounted on a bracket that attached to the lock itself. That looked like a good idea, so I copied it. I did have to cut the arm on the latch and move it over about 1/2" to clear the door glass. I actually may not have needed to do this because I will probably do away with the roll up windows. They don't go along with my plans for the windshield, but I'll post more on that later.





I had to make a couple of small, stepped aluminum bushings to connect the actuator to the latch arm.



The whole project turned out really nice and it works pretty slick. The Ball's 19 lb. actuators are plenty strong. I would set Bear Claws up like this again if I needed to add electric actuators.

I haven't gotten the new inside door latch handles installed at this point. I want to wait until I get the steering column finished with the wheel. That way I can position them where they are easy to access, but not in the way.

Very cool! I've been considering putting bear claws on my 40 when I get back to it. Were the actuators very expensive?

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Nice, I bought Altman bear claws for my 53, I'm always reminded how it was money well spend when the doors close like a Lexus every time. It's definitely worth the time you spent on them.

Thanks guys.

Ryan - No, they were actually pretty cheap, I thought. They are about $20 each, but I was wrong about the pull. They are actually 15 lb. pull instead of 19, but that looks like it will be more than enough for my car. The guy I spoke with on the phone did say that not all Bear Jaw latches release as easily as the ones they sell. He said some of the cheap Chinese latches won't release with the 15 lb. actuators.

Steve - That's how these lock up with no effort at all.

Well, as usual for me, it's been way too long since I posted about this project. Here goes with a few more updates. I have been making pretty good progress, but there have been a quite a few changes made to the car. Sorry for the long post with no pictures, but it's a long story.

They say that confession is good for the soul, but it sure doesn't do the ego much good. Well, I suppose it's time for me to make mine. I realized a few months ago that I had made a big error in judgment on this car.

After my dad passed away, I had a lot going on and it was hard to find time to get a anything meaningful done. I spent what time I had just hanging out in the shop, mostly tinkering. I also spent a lot of time just sitting and staring at the car. I came to realize that I wasn't happy with the direction that it was taking and figured out that it all started to go bad when I made the decision to put 13" brakes on the front. In my defense, I made that decision when I was laid up with back issues and taking some meds that probably impaired my judgment. But, that doesn't excuse all the stupid band aids I did later to fix all the issues that came up because of the big brakes. And therein lies a tale of a car project going off on a tangent. It's a common story that kills a lot car dreams. Hopefully someone will learn from my story and not repeat something similar.

I had originally intended to run Torque Thrust type wheels in 15 or 16 inch with a neutral or negative offset, but after the brake swap, they wouldn't fit. Even though I don't really like bigger wheels on older cars, I tried 17's, but they wouldn't fit either. Instead of throwing in the towel on the big brakes then and there, I went to 18" wheels. Not only that, but the only wheels I kind of liked had positive offset. This required wheel spacers which I also don't particularly like. This was doubly stupid because I had just went to a bunch of trouble to install narrowed front suspension and a narrowed rear axle. Now I was using wheel spacers to undo all the hard work I had just done. I had several times along the way to have a forehead slapping moment, and can't really explain why I didn't. Call it pure stubbornness or pride (probably a big dose of both), but I broke one of the most important rules. Plan your build and build your plan. I didn't build my plan and wasted a bunch of time and money. Worst of all, I was going to wind up with a car that I didn't really like the looks of. That might be OK for a daily driver, but not for a car that you really care about and have spent countless hours building. How many poor guys or gals have suddenly realized that their "baby" isn't the car they thought they were building and just abandoned the project because they didn't know how to fix it or didn't have the funds left to go in another direction?

I saw my error and I made up my mind to fix it and put the car back on the path I originally I envisioned even though it would cost me more time and money. That meant pitching the big brakes and getting a proper set of wheels that fit the vision I originally had for the car.

But I had the same problem that dooms a lot of projects. I had made several expensive buys last year and the car budget was running low. I looked around the shop and came up with a plan. I have "collected" a lot of LS stuff while building this car and learning the hard way about LS swapping. I gathered up all this LS junk that I wasn't going to use and started hauling it around to the car shows I attended to see if I could get some of my money back. I didn't sell any of it until the last show of the season. Four people (3 of them were brothers) wound up nearly cleaning me out in the space of 30 minutes. This was some fairly expensive stuff and I left that show with enough cash to fund the all the changes.

Now I could have engineered a new smaller brake system similar to the big brakes I built before, but really didn't want to spend a lot of time on that. I'm trying hard to get this car on the road this year, so I was willing to spend the money to save the time, especially since it was "found" money.

Since I was using Wilwood Pro spindles, there weren't very many choices for brake kits. Wilwood and Baer were the only folks I found that made brake kits for these spindles. I was leaning toward the Wilwoods, but after talking with Baer's tech line, I chose their 4 piston 11" rotor setup. They had the thickest, heaviest, rotor and the tech assured me that it would do fine for an occasional auto-X or track day on a car this light. For extended track work, I would need to change the pads, though. They also would work well with the existing rear brakes. The kit appears to be very high quality and fit together with no surprises. The pistons also have dust seals for better protection on the street, just like stock calipers. Wilwood had these available, too, but it was the thicker rotor on the Baer kit that swayed me. The new system is also very light weight compared to what I had.





The Baer rotor is 1" thick, while the Wilwood kit only had rotors about .800 thick.

Interesting "confession"... we've all done the exact same thing - see the latest / greatest whiz bang gadget and decide we just gotta have it.
And sorry to learn of your loss.

But you've cleaned the garage of "the extras" and can move forward with the new goodies. I've been watching and waiting and can't wait to hear it's going down the road or track.

Thanks, 34. Dad had been sick for a long time. I miss him every day.

I'm really looking forward to driving this thing again, too. Trying hard to get it done this driving season. I'm confident enough that we have made plans to attend Cruisin' the Coast this year. May not be painted, but hope to have it rolling under it's own power.

After getting the brakes on, it was time to move on to the wheels. I first looked at American Racing and ordered one front wheel just to check the fit since the front is the toughest place to get the spacing right. It fit fine with no spacers, but I wasn't sure if I liked the curved spokes on the Torque Thrust D and the available offset on the rear wheels wouldn't give me what I thought was enough off a deep look.



What I wound up with were torque thrust lookalikes with straight spokes by US Mags The original Toque Thrust in the early 60's had straight spokes and I liked the early look. I was able to fit 15x7's for the front and 15x9's in the rear. Since Summit will mount and balance them and the shipping was free, I decided to get the tires with the wheels. I'm not sure why the picture is so cropped at the rear. It wasn't like that when I uploaded it. Now it looks like a proper 60's muscle car!



15" performance tires are mighty slim pickins' these days. The ones I chose were Mickey Thompson SR's. This decision came after a lot of reading some of the Cobra forums. Since a Cobra is pretty close to what I'm going to wind up with, it made sense to see what those folks were using. In a nutshell, the general consensus was that any tire with a treadwear rating over 200 will compromise traction and performance (and safety) on a light weight car like this. In normal driving( according to the forums), the tires tend to "age out" before they wear out, even with the softer compound. Most Cobra owners that drove their cars for performance seemed to favor changing tires every 2 years just for good measure since the rubber tends to harden with age. That sounds a little quick to me, but I'll have to defer to more experience and at least be aware of any changes in handling.

One Cobra owner that I spoke with at a car show had BF Goodrich TA's (treadwear rating over 400) on his car. It had a 302/5-speed drivetrain and he said that it would break the tires loose in all gears. He told me that he was going to do a lot of smoky burnouts this year and buy something stickier next year.

The Mickey Thompson ET Street's seemed to be an affordable favorite for all out performance, but they were reported to have pretty bad manners in the wet. Since I will be driving this car cross country, I needed tires that worked at least pretty good on wet roads. The SR's came in third to the ET's, with Avon's being the absolute favorite. Unfortunately, the Avon's cost over twice what the MT's did! The SR's do have a funky looking flame tread pattern. It's kind of a love/hate thing with most folks, but it's OK with me as long as the tires stick like they say.



The front tires are 26x8. No wheel spacer and just barely under the fender lip. They also have good clearance on the inner fenders.



The rear tires are 26x10. I had to add a 1/2" thick shim spacer to get them out to the same place under the fender as the fronts.

And just to stir the pot a little.



These wheels are a possible second choice should I ever feel the need for a change. They came stock on Ford Crown Vics and Mercury Marquees that had the Sport Suspension package. They are 16x7 and fit very well if I use the 1" thick rear wheel spacers that I already have(no spacers needed up front). There a still a few readily available 16" performance tires thanks to the Corvette using that size. I think these wheels really compliment the car. They are from Italy (cast into the inside) and are very light. They have nice little lip on the outside, too. Dress them up with some custom made aluminum covers for the lug nuts and add some knock off spinners and I think they would look very European.

I would have ran them instead of the torque thrusts (yeah, I like them that much), but wanted the extra width and rubber on the rear that the US Mags wheels let me run. That, and the fact that I think the torque thrusts look killer, too. The TT's scream old school performance and that's what I initially envisioned this car looking like, but at least I have options.

Now that I have eaten my proper portion of crow, it's time to get this car on the road!

Nice choices with classic looks. Will sure be fun to get out on the road in that!