This build is inane! Great work buy your shop. I don't see a stereo installed tho? :mock:

My wife wants to go to Versailles (not the one in Kentucky, no offense to Kentuckians). I just want to visit Vorshlag. Keep rockin' this awesomeness, Terry and Co! Your work is creative and inspiring, hopefully to the extent that people don't only look here because of the word Camaro. There's just nothing but awesomeness here--pat your fabricator (and engineering brains) on the back a few extra times next week! :thankyou:

Amazing just amazing!

In any form it should be at SEMA imho. :)

The customer was right. That spine between the ducting out of the radiator looks great. I think maybe it's because it ties into the spine of the hood. Fantastic work as always guys.

I'm guessing the owner of this car has more experience with racing than the owner of Chainsaw?

Yes, the owner of the Camaro has tracked some high powered cars similar to this build, along with some fast Porsche models and a well prepared Miata. He's not a stranger to fast laps on the track. And I suspect an upgraded engine will eventually be on the menu after he gets used to the car.

That's good to hear.

Which do you think will prove to be the faster car? Chainsaw or this one?

Thanks Jason.

Are you referring to the Chainsaw Mouse or Chainsaw Massacre? (The Chainsaw Mouse is a Miata that Vorshlag built for the same customer previously) I believe the Chainsaw Massacre should prove to be much faster with equal conditions, driver, etc. The Camaro will be down on power by over 200hp, has less tire, no IRS, and I'd bet much more drag. Weight may be similar but I think the Camaro will end up heavier. So, the guys at the shop may chime in with more insight but the lap time difference could be pretty significant at a big track.

^^^ The owner of the Camaro has a good handle on what it takes to go fast on track. And he's right, that the higher drag and smaller engine in the Camaro will likely result in slower laps than the Chainsaw Massacre. The BMW is also being built with some more tech in it, in addition to the suspension. It's getting some traction control and Motorsports ABS. But, it won't ever be as cool as a '69 Camaro.

:flag2:

Massacre, the BMW. I had forgotten the Miata was also Chainsaw.


Honestly, I couldn't remember if the Camaro and BMW were even built to compete in the same classes and didn't want to take the time to dig into. I was just virtual bench racing :D

Love both these builds.

(S.White is the '69 Camaro's owner, BTW!)

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I don't know... it might be really close, other than the "initial motor" (crate LS3) in the Camaro. Don't count out your car just yet!

https://photos.smugmug.com/Projects/...DSC_8727-M.jpg

The Camaro weighed in at 2329 when we added the rear wing, back in the summer (the build thread is still months behind real time). That's with everything in there minus seats, plumbing, wiring, fiberglass doors. I still think we'll be close to my initial 2500 pound estimate.

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The BMW M3 "Chainsaw Massacre" is only barely further along than the Camaro (we didn't have to build the chassis from scratch) and I'm worried it will be 100-200 pounds heavier. I might go put it on the scales today to see. This is also anything but svelte! The big flares and such are going to cause some aero drag. Since you both like to drive at COTA so much we might have to have a track shootout! What could be more fun than taking two badass cars onto an F1 track and dueling it out???

https://photos.smugmug.com/Projects/...B61G4924-S.jpg https://photos.smugmug.com/Racing-Ev...B61G2509-S.jpg

The "Chainsaw Mouse" that SW is referring to is the '03 Miata above, which we built as a track trainer for the owner of the M3. Notice the chainsaw wielding, hockey mask wearing 'mouse' graphic on the hood? This car was built to help refine his track driving skills without ABS, traction control, or any real horse power. He has driven this many miles with driver coaches, data logging and review, etc. Now his wife and son are getting laps in this little car, too.

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We sort of ...refused to start the build on the crazy V8 M3 until he bought or built a track trainer like this, and then got a lot of seat time in it. He agreed and let us build a safe, nice handling, dual purpose street/track Miata for him over a year ago. Full cage, race seats, belts, oil/cooling upgrades, MCS 2-way dampers, sticky street tires, bars, bushings - the works. But it has roll up windows, AC and is street legal. Its very much NOT a "spec Miata", which as a spec includes a mess of lower end parts, if you ask me. :stirthepot:

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He also had track experience in this 638 whp Roush Mustang, which we upgraded in many ways. This thing is a missile - and he called it "Chainsaw"... so you see where the naming on his cars comes from.

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After seeing so many faster customers' cars being built in my shop, I figured that I need a "big power" car again myself, so I bought the 07 C6 Z06 chassis (above left) earlier this year. We've stripped it down to 1662 pounds but ran out of time and money to go much further for now (I'm building a new building for Vorshlag, which takes all of my money!) The little red BMW 330 (above right) is what I've been racing the last 2 seasons and will continue into next year. We just added a full aero package so I'm moving up 2 classes this weekend racing at NOLA with NASA. Damn it hurts not having power tho...

Gotta run, just thought I'd clear up some of the "chainsaw" confusion!

Thanks Terry! Love seeing all that you guys are working on.

I thought Mr White was the owner of the Camaro but didn't want to assume. Again, didn't have time to dig into it. I only have time to read while at work so I can't piddle too much on back tracking.

Have fun!

This thing is looking crazier by the day! That is some pretty serious ducting you have going on up front. It looks like it should do a great job of keeping everything cool.

It's a bummer it won't be ready in time for SEMA this year. We'd love to see it up close and personal.

Not a full update just a teaser... Ryan has been on the 69 Camaro again while I was out of town.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Projects/...B61G0634-L.jpg

I'm just getting back from the 2017 PRI show so I'm way behind (posted 300 pics and videos from the show here).

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Bunch of final welding, final assembly, plumbing and wiring underway...

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All of the panels are installed except the doors. Tire clearancing was done on the front fenders, then the shocks just came off and went to RideTech for some updates.

More soon!

Amazing build

Waiting patiently :D

Getting closer!

Very unique build. Cant wait to see it finished

Torqstorm

Totally hooked on this amazing build - very inspiring

Car is looking good! Great coverage of PRI as well, I work for Weddle Industries so always enjoy seeing us included in coverage.

Dave

Come on, no more teasing! :secret: Did this get finished?

So how much did this sell for Terry? :D

Finally some 2018 progress to this thread!
 

Project Update for March 4th, 2019: Wow, what happened to 2018? It has been over a year since the last update to this project build thread, as well as many others. For me 2018 was pretty jammed up, with much of my time spent dealing with real estate issues (extending our lease, fighting a builder behind schedule on our new building construction, our shop move, our continued construction once moved in) and some staffing changes. Now that we are moved in and caught up on more important business paperwork, I have been making time on the weekends getting into the fun build coverage on some projects, like the big steps shown this time on the 1969 Camaro.

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In this round we show some 2018 work completed like the rear diffuser, flat bottom undertray panels, rear wing installation, some final welding and assembly, and more. Let's get started!

UNDERTRAY WRAPPED UP

The undertray is made up of a lot of pieces that are either bonded and riveted in place or bolted in place, depending on their location and the need to access things above them. I'll zip through a few steps here quickly.

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Obviously you will want to be able to access the dry sump oil pan quickly (above), so that undertray panel is removable. But these two main floor panels (below) don't have anything hidden above them that needs to be accessed quickly - just the seat and interior, which are accessible from above.

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The plan was to bond then rivet these in place, so these need a LOT of hours of measuring, marking, center punching, drilling, and riveting. Since counter-sunk rivet heads would be used, to allow for a flush bottom face, every one of these rivet holes had to be countser-sunk as well.

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Once all of the hundreds of tiny holes were drilled through the panels and into the chassis, the square tubing that these floors mount to was then prepped. These portions would not be visible again once the panels were bonded in place, so they needed to be protected from corrosion. A bit of work with some Scotch-Brite pads, some wax-and-grease remover clean-up, a bit of masking with paper and tape, then these tubes were painted with self-etching primer.

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Now the aluminum panels themselves needed some prep work. Ryan taped off some areas then scuffed up the top surfaces of the sections to be bonded to the square tubing. This is to give those surfaces some "bite" for the epoxy to bond to. Some 2-part structural metal epoxy was applied with a mixing nozzle and the panels were ready to put in place. Ryan used an epoxy that he had used building Prototypes, which also use a bonded floor. The cross hatch pattern was one that he learned from building those cars as well.

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There were some extra hands needed to get each panel in place while the epoxy was wet, and a few Clecos to hold it in place, then Ryan spent some time with the air riveter. The "spent" mandrels from hundreds of blind rivets littered the shop floor.

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This picture above shows up close what the bonded and riveted center panels look like when completed. You can see the "doubler" panels that are attached to the floor panels, which secure the removable center panel underneath the driveshaft and exhaust.

REAR SECTION OF EXHAUST FINISHED

In a previous update I showed the progress on the exhaust, from the headers, through the center tunnel, the crossover and X-merge, then two MagnaFlow mufflers mounted behind the driver, just in front of the rear axle. Everything was tacked welded together, and that's where where we were before this round of work.

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At the time we didn't have the rear diffuser section planned to know where the rearmost section needed to terminate. We were nearing time for the rear diffuser so the rest of the dual 3" exhaust had to be built.

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I wanted additional 3" V-bands behind the mufflers, to make final adjustment easier and disassembly less of a chore. There are a lot of bends and turns tucked inside this tunnel. We all met and decided that a twin outlet in the front of the diffuser would be best, with one going to each side. Ryan built the final sections to aim at those spots.

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These were left long, as the next step was the rear diffuser construction. Then, the two exhaust ends could be terminated at the plane of the diffuser.

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REAR DIFFUSER CONSTRUCTION

The rear diffuser work needed to happen with the car loaded onto the 4-post lift, which was a little tricky since the under-panels were still held on temporarily with dozens of Cleco fasteners.

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With the car on the lift the diffuser plane was laid out with string.

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Jason gave Ryan the angle of the plane he wanted to see and that was laid out to fit the constraints of the chassis, solid axle, and rear fuel cell. A "test piece" was secured in place to check for length and vertical strake placement was planned.

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Due to space constraints of the fuel cell mounting, and styling concerns from the owner, we didn't do a ridiculous rear diffuser box like we have done on other cars. What we had planned was subtle, appropriate for the rest of the aero on the car, and still effective. Ryan built these sheet steel angled mounts onto the bottom of the fuel cell mounting cage (above right).

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Ryan built this in a relatively short amount of time, using some flat plate and bent aluminum sheet. It rivets and bolts together, which makes repairs easier if anything ever gets damaged.

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This is by far the most subtle rear diffuser we have ever built. But it merges with the flat bottom under-panels and leaves very little opening under the car (just for the tires). The full flat bottom undertray forward will make this diffuser much more effective than just sticking a diffuser under a car with a "wide open" underside.

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The final portion of the exhaust system was modified after the diffuser was in place, to better locate the exit for the volume of exhaust flow from the engine. The "tips" were flush cut at an angle that matched the diffuser plane - all we have left now is to mark that on the diffuser plane and cut the holes.

CUSTOM TRUNK HINGES

With most of the unibody "skeletonized and skinned", there wasn't any of the original mounting structure left in the rear to mount stock trunk hinges. It was time to come up with a lighter, more elegant solution.

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Ryan built these flanges that mount to a piece of formed aluminum sheet, which will attach to the outer sheet metal skin inside the hidden flanges. The hardware that will attach these hinge assemblies to the outer steel skin will be hidden under the trunk lid and rear window Lexan.

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With the flanges and mount built, a piece of aluminum bar was machined to fit between them, then drilled for a pin. Next up he began welding up the swing arm that will mount to the trunk lid. He used a section of aluminum bar and bent it to shape, then welded it to the piece of bar shown above that fit between the flanges. And he added a mounting flange for the underside of the aluminum trunk lid.

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This is the swing arm assembly and mounting flange, which will be mounted to the bottom side of the aluminum replica 69 Camaro trunk lid.

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The final assembly looks simple, but it works with precision and the fit of the trunk is perfect. The simplest solutions sometimes take a considerable bit of planning, time, and talent to pull off - Ryan made this step look easy. Now it was time to mount a rear wing - with a pair of chassis-mount uprights that pass through the trunk.

REAR WING MOUNTING

While the diffuser will generate some downforce, the rear wing we had in mind would be more effective for keeping the rear stuck down while cornering at speed. Since we made a dual splitter element up front the rear wing was going to be a modern departure from a typical 69 Camaro - a swan neck/top mounted, 14" chord, 72" wide carbon fiber Fulcrum wing made by AJ Hartman Aero. We've used this wing many times and it WORKS. It is also the one with biggest chord on the market.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Projects/...DSC_8769-L.jpg

I'm skipping some steps here but mock-ups of the wing element were made in Photoshop, then the element ordered, height and rear setback placements were tested, and the design was approved by customer. That all took months of back and forth, ordering, shipping, etc. Once the wing element was here Ryan made templates then started on the final aluminum uprights.

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Ryan built uprights by hand using 6061-T6 aluminum plate (this was before we moved and got the new CNC plasma table - which is how we make them now). It takes time and precision to pull this off for a perfect matching pair of hand built uprights that look like they were made by a robot.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Projects/...DSC_8603-S.jpg https://photos.smugmug.com/Projects/...B61G8347-S.jpg

Flanges for the lower mounting of the aluminum uprights were added to the frame, the uprights were bolted in place, and the wing element was mocked up to get various Angle of Attack bolt hole layouts on the uprights. These were marked, drilled, and the wing mounted and test fit.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Projects/...B61G8351-L.jpg

Not a bad looking setup, and yes, that wing is in the stratosphere. Now let's get some endplates on that wing...

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AJ Hartman makes some really large, reinforced carbon endplates now, but at the time he didn't. So we made these big boys out of aluminum sheet, with a reinforcing bend at the back (which will likely get cut down). We started with cardboard mock-ups first.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Projects/...P7200084-S.jpg https://photos.smugmug.com/Projects/...P7210088-S.jpg

Once these were cut and formed, drilled and mounted, it was time for one more little feature. This swing-up panel on the right side was added, with a simple hinge...

https://photos.smugmug.com/Projects/...P7200087-L.jpg

This allows for the optional Gurney flap that AJ Hartman Aero makes for their wings to be added. The wing was ordered with the slot molded in for the removable flap, which can be quickly removed by flipping up this little access panel on the right side endplate and sliding it out. Pretty slick.

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The next step is to cut slots into the trunk lid for the frame mounted wing uprights. I will show that in a future installment to this thread. For now, the trunk was removed, then later the wing, so that nobody walked into those massive endplates while walking around the shop.

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FINAL WELDING AND ASSEMBLY STEPS

There comes a point in any build when you need to stop, pull some things apart, tackle some final welding, and bond some panels on, before you get too far ahead and cover things up. We had reached that spot here - it was time to finish a few aspects before the car could be put together for the last time, at least before the dyno tune and track test...

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Many removable panels were removed, the headers and exhaust were dropped down, the drivetrain came out, and access was gained to finish off parts of the firewall.

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There were some tubes that needed to be primed and painted before some permanent panels were bonded and riveted in place, like these at the firewall and around the dry sump tank.

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This upper portion of the firewall could be bonded and final installed now that the tubes were primed and ready.

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Lots of tack welds were turned into final TIG welds on the chassis (above left) and on the custom exhaust headers (above right).

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The exhaust was now fully completed front to back, so it could be final welded as well. This was done in stages, to prevent warping or movement.

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With the drivetrain out, the trans was removed, as was the bellhousing. We didn't spec any of these parts and with what we had seen elsewhere we wanted to double check everything. The clutch was taken apart, engagement of the hydraulic TOB was verified and shimmed, the starter was checked - everything.

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The drivetrain was reinstalled and some final welding at the custom firewall was looked at. If you remember this car came to us with some unusual and unfinished firewall work that had to all be cut away. This work allowed us to move the drivetrain back relative to the stock firewall, yet still fit headers and other things around it - which the previous builder neglected to look at.

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With the short pieces of formed sheet metal firewall Ryan had added between the tubular structure and the stock cowl piece, it was time to weld them together then blend the seam. Lots of welding and grinding here.

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The tack welded portions from before were all now final welded and primed. Some time was spent making this visible section smooth and ready for paint. The pockets here were added for the hood hinges, shown in this build thread previously. These were seam welded and smoothed also.

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THROTTLE PEDAL ADDED

For a while we had been discussing EFI options with the customer. We weren't sure if he would go with a Motec/Emtron/similar aftermarket "Motorsports" grade EFI, which can have unique capabilities like launch control, traction control, power-by-gear, etc. The other option was a less costly and less complex GM based LS3 computer, harness, and sensor package. He made a choice - keep it simple - so we started rounding up the OEM LS3 based bits plus a custom engine harness. It makes sense, since this is just a 480 hp crate motor LS3. That decision allowed us to pick which throttle pedal to use for the drive-by-wire LS3 throttle...

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We had added bottom mount Tilton pedals for the clutch and brake already, so we "borrowed" one of the pedal covers and picked up an LS3 DBY throttle pedal sensor.

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Ryan made an aluminum bracket to mount the sensor and a pedal arm assembly, to get the height of the gas pedal to match the Tilton brake and clutch pedals. Then we ordered another matching pedal cover from Tilton to use on this 3rd pedal location.

MOTORSPORTS HEATER/DEFROSTER ADDED

Even here in Texas, we have some race dates that can be cold and nasty. Our NASA season opener is usually the last weekend in January, plus our March NASA dates can be cold and foggy, at least in the mornings. I've been fogged in at more than a few events.

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Jamie Beck's S197 Mustang ST3 classed race car, which we built in 2013

One invaluable tool to combat the fogging of your windshield is a lightweight defroster box like this. We have been adding these to every race car we build for the past 6 years, and they really work. The Mustang above we built for Jamie Beck back in 2013 got one of these and it has saved him from "driving blind" on track, on more than few occasions.

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We use this Summit Racing heater assembly that weighs a whopping 7 pounds. It has a heater core, 3 fans speeds, can flow up to 260 CFM, and will put out as much as 28,000 BTUs of heat. This compares nicely to the nearly 21 pound heater box in a late model Mustang, shown above. The Summit unit is a lot more compact and easier to mount, too.

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I've shown a little bit of the install of this defroster on the 69 Camaro before, but I'm sharing the link to the part, weights, and final install this time. This was fairly straightforward. Ryan built a little sheet metal box to mount the heater box assembly right onto the tunnel, under the dash, which I showed before.

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The twin 3" diameter outlets for warm air mate up perfectly to 3" high temp brake duct hose, which we can then direct to vents at the base of the windshield. Ryan made two aluminum defroster vent "boxes" that have a 3" round hose end for the feed and mate up to the under long oval openings on the factory metal dash (see below left). These will mount with two small button head bolts from above, but are held in place by Clecos here.

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Above left is the view from above, down into the factory defrost vent openings. The above right picture is the view from the driver's compartment with the fiberglass dash face removed.

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Two heater hoses were later added with bulkhead connectors to feed the inlet and outlet of this heater core from the water pump, as seen here. I will cover a lot of plumbing work in the next update

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FUEL FILL AT TRUNK FACE

The fuel filler location was something we discussed with our client at length, with a balance trying to be struck between period correct, safety, and utility. We looked at ideas of a flush mount motorcycle style cap, modern pro racing quick disconnect fill openings, and throw-back AC Cobra flip up caps.

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After we selected a filler cap and flange that matched the opening on the fuel cell, Ryan built this welded and bent aluminum mounting bracket. This was to be mounted inside the trunk and just below the surface of the trunk - which itself already needed two big slots cut into it for the wing uprights to pass through.

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With the mounting bracket attached to the trunk at the flange and below, the filler tube could be made from stainless exhaust tubing mandrel bends. The tubing was opened up at the "neck" and the S-shaped tubing was then final welded. There is a flexible section of hose right at the fuel cell, to allow for any misalignment.

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This is what we ended up with, which will have a mating opening in the trunk with a small "well" there to catch any spilled fuel. This way the car can be fueled with the trunk closed and wing in place - just reach back, unscrew the filler cap, and pour in from a fuel jug and hose or at the track-side pumps. I think the balance we struck fits this build the best.

WHAT'S NEXT?

This post is getting a bit long, but we covered a lot of the 2018 work. I didn't get to the rear wheel tubs and the final interior panels - we will cover that next time.

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There is also all of plumbing work and chassis wiring to cover, most of which was completed by Ryan before our shop move in June 2018.

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The engine harness we ordered in 2018 arrived late that year, and earlier in 2019 our new technician Evan started wiring that up and mounted the E38 GM ECU. He also tackled the final rust repair fab work on the original chassis (two spots the size of a playing card at the base of the A-pillar), filled, smoothed and finished the fab work on the various radiator and hood duct boxes, built the the remaining door bars from the roll cage, and more. It is almost ready to fire up the engine for the first time as I write this.

Thanks for reading!

Wow Terry, now THAT's a massive update! Glad to hear things are still trucking along for you guys.

Thanks for updating this! We don't get to see many builds like this on forums anymore, so it's a nice catch when something new comes along, especially that which relates to nearing build completion, as opposed to another drifting off into the ether.

It's not something discussed much, but one might guess that the main fabricator on this project, especially with others going on, gets creatively exhausted. Having a cohesive shop team must definitely help . . .

x2. it's great to see a build through until the final product. A lot of good info to be absorbed & considered.

Thanks for updating us, Terry! Glad you guys were still working on this one.

How is chainsaw massacre coming?

Thanks for posting an update, it looks amazing!

Wow is all I can say!

Would you sell a pair of the 3" hose to defroster slot boxes?

They'd be perfect for my track camaro with a flat aluminum dash.

Thanks,
Jason

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The "Chainsaw Massacre" widebody BMW M3 with the Horsepower Research 468" LS7 has been tuned, run on track, dyno tested again, and about to go out for more track time.

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Way behind on that build thread but catching up - I just posted an update on that build thread here on Lateral-G, showing work from 2018. The HPR 468" dyno'd at 636 whp (SAE) on 93 octane, but we still have some tweaking to the Motec tune in store to unleash a bit more. It scoots around the track pretty well with that. :thumbsup:

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I'm working on a 69 Camaro forum build thread update next...

amazing works!!

Thanks Terry!

I have a big fat update on this build, but the Lateral-G forum seems to be glitching and counting my images "twice", and with a very limited "15 images per post" limit (which is very small), it means I'd have to break up my "2 part" update into 50+ parts.

Can a moderator ask the admin to open up the limits for pics to 50 per post?

Thanks!

Done.

Project Update for May 7th 2020: We have been working during quarantine, and with no racing going on, my weekends opened up - so I have been writing Forum Build Thread updates. We even have two new builds since the last update here (a '67 Mustang and a '04 CTS-V, both dedicated road race cars). These new builds are coming in as we wrap up some long term projects - like this '69 Camaro. Then I took a little time build a new PC, which is why I posted this 10 days later on Lateral-G. Thanks to camcojb for updating the max pics per post limit!

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This tube framed '69 Camaro is one of the most labor intensive projects we have ever undertaken, and it's in the final stretch. I have been taking a more hands on role in this build, and I go out into the shop 20+ times a day to look over all of our customer and shop builds. I now take virtually all of the pictures you see here, write all of the service invoices, send regular, detailed "build update" emails to the customers (that look a lot like these build threads), and help steer every aspect of each project - more than ever before. This prevents any surprises - if they occur, it's on me.

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This update will cover work we did to this Camaro in 2019, including a few hurdles that took some time. We have made serious progress and the build is nearing completion. As I write this, the engine runs great, the transmission shifts well, it can move under its own power, and we only lack a few parts purchases and last minute tweaks to get this Camaro onto a road course. The global pandemic shut down some of our suppliers, which has delayed some recent work.

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In this round we show work completed such as the wiring, plumbing, lighting, ECM install, and initial tuning. We will also cover the final interior panels and some other fab work.

WIRING

Wiring is boring, tedious work to watch on any build, but I show our clients every step of every work invoice. There are likely 200 pictures of wiring work done on this car. I'm not going to bore you with most of that, but I will talk about some of the options on a build like this - for the chassis harness, connectors, EFI system/engine harness, and more.

CHASSIS WIRING

We decided to keep it simple on this build and chose a 26 circuit Painless wiring harness we have used on previous builds where we had to do a complete re-wire. I'm using the exact same chassis harness on our Team Vorshlag E46 endurance road race build as well as my personal 2015 Mustang LS swap race car. We have used this harness for several completed race car builds and it works.

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Now I'm not advocating for ditching the entire chassis wiring harness on a modern car (less than 20 years old), but if you have nothing to start with or are starting with a car more than 20 years old (where there are likely old / brittle / broken connectors and bad grounds) this isn't a bad idea. Some of you might turn your nose up at Painless Wiring harness being used on this chassis, but know this: we have had FAR fewer problems with these harness kits than some of the $25K+ Wiring jobs I've seen done on high end builds - with Power Distribution Modules to wire and program, Raychem harnesses that can never be serviced, etc.

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There is nothing wrong with spending that kind of money on Professional Motorsport level wiring if you have the budget and it suits the purpose - I just think it is unnecessary to go to that extreme expense for the cars we build and that our customers use. We aren't running 24 hour LeMans races with the cars we build here, and we don't have customers with unlimited budgets. These Painless harnesses are color coded using GM schemes, well built, cost effective (sub $250), easy to finish out, and use modern fuses, relays, and connectors. Everything is brand new - no junk yard damage or old age rot.

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Finishing out the connections, routing, mounting and such can take dozens of hours, so plan for that. We have mounted the fuse box under the dash and have almost every single system wired and routed now.

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We built this car using Deutsch DT series connectors, which are costly but worthwhile. We keep a variety of DT connectors and pins on hand from 2 to 26 pins, which keeps us going on builds like these. These are not inexpensive connectors so we keep track of what was used on any given build in the My Shop Assist hour tracking system. Keeps us from guessing or under/over charging any customer.

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There is a bit of planning and paperwork involved with a proper wiring job as well, and we have to keep records of how we terminated various systems to manage all of the circuits (a copy of which goes with the owner). Soldering, heat shrink, harness covering... it is all tedious but necessary. Evan and Brad do all of the wiring work on projects in our shop and they both do excellent work.

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This is still a work in progress, and as systems are completed and tested we go back and make sure the harnesses are wrapped and secured properly. I will show the final wiring on this chassis when everything is wrapped and tucked, which should happen after the first track test and after paint.

BATTERY UPGRADE + KILL SWITCH

For many years my obsession for weight loss on cars drove me to use ultra lightweight motorcycle batteries, like the Odyssey PC680, which weighs 14.7 pounds. But after years of fighting with their lack of battery reserve - and pushing cars that should be driven - I've conceded that a little more mass in a battery is very worthwhile.

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This build started off with a PC680 but during some testing we kept killing the battery, then recharging, and it finally died. So I got to "buy" that one back while we upgraded to this PC925, which is a 21 pound battery. It has more reserve, and more girth - which required a new battery tray and enlarged base mount.


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With that larger battery in place it was time to mount the CarTek Electronics battery isolator or "kill switch". We chose the CarTek GT unit for this build, which works with OEM style ECMs. This is an FIA rated, non-sparking, solid state kill switch. It comes with two buttons, and works by dropping the entire ground circuit for the chassis as shown in the animated gif above.

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To mount that I wanted to make a new bracket behind the passenger seat, in a tubing junction between a diagonal and the main hoop. I sketched out what I wanted and Myles turned it into a CNC cut piece that Evan then cleaned up and TIG welded to the roll cage.

continued below