Project Journals

Owner: cowboy Ray
City: earth
Car Model: TR6


Engine: LS3

Cooling: 28" x 19" aluminum dual pass radiator

Exhaust: Tri y headers into magnaflow mufflers

Transmission: 6L80e with paddle shift

Rear Axle: 04 Cobra

Front Susp.:C5 Z06

Rear Susp.: C5 Z06

Brakes:
(master) Pontiac G8
(front) C5 Z06
(rear) C5 Z06

Wheels/Tires:C6 Z06

Body Mods: Cuda tail lights, license plate cutout narrowed. Fiberglass hood and fenders

Interior: modified Miata seats, teamtech rampac harness, custom dash and gauges

Electrical: GM

The project car. It looks good but looks can be deceiving

measured up and revised the geometry of the C5 front suspension

measured up and revised the geometry of the C5 rear suspension

put the front and rear suspension under the car

cut 8 inches out of the C5 cradle and jigged it up

welded it up

got the motor

got the trans

started the tear down


trimmed up the firewall and floor to see how the motor and trans fits

Got the front suspension off of Ebay

Had to locate the steering rack before I can locate the motor

This motor location looks good


04 Cobra diff jigged in place. waiting for the poly mounts to come so I can fab up the mounts



The back half of the chassis was built upside down. It's starting to look like something now



chassis is starting to take shape






Yea it's on it's wheels




body fits

New driveshaft tunnel


New passenger side foot box



This car was hit on this side and the repair was pitiful. replaced the rocker panel and the A pillar (not pictured yet) much better







Most of the tin work is done.

gas and brake pedal made and mounted. steering column is mounted at the firewall
but needs a mount for the front of it

booster and master cylinder test fit


Repaired all the rust on the drivers side


Just one more little patch and the passenger side will be done

All patched up



Test fitting the dash components. still going to put a wooden dash over every thing with indivdual gauge cut outs so it won't look like there's an instrument cluster in there.

I know your probably scratching your head wondering what is going on in this pic. I'm a paraplegic and this car will be driven with hand controls so I wanted the pedals to swing up and out of my way. They can be swung down incase some one else needs to drive it.





I didn't really want to have a roll bar / cage but being a paraplegic I needed some thing over my head to grab onto so I can get in and out. it's welded to the body and bolted to the chassis. The top still goes up and down. It still needs 2 more bars from the top of the main hoop down to the chassis.


I always hated the TR6 tail lights and that huge license plate cutout.

Finished up the rest of the roll bar / cage. All mounting points are bolted to the chassis


This is where the exhaust will exit.




Fitting the body panels



Set the front fenders and nose piece on. I have to fab up a tilting structure for the front end and make everything fit. I'm going to need a hood before I proceed. Seeing how I can't find a fiberglass one any where I decided to make one


This is the plug I made to form the mold.

The mold is done and turned out pretty good. This was way more time consuming then planned. It was also a major pain in the a$$. This being my first large scale fiberglass project, I'm happy with the results and I learned a lot about fiberglassing. Now to actually make the hood

The hood turned out pretty good. The X you see is the reinforcing ribs I made underneath.The black marks are were I marked the mat to rip it to size. I didn't use any gel coat because 1) it's expensive, 2) I haven't decided if there is going to be a scoop or heat extractor or whatever on top and I'd have to grind or cut most of it away anyway

Set the hood on. Now that I have all the body pieces I can start on the the tilting frame and alignment of the body panels




We have tiltage. Its also adjustable up down, left right and front to back. Now I need to figure
out a way to latch this sucker


rear sway bar is done. It only took 2 tries.


Front swaybar just about done. Front and rear bars are Speedway hollow bars.
I can get different wall thickness to dial the car in.



A 28" x 19" dual pass radiator should keep this thing cool. Had to weld in an elbow at the lower right corner. I couldn't locate
a tubular elbow so I use a aluminum water neck for a small block chevy. Had to make a shroud to hold the dual 12" fans. Things are starting to get tight up front now

Chopped up the stock harness. It's amazing how tame it looks now. When you cut all the looming off and your left with a tangled mess you start thinking what did I get myself into.


Test fit before I start looming it up. The only thing I don't like is the big honken GM under hood fuse / relay box I have to use (only the base is in the picture).

Made up some radiator hoses. I thought they were picture worthy.


Air filter and trans cooler mounted up

I have the body harness just about done. This was a very tedious job. I removed a lot of wires from cicuits that weren't going to be used. There were a few mistakes in the wiring diagram that took a while to figure out.

Just finished up the fuel tank. It has 3 internal baffles and a sump. The pump has a .250 fuel line. I find it hard to believe that will feed 450 hp so I made provisions for a .500 fuel line if needed.

Installed fuel tank and license plate holder / fuel door

Fuel filler door open

couldn't resist putting on a cardboard air dam

see part 2
[forum.britishv8.org]



Edited 39 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/2020 11:55PM by cowboyra.

@