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  #231  
Old 02-26-2019, 02:02 PM
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Superleggera Superleggera is offline
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As for getting work done -- you have a bit of a conundrum. Do you go drive the Cobra, assemble the 250 GTO or fabricate parts for the Miura!
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  #232  
Old 02-27-2019, 04:00 AM
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Good that you are taking your time and not taking shortcuts just to get it on the road. Nice details there.
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  #233  
Old 03-11-2019, 07:27 PM
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heinke heinke is offline
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Post Side window installation

The original GTOs used 2 piece Lexan side windows where each piece filled about 60% of the opening, overlapping each other. To open the window, one piece slides horizontally instead of going down vertically. I decided to do a variation on this 2 piece approach where one piece of Lexan fills the entire side window frame but has an opening cut into it. To open the window, the smaller piece slides horizontally to expose the opening.
Here it is prior to installing the window frame back in the door and with the protective film still on the Lexan.



I installed a spring loaded pin in the lower channel and filed a notch in the Lexan pieces above it to serve as a window catch. The pin must be pulled downward in order to release the window to slide open. I don’t know how often the side windows will need to be opened as the car does have A/C.

Next up was installing the inner and outer beltline weather-strip. Here’s the opening prior to beltline weather-strip install.



Firstly, I’ve got to say that the guy who came up with the fastener scheme for these strips was very short sighted. Oh, that would be me, so I guess I better quit complaining. They’re held in place by #6 screws backed by small nuts. Given the small space inside the door, the tiny nut needs to be balanced on the end of a finger, wiggled over the screw end, and if you’re lucky you can rotate the screw with an allen wrench enough to catch the nut. If you’re like me, you’ll drop each nut a dozen times (or more) before you get it to catch. This was after removing the door and laying flat so gravity was sort of working on my side. I also found that using double sided tape on my finger tip helped hold the nut but even with that there was lots of swearing involved.

If I were designing these again, I’d have a removable strip of metal that the weather-strip attached to. That way the small screws and nuts could be secured out in the open. The removable metal strip could have slot mounts, clips or something similar so you wouldn’t be fishing around blind inside the door trying to start nuts onto screws.

Anyway, once installed, the beltline weather-strip makes for a nice visual finishing touch.





And here’s the look after the stainless steel frame channel is polished out and framed window installed back in the door.

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  #234  
Old 03-11-2019, 08:02 PM
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Steve Hamilton Steve Hamilton is offline
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Looks great Joel!
Like the slider look.
Thanks for sharing the good and the not so good ideas. We have all been there.

Steve
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  #235  
Old 03-11-2019, 11:38 PM
Antoine_P Antoine_P is offline
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Looks great, thanks for your update!

Antoine
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  #236  
Old 03-12-2019, 08:58 AM
68rustang 68rustang is offline
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Did you post any details on fabbing the window frame? The first pic I see is in post 109. Is it store bought channel or something you formed into a “U” and then shaped to the opening?
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  #237  
Old 03-12-2019, 01:58 PM
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heinke heinke is offline
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Post GTO window frames

Quote:
Originally Posted by 68rustang View Post
Did you post any details on fabbing the window frame? The first pic I see is in post 109. Is it store bought channel or something you formed into a “U” and then shaped to the opening?
The window frames are home built from sheet I had formed into a channel by a sheet metal shop. I built the window frames over 10 years ago. Here's a write up I found in my archives:

One of the pieces I needed to complete prior to the general body work was the door window frames. Given the GTO is a Berlinetta (roughly translated means sporty sedan or 2 door hardtop), I needed to establish the window opening for so I could form the roof, A and B pillars. The GTO side windows are 2 pieces of Lexan that slide over one another to open windows.

I decided to fabricate the window frames from .060” 304 SS sheet so they could be polished out to a shine. The most difficult part on this window frame is the upper back corner that is rounded. I had taken a cardboard template of the original GTO window frame so I knew the final shape I was after. I found a sheet metal shop that had a break (press break I believe) that could form 6 foot channels 3/4” high and wide. This leaves about 5/8” by 5/8” inside the channel for felt and Lexan.

The pie cut for the upper front angle bend was relatively easy. I knew I couldn’t “form” the rounded corner so it was cut and splice time. I cut the desired rounded shape from an old piece of plywood as a template. Here it is in pictures.













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  #238  
Old 03-12-2019, 02:15 PM
68rustang 68rustang is offline
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Awesome, that is much more simple than I thought it would be! Thank you.
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  #239  
Old 03-17-2019, 11:21 AM
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heinke heinke is offline
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Post Front Body Opening – Prancing Stallion

The GTO has very little shiny trim but the front body opening is one place with some bling. I broke out the fine sandpaper and aluminum polish to make the aluminum in front of the radiator and the opening trim/surround really shine. Lesson learned, I should have polished the inside panels prior to installing them as it’s really hard to access them for purpose of polishing and several sharp edges ready to cut hands. I couldn’t remove the inside panels without also pulling the supercharger intercooler/radiator and that would be more work than the polishing is worth.

Before picture…



I made the surround at a Metal Meet in Santa Cruz several years ago. Rick Scott helped with the shaping parts and Ron Covell with the welding. I finished up the polishing part prior to installation.

After …

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  #240  
Old 03-25-2019, 11:56 AM
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heinke heinke is offline
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Post GTO Signal and Head Lights

For the GTO, Ferrari did not make their own signal lights but used units made by Altissimo, an Italian company. The Altissimo lights are not really anything special except they look a bit different than those made by Lucas and US light manufacturers. I found a complete set of Altissimo turn, stop, marker and driving lights about 15 years ago and bought them. I’m glad I did make the purchase back then as they’ve gotten to a price point now that is ridiculous. I’m guessing these units sold for a few dollars each back in the 1960’s but that was then.

Given these lights are now over 50 years old, they needed restoring. In addition to re-polishing them, I had to make some new gaskets. I found a turn signal base gasket offered on the Internet and they wanted $130 for it and 2 weeks order time to import it from Italy. That’s the price for just a rubber gasket, the price for a used light is double that.

So I decided to make the gasket. I ordered some 1/8” thick EPDM sheet rubber for this. At first I tried using the light base as a guide for cutting. The resulting gasket was too small. So I had to make a template from aluminum sheet that is 1/16” larger diameter than the light base and it worked great.







The other thing I’m doing is converting the bulbs to LEDs so they’ll draw lower amperage and lessen damage to outer lens from the lower temperatures. Most of this was straight forward. Buy red LED bulbs for the stop lights and yellow for the turn signals. But the front side lights are a combination turn signal and driving light. So I had to find an LED that is both yellow and white.





Once the lens is in place, the LED bulb is obscured for the most part giving a period correct look. For those wondering why this stuff takes so long, there’s about 1.5 hours work in re-polishing the stainless steel bezel ring from dull to shiny on that light.

A side note, when changing from incandescent bulbs to LEDs, the turn signal flasher unit will need to be changed. The LEDs don’t draw enough current to heat the flasher toggle. So a replacement solid state flasher unit is needed for both the turn signal and hazard light circuits.

I’m also going LED for the headlights. Most LED headlights are visibly different, I want a period correct look, and so I had to go hunting for an answer. I found a unit where a 7” round Hella light housing made for H4 halogen lights is used in combination with a LED retrofit unit. Several people had used these in their Cobras and gave great reviews.

These mostly fit in a standard headlight bucket but do have an extra control box in the wiring. Unfortunately, the control box was too big to sit inside the headlight bucket. Given the faired in nature of the GTO headlights, keeping the moisture/humidity levels around the headlight to a minimum is essential for keeping the Lexan covers from fogging up. So all bodywork holes around the headlights need to be sealed to prevent water/vapour leakage. The larger the hole, the harder it is too seal.

After scratching my head on this, here’s what I came up with.





I cut a rectangular hole so the control box could slide through for mounting behind the body. The metal headlight bucket has same rounded contour as the body so a little bit of silicon from behind will seal the rectangular hole. The slot above the rectangular hole is for the wiring to pass through and the space around the wire can be sealed with silicon as will be the old wiring hole in the top.

With the headlight in place, it looks just like an old incandescent headlight.



Now I can get brighter light for night driving, lower heat so less fogging, and lower power consumption. And it still just looks like a plain old headlight
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