Time to close up the passenger front wheel well!  To close the wheel well out 3 panels have to be riveted into place. The first piece seals off the inside footbox at the top, but it does not fit very well (at all). I had to cut quite a bit out of panel to get it to fit.  The second piece is a small box-like piece that fills the gap left by the upper close-out panel and the footbox aluminum. Finally, a third panel goes over the footbox/upper close-out to seal it up completely.

Before doing all this I loomed up the wires going into the door, and installed the door stoppers that prevent the doors from opening too far. After the panels were installed I applied Dynamat and Dynaliner to the interior to deaden any noise.

Productive weekend on the GTM. The fuel line was secured to the chassis with some padded clamps, and then then wire loom containing the fuel system wiring was secured to the main braided fuel line.  When I went to secure the braided fuel line to the frame I realized I had ran the line along the wrong side of the frame, so I had to drain some fuel and pull the braided line off of the bulkheads and re-route it. Kind of a pain in the butt, and resulted in a nice gas-fume headache. The hardlines were also secured to the frame.

The engine underbody panel was secured to the frame with the skid bars and the remaining exposed holes were screwed in for easy removal in the future. The previously ‘screwed on’ removable engine panel cover was riveted on instead since I made the entire panel removable. The engine panel piece was also covered with Dynamat. 

The last remaining passenger tunnel aluminum piece was riveted to the frame, then covered with Dynamat and Dynaliner – just needs suede!

My old college roomate came down to visit today and check out the build so I gave him a quick spirited ride in the go-kart. Definitely got on it a little more than last time. This thing is a blast to drive.

Over last night and tonight I painted and then mounted the oil pump mount Josh made, and then mounted the pump to it. Turned out very nice.

Last night I installed the lower rivnuts that the fuel tank covers use. During this process I realized why I have had so much trouble with tightening these things – the rivnuts Factory Five provides are too large! Their ‘clamp width’ is 0.25″, when it needs to be 0.027″ to 0.165″. The Marson rivnut tool came with a packet of these and they work MUCH better.

The new AC belt came today. I had previously picked up a LS2 belt (since I have a LS2 motor), but it was too short. Since I am using a LS1 compressor I decided to try the LS1/6 belt – success!

I also added sound dampening to the tunnel underbody aluminum, as well as the footbox cover piece.

The new shifter cable attachment that connects the shift cables to the transmission shift rod came today to replace the wrong one I received with the kit. This shifter attachment is also wrong, awesome! I don’t think this is Carquip’s fault, but Brandwood’s (the maker of the cable shift system). Regardless, this is very annoying. The latest attachment only lets me install the cables so I can shift 1-2, nothing else. At this point I might just modify the first one I received, as that one should work – it just needs a new hole drilled into it.

Lastly, I connected the footbox wiring to the frame with some of the padded hose clamps (just flattened them in a vise and then drilled them into the frame to support the wires. I also loomed the windshield wiper harness and attached the wiper harness to the frame.

Tonight I just took care of some little things. I secured the coolant hardlines to the frame with some insulated clamps, and then did the same for the shifter cables and rear-end wire loom. Afterwards I put Dynamat on the rear tunnel/engine cover piece that goes over the alternator. I plan on making this removable so I dampened it separately from the other tunnel pieces.

I also extended some wires to reach the fuse box post.

Tonight I started out by installing the 92mm throttle body. I am still missing a bolt to ‘complete’ the install, but the 4 in there now hold it in place fine. I then connected the MAF to the TB and air filter to the MAF using FFR’s supplied tubing and clamps. With these in place I connected the appropriate sensors from the engine harness.

With the intake stuff done, I applied the Dynaliner to the driver’s tunnel. This went by pretty quick. Afterwards I put some Dynamat down on the front footbox aluminum panel.

With sound dampening done for now I ran a wiring harness for the Triton transmission oil pump and VSS wiring. I had to extend the yellow and purple wires from the engine harness plugs to run to where the VSS will be located. For the oil pump I used the leftover yellow B+ wire that would normally be used for wiring the VSS/speedo as per FFR’s guidelines, but since I did not follow their instructions I had this wire left over in the harness. The oil pump requires an inline fuse so I just used the leftover inline fuse that was cut out of the Vintage Air’s wiring. 

Tonight was very productive.  First I widened the cutout in the passenger side rear tunnel panel for more compressor clearance so I can get to its belt in the future. Then I cut a clearance hole in the driver’s side rear tunnel aluminum for the alternator, as it was rubbing.

Afterwards I installed all of the tunnel aluminum in the driver’s side. Dynamat went over that, and now I just need to throw the Dynaliner on it to complete this side.

Installed the undercarriage floor panel aluminum today. Before installing I put down some Dynamat for some extra sound dampening. The floor sounds pretty solid now.

This week I received an AC line bracket made by David Borden over at gtmbuild.com This bracket is meant to hold the hardlines coming out of the evaporator in place since they are basically only supported by the lines running to the accumulator. Nice part by David.

Dynamatted the passenger door, too. I think I am going to have quite a bit of Dynamat left over after I cover the tunnel panels.

Got a bunch more sound dampening done. I dampened the engine cover, which will help with heat containment as well. I will later apply a Thermotec reflective heat barrier over the ‘mat to keep even more heat out of the cabin. Fuel tank covers are ‘matted and ‘lined, and I ‘matted one of the doors (still waiting for the 1/8″ backordered Dynaliner to come for them).

‘Matted and ‘Lined the door sill aluminum this week. I’ve also figured out some wiring I wasn’t sure about (fuel tank harness, ac pressure sensor), so that will be easy once that time comes. It’s time to kill some time until the engine gets here, which probably won’t be until mid-February. I still have some prep work to do  (assembling axles and fuel tanks), and some front-end wiring left (fog lights and flasher/fog switches).