Finally! The shipping day for the GTM arrived, and everything went according to plan. Loading up the car did not take long at all. As always, Stewart Transport was great to work with. It is going to feel weird for a while not having the car to work on, considering it has been such a major time consumer over the last 6 months.

Finally…preparing the GTM for its voyage out to Ken (StreetRodPainter.com) has begun. Mounted the body back on, tightened up the hatch and hood hardware, secured loose wires in the front and rear, set the hatch and hood in place. Wiring under the engine fuse panel was secured so it will not move around much when the car is driven. The rear two underbody panels were put in place, and the final two skid bars were installed.

Only things remaining are to tape everything up so it doesn’t shift during shipping, and pack up the parts Ken’s shop needs (door hardware, etc).

Took lots of pics tonight.

Wednesday afternoon the GTM left me a present in the form of a puddle of fuel under the passenger tank. I traced the leak to the fuel sender unit mount and when I tried tightening down the fuel sender bolts more the leak got worse. I had to pull the fuel tank (after draining all the fuel) and remove the fuel sender unit. A quick inspection showed tears around several of the bolt holes in the tank gasket. I made a quick call to the GM dealer and they had a new pair for me Thursday morning (decided to change the other tank’s gasket as well since I had the passenger tank out already). Unfortunately the gaskets they received were not the correct ones. I promptly ordered another set of gaskets for 97-99 tanks in hopes that they would work. Luckily, I was able to get them overnighted again and got them Friday morning. They were the correct ones and I was able to swap the gaskets as Gorilla Gasket notes and get the tanks reinstalled in a half hour or so. Quick cycle of the fuel pump shows everything to be OK.

With the fuel situation under control we trailored up the GTM and hauled it to the alignment shop. No surprises (good), and the wheels are aligned properly now.

The GTM ships Sunday morning.

Tonight I cleaned up some misc. wiring in the footbox (like moving the wiper harness so it will be more easily accessible after the footbox cover is installed) and installed the footbox cover. This is one of the last things I need to do on the car before I have it shipped out for body work.

Friday the car gets aligned, Saturday or Sunday it ships out for a 2-3month visit with Ken (StreetRodPainter). He has done hundreds of cobra replicas and a handful of other GTMs so I know the car is in good hands and will return in great shape.

The to-do list before shipping the car out is pretty small:
– Make sure all wiring under the fuse box is secured
– Install the last two underbody panels and skid bars
– Alignment
– Put the body back on, tape the doors on, tape the hatch and hood on
– Pack up all the goodies (door hardware, windows, headlight buckets, etc) that Ken needs

Over the last couple nights I worked on the rollbar padding. Since this is part of the ‘interior’ finish it has to be done nicely like the suede, etc.  The side rollbars are first covered with an adhesive-backed foam pad, then covered with the fabric. The rollbar padding/fabric consists of 3 precut foam backed fabric sheets that are wrapped around the rollbars, and then adhered together. The 3M Trim Adhesive 8090 I am using is very easy to work with, dries fast, and holds very well. Applying the fabric is straight-forward: wrap the piece around the bars, ensuring there are no twists on the visible portions of the bar, and tape in place as you go. Make sure the seams are pointed outwards/upwards so the body covers them when it is mounted.  Once the fabric is pre-fit in place simply pull off pieces of tape in sections, glue the fabric, and re-tape.

Exciting night!  Josh and I removed the body from its 6 month home on the body buck and placed it on the go-kart. I am very pleased with the centering and alignment of the body. There is only one area that needs some modification for fitment and that is the passenger door striker. It will need a 1/2″ spacer, or maybe I will just cut off the striker mount and weld it 1/2″ further ahead. Either way, it looks great.  This is a temporary fitment needed to line up the interior firewall/window behind the seats and get some other interior things in order. The body will be removed again so I can do the rollbar padding, then it will be set back on before being shipped out for body work and final fitment.

Getting in and out of the car is not as hard as I thought it would be. Many GTM builders state it is very hard to get in/out, but I guess being flexible helps. I can just do a one legged squat and sit right in and swing my legs up over the door sill. Getting out is just as easy – no barrel roll needed. 🙂