Dan's GC8 Rally Car

[Dan McGinn]

I figured it was about time to start my own build thread, so here we go. This project will take a while, and seeing that I'm newly married and in law school and work full time and have 2 doggins, my time is pretty strapped so bear with me! I'm also going to do my best to make this thread entertaing through the use of uber-descriptive words and many, many pictures. Please feel free to fire off questions and pithy comments, I may not get back soon, but I will eventually and I always listen to ideas people have.
Build . . . Enter . . . Finish

Those are the goals. Each single word will represent many hours of work. But if there is one thing I have learned, mainly from my brother, it is that all major projects are daunting, at least until they are broken down into a series of smaller projects.

Build

This is the most time consuming of the three stages. Here I will detail everything from the purchase of the car, through disassembly, roll cage building, suspension building, engine building, chassis reinforcement, body prep, body paint, lexan window install to the final buff(um). If a project is going to get derailed, and more do than don't, this will be when it happens.
Enter

This consists of getting the NASA license, getting to the event (which one I'm not sure yet) paying entry fees, passing tech inspection, rounding up a crew and more.

Finish



Self explanatory. We plan on driving fast enough to finish.



Of course a build of this nature wouldn't be complete without a logo, so here it is. Abington is the town in CT I live in, hence the name.

Stay Tuned

Link to Miscellaneous Pictures of the Build

[Dan McGinn]

Now that summer is here, I finally have some time to work on the rally car. One of the first things to do was to strip the interior, I elected to take the dash out to properly install the cage.


Once that was done, I was really able to figure out how far out I could put the cage, I want to make sure that it is as close to the outside of the car as possible. Of course the whole rear interior came out too, oh and the I took the roof off. There are really only about 60-70 spot welds that hold it on, the whole thing comes off in about an hour. Removing the roof ensures that I will be able to get all of the cage junctures completely welded.



I couldn't resist taking a 3 shot panoramic of it!



Once the car was gutted, I began stripping the areas where the cage will attach to the mounting plates.





Then I got a Scottish flag off of Ebay, and bent the main hoop.



Once the main hoop was bent up, I then turned to the half-laterals, sill bars and lateral main hoop . The half-laterals are probably the most PITA to bend because they bend in multiple dimensions; it is not necessarily difficult, but I had to make sure that I was 100% concentrating.



I like to use ratchet straps and jacks to get that last couple of milimeters of fit, in the above pic I was using the yellow strap to guide the main hoop to its proper landing point on the mounting plate.

I got a super-nice fit on this juncture. There will ultimately be 6 tubes coming together there, strong, strong, strong!




I pushed the half-lateral as far forward as I could, bearing in mind that it will have the dash bar mounted to it which will be replacing the existing dash tube so I will have to mount the dash to the new tube.



Here is the passenger side after this round of work. Note the lonely roof in the background, the skin only weighs about 12-15lbs



A view from a different angle.



Looking the other way (my 2002 languishing in the background begging for attention!)



Tightness down by the co-driver's right foot.



Glad I didn't rear-end anyone on the way home from picking up the next round of tube!



The dashbar was first up on the menu, this is in approximately the same spot as the Medieval torture looking device that was the existing dash support bar, I will have to make some bracketry to mount the dash, but in the grand scheme of things, its is not big project.



Next up was the braces from the main hoop to the half-laterals, bear in mind that some of these tubes will require final filing before they all get welded. The idea here was to make sure that this bar intersected the main hoop at the same level as the upper door bar.



I did the other brace, and then made the backstays.




So that is about where I stand today



I have enough tube left to do the door bars and the halo, so that will be the next thing to get done. Next weekend is STPR, so progress will be slow after tomorrow, but I hope to have the cage done in a month or so and get the car back on its feet and take it for a spin. The driveline is intact, but the suspension needs to be changed, plus I have a rear disc setup and WRX front brakes ready to go in. I also have a gallon of PPG "555 Blue" paint ready to spray, mmmm tasty! I'm thinking of taking the roofsking from my home in Abington, CT, to STPR and have Derek Ringer autograph the underside where the co-driver sits, we'll see! If anyone is at STPR, I'll be driving my GF8



and staying at the Coach Stop Inn, just west of Wellsboro, with a couple of friends, say hi if you see us!

[rllyrckt]

looks awesome man, good luck with the car and for stpr info, there is a thread in Mid A forum, wish i could be at stpr, have fun

[MConte05]

Hey man, awesome build. I love seeing people do their own work. Hopefully I'll run into you at SPTR! I'll be rocking the silver 2.5i with the RallyAmerica banner.

[M.D. LeMasters]

Hey Dan, braces and backstays... You just couldn't wait for me. I'm glad you had time to bend tube while I was busy at work.

[strat]

looks awesome!!!

i'll be at stpr as well in my wrb 02 bugeye...

[Dan McGinn]

Here is proof positive of the reason for adding the tube from the main hoop to the half-lateral.



This car left the track, went airborne, went into the woods, rode up a small 6-8" tree which made it airborn again and ultimately met a tree with the roof. Driver, all things considered, was okay, spent some time in the hospital, but thankfully escaped major injuries.

Outside view.



There is a more detailed discussion over on SS, but this really shows the forces that are at work in a car v. tree accident. A cage can't prevent every incursion, but a well designed one sure can help!

[UP2MTNS]

I've been following that thread on SS.....definitely a 'strange' impact, but still.....crazy stuff happens.

nice work on the car so far! Jon

[Dan McGinn]

Thanks for the encouragement! What I love about the rally community is that you seem to find inspiration when you least expect it! .......

[WRXCMM]

Originally Posted by Dan McGinn

Here is proof positive of the reason for adding the tube from the main hoop to the half-lateral.



This car left the track, went airborne, went into the woods, rode up a small 6-8" tree which made it airborn again and ultimately met a tree with the roof. Driver, all things considered, was okay, spent some time in the hospital, but thankfully escaped major injuries.

Outside view.



There is a more detailed discussion over on SS, but this really shows the forces that are at work in a car v. tree accident. A cage can't prevent every incursion, but a well designed one sure can help!

damn!!! i just spent about 1/2 hour looking through that whole thread and wow that mark guy is really lucky...

[Dan McGinn]

After seeing the above wreck, the next thing I did was the reinforcements to the half lateral. These were the first ones I made, but to tell you the truth I wasn't too pleased with them; they were a bit too close to the helmets.


So, I went to the next design....



I liked that much better, that picture also shows how I began to fit the upper door bar and have begun to fit one half of the lower door bar.

With that done, I cut and bent the upper windshield bar, I have always called it the halo, not sure what the real name is.



With the halo, the goal was to ensure that it was as far forward as possible and as high as possible. This does two things, it keeps it away from the people, and it puts it in a nice plane with the main hoop to keep the roof "x" nice and straight.

Here is an airborn shot that shows where it sits now...



Tomorrow of Friday the door bars should be done, then it is on to finalizing the backstays and main hoop "x." After that it is final fit with the file and then bringing Todd, my Pratt & Whitney certified TIG welder, in to final weld the whole deal. With any luck the welding will be done by the second week of August or so. I hope to have the car back on the road for the Vintage Fall Fest at Limerock on Labor Day.

[Not All There]

wish ya luck man!

[Safe Drives]

Sweet build!

It looks like my car did when I started it.

Let me know when you need some FIA padding.

[Dan McGinn]

Originally Posted by Safe Drives

Let me know when you need some FIA padding.

Will do, I've been poking around on your site for a while now. Quick question, does FIA padding have a limited life, like harnesses do?

[Dan McGinn]

I got sick of waiting to see what "555 Blue" looked like, so I painted the wing last night. I'm very happy with it, it is a very rich color. The picture almost doesn't do it justice as there is a touch more purple to it in person.