GT40E Build History.           

January 9 2022, Week 14

Further Prep of Dash board and other switch locations, Preparation of electronic hand break, Wiring of rear lights.

A little bit of work was done on the dash board, with the air con vents on the far right and left compleated. The light switch mounted. This however I could forsee an issue of making a neet finish on the swithc surround. Most of the circular instramnets have a chrome ring that hides the gap between the instrament and its locating hole. After some Googling a chrome ring could not be found so I went to the solution of what I am most happy building, by starting to make a Carbon Fibre ring. This started with laying up a number of sheets of Carbon between polyester sheet, that gives a nice finish. Note don't use polyester resin as it is not colourless. Find a good supplyer of epoxi and purchase clear resin. Let's see how I progress.

I had purchased a second hand Commodore electronic handbreak actuator, but unlike other switches and wing mirrors I was unable to figure out how the wiring worked, so I set to work using a standard actuator that would be mounted between the drivers seat and the batteries in the right sill. Drawings were made and sent to CadCut to make some steel mounting brackets. I guess I will start on that in a couple of working weeks.
Many jobs like the above don't get a tick of "Done" against them but I finished wiring the rear lights, making sure that I maintained details of wire colours, pin numbers from light to plugs and finally the PDM (Power Distibution Moduel.) A good feeling of satisfaction to see that job compleated. I little bit of luck as the evening before I started the wiring and brading I got an email stating that my Mini Cooper reversing lights were on the way. I had compleatly forgotten the reversing lights! So with that little reminder I was able to add a wire to accomodate the reversing lights. (I believe there has to be a lot of checking that everything is in place before the harness is compleated.)

December 31 Week 13

Preparation of Dash board switches.

Now it is time for a new phase of the build, that being mounting of the dash board's switches. This has mentally taken a long time, with lists of what has to be mounted to look good and ends up being practical. In the days of the GT40 and similar cars like Jags, my dad had many Jaguars, there would be a line of identical switches. It looked like an aircraft cockpit but had a fundamental problem being that, as each switch was the same you had to take your eyes off the road to work out what switch did which function. This caused many accidents. I believe that the new Tesla electronic screen will have the same issues. This in mind I am trying to make all the switches have obvious functions, look different, but not cluttered. So there was lots of mental planning over the past few months, and more recently, just sitting in the car working out where to locate everything. Let's hope that I am right as once the switches are in place and the upholstery fitted, there is a level of permanence.

In addition to the face of the dash board i have been making a couple of glass fiber ducts for the air-conditioning vents on the far right and left of the dash. There is a very tight gap to the vents so some modifications are required, but as I have worked with glass since my early teens this is a job I feel comfortable with. No the photo is not the finished job, just their state as of Jan 1.

December 25 Week 11 & 12

 BMS harnesses for Sill Battery Boxes, Wiring of Tesla to temp switches.

Although two weeks have passed there are not so many photos to show progress. The two side battery boxes have had their BMS wiring completed. I have then stripped the batteries and wiring out in preparation for powder coating. In addition the battery box that houses an additional 12 batteries in the front of the car was completed, the BMS harness made and then stripped down ready for powder coating. I have found that so many times components, just fit, the grommets for the BMS and high voltage just squeeze next to each other in the box, with no room to spare.
I was hoping to be completed the Tesla wiring before Christmas  but time will often run faster than I can work. Always double the time you expect. Tim from EV Works spent a few days connecting the Tesla's wiring. Initially I have a temporary switches that will be replaced as the MoTeC system is installed. The MoTeC has already been partially programmed on the desk, but switching across to the real thing will be done step by step.

December 6 Week 12

All Battery boxes installed but not all wired, BMS harness, Steering sensor.

Some weeks you feel that you have made much more progress than others, despite the hours input into the project. This felt like a good week.
The second battery box was placed over the bottom box, filled with batteries and copper connectors bolted in. Tim from EV Works spent a day measuring up the high voltage cable to link up the different boxes, Back Bottom, Back Top, Right and left sill and front. However at the early stage of the build we will only use the Top back box and keep the voltage down whilst we get used to the system. Much better to play with 30 volts rather than 300!
I spend quite some hours making a wiring harness for the Battery Management System (BMS). This connects each copper connector in the bottom box and measures the voltage difference. 48 individual wires! This harness will feed into the top box where the brains of the system are located. So there needed to be a solution to number each wire 1 to 48 so that they can be connected correctly. My solution. Get some masking tape, wrap it over (not round) the end of the wire and then tear it off. This will leave a tiny bit of tape on the wire. This can then be marked with Dots and Dashes, a dash being 5 a dot being 1 so - - ... is 5 +5+1+1+1 = 13. When things get too tight i.e. 20 change the colour of the tape.
I purchased a throttle sensor from Smiths Racing Services and mount from Motor Sport Parts. Easy enough to mount other than the Tilton pedals are USA made and use imperial Alan keys!

November 28 Week 10 & 11

Battery box. Steering wheel.

Every job takes far longer than you expect. Anyway the back battery box is now bolted and in place, with the copper connectors fastened to their relevant battery, I have started planning to wire in the Battery Management System (BMS) and attach the braiding. This is not going to be as easy, as there are 48  wires that go from each copper connector in the bottom box to the BMS in the top box. It will be necessary to wire each one to the correct point in the BMS and then! Take them all out when the car works, so that the boxes can be powder coated, and the car sprayed. Then all reassembled in the right place.
I did run into an issue on Friday, that being that I received a very light tingle from the batteries. As I was only touching one bank I considered that there could have been a short to earth. Testing the voltage from Earth to each copper connector, it certainly appeared to be the case. However there should have been none! So a lot of connectors came off just in case. Hopefully next week I should find the reason for the short.
Be where not to short the copper plates. I did and only had about 30 volts not 300!
Steering wheel in position.

November 14 Week 8 & 9

Battery boxes virtually completed. Motor installed with brace, Steering column decisions, Wing Mirrors progress. Fuel filler. Letter received from DoT

The main job over the past two weeks has been building the Battery boxes. CadCut completed the boxes some time ago and the past two weeks my friend Sid Lacy, a glider pilot like me and a talented welder, came for a number of afternoons and evenings to weld up the battery boxes. By the end of this fortnight all the boxes were completed. Those boxes to be fitted under the doors,  there is a lot more room than a standard car, were in place and a relatively small box was installed in the front. The big boxes are still awaiting a Perspex cover to be made.
In preparation for the installation of the large battery boxes, to be placed in the rear of the car, crush tubes were welded in place. Crush tubes are inserted into the 40 x 40 mm beams where a bolt will be placed. These tubes prevent the beam being crushed when the bolt is tightened up.
Sid and I installed a brace of the left side of the motor that will support the motor against the chassis, in compression, whereas the initial installation was under tension.
Lights, Wipers and Indicators. It had been my intention to modernise the GT40 and operate the lights, wipers etc. with stalks. However once I got to work with assembly it became clear that this was not going to be possible, so I would have to go to the traditional style of placing the switches on the dash. The next few weeks I will hopefully start progress here, but good planning will be required.
I purchased from a scrap Audi RS3 wing mirror. By making test connections with 12v supply in all the combinations I was able to find out the function of each wire, remember if you do this you may find as in the Audi reverse polarity reverses direction i.e. up / down, left / right. Replacement covers are available if yours is a little scratched.
I recently received the delivery of the fuel filler cap and charging plug. I was delighted to see that the two components fitted like a glove. I wonder when they designed the GT40 in the 60's if they were aware of the size of the charger plug size.
I also received this week the confirmation from Department of Transport the ok to go ahead, together with permission to work with my engineer on electric hand breaks.

October 30 Week 6 & 7

Drivers Seat installed. Tesla motor half installed. Wiring harness attachments made.

The drivers seat was installed with motor driven rails. I will not use the demonstrated switching system, I think something a little more advanced is required. The fundamental issue was minimising the height added to the seat by installing the rails.










The Tesla motor was put back into the car, but I had a concern that the motor is particularly heavy on the rotor side so a stiffening beam, that will be under compression, is being made to support the weight in addition to the frame that is located above the motor where it will hang. Hopefully this will be completed next week and photos will indicate the modification.
It is necessary to secure the wiring harness to the glass fiber body in some places. My solution is as follows:-
I had CadCut, who cut my battery boxes, make about 50 hexagonal pieces out of 4mm aluminum. Hexagons as they are economic to cut and they don't rotate under the glass. Each had a 3mm hole in the center that I eventually drilled and tapped to suit a 4mm thread.
I then taped over the pieces some silver tape, that can be purchased from any good glass fiber supply. The reason for this is that the tape will prevent resin egressing into the tapped hole.
The Hexagons were then glassed onto the body work. Using a counter sunk drill the glass was pierced allowing the 4mm screw to secure either the Deautch plug attachments or tie clips.
Yes the whole area will be cleaned up.

The battery boxes for the rear of the car are virtually finished with the help of my friend Sid, who is a first class welder. I certainly learnt that drawing up components in a 2D sketch does not guarantee that they fit into a 3D car, but with a little modification the boxes were moved into position.
The battery beams were finished and square bolts inserted into each end. They are a tight fit and with a hard tap on the end with a cold chisel they were secured. I obtained my nuts from Bolt & Nut Australia, who had my goods delivered within a few days of order.
It was necessary to file a little inside the beams to make the nuts fit.
The right hand photo shows the bottom battery box in place, but not secured yet.
I expect some batteries to be installed and wired within a couple of weeks.

October 16 Week 4 & 5

 Steel beams coated with glass, Aircon fitted, Anti theft ordered, break line modified, battery boxes collected.

I have combined two weeks of work in one session as I felt that I had not done much work, and was too busy on the weekend to write a report, but looking back it looks as if some progress has been made. Firstly I have virtually finished completing the steel beams that hold the batteries down in the battery boxes. Critically the beams need to be covered in glass fiber to insulate them from possible electrical shorts. In addition as High Voltage wiring are required to be Orange, I will go the whole hog and paint high voltage components as well. Well not the motor. A note in applying the glass, tack the glass into place first, then when the resin has cured wrap it. I then coded with a layer of epoxy (as it is less viscose than polyester, and leaves a nice smooth surface. A final coat of orange will then take place.

A lot of time was spent on installing the Air-Conditioning. I drilled the two holes in the underside of the  demister as per the photo in the instruction manual, only to find that some beams of the chassis interfered , so the holes were glassed up and new pipe manifold positions found, drilled and manifolds re fitted. Getting the air-conditioning unit in the right place required it to be located, marked, removed, drilled and and and and. I think it must have been put in and out of position about 6 times.

The break lines were removed and marked for new ones to be made, as battery boxes will be fitted in the sills where they are located.
The Anti Theft device was purchased and arrived.

Finally the battery boxes and battery contacts arrived from CadCut in Wangara. It has taken some time but the present economic climate everybody appears to be very busy. Hopefully next week I will see some good progress with my friend Sid able to help me with aluminum welding of the boxes and the seat rails.

September 30 2021 Week 3

   Although this is a few weeks after week 2 it is because we went away in the Motor Home for a couple of weeks, resting after running Ping-Pong-A-Thon, a charity event we are involved with. We support charities that fight against slavery, watch this.
I have continued to work on the installation of the MoTeC display, as with all fiber glass jobs it can take time, with one piece being glassed into place, then wait for it to dry firmly before proceeding to the next step. I should be finished next week.
I came to the realisation that guaranteeing, when the car is finished I will have all the knobs and switches installed, and in the correct location is not a guarantee. For example I could get to the point when all is done that the switch to alter the climate's fan is not installed. My solution is to make a menu in the MoTeC that all functions can be located and added and modified.
Landsdale wreckers sold me a Lexus seat $100 so I could strip out the seat rails. Hours of grinding took place to get rid of the excess metal work. You have to remember that the seats need to be as close to the floor as possible, other wise my head will rub against the roof.
The drive shaft stumps arrived, very promptly, see video. I thought they were a bit expensive, like the Hylux headlights I bought 2 pairs! Fortunately I already have a buyer for the extras.
Now the Exciting bit. Time from EV Works came on the 30th and ran the Tesla Motor. Much delight as I was always concerned that the EBay purchased motor may not work.

September 3 2021 Week 2

I ordered drive shaft stump from Zero-ev, in the UK as my Tesla motor did not come with the drive cups.
I visited Sam Rossi, who will be my engineer overseeing the build. I was in the process of making a Glass RSJ to hold the batteries down. I would make one and hang some weights on it to test its ability to do the job. Sam put the dimensions through his computer and came up with a figure well short of the requirement, but quickly stated that a 20 x 20 steel beam 1.6mm would do the trick if wrapped in glass to insulate. Good advice to keep all receipts and packing for lights and ensuring they comply with Australian Design Regulations before purchase. Great to work with people who know their job.
Tim, having installed the replacement power board in the Tesla after half a days work eventually managed to get the motor turning - Backwards. So he went away to test the power board on his motor in his workshop.
I set to work drilling holes in the dashboard for the Speedo, Volt meter and clock, all in 1960's style. The grinder got to work cutting out a hole foot the MoTeC display. As I have worked with fiberglass since I was about 14 I feel quite confident getting stuck in here. If you make a mistake you can always patch it up.
Finding various parts appears to fill half my time. Lights, switches, gas struts, and there will be far more.

August 24 2021 Week 1.

The car arrived on Friday the 20th and from now on rather than me entering the date I will put the week of the build. I will exclude weeks that I am away, like holidays. This will give an idea as to the time it takes me to complete the build, excluding holidays.

The first job was to build a trolley to mount the car so that I did not end up breaking my back working on the car, I have a very stiff back anyway and the car can be moved around the garage it has large wheels, all steerable. On opposite corners there are breaks, and the other corner the wheels can be locked straight to help me steer, unlike a shopping trolley. The car was lifted onto the table with he use of a couple of gantries and 4 pulley blocks. It was a good thing that the GT40 has a hole in the boot and bonnet to allow the chains to go down to the chassis. If you do it yourself don't skimp on gear. The hire was not cheep but the car is expensive.
For those with sharp eyes will notice that I have done some fiberglass work on the front right headlight. This is a light mold that will help me select some headlights that will fit from a scrap yard.

Over the weekend there was a lot of measuring of the engine bay to calculate the container dimensions for the batteries. I need to fit in 192 batteries. For wiring sense containers should have batches of batteries devisable by 12. There is also a big question. "Do I have spacing between the batteries to assist cooling?"
The bottom line is that the 192 batteries could not be fitted into the engine bay, even without spacing, but the extras could be placed in the door sills. So the decision to have spaces was made. Each battery will have a 10mm strip of hard foam, 4.5mm thick, along the top and bottom of the battery allowing air to flow from front to back of the box. Pictures will to come later. After much calculating, what I hope was the ideal box dimensions was decided on. In addition the dimensions of the copper plates to join the batteries together were drawn up and a friend of mine in Sydney drew up the CAD design. (I have a free copy of  Sketchup but it can not work to finer than 1 mm. The diameter of a 5mm hole is 2.5mm!)

The control board arrived for the Tesla motor, supplied by Tim at EVWorks. This replaces the Tesla that can not be used as access to its brains is not available to non Tesla products.

In the mean time the MoTeC wiring system continues with Great help from Glen. I have got to the stage of working on the display, getting flash indicators, main beam etc. to display.

Tim from EV Works. came on Thursday to help me replace the Tesla differential with the Quafe Limited Slip Diff. There are good instructions on the EVTV Motor Verks web site that are easy to follow.
We did the replacement on the floor as I was concerned that the weight of the Tesla motor would be too heavy for my work bench. It was probably better as in that position it was easier to maneuver into position.
The pulling of the old bearings needed a bit of "Aussie know how" (The ability to fix something when there is not a perfect tool for the job.) So put your brain into gear and don't expect a garage to do the job for you.
The only issue we had was lining all the components up, on either side of the two castings. My suggestion is that you have half a dozen over length bolts to initially hold the casings together and gradually align everything bit by bit. We also had a 5 minute gasket seal that was used to seal the two halves of the motor together. You will not do the job in 5 minutes.
Once the diff was replaced Tim replaced the Tesla power board with an alternate version that fits in place beautifully, replacing the Tesla board. The reason for the replacement is that Tesla will not allow you to have access to the electronic drive brains of the system. The replacement will give us that ability.

July 12 2021

Although the car has not left Phillip Island yet there is some more progress with the aluminum body coming on. The Suspension is being fitted as have the hydraulic jacks.
I have purchased some light switches off EBay hoping that they would be easy to wire in to the harness, but as with all things now they are designed to fit into a VW CANBus, Nobody is able to help so I have ideas on how to progress see on my next post.

July 2 2021

With hopefully only a week before delivery I received deliveries over the week of a number of light switches and break switches for the car. In addition the electronic hand break, that I hope will be legal, arrived from American. I did find that the instructions were somewhat lacking. As when I went to set the stop and return points of the liner motor, I had no idea how to send the actuator back to its shorter position, having not fully understood the instructions. When you read both the AutoLoc and American Shifter instructions to understand what is going on. I worked out that 1 (Brown) to 8 White all work independently so you can set the Brown 1 on the first press to release the break, on the second press actuate the break. The remaining connections can all have separate functions. So I set a function on 2 (Brown/Blue) to release the break. This is all test bench stuff just to be sure that it works.
I also received delivery of two ECUMaster CAN Switch boards. These will receive data 8 Switch and 8 Analog and send the data to the MoTeC Display. In principle the CAN Switches will reduce the limited number of wires going into the MoTeC units.
I spent a couple of days making a CANBus to test bench some of the settings on the MoTeC and then had a few hours with Glen Auto Sports Electronics checking that things were in order for me to continue testing and learning. It spins my brain out. It is great working with him, so patient with this amateur.
My weekly call with Roaring Forties confirmed that, with no promises, the car should be ready for shipping around the end of next week with the aluminum polished to sparkling, with Purple Polish.

June 2021

The motor is in the cage and the car is about ready to leave Philip Island. Robert had a lot of issues fitting the body as the jig he had from the previous owner of the business had built the jig based on a crashed car! All sorted and the jig is ready for future clients.
In the mean time I have been learning from both HP Academy and Glen of Auto Sport Electronics had been very patient with me, whilst I learn how to program my MoTeC electronics.

The aluminum panels are being fitted to the chassis.
In the mean time I have been on a wiring course run by HP Academy. For those not already experts in wiring I recommend going through this course. Very thorough and easy to follow.

Powder Coating May 2021

Chassis back from powder coating, satin black and floor fitted. Aluminum panels being made and finished, Bodywork has been fitted. Suspension has been powder coated in the same satin black and will be fitted as soon as the aluminum is completed.
Motor cradle needs to be manufactured.
Robert is spot on with his timing at Roaring Forties.

Limited Slip Differential, May 2021

As the Tesla has a straight forward differential and uses the breaks to encourage even drive on the back two wheels. I needed a limited Slip Differential. EVTV Motor Verks in Missouri USA. You can buy the Quaife LSD from them. I found them very efficient to deal with, giving me same day replies to my questions. Although I found their freight costs very expensive. But I have a way around that as follows. I have found many USA companies charge prohibitive freight costs overseas so I use a freight forwarding company, Stakry, who also allow you to batch your purchases. I have an account with them and have used them for many years. Again a very efficient company. Back to EVTV They have a very good video on how to fit it to your Tesla S drive, http://store.evtv.me/proddetail.php?prod=QuaifeATB it looks to be easy enough, but from what I have seen before handle your Tesla motor with care.

There were some traumas getting the engine to fit and but with Roberts persistence it was eventually fitted in May.

In the mean time I needed to have a contact who would help me with the Electrical side of the build. I believe I was fortunate in making contact with Tim from EV Works in Landsdale Western Australia. Tim supplies batteries for Electric Cars and gives me good advice.

2021

We decided, having seen a video on a Lotus Evora Tesla build, to go for the MoTeC display system.
At the same time we watched a very good video on the Tesla motor by Professor John Kelly Webster State University. I would recommend that anybody who is getting involved with a Tesla motor look at the video. This changed our thinking on converting the motor from East West to North South.

November 2020

Shortly after the opening Roaring Forties changed hands with Robert Logan, who had previously built GT40s and also built 1960s F1 cars to the USA. I have to say that I felt a lot more confident with Robert, particularly as we both knew making an Electric GT40 was not going to be easy. Robert had to settle down bringing the manufacturing to Philip Island.

Waiting for COVID to allow progress.

Whilst the factory was closed there was little that we could do. However as I like to plan ahead I started working on the colour scheme. A car like the GT40 needs to look good. It rarely comes in one colour as the Go Fast Stripe was a regular feature that gave the car at least one additional colour. Details on how I went ahead in this important part of the project can be seen on a separate page.

March 2020

I went to the F1 in Melbourne Australia and on the Friday before practice my daughter and I went to visit Roaring Forties who were, at that time located in Melbourne. After a chat to the management and a sit in one of the cars and a chat with an owner we did our tourist thing round Melbourne. The race had been canceled due to COVID closing the event that morning. A week later I ordered the Tesla motor from America, on EBay. Another week later, due to lockdown the factory closed and did not open until November 2020.