V1 Desert Sasqwatch #155 Track (mods) - 08 SS/TC crate LNF F40

[Desert Sasqwatch]

I plan to eventually do some road race courses - Firebird (Wild Horse Pass), Wilcox (Inde Motorsports Ranch), and Litchfield (Arizona Motorsports Park) - all in AZ - with my car. I want the brakes to be so good I will never have to worry about the outside temp or how hard I stand on them they will ALWAYS function.

 

[ctuinstra]

I plan to eventually do some road race courses - Firebird (Wild Horse Pass), Wilcox (Inde Motorsports Ranch), and Litchfield (Arizona Motorsports Park) - all in AZ - with my car. I want the brakes to be so good I will never have to worry about the outside temp or how hard I stand on them they will ALWAYS function.

I think you will get that for sure.

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Been a few days since I last updated the build log. Has been slow due I am in the process of getting another job. Early retired from my last job of almost 32 years and need to get into another one for at least another 10 years or so. Staying in aerospace - what the heck is wrong with me - and still in the Phoenix area. Looks like I may have the job I was looking for, expecting an offer letter today.

Anyway, got the exhaust and fuel tank removed, the front and rear suspension pieces pulled, the doors removed, and the interior up to the dash all disassembled. Some of this was real challenge with the rearender damage piching, pushing and pulling on my connections and had to cut some more chassis pieces off to get to some things. The next step is to get the engine/trans dropped out - have everything . Should be able to get this done tomorrow.

Started to remove some stuff from the dash while I am waiting. Noticed how badly aligned the clutch, brake and gas pedals are out of alignment, didn't realized how far off this is as reported already. Heel and toe driving will be more difficult, as described by several others on the forum who have their cars on the road. I will have to chase down what everyone else has done to maybe correct this?

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Engine is out. Started tearing down the dash this morning while waiting on the cherry picker and have it pretty well stripped clean. Just have to get the steering and pedal box out now.

 

[deuc224]

**** DS, I barely got the front end off and i thought i was making good head way, ur making me feel pretty inadequate lol.

 

[DCMoney]

See you put a few holes in the windshield, cant lie I did the same.

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

See you put a few holes in the windshield, cant lie I did the same.

Access to the dash bolts. No way my big paws were going to fit in there to get to those bolts. Besides, the windshield was already badly cracked from the accident that put this car on the insurance auction block.

 

[JSATX]

Been a few days since I last updated the build log. Has been slow due I am in the process of getting another job. Early retired from my last job of almost 32 years and need to get into another one for at least another 10 years or so. Staying in aerospace - what the heck is wrong with me - and still in the Phoenix area. Looks like I may have the job I was looking for, expecting an offer letter today.
Started to remove some stuff from the dash while I am waiting. Noticed how badly aligned the clutch, brake and gas pedals are out of alignment, didn't realized how far off this is as reported already. Heel and toe driving will be more difficult, as described by several others on the forum who have their cars on the road. I will have to chase down what everyone else has done to maybe correct this?

Well you’ve already been talking about converting to manual brakes. The side effect of that is easy brake pedal position adjustment.

My gas and brake are lined up well now, clutch is not but the only way I see to change that would be to reposition the welded mounts or a whole aftermarket clutch pedal somehow. Clutch being out of line doesn’t bother me because it’s right next to the frame tube that makes a nice foot rest

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Well you’ve already been talking about converting to manual brakes. The side effect of that is easy brake pedal position adjustment.

My gas and brake are lined up well now, clutch is not but the only way I see to change that would be to reposition the welded mounts or a whole aftermarket clutch pedal somehow. Clutch being out of line doesn’t bother me because it’s right next to the frame tube that makes a nice foot rest

Justin, what did you do to line up the gas pedal with the brake pedal? Did you just put a spacer on/under the gas pedal pad?

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

My donor is completely stripped down and I got the dash pulled and the rest of the harnesses out of the car today. My teardown from first wrench turned until today was a full 2 weeks of skinned knuckles, cuts and enough dirt to fill a bucket. I removed everything from the car and it is literally an empty shell now - will be glad to get it out of my garage. I now need to organize everything I will be keeping and get everything else cleaned up and ready to sell. Once I have some $$$ from parts selling I will have enough to place my kit order - hope the F40 mod is finalized soon.

 

[Motoracer110]

Wow looking great!

 

[JSATX]

Justin, what did you do to line up the gas pedal with the brake pedal? Did you just put a spacer on/under the gas pedal pad?

No, shorten the brake pedal linkage until it lines up where you want it.

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

It has been a while since I last posted an update. Have been interviewing for - and getting - a new job. I was provided an early retirement package at my old job after 32 years and took it, but can't retire yet, so I am starting over - gonna be fun.

I have all of the parts I need from the donor and it has finally left the garage today, headed to the scrapyard. My wife was happy to see it gone, but that is another story. I now have room to park my Jeep in the garage again.

I have been working on the donor parts for the past 3+ weeks - along with the never ending honey-do list - getting the parts cleaned up and checking for wear/damage. Of course I found some and am ordering replacement parts that are hitting the budget. Biggest thing was the rubber bushings in the aluminum control arms. These were torn in more than 1/2 of the circumference and will be getting replaced with poly bushings.

I was having trouble getting the passenger side axle removed from the intermediate shaft and took Lonny's advice to stand it up and put penetrating oil into the interface. After more than 3 weeks of lubing and hammering it finally came apart with almost no damage to the axle or shaft. I am believing that a combination of old grease and rust could be marketed as some kind of locking goop since it sure worked well on these parts.

Still no kit on order yet, am in negotiation again with the accountant - **** I married one - about funding for this project, after getting the original go ahead in February. Something about being off work for 8 weeks and not paying bills off fast enough. Go figure. It will be on order soon, since asking for forgiveness later has worked for 37 years so far.

 

[Karter2026]

Congrats on the new job!

Those control arm bushings are torn on almost every car. When I would do a state inspection on a cobalt that was one of the first places I would look.

 

[ctuinstra]

Yep, those bushing weren't worth poop. You might want to consider installing the heim joint type of bushing. Lonny swears by them. They keep the arms from changing the wheel alignment under hard acceleration.

Read this:

Torque Steer

Is there a such thing with the Goblin being RWD and torque steer really only affecting FWD? The reason I ask is that a full throttle pull from a slow speed to 70-80 MPH can be a scary experience. It doesn't want to go in a straight line. It wants to wobble left/right. I don't know if it's...

dfkitcar.com

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Chad, thanks for the info. I already ordered the Prothane bushing kit, same as Brian 1177 installed. If these do not work out, the jonny-joint/heim joint can be used at a later date. I was also pondering a custom tube a-arm with heims in all locations - front, back and ball joint replacement. I have something already sketched out with dimensions, but this is something for the future, if all else fails.

 

[Ross]

Yep, those bushing weren't worth poop. You might want to consider installing the heim joint type of bushing. Lonny swears by them. They keep the arms from changing the wheel alignment under hard acceleration.

Read this:

Torque Steer

Is there a such thing with the Goblin being RWD and torque steer really only affecting FWD? The reason I ask is that a full throttle pull from a slow speed to 70-80 MPH can be a scary experience. It doesn't want to go in a straight line. It wants to wobble left/right. I don't know if it's...

dfkitcar.com

View attachment 8304

Dang, I'm glad I read this before I installed the new stock bushings. Just ordered new MOOG K201285, guess I will ebay the stock rubber bushings.

 

[Brian74]

I went with the OTTP metal bushing kit which also included the Delrin pivot bushings. I swear by Delrin after how they have performed in my sand rail. There was no reaming required for my control arms.

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Looking through some information about suspension set up with McPherson struts, it is desirable to have a slight toe-in on compression of the rear suspension. This will help create minor rear steer of the outside rear tire with body roll on turn in and applies to both tires upon acceleration. No more than a 0.5 degree change in toe in with nominal suspension motion is ideal, which could be set up rather easily on the Goblin with spacers to move the rear toe bar slightly higher (it is 'rear steer' so the rod has to push the rear of the wheel to create toe in). This configuration can be made to compensate for very minor changes to the rear set up caused by suspension bushing compression, such as poly bushings, but typically not for rubber bushings - which are considered garbage in everything I have read. Obviously, having zero compression in the suspension bushings is the ideal situation.

 

[Brian74]

Per the brakes, there are brake compounds that are rated for high temps that will circumvent fade if thats what you’re worried about. I just started running a set of circle track brake pads in my sand rail that are rated to over 600 degrees F. I was getting massive fade under hard driving with the old pads. The reason being the pad surface area of my front discs is tiny for the 75 lb 33” tires I am running up front. I didn’t want to spend over $1000 for bigger brakes (which meant changing every component down to the spindles). With these new circle track compond pads, fade is nonexistant and braking is much more responsive under varying pedal pressures.