Valkyrie ressurection, GT40-ish kit car

Thanks for the Europa update! I also got mine from the original owner but it had been sitting since 1975 for what turned out to be a burnt exhaust valve. I have been working on TCST for almost 4 years now ..... sigh 

I with my whole soul love the person that painted this car brown 

In reply to Byrneon27 :

Yeah, to each his own.  A car is a blank slate, and a kit car even moreso, to make it the way you like it.  There are about 7000 miles on the odometer so I like to think the previous owners got a lot of pleasure out of the car.

In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :

Oh I have spent plenty of time dreaming about engine work, chassis and powertrain upgrades, paint and body, and much more.  That's part of the fun!  I could make long dream lists for your and my amusement.  But as for what I actually *do* and in what order, I am trying to stay focused and keep it simple.  

Somebody on the GT40s forum looked at the photos and said roughly "that's awful.  Strip it down and rebuild it right".  He's not exactly wrong but the problem is that I would never get it done.  Years from now it would end up being one of those "car in many dusty boxes" you see for sale.  My goal with this project is to teach myself the other approach, the one I use in computer programming.  Make something that barely works, and get that emotional reward.  Then improve it a step and get another reward.  Try to keep those rewards coming in frequently enough to keep up my enthusiasm.

Another key is to get to driving it soon, so I can see if I even like the Valkyrie.  I've never driven one.  What if i decide I just don't like it?  Far better to find that out sooner when I have invested less time and money. 

In reply to ekauppi7 :

Somebody on the GT40s forum should eat a bag of dicks. Your car, your way.

Somebody on the GT40s forum should eat a bag of dicks. Your car, your way. Now we know where the Angry came from.

In reply to AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) :

Yeah, "strip it down and do it right" was not useful advice to me.  The guy wasn't mean and I wasn't offended. 

My perhaps over stereotyped impression of the guys on the GT40s forum is that they are typically retired or working jobs that do not require full time, and they have lots of money and time to build very expensive near perfect replicas of a famous car.  They drop $100k and up on a kit and then spend a lot of time and money on all the rest of the details.  Don't get me wrong, there is a lot of knowledge there and a lot of very skilled fabricators who love hands-on working on their cars and do beautiful work.  

But that's not where I am, which I why I moved my build thread here.

In reply to ekauppi7 :

Don't let perfect get in the way of good enough. 

In reply to johndej :

Yeah this is definitely the 'good enough' stage of the project. 

Once I get it running and decide to keep it, then it will move into the "make it lots better" stage.

My track record has lots of pretty good cars and bikes, but none that were perfect.  So I doubt that I will have the right energy and attitude to make this one perfect either.  But I can reasonably hope to get to where it makes me happy every time I drive it, the smiles outweigh the frowns.

Rad! I like the color

In reply to Shavarsh :

Cool.  Do you think a couple of wide white stripes would improve it?  Or what would you suggest to brighten it up a bit?  I don't hate the brown, but I do think it needs a little more zing.  What would you do?

Byrneon27 and anyone else I'd be happy to hear your suggestions.  How to wake it up without repainting it?

How about some vinyl side stripes? Example:

Or copy the geometry of the gulf livery in red or white?

Edit: the wide white stripes would look great though.

White or gold stripes.  Or copper.

In reply to Jim Pettengill :

Huh, I hadn't thought of stripes other than white.  Interesting idea!  Thanks.

Gold or copper on brown...  Subtle and different.  Hmmm.

As for the side stripes or Gulf stripe and nose...  My imagination isn't very good for this sort of thing.  I'd have to mock it up on the computer before I'd know if I like it.  Or just tape paper to the car I guess...

Today was an absolutely beautiful fall day, not too many of those left in Michigan.  So I managed to get a little work done on the Valkyrie after the chores.  First up was the rear clamshell prop rod.  That fiberglass rear clamshell is really heavy, not at all like race car stuff.  It clonked my head good on the way down last time I worked on the car.  No more:

It's not elegant, but it works.  I've started thinking about gas struts and built-in prop rods and etc, but that's for later.  This is appropriate for this stage of the project.  KISS.  :-)

So just about the only thing remaining before a test drive around the block is getting the starter to work from inside the cabin.  Look what I found under the dash:

I swear there isn't a piece of wire in there longer than 18" between splices.  Note that many of those splices are just bare wires twisted together, they certainly aren't insulated and they probably don't conduct well either.  My special favorite is toward the right side of the photo, two red wires with ring terminals connected by twisting them to one bare black wire. 

We discussed that "tear it all out and do it right" is not useful advice right now.  I stand by that, and tomorrow I'll get the key switch to work or more likely hack in a pushbutton start so i can drive this thing.  But really, if I keep the car long enough to drive it on the road more than twice, it probably makes sense to start over on the wiring.  It's just awful.  And this is within my area of expertise, I know how to do a good job on it without spending a crazy amount of time.  

Speaking of project planning, I moved the car out in the spring so I could do some messy bits.  The windows don't roll up yet so I bought a cheap cover.  I've gotta say, the Sealskin brand cover works great.  It was cheap, it's soft inside, and it is totally waterproof.  The fit is generic and the blue faded fast, but it does the job.  Recommended.  I just realized that before I pull the car into the shop for the winter (maybe under its own power, wouldn't that be cool?!) I could remove the rear clamshell.  Then all winter I would have access to the engine bay as well as the rest of the car, so the work I could get done would be limited only by my time and motivation.  Hmmm...

The wiring IS scary!   Crazy looking pedal set too. Please carry on!!

What did the glass for these come  out of, or is it specific to this car?

In reply to TurboFource :

I want to say the rear hatch glass is from a 65/66 Mustang. That's all I got.

To OP: Digging on the project. I absolutely wore out Kit Car books, catalogs and magazines as a kid. They are the main thing that got me into cars.

Obvious recommendation: Fire Extinguisher.

ekauppi7 said:

This sure looks like 1970s Detroit steel but I don't think it is Corvair. :-)  

I'm pretty sure that tank is from a 1960s era Ford Galaxie with an FE series engine.  (Shelby 427 Cobras used them too, so you can tell people it's from one of those.  )

In reply to stuart in mn :

Sure looks like it.  Thanks!  I'd never have known, I don't know old Detroit iron very well.

A little help identifying some Girling clutch hydraulic parts would be appreciated. 

Today's hoped-for test drive did not happen because the clutch, while thorougly pressure bled, does not actuate far enough to get the car into gear.  I bled it again and it's no better.

Question 1:  With the slave cylinder piston all the way out against the stop (snap ring) the pedal feel should be very stiff right?  Since the slave piston can't move.  It's not.  So a bad master cylinder right?  Or a leak but there is no evidence of that.  So I need a new master cylinder, and I'm inclined to replace the slave as well since it's probably not very expensive and the bore looks quite corroded.

Can anybody identify this slave cylinder?  The fittings are metric and the boot says Girling on it.  It's 20mm bore, or actually 20.4mm by my calipers.  The bolts are on about 90mm centers.

Here is a photo of the master cylinder, with the pressure bleeder attached.  The rubber under the cap says Girling.  But when I look at parts catalogs most Girling m/c have a round cast in reservoir, not this rectangular plastic thing.  Anybody got a clue what it might be out of?  Since I haven't removed it I don't yet know bolt spacing or bore size, but i will soon.  It's a two bolt mount, one above and one below.

I checked the old Valkyrie build instructions and they mention an aftermarket pedal box and a Ford truck slave cylinder which this clearly is not.  So no help there.    I can always go to Pegasus or somewhere for generic racer stuff, but if somebody can clue me in about what these might have come out of it would be easier and probably cheaper.  Thanks!

Oh and I got the starter to work, I didn't even have to add a pushbutton.  One of those nasty bare-wires-twisted-together not-splices under the dash was for the main power out from the keyswitch to almost everything.  Before any fuse, I believe.  Yikes!  Anyway after I soldered it together in preparation for adding the button, the keyswitch started working.

And I threw a fire extinguisher into the passenger seat area.  I've never needed one in all the cars I have owned, but this one just kinda has that vibe...

Maybe remove the slave cylinder and bleed it with the bleeder end up just for fun.

Those look like wilwood/tilton/mg master resivoirs, which could be added.to the round cast in resivour cylinders or to the lower profile versions all the race car stuff is based on. Assuming i remember correctly.