Valkyrie ressurection, GT40-ish kit car

In reply to akylekoz :

Good idea.  I did that.  Twice.

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to ekauppi7 :

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

Hand model wisdom should be quoted. \../

It was another beautiful autumn day in Michigan.  I had less than an hour to work on the car after work and before family stuff.  Can't do much...  but I was able to take the clutch master cylinder out with no problem at all.  Three fasteners including the pipe, none of them rusty or over-tightened.  And access was easy.  I am growing to love working on this car -- it's so simple.  And it's always been stored indoors.  And the previous owner did not over-torque fasteners.  Wow.

And I got lucky.  A few nights ago I was searching for generic master cylinders on some of the race parts sites and almost the first thing that popped up was this part.  It's not generic or Girling, stupid disobeying search engine... but damn if it doesn't look just like mine.  Now that I have it off I believe it is exactly the right part, has the same slanted mounting  bolt holes and the 11/16 bore is right and the M12 thread is right.  From  an '88 - '91 Chevy truck.  And the slave cylinder for the same truck looks like mine which almost makes sense since it's the same motor and bellhousing basically. 

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/DHB-CM116209#overview

The only mystery is that the part is newer than when the car was built.  But maybe a subsequent owner (how many were there?  I don't know) changed it out.  There are several odd holes around there that might well be from other master cylinders.  I wondered if he changed the brake m/c too, since they look like a set.  And there are adapters on the brake lines, I would guess from metric m/c to US brake lines.

But sadly no, the brake m/c is not from the same Chevy truck , the outlets are on the wrong side.  Oh well, that's a problem for another day.  Today the new clutch slave and master cylinders are ordered from Rock Auto, I'm pretty sure they will fit and fix the problem, I'm feeling good.  This was easier than I expected.  And I got out in the sunshine for a little while, and made it to dinner on time.  Like I said, I'm coming to love working on this car.

Success!

Today I finally went for a test drive.   Just around the block, 1.5 miles.  It  goes, stops, turns, shifts, all the stuff a car should do.

It's not running well, I wasn't able to boot it and do donuts, but this is still a major milestone.  The photo isn't much, since I was flying solo so there is no video.

It's coughing and backfiring.  Sometimes diagnosis is easiest if you remember "what did you touch last?" but in this car it may be more like "what haven't you touched yet" is the likely culprit.  Somebody said "most carburetion problems are in the ignition".  In this case I have rebuilt the carb but not yet touched the ignition.  The PO muat have had a generic set of plug wires, he even zip tied spark plug wires together, a no-no in my book.  Not to mention the ones resting on the exhaust manifold.  Seems to me that backfiring and spitting through the carb could well be caused by mis-timed sparks.

So my next step is plug wires, and distributor cap and rotor while I am at it.  As you can see it has the GM HEI ignition, which is usually good except for a tendency to arc through rotors. 

Now I am thinking about what's on the short list before I bring the car into the shop for the winter.  I'm definitely going to remove the rear clamshell before I park it under the lift.  If I do that and put it up on jackstands I should have good access to just about anything I'd want to work on.

In reply to ekauppi7 :

Congratulations on achieving this milestone 👍

I really like the P.O. routing the wires thru the dipstick handle 

Actually I did that after I changed the oil.  A bit of whimsy.  Before that the wires were laying across the exhaust manifold.

But I don't like the long close parallel routing of the wires.  So easy to get crosstalk.  I ordered a new wire set with straight boots to keep the wires away from the manifold, and will do it neatly with separators to keep the wires apart.  I was tempted but did not order the expensive SBC-specific bolt down wire holders.  There may come a time for that, but for now I'm in "improve it to good enough" mode.

Zip tie wire looms

In reply to Dusterbd13 :

Yes I have seen and occasionally made the clever zip tie looms with zip tie spacers.

Gotta love a Miles Vorkosigan quote.  My favorite is from Cordelia, something like 'think we know what we're doing but really we are all just stumbling around in the dark stubbing our toes and wondering why it hurts".  I need to go find the exact quote, I bookmarked it somewhere.

In reply to ekauppi7 :

You're the first guy to comment on my signature. Im glad im not alone! Great series. Made me think a lot about how and why i do what i do. 

And the zip tie looms are done on every plug wire job i do now. Virtually eliminates crosstalk and burnt wires for a few minutes of work with some 8 inch arbor freight ties. 

I always assumed these things we VW floor pans. I have to say I am pleased to see there is something that looks almost as crude underneath with enough horsepower to pucker my ass wet or dry. 

I have to wonder if the all the brake master holes were changes made in response to an especially tight pucker?

I like were this is going, I as well am digging the not your generic bucks up GT40 vibe. Looking forward to more to come. 

In reply to ekauppi7 :

Nice GTS1000 in the background. I've always wanted to build a sort of sportbike superleggera version to see how much weight could be dropped off it. IIRC Performance Bikes magazine did it. Wish I would have held on to the build issue.

In reply to Pippins :

Thanks!  Yeah FiberFab and others made a lot of kits on VW floorpans.  The tube chassis, even if relatively crude, is what sold me on this car.

That and the GT40 look, Kelmarks and the others are sort of cool, but I like this retro vibe.

Yeah I know this car has had a few owners but I don't know how many.  I wonder if CarFax will work on a pre-VIN car?  But anyway there have clearly been multiple changes made in hydraulics, wiring, and even paint color.  

In reply to myf16n :

Good bike spotting!  Most people walk right past the GTS1000 without blinking.  It's for sale, very reasonable, if you want to chase your dream.  I have too many bikes, need to thin the herd.  FWIW which might be $0.25, mine is even signed on the swingarm by James Parker.  He showed off a very lightweight racebike with similar front suspension at a GTS rally I attended many years ago.

In reply to ekauppi7 :

Thanks for the offer. I need to finish an RC30 project before I can take on another bike.

I made some more progress, got the Valkyrie and a small herd of motorcycles indoors before the snow came.

Lifting the rear clamshell off to make it easier to work on indoors under the lift.

The clamshell is *heavy* with the glass window and all.  It's not like racecar stuff at all.  My partner and sometimes helper was very impressed that I hung it from the ceiling.  Never enough  room in the shop

New home for the winter.

I hung my Europa body from the ceiling too! Like the flag by the Europa! Your Europa doesn't have cooling problems with the license plate blocking airflow?

YIKES!

That looks like a graphic representation of the world economy. Please do replace the wiring in this thing as fiberglass burns.

The pedals are also interesting. Small feet perhaps required to drive this chariot?

In reply to TurboFource :

I don't know, I've never driven it.  It's a Europa.  :-) But seriously, that license plate is something I would remove for sure.  The PO said he parked it for a water leak back in 1979 or so, no idea if the license plate was a contributor or not.

In reply to NOHOME :

Yeah all the wiring is bad but under the dash is worst.  Also of course hardest to work on and fix. 

The original Valkyrie instructions say they provided three wiring harnesses -- front, rear, and main.  Frankly they all need to be re-done.  I'd love to find the original wiring diagrams.  Main meaning the cabin and controls is the most daunting and also the one in the worst shape.  Yeah it's a big job but it is one I'm well equipped for.  I've done the CAD for wiring several prototype vehicles and then led the team that built them (and did the troubleshooting....)  

I think I'll decide about new steering column, and decide what to do about gauges -- keep or replace -- before I do the main harness.  In hopes of doing it once, more or less.

Yes the pedals are ... interesting.  I wonder what the builder started with, Corvair?  This might be the car that gets me to invest in a pair of skinny driving shoes.  The left wheelwell cuts into the space a lot.  But on my drive around the block, the pedals were not high in my mind, my feet could find them OK.  There were plenty of other problems to occupy my attention. 

Just for grins, google "Don Sherman Valkyrie" and you'll get his article for Hagerty's magazine a while back detailing how he built a Valkyrie way back in the day and it landed him the job of Technical Editor at Car and Driver magazine.  Lots of pictures of his car under construction and his was a nondescript brown, too.  Worth a few minutes of time to look over.

I missed that you got this thing around the block before winter, nice job! 

Yeah, that wiring is definitely scary!    Looks like a fun project to pick at!

In reply to ekauppi7 :

After meeting you at the Ypsi get-together, I went back and read through this again. Looks like a decent project, and I agree with your get it running approach. Just one observation about the design....what were they thinking using 2x5 tubing that thick?. If you go look at the chassis for a rally bred Lancia Stratos it's not that thick or bulky. Makes me wonder about the all up weight of the finished car, and what it could be. Is the body made of matte or done with a chopper gun? I'd love to see it sometime.

In reply to DeadSkunk (Warren) :

Warren, good to hear from you.

The tubing is indeed 2" x 5" for the main frame.  I like that, big cross section is good.  Reports differ on whether it was 0.120" or 0.083" wall.  The factory welds look pretty good but I would guess MIG not TIG.  I'm not a welding expert but maybe 1970's welding technology was what drove the wall thickness decision?

Yes the fiberrglass body is surprisingly heavy, it has a substantial feel.  Some few things are boxed in but a lot of the strength just comes from open shapes.  The bodywork is pretty thick.  Again I'm not an expert but looking at the inside I see random fibers a few inches long, not woven mats.

In reply to Jim Pettengill :

I read the article.  Thanks for the tip!

After discussing headlights, wheels and graphics with you yesterday, this shows up on FB this morning........also, note that there are hood pins on the front clip. Am I correct in thinking your clip is part of the main body and not removable?