HM-2005 Build Thread

[Russ Rittimann]

I had my unfinished car on display at the 2016 Texas Cobra Club meet this year.  I have brought it in its current state every year since I started it back in 2011.  Steve and Jason from Hurricane were at the TCC again this year to enjoy the meet and festivities.  Steve had asked I post on the Hurricane forum how I have done things during my build.  He said they might be very helpful to the other guys that are currently building their cars.  So, I will use this thread to post some of the things I have fabricated, reworked or have added to my car.  There won't be any particular order in how I post stuff up, just whatever I'm thinking of at that time.  It may take awhile to get everything posted.  Plus it will give me something to do during these 100 plus degree days when it's too hot to be out in the garage.

Attached is a couple of pictures of my car at the TCC this year in front of the Hurricane trailer and with the company car. 

John Shelton gets credit for the red rag wheel stop!!

Russ

[Russ Rittimann]

I made brackets to hold the fans for the fresh air system.  They are made from 1/16" aluminum as shown in the pictures.  I just riveted them to the 1"x1" engine compartment braces.  I used some 3/16" snow mobile rivets that are steel and have a pretty heavy duty head.  I think the Ace Hardware stores carry them or eBay.  I actually found them down here in south Texas at a discount store.  We have only seen pictures of a snow mobile around here as it hasn't snowed since 1985.  I tapped a 10-32 screw into the inside hole and a screw/nylon locking nut for the outside hole on the fan motor.  That way they can be replaced if necessary when the car is finished.  The 4" hose clamps were made from some 6" or 7" hose clamps.  I just cut the worm part off and used the strap.  Used a Whitney punch to punch the holes, a pair of pliers and my hands to bend them to shape.

BTW, I don't have a fully-equipped machine shop in my garage.  Those brackets were made with a hacksaw, belt sander, drill press and a cheap harbor freight sheet metal brake.

I did powder coat the brackets.  That was a "bennie" at my work before I retired this year.  They could have easily been painted.

Russ

[s_reynolds]

Russ, good to see your build stuff. I can relate to the no machine shop comment. You have to be creative when fabing some of this stuff. I didn't even have the harbor frt. brake. Would have been nice. I'm in San Antonio at present so I understand the heat! Keep the pics coming.

Sam

[Russ Rittimann]

Most Hurricanes have the Girling reservoir cans and Wilwood master cylinders.  Mine is no exception.  A lot of guys have used flexible -AN stainless lines with a barbed adapter to transition from the flex line to the plastic adapter on the master cylinder with a short piece of rubber hose.  I decided to run mine with 1/4" steel hard line.  The parallel hard lines look nice and tidy.  Used a standard -AN fitting for the reservoir cans then a short rubber hose (same hose that came with my Wilwood master cylinders) to connect to the master cylinders.  I made some brackets to hold the hard lines parallel.  They are made from two pieces of 1/4"x3/4" aluminum rectangular stock.  Just clamped the two pieces in my vice and drilled 1/4" holes where the two pieces meet.  Put a piece of short tubing to hold the two aluminum pieces in line, turn it 90 degrees and drilled the holes for the mounting screws.  I used 10-32 stainless screws to mount the clamps to the engine compartment sheet metal.  Again dressed things up with my 2" belt sander.  Clamps can be made with a hacksaw, drill press and belt sander.  See pictures.

You can make a bulb on the end of the 1/4" hard line with a double flare tool.  Just clamp the hard line in the flare tool clamp extending it out about 3/32" extra and start the first step of the double flare.  It will bulge the hard line (makes a bubble).  Makes a perfect end to put a rubber tube and clamp on.  Took me a couple of times to figure out how much to flare the first step to get the bulge or bubble.

There is no pressure on the reservoir lines as it is gravity feed for the brake fluid.  I just used some spring type clamps for the rubber hose.  You could easily use worm clamps. 

Russ

[Russ Rittimann]

Here's a picture of the bubble you can make with a double flare tool on steel tubing.  Perfect for inserting rubber tubing and a clamp.

[Kruse]

Very nice work Russ. and I like the "bubble"

[Russ Rittimann]

Grounding can be a real issue if it isn't done right.  Anyone that has chased electrical problems know that you can lose a lot of hair when it is related to poor grounds.  Ground problems seem to be prevalent in cars up in the "rust belt" too due to the salt on the road.

Therefore, I decided to make sure everything was properly grounded when wiring my car so hopefully I won't every have grounding issues.  Here's some things I did to ensure positive grounding.

1)  I put a jumper from the main battery cable where it attaches to the motor to the frame using a piece of #2 wire.  Same wire Hurricane supplied for the main battery cables.  Drilled a hole in the motor mount.
2)  I put some jumpers between the dash support and the frame on each side.  Used #6 wire.  See picture.
3)  I put grounding studs on the frame to provide ground points a places where there were a number of ground wires.  These were just stainless 1/4" bolts welded to the frame with star washers and nylon locking nuts.  See pictures.  I put three on the 2"x2" support behind the dash.  One in the center and two on the sides where the engine compartment supports tie in.  I ran individual ground wires to the headlights, marker lights, horns, fan, etc. to make it easy to connect to them without having to splice the ground wires.  A little extra wire but much easier to wire up.
4)  I also put grounding studs in the trunk up against the cockpit for the rear lights, main electrical ground and battery.  One on each side.  Again, individual ground wires to the tail lights, license plate light, fuel tank sender, etc.
5)  I tapped a hole for a 10-32 screw in the right rear quick jack mount to ground the fuel fill to eliminate static electricity.  Removed the powder coating for a star washer.

My frame is powder coated.  To ensure electrical contact for the dash support jumpers, I used a spot weld cutter to cut away the powder coating.  Made a nice round spot for a star washer.  Have to be careful as the spot weld cutter is designed to cut metal so just applied enough pressure to cut through the powder coating.

One of the pictures shows the 4 circuit fuse panel I added for the extra circuits like the fresh air fans, power outlet, etc.  Nice compact unit that fit on the 2"x2" support behind the dash.  Easy enough to get to the fuses.

Again, this is just the way I addressed grounding while installing the wiring.  Other guys might have other ideas.

Russ

[Russ Rittimann]

I decided to install a couple of courtesy lights in the foot boxes so you can see what's going on at night.  Like the lights that come on around your feet in modern cars when you open the doors.  Found a couple of LED marker lights on eBay that weren't overly bright.  Wanted more of a glow.  Can always add a resister to LED lights to dim them down too.  Made a couple of sheet metal brackets out of 0.040" aluminum as shown in the pix.  Installed a couple of 8-32 riv-nuts to hold the LED lights.  Powder coated and riveted the brackets to the front of the 2"x2" main dash support as shown in the pix.  Added a switch to the dash for control.  Works pretty well.

Russ

[s_reynolds]

Russ, to me it's the little "extras" that make the build fun. Keep the updates coming.

Sam

[aarvig]

That is a really cool idea!  Gonna have to institute that into my build as well.  Our boat has some courtesy lights on the floor that are LED.  I may try and find some like it (round 1 inch diameter).  I also want to use the boats stainless steel cupholders in my tunnel to park my coke when I'm driving.

[s_reynolds]

I used the SS cup holders on the tunnel as well. Glad I did.

Sam

[Russ Rittimann]

Hurricane uses a standard GM ignition switch as part of their supplied parts.  Unfortunately, it is designed to be mounted on a sheetmetal dash and the fiberglass dash is really too thick to install the nut on the front.  There just aren't enough threads to get the nut started.  Especially when the dash is covered in vinyl.

Therefore, I undercut the fiberglass dash in the back to reduce the thickness so the switch could be mounted.  I have a Dremel tool with a router attachment.  Took the router attachment apart and made a shoe out of some thin hobby plywood as shown in the pix to be able to set the depth.  Didn't want to take too much of the fiberglass material off.  Used the switch to mark where to remove the material, then used my Dremel tool freehand to cut the backside of the dash as shown.  Worked very well as it allowed the switch to extend through the dash enough to be able to screw the nut on.

As a side note, it doesn't take much to remove this switch.  With the exposed terminals/wires, someone could easily "hot wire" the ignition with a couple of jumpers.  I would suggest installing a hidden ignition kill switch somewhere to prevent this from happening.

Again, this is how I did it, others may have done it differently.

Russ

[s_reynolds]

Russ, it is hard to tell from the pics, but my ignition switch had "flats" on both sides of the switch and the hole in the dash was round that the switch mounts into. There had been complaints that the switch would move over time as you used the switch to start the car. Several of us fiberglassed flats on each side of the dash hole to match the flats on the sides of the switch so the switch could not move in the dash hole. Yours my be different, but wanted to pass this on.

Sam

[Russ Rittimann]

Sam

If you look at the top picture and the bottom picture you can see the flats to keep the switch from rotating.  The hole that Hurricane drilled in my dash was small enough to be able to cut (actually with a file) the correct "double D" hole.  I also fiberglassed in the hole (if you want to call it that) they cut for the steering boss and cut a nice round hole for that too.  Other than that the holes for the gauges and switches were surprisingly pretty good.

Russ

[Bob Worley]

I think Double D's are good.