Kirkham Motorsports Assembly Manual

[David Kirkham]

Fellow Car Nuts:

***IMPORTANT NOTE***

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This site is COOL!

Back to the thread:

We are putting together two very special cars right now for a GREAT customer. I can't say who they are right now, but one of the cars will be shown at the SAAC Convention at Miller Motorsports Park this next weekend.

We figured as we put the cars together, we would photo document the process so everyone could see what we do and how we do it. Most importantly, we hope to show WHY we do what we do.

To keep the continuity of this thread, PLEASE post all questions on the Assembly Manual Questions Thread

Please keep this thread on topic--no discussions of the family dog, bench racing, politics, the war in Iraq, Nifong, or where to get a good burrito (well, maybe we'll let that one slide). We DO solicit your questions, comments, insights, ideas, suggestions and preferences! We want to make this thread as best as we can. We have sold well over 500 cars now and we probably can't see forest for the trees so we need your help to see what we can't see. Ain't the internet GREAT! How did we live before?

Next, a little advise. Putting a car together is EXTREMELY difficult and time consuming. It takes us about 100 man hours to assemble a car--without putting in an engine or transmission. I figure it would take a customer about 300-400 hours to do the same work. This blog can not and will not replace common sense. If you are not comfortable putting a car together or you do not have very much experience, then DON'T DO IT! Please leave it to someone else who is competent. I have seen many, many poor and DANGEROUS assembly jobs (a very few, unfortunately, even on our own cars--that customers or their own "mechanics" have put together). Some of the WORST work I have seen has been from "Professionals" who definitely should have known better. I have seen some things that I can not believe made it in our door without killing the customer (like the man who drove his original Cobra up here from California with a "little rattle" and didn't think much of it. When he pulled in I heard the rattle in the front end and I asked him about it. He quipped, "I don't know, it has ALWAYS been like that!" I took the wheel off and started checking things. I grabbed the caliper and it moved... I then removed the caliper bolts with my FINGERS (ONE THREAD LEFT BEFORE he was featured on You Tube) and handed them to him!

Now, back to the fun stuff!

The first thing to do, of course is to buy yourself a cool Kirkham Motorsports 427 KMS/SC and get it into your garage. Grab your son, son in law, neighbor, or buddy and SMILE because your dream is about to come true. Grab a cold drink and smile again.

It won't be long before you see you NEED to get yourself a car lift. It makes assembly MUCH easier. You can always tell your wife you NEED the lift to "save" money--or something like that. (Remind her this is a father-son, father-buddy bonding experience and besides, it it cheaper than seeing a shrink. We call it Garage Therapy.) You know what excuse works best on your wife so we will leave any other stories to you.



First thing to do is to get your car on the lift.

David

[David Kirkham]

Rear of KMP0521

[David Kirkham]

The first thing to do is to look at the car and seal up any holes in the firewall. Years ago, we had a friend, Chuck, who came to the shop and showed us his Nova he used for drag racing. When he opened the hood to show off his engine my brother, Thomas, noticed a BIG 4 inch hole in his firewall where the heater used to be. (Drag racers like to remove EVERYTHING from their car. They are crazy about removing just a few pounds. Funny thing is most of them could go to the gym and remove 50 pounds off their own rear end and get a much cheaper and better effect...I digress). Anyway, my brother saw the hole and informed him, "There is a reason they call it a firewall. If you have an engine fire, you will roast." Indeed that very weekend we saw on the evening news Life Flight had been called to the track. We knew Chuck was racing a Nova that looked too much like the black burned out bomb on the evening news...

When we went to visit him in the the University of Utah's burn unit, he was burned so badly we didn't recognize him. He searched our eyes and kept asking how he looked (they don't allow mirrors in the burn unit). He spent months in recovery. Fortunately, he finally finished therapy with full use of all the parts that got burned and remarkably little scarring. Luckily, his face was almost entirely spared because of his helmet and thanks to the excellent staff at the University of Utah Burn Unit who cared for him. Of course, as his friend, we now call him "Chuck Roast." So, anyone who works on a Kirkham, or any other cool car...SEAL YOUR FIREWALLS!


David




I just had a GREAT question PM'd to me.

David,

Don't want to mess up your thread with a question like this, so I thought I'd ask it offline: what do you use to caulk with?

After your stern lecture/story on sealing the firewall which I heartily endorse I must ask: is your caulking fireproof?

Not being critical, just asking,

Gents:

These are the EXACT questions I welcome people asking. PLEASE don't be shy...post any questions on the Assembly Manual Questions Thread

We use 100% silicon caulking because it has a very high temperature resistance. Is it "fire proof?" Well, no, but neither are you at 400 degrees! It is all about getting time to get out.

This is what we use. Notice it is HIGH TEMPERATURE!

[David Kirkham]

You have to seal up all the little holes and cracks where the panels don't fit together perfectly; or, where two panels come together. Make sure you fill up any holes in the floor or foot boxes as well. We use standard high temp silicon in a caulking gun.



David

[David Kirkham]

The first item of business it putting in the wiring harness. You want to put the wiring in NOW because nothing is in the way and the harness strings through the entire car.

In this picture, you are looking at the engine firewall. You are standing at the front of the car looking back across the engine bay. The hole in the firewall just above the foot box (the white box with the black Kirkham data tag on it) on the RIGHT side of the CAR is for the part of the harness that goes to the alternator, head lights, and MSD wires.

I suppose NOW is the best time to define LEFT and RIGHT. Whenever we say left or right, we are ALWAYS referring to the left or right side of the car--not the photo. (If we are referring to the left or right side of a photo we will very explicitly say just that.) By convention, LEFT and RIGHT is designated as if you were driving the car. That is why cars in England, Australia, and many other countries are called Right Hand Drive cars--the steering wheel is on the right hand side of the car.



David

[David Kirkham]

Close up of the hole.

[David Kirkham]

Left side hole.

The wiring goes in the hole closest to the center. The wiper tube and the sending unit wiring from the dash goes through the outboard hole.

The big round hole in the top of the foot box (to the right (in the photo) of the 3/4 x 3/4 square tubing) is for the fresh can from the fresh air system which will be installed later.

The funny shaped hole in the front corner of the foot box is for the accelerator pedal assembly which will be installed later.

You can see the stainless heat shields which were installed in Poland on the foot boxes.



and close up.

[David Kirkham]

Here is a picture of the aluminum Kirkham differential installed in the car. You want to install the differential now because you don't have the suspension banging you in the head while you are crawling around under the car. Every time someone in the shop bangs their head someone always shouts out, "COBRA BITE!" It is MUCH funner to yell "COBRA BITE" than it is to hear it.

[David Kirkham]

This is a picture of the differential breather hose where it goes through the trunk paneling to connect to the catch can which is in the trunk. The breather can is now mounted up high in the trunk. The hose is not yet connected to the 90 degree bulkhead fitting in the panel as you can see the hose (too long and yet to be cut) is still in my fingers. The hose and 90 degree bulkhead fitting must be oriented the same way they are oriented in the picture or they will interfere with the travel of the rear upper control arm at full bounce.

[David Kirkham]

This is how the differential breather mounts. You want the breather to be mounted as high as possible.

[David Kirkham]

Differential breather hose hooked up and run properly.

[David Kirkham]

You can see the stampings in the back of all of our differentials. We stamp them with the date, who made the, the type of locking differential (all of our differentials are lockers but there are several different types), and the gear ratio of the ring and pinion.

[David Kirkham]

Bottom shot of the differential installed.

[David Kirkham]

place holder

[David Kirkham]

placeholder

[David Kirkham]

another place

[David Kirkham]

Notice we use aircraft 1/2 high nuts on the mount. We try to save weight everywhere we can.

[David Kirkham]

And now, to the HEART of the matter.

Keith Craft Aluminum 427 FE
Shelby Aluminum Block
Scat 4.25 inch stroke crank
482 cubic inches
Aluminum Edelbrock Heads
Stage 2 CNC ported heads
Forged pistons
Edelbrock Performer RPM Heads
Aluminum Flywheel
600+ horsepower

This is how it arrives from Keith Craft

[David Kirkham]

[David Kirkham]

We simply tuck it the wires back by the mount.