Million Dollar Skunksworks Kirkham

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Johnson

Why don't you run more button head or countersunk solid aircraft rivets instead of bolts? Also are you running anything like mastinox between the bolts and aluminum to reduce the dissimilar metal corrosion?

We bolted everything together on purpose...we didn't know if we were going to have to take it back apart again!

This is the only billet chassis on earth and even though I am really happy with it, there is still a pile of "shame" parts that didn't fit, blew up, ran out the door with gremlins, etc. Even the Space Shuttle Columbia had a few issues, so we decided to be overly cautious.

As for corrosion, you are very right. Frankly, Loctite does a wonderful job of sealing the joints. We sealed EVERY bolt with Loctite. Also, I doubt this car will see much rain, or any elements for that matter.

I did look up the mastinox stuff...looks REALLY cool. I think I am going to get some. Thanks for the tip!

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by sshurts

Tom Barnard of Tom's Motorsports did the CV-Joint modification to a couple of Kmp's that I know of (mine included).

He is also well known for his mastery of chassis setup.

He is located in Las Vegas, NV.

Best of Luck,

Scott

Scott,

Tom is a great guy. We have gotten lots of killer ideas from him.

David

[David Kirkham]

Originally Posted by Ronbo

David, Any plans of a CV retrofit for the existing U-joint half shafts??

I'd be interested.

Now I did it, here comes the originality posse...

We are seriously looking into that. Now that it is completely engineered it shouldn't be that big of a deal to implement it. There is the problem of time, however. We are very focused on this car right now and so we will not be upgrading our cars for a bit still.

David

[sshurts]

Hi David,

I have little doubt that Kmp can, and someday will, produce this outstanding upgrade/improvement for CV-Joints. As you mentioned, time is always a challenge and I know that we talked about the doing it to mine two years ago. I went with Tom's because my schedule was already set when you kindly worked with me on upgrading my suspension to the latest billet (at the time...).

I'm always amazed and impressed, when I visit Kmp, at all you accomplish and with such a small and talented team.

Best of luck and keep up the great work.
Scott
p.s. did you get my email about a skunksworks project...

[CSX 4039]

Originally Posted by David Kirkham

That was some beautiful playing! That piano looks to be in the 9 foot range. I think it would shake my walls! I am looking for something in the 7 foot range.

David

Thanks.
BTW the Imperial Grand is 9'6", and one ton wgt due in large part to the large cast iron frame. That frame holds over 30 tons of string pressure, and the piano weighs so much we braced the floor from the basement.
So, could a billet aluminum grand piano frame hold the 30 tons of string pressure? Sure would save a lot of lumbar spines when trying to turn the thing on it's side to take it out the front door and down the steps....
It's akin to carrying a Kirkham 289 through your front door, but without the wheels.

[David Kirkham]

We finished up enclosing the foot boxes today. They were very challenging to get around the starter and the header. I do not envy my guy who will start on the header construction tomorrow!

[David Kirkham]

This is a head on shot straight into the business compartment. Notice the huge hole just waiting for an aluminum big block monster.

[David Kirkham]

This is a shot looking at the driver's side foot box. Notice the holes in the top of the foot box for the throttle, brake, and clutch pedals. We also moved the wiper motor into the cockpit. Every little bit of weight you can move back helps (and we moved a lot of stuff back!)

[David Kirkham]

Here you can see the front suspension is now making it back on to the chassis.

[David Kirkham]

Here the rear uprights and the CV's axles (with the right length bolts) are now assembled and installed on the chassis. Notice how long the rear lower control arms are.

[David Kirkham]

Here is a close up of the rear differential with the CV joints. Our CV joint system is much easier to work on that other CV set ups on other cars. These axles simply pull out of the differential (like all modern cars)--making the differential installation much, much easier.

[David Kirkham]

Here you can see a close up of the suspension push rod. Notice the push rods are tapered! We did everything we could to save weight.

[David Kirkham]

Everything on the car was made as tight and as light as possible. Notice there is only about 1/8" clearance between the push rod and the CV joint!

[David Kirkham]

Finally, here you can see the billet motor mounts. We designed them so you could install the engine side of the mounts on the engine and have the frame side of the mounts already mounted to the frame. All you need to do is simply lower in the engine and put in the cross bolts. We designed the motor mounts with cross bolts so in case of a rubber failure, the engine doesn't torque up and have the side pipes smash into the body (one of the charming problems with the original cars.)

Also, you can not install the motor mounts onto the engine on an original 427 Cobra and lower the engine into the car. The mounts have a stud that sticks out at a 45 degree angle that prevents the mounts from being lowered into the frame. So, you have to lower the motor just above the frame mounts and then snake the motor mounts into place--without moving the engine and smashing your hand! (another original snake bite waiting to happen!)

[David Kirkham]

Preliminary body installation today! I am happy (and impressed) the CAD data was correct! Everything lines up perfectly. Good thing we digitized the body!

[David Kirkham]

Thomas inspecting the body installation and giving a few pointers.

[David Kirkham]

You can see we slid the engine back a bit to help with the weight distribution of the car. From all of our calculations, this car should handle better than a small block as we moved the CG quite a bit. We will see once we start driving. As they say, the proof is in the driving!

[Don]

David

From contact with the Experimental Aircraft Association, Genuine Aircraft Hardware was mentioned as a possible source for the " AN (military/aircraft) coarse threaded bolts " :

http://www.gen-aircraft-hardware.com/

Or, they may be aware of a source.............

Don

[Joe@KMS]

Originally Posted by Don

David

From contact with the Experimental Aircraft Association, Genuine Aircraft Hardware was mentioned as a possible source for the " AN (military/aircraft) coarse threaded bolts " :

http://www.gen-aircraft-hardware.com/

Or, they may be aware of a source.............

Don

Thanks for the tip. We will check with them.

[David Kirkham]

Don,

Thanks for the tip! I'll post more pics soon.

David