Kirkham Motorsports Assembly Manual

[David Kirkham]

Fellow Car Nuts:

***IMPORTANT NOTE***

Because no one is posting on this thread (except me and Ron) you can SUBSCRIBE to this thread and have it EMAIL you updates every time I update the thread with a new post.

When viewing the thread...above the first post is a Pull-Down that is called THREAD TOOLS.

In there you can pull down "SUBSCRIBE TO THREAD."

Then you can pick how you want to be notified every time a new post is made!

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