PANAVIA's DAYTONA COUPE BUILD THREAD - AKA Car #54 where are you >?

[PANAVIA]

Greetings all, I thought it time to start a build thread on my Daytona Coupe, #54.

Background;

I always wanted a Daytona Coupe ever since I saw one in a Hot Rod special edition magazine in the eighties. Being a working class kid in Mtn View California in the 1980's the Cobra / Daytona story was my favorite tale. From beating down Ferrari in FIA, to shutting down Sting Rays and XKE's = the Cobra and Daytona Coupe have been in my blood and daily thoughts.

You may have followed the progress of my former build / technical articles on the BRG Roadster "Lily" that has a New EFI BOSS 302 ( 326 ) and a T56 6 speed.

I ahve strived to make every car better than the last, serviceable and usable by the driver, this shows in our paid work at the Mustang Ranch in Santa Clara Ca, - ask yourself what is not just the 5000mile fix, but what is the 50,000mile fix on your build.

Sometimes when you are building something you short-cut something and eventually have to pay for the same real-estate twice, which I personally HATE doing. --

if there is a slightly more labor intensive permanent fix, -- then that is for me the pathway.

Alternately, if there is a way to reduce complexity and increase serviceability with a little extra effort -- so be it.

In addition we always think about -- can this be fixed in Moscow Idaho with parts from a NAPA>? -- a true test if your build is good.

With that preamble, down to the Meat and Potatoes.

Coupe # 54, was delivered to a Dealer in New Orleans, just in time for Hurricane Katrina to hit.

since it has never been titled, it is still on its MSO, and has never had an engine in it until Bob and I put the intended motor in.

There is another WebForum out there with all sorts of experts out there that have conjecture on the car and its parts, and how it was totaled , salvage titled, blah blah blah.

well, they are all wrong.

Here is the true story of Coupe # 54, My friends Ashton, Bruce, Peter and Doug, and how a Kid from Mtn View California is realizing his dream in the year 2011.

The Superformance Daytona Coupe is a limited edition beast with some 140 original "SPC"component chassis built-up, as far as I have information. After the original run of 140 or so, the MKII coupe was due to be released, and eventually this became the CSX 9000 car, sold as a Shelby. for the puprose of comparison later in this build, I will refer to them simply by the short letters SPC and CSX.

As we mentioned, #54 was damaged in a hurricane and was under 12 feet of water at one time, brackish water that eventually was pumped out, however when the water was dispensed, it had left its mark - not only on this chassis, but a people as well, our brothers and sisters in New Orleans.

In conversations with folks from there, the stories, the crushing weights of hopelessness and entrapment have educated me in a way that I don't know if I can do justice to by relaying them here. I do not think it would serve up a useful tale, so i will omit them from the build story.

So I will start from when the car arrives at my shop.

ANTICIPATION ; Is making me late -It's keeping me waiting - Carly Simon.

The coupe on the the truck seemed to take forever after its pickup in NOLA, it had to go to Florida, then to Barret Jackson in Scottsdale before eventually showing up in northern CA. -- so in 2011, my coupe has traveled literally across the country before an engine ever graced the bay.

It was a tight schedule, as I was also awaiting the arrival of another Daytona Coupe, car #73,- this one piloted by Peter Brock himself for "Peter Brock Day" at the Mustang Ranch.

a tense time at the Ranch' cleaning and preparing for multiple things, working on customer cars, - making sure deadlines are met all under the crushing weight of they year 2011.

When the car arrived , it came in an enclosed trailer scurried away in the top level of the carrier. - Troy came over to me in the shop and said, hey I think your daytona just go here. -- It was like Christmas , birthday, and new years eve all rolled into about 10 seconds. -- Clinically I am not a small guy by any stretch of the imagination, which freaks people out when they see an 1/8th of a ton of 6ft 2 American man scurry up a truck side ladder that was meant to hold maybe a fair sized house cat.

However , I could not wait, I had seen pictures, I was prepared for the worst, it might be a total write off, it might be beyond our capability, all of this ran through my head as as my feet worked their way op the collection of crushed diet coke cans that was the ladder. when I arrived up to her level - there she was....under a car cover like a 1979 Catherine Denuve, a 1953 Lauren Bacall, a 1969 Ann Margaret, she is in one piece, - she needs a bath and a lot of work , but amazingly intact and only some minor patina showing her battering at the beck and call of brackish surf.

She had arrived.

[PANAVIA]

So I am partially through the build process and ready to put some of this online and document this process. -- will advise , and we have an announcement on parts and services !

[86Sebring]

beautifully written, are there plans for the first date, perhaps to a drive in?
hey good luck with the build

[menace1]

Hey Steve, I hope it turns out as nice as that #4 car at Pebble Beach. It was good to see ya there.

Glenn

[PANAVIA]

Everyone has been very supportive and the build process is more involved than the Restoration of a 68 KR shelby we did a while ago.

Where we started - When they were let in by the feds ' - this is what they found.



12 Feet of Brackish, sludgery, *****es Brew.

if you look at the Roush sign on the wall you can see the water mark.

The car was cleaned and steam cleaned and re cleaned before we got it. -- it still had to come apart. -

as we received the car, it was cleaned but every time we dug under a panel, moved a wire moved a line light grey ash like silt came from everywhere.

who knew what lurked in the construction of its core, what was trapped inside ready to fill the cabin AC, or engine, or -- --- or---- there was only once answer, it all had to come apart. - But one problem Peter Brock was arriving in less than 1 week to our shop!

so we pitched in and took everything we could out of the car, and boxed it up with masking tape tags, no massive tear down, just the items piled in for transport.

we then immediately washed and washed again. -- simple green was the cleaning agent of choice for the chassis.

We were also cleaning the shop like mad, expecting the event to have many many people. , -- as we got ready , we pushed her into place.



We polished up and had a great event, - then the work began.

We had a plan, and wanted to build one of the best Daytona Coupes ever built, with all the culminations of all the projects that had kept us up late nights in the past.

it would be serviceable, street capable and a no apologies fully functional car.

The AC would work, the sound would be manageable, ride and handling would be up to spec, and we would modernize where prudent and extend capability where opportunity presented itself.

In short, how to build a performance car that can beat all but a very few, re-constructed by a Silicon Valley Technical IT consultant and a California CAL-FIRE Fireman.

--Steve Wood

[PANAVIA]

First Steps ;

when we examined the car after everyone went home, we found that the "brew" had gotten into everything and had coated things from the inside and out with the aforementioned grey silt. -

We removed all the carpet, all the interior coverings and most everything else.



We went through a few gallons of solvent to remove the carpet glue , and a few more gallons of "simple green" cleaner going after everything.



The brackish water and the co-content of evil brew had sucked the moisture out of anything rubber, it also flash rusted any thinner metals, and really did a number on any zinc coated bolts.

we gutted the interior, pulled the dash, steering and suspension , when we were done the car was a shell, sitting on a frame.



and then -- we cleaned again. simple green - lather ,rinse, repeat.

There were some things that we knew were not going to make it through the restoration process.

Many bolts were flash rusted, any thin metal was suspect and wiring & gauges were toasted. -

All the light fixtures were beyond hope, the electric fans and door solenoids , as well as the fuel pump were all "bricks".

The light fixtures were easily sourced from Moss Motors, - I wish they would figure out the cobra business, as their stuff is very nice and arrived as promised.

another discovery in this process is that mcmaster.com is the best hardware people on the planet.

I called in, as I was having difficulty finding some of the hardware bits and happy people answered the phone when I called, - they are so awesome.

So this process went on ; rebuilding the rolling chassis replacing and upgrading the hardware as needed. I upgraded everything to 1 to 2 strength ratings higher when replaced.
Since the Daytona is all metric , if the ratings were 8.8 - I upped them to 10.9's, etc. --

We found that the chassis coating / paint held up in almost all places and only needed to be cleaned.



We cleaned , scuffed and recoated where prudent to clean and restore the car , -- well build the car.
After all, how can you restore something that was never completed>??!?!?!

We were feeling much like the Builders of the last 2 coupes , the super coupes that were finally finished in 81-82!



The rear Differential is the Hydratrac unit, which is the same Dana AUSTRALIA Differential that is in my SPF Cobra, -- hot damn! we can save it - !

For the most part, seals and the grease itself kept the water "brew" away. This is where the services of many a gallon of solvent and mineral spirits, and in some cases gasoline to clean the grease and goo out of things - the CV joints were disassembled ,and their balls polished ( stop laughing ).

The Rear Diff was sent out to be checked , and replacement and seals obtained from FH Dailey Chevrolet in San Leandro, --afterall the Diff is from a 2006 GTO / Pontiac G8. -
-Rich over in parts will get you setup. - they have been indispensable to me in my quest, - more on that later.



Steve Wood (Panavia)

[xb-60]

Steve - wow, this is a rivetting story! This will be one of those cars that will forever be known by it's history. I'm hooked.
Cheers,
Glen

[PANAVIA]

The suspension pieces were cleaned and painted, and the rivets drilled out of body panels. insulation removed and urethane sliced, chewed and tugged.

We learned several things about the car in the process, empty fuel tanks are in fact flotation devices, and fiberglass is great for boats , or in my case , a submarine.



With all the items we had removed that were damaged and beyond repair , I was wondering -- Have we bitten off more than we can chew>? - we are re-manufacturing the car essentially , can we do this where we do not have wide access to parts.

I put a few calls in, and there were some things that we just couldn't get. Some of the items reconditioning cost was significant. - or alternately we could make them.

but then at a dark hour, I received a call from a friend , Dennis Peck of Dynamic. I had asked him if he knew of any dealers that had stock of Gen 1 Daytona parts that they would let go cheap, as the car was obsolete -- afterall - the CSX9000 car was already on sale !

Dennis had called with something better, - a customer of his, had Built a Daytona , but had personalized it to his tastes and had several key items that were "stock" with 140 Miles on them -

Key items such as wheels and tires, seats, seatbelts, many , many items. -

I contacted the gentleman and we started a discussion, that discussion continues today - more on that later.

Fortunate for me the Fellow Daytona owner was in LA - only 400 miles away, so on a Sunday night, My Toyota Tundra and I tuned the XM radio to the classic rock channel -and we went to Hollywood.

The owner was very fastidious in his caring and keeping of the parts, and this was terrific compared to some of the Mustang Parts buying events we had been on, - a convertible 69 Cougar we went to buy comes to mind -that actually had a tree growing through it, when we got there. -- details ...details.

Wheels & Tires , Seats, Seat-Belts, lenses , light fixtures, brackets, exhaust parts - all aboard Tundra Air Freight , Destination; San Jose.

This was the first boost in mid-project that was getting bigger and its scope widening to a point that we were faced with so much that was unobtainium, that I wondered if we would be able to source and reconstruct it to what I had hoped. this helped a great deal, as we now had seats with rails that worked, wheels that were not ruined by salt and grime ----

Now it was a ballgame.

Once we had the complete frame and chassis cleaned and we began work on core suspension reassembly, it started to look like a car again, and that it s key point in any project like this, you keep going down , down , the depths of deconstruction , - can we make it back from here, can we make this better, -- where the H@*# did this come from>?

Luckily, we had access to Friends and a digital camera , the second is immeasurably helpful in reconstruction of this type, - the first is "Double-That".

Since we had taken all the insulation out of the car, and it was a bare internal shell for a Cabin, - we had a clean slate to work with.

Many People look at the superformance cars, high tech cars, and think of them as a finished product. They are in fact, completed to a point. When you get your Cobra , GT40 or Daytona roller, it is factory built and they are making constant updates to the product, most of which is based on supply chain. - if they can get something and it is of good quality and of reasonable pricing, - it will be included. If something becomes unobtainum , then changes are made. -

I look at them as a clean slate, and my slate was cleaned with Simple Green and Laquer Thinner.

I wanted a coupe that would be able to cruise to Las Vegas and back, to Vintage motoring events, Gumball , Europe - wherever !

There has to be a celebration in Rheims for Bondo's victory in 65. - this coupe was to be built to make the journey. -- Time to get to work.

I had been introduced to many a coupe owner, most over the internet via email. - all of them with Stories about when the Daytona dream zip-tied itself to their brain, and they were helpless in its wake, the Datytona Dream is all encompassing, all enrapturing.

-- it is a different level of auto-intoxication.

-more pictures tomorrow, and into the Differences in the Gen1, vs the Gen2. Coupes!

Steve

[xb-60]

Steve - I'm serious here - have you thought about writing a book on your chosen subject? This is fascinating stuff!
And what submarine (the big rusty one) is it? Looks old enough to be a WWII job...
Cheers,
Glen

[SkipB]

More, more, more. I want more. This is great. Please keep us informed about the progress on this great car. I am sure it looks like a daunting project, but I am sure it will be worth the effort. Writing a book about it is a great idea and may help to offset some of the cost!

SkipB

[twobjshelbys]

What did you do to the inside of the frame tubes?

[PANAVIA]

when I was a kid - it was the coupe story that really gripped my skull and revved up my inner geek. - Especially The "Special Bodywork" rule in FIA that allowed "bodywork" to be applied to a car, to help its aerodynamics.

It is my impression that the rule had to do with nose and possibly a tail change.

Not a whole body! - but our friend Enzo did just that with the 250GTO , a 250SWB chassis with "Special" bodywork, --Ferrari campaigned to let his GTOs compete, and won the argument. However, what our commingling Il Commendatore had done was train the rifle scope on his own team.

They Daytona Cobra Coupe body took a leaf-spring Cobra from 140-150MPH car and turned it into a 200 scratching the limits of aerodynamics beast.

Il Commendatore once said something to the effect of , "Aerodynamics is for people who cant build engines." - it was most probably in Italiano, --but you get the idea.

It was interesting that at pebble beach 2011, that they celebrated the GTO , with 23 out of the original 32 ( not 36 ) cars on the front lawn. -



However, it was good to see a car 1 row in front of all the GTOs ( closer to the stage ) CSX2601. - the car that made the GTO obsolete, and slammed the door shut on Ferrari in GT at LeMans. , and later at the FIA championship in 65.

Here is CSX2601 with its new caretakers , they were very cool people to talk with.



So back to my coupe, - The Rear Diff is new enough where parts have not filtered out to the secondary market yet, so I had to go new. - once we figured out where things came from, a quick call to FH Dailey and we were in business.

In fact, I have visited them several times during my build and they have always let me dip into the Parts Drawings and find what I need.

After many a long hour of cleaning and painting components we were satisfied with the suspension and chassis to a point where we could work on the rest of the car. - At the time of her original damage, she was hit with the "brew" and in the weeks and months following that disaster, an important support mechanism fired up and began to work. they flushed the chassis tubes with fresh water and desalinated everything they could. - the salt in the water wasnt particularly high , afterall they were fresh water levees.

however the silt and goop was interesting to say the least. --

When we took the car down to a shell , one thing that had to come out-apart is all the electrics. -- The copper wire inside the lines was black and just nasty, everything from Fans to AC switches was bad, so in this case we are starting from scratch.

Light Fixtures are making their way in -



( oh and that is Misha -- Bobs dog, who is like 10 months old, -- she is going to be BIG.)



The lucas lights (Orange) are not what the coupe came with, but I like them better so they went on. - the other lights were motorcycle lamps and I just could not bring myself to install them, - and I am glad I put the Lucas lights on there , along with some nice WIPAC buckets and some trusty Sylvanias to get me through Brake and Light inspection!

Wiring; I have rewired several cars from scratch and they all run well , and have some new features. -

There were several options in front of me; Try to get a new harness from SPF -- well they were not sure when I could have one , which made sense as my version of the car was out of production and the new MKII coupe the Shelby 9000 Coupe was on its way, I had sat in one of the first 3 at Denbestes.

well, that was out. -

Option 2- use a Kwikwire harness like the kirkhams use on their cars. - Problem, they dont have AC, stereo and I wanted to add power windows, locks etc. -

well, that was out. -

Option 3- use a car harness from a car that had all those features and graft it onto the Daytona. -- well that was sub optimal and expensive as well.

Finally - The Light at the end of the wire ; ISIS POWER! The ISIS intelegent multiplexing system with CANN buss technology. - Adaptable, programmable , flexiable -- hardly any wires running from the front to the back of the car, except generic power and a network style cable. - that is it!

Isis works in a "One-to-Many" hub and spoke pattern , where the Main ISIS controller has network communication with endpoints that actually transmit power signals to things like lights , pumps , fans, and they can feed them voltage slowly as well. --

Example - lets say you have a master cell under the dash hooked to your controls. --and a Slave cell (power cell ) bolted in the nose or tail. - from transmitting signal to the master cell on what to do, the slave cell receives instructions and channels power to a specific output and can do so in an intelligent manner. Like flashing turn signals with no flasher switch/relay needed. Programmed patterns for turn signals , touch the turn signal button for a short time and it will do a 3 flash pattern then turn off. - or flash to pass headlights, or soft starting of fans -- the list is endless.

so the neat thing about ISIS is that you can always add something and not have to string wires from the front to the back of the car - a main power wire, and a network wire are already there from the first install. I have heard some of the FF5 guys using these in their cars, especially the GTM Car. -

I Started planning out the ISIS process and contacted Jay Harris from ISIS and their team has been very helpful in helping me re architect the electrical ideal in a supercar, -and that work is underway with some interesting surprises ahead.



INSULATION INSULATION INSULATION --- so one thing many people have told me over the years in cobra land is Insulate. --! so we did.

I went with a full install of Dynamat sound isolator in the cabin , 360 degrees around the insides of the foot boxes, then a layer of Mylar backed jute padding for underneath the carpet - we then dynamat tapped the seams of that together to allow for a better carpet installation task -- as of right now, 9-9-11 we have not put in carpet, there is a bunch left to do.





Here is bob insulating ! ;



More news when i get a chance --!

[SunDude]

Steve, I love this story of you and the guys bringing this beautiful car back from a watery grave. Please keep the story going and post lots of pics. All the best, Brian

[PANAVIA]

The Series 1 -AKA Mk-I Daytona Coupes from superformance are about 140 In quantity, - and there are some changes to the car during the production run, -

My Car #54, is not that early , but there are changes on later cars, - I have seen #102, and #139 recently and from a big hardware point of view , they are mostly the same-

One thing that was helpful in this build as we talked about earlier is freinds and a digital camera, - I went down to LA to see # 139's owner and get those "Take Off" parts he had, and took some photographs of his setup , he also has introduced me to other coupe owners, all have been very gracious and kind with time and photographs , and many a telephone conversation.

When we were setting up the engine bay one thing I thought was missing from the daytona - an aluminum firewall like my cobra - so without delay we crafted a pattern and generated a .090" thick firewall. U428 Urethane bonding agent ( found at your professional paint mongers ) is GREAT glue for these cars, if you need to bind fibrelgass to basically anything else this is the stuff. - so Bob and I glued the firewall in and used the steering column and other bolts through the firewall for additional security.

you can see the aluminum firewall in the photo above. -

it dresses up the engine bay considerably!

Since the dash was full of silt - it came apart in the mass excavation that was the interior.

[Got the Bug]

Steve,

I can't wait to see your Coupe in person again. This reminds me of the episode of Tank Overahaul where the late Jacques Littlefield recovers a tank from a riverbed in Poland.

[PANAVIA]

In the meantime we decided to look at a Brake upgrade since we had things apart - I went with a significant upgrade to match the power of the coupe, especially this coupe. - The SPF coupes braking system is a combination of C5 corvette and german based hydraulics.

So in looking for the C5 systems in regards to possible upgrades I spent many an hour engineering and reading and drawing up solutions.

I reviewed Many manufacturers offerings ranging from 400$ to 8K. -- lets just say i kept to the lower part of the scale. -

In reviewing what our C5 friends were ( are doing ) i discovered a true find. - the 2006 Z06 Brake system as it sits on a 2006-2011 Z06 - I also looked at the ZR1 system, but that would have broke the bank and then some.

The PBR produced Z06 brakes can be had at your local Dealer and are of reasonable price and value when you look at the competitiveness in this market.

However, a word of warning, -Just because they Bolt-On to a C5 corvette , they dont just "bolt on to your coupe" - some machining and adult supervision is required, -kids dont try this at home.

The Rotors as obtained from SPFs supplier originally are modified to fit the coupe -

here is a list of mods that they do ;

1. Drill them out a Ford / Dodge / Mitsu /Mazda bolt pattern of 5 x 4.5" for the lug/pins to go through, these new holes are also countersunk a bit for the base of the Pin Drive lugs to screw down on top of them.

2. Bore/Mill out the Hub register (big center hole) to fit the hubs on the coupe, radius the backside cut so it mates to the hub and seats ( sits flush )

This took some time to do and we had to have the centers done at a Larger machine shop with a larger lathe to bore the center out precisely, and have it be a concentric circle with the hub.

We then found that the Calipers originally had a 2 piston single sided front, with a single piston , single sided rear caliper. - in the Z06 (2006) this was upgraded to 6 pistons front, 4 in the rear, - I know Jeremy Clarkson keeps saying more is better, so we went with it.

The SPF calipers on the coupe are basically stock with script engraved in the fronts. since mine were damaged, they function OK, but look like hell even after scrubbing and painting - So we went with the C6 Z06 Calipers.

See the below photos for detail, - questions welcome.

Keep in mind I have not road tested this yet, and chapters are still being written.





More news as it happens !!

Steve

[PANAVIA]

Update 10-11-11 = ! Well we are making good progress and I will be segmenting and uploading more photos and interesting content. --

If you look, I have begun to segment the updates in sections to make relevant materiel available to folks for the part of the car they might be working on - Like - Radiator , Brakes, Steering, AC, Shocks, Fuel tank, etc.

Besides my lovely wife Kristin ( Car Girl of the first class ) Many people have been very supportive and without their involvement, this would not be even close to where it is, and where it is going.

As we spoke of in earlier posts, the sum total of the wiring in the coupe along with every single electronic device is a , or has been 'bricked' for those of you in tech, you will immediately understand what I mean. -

when something has been bricked' it is of no electronic function any longer.

one thing I thought that was funny about this is the immobilizer.

In the Katrina damage, --- the immobilizer is bricked. -

- there has to be a wicked logical loop in there somewhere.

OK, so what to replace and where to get it - and how much is too much!

Running inventory of lighting systems ;

Head Lights; the Front headlights are a Wipac bucket, with a Wipac H4 carrier 7" lamp that contains a small parking lamp bulb as well as an H4 style headlight. They are available via the British Parts connections , however I was able to Obtain a stock set of takeoffs from #139 as he has retrofitted a Lucas tri-bar style lamps and I bought them along with many other take-offs.

The Wipac Plastic Headlamp Buckets and trim rings are no different than the units used on the Cobras-

Front Turn Signal lights - The nose lights for right and left signals came from some sort of motorcycle application and I found and sourced some versions on the internet. The OE SPF units are sourced from a SA lighting supplier , but the form factor is the same as many bike lamps. - they can be replaced easily.

However I personally just did not like them , so I performed a mod that is a degree rotated version of something I had seen on other sports cars with this style of enclosed nose/covered headlamp. We took a Lucas repro L488 light with an orange lens and created a mounting to take up some of the concave cavity and allow the 488 to be displayed in the nose.

FogLights ; The stock fog light is from AutoPal - autopal brand of an Indian company ( Autolite india ) that makes many lighting solutions for multiple countries. Autopals distribution in the USA is somewhere in the area of Nebeulos as I think they probably supply the "aftermarket" crash repair parts houses in the US, but I personally have only seen their boxes distributed via Fee-Bay.

Rear Tail lights - there are two sets of dual element L488s with a single hella stripe light. - I think I have the correct Hella top light on order, I will update when I confirm.

Interior Lights - so far I cannot tell where they were from , and I am going in a slightly different direction anyway so I will update that once it is determined.

I updated the rear of my car with a better license plate holder and lamp than stock to dress it up a bit, both available from Moss or FL.

all for now - Steve

[Flygirl]

The build is looking really good; not the fault of the pics but I'm not sure they're doing it justice!

[PANAVIA]

Update 10.19.11 - We are making excellent progress and are almost ready to put the radiator and shroud in for the final time - with our radiator update I had to have custom cooling tubes generated.

Air conditioning is a big lump in the middle of the pavement we have to iron out, not the condenser or evap unit, but all the little crazy door movers and such.

I have contacted a couple of aftermarket AC companies and have been looking through our manuals and in that department we are making slow progress.

We have some interesting information on Racks, steering and other items that I will go put over in the Coupes section.

[PANAVIA]

Update 10.19.11 - We are making excellent progress and are almost ready to put the radiator and shroud in for the final time - with our radiator update I had to have custom cooling tubes generated.

Air conditioning is a big lump in the middle of the pavement we have to iron out, not the condenser or evap unit, but all the little crazy door movers and such.

I have contacted a couple of aftermarket AC companies and have been looking through our manuals and in that department we are making slow progress.

We have some interesting information on Racks, steering and other items that I will go put over in the Coupes section.