1963 Team CJ Lightweight E Type (MW) Chassis 002

This lady had a tough job to do! Jay and I talking about the Team CJ Lightweight Let's take this thing for a drive! I couldn't count all the cameras that the crew attached to the Lightweight! Not quite finished but close enough for some fantastic road testing and shakedown over the last few days! We will be displaying the car at the Hagerty's car show at COTA tomorrow. Anyone local who is planning to attend the SVR racing and/or the car show, stop by and say hello! Headed for the hills! Installing the seats, belts and dash top. Driver's seat is anchored to the cage Tan hide a nice contrast with the Gunmetal paint Dash top now installed Installing leather bonnet straps, decals, headlamps, etc. Jake fabricated new alloy inner door panels Fabricating aluminum inner door panels and machining custom center caps for the Dunlop racing wheels. I am delighted to report that this car will feature on an upcoming episode of Jay Leno's Garage (to be filmed in December). Alex has been busy installing the wiring harness and plotting out the layout of the dash. Plotting out the dash format Foam reinstalled Preparing to weld the tank back together Tank now fully welded End panel tack welded in place Fuel cell modifications, continued... Ready to install This is a stunning quality item exhibiting workmanship of the highest order, although unfortunately we are going to have to modify the tank fairly extensively in order for it to fit. We just received the FIA approved 35 gallon fuel tank from Axminster Specialist Panels in England. The biggest issues are the rear wall, where the tank does not allow enough room for the boot latch and bracket, and the filler neck does line up with the corresponding hole in the boot lid. Foam will be removed and replaced RH side panel will be carefully cut away Unfortunately no room for the boot lid latch Making a template for the boot latch recess Cutting away the center section of the rear wall to provide clearance for the boot lid latch Now room for the latch which can be installed or removed without removing the tank Tank retaining straps will bolt to the rear mounting bracket Plotting the location of the rear mounting bracket Plotting the anchor points for the forward wall of the tank Hole for filler neck will be moved inboard almost 3 inches to work with filler neck hole in boot lid Making stainless fuel screens Rubber mounting strips glued to floor support rails We chose some period Italian made DCOE9 45mm Webers for our Lightweight project. Fuel lines will be concealed in front of the tank and inside right rear wing Rear mount bracket now secured, straps trial bolted to bracket Those carbs have now been completely rebuilt and installed on the special wide angled Crosthwaite and Gardiner intake manifold, along with a custom made free flowing Stage Two exhaust system from our friends at Hayward & Scott in England. Installing the FIA approved roll cage in the Lightweight. Jake and Gerardo installing the FIA roll cage 3.8 pedal box has been modified for use with later master cylinder and booster Ray busy installing the custom Hayward & Scott headers and intake manifold to the wide angled head. Great to see the drive train installed Installing the engine, transmission and Dunlop racing wheels and tires. The Lightweight on its wheels for the first time! Time to start going together with this Team CJ Lightweight! Dunlop 6.00 L-15 racing tires for the front Dunlop 6.50 L-15 Racing Tires for the rear Ray installing the control arms Installing the new engine frames Special CJ/Wilwood vented brakes all round We painted the bonnet, hardtop and boot lid yesterday afternoon. Unmasking the body to reveal the bare aluminum inner surfaces. Note underside of bonnet has been left in bare aluminum Alloy hardtop was painted at the same time as the bonnet and boot lid Earlier today we painted the main bodyshell Opalescent Gunmetal. Time to put this car together! The underside of the floors will be first to be painted I am pleased to report that we have now begun the process of painting the Lightweight. Gerardo applying the first of the Opalescent Gunmetal paint Sealed with epoxy primer Note all the rivets which are a feature of the Lightweight's construction Panel fit has now been finalized With all of the body and panel work completed, the lightweight is now only a few weeks from its Opalescent Gunmetal paint. Interior of the car will be left bare aluminum Seat back support brace for driver's seat Reinforced steel frame fabricated for mounting seats to floor Exposed rivets a feature of the quarter and rocker panels Bracket is tied to the main cage Submarine belt installed through seat base Carlos did a beautiful job fabricating and installing the tan hide seat covers Carlos busy making your hide seat covers.. Threaded steel mounting plates will be positioned beneath the aluminum skin Welding the alloy skin back in place Repeating the process on the other side of the car Cage is now bolted to the steel brackets Note how all the boot floor rails are secured with dozens of rivets Special 'wash' primer is applied Bare aluminum is first treated with a conditioner which fortifies alloy substrates Boot compartment and cabin will be left unpainted bare aluminum Cabin will be left in bare aluminum Followed by our regular 2K sealer Custom forged CJ pistons designed to work with ultra large valves of the wide angled head. reduce seat width by approximately 1 inch Marking out area to be sectioned in order to Note difference between the two seats after the driver's seat had been modified Seat cut down the centerline Finalizing position of driver's seat New Dunlop alloy replicas are superb quality Roll cage installation, continued.. Spinner from Steve McQueen's XKSS side by side with one of your new spinners Notching sections of the cage tubing for perfect fit TIG welding upper screen protective bar in place Trial fitting and welding the roll cage. Sample 'test' weld to be submitted for FIA approval Trial fitting hardtop over cage Rear section now virtually complete Trial fitting screen surround Lower/rear anchor point Machining for custom CJ top hat liners Block machine work in progress. Magnaflux checking block after de-sleeving revealed no cracks Checking for zero deck with gauge block Surfacing the deck of the cylinder block Align honing in progress The following sequence of photographs show Matt starting to assemble and install the roll cage, the Suffolk & Turley tan hide we chose to trim the seats, and corrective work done to the wide angled cylinder head. Block machine work now completed Matt has huge experience with roll cages and is enjoying working on the lightweight cage Valve stem to guide clearance was more than twice what we like to see Beautiful tan hide will be used to trim the seats With guides removed, we ported intake and exhaust runners New CJ guides installed Special 'Trojan' CJ guides bring F1 technology to this special engine build Machining out seats Note stem to guide clearance now .001" Head now flows 20 cfm more on the intake side, 15 cfm on the exhaust New custom CJ seats installed Seat pockets sized for custom CJ valve seats Machining multi angled valve job After align hone, cam caps now perfectly sized and aligned Cam caps were between .003" and .006" out of round on the intake side - align hone required Team CJ Lightweights feature high tech CJ carbon fiber driveshafts IRS components have been media blasted and powder coated, front suspension Nickel plated... Wide angled head and special Weber manifold Note modified control arms, per original Front suspension has been Nickel plated Special Weber manifold for use with wide angled head Front suspension components going out for Nickel plating Upper control arms modified per the original 1963 Lightweights Bracing prevents flexing due to hugely increased torque of the Stage Two engine Reinforcing the rear wishbones with 7/8" chromemoly tubing Uprated rear calipers and vented rotors Just how much does a fully assembled Team CJ Lightweight E Type body weigh? Setting aside some of the components for the Stage Two engine. The build will feature a billet crankshaft (stroked to 4.2L), forged Carrillo rods, ultra-light forged pistons, a high output billet oil pump and a 12lb Team CJ billet steel flywheel. This car features a lightweight aluminum monocoque with chromium molybdenum engine subframes and steel reinforced suspension anchor points. Time to tear down the donor car and harvest the parts we need for this Team CJ Lightweight E Type. Gauges are about the only things we need from the cabin Matching number engine block will be used with a wide angled head IRS will be rebuilt and upgraded Body shell cut in two during tear down Not much of use left in the engine bay! Carte Blanche...indeed Steering and suspension components will be salvaged and upgraded