Street Serpent #5

[ASPIRATIONS]

Jeff,
Do or Have you thought about making a SS kit for coupes?? I was going to trade my o6 coupe at one time for a o5 yellow vert to have you put the ss kit on and your hardtop..Its a killer look and your rear is especially what makes the vert to me since Iam not a fan of the oem rear on the vert....Beautiful work!!! Yelloh should get your hartop too,best of both worlds.AND stripe it!!!!......

 

[steponz]

Pm'd ya back Jeff...

Joe

 

[Jeff Lemke]

Jeff,
Do or Have you thought about making a SS kit for coupes?? I was going to trade my o6 coupe at one time for a o5 yellow vert to have you put the ss kit on and your hardtop..Its a killer look and your rear is especially what makes the vert to me since Iam not a fan of the oem rear on the vert....Beautiful work!!! Yelloh should get your hartop too,best of both worlds.AND stripe it!!!!......

The kit will work on coupes just fine. It's actually less money (no need for a decklid). That would be quite fun to do, I'd love to see it.

That being said, I'm temped to design my own coupe with a lower roofline. Someday.

Jeff

 

[ASPIRATIONS]

I told my wife my 06 would be the last car for a LOOONG time but I convinced her the changes to the 08 were worth the extra money,lol...I would love to see your ss body kit on a coupe as it would look killer in the wider stance.....I would have to wait at least a year but Iam definately interested....Could you please PM me a rough price having you do all the work....Thanks,Kevin

 

[YELLOH]

Hi Jeff , man the car looks awesome. The front end looks so sweet. I enjoy looking at all the updates. Thanks for everything.
Rick

 

[SnakeBitten]

Coming along beautifully....Cant wait to see it painted......

 

[Jerry Colpitts]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!! That's It!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[redlineviper]

Beautiful car jeff,

Can't wait to see more pics.

 

[KepRght]

wow thats coming along fast! looks soooo good! would there be any positive chassis strength difference starting with a coupe and doing this package? More or less head room? I ask because im thinking about what car I should do this package on.

And thanks for doing this on the forum, its awesome to watch!

 

[Jeff Lemke]

wow thats coming along fast! looks soooo good! would there be any positive chassis strength difference starting with a coupe and doing this package? More or less head room? I ask because im thinking about what car I should do this package on.

And thanks for doing this on the forum, its awesome to watch!

I think a coupe would obviuosly be stiffer, more headroom as well.

Jeff

 

[treesnake]

Not to hijack the thread, but regarding wheel spacers...I am currently in the process of adding SRT brakes and rotors to my gen 2. In research, I found one of the VCA sponsors, DAVESBIG BRAKES, sells wheel spacers and E.T lugs. They are used for additional clearance to accomodate the size of the larger SRT calipers with an 18 in. wheel. Dave is in the vendor section. Hope this helps.

I made the "track" wider on my car (gen 2) by custom ordering the offsets on my 3 piece wheels. I moved the ' track width" out one inch on each side. Works and looks great.

Btw
Jeff, The car looks great. I should be taking del. of my 06 coupe soon. I plan to look you up, especially since you just stated that your kit will work on the 06 cpe.

Hope there's not a problem referencing a gen 2 in the gen 3 forum.

 

[redlineviper]

Any updates please

 

[Jeff Lemke]

I'll try to have some tomorrow.

Jeff

 

[Jeff Lemke]

Today we're getting into the large amounts of sanding and fine tuning the fitment. There's alot of work involved with the sanding, but not very much interesting stuff to show. However, here is an example of perfecting the fitment.


The front door section is a little off so we cut a piece of 1/8" sheet wax...

We then leave the door open a bit and stick the sheet wax to the door.

With the door closed, we spread some fiberglass reinforced filler to the fender to fill the imperfections.

Once hard, we remove the sheet wax for a near perfect gap. Once all of this basic work is finished, the car will be baked for a few hours to make sure alll fillers and fiberglass panels are stable.

 

[ROCKET62]

Sheetwax? You run a fancy shop there Jeff . My body guys uses plain old cardboard. A quick update for Serpent #3 - my Viper has been disassembled and if all went as planned, he should have finished priming all of the panels on Friday. The panels and hood that I saw on Thursday look awesome being all one color again. Next step - reassembly and then off to be baked!

 

[Jeff Lemke]

Sheetwax? You run a fancy shop there Jeff . My body guys uses plain old cardboard. A quick update for Serpent #3 - my Viper has been disassembled and if all went as planned, he should have finished priming all of the panels on Friday. The panels and hood that I saw on Thursday look awesome being all one color again. Next step - reassembly and then off to be baked!

That's great! I've been waiting to see #3 completed for a while now. Looks like you might beat me to the finish on this one. We've been delayed a bit, but #5 should be done around the 1rst of the year.

Kandy apple red......

 

[Jeff Lemke]

Still sanding...

The car goes in tomorow to get baked. Next week will be more exciting when we start the painting process.

Jeff

 

[Billy The Kidd]

question?...I shimmed out the quarters really close to a great gap, but there is a bit of a wave to the edge of the decklid. Can I just use short strand reinforced body filler to make it perfect or do I have to make a ledge underneath and then put it on so it doesnt crack off? Also, the top of the decklid seems to flex separate from the under part of the decklid.. can I shoot in something to bond the two halves so it doesnt flex so much? thanks in advance

 

[Jeff Lemke]

Billy,

Yes, short strand glass will work for the little extra fill. Make sure it is baked with a heat lamp or oven at min 150 deg for at least an hour.

Some fiberglass bonding glue (like PLEXUS 1025) will work for the flex issue.

Jeff

 

[jpas]

Billy,

Yes, short strand glass will work for the little extra fill. Make sure it is baked with a heat lamp or oven at min 150 deg for at least an hour.

Some fiberglass bonding glue (like PLEXUS 1025) will work for the flex issue.

Jeff

Hi Jeff, do you remove all of the panels and bake them, or are you using heat lamps?

 

[Jeff Lemke]

Actually, I'm heading over to a shop ( about a mile down the road) that has an oven I can put the entire car in. It's best to stabilize them in final position. Once the car gets back here and we remove the panels for paint, we can heat individual panels with a heat lamp if we have to.

Jeff

 

[Jeff Lemke]

I just got back from my first drive in Rick's car. WOW. What a blast. OK, lets see, I need to update my car with Motons, Exhaust, shifter......

It's actually quite amazing to see how many dropped jaws and thumbs up were had in one mile with an unpainted car. One of my employees followed behind and said "Man, that thing looks so LOW and MENACING on the road."

Seeing it off the hoist on a street is much different looking. I love this car.

OK. I'll wind down my excitement now.

Next week the panels will get removed once again and we'll start prepping them for paint. Things are starting to get really fun and it's times like these that I love my job.

Jeff

 

[mike & juli]

LOL--I actually enjoyed thoroughly your excitement/enthusiasm, Jeff!!! It's people like you who we want working on our cars!~~~! Gosh, it's so cool to 'see' your vision on this car coming thru, EXcellent job as always! ~juli

 

[Snakester]

Yeah Jeff, This is a real treat to watch everything come together step-by-step with this Viper and your Serpent body package.

 

[Jeff Lemke]

Thanks guys. I can only hope people feel at least some of the excitment I have for all of this.

Jeff

 

[mike & juli]

Thanks guys. I can only hope people feel at least some of the excitment I have for all of this.
Jeff

We sure do!!! THAT type of excitement/enthusiasm is WHY we LOVE people like you~~and it shows in your work, Jeff. Shows the love you have for these cars for sure!
A huge thank you, and hope you and yours have a great holiday season. ~mike & juli~

 

[Jeff Lemke]

HOLY SMOKES! Has it really been a week since my last update? Wow, I'm really slacking. Honestly, other projects seem to be a RUSH for everyone this time of year and I've barely had a chance to touch this car. The upcoming holidays is not going to help matters.

The good news is we are in the home stretch. The panels are now being removed (again) and re-gelcoated. I am currently block sanding some of the new gel coat and spraying primer today. We will see painted panels next week.

At that point, I'll once again try to update daily.

Jeff

 

[mike & juli]

Looking smokin' Jeff!!! Great job...thanx for all the illustrations and walk-throughs you've posted for all of us...hope you have a GREAT holiday season...may the New Year be a great one for you and yours. ~juli

 

[Austin]

HOLY SMOKES! Has it really been a week since my last update? Wow, I'm really slacking. Honestly, other projects seem to be a RUSH for everyone this time of year and I've barely had a chance to touch this car. The upcoming holidays is not going to help matters.

The good news is we are in the home stretch. The panels are now being removed (again) and re-gelcoated. I am currently block sanding some of the new gel coat and spraying primer today. We will see painted panels next week.

At that point, I'll once again try to update daily.

Jeff

I know thats not the paint, but I bet the car sure would look good in that.

 

[mike & juli]

I know thats not the paint, but I bet the car sure would look good in that.

I totally agree, Austin!!! I was even going to say that too...juli