Project DF Goblin Kit Car

"The Goblin Build-it-yourself Kit Car
The Goblin is a modern kit car designed from the ground up to be affordable, easy to assemble and fun to drive."

In this build log I will attempt to provide affiliate links for the parts and products I used to help assemble and customize my kit. Hopefully this will help others find the correct parts for their build in the future.

This kit will be based on the standard track frame for the supercharged version of the kit. Later on in the build I convert from a supercharger to a turbo. Later I swap out the bottom for a b207r and eventually update from the ko4 to an EFR turbo.

Our donor car is a 2007 cobalt SS with 197k Runs and drives picked up locally for 2700$

Home and ready to get started with the tear down.

This is the 2.0 litre ecotec motor with an m62 supercharger. This one has been fitted with a smaller pulley to spin faster and push more air into the motor.

Connecting a hose to the fuel rail feed line. Always remember your fire extinguisher, Safety First !

Jumping the fuel pump to get the last bit of gas out.

Got the motor out of the donor with no troubles.

Below is the electric power steering from the 07 cobalt that will be reused in the Goblin.

Cool power steering unit that senses pressure via rotational torque placed on the wheel. We updated the c3 corvette with a similar unit from the Saturn Vue. I found a supplier that provides a plug a play adjustable switch that can be used to turn up or down the power assist as needed. The c3 corvettes are notorious for leaking power steering pumps and it turns out to be a perfect solution.

Power steering column and wheel.

Body harness stripped out of interior and set aside to rework later.

Dash removed and ready to strip.

Upright's, power steering rack, axles and lower control arms painted and ready. They will be reused in the rear of the kit car later.

This is the F35 LSD transmission it has a 4.06 gear, good to know I have an LSD ! Part # is : 55563239

Gutted the A/C compressor, later I will go to turbo and not need the pulley position.

I always wanted to see the inside of an AC compressor. This was a good opportunity to gut it and still used the bracket to continue to use the supercharger.

Head Looks good enough 197k miles has taken its toll. There is actually some rust on the cams and noticeable wear on the lobes.

Took this picture early on in the build and didn't catch that the chain guide was broken off and the chain pins are worn on the top edge. Block almost looks like it was molded in a Styrofoam cooler.

The tensioner was tricky, the bolt was hiding behind a little cover. Maybe that explains why the tensioner looks so rough.

Wiring harness has lots of grounds. The data wire continuity needs to be maintained during the rewire.

Seems the 2007 SS supercharged donor came with a limited slip diff/transaxle a bonus for putting power down to the ground.

Head has seen better days cam lobes are worn looking this engine is just under 200k. later the engine gives up the ghost and is replaced with a 60k mile B207r bottom end.

Had Amazon send over some new dorman header studs as the old one were all fouled up.

Making some attemps to create my own rollbar adaptors to attach to the Goblins rollcage. this 3d printer is incredible addictive. I have even printed out light switches with free shared files off of thingyverse.

The ZZP shorty header looks nice with the new studs I like the reflection off the header sure it won't stay that way for long.

Supercharger has a little chatter going to change out the oil and snout coupler to see if that make it go away (noise was gone after the engine was together again so I assume it worked)

Replaced the trans mount and It wasn't the most fun job. I would probably go with the solid mounts from DF if I did it again.

Used my jigsaw to help cut out the center of the busing and was able to easily pry out the rest afterwards.

Frame/Kit finally shows up at the terminal. Its a good day and now I can move on to putting this go kart together !

Got the frame into the garage with forks on the tractor.

We are going to run Miata wheels and tires on this kit for ease of wheel selection, so I got a new set of hubs with 4x100 bolt pattern that fits the front spindles that came with the kit and correctly match the axle splines of the rear LSJ. Going to primarily use the car for autocross So I will probably update and replace these high mileage wear items in the build.

Copied affiliate link below

Motor is in and the car is super simple to put together.

Very well designed front suspension lots of grip and doesn't need gobs of camber for the corners.

Front end is nearly completed.

NRG wheel hub adaptor installed so I can run a quick release steering wheel. The "adaptor" the "quick release" and a "steering wheel" are needed to make it work. The car is cramped and its a must for me to get in and out without hurting myself.

Purchased new control arms for the kit and replaced the Bushings anyway. The stock rubber bushing would give too much play for me so I upgraded to the prothane and the Moog problem solver spherical rear bearing for less deflection under acceleration and Braking.

Total weigh of the car with me in it is 1631 thats pretty light considering i'm about 200lbs. cross weight is high from rear driver to front passenger I will see if I can move things around a bit to get a more neutral balance to the car.

Had a little fun with the 3d printer and printed some 3d centercaps with Goblin heads on them.

Needed something that could hold the steering wheel while getting in and out what better than a hand ! The address to download the STL file is :https://www.thingiverse.com/dirigibleplumz/designs

https://www.thingiverse.com/dirigibleplumz/designs