My FFR Type 65 Coupe build

Packed up for finishing

2010-07-11T21:03:00.001-07:00

I have decided to have the car finished by a professional builder. So the last few weekends have been wrapping up the electrical system and some other things that I thought would be best for me to do. Then today I buttoned up the car, did an inventory of my remaining parts, and boxed everything up.

I'm expecting to have the car finished in time to do some fall driving this year.

Moving along

2010-04-05T09:48:00.001-07:00

It has apparently been 18 months since my last post. For those who were following expectantly, sorry about that.

I did eventually get the driver's side door on and fitted nicely. Then almost a year ago we had our third child, which slowed things down. But I'm back on it.

The rear hatch is fitted and installed. I had to cut the frame and reweld it a bit smaller, as most coupe builders have done. Installed the plexi to the frame with 73 little stainless button-head screws, each of which had to be marked, drilled, and tapped. There are 4 where the hole went through a weld and I broke either a drill or a tap. At those spots, I'm just going to cut a screw head off and glue it on for appearance.

I finished the passenger door last night, more or less. It was not a good fit, and I had to re-shape the inner curve of the door to match the curve of the body. I had to grind so much material out that I went through the fiberglass in spots, so then I cut away some, glassed in a patch, and filled. But my patch wasn't a great fit either, and I wound up grinding it down again far enough to make a tiny hole. But the door opens and closes solidly, so what remains is basically just cosmetic work.

The two really hard things left (I think) are getting the windows fitted and matching the nose to the body.

Driver's door

2008-11-16T18:25:00.000-08:00

Fun weekend. Spent the entire weekend on the driver's side door, and it isn't even close to finished. The door consists of a fiberglass "skin" over a steel frame.

I'm following the directions Mark Dougherty posted a while back instead of the FFR directions. First I trimmed the door skin to just fit the opening with tight gaps. This wasn't hard, but it was a little bit scary because I really didn't want to trim too much. I tried a couple of methods but what worked best was an angle grinder with a flap wheel. A light touch is essential!

Next I worked on the door frame. Got the welded bolts roughly parallel, ran a thread die over all of them to clean up the weld oxidation, and ground out the slots on the hinge arm for a "sloppy" (i.e., adjustable) fit. Opened up the factory door hinge cutouts (they were way too small) and installed the hinge and frame. Opened up the hinge cutouts some more to allow full motion. I also installed one shim washer under the upper bolt of the hinge mount bracket to get the angle of the frame a little better.

Then I installed the striker bolt, and adjusted the door frame to engage it. Perfect. But then I hit the first big snag.

Dougherty's directions call for sliding the door skin over the frame while the frame is already mounted and aligned on the latch. But the cutout on the front of the door is not large enough to fit the frame/hinge arm assembly as a unit. OK, fine. A bigger cutout is no big deal. 30 seconds with the Dremel and I have the skin on the frame, feeling like I'm a genius because fitting the doors is supposed to be really hard and I'm almost done.

Center the door skin on the body. Easy. Clamp the door to the frame. Oops. Not even close. The genius feeling is gone.

I have a few problems to work out. I need to extend the striker a little bit more, which should be easy. I need to shim the hinge forward on the frame a bit, which is also pretty easy. I need to grind out the slots on the hinge arm to angle the door up even more. No trouble. Shouldn't be more than 10-20 hours more work and I'll have a working door on the driver's side.

Directions for installing the fuel filler

2008-11-13T14:56:00.001-08:00

1. Throw away the straight 2" rubber hose that you received with the kit. It is intended for the roadster and has no place on your coupe.

2. Buy the LeMans cap spacer from Mike Everson. You need it to keep the LeMans cap from hitting the body when it opens.

3. Buy NAPA part NBH 1046, 2" fuel filler hose with 45 degree bend.

4. Cut the fuel filler hard pipe. Leave most of the straight portion after the 90 degree bend on the lower piece. If you followed the manual and cut near the middle of this straight portion, you should have just barely enough straight pipe to make it work. The upper part needs to be cut down to just the last straight bit before the bend. Try to cut just behind the "bulkhead" in the tube with the spring door.

5. If you're a master craftsman like Russ, cut the tack welds on the fuel filler flange and reweld it closer to the end of the pipe. This not only looks cool but will save you the frustration of dropping the little white spacers about 10 times as you're trying to align the flange with the body and get the nuts on the screws. (Personally I didn't do this, because the thought of welding on thin pipe terrifies me.)

6. Position the fuel filler pipe in the hole from above. Mark and drill the body for the screws.

7. Get some #10 machine screws, washers, and nuts to replace the sheet metal screws or whatever they are in the kit. I just don't trust anything threaded into fiberglass.

8. Position the cap spacer on the body. Mark and drill the body for the screws. Slide the screws in to hold the spacer in position. From underneath, mark the filler flange screw holes on the spacer.

9. Drill recesses in the spacer for the filler flange screws. Don't go all the way through, but make sure they're large enough to contain the entire screw heads.

10. Screw the LeMans cap tightly onto its mounting flange. Keeping the spacer aligned with the screw holes, position the cap in the desired orientation over the spacer. Make registration marks on the spacer and the mounting flange.

11. Remove the cap from the mounting flange. Using the registration marks, mark the flange. Drill and countersink the flange.

12. Lubricate the filler pipe sections with vaseline to make the fitting much easier.

13. Cut down the hose to fit. I did it by cutting a little, trial fitting, cutting a bit more, etc.

14. Slide the hose clamps over the hose but do not tighten. You need everything sliding freely to geta the best alignment. Also, put the collar thingy on the lower pipe section.

15. Install the pipe/hose assembly and mount the flange to the body. This is where you get to drop those little white spacers over and over again. You can also drop the nylocks. They bounce and roll really well. (They're 10-32 thread, in case you've discovered just how well they bounce and roll.) Remember to install the ground wire on one of these screws. BTW, you could cut at least 1/4" off these screws to save yourself some work. 32 thread, so that's 8 full turns.

16. Tighten the band clamps and install the collar thingy. The bolt for the collar is metric something-er-other fine thread, if you've misplaced it like me.

17. Install the spacer and flange. Be sure the flange is in the same position as when you marked it.

18. Install the LeMans cap. It should tighten to just the right orientation.

Nose work

2008-09-14T19:40:00.000-07:00

At last posting, I had mounted the nose. But then I found that the striker brackets for the nose latches were about an inch too far back to line up with the cutouts on the nose. To move them, I had to take the whole body back off to get good access for cutting and welding. The welding was not very hard, and after a bunch of grinding and some fresh paint, the brackets look pretty good.

With the brackets moved forward, Stephanie and I remounted the body this weekend. It was a little bit easier this time around because I knew a few things to watch out for. But I think I'll need a crew of at least 5 to put it on when painted, to avoid scratching it up.

I put the nose back on and did some preliminary alignment. The driver's side is riding low but looks good front-to-back. The passenger side is too far back and too high. I think it is touching the radiator and the throttle, so there's going to be plenty of work getting it to fit right.

I got the nose mounted again and started working on the latches. It took quite a bit of grinding on the body to get the cutout right, and the latches themselves have mounting tabs that won't let the latch lever lie flush with the body. Fortunately it is soft metal and I was able to reshape the mounting tabs using my shop press.

The driver's side latch is mounted and flush, but the passenger's side still needs a lot of work on the body.

Pictures catchup, and nose mounted

2008-08-18T11:05:00.000-07:00

Stephanie's brother Greg visited with his family last weekend. So I enlisted their help in getting the body onto the car. Went OK, but there are a bunch of places where it can get hung up on the frame. Scary to think what it will be like when it is painted and I care about it getting scratched.

Before

During:

Hmm. Must be hung up on the fuel tank:

Might as well throw the nose on for pictures:

Look Mom, I built a car!

OK, so at that point, the body looked like it was on, but it was actually riding very high on the driver's side. (As you can see from the rollbar in the photo.) And of course, the nose was just resting on the radiator and the body.

I finally tracked down the high left side to a spot on the bottom edge being hung up on one of the side body mounts, and it dropped into place nicely.

Next was the taillights, which double as the rear body mounts. Emmett was a huge help here, as I could not reach both sides of the taillights at once. I got them installed, and also got the body side mounts "done".

On to the nose. This was a fun little bit of measuring, fitting, drilling, saying oops, and so forth. I needed some help from Stephanie, as it is very difficult to be in two places at once. But I eventually managed to get the hinges together. There will be plenty of adjusting to do later.

So now you can open the hood:

Electrical progress

2008-06-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

Electrical system

Connected all power wires at I*Squared power controller
Routed headlight and highbeam wires
Cut hole and installed grommet in tranny tunnel cover aluminum

Dash

Attached dash ends
Mounted dash

New format, and new progress

2008-06-21T14:22:00.000-07:00

It's been a while. I'm going to try out a new format for these blog posts. I hope will help me just dump the information on here without spending a lot of time thinking about what to write.

Footbox electrical panel

Fabricated and installed aluminum electrical panel to fit under access panel. Original panel was not well positioned for access.
Installed terminal strips and fuse holder in new electrical panel.

Steering column

Removed and replaced steering column to resolve u-joint that had slipped and was binding.
Tightened all set screws.

Weekend progress

2008-03-31T09:33:00.000-07:00

Good weekend for working on the coupe. First, I changed the oil, which had been contaminated with coolant during the intake manifold excitement. It came out looking creamy. I guess the oil has enough detergents to keep the water in suspension rather than letting it settle out.

Next, I installed the battery in my new battery frame. The battery is still located in the same location under the trunk and just behind the differential. After all the trouble I went through building my aluminum battery box, I just wasn't happy with it. I didn't like the fact that it was held in by aluminum rivets loaded in shear. The new frame is welded steel, and it is very strong. A little gloss black spray paint to match the power coating and hide my ugly welds and it looks great too. I should have some pictures, but I don't.

I got it to idle by adjusting the throttle stop screw. Seems to be OK now. The timing was dead on at 10 BTDC. So I guess I did it right when I set the distributor.

Then the big task was an access panel for the driver side footbox. I have mounted some terminal strips, a fuse, etc. up there, so I needed access. I really liked Detroit Kim's access panel on the ffcobra forum. So I attempted to emulate. Mine isn't as good, but it isn't too bad, either:

The rivets hold a clip on the back side that secures the rear part. I'll put a few rivnuts top, bottom, and front to secure it. But the back will actually slide under the body a little bit, so the clip will avoid some inaccessible fasteners.

First start!

2008-03-09T19:32:00.000-07:00

I started the coupe today. Here's the unedited video of the first time I pushed the starter button. For the full experience, be sure to view this with good speakers and the volume loud enough to make small children cry. (Luke cried.)

It didn't want to idle, probably because the timing was way off.

It almost didn't happen. When I filled the motor with coolant, it just poured out the back, coming from between the intake manifold and the head. So on Saturday, we pulled the intake manifold and it became obvious what the problem was. The heads are 289 heads, but the intake is from a 302. The 289 heads are actually a little bit shorter than the 302, with narrower water passages. The result is that the water passage at the rear of the drivers side actually overhangs the rear of the head!

So I used some J B Weld to narrow the water passages in the intake, new gaskets, and plenty of silicone to make the seal. But when we got it all buttoned back up, it still leaked like crazy. I had managed to get a wire pinched under the rear of the intake. Doh! Pulled the intake again (intact) and replaced the gaskets again.

In between, I also wired the dash, tightened up the wiring under the car, attempted to set the timing, and did a million other things.

I have several issues to resolve. There's a tiny fuel leak. The timing is way off, or perhaps there's some other reason why it would barely idle. And the battery is junk. (It's the donor Mustang battery. I didn't want to buy a new battery until I was ready to use it.)

Wiring coming together

2008-03-03T08:03:00.000-08:00

I continued working on the wiring this weekend.

The I-Squared was having some trouble with my fan. Seems that the initial current draw for the electric fan was too high for the I-Squared. One option would be to dedicate two separate circuits to the fan. Another would be to build some kind of inrush limiter circuit, either a fancy active circuit or an inrush limiting thermistor. But in the end, the simplest thing was to just buy a $35 fan control module from AutoZone and skip the I-Squared on this circuit. I got it mostly wired up. The fan operates thermostatically with a probe in the radiator. I also have an override switch to turn it on, and there's one more wire I need to connect so that the A/C also turns it on.

Then I turned my attention to the EFI harness. I spent a long time tracing and labeling the wires on the three connectors that go to the Mustang body harness. Those have things like the gauge wires and power inputs on them. I nearly drove myself nuts with a light green/purple wire that came off one of these and just seemed to go nowhere. Finally traced it to a plug labeled "To Heater". I still don't know what it is, but I know where it goes.

I removed the EEC power relay from the harness. I'm running my power from the I-Squared, so there was no need for this relay. But I decided I do still want a fuel pump relay so that the computer can control the fuel pump. I also decided to put the inertia switch directly on the fuel pump circuit instead of on the I-Squared control circuit. If I crash and that switch opens, I want the fuel pump off no matter what. So I found a spot near the fuel filler to mount the relay and switch, and I'll make an access panel from the trunk area.

I'd have finished up the EFI wiring yesterday, but I took most of the day off from the car because it was Stephanie's birthday. So I still have a few connections to make and wires to run, but it should all come together soon.

[This post should have been published 3/3, but Blogger was crashing on me.]

First start scheduled

2008-02-11T05:55:00.000-08:00

I was feeling pretty good about my progress yesterday. So much so that I invited my dad out for the weekend of March 8, for the first start. I should be able to go-kart it sround the neighborhood if it isn't snowy. So now I'm in a serious push to get this thing done.

But first, a picture. My brother points out that there have not been any long shots of the entire car for a while. Partly that's because it is hard to get such a shot in the shop, and partly it is because such a shot would let you see the giant mess that makes it so hard to get such a shot. But anyway, here are a couple:

I spent a bunch of time this weekend re-doing my fuel lines, because I had followed the build manual and bent them up in front of the passenger footbox. Now they hug the 4" tube all the way to the front of the engine, which is where the stainless hard lines come down. I have no idea why the build manual suggests that. I'm a short piece of hose and two hose clamps away from completing the fuel system.

What's left for the next few weeks is some electrical, seats, intake, O2 sensors, and the removable steering wheel. I'm going to leave the steering wheel for now because I can always slap the fixed wheel in place. I figured I just need 4 power circuits on the electrical for a go-kart. (Ignition, fuel pump, starter, and fan) So I ran 4 wires. I don't want to get cocky, but it seems like electrical is going to be very simple with the I*Squared system. Here's my trunk-mounted power box.

And finally, catching up from a while ago, here are those cool Russ Thompson pedals. I think I need some kind of stop to keep the clutch from coming up so high.

That's it for now. I had a couple more pictures, but Blogger isn't cooperating.

Still no pictures

2008-01-29T14:44:00.000-08:00

I did some work on the car this past weekend, but didn't take any pictures. So the dilemma is whether to post here or not. I'm going with a post, for the sake of recording the history of my progress. I can always come back and add a picture later if I take one.

First I got my Russ Thompson pedal pads installed. These are aluminum plates that go on the brake and clutch pedals to make them match the very nice Russ Thompson gas pedal that I got. They look much better than stock. The directions were so cute, too. They noted that the original steel pedal would interfere with the rubber grommets in the pedals, so you'd have to grind them down a bit. As though there were parts of this car that don't need a grinder for installation.

Then I finished up my cooling system, or at least the water-carrying parts thereof. (The electric fan still needs to be hooked up.) I bypassed the heater for now, because it was slowing me down just thinking about it. The car isn't likely to get much winter use anyway.

Freezing my butt off

2008-01-14T11:05:00.000-08:00

It's cold in the shop. So cold that I've been a little worried about my beer and soda in the shop fridge. Any idea how cold a bottle of beer can get before it blows up? I'm not sure, but it has been down to 25 on the thermometer out there and they're still intact. The fridge might be warmer than the rest of the shop. Anyway, 25 is cold enough that you really can't handle metal tools without gloves, and it isn't any fun to lie down on the concrete floor.

I got out and did a little work this weekend anyway. I got my front cover bolted back on again, along with the thermostat housing. I drilled and tapped the thermostat housing for the fan switch, and it seemed to go pretty well even though I did not have the correct 37/64" drill bit. I attached the small coolant hoses (heater loop, bypass, heater return), routed the positive battery cable from the trunk area to the starter relay, and hooked up the transmission end of the speedometer cable. Just little things here and there. I think next up is radiator plumbing.

Catching up from last week, I got the pedal bender tool from Roy and put a little space between my brake and accelerator. Even so, I think I'll need to drive in narrow shoes. The clutch can't really go any further left because of the frame tube. I could potentially open up a little more space to the right of the accelerator by customizing the aluminum there.

Small progress

2007-10-21T19:43:00.000-07:00

I didn't get so much done on the car this weekend. Yesterday I spent most of the day working on Stephanie's laptop. The screen had stopped illuminating, and I eventually tracked down the problem to th ribbon cable that connects the screen. I was close to buying a new computer, but in the end, I fixed it with parts on hand.

Last night I mounted my roll bar switch panel. I saw one like it on another coupe and I just had to have it. I'll try to get a picture up later.

Today I cut the dash for the larger vintage gauges. It wasn't as hard as I thought it might be, but it took a long time. The aluminum is easy enough to cut, but I was trying to be very careful and not cut outside the lines.

Radiator and battery

2007-10-07T19:47:00.000-07:00

I've been doing quite a bit of work on the car, but I haven't been blogging all of it. Two weeks ago, I made myself a battery box. It works OK, but the battery fit is maybe a little tighter than what I intended. Here it is under construction.

Here's a picture of the casting number on my motor. I figured I'd better have a picture of this when it came time to register the car, since the year of the motor is important. So I snapped this before installing the starter, which makes it impossible to see. 5K1 means that my motor was cast on October 1, 1965. Happy 42nd!

Last night I put together a to-do list of everything I need to do to get to the go-cart stage. The list had 59 items, ranging from filling the motor with oil to installing my seat. I went out and got 3 of those items done today, most notably mounting the radiator. I think it is too high, and will hit the nose. But I'll worry about that when I'm fitting the nose.

If you're reading these posts, please add some comments. I sometimes wonder if I'm just talking to myself.

Firewall modification

2007-09-15T22:54:00.000-07:00

The A/C kit I have from North Racecars puts the evaporator behind the dash on the passenger side. Only there isn't enough room between the dash and the firewall to mount the evaporator. So you have to modify the firewall to accommodate. I knew this, so it is a complete mystery to me why I decided last December that I could go ahead and rivet the firewall in place. But there it was, and it needed to come out.

Most of the rivets were simple to drill out. A good drill goes through aluminum rivets like butter. But with the engine in place, a few were in tight spots, so tight that I couldn't even get my right-angle adapter on them. A chisel solved that problem. Knocking the head off an aluminum rivet with a chisel is almost as easy as drilling it out.

With the firewall out, I was able to cut it and bend it:

Then I made two triangular end pieces, using my brand new bending brake from Harbor Freight:

Then I fitted them into place, drilled for rivets, and installed with Clecos.

This was my first sheet metal fabrication, and I think it turned out great. It makes me look forward to some of the other fabrication I need to do. (Battery box, I-Squared controllers, maybe more.)

Ignition system

2007-09-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

Today I mounted my MSD ignition box and ignition coil. The ignition box was straightforward. I put it on the x-brace in the front of the engine bay:

The ignition coil was a little bit trickier. The various locations I could find to mount it using the Mustang bracket suffered from various problems: Too close to the exhaust, possibly interfering with the nose, etc. So I ditched the Mustang bracket and made my own out of some angle aluminum. the new mount bolts to the head, next to the A/C compressor:

Engine accessories

2007-08-12T21:51:00.000-07:00

Lots of progress today. Got the pulleys on the crankshaft and water pump, then put on the alternator, tensioner, and A/C compressor. The compressor mounts right where the power steering pump was, but it is a bit smaller. So I need a somewhat shorter belt. But it all went much easier than I was fearing it would.

On to the distributor. Needed to put the engine at top dead center first. A quick look at the damper had me worried. There are two sets of degree markings, and two distinct pointers. So I decided to pull out the spark plug to be sure. That's when I found out that the exhaust header flange made it impossible to put a socket on the spark plug. Nice.

Now if you go back and read the last post, you'll realize why I was really unhappy about having to pull the headers off again. But the only way I was going to get that spark plug off was to do a little grinding on the header flange. So off it came. Good thing I decided to check. TDC was not where I expected it based on the pointer.

This is starting to look like it could move a car! To get to go-kart stage, I still need to do the following:

Radiator and hoses
Ignition system (coil, MSD box, wiring)
Ignition switch
Computer and associated wiring
Fuel lines
Battery
Fill fluids
Fill and bleed brakes
Approximate alignment

That's still a lot, but it is starting to seem within reach.

Starting to look like a motor

2007-06-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

The intake and exhaust make it look much more like a motor. Intake was pretty easy once I figured out that I was trying to put the throttle body in upside down. Which is to say right side up. I think my polymer intake is lower than the stock upper, causing the throttle cable bracket to interfere with both the fuel rail and the valve cover when installed in the normal way. I found incontrovertable evidence that the throttle body was previously installed upside down, so I put it back that way. Looks OK, but I'm a little worried about the throttle bracket and hood clearance.

I was going to try to finish up my fuel lines, but realized that I needed to know exactly where the right-side exhaust was going to be first. So I put that in. Now I know why everybody was chatting about how to tighten the exhaust header bolts. None would take a socket. Some were easy with a box-end wrench. Some required an open-end wrench, because they're so close to the pipe that you can't even get a box-end around them. One was so close to the pipe that the open-end wrench had well under 60 degreees of travel. That one is just not going to be tight.

Intake manifold installed

2007-06-11T10:55:00.001-07:00

Well, that was easy. When I pulled the manifold back off, I found that the broken bolt still had about 2 threads sticking up above the head, and was not tight at all. So I was able to remove it with nothing but my fingers. Close inspection revealed slight but distinct necking of the bolt, on the thread right below where it broke. There's no way I put enough torque on it to create any necking, so it had to have been overtorqued previously. That's a little scary. I took a look at the other bolts, and they looked OK, though I didn't reuse any of them.

Hmm. I forgot to publish this post. Oh well, here it is.

Restarted, I hope

2007-06-04T09:02:00.000-07:00

I got e-mail last week from a guy named Warren, of Heber. He is thinking about building a coupe and wanted to come by, look at the chassis, sit in it, etc. So on Saturday I went out and spent a couple of hours cleaning up my shop and getting everything looking good. Show-and-tell went great, and the clean shop got me inspired to do some work on the cars.

First, of course, was swapping the winter tires back to the summer tires on the van. Then I fixed the coolant leak in my RX-7. (I hope!) But finally, I went to install my intake manifold, which has just been sitting on top of my motor since I did the cam swap.

The intake manifold has 12 bolts, and you're supposed to tighten them in a specific sequence, first to 8 ft-lbs, then 16, then 22-24. I don't think my torque wrench is trustworthy at 8 ft-lbs, but I just went snug, then 16 then started to do 24 and SNAP!

One of the Grade 8 manifold bolts broke. Brittle failure, on a 5/16" bolt at something less than 24 ft-lbs. Weird. OK, let's do a little calculation. A 5/16" bolt should have a stress area of .0524 in^2. Grade 8 means minimum tensile strength of 150,000 psi. So that's a maximum load of 7860 lbs. Now according to my sources, a torque of 25 ft-lbs on a dry 5/16"-18 bolt gives a clamp load of 4720 lb. But assume my torque wrench is off by 20% to give and the threads were lubricated by some residual oil. Now we've got 7550 lbs. Hmm. That's getting close.

Well, now I'm paranoid about the other bolts, so I ordered a complete set. Haven't pulled the manifold back off, so I'm not sure exactly how difficult it is going to be to remove the broken bolt. But I'm hoping that it should come out pretty easily, since it's not like a bolt that was frozen and snapped off when I was trying to remove it. It shouldn't even be tight in there.

Delayed

2007-01-31T09:27:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it's been two months since my last post. But anyway, here's the story.

First there was Christmas. We had my whole family out to Utah, and there was a bunch of prep that went into it. Painted a bathroom, changed out some fixtures, etc.

Then on Jan 1, I went skiing. Started out as a great day, until I fell. Tore my ACL. Major bummer.

Jan 17 was surgery to reconstruct my ACL, with a hamstring tendon autograft. Ouch.

So now I'm two weeks past surgery, and working hard on my rehab. I'm not working on the car at all. I hope to get back to it in another few weeks, but it just isn't a priority right now.

Motor!

2006-11-27T19:50:00.000-08:00

(15? hours since last post, 69 hours total)

We'll call it 15 hours. I don't really know how accurate that is, since I've just been spending an hour here and there for the last week. I finished the cockpit rear aluminum. Drivers side was great. Passenger side didn't want to line up, so I had to trim it, but it is in too.

Then yesterday I tried to put the motor in. Got myself a load leveler from Harbor Freight. ($20) This is a device that lets you change the support point of your hanging load so that it tips, so you can drop the transmission tail down into the transmission tunnel, then flatten it out as you lower the motor.

Attempt #1:
This was the first attempt. At about this point, it became clear that I needed to have the crank on the other end of the load leveler, because it was going to hit the firewall.

Attempt #2:

No good pictures of this one. I tried the same thing but with the crank at the other end. This time, I got the motor down within a couple of inches of the motor mounts, but had to pull it back out because the load leveler hit the firewall crosspiece.

Attempt #3:
I took the upper intake manifold off the motor to get a little more room. I thought that if the load leveler was where the intake normally goes, I'd clear the firewall. It almost worked. It was so close that I could actually put the motor mount bolts onto the motor mount brackets, but I just couldn't drop them into the slots.

Attempt #4:

Went without the load leveler this time, with just a chain on the motor. That made it difficult to get the transmission tail up over the 4" round crosspiece in the transmission tunnel. But it eliminated all the clearance issues at the firewall. I used two jacks, a furniture dolly, a 2x4, and some wooden shims to maneuver the transmission in. The result? Success!

Footboxes

2006-11-19T22:20:00.000-08:00

(7 hours since last post, 54 hours total)

Completed the footboxes today. Actually, the driver's side is not installed, but all the panels are drilled and ready to go in, and that is by far the hard part.

But first, to catch up on photos:

The pedals as they'll look inside the car, more or less. The accelerator is the very nice Russ Thompson version. I discovered that the placement of this pedal is incompatible with the cruise control switches on the Mustang pedal box. Fortunately, I wasn't planning to use the cruise control anyway.

Passenger side footbox, as completed with Clecos. Took almost all of my 50 Clecos to hold it together like this.

Passenger footbox from the inside. Note all the aluminum debris from drilling the panels. This is when it is really good to have a helper.

Here's Emmett cleaning up all the drill debris. He's very enthusiastic about this task. I have to make sure to pick up anything that I don't want to fish out of the vacuum later.

The passenger footbox is complete. Drilled, bonded, and riveted. It's surprisingly solid. When the panels are anchored by a few screws at the corners, they're disturbingly flexible. When they're finished with rivets along each edge, they form a very rigid box.

The Drill Doctor that my Dad got me for Christmas last year has been extremely important. After drilling enough holes, I'll find the bit working very slowly even on the aluminum. A quick trip through the sharpener yields one of two results. Either the bit becomes completely useless, or it becomes fantastically sharp. I haven't figured out what creates the inconsistency, so I just sharpen again if necessary.

I'm taking 5 days off work, plus the Thanksgiving holidays, so I hope to get a lot done on the car. Ideally, I'd like to finish the aluminum and install the motor and transmission.

Aluminum panels

2006-11-13T09:41:00.000-08:00

(Roughly 7 hours since last post, 47 hours total)

Some lost time from the last time I posted. This is my best guess. I spent two hours on the car last night.

I've started the aluminum panels that form the interior of the car.

Each piece is to be bonded to the frame with silicone sealant (to prevent rattles) and then riveted. Since most of the panels came mounted on the frame in the first place, I did at least mark the panels where they meet the frame. So for each piece, the procedure is something like this:

1. Compare the piece to the intended location to verify markings and perform a sanity check.
2. Drill panel for rivets. Mostly these are on 2-inch spacing, in straight lines. Drilling the aluminum is quick and easy.
3. Install the panel in place
4. Drill two or three holes in the frame, placing a Cleco in each. Clecos are temporary fasteners that hold like rivets, and they're perfect for this application.
5. Drill the remaining holes in the frame. The frame is steel, and though it isn't really hard steel, it isn't exactly quick to drill.
6. Remove the Clecos and remove the panel.
7. Apply silicone to the frame.
8. Re-install the panel using a few Clecos.
9. Rivet all the holes that don't have a Cleco in them.
10. Remove the Clecos and finish riveting.

So far I've done 5 panels. Two are the large floor panels, which have more rivets than anything else except maybe the trunk floor. The other 3 are small: The transmission tunnel front wall, the driver footbox floor, and the driver footbox front wall. That's a lot of drilling.

Oh, and I also installed the Russ Thompson gas pedal. Without the throttle cable yet, there's not much to it. It looks great.

I have some pictures, but they're not on the computer yet.

Pedals

2006-11-01T11:25:00.000-08:00

(2 hours this weekend, 40 hours total)

I installed the pedal box (brake and clutch) this past weekend. Went in pretty easily once I got all the parts together The trick was in getting the brake pushrod out of the Mustang brake booster.

I had started this process a long time ago, when I first pulled the booster out. The build manual says something about crushing the plastic part in a vise and then pulling the pushrod out. Fine, but the studs were in the way of crushing it. So I did some cutting and drilling and whatnot and broke off the plastic part pretty good, but the pushrod did not come out. So I set the thing aside until this past weekend.

This time, I read up on the process on FFCobra.com. The consensus was to just keep breaking plastic with a chisel and a BFH. (That is, a hammer.) So I did that, and got the pushrod out. Then you're supposed to remove the aluminum fitting from the pushrod by heating it with a torch. Sounds like fun. I heated that thing up really good, then pulled on the fitting with some pliers.

Now the thing you need to know at this point is that the aluminum fitting is connected to the pushrod by means of a rubber bushing. You can't just cut the bushing, because it is inside the fitting. By heating it, what you're trying to do is melt the rubber, so the fitting slides right off.

I did more than melt the rubber. When the fitting came off, the rubber was so hot that it ignited, and I had a flaming pushrod in my vise, and a flaming fitting in my pliers. I just wish I had a picture of it.

Next up would have been the gas pedal, but after a little trial fitting, I decided to ditch the donor pedal. It just doesn't fit right, and the proposed modification from the build manual would result in the pedal pad being at a strange angle and the lever arms being all wrong. So I bought a Russ Thompson pedal from Breeze. Should have it in a couple of days, hopefully for installation this weekend.

Brake plumbing complete

2006-10-22T08:33:00.000-07:00

(2 hours yesterday/this morning, 37 hours total)

Finished up the brake line plumbing. Starting from the master cylinder:

Simplest possible brake setup. Cobra master cylinder with no proportioning valve.

Left front on a T fitting, with the line continuing to the right front.

Right front.

Left rear. I need to figure out how to anchor these lines on the axle.

Right rear.

Brake lines

2006-10-16T10:42:00.000-07:00

(5 hours this weekend, 35 hours total)

Hard to get a lot of time for the car with a new baby. But I did put in some work on my brake lines this weekend.

I mounted the brackets that hold the flexible lines on the rear end, then fabricated the rear end hard lines. I should get a picture of this up, because I think it looks pretty cool. The only thing that I don't like is that they don't match. On the right side I have a loop in the line to provide for some flexibility in the line. But bending the loop was a lot of trouble, and it made it tough to put the wrench on the flare nut. So on the left side I went with an S bend.

I also mounted the master cylinder and completed the rear brake circuit. I don't know how Factory Five thinks you're going to get the brakes connected with the lines they provide. They're just too short! So now I have a 1-foot extension on the rear brake line, which is a different color, and the union is visible. Maybe I'll go back and do it again. But only if it leaks.

Finally, I mounted the small brackets that hold the flexible lines from the front brakes. But now I think I did it wrong, and I'll either need to remount them or cut the aluminum panel in the wheel well. But with the way they're supposed to be mounted I think the left side flexible line just isn't going to be long enough. I guess I need to locate the panel and figure out what to do next.

Mounted fuel tank

2006-09-20T21:25:00.000-07:00

(1.5 hours, 30 hours total)

I installed the fuel tank today. Nothing too exciting, though it was yet another part that I got to hit with a hammer. This time, the hammer was to straighten out some bent edges that were preventing a good fit.

The return fuel line is now fully connected. The supply line is not properly clipped to the fuel filter. I think I need new clips, and I definitely need a new fuel filter.

I couldn't bring myself to spend time cleaning and painting a fuel tank that is going to be completely hidden from view in the finished car. A lot of Cobra builders seem to paint everything, and I certainly did paint my rear end, spindle adapters, etc. But the fuel tank? That's just going too far.

Rolling

2006-09-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

(3 hours Wednesday/Thursday, 28.5 hours total.)

She's a roller. Not much real progress, but I got the rear LCA bolts replaced, put the spindles back on, connected the tie rods, and put the wheels on. I spent over an hour just replacing one little bolt on the forward arm of the upper arm bracket of the 3-link. It did not want to line up. I finally made myself a custom alignment tool out of a second bolt. I cut the head off, and tapered one end with a grinder. One day I hope to install some part of the car without using a hammer.

Spindles and studs

2006-09-12T09:49:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I mentioned the bump steer studs that were left in the spindles. I now feel certain that the reason he left these in is that he couldn't get them out.

Well, they're out. Or more accurately, they're gone. Both were removed destructively. The first one was tough. I tried the standard technique of hitting the spindle with a big hammer and had no success. I then tried hanging a 5-gallon bucket of water from the stud (to get some tension on it) and hitting the spindle with a hammer, with no success. Then I drilled a 3/8" hole from the top clear through the tapered section, to release the pressure on the taper, and tried hitting it some more. No success. Finally I used a Dremel with a cutoff wheel to cut a groove in the stud just below the spindle. I stuck a chisel in the groove and hit it hard with a hammer, and the stud popped out.

On to the left side. Basic techniques again failed. I tried the drill and chisel technique that worked for the first one, with no success. I cut the bottom part of the stud off so I could get an impact socket on the hex section, and tried to break it loose with an impact wrench. The stud sheared off where I had cut the groove. (Note that it was hollow at this point from the drilling!)

With no way to pull on the stud, I started trying to figure out how to push on it. My big sledge (on a punch set in the hole) did nothing. I got a 12-ton hydraulic press from Harbor Freight and tried that, but the remaining portion of the stud above the spindle just crushed, since it was just a thin shell. So I drilled out the top of the stud to 1/2", matching the top part of the spindle hole, and drilling about half way through. Then I flipped it over and hollowed out the bottom part of the stud to just a thin shell of the taper, using a tungsten carbide cutter on a Dremel. Finally I put it back on the press, dropped a 1/2" bolt on top of the remaining portion of the stud, and pushed. Hard.

Sproing! Something popped, and everything moved. I looked around to figure out what happened. And there, on the floor, was a thin-shelled taper. Success! There was an odd odor, too. Not sure what that was about, but I definitely smelled something when it popped out.

The spindle is scratched up good and has a small divot at one edge of the taper hole, but nothing to worry about. Between the drill bits that I dulled, the Dremel cutter, and the hydraulic press, I spent more on this than it would have cost me to get a good used spindle. But I have wanted a press for other things, and the cutter is really good. Wish I hadn't messed up my 1/2" drill bit so much, though.

Suspension is done

2006-09-04T06:14:00.000-07:00

(12 hours in 3 days, 25.5 hours total)
The suspension is complete. The 3-link rear was interesting, because the FFR instructions are pretty poor. Fortunately, a lot of guys have put pictures of their builds online, so I was able to find some photos that helped me figure out where everything goes. I think everything is together, except that I'll need to swap out the rear lower control arm bolts.

FFR sent me the wrong bolts for the rear LCA. The donor bolts are 100mm, but that's not long enough for the rear brackets on the 3-link. So FFR includes 110mm bolts. Unfortunately, in my kit, what they included was 90mm bolts. Folks on the FFCobra forums complain that even 110mm isn't really enough, and you should use 120mm. Anyone ever try to find Class 10.9 120mm M12 bolts, in Utah, on a Sunday? Not gonna happen. So I just got a couple of 3/8" bolts to hold the arms in place while I completed the rest of the rear end, and I'll swap them for the correct bolts later.

I put the steering rack in, because I was thinking that it would be nice to have steerable wheels. But I found something troublesome. The SN95 spindles that I got with the Cobra brakes seem to have a bump-steer stud mounted. So I have to figure out either how to use it or how to get it out. Either one seems a little tricky right now. I suppose I'll consult the forums for some advice.

Wheels

2006-08-31T06:34:00.000-07:00

(2 hours the last two days, 13.5 hours total)

I got my wheels from Rev Wheel in Riverside. I'm using the "340 Cobra" which is a rough Halibrand replica. The wheels were $150 each for 17" x 9" in chrome, including the fake spinners with snakes. I think they look pretty good.

Next up on the purchase list is tires. I've heard good things about the Potenza RE050As, so I'm thinking I'll go with those. Other major purchases still to come are the iSquared electrical system and an AC unit from North Racecars.

Latest work has proceeded smoothly. I opened up my rear end and pulled out the axles. Dropped one of the c-clips down into the depths, but I think I can get it out when I change the oil. My new ball joint separator tool works wonders, so my spindle adapters are painted and reinstalled, and properly aligned this time.

Unfortunately, I realized I need the spindle-to-strut bolts from the Mustang. My spring compressors won't go on the Mustang springs, so I have to figure out another way to protect myself from explosive decompression when I remove the strut. I'm still thinking on this one.

I painted my rear end blue!

2006-08-24T22:08:00.000-07:00

(30 min today, 11.5 hours total)

I painted my rear end blue. Specifically, "Old Ford Blue". I'm not counting this time toward the build. I'm counting it as donor prep. Because I spent way, way too long cleaning this thing for the paint. It was rusty, greasy, and covered with that dense black dust that I assume is tire dust.

I also attached the competition brackets to the rear end and did some test fitting of the various parts. I think the rear end will come together quickly, but I'm not putting it in until I change out the axles.

Speaking of which, I'm picking those up from L.A. this weekend. I'm also going to swing by Rev Wheel in Riverside and get some of their Halibrand replicas (340 Cobra). 17" x 9" in chrome, spinners with snakes included. For just $150 a wheel.

More front end

2006-08-18T20:17:00.000-07:00

(2.5 hours yesterday and today, 11 hours total)

I mounted the lower control arms. At first, they didn't appear to fit correctly. I posted a question on ffcobra.com and got a very quick answer, saying that yes, I was doing it correctly. I just needed to install a couple of "shims" (i.e., washers).

I then put in the coil-overs. This time, when they didn't really fit with the provided spacers, I didn't miss a beat. I just ground down the spacers a little bit and made them fit.

Not much more to do at the front end until I get the spindles next week.

Front upper control arms

2006-08-17T06:24:00.000-07:00

(30 min yesterday, 8.5 hours total)

I put on the front upper control arms. These are very cool adjustable arms that FFR supplies. Very simple job, consisting of putting the ball joints into the control arms, attaching a grease fitting, and then bolting the control arm to the frame.

Waiting for brakes

2006-08-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

(1 hour yesterday, 8 hours total)
Didn't get much done on the car this weekend. I don't want to put the rear end in until I replace the axles, so that needs to wait for the brake kit. And there's not a lot I can do at the front end until I get the SN95 spindles, also in the brake kit.

So I spent some time sorting through some of the back-ordered parts that I have received, trying to match them into the boxes they belong to. I also prepped my e-brake handle for the rear disc brakes by removing the auto-adjuster, and pulled the brake pedal out to send it out for shortening.

In other automotive news, I replaced the expansion valve and receiver/dryer in the minivan. That was pretty easy once I figured out that I needed to remove the front bumper to access the refrigerant lines on top of the r/d. The shop wanted almost $500 for this job, including about $75 each for the valve and r/d. Here's my cost breakdown:

Expansion valve: $20.
Receiver/dryer: $15.
O-ring set: $5.
Vacuum pump (venturi type): $25.
Assorted fittings/valves to hook up vacuum pump: $15
Evacuate system (Tunex): $20.
New refrigerant: $20.

That's $120 including tooling. Total time was maybe 3 hours. And now I have a vacuum pump, some assorted fittings, and a nice ball valve, too.

Cobra brakes

2006-08-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

I got a good deal on a used Cobra brake kit. Complete system, including 13" front rotors, rear disc brakes, master cylinder, SN95 spindles, axle shafts. Essentially what you would get with the Ford Racing M-2300-K kit, which currently goes for over $2000. I paid a bit more than I was expecting to spend to upgrade to 5-lug, but I'm very happy to upgrade to 4-wheel disc brakes, and the 13" front rotors should be good on the track.

The only problem right now is the brakes are in L.A. and I'm here in Utah.

Fuel lines in

2006-08-06T17:02:00.000-07:00

(3 hours today, 7 hours total)
I put in the fuel lines. Here are the lines running under the car. The frame is on its side, to make things a bit easier. The aluminum piece is the passenger side floor, just laid in place to indicate where the firewall will be.

Detail on the riveted clips that hold the fuel lines in place:

Here's the front of the frame, on its side. This frame is actually light enough for me to tip it up on its side by hand, unassisted.

Construction begins

2006-08-05T19:23:00.000-07:00

(4 hours today, 4 hours total)
I finally started building the coupe. Today I put in the rear brake line and attached the fuel filter bracket.

Here's the rear brake line bracket, installed on the frame:
And here is the fuel filter bracket:

Almost ready to start build

2006-07-31T06:52:00.000-07:00

Wow. Over two months since my last post, and I haven't done much. I'm still working on the Mustang. I did drop the gas tank a few weeks ago. That was easier than I thought. Then this weekend I got the rear end. That was vastly harder than I expected.

First, I had to take the wheels off. Easy enough, right? Four lugnuts each, with an impact wrench. Except that one of the lugnuts was stuck. So I soaked it with Liquid Wrench and hammered away with the impact wrench for a while. Finally it started to turn, but very slowly.

Actually, the nut wasn't turning at all. It was rounding off, and the cheap impact socket that came with the very cheap pack of air tools was actually flaring out to accomodate it.

Took me about four hours of drilling, cutting, chiseling, and prying to remove that wheel. Of course, the wheel stud is destroyed, too. But since I'm probably replacing the axles to go five-lug, that's not really a problem.

Worked for another couple of hours on the rear end. I was afraid to use those cheap impact sockets again, which left me with no 1/2" drive 18mm socket. So I was using the 3/8" drive, and a hand ratchet. But I simply couldn't budge the left lower control arm with that little wrench.

After that, I went down to Sears and got a quality set of Craftsman impact sockets, and a heavy duty impact wrench. $300 well spent, as I popped those control arms off in no time flat.

Pull the spindles and I'll be ready to start building.

Still preparing

2006-05-17T13:18:00.000-07:00

So I got the kit. Inventory went pretty smoothly, with only two things missing that were supposed to be packed. (Some bolts and some spacers.) I've even gotten most of my back-ordered items already. Still missing seats, door and window frames, and a few other odd bits.

Mustang disassembly continues. The motor and tranny came out two weeks ago. I still need to pull the fuel tank, rear end, spindles and brakes, and the rear wire harness.

Didn't get to work on it this past weekend because I was replacing the struts on the minivan instead. What a PITA! The bracket on top of the strut wraps all the way around the nut and the end of the shaft. So you can't put an ordinary box end wrench on the nut. Using a socket on the nut means you have nowhere to grip the shaft except the completely smooth and amazingly hard body of the shaft itself. Of course, there's a 10mm hex end on the shaft, so if you had a 21mm ultra-deep-offset box-end wrench, it would be no trouble. Know anyone who sells such a beast? Neither do I.

Finally, I put the frame, body, and nose onto furniture dollies, so I can roll them all around the shop as needed.

Still not here

2006-04-03T10:20:00.000-07:00

The delivery was delayed by snow last week. Stewart Transport is hoping to get it delivered this week.

I got the dash harness the rest of the way out. Whose idea was it to have the harness wire directly into the washer pump, which is inside the fender, without an accessible connector? I figured that I'm not likely to be using the washer pump in my coupe anyway, so I cut those wires rather than remove the fender.

I figure I'm probably into this donor car 8-10 hours, and I haven't gotten very far yet. This is going to be a very long project.

Arrival time confirmed

2006-03-29T13:48:00.000-08:00

The coupe is arriving tomorrow around 5pm.

I got the dash out of the Mustang last night. Next target is the wire harness. The more I see of the harness, the more I think I'll go with I Squared's power management system. That is just one scary bundle of wires.

Welcome Utah Cobra Club

2006-03-25T17:56:00.000-08:00

Hello to readers from the Utah Cobra Club. The coupe will be delivered on Thursday, March 30, probably in the afternoon. Unloaders and gawkers are welcome. 2538 W 6830 S, West Jordan. I'll post a better time estimate as soon as I have it from the driver. You can call me at (510) 282-0670.

A warning if you use Google maps or the like to find the place: Fargo Rd is 2350 W, and the sign on 7000 just says 2350, not Fargo.

Getting started

2006-03-24T09:06:00.000-08:00

My FFR coupe will arrive in less than a week. I've been pulling parts off the Mustang, but took a pause to clean up the shop and get it ready. Here are some photos of the shop:

This is my current fleet. That's my Suburban, Stephanie's Grand Caravan, the donor Mustang, and my RX-7 in front.
Here's the donor Mustang. Those lights are very bright halogens, for paint work. If you look closely, you can see that the car has no steering wheel. I had already pulled the steering column when I decided I'd rather turn the car around. So I had to jack up the front end each time I wanted to turn the wheels. Did about a 5-point turn in the shop.
One of the best things is that there's no air compressor in the shop. Instead, it's in the shed next door. It's plumbed in to two locations, as shown here. With the door closed, you can barely hear a hum when the compressor comes on.