9202 Graduation

[Rickford]

Greetings from a long time lurker and first time poster. As many have said on here, this has been a dream of mine for quite some time. For me, it was close to 14 years. I stumbled upon FFR shortly after the birth of my son and while it looked awesome, I relegated it to the back storage area of my brain to collect dust. As most dreams do, and especially one with these cars, it kept bubbling up from time to time. I kept myself distracted with all the usual events of life and family, as well as having a motorcycle to turn a wrench on.

In 2017, multiple events in my life changed and it allowed me to take this dream out of storage. The most important change would be the meeting of my now fiance, a woman who not only accepted that I felt this was a needed event in my life, but a woman who encouraged me to do it when I started waffling. So I pulled the trigger, paid my deposit, and anxiously awaited the delivery of 9202 in late 2017. All said and done, it was right around 2 years from delivery to done. This was not total wrench time as I was deployed to Central America for about a year and had a move involved as well. This puts me at about 9-10 months.

I started with the desire to walk a fine line of a car I could take to a show and get a few complements (but probably no trophies), a reliable drive to work, and an occasional autocross animal. I knew I wanted to make a car that did not compromise as I was not sure if I would ever get the chance to do it again. So why not shoot for the stars! I unabashedly stole some great ideas from many of you on here. I also made a new pathways on my own, either by design or shear ignorance. It gives me great pride to fully embrace the FFR ideal of "Built, not Bought" as the only thing that I did not do myself on this car was getting a custom driveshaft made. I am happy to pass along all that I have learned or struggled through for those of you either on the fence or already building.

All in all it was a heck of a good time putting my dream together. It is something that I got the chance of experiencing with my fiance, my son, and my fiance's two children. Challenging at times, rewarding every day, and an experience that you just can't match. There is nothing that I would change.


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[Rickford]

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Ice Cream Truck for middle age men. Lived in the neighborhood for a decade and I had two neighbors I had never met running down the street after the truck to see where it was stopping.

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Modified a storage rig to get the body and buck up and out of the way.

[Rickford]

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TSW Nurburgring 18in

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[Rickford]

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Built a small paint booth for the calipers, rotors, and IRS.

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[Straversi]

Wow, that’s a great looking roadster. Congratulations. Looks like your son is nearing driving age so he’s more excited than you, if that’s possible.

Ok, so nice tease. One measly photo of the completed car? Now’s not the time to be bashful, let’s see it. Inside and out.
What color Silver is that? Very cool.
-Steve

Edit: sorry, looks like you were adding photos as I commented.

[Rickford]

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Gen II Coyote from a 2016 Mustang. Totaled off a dealer lot due to hail damage. 15 miles on the clock. I was stupid lucky.

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Came with the clutch and MT-82 transmission. Yes, I put an MT-82 in my Cobra. I had to custom make the shift linkage as the original shifter is remote and almost a foot long. I had to shorten mine to about 1 inch long. It is possible, it works great, and is a pretty bullet proof option, especially if you are going to the roots of FFR and get a doner car.

[Rickford]

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Experimented with putting "engine turns" on the aluminum. Some to make it look good, mostly to hide scratches.

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All in all it looks pretty decent.

[Rickford]

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Took over my dining room table to work on the dash wiring. I put in a push button start system that has a passive key security system integrated. No unlock/lock button to push. Just get within 5 feet of the car and it unlocks and enables the engine. Merged that with the FFR harness, Ford's Coyote aftermarket harness, and the turn signal from Russ Thompson. Only had a couple gremlins and no fires, so I consider my wiring skills up to the challenge.

[Rickford]

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Painted the intake manifold the same color as the calipers. It is not a perfect match for the final body orange, but it is close enough.

[Rickford]

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Even got the kids involved at times.

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[Rickford]

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This was a tough day as we were on a tight time window and we actually had to put the engine in twice. As many on here have done, we have leaned on Harbor Freight to get the things that won't be used but a few times. The 1 ton engine hoist is a great value, but a little short on reach to go strait in from the front (install attempt 1). So we took it out and came in from the passenger side with a twist and drop motion. For the first time ever performing that operation I have to say it went great. And to top it off my son did not learn any new curse words that day (I am a sailor so he has heard most of them anyway).

[Rickford]

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Had a little helper for a bit.

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I swear it is organized and per plan...

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This is the best picture I have of the modifications I made to the shifter. It is still a stock shift lever and technically a remote shifter, it is just only 1 inch long now. I got creative with creating a support bracket for lever. I have has no issues with it and shifts are crisp and responsive.

[Rickford]

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I am not a fan of chrome as I am a bit lazy to polish it. So high temp black and exhaust wrap for me. Also, I made sure to heat shield a lot of cables and the fuel lines. Lastly, I put in the almost required footwell ventalation system. Mine consists of high temp hose, silicone elbows, heavy duty server fans from Grainger, slide valves that are meant for an RV's septic system. I am creative.

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Summit heat and sound shielding on every surface.

[KDubU]

Congrats! Looks awesome.

[mmklaxer]

Awesome! Really like to satin touches on the brakes and pumpkins vs high gloss.

[Mark Eaton]

Beautiful car, thanks for posting!

Mark

[WIS89]

Rick-

Congratulations on finishing up a terrific build! You did a really nice job, and I really like the color choices.

Great find on that engine too!

I know how hard it can be to get the kids involved, and it looks like you had a fair amount of success with that, which is awesome. I hope it provides you all with great memories!

Thanks for sharing your dream with us, and I hope it provides years and years of trouble free enjoyment!

Regards,

Steve

[Rickford]

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Got to have some cool cabin and under car lights for the night time cruises.

[Rickford]

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[GoDadGo]

Congratulations From Way Down South Near New Orleans!

Well Done!

[Rickford]

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First start. I learned that through the best intentions of the guy I bought the engine from, he had pickled it for me. Problem with that if you don't know is that you quickly smoke out your garage with dense white smoke until it burns off. Scared the crap out of me!

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Made a drop trunk from scrap aluminum I had left over and a pile of rivets. Turned out pretty decent. The amp is an Infinity Kappa 4 channel that is driving 2 6" two ways and 2 4" two ways. The system is a headless one in that the amp has bluetooth built in, so your phone is the navigation and radio.

[Rickford]

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All tucked away for a year long nap while I spent some quality time in Central America for Uncle Sam. Two deployments, four underways, two ships, and camping in a tent in Honduras made for a long 12 month wait to start up work again.

[Rickford]

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Back from deployment and ready for go-cart. Found out that my tires will pick up every tiny pebble from the road and toss it into the air. A very short lap around the block as it was literally raining rocks the whole way.

[Rickford]

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Body on for fitment of doors, hood, and trunk.

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Here we go with sanding.

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First coat of primer.

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Only to sand most of it off.

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Second coat of primer. All shot in my driveway.

[Rickford]

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Here we go! Shot the orange first. It is a single stage urethane from Eastwood. It is called Malibu Sunset Metallic. Fun part is that you need 8 hours from when it is sprayed before you can tape it. But you only have a 24 hour window before you have to sand down to add another coat. To get it to all chemically crosslink you need to plan your spray periods out in advance. This led me to shoot this orange at 4 am so that I could be finished and go to work during the 8 hour window. Giving me just enough time to tape, spray the silver, and then the clear before it got too crazy late. Finished up with all the way through clear at 2 am.

[Rickford]

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Silver is on. This one is another single stage urethane from Eastwood. It is called Carbon Metallic.

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Tape off and ready for clear. For that I used the Premium Show Clear.

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Support from my helper.

[Rickford]

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[Rickford]

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[Rickford]

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Found some tasteful badges for the side.

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Started on the hood, doors and trunk final color. Built a rack to hang everything from that I could wheel in and out of my garage. All of these were shot in my driveway.

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[Rickford]

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Oil cooler lines all in. That was a pain with an already filled system.

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[Rickford]

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Move to a new home. Have to set up the garage before proper work can take place. This is the final product. Starting product was a white wall, no storage, no bench, and bare concrete floors.

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Officially complete and the first day I drove it to work.

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My fiance and the person who enabled me all this time. I could not have done it without her support. This was our first Cars & Coffee.

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Got there late and parked out with all the "normal" cars.

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Still drew a crowd even on the outskirts of the parking lot. I don't think it will get old giving the answer when people ask who built it.

[Rickford]

I appreciate the comments. Funny enough is he is excited to ride in it but scared to even think about driving it. The colors are all Eastwood. The silver is their Carbon Metallic single stage urethane and the orange is their Sunset Malibu Metallic single stage. Everything is covered with their Premium Show Clear.

[3rdStahl]

Hey I am looking for that exactly can you share where you purchased the push button start set up? I am working on a GEN 3 65 Coupe

[Rickford]

The instructions are not the greatest translation, so read through them and draw out your connections. You do that and it will be a smooth experience. I had no issues with the system. I have the touchpad installed in my glovebox as a backup in the event the key fob dies. Use some Goo-Be-Gone to get rid of the adhesive that mounts it to glass and then you can interact with it directly. Great feature. You can choose different fobs with the system as well.

EASYGUARD EC002-O-NS keyless go System with pke Passive keyless Entry Remote Engine Start Stop Touch Password Entry keypad Automatic Owner Identify Slim Key fob

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XQDDD1R/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Rickford]

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