Joe and Joseph's MK4 Build #9934

[Joe Arioto]

Hello everyone,

I'll start by saying we WELCOME everyone's input and help. We're Joe and Joseph, father and son, building a MK4 Roadster #9934. Neither of us have mechanical experience, so I'm expecting to exercise patience as we make mistakes, redo things, and learn together.

I've had a dream of building a Factory Five Roadster for the past 15 years, since Joseph was about 4 or 5.

In August, Joseph decided to bypass his first year in college (due to COVID) to stay home and build this car with me... I couldn't have been happier.

We ordered our kit on August 18 and the kit completion date was October 31, 2020

Here are the specs for our kit:
MK IV Complete Kit
Powder coated chassis
302 Headers
3-link rear suspension
Black vinyl seats
body cut outs
power steering
Electric Ultra-Lite gauge set
Mosier 8.8 rear axle
Performance 11.65: rear brake set
15x8/9" 5 Lug Halibrand replica wheel
Sun Visors and wind wings
Assembled side louver set
Carbureted 302 engine and T5 transmission from BluePrint Engines

Kit was delivered on November 22 by Stewart. What a great company and partner of FF.

We had considered using a different shipping company to get the kit out here faster, but decided against that based on the comments on the forum. Everyone was right... they are the best. Todd was great and Mark and Shelly were super helpful and kind. They "got" how excited we were.

Some of the more notable POL parts that were not shipped:
- Halibrand wheels
- spline drive shaft
- radiator
- power steering rack
- Lower control arms (front)
- Shocks (rear)
- door latch set

Again, we welcome your input, help and feedback. We will keep you posted here and look forward to getting to know you here.

Joe and Joseph

[Straversi]

Congratulations and welcome. What great way to spend a gap year. Enjoy.
-Steve

[bldr.rob]

Congratulations and welcome! I'm also building our car with my son who just came home for Thanksgiving from his first year in college. Keep us posted on your progress.

[wareaglescott]

Welcome to the forum. Everyone here is super helpful so fire away with any questions you may have.
I had zero experience when I built mine and really enjoyed the project.

[460.465USMC]

Glad to have you here on the forum, Joe and Joseph. Welcome!

I’m also a first time builder, and I learn something everyday from the forum. There’s a tremendous amount of knowledge available here from so many experienced builders (not me), and so willing to help.

[Joe Arioto]

Going to try to follow Papa's advice on posting pictures (https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?25946-Here-we-come-4-quot-guys-quot-in-the-garage!-Body-work-sanding-and-more-sanding!&p=301315&viewfull=1#post301315).

Have no idea if it will work or not. Looks funky when I paste the code here:

<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/191192933@N07/50650301216/in/album-72157717054575203/" title="FF 8 point 8 arrives"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50650301216_2445cf6f25_b.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="FF 8 point 8 arrives"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

[Joe Arioto]

Going to try to follow Papa's advice on posting pictures (https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?25946-Here-we-come-4-quot-guys-quot-in-the-garage!-Body-work-sanding-and-more-sanding!&p=301315&viewfull=1#post301315).

Have no idea if it will work or not. Looks funky when I paste the code here:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50650301216_2445cf6f25_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kaN2Vs)FF 8 point 8 arrives (https://flic.kr/p/2kaN2Vs) by Joe Arioto (https://www.flickr.com/photos/191192933@N07/), on Flickr

[460.465USMC]

I see a picture of your solid axle rear end embedded. Looks good. It also included a hyperlink to the same picture in Flickr--not sure you meant to do that?

[John Ibele]

Going to try to follow Papa's advice on posting pictures (https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showthread.php?25946-Here-we-come-4-quot-guys-quot-in-the-garage!-Body-work-sanding-and-more-sanding!&p=301315&viewfull=1#post301315).

Have no idea if it will work or not. Looks funky when I paste the code here:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50650301216_2445cf6f25_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kaN2Vs)FF 8 point 8 arrives (https://flic.kr/p/2kaN2Vs) by Joe Arioto (https://www.flickr.com/photos/191192933@N07/), on Flickr

That works fine, Joe. When you copy the BB Code from Flickr and paste it into your post, you'll see a portion of the string starting with and ending with . Leave those bracketed items and everything in between them, and toss everything else. That'll leave only the image and ditch the extraneous links and text. Good luck; welcome to the fun!

Cheers,

-- John

[Joe Arioto]

Figured I'd start getting some photos posted in here. Mostly preparation photos in this post.

First to arrive was the rear end from Mosier (see the post above for that image)

Next was the engine:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50650388582_8402d0f821_b.jpg

It was a family affair to get the garage organized, cleaned and ready for work:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50650388467_7a2967bde7_b.jpg

Joseph doing his first lap joint cuts to prepare the chassis buck:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50649552768_1fa6960d38_b.jpg

Finishing that cut:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50649552793_265bec9e54_b.jpg

Underside of the chassis buck:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50650388652_671bd2b139_b.jpg

We had debated leaving the car on the jack stands vs. building a chassis buck. Turns out the chassis buck is one of the smartest choices we've made so far. I'm not sure how comfortable I would have felt under the car with just the jack stands. The chassis buck feels super solid. Highly recommend, especially to those of us who haven't spent a bunch of time under a vehicle.

More in the next post.

[Joe Arioto]

One of the coolest sights I've seen... Stewart Transportation driving down our street:
https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/50714700673_4c894c03d1_b.jpg

Boxes for days: the process of getting everything off the truck into the garage was really seamless.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50715379586_cd0eb6e5df_b.jpg

What to expect when you are expecting?
Mark did an excellent job communicating with me the days prior to arriving. He gave me a two day warning, a 24 hour notice and a 30 minutes till I'm there call/text. Everything was really well organized. All of the boxes were at the back of the truck ready to go. They gave me an inventory sheet to verify every box as it came off the truck. He would read the box number and I'd check it off the sheet.

We loaded the boxes on his dolly (really sturdy) and moved it all into the garage in two trips. Joseph and I helped get everything off the dolly and into the places we wanted everything organized.

Mark and Joseph and me:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50715461467_1421ff7258_b.jpg

Me trying my best to help (didn't help that much):
https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/50714750343_c7889613ba_b.jpg

I've seen a bunch of people posting about how long inventory takes, and it's true. Although it was a long process, it was super helpful to familiarize ourselves with the parts, boxes, inventory sheets, etc.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50715578697_c7a9c7d02a_b.jpg

As a non-mechanic, some boxes were more fun to open than others. This was probably our favorite:
https://flic.kr/p/2kguqhU

Sitting where she belongs:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50715461732_cc390ae855_b.jpg

More to come...

[Joe Arioto]

Not sure how I missed this, but when removing the body I neglected to remove the frame mounts in the front. It looked like a little jigsaw puzzle that I could navigate. We spent a bunch of time trying to move those around the frame. Anyway, once we took those frame mounts off the body it came off easily.

Here we are with a near naked frame:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50716094416_982609d4eb_b.jpg

I will say, we probably spent too much time labeling and taking video and photo prior to taking the panels off. I say we over thought it because putting it back together was not too difficult.

Again, we are still missing a few important parts so we are building out of sequence from the manual.

So far we have installed the front upper control arms and shocks. We are missing the lower control arms and powers steering rack. We've got the rear end installed but are missing the rear shocks.

Here's a quick video update. Love to have anyone's feedback on our assembly and work (CLICK IMAGE FOR VIDEO):
https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/50716187401_22019341a6_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kgBHAa)Early Dec Update still missing parts (https://flic.kr/p/2kgBHAa) by Joe Arioto (https://www.flickr.com/photos/191192933@N07/), on Flickr

[Railroad]

I would hold up on riveting in too many panels. Ok to fit and drill. If you do not have clecos and pliers get them for holding panels in place temporarily. It is easier to put peel and stick sound deadener on with the panels in hand.

On brake switch, put a couple of washers under the switch bracket. It should move it out enough to be adjustable.

Either remove or wrap the steering wheel. There is a lot of work left to do and damaging the steering wheel will ruin your day.

Are the rear brakes on the correct side? Mine are Wilwoods, so different. You need to put a couple of lug nuts on the rear rotors, to properly center the calipers.

Get some torque stripe or a bright colored marker. Mark the fasteners you have torqued. Builds can take 6 months or 6 years, you tend to forget stuff like that.
Not trying to rain on your parade, just some stuff I found helpful.
Keep posting.

[Joe Arioto]

I would hold up on riveting in too many panels. Ok to fit and drill. If you do not have clecos and pliers get them for holding panels in place temporarily. It is easier to put peel and stick sound deadener on with the panels in hand.

On brake switch, put a couple of washers under the switch bracket. It should move it out enough to be adjustable.

Either remove or wrap the steering wheel. There is a lot of work left to do and damaging the steering wheel will ruin your day.

Are the rear brakes on the correct side? Mine are Wilwoods, so different. You need to put a couple of lug nuts on the rear rotors, to properly center the calipers.

Get some torque stripe or a bright colored marker. Mark the fasteners you have torqued. Builds can take 6 months or 6 years, you tend to forget stuff like that.
Not trying to rain on your parade, just some stuff I found helpful.
Keep posting.

Great advice!!! Thanks so much... we always appreciate it. We do have some bright permanent markers, so I’ll have to mark the torqued bolts up! We do have the cleco fasteners. I’ll probably have to order some more. I think we only have a set of 50.

[Joe Arioto]

We've made good progress and have done a poor job of documenting the build here.

We are stuck trying to start the engine. We are getting the engine to turn over but don't seem to have any spark. Here's a quick video of what is going on:
https://youtu.be/noWf05eEWFs

Let us know if you all have any advice. Again, keep in mind we are total novices and have not done anything like this before. SO, there is no question too simple. I'm sure there are a bunch of things we may have missed.

Thanks!

[Joe Arioto]

It's alive!!!

So we hadn't connected the distributor wiring correctly. We were missing the orange coil/efi wire on the front harness. Also, not sure if it made a difference but we have a 1 wire alternator and needed to disconnect the brown wire from the ignition switch wiring. SO... all in all... sounding amazing.

Here's a quick video:

https://youtu.be/8TrqBCJ-EYk

[Joe Arioto]

Hey there Factory Five Forum Family,
Joseph and I have been working our way through everything and are having more fun than I could have imagined.

We're stuck on our dash wiring and wondered if anyone had some input for us.

We've got things wired:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51076475633_bcc64d47a6_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kPshJe)

But when we plug in the various harnesses we are not getting the gauges to respond. Seems like there is no power getting to the gauges. The horn button seems to click when we press the horn button, but again... none of the other gauges seem to light up or respond to any of the sending units.

Here are some closer shots of each section:

Small Gauges:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51076475583_910035a2ba_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kPshHn)

Tachometer:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51076475453_4bfe54a91a_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kPshF8)

Speedometer:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51076475513_419e36a896_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kPshGa)


We have not wired the lights or turn signals:
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51076475388_59bc213cbb_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kPshE1)


Would that have an impact?

Lastly for now. Our fan thermo switch seems to be missing anywhere to connect. Should we have joined that in with the blue wire?
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51007988980_8f3ef384ca_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kHph2S)


Thanks in advance for any insight and help.
Joe

[John Ibele]

Hey Joe, it’s tough to give good guidance in a case like this without knowing a lot more specifics. I have the vintage gauges so I can’t necessarily help you with your specific situation.

However, you should do some more sleuthing on your own using a multimeter. Trace each connection to make sure you have electrical connections (close to 0 Ohm resistance) that are sound and not inadvertently open. Once you have checked all your connections, switch to the volt meter. Do you have 12v supplying the circuit as you expect? Does it get to each gauge?

With this type of investigation you might be able to answer your own question. If not you’ll be able to pose a more specific question back to the forum. Good luck.