North Florida 289 Build, #10306

[lasse2]

Copy that and thanks for your seal specs. That trimming job was my next major task. Did you use an air saw or a cutoff wheel to trim the lip?

I used an air saw, 2" disc grinder and sanding block to finish it up.

[Chainsaw]

Got the trunk lip trimmed with my air saw (quite tedious) and did a rough touch up with my dremel tool and the rotary sanding attachment. I'll hit it with the mouse sander later to get it smoothed out better.

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I also added the license plate holder and stuck an old license plate on to locate the latch. Seems like it will work, but installing the latch pin through the trunk may require some extra articulation of my elbows and wrists. Waiting to do all of that until after I get the bulb seal installed.

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Much like Lars (lasse2), I think I'm going to need a larger seal than that provided by FFR. Not a big deal overall.

[Chainsaw]

Got the new bulb seal in and installed and reinstalled the trunk lid.

Due to the way I’ve hung my radiator, I will need to make 2 new radiator aluminum side panels as the 2 delivered panels are too small. I made 2 templates based on the standard panels and received a sheet of .050 6061 today. A guy in the neighborhood has a metal break so I can bend them appropriately.

I also received the new extra wide oil cooler from Earl’s and the new nose floor piece should be shipped from FFR day now. (I screwed up the original one trying to make the smaller cooler work.) I now have a Mocal 13-row cooler for sale if anyone needs one.

[Chainsaw]

Before I got the body on, I took my grandson for a ride around the block; my first passenger.

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[Chainsaw]

I made the 2 panels after I bought a Harbor Freight metal break. I'm glad I did some test runs on scrap aluminum to get the set up and bend location sorted out. I got the panels fitted in and drilled.

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Then I added the foot box air snorkels installed with some minor mods due to the lack of space in the panels. I would not have had room for the snorkels with the original panels.

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Yesterday, I added the 3" tubing from the inlets to the blowers. I will remove the 2 forward tube sections prior to paint when I remove the radiator side panels before sending off to paint (which will apparently be a while).

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After all that, I received my new radiator floor and drilled the holes for the extra wide oil cooler. I'll try to fit all that up in the nose later today. The radiator sits lower than normal, so it might take some custom bending of the nose floor panel to make it look right.

I also received the correct strikers that didn't come with my original kit.

[Chainsaw]

Did the fit check with the oil cooler and and my modified nose floor as well as making the connections for the attachment of the nose floor with the 2 aluminum sides. I was hoping to use #6 screws to hold things together, but there's just not much room to get the nylocks installed. I probably have to wind up riveting the pieces in of using rivnuts on them (which means I'd have to buy the rivnuts and rivnut tool for #6 screws.

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I also installed the front attachment bar just to get the holes drilled.

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I also tore down the body buck that has co-occupied the 289's garage space for almost 3 years now. It was starting to get pretty rickety and I didn't want to put the body back on there with the hood/trunk/doors installed now. As a friend said, I'm committed now.

Time to drive the beast around the neighborhood for a couple of weeks to see if the body settles out any more. Then I'll take the body off to trim some more body work, add seals, and locate the Forte windshield QDs.

[cnutting]

I has able to get fasteners in that area. Helped quite a bit with the body work allowing easier body installation and removal.

Let me know if you need some pictures.

[Chainsaw]

I has able to get fasteners in that area. Helped quite a bit with the body work allowing easier body installation and removal.

Let me know if you need some pictures.

I’d love some pictures. Thanks!

[Chainsaw]

My set up is pretty much like Chris (@cnutting) has except I have 5x fasteners vs his 4x, plus I have the 2x on each side to connect the floor to the side panels. Ordered some 6-32 aluminum rivnuts and a 6-32 rivnut mandrel to make the nose floor fasteners work. There’s no way to squeeze my fingers through the gap between the body and the oil cooler to get a nut on the screws.

Sooo, I have a plan and the plan is the plan until the plan changes.

[Chainsaw]

After making the mods, using only 3ea #6 screws appear to keep things stiff enough when the nose floor is attached to the side panels.

[Chainsaw]

Temp installed the windshield yesterday. Had to open up the holes in the body a fair amount to make it work, but I didn’t have to trim much from the arms. I wound up only angling the bottom edges at 37 degrees. I marked the arm locations as best as possible so I can install the Forte QD sleeves when I take the body off.

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Still searching for the cause of the miss. Did a resistance check of all the plug wires. All seemed reasonable except the #8 wire which was 3x more than the next highest resistance wire, #4 (3kohm vs 1kohm). I’m not sure that’s enough to inhibit the spark, but I bought some new wires just to check. I’ll get those installed soon and hope that fixes it.

[Chainsaw]

The Moroso wires I got were too short and made to be routed over the valve covers. No bueno. I’m returning those and I ordered a new set of Blueprint Engines wires. I didn’t know they sold those. They should be direct replacement for what I have installed today.

[Chainsaw]

Checking out my new video specs. Car seems to run okay with the new plug wires, but the engine still seems to have an irregular miss. Had a backfire at the end of the video and the tach seems to go a little nuts when I blip the throttle.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln4gbjPa4Wg

[Chainsaw]

Took the car out for 3 separate drives today; once just around our little part of the development and twice out into the new sections. Ambient temp was 93F with a heat index of 107F. The car still isn't running quite right at lower speeds, but seems generally okay above 2000 rpm and never seemed like it was going to die on me. Idle is better, imo. Lots of backfiring from the DS pipe on the early drives, but it got a little better. I'm assuming the PF4 ECU is learning and correcting things. Overall, I'm pretty stoked about this. Water temp gauge still isn't working, but the oil temp seems to be even if it seems a bit low. I have to get used to the clutch and shifter as they're quite different that my Z (as expected). I've got to look at the brakes, too. Maybe i need a larger MCs. They do stop but require a lot of travel and I need to get the f/r bias dialed in first.

This video is from the 3rd drive.


https://youtu.be/JBLSuDk6vhY

[Chainsaw]

Ran the car a little bit yesterday to bleed the cooling system. The engine idled fine, but there's still a lot of backfiring in the DS exhaust. Not sure what to do with it.

[Chainsaw]

Brief clip from my drive around today. It was the longest single drive so far. Nothing exciting, just trying to get some miles on the car. The 3500 rpm rev limiter is a bit annoying, but part of the process. The engine still stumbles below 2500 and backfires a lot until it warms up. I have an idea what what the issue might be, but I'll discuss it with Edelbrock on Monday. I think the 35 lb/hr injectors are just not right for this engine. We'll see.


https://youtu.be/2OKIzcJa2qA

[Chainsaw]

As I was digitizing my old 35mm slides the other day, I happened across this old pic from 1985. The car was at a vintage racing event at the then St. Louis International Raceway. I'm not sure what organization was sanctioning it. I already was a Cobra fan, but maybe this planted a seed in the ol' melon that led me here.

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[Chainsaw]

Some good news today. After talking to Edelbrock about the on-going engine miss, I was changing the #8 cylinder fuel injector for the #7 injector as the #8 appeared to be the one that was misfiring.

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However, when I pulled the electrical connector from the #8 injector, it came off way too easy. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t fully seated. After switching the injectors, reattaching the fuel rail to the manifold, and properly reconnecting the harness to the injectors, I fired the car up. Voila, no missing and verified by the thermal image.

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Just a brief check today, but the engine didn’t stumble when I blipped the throttle a few times. Feels good to get rid of that issue.

[Chainsaw]

Took it for a short spin today around the development today. Much better. No missing, no stumbling on acceleration, a little hiccup-y when I come full off of the throttle on occasion.

[FRM]

Love the videos.........sounds fantastic. Toasty weather for driving too. Well done. No mirrors yet? No problem! I find the mirrors in the kit are pretty marginal anyway making backing up difficult especially into a parking space.

[Chainsaw]

Love the videos.........sounds fantastic. Toasty weather for driving too. Well done. No mirrors yet? No problem! I find the mirrors in the kit are pretty marginal anyway making backing up difficult especially into a parking space.

No mirrors yet. I'm going to attempt to pull the body off this week and do some seal/insulation installation and trim a couple of things on the body. I've marked the locations of the two fasteners I need for the Acton review mirror "diving board" and I'll drill those when the body is off. I also need to install the Forte windshield quick disconnects. Hopefully I can get this thing licensed before the fall driving season.

[Chainsaw]

We pulled the body off yesterday and I did some other work. Got the windshield roughly mounted, but I decided against using the Forte QDs, at least for now. Had to drill out a bunch of rivets from the DS foot box so I could open up panels some to be able to mark the windshield posts correctly. I also prepped the trunk latch post area for a rivnut install. I also drilled and temp mounted the rear view mirror “diving board” and added the bulb seals to the elephant ears. No work on it today other than doing continuity checks to see why my H2O temp gauge isn’t working. No faults found yet.

[Chainsaw]

Got the rear of the cockpit trimmed up last Friday. Installed the 10-32 rivnut for the trunk latch post. Re-riveted up the DS foot box.

Spent a couple of hours this morning trying to troubleshoot the water temp anomaly. Everything I checked seemed okay with good continuity and the gauge went full scale high when i shunted the wires running from the back of the gauge itself. I did shorten the provided shielded cable for the sensor. Gauge still doesn't work. My last thing to check is the connector coming from the back of the gauge. I'm not sure the internal connectors are making good contact. My shorting wire was definitely making good contact. I have nothing else to check.

[Chainsaw]

Changed the wire-to-gauge connectors with weatherpak connectors. Did a little more troubleshooting with the gauge to no avail. Sensor is showing variable resistance as the water temperature changes, but the gauge is not responding. Wires check out okay and the gauge does a full sweep when I short across the connector. I'm stumped and waiting for a response from Speed Hut.

[Chainsaw]

Got the body back on today.

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Still several things to do to get back to where I had it prior to taking the body off this last time (windshield, some radiator sheet metal, side pipes, etc.) I did get the front brake ducts temporarily installed and "permanently" installed the gas cap.

[FRM]

Good work. You have accomplished a lot. Did you mount the gas cap to the body?

[Chainsaw]

Good work. You have accomplished a lot. Did you mount the gas cap to the body?

Yes, I did, for 2 reasons. I didn't like the "open hole" attachment method, but more importantly, because I put in the Breeze cubby wall I couldn't fit in the 2nd gas cap bracket. I also located the Acton splash guard, but I didn't install it yet.

The brake ducts took more time than it should have as I was overthinking the location. I eventually just found where they fit best that looked like they were near the right place and went for it. I didn't rivet them in yet (used 2 hex head screws and nylocks each) to make it easier for the future painter. I didn't plan well enough so the forward body attachment bracket bolts also go through the ducts, but it makes them really solidly mounted.

[Chainsaw]

Shots of the brake duct installations

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Body on with roll bar installed.

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My attempt at safety wiring the hub spinners.

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I reinstalled the side pipes, but I don’t like the way they’re hanging and I may have to re-hang the PS pipe. :(

[Chainsaw]

Got on-board with Hagerty today for insurance. Will try to go to the DMV tomorrow or Wednesday after I get the final approval from the Hagerty folks. Sent them the pics they asked for.
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I still have some minor stuff to finish on the car, but nothing that should stop getting it registered with FL.

[Chainsaw]

Got several small things done yesterday, but still have to deal with the PS fiberglass location which will probably force me to move my side pipe hanger a little. I have some work to do to sort out the oil cooler installation as I can’t preassembly the rad floor and the cooler. The cooler must be inserted first which makes it impossible to install the nuts on the 4.5” bolts clamping the cooler together. I ordered some nut plates so I can install to bolts thru the lower flanges. The big thing now is to install the rear splash guards and waiting on some more bulb seal material to complete that.

I did get my insurance card from Hagerty today. As soon as my schedule clears up, I’ll make a run to the DMV to see how that process goes.

[Grubester]

I'm building a Mk4 - 289 (w/BP347 & TKX): might I ask where you sourced the gear shift lever and knob, as well as your grab bar on the dash? I have the forward-shift feature, too.

[Chainsaw]

I'm building a Mk4 - 289 (w/BP347 & TKX): might I ask where you sourced the gear shift lever and knob, as well as your grab bar on the dash? I have the forward-shift feature, too.

The stick and knob came from Silversport. The grab bar was from Finish Line Accessories.

I'd like to get a more period-correct 289 shift lever which is a little shorter, but the shifter throw on this TKX is so short that I'm not sure how a shorter lever would work out. Maybe once the shifter loosens up a little bit I will switch it.

[Jphoenix]

The stick and knob came from Silversport. The grab bar was from Finish Line Accessories.

I'd like to get a more period-correct 289 shift lever which is a little shorter, but the shifter throw on this TKX is so short that I'm not sure how a shorter lever would work out. Maybe once the shifter loosens up a little bit I will switch it.

I have an 8” shift lever on my tkx with the mid shift mod, I agree that I would not want a shorter shifter, plenty stiff as it is, but I like the solid gated feel of it - and short-ish throw is nice as well.

[Chainsaw]

Pulled out the lower PS body just in front of the rear tire and locked that down. Then I relocated the PS side pipe and it looks much better now. Decided to take this pic before I started working on it yesterday.
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I took my DMV paperwork to the regional center in Duvall Co so they can approve it before they’ll give me a 10-day temp tag. That will allow me to get it weighed and drive it up to the same location to get it inspected. It’d be a whole lot easier if I had the means to just trailer it around to get that done, but it is what it is. Hopefully, they’ll approve the paperwork soon (next week?) and I’ll be able to get the final steps completed to get it fully titled and licensed.

[ehansen007]

Where'd you get the brake ducts again? Sad story, I never put mine on when I built my first one 10 years ago. They sat the in garage for years and I think I eventually threw mine away. Let's face it, they don't look like much on their own but I'm bummed now.

[Chainsaw]

I got the ducts with the 289 kit.

[Chainsaw]

Got a response from the FL DMV and had to provide a few more documents. Re-entering a high-speed hold.

[Chainsaw]

Progress!
Got word from the state that all was ready except I still needed a certified weight slip and the inspection. Got my temp tag on Tuesday so I can head to the nearby truck stop and get the weight slip.
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It will be a cool (cold) ride to the Duval inspection office on Monday as the temp is supposed in the low to mid-50s Monday. I'll get to try out the seat heaters for real. Additionally, although I didn't ask for it, it appears FL will register this car as an antique.

[Chainsaw]

Went to get the car weighed this morning for the upcoming inspection and paperwork finalization. That part went okay (2320 lbs), but when I attempted to start the car to pull if off the scales, I heard a sizzle and no start. I think the solenoid somehow cooked itself. First ride of shame back to the house.
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Too busy today to pull the starter yet, but I'll get to that tomorrow. Part on order as I need to get the inspection done by Friday as they only give a 10-day temp tag here in FL to get the weighing and inspection done. I was going to get the inspection done tomorrow. C'est la vie.

[Chainsaw]

Solenoid replaced. All good now. Inspection set for Thursday now.

[Chainsaw]

Last Thursday’s inspection went well as did the drive to/from (31 miles each way). My friend Jeff, also a F5R Mk4 owner, followed me as a chase car in case something went sideways. Car drove well, but has a slight pull to the right, which is expected as the front toe is a little to the right. I’ll have to get a real alignment, but the car tracked well and wasn’t crabbing at all. However, this car is mind-numbingly loud. I wore electronic ear muffs and my head was still rattled when all was over. Double hearing protection is needed for longer drives! I did add baffles to the j-pipes yesterday. I think it helped but it’s still quite loud. It does sound great and smooth when accelerating up to 3500 rpm (still have a break-in rpm limit).

Last Friday, I went to the DMV office to finalize everything, but had an issue with the info I gave to Hagerty for the insurance and the way that the inspector filled out the title paperwork. Not a big issue and got all that fixed by Monday, but couldn’t get to the DMV until today. All complete now and ordered my personalize plate which takes about 90 days to arrive.

Took the car for a drive today and it ran pretty well. Seemed to be missing a little around 2000 rpm but always smoothed out when I accelerated past that.

[tundra2050]

Congratulations!

What kind of baffles did you use? I'm planning on going with Boig quiet pipes. I don't want to upset the neighbors. Well, I don't mind bothering my neighbor across the street. He had a Harley once. Drove my wife nuts when trying to put the kids down for a nap. Time for some payback. Lol.

[Chainsaw]

Congratulations!

What kind of baffles did you use? I'm planning on going with Boig quiet pipes. I don't want to upset the neighbors. Well, I don't mind bothering my neighbor across the street. He had a Harley once. Drove my wife nuts when trying to put the kids down for a nap. Time for some payback. Lol.

Pretty sure I used these https://www.carchemistry.com/3-disk-insert-3-diameter/

I just used the steel wool packing with no plugs.

[tundra2050]

I wonder how significant the drop would be with both baffles at the header collector and dynatech muffler insert cones at the tailpipe without loss of power or back pressure. Seems like a less expensive way to reduce sound, but is it as effective as Boig or Gas N?

[Nigel Allen]

Coarse stainless pot scourers (look like swarf) worked better than anything else I tried. Game changer.

Cheers,

Nige

[Chainsaw]

Went for a 50 mile spin today. The car drove well and I had no problems. Although it is a bit less loud, the car is still race car loud. I was wearing both ear plugs and muffs and it’s a bit much. It saddens me to try to dampen the noise, but I have to consider doing something more. I might try tundra’s solution above as it’s not expensive.

An interesting note. While filling up with gas, a Corvette C8 owner good-naturedly started giving me grief for pulling up in a car “cooler” than his. What can I say? :)

[tundra2050]

Went for a 50 mile spin today. The car drove well and I had no problems. Although it is a bit less loud, the car is still race car loud. I was wearing both ear plugs and muffs and it’s a bit much. It saddens me to try to dampen the noise, but I have to consider doing something more. I might try tundra’s solution above as it’s not expensive.

An interesting note. While filling up with gas, a Corvette C8 owner good-naturedly started giving me grief for pulling up in a car “cooler” than his. What can I say? :)

Of course your car is going to be way cooler, lol!

Check these out. https://www.carchemistry.com/cc-inserts/
I saw them on another post. Not sure how hard they are to insert, but they claim to reduce noise 7-10 db depending on which one you get if I read it correctly.

[Chainsaw]

Went for a 50 mile spin today. The car drove well and I had no problems. Although it is a bit less loud, the car is still race car loud. I was wearing both ear plugs and muffs and it’s a bit much. It saddens me to try to dampen the noise, but I have to consider doing something more. I might try tundra’s solution above as it’s not expensive.

An interesting note. While filling up with gas, a Corvette C8 owner good-naturedly started giving me grief for pulling up in a car “cooler” than his. What can I say? :)

Or I may just stuff some "brillo pads" up in the pipe (with some sort of retention feature) per Nigel's input and see if that works, too.

[Nigel Allen]

Or I may just stuff some "brillo pads" up in the pipe (with some sort of retention feature) per Nigel's input and see if that works, too.

The scourers don't need to be a tight fit. I threaded a few onto a piece of fencing wire (like meat on a skewer) then fed the assembly up the tail pipe, so that the scourers were in the muffler section. I had bent the piece of wire in a U shape, leaving me with 2 ends. This allowed me to thread one of each wire end up a different tube in the 4 into 1 section. With the 2 wire ends protruding from seperate pipes, I just twitched them together to hold the assembly in place. It might sound like I have my butchers apron on, but believe me, this worked perfectly. I got the noise down to 89db @ 1 meter at 3,000RPM. This was a requirement of our DMV for testing purposes (90db @ 1 meter at 3,000RPM). At this level, the cooling fan drowned out the exhaust. On the day of testing, they didn't bother trying, as the background noise was too high.

I had tried out several ideas previously. They would help a little, but not get me below 103db. Sorry, I dont have any pics, but could sketch you a drawing if my description is hard to follow.

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Cheers,

Nige

[tundra2050]

That's an impressive reduction! I would like to see a sketch.

I'd like to reduce the dbs mainly for my ears as well as any passenger. Also, I don't want to be "that guy" in the neighborhood. I want people to admire the car, not necessarily the noise.

[Chainsaw]

I did an inspection of the baffle installation and, not surprisingly, the aluminum rivets melted out and the baffles dropped down. The PS one only slipped down about an inch until it hit the lower j-pipe flange. The DS one fell down into the sidepipe. When I pulled it out of the sidepipe all of the steel wool was gone, blown out the exhaust pipe. This corresponds to the change in pitch I noted during an earlier short drive. I ordered some stainless steel rivets and got everything redone today. If these new rivets don't work, I'll have to install some sort of bolt which will be a real pain unless I put the bolt all the way through the j-pipe.

I also added two 1/2" LED back-up lights. I might have to get some brighter ones, but the lights work.

[tundra2050]

I hope the stainless steel rivets work for you. If those baffles work as advertised, could be a less expensive alternative to Boig or GasN.

Was your packing like this? Not sure if the pic gets attached correctly.

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[Chainsaw]

Yessir.

[Chainsaw]

Been doing a bit of driving. Loving it. My S/S rivet solution seems to be holding for now. Some sound reduction but still very loud and I recommend some form of hearing protection if in the car for any drive >10 minutes. (Maybe it's just a flashback of my safety officer training.)

Getting some miles on the car. Will be time to change the oil and be past the break-in period soon.

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Got an update from Mike at Spotlight and looks like the car will be going in for paint early next year.

[Chainsaw]

Clip from my drive last Saturday. A nice day for a drive.

https://youtu.be/sn7KuzNnrtA?feature=shared

I’ve got to get a different camera. The video from my sunglasses camera is just too jerky even when I try to keep my head still. Still surprising how much our brain smooths out the real-time video from our eyes.

[Chainsaw]

While trying to adjust my headlight aiming, I discovered the low beam on the PS headlight was inop. Turns out the tab for the low beam on the back of the light had broken off from the headlight. Rather than just replace the one headlight with another sealed beam version, I bought a set of halogen lamps. I like the look and they're an upgrade from the ones we get with the kits. I might do an LED update later on, but I don't plan on driving this much at night so it's a very low priority.

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I also relocated the DS side pipe a little as it was sitting too low and didn't run parallel (enough) to the body line. It now looks more like the PS side. So now I have an extra hole in the 2" chassis tube, but I filled it with a bolt/nylock and rubber fender washer to seal it. The pipe still sits lower than the PS one, but not much I can do about it. Speed bumps are a real bummer.

[Chainsaw]

Weekend before last, Jeff B and I took our F5R roadsters to the Caffeine and Octane event in Jacksonville. The car drove well and the show was a lot of fun.

Went out this morning to drive the "Thunderbolt Grease-slapper II" to a pickle ball game and no dice. Battery was dead, as in 3.7V dead. Got another battery this afternoon and then took the car for a 22 mile spin. All good.

[Chainsaw]

Installed a new battery, but I still have to track down the parasitic draw. I only made one change electrically prior to the battery drain, so I unhooked that but I'm pretty sure that didn't fix the issue. I am considering installing the kill switch (which I should've done in the first place) just to make sure things are truly off when they should be. The other electrical problem I have is that the H2O temp gauge still isn't working. Speedhut keeps telling me it's the sensor, but the I've swapped it out 3x now and still no-go. Fortunately, I can still check the H2O temp with the Edelbrock app - all good so far. I'll have to pull the dash to get to the gauge and, even though I mounted the dash to be able to do that, it's still going to be quite a pain. If/when I get to that point, I'll install the kill switch at the same time.

On a happier note, the car turned over 500 miles last week and did the oil change. While doing that I attempted to move my kluge-y oil temp sensor mounting away from the filter adapter, but I can't do it with the current hoses and fittings I have. All fixable.

Bumped up the redline to 4500 and I'll crank it to 6k in a week or two. One thing Jeff B and I noticed is that his 427 roadster has a much smoother sound than my 289. Both are loud, of course, but the 289 is harsher (more racy?) sounding even with the j-pipe baffles installed. I love it.

Took my oldest grandson for a quick ride between my house and his yesterday. Low speeds (<35), but lots of grins from him. My wife says she wants to take a ride (finally) - a major milestone.

I've been not wearing ear plugs when just driving on the low speed roads around the area I live to listen for "things". The car isn't as loud as I thought until I get to highway speeds.

[Chainsaw]

New plate received.
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[Stangrob]

New plate received.
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Hmmm - getting an error on your pic - just FYI.

Rob

[Chainsaw]

How about now?
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And thanks to Eric Hansen as I sort of copied his.

[tundra2050]

Congratulations! Cool plate!

[Chainsaw]

Lovin' it.

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[Chainsaw]

I worked with my technical advisor, Jeff B down the road a piece, and we sorted out my brake issue. Or more correctly, he sorted me out and I got the brakes working much better. Might need some more adjustment later on, but the feel and stroke is better. Quite a PITA to work on the MCs In a previous life, I’d have coded this as “OP MALF”, short for operator malfunction. Over a year ago, I had adjusted them the wrong way and never fully checked them out to realize I went the wrong way.

I did finish my cubby door project except for adding some edge trim. I should’ve built this door earlier, but realized I really needed it when my registration and insurance cards (paper) blew out of the cubby at 75 mph on I95. (Bye bye).
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[Chainsaw]

Started trying to track down my parasitic draw. I found that I've got a 330mA draw with everything supposedly turned off which seems a bit high. So I started pulling fuses. Luckily on my 4th pull, the draw dropped to 5mA. The extra draw is on the headlight switch/radio memory/courtesy light circuit. Now for the indescribable fun of trying to sort out exactly which specific wire is the offender.

[Chainsaw]

Got the kill switch itself installed, but waiting for some 2ga wire to finish it up.

Even though it was frigid 50F :cool: today, I took the 289 for a spin. I'm glad I put in the seat heaters. Car ran great and I'm still loving it. Time to bump the rev limiter to 6k as I bumped the 4500 limit again today. The PF4 cut off is quite harsh.

[Chainsaw]

Got the kill switch wired up and it works as a theft deterrent. I may want to install a racing compliant kill switch at a later date. All good for now.

Bumped the rev limiter to 6k. As many have noted, even with the "puny" 306 SBF, these cars are quick. I've made sure I'm pointed straight when I've hit the loud pedal and no drama so far. Haven't been able to fully run it up to 6k, mostly due to paranoia (as I've already had an unwanted conversation with a St Johns County sheriff's deputy :rolleyes:), but it pulls hard to 5k. It's hard to find a deserted stretch of smooth road to give it a go.

[Chainsaw]

Car is running great, but something is bugging me. Having seen several 289 photos, I’m wondering why my rear tires don’t come all the way out to the edge of the wheel opening.

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I am reluctant to add wheel spacers, but that may be an option. Other than getting 17x10.5 rear wheels, does anyone have any ideas how to scootch out my wheels a bit?

[Chainsaw]

Got word from the Spotlight Customs that I should send my car in for body work and paint o/a 5/29/26. I’ll be using Reliable for the transport to Dahlonega.

[Stangrob]

Got word from the Spotlight Customs that I should send my car in for body work and paint o/a 5/29/26. I’ll be using Reliable for the transport to Dahlonega.

Nice - what color scheme are you going with?

Rob

[Chainsaw]

Nice - what color scheme are you going with?

Rob

FIA style with Ferrari Pozzi Blue primary color with some sort of silver-ish nose stripe, most likely Lamborghini Titanium. The car looks too good in dark mode. Friends call it the Batmobile already. If those paint colors are too $$, I will change them to something similar.

[Chainsaw]

Did another oil change at 1000 miles. All good for a while now. Car is running well. Just putting some miles on it and waiting to ship it to Dahlonega.