Russell's Atlanta roadster build thread

[FDLWproject]

Hi everyone - new builder here. My name is Russell and I'm based on the north side of Atlanta (please reach out if you're local to the area). Ordered my kit a few weeks ago with anticipated FFR completion date of 6/24...pretty quick!

And when I say new builder, I'm definitely an amateur. Focused on getting my garage ready with all the suggested tools (thank you to all of the forum insights/guidance). Luckily, I have a few neighbors who have done a few of these.

Here are the high level details of my plan

Coming from Factory Five.....
Complete Mk4 (including powder coat)
Wilwood brakes
IRS
Smith gauges
Power steering rack
Leather seats
Sun visors
Driver and passenger roll bars
Seat tracks
Over-riders
Sun visors
Carbon fiber dash....may change

Coming from Mike Forte.....still need to order
351W based 427 with Edelbrock Pro Flo 4
Tremec TKX
Oil cooler
Mechanical throttle linkage

From other vendors
Gas N Go black ceramic side pipes (mid-range)
Some kind of black wheels....
Breeze battery mounting kit
West Marine 12v socket and USB charger
LED headlights
Breeze cubby
Russ Thomson turn signal
Russ Thomson drop trunk
Metco driveshaft safety loop
Black steering wheel

[460.465USMC]

Hello FDLW, and welcome aboard! You're in for a very fun adventure. There are plenty of amateurs here (e.g. yours truly), but plenty of experienced builders who are available to weigh-in with advice and recommendations when you need help. All you have to do is ask. June 24 will be here before you know it. Enjoy the prep and anticipation.

[Alec]

This is exactly the same setup we are building so you can lean on us for advice as much as you need. But one thing you didn't specify was which rear suspension you are using. I'm assuming IRS? And which wheels/size?

[FDLWproject]

This is exactly the same setup we are building so you can lean on us for advice as much as you need. But one thing you didn't specify was which rear suspension you are using. I'm assuming IRS? And which wheels/size?

Yep I’m doing IRS. I haven’t landed on wheels yet, so didn’t order from FFR. I’ll probably do 18s but I’ve got a while before I need them.

[KayzDad]

"Ordered my kit a few weeks ago with anticipated FFR completion date of 6/24...pretty quick!"

They are really catching up with the kit backorders. I ordered my kit last August and my completion date is April 8.

[Gizmosrcool]

Wow that is fast. Good for you. Just received mine and waited 10 months. Which ended up just fine. Congratulations!

[Sarcasticshrub]

Welcome!

Almost a year from order to delivery for me. Nice to see things are coming around.

[FDLWproject]

Ok first round of questions - I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask - or is it on a general Roadster thread? Anyways....

Does anyone know specific details on GA requirements for the following?
- Wipers - required? Install and then remove?
- Bumpers - required? I like the plain look of the quick-jacks (since I'd be doing powder coat), 2nd option would be simple overriders, 3rd option would be full bumper option. Guess the question is what is minimal to satisfy GA requirements.
- Any other requirements I'm unaware of?

[FDLWproject]

Production date is coming up - June 24th! Stewart will be delivering a few weeks after and couldn't be more excited.

Here's the latest on the build spec

Coming from Factory Five.....
Complete Mk4 (including powder coat)
351W headers
31 spline driveshaft
13" Wilwood brakes (F&R)
IRS
Vintage GPS gauges
Power steering rack
Leather seats
Sun visors
Driver and passenger roll bars
Seat tracks
Carbon fiber dash
Diamond stitch door panels
Side louvers
Added: Wipers, Floor mats, wind wings
Removed: Over-riders, EFI fuel system, oil cooler kit, hydraulic clutch kit

Coming from Mike Forte.....still need to order
351W based 427 with Edelbrock Pro Flo 4
Tremec TKX
Oil cooler
Mechanical throttle linkage
Added: Fuel pump, triple reservoir, front sway bar, power steering pump, hydraulic clutch kit

From other vendors - planning to do still...
Gas N Go black ceramic side pipes (mid-range)
Breeze cubby
Metco driveshaft safety loop
West Marine 12v socket / USB charger

Vendor TBD
Some kind of black wheels....
LED headlights
(Not sure what to do now...) Russ Thomson turn signal
(Not sure what to do now...) Russ Thomson drop trunk
Black steering wheel

[FDLWproject]

Got the call that my delivery is scheduled from Stewart around June 26th! Time to start freaking out and hyper cleaning the garage in anticipation.

[jrohrig]

So exciting. Im still a few months behind you but I'm already getting the freak out, lol

[FDLWproject]

186264

Garage is ready for delivery next week!

[Ducky2009]

Hi Russell. You must be really excited by now! I live in Lilburn. If you need any help, let me know.

[FDLWproject]

Stewart delivered today!

Mark and Shelley from Stewart were great - super communicative throughout the last few days. Even let my 2 year old daughter play in the truck cab. I saw on Instagram it’s their last haul for FFR after many many years.

POL list is pretty minimal. Biggest thing is the gauge cluster but it sounds like 186446186447186448everyone’s in the same boat these days. 35 boxes is a LOT more than I thought there would be. Now onto inventory and figuring out how to store all of this stuff.

[Alec]

And the journey begins! Can't remember exactly where in town you guys are, but let me know when you run into any issues or need some advice (in-person or text). I've run into, and solved about 200 challenges throughout the build (as we all do). So use your network liberally to get thru each with the minimum of stress. I know I did. At a few key points we got visits from people ahead of us in the build, and that was critical (e.g. engine install, first start). - Alec

[zarnold]

Congrats! Looking forward to seeing your build!

[FDLWproject]

Just finished inventory. Organized and labeled things to optimize storage. The only things missing were those already listed on the POL from FFR. Now I've got enough room in the garage to get the body off this week.

[F500guy]

Sounds like we are at similar build and stage. I have 5 friends coming over Monday to get the body off. My storage place will require turning the body sideways and moving thru a somewhat narrow opening to get it in place, hence the large number of people to ensure it will work...(fingers crossed):rolleyes:

[FDLWproject]

In the last 2 weeks, finished final inventory, got the body and aluminum panels off and got the body lifted. We used 2 kayak pulleys to get it up and I can BARELY fit my Genesis G70 underneath. Thank god because these Atlanta summers are pretty hot and I like having my car in the garage.

Also got the panels to the powder coater yesterday. Took it to BJ Millers in Lilburn GA and they seem like awesome guys - have even done some restoration work on an original 289 Cobra! A lot of you may tell me I’m a fool, but I went ahead and just did ALL of the aluminum panels (mounted and the ones that were boxed). Like I said, I’m doing a blacked out MK4 and didn’t want to have the endless debate over whether a certain panel would be visible 187244etc.

Got a bit more box shuffling to do to create a good workspace, but hopefully this week I’ll actually be able to BUILD something and put it on the car :cool:

I do think I’ll wait to put the F panel on even though it’s the first step, but still deciding.

[FDLWproject]

Also - glad to have my father nearby - he’ll be helping along the build. He and my uncle grew up working on cars (914s, Triumph TR6, and an MG, I think). My father gave me the affliction for fun cars early in life and I’m really looking forward to this experience together, along with all the neighbors offering to help.

Side note, my two year old daughter has decided that this is ‘her car’. Mommy and Daddy have cars already, so this must be hers.
187264

[FDLWproject]

Almost a month since my last post but I've been busy! Last night, I wrapped up the front end suspension and brakes. Mostly over a 2 week period. Will try to document a few things for my own memory here, as well as some lessons learned.

Some miscellaneous garage stuff I've done:
- Added a temperature controlled vent fan to my garage. Atlanta summer heat is unbearable in my garage, so this was a must. Even with the vent fan and a big blower fan in the garage to move air, some evenings it's still too hot to work in. I can't wait for fall and open garage wrenching.
- Added a lot of garage organization, and my dad gave me a big 7 ft working table - definitely needed the extra counter space.

Build progress:
- Control arms: Took me quite a while. Getting the drivers side lower arms onto the chassis was difficult, as I think the chassis mounts were not perfectly perpendicular. FFR sent the wrong upper ball joints, but received replacements quickly. Unfortunately, the instructions didn't say anything about dust boot covers for the uppers and I had already torqued down the castle nuts when I realized that they were missing from the instructions AND the kit. It was a bear getting those joints out of the spindles, but got it out and ordered dust covers off Amazon based on someone's suggestion. Also missing a few grease / zerk fittings, but got some from the store. All-in-all, there was just a lot of 2 steps forward 1 step back with the arms.
- Koni shocks: This was pretty straight forward. Only "flag" I have is to look into when I should be screwing in the tiny "set" screw that goes onto sprint seat.
- No issues with the spindles
- Hubs: Drivers side went on like butter. Passenger side was super tight. Tried greasing it a bit, wobbling, cleaning it, light hammer taps etc. Ending up pushing it on but the bearing unit inside popped out!! Got it secured again and I don't think it should be an issue. My neighbor suggested next time that there's a hack involving putting some parts in the freezer hitting some with a heat gun to make the fit easier.
- Wilwood brakes: This was a really fun part of the project. Only a few minor hang-ups - but it was mostly from me being cautious not to mess up a critical component, sending me brakeless off a cliff. I debated whether to to use red loctite from a servicing POV, but forum came to the win again and said do it. The most tedious part of the project so far was doing the safety wire on the rotors, but kind of neat to see how my technique improved after the first few. Also - FFR instructions have not been updated to reflect that Wilwood no longer uses the safety cip shown in their instructions. They're now cotter pins - but this means that brake pads have to be put in from beneath the caliper instead of from the top. Lastly, I don't have wheels yet - so no lug nuts. Had to run to the store for some temporary ones to hold the rotor in place for alignment.

Lessons learned so far:
- READ AHEAD: People say it, but really - it pays off. I started almost an assembly line for the next steps I know I'm going to work on. Verify the parts fit, that you have everything, etc. Nothing worse than walking out there to start something and having to stop within 1 minute because you don't have the right tool, part etc.
- Even if you do read ahead and have the parts - you will run into assembly issues. For example, the Wilwood caliper mount adapter attachment to the spindle doesn't have enough room for a normal socket head. So I had to stop until I could find a crow foot wrench attachment that would attach to my torque wrench.
- I am still a confirmed novice: Panicked when I saw wet red loctite stiil 24 hours after assembling. Apparently red loctite is anaerobic and will not dry when exposed to air, only inside the screw fitting itself. Duh.
- Lastly: This forum has been amazing and you all get gold stars. I can't tell you how many "factory five forum + XYZ" searches I've done on google, and 99% of the time, someone has run into it already. Now, if my brakes fall off my car on my first drive, you're going to have some explaining to do.

Now off to start preparing for the rear end / IRS installation. One thing I've not solved for is when to order my engine from Forte. I know I'm getting several additional things from Mike (Oil cooler, mechanical throttle linkage, fuel pump, triple reservoir, front sway bar, power steering pump, hydraulic clutch kit) but I'm not sure when I will need those parts and whether he would send those components separately.

188957188958

[Alec]

PS pump and clutch slave will be installed onto the engine and tranny already when it arrives. Fuel pmump you will need when you do the tank and fuel lines. The triple res you will probably need first as you will be setting up your pedal box with 3 master cylinders, and brake lines pretty soon.

[FDLWproject]

Thanks Alec - this is helpful. Just placed my order with Forte and asked him to send anything not attached to the engine whenever he can to speed things along.

In other news -
Last weekend we got the rear diff installed for the IRS. Really wasn't bad. Had my neighbor help me bench press it up and my wife threw the bolts in. My dad and I spent Sunday assembling the upper/lower control arms and toe arms, as well as installing them on the body.

I've run into a few minor issues that we spent some time problem solving. First is just the chassis mounts in general don't line up well with any of the connections. Some are small adjustments (the lowers we just used a flathead screwdriver to create kind of a slip wedge into the mount). But some have definitely been more of a pain. I found a metal spreading wrench on Amazon for about $20 that I'm hoping will make this easier rather than banging on the frame with a mallet.

The other has been the IRS hub/spindles. I found a local shop that would press the wheel studs into the hub for not a lot - I was concerned about threading them with the FFR approach and wanted them to use a drill press. We'll see if they actually did it or went the easy route! The bigger issue has been attaching the spindles to the hubs. The spindles are awkwardly shaped and I can't seem to get them locked into a vice well enough to apply the 100 ft lb torque when attaching the hubs. I saw on someone's build that they had a similar issue and assembled them onto the car together, tightened the control arms a bit, and then torqued down, so we will try that.

189234189235189236

[FDLWproject]

Also, my 2 year old daughter is continuing to impress me with her mechanic skills. My wife got her a small kids workbench with play tools, and she has been wandering around the chassis holding plastic bolts and using the toy screwdriver to help. It's amazing what they're picking up on when you don't realize it!

189237

[gbranham]

I just attached my rear hubs to spindles this past weekend, after having Oh So Much Fun cutting the spindles. To tighten the 4 bolts that connect the hub to the spindle, I laid the assembly on the workbench hub-face down, and put about 4 inches of a very long (36") and thick screwdriver in one of the spindle spherical bearings, and held the torque wrench in the other while the socket was on the bolt head. Then put a hand on each, and started torquing. In my case, I pushed 'left' on the impact, and 'right' on the screwdriver, and had just enough strength in each arm to hit 100 ft lbs. Rinse and repeat 7 more times, and done!

[FDLWproject]

I just attached my rear hubs to spindles this past weekend, after having Oh So Much Fun cutting the spindles. To tighten the 4 bolts that connect the hub to the spindle, I laid the assembly on the workbench hub-face down, and put about 4 inches of a very long (36") and thick screwdriver in one of the spindle spherical bearings, and held the torque wrench in the other while the socket was on the bolt head. Then put a hand on each, and started torquing. In my case, I pushed 'left' on the impact, and 'right' on the screwdriver, and had just enough strength in each arm to hit 100 ft lbs. Rinse and repeat 7 more times, and done!

This is super helpful, thanks! Funny how something seemingly simple can be a head scratcher

[cc2Arider]

Hi Russell,

I was the builder who had the same dilemma about the spindle/hub bolt torqueing. What "sealed the deal" for me was accepting that I might need to assemble/mock-up/disassemble parts often...so connecting the spindle to the suspension arms was no bug deal after that realization. If you're concerned about using the locknuts before you really need them, you can get some "cheapy" H/W store non-locking-nuts just for mock-up pretty easily...

Good Luck!

Craig C

[FDLWproject]

I’m going to a burst here of my most recent progress before I go on vacation for a few days. I’ve also got a bunch of pictures that I’ll update each post with!

Wrapping up the IRS
This one has taken me some time to wrap up, but it’s mostly finished.

The IRS hub / spindles were still pretty difficult to torque all the way down. I’m 99% sure I got it to close to 100 ft lbs though.

Other than the chassis mount tabs and IRS hub/spindles, everything in the IRS has come together really smoothly. I’ve done an initial alignment but haven’t added threadlocker as I anticipate having to adjust / move things around over the next few months. On the Koni rear shocks, I heard that we should be adjusting the damper setting to the softest possible. I tried getting this set up but may need to revisit. The button push on the shock mount doesn’t really lock out at the lowest setting like I’ve seen Kleiner mention in other threads. It kind of just keeps rotating. I’ll try to watch some more videos and see if there’s something different I can try.

[FDLWproject]

Rear Wilwood brakes
I have the 12.88” brakes from Wilwood and had a good time getting those installed. The caliper mount and caliper went on easily. I started with 1 shim between the caliper mount and spindle, but found that to center the rotor I needed to use zero shims. Dead centered now in the caliper. On the caliper to caliper mount, I started with 2 and increased it to 3 to give myself a bit more vertical clearance from the rotor.

Now we get to the tough part! The Wilwood parking brake…man. I’ve fiddled with this for a long time now. The Wilwood instructions are pretty basic: Install the parking brake caliper over the rotor. Sounds easy. However, I can barely fit them over the rotor. Ok, so I found on the build threads that you need to retract the piston and then install it. No dice. After pumping the mechanical lever and clamping the piston in, as soon as you give it a couple squeezes after installing, it simply will not retract the caliper again, so it is clamped onto the rotor.

I did see someone’s post about adding brake fluid using the 2 brass relief valves and that it worked well for him. I went out and got some DOT ¾ brake fluid and tried that, but it still won’t stay retracted. After posting about this, someone pointed out the “duh” – these are mechanical levers for a reason. Is there no fluid involved whatsoever? If so, why the 2 brass bleed valves? So this means I probably messed up the calipers and may need to order another set / call Wilwood for support. Setting these aside for now.

Started researching the brake line routes, but I’m going to hold off until I get the parking brake caliper situation sorted out.

[FDLWproject]

A brief intermission for aluminum panels
I installed the firewall panel as well as the front footbox. One thing I need to look into – which rivet size should I be using where? My go to is on the bigger cross tubes, I’m using the larger diameter 1/8 rivets, and smaller 1/8 rivets on the smaller cross tubes. Note – I’ve seen some questions around the footbox. Mine came with the Wilwood footbox (not the Mustang footbox) already assembled on the car. Manual isn’t clear on that, but it’s easy to spot the difference in pictures.

My daughter has finally gotten over her fear of the drill, and helped me cleco all of the rivet holes for the footbox. She loves it and it was awesome watching her get excited to do another hole. Until she decided that the little metal clecos look like a fun toy and ran off with them!

Side note – I did powder coat all of the panels matte black. Now that I’ve been riveting some panels on, I kind of like the pop of the brushed aluminum rivets against the matte black panels. Kind of an industrial look. Someone will surely judge me for not getting black rivets, I’m sure!

[FDLWproject]

Wilwood pedal box – spoiler, I need parts from Forte
Started on the Wilwood pedal box assembly. I got the pedal pads attached and the brake/clutch safety switches mounted. However, I got to the clutch quadrant and realized I’m a bit stalled for parts. I ordered a bunch of things from Mike Forte that are expected to arrive in ~November. This includes the mechanical throttle linkage, hydraulic clutch kit (master cylinder, slave bracket, slave cylinder, pivot rod and clutch fork), triple reservoir, and power steering pump / reservoir.

So I’m going to need the triple reservoir (as Alec pointed out earlier) in order to go much further. I’ll hold off on any further assembly here until I can do some research. I may be able to get some of the brake/accelerator done, but I don’t want to back myself into a corner.

[FDLWproject]

Steering rack
This + the steering shafts were a fun part of the project. I went with the power steering rack from FFR. Easily replaced the bushings / sleeves for mounting, and it went in pretty easily. Only had to spread one of the mount tabs ~1/8 of an inch to get it in.

Once it was on, I discovered that I’d make a mistake on the front spindles early on. I was eagerly following the manual at the beginning of the process, and didn’t notice that the steering arms are reversed. I had the DS / PS switched. You can tell if this is the case if the rounded “cast mold” edge is facing upwards. It should be that the flatter smooth edge is upwards on each side, and the tie rod holes are facing outwards.

The only way to discover you’ve done it wrong, other than the above, is when you connect the outer tie rods from the steering rack. When installing the tie rods, they come into the steering arm from underneath with a ball joint rod facing upwards. Well, the steering arm holes are tapered to accommodate these tie rods, with the wider end of the taper on the bottom side, not the top. So – I had to make a decision – do I remove the hub / brake rotors / calipers to take the steering arm bolts out? Or do I just remove the bottom shock bolt and then tap the lower ball joint out of the spindle to get access to the steering arm bolts?

I went with the second option for 3 reasons. First, the hub nuts are apparently single use, so I’d have to replace them (cheap, but delay). Second, the hubs were a MAJOR pain to get on, and I didn’t want to risk further damaging them. Third, there is Loctite on the front brake system, and I’d have to heat them up to remove and then reassemble.

In the end, it was actually not bad. Disconnected the lower shock mount bolts, removed the lower control arms ball joint castle nut, and then lightly tapped on the ball joint thread until it went back through the spindle hole. I think this would have been a much different scenario had the car had any weight / force having been applied to those joints. I would have certainly damage the lower ball joints getting them out.

Swapped the DS / PS steering arms to the right orientation, reassembled everything and then was able to attached the steering rack tie rods correctly. I still need to do a final alignment here – just eyeballing it for now.

[FDLWproject]

Steering shafts
I really enjoyed this part of the build. I followed the manual very closely with one exception. On several build threads, I noticed that several people recommended putting the lower shaft bearing inside the footbox as opposed to outside the footbox facing into the engine bay. Supposedly doing it this way will make it much easier to remove the upper shaft if needed.

I ended up using 1 spacer under each side of the upper shaft bearing (the mount in the cockpit) to give a little bit more space between the chassis and the steering shaft. I’m 6’0, so I think this will be ok, but we’ll see once I sit in it.

On the actual assembly of the steering shaft, the manual makes it seem like you tighten down each component one at a time as you install the shafts / joints. After getting everything in there and needed to adjust some things like the placement/position, I actually found that it was much easier to loosen all of the set screws / tightening nuts as well as the footbox / upper bearings, and then start at the bottom to do your final assembly. I started at the bottom where the joint attaches to the steering rack with the spline end. Got that tightened and then started moving upwards, adjusting the depth / alignment of each shaft within the joints and tightening as I went. The reason I did this is that if you tighten the bearings / set screws down first, you’ll inevitably find that one of the rods is too far into the joints and will end up having to untighten a bunch of things to get it to fit just right. It was kind of a balancing act getting everything aligned just right, but was fun to tinker with.

Note – I have not added threadlocker to any of these parts yet, as is recommended in the manual. I’m keeping a running list of things that need threadlocker and will go back and add it once I’m comfortable that I haven’t screwed anything up! Better to wait than to curse when I realize I’ve set myself up for the heat gun / blow torch.

[F500guy]

Making good progress, I think the Al rivets look great against the black back ground! No judgement here!

[FDLWproject]

Uploading some photos. Decided to go the Album route to make it easier for me to reference later.

Album - Removing mounted panels and cataloging before powdercoating (https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/album.php?albumid=2383)
Album - Body hanging (https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/album.php?albumid=2380)
Album - Front suspension and Wilwood brakes (https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/album.php?albumid=2382)
Album - Ford 8.8 IRS (https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/album.php?albumid=2378)
Album - Wilwood rear brakes (https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/album.php?albumid=2379)
Album - Power steering rack and steering shaft (https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/album.php?albumid=2381)

[FDLWproject]

Wilwood pedal box...continued
I went ahead and assembled a good portion of the Wilwood pedal box today, even though I'm waiting on some parts from Forte.

Album - Wilwood pedal box (https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/album.php?albumid=2385)

Overall this was an interesting assembly. Bouncing back and forth between the manual, the additional instructions on FFR's website, and various build threads. The thing that took me the longest was that the fasteners are split up between the FFR kit secondary fasteners and a separate "bag of bags" that was with the pedal box boxes. Some of the steps are directed towards mechanical clutch assemblies, but since I'm doing hydraulic through Forte - I found that some of the fasters / steps weren't needed. At least I hope!

Oh the other thing that I ran into. When I riveted the engine bay aluminum panel for the footbox on, I mainly was just trying to get them all lined up and get it secured well. Turns out, it does matter where you rivet. When I went to attach the pedal box mount to the footbox, there was (luckily only) one rivet that I had to drill out. There is some slight interference from the lower steering column mount that goes through the footbox. I don't think it's going to cause any issues, but will keep an eye on it. The pedal box mount seems flush enough/level.

I can't quite finish it yet because I need the clutch master cylinder / hydraulic clutch kit, triple reservoir, and mechanical throttle linkage from Forte. Going to hold off on doing the accelerator pedal until then.

UPDATE from a few hours later.
Realized after playing around with the brake pedal that it was hitting the 3/4" crossbar. I had to disassemble the rear pedal box mounting plate, remove the inlet adapter/hose clamps, and then rotate the master cylinders further into the pushrod mounts. This pulled the brake pedal further from the 3/4" cross bar and issue solved.

[FDLWproject]

Rear Wilwood brakes
I have the 12.88” brakes from Wilwood and had a good time getting those installed. The caliper mount and caliper went on easily. I started with 1 shim between the caliper mount and spindle, but found that to center the rotor I needed to use zero shims. Dead centered now in the caliper. On the caliper to caliper mount, I started with 2 and increased it to 3 to give myself a bit more vertical clearance from the rotor.

Now we get to the tough part! The Wilwood parking brake…man. I’ve fiddled with this for a long time now. The Wilwood instructions are pretty basic: Install the parking brake caliper over the rotor. Sounds easy. However, I can barely fit them over the rotor. Ok, so I found on the build threads that you need to retract the piston and then install it. No dice. After pumping the mechanical lever and clamping the piston in, as soon as you give it a couple squeezes after installing, it simply will not retract the caliper again, so it is clamped onto the rotor.

I did see someone’s post about adding brake fluid using the 2 brass relief valves and that it worked well for him. I went out and got some DOT ¾ brake fluid and tried that, but it still won’t stay retracted. After posting about this, someone pointed out the “duh” – these are mechanical levers for a reason. Is there no fluid involved whatsoever? If so, why the 2 brass bleed valves? So this means I probably messed up the calipers and may need to order another set / call Wilwood for support. Setting these aside for now.

Started researching the brake line routes, but I’m going to hold off until I get the parking brake caliper situation sorted out.

I ended up ordering new parking brakes from Summit after the brake fluid snafu. They came in yesterday and this time I was proactive and called Wilwood support for help getting the pistons retracted. Well, it's incredibly simple. Just in case someone else runs into this, here are the details and steps in case your pistons won't retract far enough to get them over the rotors.

Step 1. Open both of the brass bleeder valves just enough so they're loose.
190835

Step 2. Unscrew the locknut counterclockwise ("A" in the picture below) on the lever end of the caliper - maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch. "B" (the piston threaded rod) will likely rotate with the locknut which is fine.
190836

Step 3. Push the piston into the caliper body. I found it was easier to do this by pushing the first brake pad against the piston. It should easily retract into the caliper.

Step 4. Tighten the brass bleeder valves back down with a wrench.

Step 5. You need to tighten the locknut ("A") while keeping the piston threaded rod ("B") stationary. I just used 2 wrenches. This keeps the piston rod stationary and the piston itself retracted, and once the locknut is tight, you're good to go.

Wow this was so much easier than I made it. Calipers fit will over the rotors and on we go.

[429 SCJ COBRA]

Hello FDLW, I like your body hanging idea, I have the same low ceiling problem in my garage, can you tell me where you bought your hanger hooks I think they call them a two fold ? Please reply thanks Mike

[FDLWproject]

Hello FDLW, I like your body hanging idea, I have the same low ceiling problem in my garage, can you tell me where you bought your hanger hooks I think they call them a two fold ? Please reply thanks Mike

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Kayak-Hoist-Overhead-Pulley-System-with-125lb-Capacity-for-Canoes-Bikes-Ladders-or-Kayak-Storage-up-to-12-Foot-Ceilings-by-Rad-Sportz/934440217?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0

This is what I used. Got 2 of them and it worked great. Use a support of 2x4s from the dash to the rear cockpit after it’s hung to prevent bowing.

[429 SCJ COBRA]

Thank you, FDLW , now I need to figure out headers for my 429 460, it would be nice to find a set already made ?

[FDLWproject]

Wilwood Brakes & Forte Reservoir


Finally finished the Wilwood brakes. I used Fragola -3AN SS braided lines because apparently I’m terrible at bending hard lines. There were a couple of tricky parts. First, the connection points required some planning and trial and error. I found some good -3AN tees, unions, and 90 degree fittings on Summit. Converting the master cylinder outlet to -3AN, I used a 1/8-27 NPT  -3AN 90 degree fitting. A few of the ones I tried before this weren’t fitting well. The next thing that I had to solve was running the rear brake line inside the footbox, as some have suggested, to avoid having a brake line right next to the headers. The reason it was tricky was having to avoid the round bar at the front of the driver footbox and finding a fitting to go through the floor panel. Ending up having to use the Dremel to get access for tightening the fittings/connection nuts.

Finished the Forte triple reservoir. My uncle graciously machined an aluminum plate that I used to mount the reservoir to the frame. I think it turned out really well and shared the plans with Mike Forte in case he wants to add it as an option for customers. I also had to replace the fittings (sourced from Racetronix) on the reservoirs with -6 ORB  -4AN and -4AN female  -4AN barb 90 degree fittings so that the master cylinder tubes weren’t pointed directly downwards. Also used 2 firewall grommets from Summit on either side of the footbox walls and it holds the lines nicely.

Now onto the big pain – the Wilwood parking brake caliper had to be machined down. When I bought my 17” wheels from LMR, I discovered that the rim of the wheel tapers smaller towards the outside of the wheel, and the caliper was striking the rim. So I used my angle grinder to adjust the top profile of the parking brake caliper. Used POR15 black paint to mostly match the original color. It’ll be hidden anyways unless you’re really looking for it.

Lastly, bleeding the brakes was quite a fun day. My father and I spent a few hours troubleshooting this. The Motiv pressure bleeder didn’t work great. The cap that goes on the reservoir wasn’t the right size and I couldn’t seem to get the pressure bleeder to build pressure. So, on to the old school approach using brake pumping. After lots of trial and error, found the solution. My dad sat in the driver seat and pushed on the brake to hold it down. I started on the rear passenger brake and released the bleeder connected to a tube to get the air out, then closed the bleeder, and he released his foot off the brake. Then do it all again. Took a few tries going around all of the calipers using this approach but eventually got the air out and have a rock solid pedal. There was some adjustment needed to the balance bar since I wasn’t doing front/rear simultaneously. But not a huge problem.

After I got the brakes bled, my wife held down the brake pedal and I torqued the IRS axle nut to 98 ft-lbs.

[FDLWproject]

Forte front sway bar install

Fun little project putting this on. Love Forte and he’s super helpful, but as is normally the case, the instructions were limited on how to install. Luckily, one of the locals here (Alec) had just installed his not long before and was able to share pictures / guidance. The attachment points are kind of clunky and drilling through that part of the frame on the round tube was definitely tricky. I think it ended up fine though.

[FDLWproject]

SVE Mustang FR500 17” wheels

I spent a lot of time researching wheels and had lots of thoughts and input from friends and family on the wheel choice. I’m not a big fan of the standard Halibrand wheels with the spinners and wanted something more modern. I was really torn on the radial tire look but ending up going with SVE Mustang 17” FR500 wheels from LMR. They had a deal on a combo package that included Nitto G2 tires already installed. Ended up with 275/40/17 on the front and 315/35/17 on the rear. I’ll see if there is any rubbing on the body once its on but may end up using a spacer as some have suggested. Detailed in another post the issue I had with the parking brake calipers already.

[FDLWproject]

Fuel system

I went with Fragola PTFE -6AN braided fuel lines. I found that using an angle grinder flat wheel was easiest to cut the segments correctly. The fittings were VERY difficult to get right and required a lot of planning / hand scribble drawings. Sourced various fittings from Amazon and Summit. Lord help me I hope they’ll hold pressure without leaks – this one has me nervous. I routed the lines down the passenger side rear post and under the cockpit floor attached to the 4 inch round tube.

I also ran the Breeze big bore fuel vent for the tank because I wanted to be sure pump flow rate wasn’t impacted. I also found a neat solution to avoid fumes on a thread here. I bought the same filter on Amazon and some activated charcoal. Should work great. I haven’t attached the filter to the body yet as I want to see how the trunk aluminum panels go together first.

I’m using the Holley 12-345+ 340 LPH in-tank fuel pump from Forte. Looks like I’ll need to use a relay on the fuel pump according to the Edelbrock EFI instructions because the amperage is too high.

[FDLWproject]

Interior, electrical, and carbon fiber dash

This is a work in progress. I taped off the whole dash with blue painters tape to avoid scratches, and cut out photocopies of the Vintage GPS gauges so I could tape them onto the dash and get a feel for placement. Also assembled the carbon fiber glove box. Funny story – our family used to have a 1987 Volvo 240 DL station wagon. Built like a tank but the dash glove box came off every time we hit a small bump or went on a hard turn. So with this core memory, I went with a robust epoxy instead of the 5 minute epoxy suggested in the manual. Should hold fine.

Electrical, electrical, electrical
I have a very specific look I’m going for with the dash and spent a TON of time so far planning it out. I built a template in MS PowerPoint and have been playing around with the layout of the gauges, buttons, and options. Ordered Billet Automotive buttons that I’ll mainly use on the lower portion of the carbon fiber dash. I’m going for a more modern / clean look on the dash, so it will require replacing all of the kit buttons with these ones from Billet. Found a few guys on the forum who have used them and they look awesome.

For now, here’s the interior plan….still a work in progress and may need some small adjustments:
Kit provided ignition switch
New wiper 3 position switch (still sourcing)
Billet turn signal, high beam, and water temp indicators (en route from Australia)
Billet buttons for driver/passenger seat heaters, garage opener, hazards, fan override, horn, and courtesy lights (en route from Australia)
- For the seat heaters, I wanted the same buttons as the rest on the dash – but Billet doesn’t have On-Off-On buttons, so I’ll just use a latching button for Off-High.
USB/12v outlet from West Marine that I’ll put on the rear cockpit wall. Someone correctly pointed out “Hey dummy, your phone is USB-C”. So I’ll have to get another plug and figure out where to put it. I think it’ll be good to have both USB/USB-C options anyways.
For turn signals, I’m going to use i.e.427’s new column stalk assembly. Sending my wheel hub off to him today to get it built. I’ll use the turn signal stalk and the knob on the column to turn headlights off-low-high. Not sure what I’ll use the stalk “pull” option for yet, as I’ve got a button for the horn already.

I found a deal on a Sparco Ford Performance steering wheel (M-3600-RA). It’s got a nice feel to the wheel with a suede feel. Just got to get the wheel hub mounting holes machined once it’s back from Frank at i.e.427 with the turn signal stalk.

I also started the Ron Francis chassis wiring harness. The hard part for me is I go cross-eyed figuring out the electrical given the customizations I’m doing. I’ve started a list of what I think I’ll need via relays etc and my uncle who is an engineer is going to help me run through it this weekend to build a plan. It’s mostly how to tie in via relays and the buttons I’ve chosen. Also – I’m a nerd so I’ve basically re-built the existing Ron Francis harness electrical routing visuals in PowerPoint (I couldn’t find a good CAD option that was free). I’m planning to keep those visuals updated so that I can troubleshoot later down the road more easily. If anyone wants a copy of these, it’s MUCH easier to read compared to the PDF version. – happy to share via PM. I broke out each harness onto separate pages so you can isolate specific components and where they’re routed.

[FDLWproject]

Engine delivered!

Man that was a good day!!!

Got my Forte-built engine delivered by Roadrunner. Thankfully, the driver was able to pallet jack it into my garage so I didn’t have to go out and rent one. It’s a beautiful engine – a lot taller than I had initially realized. Funny enough, a local FFR owner and I have the exact same engine from Forte – except mine has black fuel injection lines and his has blue.

It dynoed at 507HP @ 4300 RPM. Here’s a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo9kIjPRtq4&list=WL&index=2)and the final specs.
- 351/427W World Products block
- AFR heads
- Edelbrock Pro Flo 4 EFI
- Aeromotive 13129+ fuel pressure regulator
- Tremec TKX transmission (set up as a midshift)
- Earls oil cooler

Now it’s just staring at me in the garage…waiting patiently. I think I’m a few weeks off from dropping it in.

[RogerRoger88]

Hi Russell, I’m in NE of Atlanta in Braselton and getting ready to pull the trigger on ordering a kit. It looks like you are moving right along in your build.

In one of your early posts, you asked about specific requirements for Georgia. Did you ever get information on that?

Thanks
Jesse

[FDLWproject]

Hi Russell, I’m in NE of Atlanta in Braselton and getting ready to pull the trigger on ordering a kit. It looks like you are moving right along in your build.

In one of your early posts, you asked about specific requirements for Georgia. Did you ever get information on that?

Thanks
Jesse

Great question - to be honest I’ve not gotten much further on the details here. One of my friends/forum members who is based in East Cobb (forum username: Alec) recently went through the process though. He ended up registering but not titling, mostly (I think) because it’s a smoother process. My plan is to fight (‘tooth and nail’ as they say) to get it registered and titled as a 65. It really depends on the county and emissions requirements. For what it’s worth, I wouldn’t let that slow you down from pulling the trigger. These are details you can work through while you build and I don’t see a TON of downside risk.


Also - would be happy to have you down to check out the build process and talk through things.im working on electrical, which is the hardest part for most - including me. It’s definitely daunting but the group here has saved me more times than I can count.

[RogerRoger88]

Also - would be happy to have you down to check out the build process and talk through things.im working on electrical, which is the hardest part for most - including me. It’s definitely daunting but the group here has saved me more times than I can count.

I may have to take you up on that offer. Seeing a build in person would probably be more beneficial to me right now than reading through more build threads.

[FDLWproject]

I may have to take you up on that offer. Seeing a build in person would probably be more beneficial to me right now than reading through more build threads.

Sounds good. PM me if you’d like to coordinate a weekend to pop down.