New to the forum

[jmsrx]

Hi,
Just joined the forum and hope to start building a 65 coupe sometime this year. I have had several sports cars but this will be my first adventure in building a kit car. I do have some mechanical experience so I'm hoping things will go smoothly. I just saw a nice Factory Five roadster at the Coffee and Cars OKC meet this last Saturday morning in Oklahoma City. I didn't get a chance to meet the owner because he was walking around looking at other vehicles. A few of the Cobra roadster owners told me that the car used to belong to an engineer who works for Factory Five. I do have to say that it looked much nicer than the other couple of roadster kits there. I hope to find a local owner of a 65 coupe but I'm not sure if there is one close by. Of course that is one of the reasons that I want to build the coupe. You see roadsters around town but I haven't seen a single coupe and I really do think that the coupe is an amazing looking car.
At my wife's request, I'm selling my GT500 so that I can invest in the kit and drivetrain, so if you know someone looking for a nice convertible please spread the word. My Mustang is my daily driver so I'll be buying something inexpensive to drive in its place. I'm hoping to involve my two sons in the build. They will be 10 and 12 years old this year but I'm hoping they will be old enough to have some interest in the build. It will be great to show them the inner workings of a vehicle.
Hope to be asking tons of questions soon. LOL

James

Hope to build soon: 65 Coupe
Currently drive: 2011 Ford GT500 Convertible
Past sports cars: 2008 Corvette Z06, 2004 Mazda RX8, 2005 Mitsubishi Evo IX, 1994 Toyota Supra Twin Turbo, 2004 Subaru STI, 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe

[riptide motorsport]

Welcome!!! The GT500 would make great donor!!:)

[vnmsss]

Welcome to the madness James! It's very cool that you're two sons will be joining in on building the Coupe. These are great family projects....I will look forward to following your adventures!

Karen

[kabacj]

Welcome James.

My kids 5 and 7 like the build even though they are less hands on. I'm sure your kids will take an interest at some level. My kids build their own cars from boxes, legos, blocks whatever . As you get to know the people here you will find that many folks build more then one factory five car. The build is as fun as owning the car. I never realized I would enjoy building the car so much.

I know as soon as my gtm is done I'll start a coupe or maybe an 818. The build is a wonderful learning experience.

Enjoy,
John

[jmsrx]

Thanks for the great welcome!
Yes, it would be nice if I could shoehorn the 5.4 from the GT500 in there.😄
I'm leaning towards a Ford Racing or Roush crate motor, most likely a 427. I'm still not completely decided on carb vs EFI but I'm leaning towards carbs so that I can take computers out of the equation. I think the boys will get interested as the build moves along. Thanks again and it's great to be on the forum!
James

[AJ Roadster NJ]

Welcome to the madness. Or should I say that I have sympathy for you, as your life is about to be taken over by the coolest project you will ever do.

One word of advice on motors -- check the Oklahoma registration and inspection process for cars such as this and figure that into the equation. Here in Tony Soprano Land, our emissions test is based on the block's year of manufacture. (We're not on the SEMA plan yet, although we keep trying.) Because I too wanted to go with a carb'd motor, that meant that I had to source a late '60s to early '70s block and build from there. I got a pristine 351W block from an early '70s LTD about five hours from my house.

Here is what she looked like right after putting it into the chassis;

7321

My other comment is that you may not be far from an FFR specialist and all-around good guy, Richard Oben at North Race Cars in Summit, MO. I bought my wheels from Richard.

Good luck.

AJ

[jmsrx]

Welcome to the madness. Or should I say that I have sympathy for you, as your life is about to be taken over by the coolest project you will ever do.

One word of advice on motors -- check the Oklahoma registration and inspection process for cars such as this and figure that into the equation. Here in Tony Soprano Land, our emissions test is based on the block's year of manufacture. (We're not on the SEMA plan yet, although we keep trying.) Because I too wanted to go with a carb'd motor, that meant that I had to source a late '60s to early '70s block and build from there. I got a pristine 351W block from an early '70s LTD about five hours from my house.

Here is what she looked like right after putting it into the chassis;

7321

My other comment is that you may not be far from an FFR specialist and all-around good guy, Richard Oben at North Race Cars in Summit, MO. I bought my wheels from Richard.

Good luck.

AJ

Thanks for the info. I checked with the Oklahoma Tax Commision a couple of months ago. They base tag, title and registration off of the invoices you keep. Oklahoma got rid of their vehicle inspection requirements years ago. No emissions testing for now. I guess I'm lucky in that regard. I've been looking at Ford Raing's 351 based crate motors as well as Roush's. Roush has kits that give you the complete package where as the Ford Racing crate motors I would be interested in would have me buying a few things to complete the motor. Of course the Roush motors are more expensive (about $13K versus $9k). I imagine both would be good for customer service/warranty, though I do want to investigate further. But I do have plenty of time for that.

Thanks again!

[gtaroger]

James welcome to the forum.Roger