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View Full Version : Ande's MKV Build from frozen St Paul, MN!



Ande
11-29-2025, 02:07 PM
Hello Forum!

After a few years of hemming and hawing I finally pulled the trigger on an MK5 on October 22nd. To my surprise things moved fast! -- A call from Todd at Cunningham the other day confirmed it'll be here in about a week. Yikes - ready or not it's go time!

This is just a quick post to introduce myself and share a little about my plans for the build. I live in St Paul, MN, recently exited the company I founded and figured this was a perfect time to embark on a project like this. I'd classify myself as an "advanced novice" with some experience wrenching on cars but usually in a supervised environment :) I've been a serious woodworker for the past 15 years but decided it was time to broaden my skill set. So I converted my shop to one better-suited for this project, stored the hand planes and chisels in favor of taps and dyes, and off we go. I also recently moved my father to memory care and with that I inherited his vast collection of tools, well-used throughout a lifetime of tinkering -- including building two airplanes, restoring numerous cars and boats and everything in between. While I already had much of what is needed, I'm planning to use his when possible to remind me where this urge to be in the garage every waking moment came from.

All that said, this community is what truly drew me to FFR and hope to be able to learn from your experiences and fantastic work I've been watching over the past few years. Thank you so much in advance for sharing any tips, suggestions or otherwise helpful information...It seems highly likely I'm in a tiny bit over my head but hopefully with your help we'll put this thing on the road at some point in the not-too-distant future.

Here are some highlights of what I'm planning: MKV Complete Kit; Coyote 5.0 from FFR AT; PS; Hydraulic Clutch; IRS; Dual Roll Bars; Standard 11" front / 13" rear brakes. Later in the build I'd love to add heated seats, sound system, cup holders and other creature comforts to entice my wife and kids to join me for rides.

At this stage I'm thinking body work is best done by someone with more experience and patience than me, but we'll see when that time comes. While I haven't landed on color, I do want to be largely chrome-free in favor of blacked-out components throughout (pipes, roll bars, mirrors, etc.).

Thanks, thrilled to be joining this fantastic community!

Ande

rickshank
11-29-2025, 03:09 PM
Welcome, Ande! My previous employer had a few mines in MN that I would travel to - you folks redefine what cold and snow is!

If you can pull off the build school over in Flint, MI, it's well worth the "investment". It's also a blast to spend 3 days with car nuts on a common project.

Ande
02-19-2026, 02:16 PM
I thought I'd share a quick post with some progress pics and an update since I received my Mk5 on 12/7. I'll continue to update this link as I steam ahead!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qjO6mjYwbg2y7XAs-zC26z5TfEynivTq?usp=drive_link

- I'm still missing a handful of parts going on 11 weeks now which is frustrating. I know I'm not alone in this but finding ways to keep moving without things like wiring harness, front spindles, carbon fiber dash, gauges, missing master cylinder and of course a Coyote from FFR AT (which I'm told is relatively soon).
- Early on I was able to tackle IRS, spindles, hubs, brakes, etc which went in smoothly.
- Ran brake and fuel lines (Evil Energy braided lines); fuel filter and regulator from Aeromotive; I went with a 340 LPH in-tank pump from Quantum which I'm regretting a little for the Coyote, overkill? Might swap that out if anyone has any feedback that'd be appreciated.
- Drilled out every panel but only riveted some cockpit aluminum for now; my plan is to powder coat foot boxes once I'm certain I won't need to punch any more holes. Anyone who is doing aluminum for the MK5 for the first time I'd highly suggest doing this vs. simply installing panel by panel as the manual calls for. There are a TON of overlapping panels so I took my time, marking, drilling panels first, then finally drilling holes into the frame once everything was staged. However many clecos you have, you'll need more :) Right out of the gate I riveted in the back cockpit panel only to realize several other panels laid directly over installed rivets.
- Shout out to Pete and Scott for Siless sound deadening suggestion; planning on running that throughout cockpit with additional heat insulation inside foot boxes
- Dry-fit seats (with driver side track); installed heated seat elements from Summit

Happy building everyone! Will be more active now that I've got some momentum.

RobHartley
02-20-2026, 10:02 PM
Agreed on the aluminum panels after the build school you could tell the order of the panels, as we waited for our Canadian Completion kit, my boys and I fit and aligned all the aluminum panels, we noticed a couple of challenges in the cockpit PS as one of the tunnel supports is off by an 1/8" so we had to cut the panel at the top of the transmission tunnel to fit is smoothly, a couple of other panels would not lie flat due to welds as well. Now that we have the completion kit we are starting on the steering and front suspension. Good luck and Happy building

danmas
02-21-2026, 02:41 AM
You might consider converting to a build thread. Looking forward to following along on your build.

Cheers!
Dan