Dan's 33 Build

Hello, my name is Dan, I’m 58 years young and live with my wife and two teen sons in Bradenton, Florida. Well after 2 months of waiting, Stewart Transport finally delivered my 33 Hot Rod kit. Alan, the driver, was great and kit #1070 found its new home in my garage. This has been a dream of mine for the past 15 years. I wanted to do this project with my boys before they head off to college so now’s the time. My plan is to do a roadster with bike fenders, 3-link, Wilwood brakes and a 5.0-liter Coyote with a Tremec TKO600 trans along with a Moser 8.8 rear end. The engine/trans and rear axle was purchased through FFR, so it was a one stop shop. I don’t consider myself a true gearhead and in fact I’ve never done anything like this before, as they say “I know enough to be dangerous”. I’m an Architect by trade and do a lot of construction and wood working. Although I know this will be a challenge, I picked FFR because of you guys. There is an abundance of information out there, so I don’t feel like I’m building this alone. I’m going to shout out a pre-emptive apology to all, so when I ask a dumb question, just humor me. This gives “some assembly required” a whole new meaning…

Dan,
Congratulations on the purchase. I'm the proud owner of #779 33 Hot Rod. I started my project in April of 2015 and working weekends only, finished it in just over 2 years. One caveat is that I am a retired auto mechanic so I have a lot of mechanical experience. With your Architect and construction experience you will be just fine.
Take your time and have fun, there's a TON of experience in this Forum. One thing I will tell you up front - absolutely watch the YouTube video on how to put the doors on. Trust me, it will be the most challenging part of the build. Here's a picture of my finished product. Attachment 90580

Oh by the way, I was 58 when I started my build as well.

Dan, welcome to the '33 club. My Hotrod 1047 arrived the end of this last Feb. I have the chassis almost done, just need to finish some wiring, connect the cooling lines and AC.
I have my body hanging from the garage man cave ceiling too.

Dan,

Thank you for a great post, your confidence and the community that I’ve been reading about here in the FFR forum has helped me decide to build my own 33 rod. I look forward to following your family build!

Mario

Congratulations Dan! Cool that you have some sons to share in the experience. Your one step ahead of me as I will be ordering in the fall. I have build school scheduled for November. Did you go to the build school, what did you think? Look forward to following along!

Steve

P.S. love the sign hanging in the shop :)

So which Kid gets the car when its done?? :confused: Have a ball with it!!

Dan, have your 2 sons do all of the low work. My knees, ankles, and feet are killing me, lol.

Dan,

I received my 33 in August of 2017, should be starting the wiring this weekend. I started my build at the young age of 62 and work on it mostly on weekends.

I live in north Tampa, should you want to see the build in process.

Neil

Welcome Aboard Dangerous Dan,

You & Your Boys Will Have A Blast Swinging Wrenches & Popping Rivets!
The Fun Has Begun!

Steve

Thanks for all the kind words! To answer a few questions: No, I didn't do the build school, hopefully I don't regret that :), Yes, both boys are staking claim for Prom night for the hot rod, I'll have to put a governor on it! Tampa33 we will have to get together, I'd love to see your build.
I got the moser rear end in without any major problems, just had to grind off one the 4 link tabs (i have a 3 link) to fit a bolt in and also noticed the lower control arm is very close to the panhard bar mount so i deleted a washer to get to fit. I'm curious as to when a washer is required and not??? hopefully it doesn't make that connection any weaker. So far so good, F5's inventory list is really great, I just wish they conveyed that in the instructions vs. just saying "connect with bolts and lock nuts" size and length would be helpful. When i go through the hardware packs, most times iAttachment 90824Attachment 90823Attachment 90825Attachment 90824Attachment 90823Attachment 90825t's pretty obvious but sometimes not so much. Rear brakes went on without any issues. Now, off to the front end!Attachment 90822

Congrats and welcome to the club.

Dan,
I am in your area and sent you a PM with some detail. Welcome to the build.

Congratulations Dan! You and your boys are going to have a blast!

It's been 3 years and 11 months since delivery of kit #1070 and I can officially say it's registered in the glorious state of Florida to drive on the road!
The DMV did not make it easy but I survived!
The car is not painted yet but at least I can drive it now and work out the last little bugs and finish it at my leisure.Attachment 166958Attachment 166959Attachment 166960

Congratulations!! now you get to have some driving fun!

Funny build thread ;) Kit has been delivered <<time warp>> done!

Enjoy!

Steve

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Originally Posted by FF33rod

Funny build thread ;) Kit has been delivered <<time warp>> done!

Enjoy!

Steve

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Just like those car shows on TV...1 hour and it's done!

Earl

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dan's33

It's been 3 years and 11 months since delivery of kit #1070 and I can officially say it's registered in the glorious state of Florida to drive on the road!
The DMV did not make it easy but I survived!
The car is not painted yet but at least I can drive it now and work out the last little bugs and finish it at my leisure.Attachment 166958Attachment 166959Attachment 166960

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Congratulations!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dan's33

It's been 3 years and 11 months since delivery of kit #1070 and I can officially say it's registered in the glorious state of Florida to drive on the road!
The DMV did not make it easy but I survived!
The car is not painted yet but at least I can drive it now and work out the last little bugs and finish it at my leisure.Attachment 166958Attachment 166959Attachment 166960

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Took delivery, start build… yada, yada, yada, done!
That’s awesome! Maybe I’ll see you at caffeine and cars up in Clearwater. Hopefully someday with my own build.
Congrats
Jeremie

I did a lap at Sebring!
I went to the SVRA races at sebring last weekend on my birthday and if you enter the carshow on Saterday morning you get to do a parade lap, how cool is that!
I felt just like Ken Miles pushing his Ford GT down the straightaway and hard into the hairpin corner, well.... that's how I'll remember it anyway.
TAttachment 181188he coyote sounded awesome!

So cool!