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Ken and Matt's MK4 Arizona Build #9925 Thread Delivered 11/7/20
Hi Everyone! Our first build post of our father-son project from Scottsdale, AZ! As a cancer survivor I try to teach my kids to see the glass as half full. So we tried to turned this difficult year of a pandemic and being stuck at home into a blessing. We decided to take advantage of the time to do a father-son build project. My 5 daughters didn't seem to mind since there is plenty for them to watch on Netflix. We used this forum to research and ordered our complete kit on August 4th. Here is what we are going to build:
Here's our build plan:
FFR Complete Kit, black powder coat
Windsor 351 w/ Holley Terminator and EFI Cobra oval air cleaner and heads
T5 transmission
2018 IRS, 3.73 gear ratio
Power steering
Vintage gauges
Windshield wipers, sun visors, and wind guards,
Halibrand wheels, 15"
Wilwood brakes
Driver side roll-bar, chrome
Gas-N pipes (lower noise ones)
Polish interior engine aluminum panels to mirror finish like David Hodgkins did, but use our own tools.
Lizard coat interior panels and trunk like Paul did
Drop trunk from Russ Thompson w/ trunk gas supports
We are likely to put battery in the trunk
We thought about expanding the foot boxes since we are both tall, but it seems like way too much work for little ROI.
Radio: I was able to get a 3,000 watt marine waterproof amp w/ embedded bluetooth new for $50. So we will add it in the trunk with some speakers and see what we get for
Likely color: we are going for period racing colors and want the car to look like this when done complete w/ stickers:
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/albu...hmentid=139461
We already got Wilwood brakes to do a special powder coating to the correct competition Gulf orange color that was on the Ford GT40s at Lemans:
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https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/albu...hmentid=139459
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Wife even made us up mechanics shirts. She didn't understand the right cobra, but get's an A for effort
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/albu...hmentid=139462
Car arrived November 10 and have spent a lot of time inventorying parts. We originally though a quick pass would be enough, but realize enough screws or bolts are missing here and there to warrant spending the 5 hours going through everything. Admittedly, this was a good training exercise because there were many parts we didn't recognize. To be fair, FFR had almost everything there except for the parts on backorder like radiator, wheels, power steering shaft, and driver's side foo tbox panel. FFR is also great at helping us identify the parts (thank you David Brigham). But we have plenty to get started on.
Thanks already to Paul (aka EdwardB), CFranks, and others for the advice getting us to this point. This was a great trick to get the lower control arms into the supports that were a little narrow without having to grab a hammer. They need to add this to the assembly manual
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My son is a Junior Mechanical Engineering student as ASU, and I have a few C2 Corvettes that I keep up, but this will be a great experience for both of us. We thank all of you who have gone before us for all the details you have put in this forum and the millions of questions you will likely answer for us. If you have read this far, thank you already.
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A few things we think the instruction manual should include in the next rev:
1) Don't expect to put rivets on the little part of the F panel behind the bracket for the upper control arm.
2) Don't put as much silicone on the panels as shown. Really you should only put some between the holes you drill in the aluminum panel. Don't apply to the frame. If you put it over the holes, then the silicone will collect all the shavings when you drill the frame. Less is more.
3) Even though the part says DSS, that does NOT mean it is the spindle that goes on the driver's side.
With that said, we got the inventory done, and are working through the front suspension. Here is where we are. Still trying to figure out how to torque everything when some of the parts move or bolts/nuts can't be reached with a torque wrench. We know cotter pins are loose and are the upper control arms. But does this look right so far before we put the wheel hub on?
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