Body is officially mounted
Paint completed, off to Mustang Corrall
Lots of driving today, picked up the car from Ken Pike in Yuba City then headed over to Grass Valley to visit Elliott Franklin at the Mustang Corral. Elliot built my 427, he is swapping out oil pans for me. Going from 8" Canton to a Champ 351-RR 7" rear sump to bring it up in-between the frame. She should be home middle of next week and I can start working on my final punch list items.
Could not be more satisfied with the paint from Ken Pike, he did a fantastic job!
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...5&d=1615600129
Gas 'n Touring pipes vs Standard
One other item I ended up changing on my build is my Gas 'n pipes. I sold my standard Gas 'n pipes and went with the Gas 'n "Touring pipe". After go-karting around a bit I realized the standard pipes were a little louder than I wanted. I guess I am officially getting old :cool: Fun for the first five minutes but not something I wanted to deal with long term. I also wanted my wife to enjoy driving around in this car. After bolting on the touring pipe I think I have found the sweet spot for me. Still has a nice tone with the 427 but not "in your face" loud and ear piercing or requiring ear plugs when driving around. There is still plenty of pushrod V8 muscle when you get on it.
The touring pipes are about 10 decibels quieter than standard.
Here is a nice video explaining and hearing the difference between the Standard and Touring pipe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbY8D3oWf44
Post paint punch list items
I am starting to work on post paint items that need to be finished up so #9818 can get on the road! Made some pretty good progress over the last couple days. Got my exhaust mounted, adjusted and hangers installed, Lemans cap & fuel filler, headlights, running lights.
Wanted to post about headlight install, the FFR manual IMO was not too good about how to actually install the headlights.
Headlight bucket with 3 prong connector and 4 screws mounted to body. Also note the two adjustment screws. I also had to enlarge the hole in headlight bucket to fit the grommet.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...2&d=1616213195
Headlight bezel, it uses 3 gold small screws. The tabs align with the headlight and lock it in with the screw. I read up on these tabs breaking or being very flimsy but so far they seem to be holding fine, I guess time will tell once the car is on the road.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...3&d=1616213209
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...4&d=1616213224
Note the lower golden colored tab, that actually helps lock in the headlight ring. It is important to have it orientated in correct position. Another tip if your headlight ring is loose you can bend out that tab a little help snug it up.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...5&d=1616213237
Lucas PL700 Tri-bar lights installed, I really like the vintage look of them and they fit perfectly into the FFR headlight bezel.
Picked them up of Amazon from this vendor.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...6&d=1616213264
Also was able to get my oil pan swapped out for a Champ 351-RR 7" deep rear sump. My previous Canton 8" was hanging 3/4" down below the frame, learn from my mishap... go with a 7" deep pan and never look back. The Champ sits up inside the frame rails now.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...1&d=1616213183
Exhaust hangers installed, I painted them satin black. One item I did change up was rather than drill through the backside of the frame into the footbox area I tapped the two holes. This seems to be working better for me, no bolt protruding into the footbox. I used blue loctite on the two bolts holding the hanger and will keep an eye on them once I start driving.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...0&d=1616213154
Lemans cap and fuel filler
Was also able to get my Lemans cap installed and fuel filler connected up. I chose to run 10-24 hex bolts rather than screws into fiberglass. I just felt like this looked better and was a more secure way of mounting the Lemans cap.
Note: My hole for my Lemans cap was about 1/4" too small, make sure check this on your body. Much easier to enlarge hole in gel coat rather than after paint.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...8&d=1616213126
I cut the rubber hose down to 4 1/2" which seemed to be about the right length, yet another trip to Ace Hardware (must be on at least 45 visits there since I started building this car) to pick up 10-24 bolts, washers and nylock nuts for the underside.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...9&d=1616213139
Lights about done and a few other items
I was able to get my front end finished up, over riders, headlights, running lights, Michael Everson radiator panel, breeze vent screens, cobra emblem. I had the ME radiator panel powder coated satin black. I still have a couple fog lights to install but I won't tackle that until later on down the road.
Radiator panel link:
http://replicaparts.com/Roadster%20a...nel%20page.htm
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...1&d=1616467793
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...2&d=1616467802
Also finished up running my license plate light and tail lights. I ended up using a 1/2" hole in trunk and rear lower deck to run the wire. I found a long zip tie which worked really well to fish the wire through the trunk lid.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...6&d=1616467857
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...7&d=1616467866
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...8&d=1616467875
Finished wire run and zip tied up to the hinge.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...5&d=1616467849
I was also able to get my side vents mounted with the 427 badge. I used double sided gorilla tape on both the badge and side vents. Side vents are a combo gorilla tape/velcro, I wanted to make them removable if I ever needed to take them out. The side vents are painted BMW sterling gray, Ken Pike painted them with the car.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...8&d=1617680513
Splash guards, rear overriders
Splash guards are finished up...
In the rear fender area I added one extra piece in-between the cockpit and front section of the rear fender area. This area had a large gap and the door trim piece did not really cover it up much.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...4&d=1616562651
This is gap that was covered up, not sure if it was necessary but I had some extra bulb seal and figured I would put it to use.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...3&d=1616562641
The rear overriders were definitely more difficult than the front. I had to cut off the all thread (7/16-20) and chase out the holes in the overriders to fit onto the two threaded rods sticking out. Once I was able to thread the nuts on it went pretty smooth, but getting those nuts on was not super easy. This is after I cut to length and added some anti seize.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...1&d=1616562618
I used a pneumatic grinder to chase out the holes in the overriders. It smoked a drill bit quickly so I went to the carbide grinding bit and it did the job.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...2&d=1616562627
The rear of the car is finished up
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...0&d=1616562609
Breeze radiator cowel, moving towards finishing cockpit area
Outside of the car and engine compartment are finished up, I am working towards getting the cockpit ready to go. I had limited time today but was able to get a few items checked off my punch list.
I installed the Breeze upper radiator cowel cover kit, what a nice piece that comes finished in black powder coat. I was glad I did not have to remove the hood, the cowel went on easily with the hood mounted up. This piece serves two purposes, it cleans up and finishes off above the radiator and prevents hot air from recirculating from engine compartment back to the fan. As many have already mentioned everything from Mark Breeze has been awesome along with his customer service! I really like the "MADE IN THE USA" stickers on all his products:D
https://www.breezeautomotive.com/sho...th-ffr-hinges/
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...9&d=1616730349
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...0&d=1616730506
I installed the door straps, just like FFR manual says, some rivets and good to go.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...5&d=1616728842
Also got my rear view mirror mounted with the Darkwater customs bracket, nice polished piece. I did not want to mount the mirror on the dash.
http://www.darkwatercustoms.com/view...rror%20Bracket
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...6&d=1616728855
Wind wings, sun visors, breeze billet mirrors
Progress continues on my final punch list...
I was able to get sun visors, wind wings and breeze side mirrors mounted up. Not really too difficult but I thought I would post up some pics to show how all the brackets are installed. The Breeze side mirrors are a nice addition to the setup. I did not want to mount my mirror on the body with the supplied FFR mirror that comes with the car.
A shout out and thank you to Tim Lee who brought his newly finished Mk4 out to my house yesterday, it was nice to see all the wind wings, mirrors and sun visors installed on a car which made my install much easier. His car turned out great, should have snapped a photo!
Breeze billet mirrors
https://www.breezeautomotive.com/sho...m-made-in-usa/
Everything installed...
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...0&d=1617122279
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...1&d=1617122292
Wind wings are from **********, they have the COBRA logo on the outside which adds a nice custom look. The Breeze mirrors attach perfectly to them.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...4&d=1617122347
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...6&d=1617122369
One thing to look out for is making sure the door clears with the wind wing folded down. I left about 1/4" clearance from
the door which seemed to be about the correct install location. Chances are you will never have it this low but always good to make sure there would never be a chance of catching it on the door.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...7&d=1617122377
Sun visors installed, I did add a lock washer in between the mount and windshield to reduce the number of threads going into the windshield. My painter told me not to have more than 2.5 threads past the mount going into the frame. Apparently you can crack the windshield if these screws go too far into the frame. I did not want to take any chances.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...2&d=1617122308
Here is a pic of the washers installed, I picked them up at Ace hardware.
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/atta...3&d=1617122329