After a few weeks of negotiating/haggling/bargaining, my sweet wifey has finally capitulated on this build. Needless to say, I ordered it just a few minutes later before she could change her mind. It will be here in early November - thanks Stewart Transportation. I hope its not too early to start my build thread - there's some prep work that I need to do to be ready.

My home shop is nicely set up and will be a fun place for this latest project. My shop is a 36' x 60' Brohalla with a 12' x 7' projection screen for build videos, music and Netflix binging to keep me entertained during the project. Also, a homemade bar to host the wrenching helpers! As a fun aside, I entered my shop in last year's "Coolest Garage of the Year" with Racedeck.com (PS - GREAT flooring!) - and it beat out a few hundred other entries for the grand prize. Pretty fun contest - see https://racedeck.com/category/garage-of-the-year/.

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My first project after ordering was to build a rolling body buck and frame cradle - done with just some scrap lumber and a very easy project to finish in a day. Used the buck plans in the downloaded MK4 manual - and modified is just a little. The rolling frame cradle was modified from plans published by chrisarella - see https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...ly-Build-Plans - thanks Chris!

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Next, I'm adding/replacing a few tools that will be helpful for this build - good electrical crimper, a good ATV/motorcycle hydraulic lift to replace my POS transmission jack, M3 fine line tape, a big pack of 1/8" drill bits, an air driven rivet gun and supplies, punch set, new brake bleeder set, bubble flare and double flaring kit, flare nut wrench set, cleco set and a few other odds and ends.

I'm planning on doing the body work and paint myself - I'll need to learn some additional skills along the way.

This will be a great adventure. To all reading this - thanks in advance for support and help along the way. William Yeats once said: "There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met".