Danny Boy's Mk4 Build - Putting the project on hold for a while...

[facultyofmusic]

Beautiful Tuesday morning saw a sleep deprived Dan crawl out of his bed and straight into the garage to check the pressure tester. After pressurizing the system to ~14psi the pressure reading dropped ~1psi in about 5 hours when I checked before going to sleep. This was expected as completely new coolant tubes and pipes will expand the first time it receives any large amount of pressure. The question is whether or not it maintains the remaining ~13psi for the rest of the night. It did!
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I was beyond ecstatic. This meant the day is finally here, and I've somehow managed to stay on schedule ha! I lowered the car onto the floor, wedged ramps under the front wheel, let go of the brakes, rolled out of the garage and into the sun for the first time. I had forgotten what the garage looked like before the project. What a strange feeling.
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The funny thing is, I was totally gonna start it without coolant. Even if I put water in it would just be distilled water first just in case anything happens. However I was feel extra confident, so I just filled it up with coolant the first time. I guess patience got the best of me. I mean I DID testing everything as much as I could... let's see if we can make the first time charm!

The burping process is really painless with the moroso tank; more on that later. After the initial tank fill I cranked the engine. It took a few very long cranks even after priming the fuel rails. While cranking you could see some smoke coming out of the exhaust pipes which was consistent with what I read from other coyote build threads. Eventually it fired up and roared to life. Oh that sweet sound! I was too busy to celebrate though. I ran around the car checking for any oil, power steering, or coolant leaks. ...and what do you know, NOTHING LEAKED!

My buddy and I then uncapped the moroso tank and used a coolant burping funnel to fill the rest of the system. The thermostat switched over at about 85C. The radiator fan kicked on and the coolant rapidly went down as we quickly filled it back up with coolant. After a minute or so coolant started coming back out into the burping funnel, at which point I turned off the engine, waited for the coolant to go back down into the tank, and we were done.
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The engine turned on pretty much instantly every time after the first start. I think I was just overwhelmed by the fact that everything actually worked exactly as expected. It wasn't until after filling the coolant did I have a moment to rest my mind to realize what I'm looking at in front of me. It's been one hell of a year!
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I wanted to write a paragraph here thanking everyone on this forum who helped me along the way, but I know I'm too cheesy so I should just hold back and savor the feeling before I make anyone reading this feel all slimy . seriously though, thank you everyone who've been with me so far. The motivation I get from this forum cannot be understated. I hope my happiness can be yours as well.

Video of the first start and drive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbS7iA0xgUw

Now that my milestone is reached, I'm gonna check myself in to a hot-spring in the mountains and disconnect from the world for a weekend. I can already feel the weight of anxiety and excitement disappearing from my shoulders. The past few days have not been kind to my sanity; barely slept for more than 5 hours a night waiting for this day.

Danny out. (for just a weekend lol)

[Jeff Kleiner]

Congrats Man!

Jeff

[KDubU]

A major milestone, congrats!

[egchewy79]

that last pic is priceless. I also like the pic of two guys doing work while the others are just watching.
I remember being so nervous for my first start. I had to break in a flat tappet cam and was worried about wiping out the cam lobes if I didn't do things correctly. Add to that the fact that I was using an EFI that I wasn't familiar with and not confident that I'd be able to keep the engine running for the required break in time.
The morning of my first start, I found that my battery was dead (left in the run position overnight). I also had to overcome a coil wire that wasn't correct (needed a male connection and the kit came w/ a female one).
Congrats again on this milestone and it's been fun watching your progress.

[JohnK]

Awesome! Congratulations Dan. Huge accomplishment to get to this point.

[NYMike]

Congrats Dan! Sounds great.

[460.465USMC]

Way to go, Dan! First start...and first go-kart! That's awesome! The relief of the first start and no leaks is a very good feeling. You did good.

Enjoy your weekend getaway!

[facultyofmusic]

Over the past few days I've fired up the engine quite a few times. I wanted to hear the engine roar to life, but I also wanted to heat cycle it, bring it through some revs, let the radiator fan kick in a few times, and other motions to check for issues. I've noticed a few things:

The thing of interest was that the car takes a second of cranking to start from cold. When the engine is hot it starts back up almost instantly, but when it's cold I have to keep the starter cranking for about a second before the engine burps and little and then come to life. Is this normal? I've seen my friends' corvettes take longer to start up from a cold state and I intuitively understand that a bigger engine takes more power to start. I just want to make sure this isn't some cause for concern.

I had the front of the car elevated so I could take a look at the car from below as my friend did small revs and sustained RPMs. The engine and exhaust clearance looked good, and when the engine is revved hard it doesn't pull or knock on anything. Nice! While I was under the car I did near a periodic squeaking noise. By shifting my body around under the car I pinpointed it to the clutch. I asked my buddy to engage/disengage the clutch over and over again which helped me verify that the squeaking sound was only there when the clutch was engaged. I wonder what it is. It's very very faint.

So far after driving it around the block plus a few heat cycles, I've never noticed a puddle of anything on the floor. I did, however, notice some oil and coolant seepage around the pressure and temp sender fittings.

The coolant seepage is visible with the pipe thread sealant. The seepage looks really, really, really slow. I don't really know what to do with it right now aside from monitoring it more over the next few weeks.
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EDIT: Another thing I realized is that my coolant is very neon yellow... not green or blue. How did that greenish blue liquid get there!?

The oil seepage shows from the bit of oil near the T-fittings. I think it's leaking from there before I honestly can't figure out where else it'd come from. I don't see any obvious leaks anywhere.
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For the oil leak, I suppose I could get new higher quality fittings and redo the the "T" section during my next oil change if the leak is small enough to hold out. Currently my next steps is just continuing observation. Does anyone see this as something more serious that I need to take care of right away?

[Nigel Allen]

my Coyote engine behaves in exactly the same way in regard to cold and hot starting.

I don't think quality of the tee fitting is an issue, unless the tapered oil sender/s have been over tightened as they can cause the brass tee to crack easily. Pull it apart, look for cracks. If all good, reseal it with a bit more sealant tape and don't overtighten. They shouldn't need to be much more than finger tight plus half a turn to achieve satisfactory seal. Same goes for coolant sender.

A good tip when looking for an oil leak is to thoroughly clean the area with some brake clean solvent. It will really dry out the metal surfaces and you can quickly see where the oil leak develops.

Best of luck,

Nigel

[OB6]

How much thread tape are you using? Too much can cause problems on tapered threads. Three wraps is plenty.
I prefer to use actual sealant paste on plumbing connections.

[edwardb]

You'll get various opinions on here. But many, including me, recommend leaving the tape in your toolbox for home plumbing. Use high quality thread sealant, like Permatex (there are others) instead for these builds wherever sealant is appropriate. Not interested in arguing or getting this thread off topic. Just throwing it out there.

[facultyofmusic]

How much thread tape are you using? Too much can cause problems on tapered threads. Three wraps is plenty.
I prefer to use actual sealant paste on plumbing connections.

I've been using Loctite PST threadsealer on all my NPT fittings.

[facultyofmusic]

my Coyote engine behaves in exactly the same way in regard to cold and hot starting.

I don't think quality of the tee fitting is an issue, unless the tapered oil sender/s have been over tightened as they can cause the brass tee to crack easily. Pull it apart, look for cracks. If all good, reseal it with a bit more sealant tape and don't overtighten. They shouldn't need to be much more than finger tight plus half a turn to achieve satisfactory seal. Same goes for coolant sender.

A good tip when looking for an oil leak is to thoroughly clean the area with some brake clean solvent. It will really dry out the metal surfaces and you can quickly see where the oil leak develops.

Best of luck,

Nigel

Thanks Nigel, over-tightening definitely could be an issue. One of the things I've learned on this project is that I almost always overestimate how much torque things need, haha. Yeah my plan is to clean the area as much as I can and see where the oil start to gather. It's a bit tough because the area down there is really tight, but I don't see another way to diagnose this either.

[Zach Bohn]

Congratulations on First Start!

[facultyofmusic]

Ok so, the more I think about the greenish gooey stuff on my brass fittings the less it makes sense. Nothing liquid in or near by engine is green or blue. Coolant is yellow. Oil is, well, oil coloured. Brake fluid is deep yellow. The greenish hue on the thread sealant doesn't appear on just the water-temp sender fitting. It shows on the oil-pressure sender fittings as well (see picture below), so it can't be coolant.
green.jpg

This may sound silly and I'm not a chemist, but I wonder if it's something in the left over thread sealant oxidizing the brass fitting it came in contact with. Copper oxide is green (brass is copper + zinc alloy). The oxidization process could be accelerated by both the exhaust header heat and heat from the water/oil that the fittings come in contact with. Try as I may I could not find any info on what exactly is in loctite PST. I know it's an anaerobic adhesive sealant with PTFE but not much else. The actual composition of loctite PST is probably a guarded trade secret or something.

If someone reading this IS a chemist I'd love to know if what I wrote above makes any sense at all.

Regardless, took another brass fitting I had lying around, smeared some loctite PST on it, and secured it around the same area. If that also turns green after a few heat cycles then perhaps there isn't much to worry about after all.

[edwardb]

Ok so, the more I think about the greenish gooey stuff on my brass fittings the less it makes sense. Nothing liquid in or near by engine is green or blue. Coolant is yellow. Oil is, well, oil coloured. Brake fluid is deep yellow. The greenish hue on the thread sealant doesn't appear on just the water-temp sender fitting. It shows on the oil-pressure sender fittings as well (see picture below), so it can't be coolant.
green.jpg

This may sound silly and I'm not a chemist, but I wonder if it's something in the left over thread sealant oxidizing the brass fitting it came in contact with. Copper oxide is green (brass is copper + zinc alloy). The oxidization process could be accelerated by both the exhaust header heat and heat from the water/oil that the fittings come in contact with. Try as I may I could not find any info on what exactly is in loctite PST. I know it's an anaerobic adhesive sealant with PTFE but not much else. The actual composition of loctite PST is probably a guarded trade secret or something.

If someone reading this IS a chemist I'd love to know if what I wrote above makes any sense at all.

Regardless, took another brass fitting I had lying around, smeared some loctite PST on it, and secured it around the same area. If that also turns green after a few heat cycles then perhaps there isn't much to worry about after all.

I'm no chemist (today's understatement) but I've used Permatex or Loctite thread sealant around brass fittings for many builds and never had any issue with oxidation. Looking at your pictures, is that amount of sealant left over after you completely tighten the fitting with the sealant coated on the threads? If so, I'd clean it up when you're done. It's not doing anything out there. The sealant only matters between the internal threads. Perhaps that amount of sealant turns color on its own. I don't know though. I never leave it like that. As a general statement, I'd be very surprised if you have a sealant issue.

[460.465USMC]

Over the past few days I've fired up the engine quite a few times. I wanted to hear the engine roar to life, but I also wanted to heat cycle it, bring it through some revs, let the radiator fan kick in a few times, and other motions to check for issues. I've noticed a few things:

The thing of interest was that the car takes a second of cranking to start from cold. When the engine is hot it starts back up almost instantly, but when it's cold I have to keep the starter cranking for about a second before the engine burps and little and then come to life. Is this normal? I've seen my friends' corvettes take longer to start up from a cold state and I intuitively understand that a bigger engine takes more power to start. I just want to make sure this isn't some cause for concern.

Hi Dan. My Gen 3 is behaving similarly. My gut says extended cranking on cold start is fuel related. So, I started some trial-and-error on my last cold start: before cranking over I ran the fuel pump three cycles by turning the "key" to the Run position. Turn key off. Repeat twice more. Crank motor over after the third cycle and it started much faster. I'm going to try only two fuel pump cycles on next cold start and see what that does. I'm also wondering if cold start typically improves once it's tuned?

Nigel, thanks for commenting on your Coyote cold start experience. Good to know.

[edwardb]

…The thing of interest was that the car takes a second of cranking to start from cold. When the engine is hot it starts back up almost instantly, but when it's cold I have to keep the starter cranking for about a second before the engine burps and little and then come to life. Is this normal?

my Coyote engine behaves in exactly the same way in regard to cold and hot starting.
Nigel

Hi Dan. My Gen 3 is behaving similarly. My gut says extended cranking on cold start is fuel related. So, I started some trial-and-error on my last cold start: before cranking over I ran the fuel pump three cycles by turning the "key" to the Run position. Turn key off. Repeat twice more. Crank motor over after the third cycle and it started much faster. I'm going to try only two fuel pump cycles on next cold start and see what that does. I'm also wondering if cold start typically improves once it's tuned?

My Gen 3 Coyote in my Coupe is exactly same way. Cranks for a second or two before starting. Whether it's been a day or after winter hibernation. Haven’t noticed a big difference between cold and hot. But haven’t really checked for that to be honest. The custom tune from Lund didn’t change the behavior. From my standpoint I agree this is totally normal. Not worth it or necessary to take additional measures IMO. Let if crank, start, and have fun. Obviously you guys haven’t been around long enough to “enjoy” the good old days with carbs and mechanical fuel pumps? 5-10 second cranks were considered normal in the day.

[Nigel Allen]

Fuel pump runs continuously on gen 1. I have dash mounted fuel pressure gauge. Fuel pressure is reached in under a second. Regardless, my Coyote takes a little more cranking when cold. I figure the ECM is doing what it wants and it is possibly an emissions thing. I will say it is a consistent amount of time and sounds exactly like the videos of other forum members cold starts. I wouldn't stress about it unless you have to try multiple times to get it to start.

[facultyofmusic]

Thanks for the replies everyone. Sounds like the cold start cranking time is normal and nothing to worry about. TBH there's something cool about "my engine is too big it takes a while for it to start". LOL!

I'm no chemist (today's understatement) but I've used Permatex or Loctite thread sealant around brass fittings for many builds and never had any issue with oxidation. Looking at your pictures, is that amount of sealant left over after you completely tighten the fitting with the sealant coated on the threads? If so, I'd clean it up when you're done. It's not doing anything out there. The sealant only matters between the internal threads. Perhaps that amount of sealant turns color on its own. I don't know though. I never leave it like that. As a general statement, I'd be very surprised if you have a sealant issue.

Yes, it's the remaining thread sealant that's been "squeezed out" after tightening. I didn't wipe it all up since I didn't see the harm in letting it stay, but hindsight 20/20 I would have cleaned it up if I knew I was going to run into this. I looked at other fittings that used the same thread sealant. All of the brass fittings this sealant came in contact with has that bit of green, no matter if it's fitting the fuel pressure regulator, water temp sensor, or engine oil. The fittings that are not brass on the other hand, don't have the green.
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I asked some friends who studied chemistry/material science and they did confirm that it could be oxidization. The weird thing is that the green looks a little dark, but without knowing exactly what's in the sealant it's tough to say. I am, at this point, no longer worried about this and will just add it to my list of "things to check" once in a while. I will wipe it down where I can and call it a day.

[facultyofmusic]

After my first start I spent the remaining week and weekend in the mountains of Northern California hoping to disconnect and pull myself out of the daily routine. I found myself quite often just staring into the distance, wondering what’s next. For the past year it felt like it was my life’s mission to get this thing breathing within a year. I didn’t really plan further than that. Now that we’re here, we need a plan going forward.

I called Jeff Miller to get on the waitlist. Jeff was booked until November which was what was discussed on the recent posts. Jeff was so much fun to talk to and I had a blast. I asked him about the usual next steps after the first start and we discussed the possibilities of getting the car registered before sending it off to him for paint and finishing in November. It would require quite a bit of running around but with a bit more than 3 months left, I feel pretty confident about it.

I’ve also been talking with SJDave since he lives just around the proverbial corner. After much discussion I now have a pretty good plan towards the next milestone: Getting the car registered in California.
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There are many posts on this forum on California registration and the SB100 process, so I won’t go into too much detail here. I do, however, want to provide a tentative list of tasks for the car.

For a car to be registered it really just need a few things aside from the towing and running around:

• Lights
• Brakes
• Mirrors
• Smog (Exemption based on SB100)
• Other obvious car things (e.g. a windshield that exists)
• NOT windshield wipers (thank goodness!)

My plan from now to November is therefore to get these steps done while interleaving visits to the DMV and other authorities along the way. Oh, and the occasional go-karting of course :P

There is a very clear line of separation in the above steps: body fitment. I can’t determine the windshield mounting points without first fitting the body, neither can I the side and rear view mirrors. There are still many things I want to do on the car before the body goes on though, so we’ll get started on those first:

• Lights and LED conversion
• Trunk compartment accessible from the cockpit (similar to the breeze design)
• Trunk support gas struts and placement
• Trunk electrical accessories (extra USB and AUX power ports)
• Panel gap sealing
• Finish the ignition control panel box
• Modify the RF fuse panel to be easily removable for windshield mounting.
• … and other things I’ve probably forgotten.

The first item to tackle are the lights because I just don’t feel comfortable go-karting without braking and turning signal lights. I’ve purchased the breeze LED conversion kit, but the instructions don’t make too much sense to me yet.

Another long train of thought is the colour scheme of the car. I don’t mean the exact paint colour (although I DO have a pretty good idea of what I want), but rather the colour of the exterior components. I’ve been toying around with the idea of blacked-out exterior components to get that modern-classic look, but as cool as they seem they also look out of place on a classic cobra body. Blacking out everything is ALSO a lot of work compared to leaving it chrome. If I go with chrome components, then the only things I need to powdercoat are the roll-bars and my side pipes. If I go with blacked-out components, then that list gets quite long. I’ve been browsing the internet for inspiration on both sides. Boy this is a tough decision!

If possible I’d like to make the colour decision later down the line, but there are components that need to go on with the body and are not easy to take back off. I’ll have to make the decision before November.

[Fman]

Just a heads up on the SB100 registration process, it can take 3-10 months depending on what DMV you visit and who handles your emails and paperwork. Just beware there could be delays and have patience. Best of luck to you when you start the process.

[facultyofmusic]

Just a heads up on the SB100 registration process, it can take 3-10 months depending on what DMV you visit and who handles your emails and paperwork. Just beware there could be delays and have patience. Best of luck to you when you start the process.

Yeah totally The time delays on the process seems arbitrary sometimes. According to my limited research, the DMV at Los Gatos is the best one to go to because there are quite a lot of builders around that area, so over the years they've managed to get some experience dealing with SB100. It's entirely possible that I won't finish registration by the time I need to drop the car off at Jeff's. In that case, I'm sure I can finish the rest after I get the car back from him. Dave said the process used to be super straight forward. You'd just call the CHP stations and get it done in the same day. Now you'd have to book an appointment through the CHP offices in Sacramento a few weeks in advance.

[facultyofmusic]

There's this distinct noise from my steering rack whenever I turn the wheel all the way to the left or all the way to the right. It sounds like turbulent fluid flow (kinda like the sound a shower head makes around the bends). From what I've read this is "normal" noise that's caused by pressure build up when it can't turn anymore. The noise is really loud tho, much louder than that of my daily driver. How can I tell if it's normal or of it's something I need to look into?

[facultyofmusic]

It's been a while since the last update. I assure you I haven't been sitting idly by twiddling my thumbs! Well, I maybe have done a lot of that when going back and forth between the choice of colour... but you must understand that right?

(disclaimer: I know colour is a very subjective thing. Below are Dan's opinions. )

My nightly Google Images and Instagram browsing sessions usually end with me starring blankly at the wall trying to imagine what the colour would look like on a cobra. Being a youngster myself, the "dream cars" of mine are relatively modern. Modern cars can look real nice with flat colours, but the same flat colours don't jive too well with the classic body of the cobra. Porsche's "python green" is a great example. On a modern Porsche it looks super slick with black trim and components, but won't look very good on a cobra.
paint_python_green.jpg

Another idea I had early on was a "coffee" brown colour with bronze stripes. Googling "brown cars" quickly made me realize the other unsavoury things it looked like... so that idea was decarded. A lighter brown looked pretty good, but it wasn't the "coffee" colour I wanted.
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The two finalists were "Bay Side Blue" of Nissan GTR 50th Anniversary Edition and "Isle Of Man Green" of BMW M3 Competition. They are both "deep" metallic colours which totally fits the cobra. I'm not a BMW nerd myself. One day while out and about I saw an M3 competition with the "Isle Of Man Green"; it instantly turned my head and drew me in. I didn't even know it was a BMW at first, I just loved the paint so much.
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I'll leave the final decision as a surprise. I'd be happy to have my car in either of those two colours, but I did end up liking one more than the other. Stay tuned!

While all that was going on I cleaned up some ugly wiring behind the dashboard. I trimmed out the sender/choke harness as well as the extra wires towards the dash harness. I'll be using the electric choke Hot On IGN wire to power the reverse lock-out module, but more on that later.
wiring_after.jpg wiring_before.jpg

I also drilled out the rivets holding my fuse-panel to the driver-side foot box. I'm going to make it removable with enough free-play so I can plug-in/pull-out the windshield bracket pin. Still debating if I want to switch out my clutch line fitting to a 90 degree one to move it out of the way, but it seems fine the way it is now so I'm not too concerned about it.
windshielf_space.jpg

[Jeff Kleiner]

RE: "coffee brown colour with bronze stripes". Been there, done that, one of my favorites!



Cheers,
Jeff



AlC25.jpg

[facultyofmusic]

RE: "coffee brown colour with bronze stripes". Been there, done that, one of my favorites!



Cheers,
Jeff



AlC25.jpg

WOW! That looks really nice in the sun!

[Blitzboy54]

That BMW green is sick.

[facultyofmusic]

That BMW green is sick.

I agree

If you haven't seen it in real life, I totally suggest walking into a BMW dealership just to see it. It's such a weirdly enchanting colour.

[JB in NOVA]

Picking a color was the hardest part of my build, hands down!

[facultyofmusic]

Time for a trunk cubby! There's the popular breeze mod, but I wanted one that's smaller with USB and accessory power plugs inside it for convenience. That way I can plug my phone in when I drive to charge it, and perhaps to power a speaker set too!

For future-proofing sake, I decided to route a set of BATT, ACC, and IGN hot wires to the rear. This way if I decide to add anything to my trunk in the future I can choose between all 3. For example: something like a cubby light will go on ACC, while a GPS tracking module will go on BATT. There are a few unused wires in my build so they were perfect for repurposing. I routed the heater wire to the back as my ACC power wire, and the ELEC. CHOKE wire to the back as my IGN power wire. I already had a cable that goes from the switched end of the my battery cut-off switch to the back, so I just cut that back open and routed the 2 new wires through it. Now in my trunk there are 3 holes: one for an additional rear brake/reverse/turn light bar, one for the reverse lockout module, and the third for power wires routed from the front.
rear_acc_extensions (1).jpg

While I'm at it, I routed and connected the American Powertrain ELUN-10013 reverse lockout module. The idea here is for a little box of electronics detect when the vehicle isn't moving and activate the solenoid accordingly. Saw on on several other build threads, so I decided to use it too. The instructions of the lockout module mentioned VSS signal and VSS reference, but after asking in this thread I found out it doesn't matter which way you connect it for the T56 since it's just a variable reluctance resistor. cool.
rear_acc_extensions (2).jpg reverse_lockout.jpg

After routing the harnesses and sealing/securing them accordingly it's time to silicone and rivet the back wall panels. One last look at that beautiful rear end and suspension from the cockpit. Gonna miss this phase.
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To get started on the cubby, I once again used some cardboard to mock out the shapes of the panels I need:
cubby_mockup (2).jpg

Next I needed some aluminum panels to make the panels. I looked through my spare panels and couldn't find ones big enough for the whole cubby. SJDave asked around and told me about Campbell Metal Supply just a short drive away from my place. I went there and bought a few 1x4feet sheets of 5052 aluminum for half the price of what home depot sells them at. Woo! Guess who's never buying sheet metal from home depot ever again?
campbell_metal_supply (1).jpg campbell_metal_supply (2).jpg

I transferred the cardboard shape onto the aluminum sheet, added tabs for attachment to the main panels and bent them with my bigger sheet metal brakes. I borrowed it from a friend who didn't need it for a while. It was a little awkward to use but it got the job done.
cubby_mockup (1).jpg cubby_tabs_bent.jpg

[facultyofmusic]

I test fitted the panels in the approximate location. I didn't want it to be too close to the roll-bar mounting points because I didn't want it to be a pain to install the bars. I left about an inch of space from the bar on each side and looked pretty good to me!
cubby_testfit (1).jpg cubby_testfit (2).jpg

Next I temporarily installed the cockpit rear wall and drew some guiding line on it to figure out where the boundaries are. Then using a large diameter hole saw and an angle grinder I made a hole in the rear wall.
cubby_hole.jpg cubby_hole_fit.jpg

If you need on the two sides of the panel under the seatbelt holes you'll find some extra holes. I drilled those holes to make seatbelt assembly and disassembly easier. I realized that with the cubby, trunk lid strut, and a bunch of wires in place it's gonna be real tough reaching the seatbelt mounting points from the trunk opening once the body is on. I drilled holes just big enough for 3/4in sockets to fit through. It'll make seatbelt install/uninstall way easier. (verified later to be true. )
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As for trunk cubby fitment it was excellent.
cubby_fit (1).jpg cubby_fit (2).jpg cubby_fit (3).jpg

[facultyofmusic]

with the panels fitted and tested, I closed up the box by making a rear panel. Again, just some sheet aluminum and a sheet metal brake. Some DIY fabbing
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With the cubby all drilled and secured with clecos there isn't much else I want from the cockpit back wall. I added a fire extinguisher mount with quick release right under the cubby opening. It's a pretty sleek system! You pull the pin and the fire extinguisher comes right out. I especially love the huge red "PULL TO RELEASE" tag. Makes it look freaking awesome. The parts are H3R Performance MaxOut Fire Extinguishers MX250R and H3R Performance Quick-Release Fire Extinguisher Mounting Brackets NB300.
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Seatbelt installation was super easy thanks to the rear wall holes. When I do my rear wall carpeting I'll find a way to cover it up while keeping it accessible.
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[egchewy79]

have you mocked up your seats yet? I'd be concerned about the extinguisher getting in the way where it's currently located.
also, I didn't have any issues with the seat belt bolts, putting them in from the rear and the nuts on the front. you can get a combo wrench in there from the trunk to hold the nuts while ratcheting the bolts. you'll need to remove your seats if you want to ever replace your seat belts, plus you'll need to have holes in your rear cockpit carpet to get at those bolts.

[Railroad]

Nice work. Just in case I missed it, you might want a light inside the cubby. I wired mine to come on with the headlight switch, foot box and glove box light.

[facultyofmusic]

have you mocked up your seats yet? I'd be concerned about the extinguisher getting in the way where it's currently located.
also, I didn't have any issues with the seat belt bolts, putting them in from the rear and the nuts on the front. you can get a combo wrench in there from the trunk to hold the nuts while ratcheting the bolts. you'll need to remove your seats if you want to ever replace your seat belts, plus you'll need to have holes in your rear cockpit carpet to get at those bolts.

Yes! I made sure to do that before I mounted it in that location. My legs are so short that there's a huge gap between the back of the seat the wall. I plan on making the passenger seats adjustable but I'll be sure to leave enough space for the extinguisher.

I hear you about the seat belt bolts. Without a picture of the final trunk setup it's difficult to explain how much stuff there will be next to the belt mount holts and roll-bar posts, but from a quick mock up I was convinced there's no way to get a wrench back there without temporarily removing a bunch of stuff. The holes in the car shouldn't be too hard to cover up, right?

[facultyofmusic]

Nice work. Just in case I missed it, you might want a light inside the cubby. I wired mine to come on with the headlight switch, foot box and glove box light.

That's the plan I plan to make a door for the cubby and use a contact switch to turn the light on/off with the door.

[toadster]

Nice work. Just in case I missed it, you might want a light inside the cubby. I wired mine to come on with the headlight switch, foot box and glove box light.

1 second this notion, I put in 2 LED light strips that will be turned on with the headlight switch, the front part lights the cubby, and the rear part the trunk (see yellow highlights in pic below)
I'll tie them in tandem so I can see in the cubby if I let the trunk lights on - no sense coming out to a dead battery

led-strips.png

[facultyofmusic]

In post #188 and #189 I detailed the making if my ignition panel box. It's a little box with a slanted surface that matches the slant of the dashboard with a bunch of switches on it for ignition control. While it looked good, my initial design was one that prioritized saving panel material because I simply didn't have much of it left at the time. The resulting box works, but is rather flimsy as it's missing 2 faces a normal rectangular prism. The structural rigidity just isn't there. What's worse is that the ignition control panel has these super beefy switches that take a lot to toggle. With the flimsy box I could feel the whole thing flex every time I toggle those switches. Yuck... didn't feel good at all.

Now that I've just bought a few shiny sheets of aluminum, I decided to remake the box. This time much studier than before. I copied the dimensions of the old box onto a blank sheet of aluminum, cut it out, and folded it with the help of my press brakes. There were areas where two corners met which were super tricky to get right. For those corners I used a hammer and my vise's various jaw surfaces as makeshift anvils to hammer them flat. Worked out pretty well in the end.
plan.jpg 20220806_171450.jpg 20220806_171454.jpg

With 3 faces made from a single sheet of aluminum it was much sturdier already! I completed the box my making a top and bottom face. The rear will secured onto the firewall, so no face needed there.
20220806_171500.jpg 20220806_171505.jpg 20220806_194914.jpg 20220806_194925.jpg 20220806_194955.jpg

I added screw holes to the firewall along the edge of the box using rivet-nuts and secured the box to the firewall. I'm SUPER happy with it. The new box wouldn't budge a bit! Now the switches feel like they are literally attached to the chassis itself. Big win today!
20220806_205142.jpg 20220806_205152.jpg

[toadster]

In post #188 and #189 I detailed the making if my ignition panel box. It's a little box with a slanted surface that matches the slant of the dashboard with a bunch of switches on it for ignition control. While it looked good, my initial design was one that prioritized saving panel material because I simply didn't have much of it left at the time. The resulting box works, but is rather flimsy as it's missing 2 faces a normal rectangular prism. The structural rigidity just isn't there. What's worse is that the ignition control panel has these super beefy switches that take a lot to toggle. With the flimsy box I could feel the whole thing flex every time I toggle those switches. Yuck... didn't feel good at all.

Now that I've just bought a few shiny sheets of aluminum, I decided to remake the box. This time much studier than before. I copied the dimensions of the old box onto a blank sheet of aluminum, cut it out, and folded it with the help of my press brakes. There were areas where two corners met which were super tricky to get right. For those corners I used a hammer and my vise's various jaw surfaces as makeshift anvils to hammer them flat. Worked out pretty well in the end.
plan.jpg 20220806_171450.jpg 20220806_171454.jpg

With 3 faces made from a single sheet of aluminum it was much sturdier already! I completed the box my making a top and bottom face. The rear will secured onto the firewall, so no face needed there.
20220806_171500.jpg 20220806_171505.jpg 20220806_194914.jpg 20220806_194925.jpg 20220806_194955.jpg

I added screw holes to the firewall along the edge of the box using rivet-nuts and secured the box to the firewall. I'm SUPER happy with it. The new box wouldn't budge a bit! Now the switches feel like they are literally attached to the chassis itself. Big win today!
20220806_205142.jpg 20220806_205152.jpg

nice job! I feel your pain on creating these new 'things' that aren't in the original config