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

[facultyofmusic]

Happy New Year everyone! Among all the new year plans and work crunch I've been doing my best to get my car in shape for final assembly at Jeff's. Done quite a few things that I'm proud of. Now that I'm all cozy and warm with family on a trip to Chicago, let's catch up a bit.

Before going down to SoCal to see Jeff I made sure to squeeze in a few good days of driving. I got myself one of those cool 360 cameras on a stick to record myself driving.
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It looks down on the car from about a meter above the trunk. If you've ever played a third-person perspective racing game, that's exactly what it looks like!
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At the time I didn't have my high-back seats in yet so I wore my open-face helmet. In retrospect it was a bit overkill for a calm drive to work, but I think we all take a while to get comfortable with our machines Driving it to work was just a blast! People would turn their heads and smile. Kids in adjacent cars waved and passengers (even drivers at a stop light!) took pictures. I think the "obvious homemade car"-ness of the way it looked brought the inner kid out of them. It makes me happy.
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One weekend I took Olivia for a ride to a our favourite local coffee shop (Philz Coffee). About a year ago on one of our dates I rented a corvette stingray for a nice drive along the beach. She had never been in an open top car before. As we cruised down the PCH I remember telling her that "this feeling, the wind in your hair, and engine symphony, and the freedom of it all is what I'm chasing after. One day we'll drive around in a open-top car again, except it will be the car that I built myself." I never forgot that moment; and seeing her big smile (and some held back screams when I get on the gas) as the first passenger in my Mk4 made me the happiest man alive. She's been incredibly understanding and supportive of my build and I couldn't have asked for more.
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As for the seats, I eventually did put my high-back seats in. I had an issue where the shoulder section of the seats reached too far out and collided with the doors. I uncovered the seat covered, grounded down the part that was hitting the door and it fits in quite well now. I made a separate post on this topic earlier but here are some pictures in summary:
cutout.jpg new_seats_in1.jpg new_seats_in2.jpg shaved_fit1.jpg shaved_fit2.jpg

The seat covers do a great job hiding the cut-outs I made in the seat. Eventually I plan to sculpt the seats more so they are symmetrical on both sides and then have a local upholstery shop fix-up the seat covers with brown leather. With both doors on the seat-covers lightly brush the doors. I can't imagine it doing any rubbing damage to the paint since it's such a soft cloth material.

On the first week of November SJDave and I drove to SoCal in torrential rain. California isn't used to getting much rain so I must have prayed to some rain god in my sleep. SJDave did a tremendous job wrapping the car in 3 layers of covers and just about used every bungee cord he had and we took off early in the morning. Perhaps it's due to the rain that the highways were relatively clear of any traffic. Other than 2 gas-station stops we were zooming down I-5 the whole time. By the time we arrived at Jeff's shop the covers on the car were soaked but the car itself was fine. I didn't have much time or dry-fingers to take pictures, but I did get one of Dave and Jeff in Jeff's shop. Within the few hours we were there we took the body off and Jeff got straight to it. You could tell that the man had it down to a science! Not a single wasted movement. I was really cool watching Jeff do his magic.
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We called it a day late in the afternoon and got some BBQ dinner at a local restaurant near our hotel. The next day Jeff had the chassis ready to be taken back. The rain didn't get any lighter, and our covers didn't look like they were going to be enough. The electrical components behind the dash also got rained on while we were loading the car onto the bed and that got me REALLY paranoid since none of that was done with water resistance in mind. Looking back I'm actually glad that happened because the car fired right up after a few days of drying back at home. No watermarks, no shorts, all good! If this didn't happen I'd probably be paranoid about it the first time I get caught in the rain, but now I have a bit more trust in my electrical work. Haha!

[JohnK]

Hey Daniel. Happy new year! Great update. The smile on Olivia's face makes it all worth it, doesn't it? I can't wait to see the painted car.

[facultyofmusic]

Hey Daniel. Happy new year! Great update. The smile on Olivia's face makes it all worth it, doesn't it? I can't wait to see the painted car.

Haha you know it! Yeah I smile everytime I think about going to Jeff's to pick it up.

[facultyofmusic]

Remember how I spent forever deciding on the paint colour? Well I've both good and bad news on that. Although both lucky I suppose.

I found a guy at work who owned a BMW M4 Competition in that exact paint colour and asked if I could meet up with him to take a closer look. Had a fun talk with the guy and boy will I say the paint looks great... on an M4. We took the car onto the roof of our parking garage and the green turned from this deep hollow green into fantasy unicorn candy green. I just can't imagine painting my cobra in that colour. Again, it looks amazing on the M4, but imaging my cobra in that colour makes me... idk man I just can't do it. I cobra I want to build is a classic roadster on the exterior.

So back on the search I went. Dealership to dealership I asked to see their green cars and I ended up settling on the Mercedes Emerald Green Metallic. Some of the other colours on my shortlist were the Mini British Racing Green and Porsche Jet Green Metallic. Mini's BRG was a little too GREEN for me. Porsche's JGM was a bit too muted. The Mercedes EGM felt just right. That's the paint I asked Jeff to put on my cobra and I cannot wait to see it.

Now onto the glovebox. I'll admit I didn't really do much planning for the glove-box compartment. In the beginning I wasn't even planning to have a functioning glovebox... perhaps a door there but have it open to some wires or fuse panel for maintenance purposes. I finished all the vehicle electrical work without needing that area at all, so now I have a bunch of space to fill. I'm not planning to add a heater to the car, so glovebox it is.

The popular glovebox approach seems to be making a tub and then glue that tub to the dashboard. Since I have the entire underside of the dashboard supported by aluminum panel I decided to wall off a section behind the dashboard and use that as glovebox space instead. I transferred the cardboard mockup to an aluminum panel and used 2 1/8 screws and nuts to attach it to a hinge.

mockup.jpg mockup_aluminum.jpg panel_bolts.jpg panel_bolts2.jpg

I countersunk the screw-head side of the panel and after tightening the nut down with a dab of red loctite I ground down the screw head some more to make it flatter. I'm going to cover it with foam-backed upholstery fabric anyway. To cover the edges of the folded upholstery fabric I used sheets of plastic to sandwich the edges. It effectively forms a groove for the upholstery edges to fit into; invisible after it's covered up. It's finished off with black rustoleum spray-paint. I made sure to cover up the fabric parts so it doesn't get paint on it.
cover_prep.jpg cover_folded.jpg cover_taped.jpg cover_painted.jpg

You can still tell where the screw heads are on the fully covered side if you really try in the right lighting. I don't think anyone's gonna notice
covered_panel.jpg

[facultyofmusic]

Next is the hinge. I thought it would be easy to find the hinge I'm looking for, but after scouring the internet I just couldn't find it. Maybe I didn't try hard enough? Anyway I decided to make my own. I took a left-over piece of aluminum and bent it into shape with my press-brakes. Some bending here some hammer there... eventually I got it down to the shape I wanted.
hinge_2.jpg hinge_1.jpg

This is the part of the hinge that reaches above the pivot point, through the opening to grab onto the lid. To make it swivel I cut up a piece of piano hinge and riveted it together. After spray painting the curvy part black of course.
hinge_with_piano.jpg hinge_piano_side.jpg

The hinge attaches to the dashboard using rivets through the dashboard. RIVETS THROUGH THE DASHBOARD!?!? Yes. By the time I had to make that decision I had already decided to re-cover my dashboard with brown leather material. Brown is pairs better with green, don'cha think? The idea is the cut X shapes where I'll rivet the hinge, peel back the black FFR provided dashboard material, rivet, and let the black dash material cover it up again. It only looks ugly but there will be no visible bumps in the material after I cover it with another layer of material.
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Looking back at the work I did I'm really impressed with how well the hinge worked. Haha.

[facultyofmusic]

At this moment I fully reflect John Ibele's sentiment that every virus known to man seems to be flying around everywhere you go. Unfortunately I caught one of the bigger ones and the past few days have been a living hell. Looks like my body's beating COVID pretty good now, so let's keep talking cars. I wish everyone else here good health and a strong immune system.

I started having this "new dash" idea very early on in my build when I saw JohnK's gorgeous dashboard. I really loved his comp-dash layout and dash material. The FFR provided material looked pretty good from 5 feet away but up close it looked like a sheet of plastic. Fast forward to the day I put the body onto the chassis I found myself not hating the street-dash layout that much. After driving it around in go-kart mode I did appreciate that the speedo was right in-front of me so I decided to keep it. However with the body on the rolled edge that sits above the dash was about 1/2" above the top of my actual dashboard. Wisdom from the forum said to let the body "cook" under the sun for a while and maybe it will fit on but after a few weeks it didn't fix it by much. Here's what it looked like when I had the body fitted at Jeff's shop, you can see the dash mounting tabs through the gap. Not a pretty sight.
dash_too_low.jpg

It was also at that point when I thought about matching the interior of the car with the exterior paint. Like I mentioned in previous posts, brown and green look so good together! Something like this:
green_and_brown.jpeg

I had both the aesthetic and technical reasons to change my dash so I wasn't gonna pass up on this opportunity. I looked around and ordered a rich soft PU-leather upholstery material. Because there's already the FFR material on the dash I didn't have to buy the foam-lined material as I can just put it on top of what's already there. The lessons I learned from doing the dash for the first time were also carried over. I made sure to not cut the holes too big (cuz they curve into the dash) and use a sharper and finer crafting knife to do the work.
redoing_leather1.jpg redoing_leather2.jpg

I also attached a L-beam to the back of the dash to make it wobble less. The normal switches are not a problem but the push and pull motion of the light switch makes it look flimsy during operation. With the L-beam bracing the dash it's much more solid now.
redoing_leather3.jpg

The trimmed boundaries of where the glovebox meets the dash to give it a recessed area. With the new material covering the top it looks well integrated.
glovebox1.jpg glovebox2.jpg

I borrowed SJDave's label maker and pressed out embossed labels for the switches. I know some of y'all are in the "less things on my dash" camp. I learned that I'm the opposite. I think they look neat. I had 2 switches left over from the FFR kit so I decided to add a bit of fun (and dare I say personality) to my cobra. To the right of the gauges I installed the switches without connecting them to anything and labeled them "airbags" and "trac. control". One day a passenger's gonna ask about them and I'll tell them "oh yeah sorry the airbags were an extra option so I didn't get it with the car". When Olivia plays around with the traction control button I'll tell her "Aww don't go around turning me on and off like that".

The results were much better than I expected. Honestly things turning out better than I expected seems to be a common trend. Maybe I just have low expectations?
good_pictures1.jpg good_pictures2.jpg

[egchewy79]

I've seen engraved bezel rings for the switches if you wanted a cleaner look w/o the label maker stickers

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1287429...kaAjLtEALw_wcB

[Jeff Kleiner]

"Airbags"?

Jeff

[John Ibele]

At this moment I fully reflect John Ibele's sentiment that every virus known to man seems to be flying around everywhere you go.

Just want you to know I caught that. (See what I did there? )

We can just tell everyone we have really healthy immune systems for a while now.

You are a courageous man, Daniel! I think I'd cry if I had to tear all the wiring out from behind my dash. But you're going to have something that looks right now, and I agree, green is the only color that would prompt me to do a brown dash. That's going to look really nice. Congrats on all your progress, and on getting the car out and about.

[JohnK]

Hey Daniel. So sorry to hear you've been sick. Lots of bugs are definitely going around at the moment. Get well soon.

Nice work on the dash. The brown interior will look really sharp against the green paint.

[facultyofmusic]

Just want you to know I caught that. (See what I did there? )

We can just tell everyone we have really healthy immune systems for a while now.

You are a courageous man, Daniel! I think I'd cry if I had to tear all the wiring out from behind my dash. But you're going to have something that looks right now, and I agree, green is the only color that would prompt me to do a brown dash. That's going to look really nice. Congrats on all your progress, and on getting the car out and about.

Thanks John and yes, I tell people that I got an OTA immune system update haha! Glad to see you're pulling through and recovering!

[facultyofmusic]

I've seen engraved bezel rings for the switches if you wanted a cleaner look w/o the label maker stickers

Those were definite my first choice when I initially mocked it up in my head, in fact you can see black bezels around the switches that I added. They are thin washers painted black. I ended up really loving the label look because it reminds me of fighter jet cockpits. ... so I decided to keep it.
labels.jpeg

If one day I start seeing it more "filing cabinet" than "fighter pilot" I'll switch it up to engraved bezel rings

[facultyofmusic]

"Airbags"?

Jeff

and when they ask "wait, cobras had airbags?" I'll tell them it's just a fun joke and hope they're strapped in real tight.

[facultyofmusic]

Hey Daniel. So sorry to hear you've been sick. Lots of bugs are definitely going around at the moment. Get well soon.

Nice work on the dash. The brown interior will look really sharp against the green paint.

Definitely have you to thank for being a source of inspiration! Thank you and hope everyone's healthy on your side.

[facultyofmusic]

It's time to say goodbye to the bare aluminum interior. Time for carpet!

My research into carpet gave me the following impressions:
1. FFR carpet is cheap and flimsy
2. Bound the edge of the carpet for a cool look.

To test this out I test fitted all the carpet pieces by sticking them onto the chassis with duct tape. I get what y'all mean by the carpet being really easy to rip and all but it wasn't as bad as I expected. If anything it made it really easy to cut when needed haha. Every piece of carpet was slightly oversized for me as expected, but they all bound quite well to the shape they're supposed to be. As for binding the edges I think the carpet does a good enough job hiding the seams. There will be places where carpet edges are exposed on outward corners and I'll put bindings there, but for inward corners I'll leave them as is.

I followed Jeff Kleiner's advice and sprayed all the corners where carpet will meet with black spray paint.
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For adhesive I tried 3M Super77 but it grabs way too fast. Many suggested to get something that lets the carpet wiggle and move around before curing. Silicone did that, but silicone does "grab" at all; especially when you work on vertical pieces. I ended up using the loctite powergrab construction adhesive instead. It grabs immediately but with enough force it lets the carpet slowly slide in the direction I need it to go. I also used a trick I learned from another build thread (sorry I forgot which one) where a beam was used to press in and hold the tight corners with small pieces.

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I bought a separate roll of black carpet to pad out the glove compartment.
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There's still some carpeting left to do, but I can't do those until I get the body on.

[460.465USMC]

Congrats on the dash and carpet, Daniel. Both items put your build a big step forward in terms of finish. Great progress.

[facultyofmusic]

Thanks Chris! Hey I think I got the carpet trick from you!

[facultyofmusic]

Some misc updates. There aren't many TODO items on the "before body install" list now.

Here are some close up pictures of the glovebox and dash. I put the inertia switch inside to the right.
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I added some trunk lights to help me see in the dark (item from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084LDCWKZ):
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Last but not least I got some ARP bolts and tall brass nuts for my exhaust. The smaller 12-point head offers many more options during install/uninstall and the tall brass nuts are much easier to grab. This setup has more thread contact as well.
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At this point I'm looking through the build manuals and other build threads trying to see if there's anything else I can do. If anyone sees anything please let me know!

[facultyofmusic]

Spoke with Jeff over the phone to confirm that my latest estimate for body pick-up is late Feb. Just a few weeks away! I'm also both sad and honoured that I'm one of Jeff's last 5 cobras as he will not be taking anymore work. To think that I'd be lucky enough to become a part of the MillerCustoms legacy is an honour. I'm sure I'll be telling stories about Jeff and his cobras decades from now.

Last week I hit the 200 mile mark on my odometer. Can't keep me out of this thing! While I still had my January temp permit I made sure to clock in a few good hours of driving so I can inspect the car to catch anything before the body goes back on. I put the car on jacks and inspected the entire vehicle from drivetrain to suspension to electrical connections. Only 2 things stood out. The jam nuts of my IRS UCA were a little loose on both driver and passenger sides. Luckily multiple jam nuts were in that assembly so nothing really moved. That jam nut is one of the few nuts I expected to come loose as I've yet to align the car. I plan to put loctite on it after I align the car at a good alignment shop. The lower radiator hose had a few drops of coolant leaking out. When I saw that I realized that I never further tightened the clamps after initial install. The heat-cycling probably moved a few things and sure enough the clamps were easily hand-tightened. Other than that all's good!

I had a few ideas for things to do before the body goes on but I shot most of them down. The first one was front-mounted pusher fans. I do love the look, but in the end I decided that I'd be adding it just for looks alone and that a clean radiator look isn't too bad either.
Pusher-Fan.png

JohnK's recent post showcased a remote-battery-terminal for easy charging which I thought was really smart. Right now there's a ton of room for me to reach down into the battery holder but when the body goes on that will get much harder. I wouldn't want to lean in and risk scratching the paint or something like that. Then I realized that I had my panel-mounted alternator fuse on my driver side firewall that was easily accessible and it had a big fat direct connection to the battery. I could just use one of the posts on the fuse instead.
alternator_fuse.jpg

I've been reading up on radiator protection too. Some recommend the nomex honeycomb protecting while others recommend a screen at the nose opening instead. I can't seem to decide which one I prefer so I'll leave that for later. This isn't something I absolutely have to do before going back to Jeff.

There are two issues I do actually want to solve though. The first one is windshield rattles. Mike Forte's brackets allow quick and easy detachment of the windshield, but I do find the windshield posts rattling in the bracket when I go over a harsh bump. It sounds like the whole thing's gonna fall apart. I've checked with both JohnK and SJDave and the verdict seems to be that once I drill and install the release pin and have the windshield trim rest on the car body the rattles will be much less noticeable. On this matter I've decided to wait it out and see. If the rattles DO still bother me then I can tap and secure the windshield posts with half inch bolts, the same way FFR manual shows. Mike forte's brackets will still serve to hold the windshield in place while I secure it in place. It's function will not be annulled.

Last thing is foam on the side of the car. JohnK's build thread shows these large form blocks that were cut to shape for the body and I really like that idea. I'll be doing the same. I'm really happy to have a builder like John right in front of me in terms of build progress. Haha!

[JohnK]

Hey Daniel. Can't wait to see your car when it's back from Jeff. I'm sure it'll be spectacular.

I bought one of the nomex honeycomb radiator screens but ended up going a different route on radiator protection. If you want it, it's yours.

[facultyofmusic]

Got a text from Jeff this morning that pretty much killed all my productivity for the day:
jeff2.jpg jeff1.jpg

The plan is the pick it up this Saturday. Tow the chassis down on a flatbed and tow the whole shebang back the same way. Can't wrap the paint or anything because it's still fresh, but Jeff did make a good point that the car's gonna get rock chips one way or another, so that's ok.

Time to dig through my boxes to make sure I have all the exterior components. I haven't assembled the door latches yet, so I'll need to do that too. I remember seeing a post from somewhere about modding the door latches to make it smoother. I'll have to find that one again.

[JohnK]

Wow! That looks spectacular. Can't wait to see it in person Daniel.

[Fman]

Very nice! Just make sure your tow vehicle has good mud flaps to help avoid any rocks flying on the tow home.

[hineas]

The door latch modification is important and I recommend doing it now when you put it all together. I decided to wait until my latch broke to do the modification. I made it about 2 months of driving before my latch broke. It was bad enough that I had to climb over the door to get in and out of the car. It sounds like you are smarter than me and are planning on doing it now!

The issue with the latch is the pivot mechanism is held together with a press fit. This loosens with use pretty quickly. Once the pivot joint comes apart, the lever doesn't pull open the latch pin. This is a picture of my latch that came apart. Sadly, my picture didn't include the inner piece that presses into the lever at the square hole.

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The fix is easy. You just need to buy a short carriage bolt that will fit into the square hole at the pivot point. Then you hold it together with a nut and washer on the other side. The reason for the carriage bolt is because the head of the bolt isn't tall so it will fit back into the door. I just took the lever with me to the hardware store and picked one that fit well and was short enough that the bolt didn't stick above the nut. I used a nut with the nylon locking part so it wouldn't come apart in the future.

Inside the latch there is a wave spring washer. I didn't re-use this wash and just discarded it.

One issue is that the inner part of the pivot joint sticks above the lever. If you hold the joint together with the carriage bolt, washer, and nut, the lever will flop around because the nut and washer aren't holding the lever tight. Most people grind the inner part of the pivot joint so the washer can sit flush against the lever. I was lazy, so I ended up just using a thick rubber washer. I cut a square hole out of the washer and used that to fill the gap to hold the lever tight. The end result was the same. Here are some pictures of the pivot joint held together with the carriage bolt, washer, and nut.

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On one door I ended up using the spacer between the door latch mechanism and the door. This gave enough space for the carriage bolt to fit. However, on the other door I didn't use the spacer. The carriage bolt was too thick so I ground down the head of the carriage bolt to fit. I also had to make the hole in the fiberglass a little larger to give space for the carriage bolt. The enlarged hole is completely under the latch so it isn't visible when fully installed.

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This holds the latch together well and I have not had an issue since fixing it almost a year ago.

I did one other modification while I had the latch taken apart. There is a pin that sticks up from the frame of the latch mechanism. This pin stops the lever when it is fully open. However, I found this was not in the correct spot and prevented the pin from fully retracting. This also caused the door to bind occasionally. I just filed the edge of the pin to allow the lever to open more and fully retract the pin.

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Once I had it together I greased the inner mechanism with white lithium grease which also helped the latch work more smoothly.

Another modification I had to do on the door was to chamfer the hole for the latch pin on the striker post. This helped prevent the door from binding on the driver's door. This isn't as important, but did help some.

Another modification people do on the latch is to drill a hole through the top of the lever into the ball. Next they tap the hole and put a machine screw into it to hold the ball on. This ball has a tendency to break off. I haven't done that yet, but I will do it when it breaks.

I hope this helps!

[facultyofmusic]

Thank you for the great write up! After reading your advice I immediately dug out my door latches so I can do an initial assembly to better understand it. To my surprise I have something that looks completely different! Further research shows that it's one of those new Mk4 door latches that use an entirely different mechanism:

new_latches.jpg

For some reason I also have a bag of what looks like the spacers for old style door latches:

spacer.jpg

AFAIK, the updated Mk4 door latches don't use those spacers. They were probably sent to me by mistake. Searching through the forum I couldn't really find any "must do" mods for the new door latches. I assume that either means the new latches are great, or that not many people have used them in their builds yet. I hope it's the former.

The door latch kit also comes with a striker relocation kit in case the on-frame location doesn't reach far enough. I only got one of these. I assume I should have gotten 2 since there are 2 doors on the car? I don't think I'll get one in time to go to Jeff's on Saturday. I hope I won't need these, and if I do, only need one.

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[hineas]

That is awesome because the older latches like I have had some serious issues.

I am intrigued to see how those perform!!!

To my untrained eye, that appears to be much more like a standard car door latch mechanism which is good. I don't love the one on our Mk4. The way it is constructed also looks to be much more solid and robust.

[JeffP]

Got a text from Jeff this morning that pretty much killed all my productivity for the day:
jeff2.jpg jeff1.jpg

The plan is the pick it up this Saturday. Tow the chassis down on a flatbed and tow the whole shebang back the same way. Can't wrap the paint or anything because it's still fresh, but Jeff did make a good point that the car's gonna get rock chips one way or another, so that's ok.

Time to dig through my boxes to make sure I have all the exterior components. I haven't assembled the door latches yet, so I'll need to do that too. I remember seeing a post from somewhere about modding the door latches to make it smoother. I'll have to find that one again.

Is that indigo ink? I'm hoping to pick mine up by the end of the week and the color is very close, congrats!!!

I picked up an extra one of these: https://a.co/d/7591hF3 for my battery tender that I already have and ran it off the cutoff terminal on the firewall and into the cockpit. Just tucked it under the dash for whenever i want to hook it up to the tender.

[Mike.Bray]

Thank you for the great write up! After reading your advice I immediately dug out my door latches so I can do an initial assembly to better understand it. To my surprise I have something that looks completely different! Further research shows that it's one of those new Mk4 door latches that use an entirely different mechanism:

new_latches.jpg

For some reason I also have a bag of what looks like the spacers for old style door latches:

spacer.jpg

AFAIK, the updated Mk4 door latches don't use those spacers. They were probably sent to me by mistake. Searching through the forum I couldn't really find any "must do" mods for the new door latches. I assume that either means the new latches are great, or that not many people have used them in their builds yet. I hope it's the former.

The door latch kit also comes with a striker relocation kit in case the on-frame location doesn't reach far enough. I only got one of these. I assume I should have gotten 2 since there are 2 doors on the car? I don't think I'll get one in time to go to Jeff's on Saturday. I hope I won't need these, and if I do, only need one.

20230213_232625.jpg

I also received the bag of parts for the old style latches but my new style latches are still POL. If you have to relocate the pins check out Ted G's build thread, he came up with a really slick way of doing it.

[CABulldog]

The door latch kit also comes with a striker relocation kit in case the on-frame location doesn't reach far enough. I only got one of these. I assume I should have gotten 2 since there are 2 doors on the car? I don't think I'll get one in time to go to Jeff's on Saturday. I hope I won't need these, and if I do, only need one.

20230213_232625.jpg

Hi Dan

I have a very similar issue but I am well behind you on my build. Another forum member (and he keeps up to date) made some new latch plates that can screw on (Ted's post) from that as my car is basically a sister to his car (only about 10 frame numbers off) it inspired me to fabricate my own option based on the on frame one. You can see that progress in my build thread (Bulldogs door plate fab post), I hope to be able to cut the metal versions this week (Wednesday evening or Thursday evening), I maybe have enough left over material I could make a set for you and get them to you before you leave for Jeff's on Saturday. Mine is a weld on set but it could be modified in a bolt on way if you need.

Sad to hear that Jeff is not taking new customers, I was thinking of taking my car down to him as well, but that sounds like it is not an option.

James

[egchewy79]

Got a text from Jeff this morning that pretty much killed all my productivity for the day:
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The plan is the pick it up this Saturday. Tow the chassis down on a flatbed and tow the whole shebang back the same way. Can't wrap the paint or anything because it's still fresh, but Jeff did make a good point that the car's gonna get rock chips one way or another, so that's ok.

Time to dig through my boxes to make sure I have all the exterior components. I haven't assembled the door latches yet, so I'll need to do that too. I remember seeing a post from somewhere about modding the door latches to make it smoother. I'll have to find that one again.

great color. I'm planning on a similar color palate.
how long did Da Bat have your car? seems like he flew through the body work/paint.
too bad to hear that Jeff is hanging it up. Maybe he'll pull a Tom Brady and decide to come back for another season

[facultyofmusic]

Is that indigo ink? I'm hoping to pick mine up by the end of the week and the color is very close, congrats!!!

I picked up an extra one of these: https://a.co/d/7591hF3 for my battery tender that I already have and ran it off the cutoff terminal on the firewall and into the cockpit. Just tucked it under the dash for whenever i want to hook it up to the tender.

It’s Mercedes Emerald Green Metallic. I think it looks a little blue in the pictures because it’s partially reflecting the blue california sky in the pictures. As for the battery tender I do plan to have a quick disconnect for it. It’s a great idea since these cars won’t be driven that much and the battery isn’t very big. Thank you for the suggestion, I’ll put that on my list of options.

Hi Dan

I have a very similar issue but I am well behind you on my build. Another forum member (and he keeps up to date) made some new latch plates that can screw on (Ted's post) from that as my car is basically a sister to his car (only about 10 frame numbers off) it inspired me to fabricate my own option based on the on frame one. You can see that progress in my build thread (Bulldogs door plate fab post), I hope to be able to cut the metal versions this week (Wednesday evening or Thursday evening), I maybe have enough left over material I could make a set for you and get them to you before you leave for Jeff's on Saturday. Mine is a weld on set but it could be modified in a bolt on way if you need.

Sad to hear that Jeff is not taking new customers, I was thinking of taking my car down to him as well, but that sounds like it is not an option.

James

Wow! Thank you for the incredibly generous offer! I told Jeff about the new door latches and he said we’ll learn as we go, so I don’t know what we’ll need. If it’s possible I’d really appreciate a set to take to Jeff. I’ll PM you. Thank you again for your generosity!

great color. I'm planning on a similar color palate.
how long did Da Bat have your car? seems like he flew through the body work/paint.
too bad to hear that Jeff is hanging it up. Maybe he'll pull a Tom Brady and decide to come back for another season

I dropped off the car at Jeff’s during the first week of November 2022. It’s been a bit more than 3 months since then. The torrential rain in California 2 weeks ago definitely slowed things down so I’d take that into account too. Last time I saw Jeff I could tell he’s definitely seen better days with his back. To be honest I left Jeff surprised that he still had the drive to do a few more now that his shop helper Jose isn’t there anymore. As much as I love to see more of Jeff’s work I also completely understand why he wants to call it.

[facultyofmusic]

Today I sealed up the driver-side footbox, the last piece of core chassis-aluminum to install. I spent a while looking through all the connections to ensure I didn't leave anything unfinished. I made sure that the fuse-box unbolts and moves out of the way enough to secure the windshield posts too. With the seats in place it's really hard to reach far into the footbox but with the seats removed it's not actually that hard.

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I won't be putting the seats back on until I get back from Jeff's. The seats will just get in the way of body mounting and I won't need to drive it anyway.
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Now that I'll have the body back by this weekend I called BAR today and scheduled my smog appointment for next Friday at the Livermore smog station. If time will allow it I'm gonna drive straight to the DMV after smog to pick up my license plates. I'm INCREDIBLY EXCITED.

[facultyofmusic]

Quick update! Got the chassis loaded onto the trailer and exterior hardware in the trunk. Ready to go!
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We're not expecting any rain this time so the chassis will be uncovered on our way down. We should arrive at Jeff's in the late afternoon to drop off the chassis at the shop.

In the evening I visited James (CABulldog)'s place who lives down the peninsula. He made a set of door-striker extender plates for me just on time for me to go to Jeff's. I love this community.
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Thank you James!

[JohnK]

Safe travels! Can't wait to see the body on the chassis.

[CABulldog]

In the evening I visited James (CABulldog)'s place who lives down the peninsula. He made a set of door-striker extender plates for me just on time for me to go to Jeff's. I love this community.
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Thank you James!

Your welcome it was nice to meet you and talk cars for a bit, this community is awesome. Safe travels, can wait to see pics of the body.

[facultyofmusic]

No rain this time! We towed the chassis down to Temecula without any coverings on it; a whole day's trip. We stopped by Willow Ranch just off of Highway 58 and I-5 for lunch. The food was delicious! Checked into our inn to prepare for an early Saturday morning at Jeff's but I couldn't sleep one bit! My mind was simply too excited to see the body in person.

Showed up at Jeff's at 7am to see the shop already open. The body was in the side shop waiting to be put on. Without direct light the body looks black, but walk around up close and you'll find the deep green revealing itself. It's magical.
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The paint wasn't the only exciting news though. I'm happy to report to everyone here that Jose's back at the shop! I was super happy to see him recovering well with cancer treatment. Jeff looked noticable more energetic too! The two got to work right away and the body was on in no time. I tried to help out but Jeff insisted that there wasn't much room for that. If you watch them do their thing you'll think the same. The whole process is down to a science and as efficient as it could be.
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We spent a lot of time on the new Mk4 door latches. It was Jeff's first time working with those and James' door striker extension plates were used on both sides. Would have taken much longer if it wasn't for those plates. We got the doors to close and latch correctly then called it at day. The strikers still needed work, but that's something I could do at home and we had to hit to road if we want to be home before midnight.
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We towed the car back on the same flatbed. We didn't have an enclosed trailer, but Jeff specifically cautioned against covering or wrapping the car since the paint was still relatively fresh. He said the car will get rock chips as I drive it around anyway so I might as well get the first one over with... I agreed to that. In the end we only had one tiny chip on the side of the rear fender!

[facultyofmusic]

The rest of the long weekend was spent on installing the windshield, seats, and lights. Dave helped me gap, mark, and drill the windshield posts on his lathe. The lights went on without an issue but BOY was it a abdominal workout getting those tightened up! Ok enough talking. I know what you're all here for

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(the license plate is from my old car. I just put installed it so it doesn't look empty. I took it off after I took the pictures.)

I swear I spent at least an hour just walking around the car in circles, taking pictures from every angle. There are still lots to do! Elephant ears, wheel well liners, foam inserts, side louvers, registration... but I decided to leave that for a later day. Right now I just want to look at it. Haha.

[JohnK]

Wow, looks awesome! You must be thrilled to have it painted and back home. I can't wait to see it in person.

[mladen]

Nice! And cool idea for extinguisher placement

[CABulldog]

I am glad my plates helped, the paint work looks amazing da bat's work is amazing. I can't wait to see it in person