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

[460.465USMC]

Congrats, Daniel! I really like your color choice. So great to see it all coming together. Thanks for posting the pictures.

[Fman]

Beauty! Congrats, have fun and that is one heck of an extinguisher you are using!

[Bob Brandle]

Congratulations Daniel. Your Roadster looks Great!! Deep green and a saddle brown usually look wonderful together and yours certainly does.

I saw your post a week or so ago, but then couldn't relocate it to post a message to you. Now I can.

When you mentioned that you dropped off your roadster to Jeff "Da Bat" Miller Customs the middle of December, I thought to myself that you might have seen my Type 65/Daytona Coupe there. It was probably the only Daytona in the shop at that time, had some significant custom body modifications and was just past the body prep stage and into the primer stage of completion. I subsequently picked it up fully painted on January 18 and headed back to Scottsdale, AZ. Like yours, the fit, finish and paint quality was superb, really gorgeous. Kudos to Jeff and Jose.

Like you, I feel grateful and a bit special to likely be one of the last customers of Miller Customs, maybe even with the last Daytona Coupe by Da Bat.

FYI, I use to live in Fremont, having worked in Silicon Valley electronic & networking equipment hi-tech for over 30 years, but have retired in Scottsdale, AZ in 2018.
I'll soon post photos of my car as it gets a close to full completion or at least with the exterior completed (lights and all the glass in place).


Bob "Bob's Arizona Gen 3 Coupe" / D8YTONA Coupe ("D8ytona_Coupe" on Instagram)

[John Ibele]

Congrats, Daniel! That color looks fantastic, and really sets off your brown dash nicely - its a great combination.

[facultyofmusic]

Congratulations Daniel. Your Roadster looks Great!! Deep green and a saddle brown usually look wonderful together and yours certainly does.

I saw your post a week or so ago, but then couldn't relocate it to post a message to you. Now I can.

When you mentioned that you dropped off your roadster to Jeff "Da Bat" Miller Customs the middle of December, I thought to myself that you might have seen my Type 65/Daytona Coupe there. It was probably the only Daytona in the shop at that time, had some significant custom body modifications and was just past the body prep stage and into the primer stage of completion. I subsequently picked it up fully painted on January 18 and headed back to Scottsdale, AZ. Like yours, the fit, finish and paint quality was superb, really gorgeous. Kudos to Jeff and Jose.

Like you, I feel grateful and a bit special to likely be one of the last customers of Miller Customs, maybe even with the last Daytona Coupe by Da Bat.

FYI, I use to live in Fremont, having worked in Silicon Valley electronic & networking equipment hi-tech for over 30 years, but have retired in Scottsdale, AZ in 2018.
I'll soon post photos of my car as it gets a close to full completion or at least with the exterior completed (lights and all the glass in place).


Bob "Bob's Arizona Gen 3 Coupe" / D8YTONA Coupe ("D8ytona_Coupe" on Instagram)

Hey Bob! Yes! I do remember seeing a daytona coupe there. In fact I remember pointing at it with Dave next to me and saying "wow look at that! A daytona body!" I always loved the look of the daytona, especially the tilt-nose front. Picking between the coupe vs the roadster was a hard decision, so hard I'm sure one day I'll end up building a coupe too!

Hope to see pictures on your build thread soon Bob.

[facultyofmusic]

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

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

Congrats, Daniel! That color looks fantastic, and really sets off your brown dash nicely - its a great combination.

Congrats, Daniel! I really like your color choice. So great to see it all coming together. Thanks for posting the pictures.

Thanks everyone! Can't wait to meet and cruise together with you guys. I hope we'll all get to see each other's cars in person one day!

Beauty! Congrats, have fun and that is one heck of an extinguisher you are using!

Nice! And cool idea for extinguisher placement

Haha that's what I thought too! That thread on fire extinguishers from a few weeks ago made me rethink the mounting location. Initially I mounted it on the roll-bar because I was in the middle of deciding where to put it but after a while it grew on me. It's easy to access and looks pretty badass too! I used a large thick piece of 3M double-sided tape on the bar to prevent the holder from sliding down. It doesn't even go down if I push it!

[facultyofmusic]

Olivia tells me all the time that I like to over-romanticise things. She’s not wrong.

Over the past few days I’ve felt the same kind of emptiness I felt last year after the car’s first start. I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long that I, once again, didn’t give much thought to what I’ll do next. If I were to summarise last year’s feeling it would be “wow, it’s a real car!” This time it feels more like “wow, it’s pretty much… done…?”

Of course I knew that’s not true. The boxes I received from FFR aren’t all empty yet so there’s still much to do. There’s wheel well work, side louvres, door latches, engine tuning, you name it! All this work could easily stretch into the next few months.

On the other hand the car now looks like a cobra, accelerates like a bat out of hell, sounds like a coyote, and handles like a dream. What more does one need? I find myself asking silly questions like “ok do we REALLY need side louvres? Let’s just go drive the damn thing!” Dave told me stories of people who got to the driving stage and ended up never really “finishing” their car since it was just so much more fun to drive! At the time I thought that was foolish. How can you leave a car unfinished? Well well well… I’m starting to feel it too.

One way get over momentary laziness is to sit down and plan out the work ahead, so let’s do just that. Here's the tail-end of things.

Registration. I was supposed to go to the Livermore SMOG station to get my smog sticker which completes the SB100 process. I had to cancel the appointment due to an absolutely wild week of wind, rain, and snow in the bay area. On the bright side the snow covered Santa-Cruz mountains are a sight to behold!
snow.jpg

Side Louvres. I plan to attach mine the same way Paul (edwardb) attached his using 10-32 perforated base studs (mcmaster-carr 97590A569) and 3M HSRF. I don’t think I’ll attach the Louvre to L brackets with screws because I don’t love the look. I’ll attach them with a generous amount of silicone. The side louvres don’t take any load at all so silicone should hold it just fine.

Elephant ears (wheel well splash panels). When installing front and rear lights I had to take the wheels off which made it a good time to test fit the elephant ears. None of them fit. In fact I couldn’t even get it to sit in the wheel well at all. Much trimming is required on the panels and I’ll need a good day’s worth of work to get that done. I’ve also purchased wheel well liners from Shane at VRaptor Speedworks. These are Shane’s continuations of Alex’s wheel-well liners. They provide all-round stone protection for the underside of the fibre-glass body and also prevents water from being splashed all over electrical connections at the back of front and rear lights. You can find more info on the look and fit here: https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...eel-well-liner

Before I do either of the two above I’ll need to fill the gap between the outer-footwell panels and the fibreglass body. Per Jeff’s instructions I did not glue those on before body install, so I’ll stuff them in afterwards. Jeff said to just use a stick to poke it in and it will stay put forever. Sounds good to me.

Radiator Aluminium. Like JohnK I’ve purchased Mike Everson’s radiator aluminium piece from ReplicaParts. Instead of going straight down from the side, Mike’s radiator aluminium piece curves around the bottom and forms a smooth surface that looks much better IMO. Here’s a link to JohnK’s thread that showcases in his build: https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...l=1#post517624

Door latches. This is a big one. There are 2 issues I have with the way my current door latches are.

First, the door-strikers are mounted on bare-steel extension plates. No one's fault here, just unfortunate circumstances that arose from FFR switching over to these new Mk4 door latches. Due to the way they’re designed the strikers have to reach far deeper into the cabin. The striker rods are also much longer and easier to bump into (and when you do it hurts!)
striker2.jpg striker1.jpg

The second issue is a much more practical one. The older door-latches unlatch when you pull the lever forwards while these new door-latches unlatch when you push the stub backwards. They JUST HAPPEN to sit right next to my left elbow in driving position and I keep accidentally opening my door with my elbow! I’d be in the middle of a turn when my elbow bumps the lever backwards which swings the whole door open. Yikes! I’ve yet to figure out what to do about this.
elbow.jpg

At this moment I really wish FFR gave me the old style door latches. With just a little tweaking they work well and have none of these problems. Worst part is that in order to install these new door latches we had to cut away the mounting tabs fitted for old-style latches. I can’t easily go back to the old style latches either.

Engine Tuning. With about 210 miles on the odometer the engine’s been running great with a few exceptions. It burns noticeably rich and its idle RPM is too high. A stock gen3 coyote idles at around 700 rpm whereas my engine idles at a whopping 1150! When in gear it’s fine, but sitting at the red light with a 1150 rpm burble is just too much for me.

This forum’s go-to solution for tuning a coyote seems to be Lund Tuning. I’ve read a few threads about them and they seem to do great work. My other car friends on the other hand all recommend taking it to a local tuning shop and I’m biassed towards this option as well. My intuition tells me it’s better to get the car onto a real dyno with the tuner physically present than receiving maps by email and trying it out. Lund’s tuning process also requires me to do a few WOT pulls and I honestly have no idea where I can do that safely.

I’d love more feedback on my thoughts here. Am I right to assume that a reputable local physically-present tuner is better than remote-tuning? Am I missing anything obvious here that I should know about?

[Blitzboy54]

I felt the same way. Honestly once you break her in and work out all the bugs driving it is while orders of magnitude more fun than building it. Looks fantastic, love that you had a vision of what you wanted and made it happen.

Enjoy it

[Rsnake]

Your car is looking amazing! Great Job.
I think it's time for another Alice's meetup in March. 2nd Saturday
I will post information. Looking forward to seeing it.

[facultyofmusic]

Before I go further I want to clarify that Jon Lund Sr. was straightforward, professional, and very quick to respond to my custom request (on a weekend too!). I'm surprised and disappointed by the situation I'm in, not the way I was treated by Lund.

Had an interesting conversation with Lund Racing Support that resulted in their refusal to tune my engine due to the catalytic converter built into FFR's headers. After submitting a request with them I got a reply from Jon Lund Sr. that advised the following:

"Assuming you are using a Gen 3 Ford Performance control pack. The CATs could be a problem as the Ford Performance calibration is design to not use CATs and rear 02s are off as well as all emissions items. Those mini CATs are going to get hot and eventually collapse and clog. I would remove them. If you are concerned about noise then put a muffler farther down range. Other than that I don't see any problems tuning it.".

After replying that I'd like to proceed with the cat in-place due to the amount of work that would involve as well as the effects of not having a cat, (e.g. header removal, bodywork required for new headers, the smell without a cat, etc) Jon Lund Sr. replied:

"Honestly not interested in tuning it. In its current state. The CATs will collapse as you are using them as a Muffler not a real CAT. The ECU can't provide what is needed to safely operate the CAT. The CAT that close to all four pipes will eventually overheat and have issues."

I was then immediately issued a refund without prompt. I thanked him for his help and we ended the conversation there.

So now I'm in a weird spot. Do I remove the cat? Do I find another tuner knowing what Jon told me and risk the cat overheating and collapsing? I've searched the forum and haven't found another example of Lund refusing to tune an engine due to the in-header catalytic converters so this seems like a first. Has anyone had their in-header cats collapse? Would really appreciate some advice here.

[Kbl7td]

Zero reason a competent tuner can’t tune that. I’d recommend a local dyno tuner. I’ve had my LS tuned remotely but that was with Holley efi.

[Blitzboy54]

Call Andrew at projectgattago@gmail.com. He did mine and a few others on this forum and he's awesome. He works remotely, its pretty sweet. If your interested PM me and I will send you his phone number

[Kbl7td]

Call Andrew at projectgattago@gmail.com. He did mine and a few others on this forum and he's awesome. He works remotely, its pretty sweet. If your interested PM me and I will send you his phone number

Agree with this. Andrew did my car too. Very easy to work with and came back time and time again to make sure things were dialed.

[edwardb]

Lund is very experienced with these crate motors. I've used them several times and was happy with the expertise and results. The feedback about the crate motor not having (or programmed for) post cat O2 sensors is exactly correct. Also those mini cats are much closer to the engine than on a stock setup. So I would at least consider what he's saying. My guess is your engine would tune OK and depending on how you're driving it, may not experience the cats getting hot and/or collapsing. I have zero experience with them. But it's sure something I would pay attention to. Little bit of Monday morning quarterback, but I've never been a fan of cats for reducing the noise level. Also, my two Coyote builds without cats have zero issues with exhaust smell short of putting your face up against the outlet. No lingering smell in the garage. None whatsoever from the cockpit. The combustion is very controlled and clean. But pretty sure I said that before.

[Hoooper]

Definitely possible, if the cat that has been used isnt intended to be that close to the cylinder. Some cats are meant to be like 2-3' away, while other cats are designed to be right at the end of the manifold which can be like 4" from the cylinder. I would sure hope the cats FFR puts in these are suitable for being installed where they are. Is the spec provided for the cats?

[Ted G]

Elliot Franklin (Mustang Corral) could be a choice for you. He is in Grass Valley (East of Sacramento) and has tons of experience with Cobra's, vintage mustangs, and has been building for over 25 years. Might be worth a call.

[JohnK]

Hey Daniel, this is really strange to me. As I mentioned to you, when I contacted Lund about a tune to my gen2 coyote with cats (at that time) their response was basically "sure, no problem. The cats don't make a difference one way or another as they're downstream of the O2 sensors." This was about a year ago. It might be worth understanding why they're giving you this answer now. Is there something specifically about the gen3 vs gen2 engine or PCM that prevents the use of cats in the headers or have they just had too many bad experiences in the past year and they've changed their position? I'd see if you could get a little more clarification from them. It might help guide how you move forward.

[rthomas98]

I would contact lund on this again just to confirm any misunderstandings. The GEN 3 coyote as of 2017 uses integrated cats in the exhaust manifolds on mustangs straight out of the flat rock factory. If what he is stating is true it means he won't do tunes for 2017 and newer mustangs. They are sat up the same way. The performance ECM are just re-flashed production ones as well there is nothing special compared to the production units.

[facultyofmusic]

Thanks everyone for your quick and thoughtful advice. I've followed up with Lund Racing to clarify any misunderstandings we might have. I also asked about the technical differences between gen2 and gen3 coyotes that makes one untunable. If I can't move forward with Lund I'll give Andrew and Elliott a call.

Lund is very experienced with these crate motors. I've used them several times and was happy with the expertise and results. The feedback about the crate motor not having (or programmed for) post cat O2 sensors is exactly correct. Also those mini cats are much closer to the engine than on a stock setup. So I would at least consider what he's saying. My guess is your engine would tune OK and depending on how you're driving it, may not experience the cats getting hot and/or collapsing. I have zero experience with them. But it's sure something I would pay attention to. Little bit of Monday morning quarterback, but I've never been a fan of cats for reducing the noise level. Also, my two Coyote builds without cats have zero issues with exhaust smell short of putting your face up against the outlet. No lingering smell in the garage. None whatsoever from the cockpit. The combustion is very controlled and clean. But pretty sure I said that before.

The cat is downstream of the O2 sensors in FFR's in-header-cat setup. Yes, the reason why this bothers me so much is exactly due to Lund's reputation on this forum. I'm currently thinking of ways to grind out the cat if it turns out necessary.

[facultyofmusic]

Quick response (as expected) from Lund:

No one has ever told use they are using CATs as Mufflers in the exhaust. None of these Cobra coyote swap guys have ever mentioned it so we didn't know. Now knowing it is a bad idea.

In regards to the OEM exhaust with cats:

You are trying to compare an OEM exhaust which "uses integrated cats in the exhaust manifolds on mustangs straight out of the flat rock" , This is true but an OEM ECU allows the calibration to go into COT Cat Over Temp Cooling" For emissions purposes. None of the Ford Performance ECU are intended to have any emissions items as the state "Off-Road" without the COT logic the CAT will get hot and eventually burn up and collapse which is exactly what happens to an OEM exhaust if COT is disabled in tuning.

Jon Lund Sr. offered to provide a tune as long as I understand that I've been warned plenty and any issues with the cat burning out down the line will not be on them. I've yet to decide which option I want. TBH the monkey engineer part of me thinks it would be a pretty cool experiment to see just what happens if I do keep the cat in. The smarter part of me says to think twice.

Regardless, this is good information. I'll also send an advisory email to FFR once I have enough information.

[JohnK]

Ah, I think he's getting hung up on the "cats as mufflers" part. The reality is that plenty of folks have run headers with cats in them with coyotes, and I have not heard of a single person come back to say that they've had issues with such a setup. Unless there's something unique about the programming of the gen3 PCM vs prior-gen coyotes (which doesn't appear to be the case based on his response) I would bet that you'd be fine.

The other way to look at it is, the likely/best case is that it works out fine and you have no issues. The worst case is that you have issues down the road with the cats and you find yourself where you are now - having to replace headers or try to remove the cat elements from the headers. Either way, you're no worse off trying to run them as they are now.

[facultyofmusic]

Ah, I think he's getting hung up on the "cats as mufflers" part. The reality is that plenty of folks have run headers with cats in them with coyotes, and I have not heard of a single person come back to say that they've had issues with such a setup. Unless there's something unique about the programming of the gen3 PCM vs prior-gen coyotes (which doesn't appear to be the case based on his response) I would bet that you'd be fine.

The other way to look at it is, the likely/best case is that it works out fine and you have no issues. The worst case is that you have issues down the road with the cats and you find yourself where you are now - having to replace headers or try to remove the cat elements from the headers. Either way, you're no worse off trying to run them as they are now.

I agree with you there. Might as well try it out and see what happens.

Definitely possible, if the cat that has been used isnt intended to be that close to the cylinder. Some cats are meant to be like 2-3' away, while other cats are designed to be right at the end of the manifold which can be like 4" from the cylinder. I would sure hope the cats FFR puts in these are suitable for being installed where they are. Is the spec provided for the cats?

Just following up on this: no I can't seem to find any specs on the cats. I suppose I could emaili FFR and ask about it but at this point I've decided to move forward regardless. Now I think about it, emailing FFR is probably a good idea as it will either let them know if new information or receive a response on their point of view on the matter.

[facultyofmusic]

You know what really puts a pause on your schedule? Moving! When I started this project I signed a lease for a single-family home that would give me the garage space needed to build this car. The plan was to move in a few weeks before the kit arrives, finish all the "big steps" during the 2-year lease, and move out to a more affordable home with a small single-car garage. I'm happy to report that everything was on schedule! I handed the house-keys back to the landlord and officially moved out.

My build thread was heavily neglected due to the lack of time and energy over the past 2 months. The new place is still a colossal mess but at least I have time. Let's catch up!

Following JohnK's example, I also decided to install wheel well liners. They are large bendy sheets of plastic with bulb seals on the perimeter shaped to the inside of the wheel well body area. I don't have pictures of mine pre-install but you can see what they look like out of the box in JohnK's post here.

Since I'm already installing wheel wells liners I no longer needed front elephant-ear panels. They weren't going to work anyways because I swapped FFR's F-panels for FFMetal's fat-tire F panels. When fitting the liners I realized there's a problem. It's not an issue due to the liners per-se, but the elasticity of the liner material definitely makes it worse. Let me explain:

The fiberglass body is great when there's structural rigidity. The part of the body right in-front of the side-pipe cut outs however, doesn't have support and is easily deformable. You can easily hold the bottom fin and move it in and out without much force:
weakness_top.jpg weakness_side.jpg

The wheel well liner material is very elastic and VERY STRONG. To get a good seal in the wheel well the liners push against the F-panel in the inside and the fenders on the others-side. When it pushes unsupported area described above the fiberglass deforms and bows outward by about 1/2in to 3/4in. TBH I couldn't visually tell the difference, but the fact that I KNOW it's deformed irritates me. I wanted the liners to seal well and the body to stay in shape. To solve this issue I made some brackets:
bracket_position_side.jpg bracket_position_bottom.jpg bracket.jpg bracket2.jpg

It's essentially a U-channel with a large flap bent from a single piece of aluminum. It supports the fiberglass to prevent deformation and provides a surface for liner attachment. Once secured it looks like this:
supported.jpg

With the brackets attached the fiberglass is solid as a rock! While I was at it I also made brackets for the front of the wheel well. There was already a bolt there for the radiator support beam so it worked out perfectly.
nose_bracket.jpg

To secure the liners I used nutserts on all attachment points and secured the liner with 1/8in screws. I also stuck all my leftover sound-deadening material to the back of the liners. John if you're reading this it WAS a good idea and I could really tell the different before and after I put the sound-deadening material on.

[facultyofmusic]

The rear liners went on pretty easily as there are panels already installed on both ends. The end result looks like this:
final_front_back.jpg front_front_forward.jpg rear_forward.jpg rear_backward.jpg

Looks good to me!

Jumping forward in time a bit here. I drove with the liners installed and actually go caught by a drizzle on a wet day. I took the liners off to inspect the results and I'm please with the amount of dirt it kept out. The underside of the body looks good as new!
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In summary I'd definitely recommend these liners to future builders. They look great and work great!

[JohnK]

Nice work! I still need to tackle my front elephant ears and wheel well liners, but I'm having too much fun driving the car.

[BrewCityCobra]

The rear liners went on pretty easily as there are panels already installed on both ends. The end result looks like this:
final_front_back.jpg front_front_forward.jpg rear_forward.jpg rear_backward.jpg

Looks good to me!

Jumping forward in time a bit here. I drove with the liners installed and actually go caught by a drizzle on a wet day. I took the liners off to inspect the results and I'm please with the amount of dirt it kept out. The underside of the body looks good as new!
PXL_20230420_061702889.MP.jpg PXL_20230420_061652742.jpg PXL_20230420_061637996.MP.jpg PXL_20230420_061620751.jpg

In summary I'd definitely recommend these liners to future builders. They look great and work great!

Wow, these look great and I really like those brackets you fabricated. Perfect timing too as I'm about in the same spot for my build and was wondering how I was going to secure those liners in place.

That said, did you have any heat issues without the front elephant ears in place to act as a shield? With the liners directly exposed to the headers so I wasn't sure if you found it necessary to include any type of shielding.

[facultyofmusic]

That said, did you have any heat issues without the front elephant ears in place to act as a shield? With the liners directly exposed to the headers so I wasn't sure if you found it necessary to include any type of shielding.

Took the car out today to find out! With a mix of highway/local driving the liners stayed warm but nowhere near the level for concern. There's a good amount of space between the side-pipes and the liners and I wrapped my headers with heat-wrap so I'm guessing that helped. The part of my header that houses the cat isn't wrapped, but the panel part of the bracket perfectly blocks that area and the aluminum was only warm to the touch.

[facultyofmusic]

Showed up the smog ref's office on a bright sunny day! The green really pops under the burning californian sun.
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I could tell it wasn't the ref's first time seeing a kit cobra. He kinda just glanced at it and asked "factory five"? ...to which I said "yeah" and he disappeared into his office for a few mins before coming back out with the sticker. It seems he also knows just how OCD kit cobra builders can be so he gave me the sticker and told me to stick it on myself. I stuck it right next to the FFR provided serial plate which I riveted on the top of passenger footwell panel. I haven't yet decided how exactly I want to protect the sticker. Spray a layer of clear-coat over it? Cut a piece of acrylic and rivet it on top? IDK. I think the general advice is to not let it get wet.
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After I got my smog sticker I BOOKED IT to the DMV. This was going to be the big day! I'm sure I was the jolliest person standing in line at the DMV that week. The lady at the window (who knows my name by now) processed all the paperwork, packaged the info and gave it to the DMV branch manager... only to be pushed back. Why? Because the VIN verification form filled out by the CHP had a "5" that looked too much like an "S". That's right, even though EVERY OTHER PIECE OF PAPERWORK CLEARLY SAYS "5" THE BRANCH MANAGER WILL NOT ACCEPT IT. I was told to go back to the CHP office to redo my VIN verification.

Just thinking about that moment makes my blood boil. Are you F**KING SERIOIUS? REALLY?

I walked out of the DMV feeling incredibly dejected. So much for being the jolliest guy in line! When I got home I phoned the CHP office and luckily they were super responsible about it. The lady at the CHP office routed the form to the officer super quickly and I was able to pick up the "corrected" form just 2 days later. I once again went to the DMV and they finally accepted the paperwork. I walked out of the DMV with my plates in hand. I could feel tears almost coming out of my eyes as I held the plates in my hand. Thank you for the fond memories DMV but I hope I never come ever again.
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To celebrate the road-worthiness I ordered a custom license plate frame with my alma-mater's motto and name etched on it. I also swapped the rear quick-jacks for bumpers to complete the look. The license plate frame blends in well don't you think?
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No more driving on temporary permits for Dan! (please my naturally serious face. I was having fun I swear.)
CMP_7432_edited.jpg

[facultyofmusic]

After a drive out in the wet there was a ridiculous amount of dirty water and dirt on the rear fenders. My paint is still (kinda) soft and I've been advised against putting anything on the paint until July (5 months after pickup) by Jeff, so I devised another plan. Mud flaps! The wheel well liners made this process easy as it was already very close to the fenders. I used some plastic push-rivets to secure a cheap plastic flap to the liners such that they pop out just enough to cover the exposed wheel.
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I've had then on for a while now and I'm surprised by how invisible they are. Perhaps it's the combination of the dark paint and wheel well liners, but I almost never notice them. I think I might just keep them on forever.

Since I was working around the front wheel wells I thought I might as well take care of some other stuff along the way. Ahh yes, the good'ol "while I'm at it..."

I love the look of the classic oil-cooler hoses visible in the front opening of 427 cobras. The coyote doesn't need an oil-cooler at all so I didn't plan to put anything there. It just looks... so empty...
PXL_20230325_005258633.jpg

Luckily I still haven't installed a power-steering cooler yet! I've read on some forum thread that a power-steering cooler is highly recommended for autocrossing, which, I do plan to do in the future. Why not use the cooler as a power-steering cooler instead? I called up Mark at Breeze and explained the situation to him and got a modified "oil cooler kit" that had a few changes to accommodate the power-steering return line:
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The power-steering return line will attach via a push-loc fitting on the other side of the radiator aluminum near the top. Inside the radiator opening the line is converted from -6AN to -10AN then down to the "oil cooler". I had a hard time deciding if I want the classic red-blue oil cooler fittings or a more contemporary black-silver one. I went with the black-silver fitting since nothing else on my car is red or blue. If I ever want to change it I can just swap them out.

Looks much better now!
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[Nigel Allen]

Thanks for all the great photos and attention to detail in your writing.

Hope you get many fun miles.

Cheers,

Nigel

[facultyofmusic]

It's been almost 2 years since I started this project and it was time to move out of the "project house". Rent ain't cheap and now that I've finished all the major build steps I'm downsizing to a smaller, more financially viable place. It's been fun! Although I only had one car space 90% of the time (I shared rent with a housemate so he gets half of the garage), the other 10% would have been darn-near impossible without the space. The housemate wasn't too happy about the number of nights I asked to have the whole garage. I bought him enough dinners to not feel too bad about it.
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There was big shed in the backyard that housed little workshop. I had a vice, a drill-press, and my various power tools. It's surprising how much I got done with those those tools alone! Anyway I spent a weekend just clearing out the workshop space. Back to the way it was!
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The new place is a duplex with a small single-car garage. Not gonna lie I was incredibly upset the first day I drove my car to the new place. It was Much, Much smaller than I thought and I had no clue how the heck I was supposed to fit everything I had in this new space.
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Good thing the cobra is a really short car so I actually have space for my tool chests. Still though, I had to get creative and make use the most of my ceiling space. Slowly but surely I packed the garage full of my tools and hardware. I packed up my bigger power tools and consumables and gave them to my friend Thomas who's currently building a GT40 from scratch. He's the one that inspired me to build a car and he lent me half of the tools I used to build mine. It's only fair to give back some when I have the chance.
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...btw when I said from scratch I mean he welds his own frame and stuff. Dude's incredible! He just got his tranny a few days ago and did a test-fitment. Looking good!
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[facultyofmusic]

Was preparing to wax my car when I saw 2 huge spider-cracks in the paint on my driver-side door. I poked around to make sure there wasn't some bolt from the door-latches pushing against the outer fiberglass. There's also no visible notches you'd see from rock chips. It looks like the surface underneath the paint itself bulged and made that crack. I tried my best to take pictures of the cracks (camera wouldn't focus):
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I searched around the forum and it looks to be due to fiberglass settling and there isn't anything you can do about it other than wait for them to show up and fix them later. (no fault of Jeff here). I wonder, perhaps I should have "baked" the doors and lids under the sun before I brought it to Jeff? I left the body on a buck in the backyard but the doors were wrapped in paper and tucked away in the shed. Would that have helped? Not that it matters anymore now, but if that's something I should have done then it's good info for future builders to take note.

[Fman]

That is a bummer, I would think your painter would work something out with you. Would not be hard to ship out a door to him and have him repair and spray it.

[Ted G]

Bummer on the doors. I'd try what Fman said. I know Ken Pike likes the fiberglass to sit in the sun before primer, after primer and after paint.

[Railroad]

Is this in an area where you would have a layer of bondo, or filler?
I saw this on my neighbors car. He had a dent fixed. Whether they painted too soon or the filler was too thick, etc, I do not know.
Same cracks.
Watching, might learn something.

[Alan_C]

Damn man, so sorry to see the cracks. Painting is hard and you can be making a mistake along the way without knowing it.
I wish you luck in addressing the cracks and their repair. If you determine the cause, please share it with us in the hope we can dodge the bullets that hit your paint.

[LTJ]

Just joined the forum yesterday. I can't wait to go through this thread. I live in Santa Cruz area and really interested in your experience with registration SB100. Also, I had issues with my 2018 coyote F150. Had major oil consumption issues with the engine and the replacement engine. I did the lemon law and got a raptor instead with eco boost. Miss the V8 sound, but at least I'm not adding as much oil as fuel. I'm hoping he crate engines don't have the same issue. I know my F150 was the first year of the plasma coated ceramic cylinders vs. steel cylinder liners.

[facultyofmusic]

Well this is awkward!!!

At the time of me typing this the cobra is in a storage unit about 2 cities away. I did a lot of thinking before I made the decision and... well... let's just say money doesn't grow on trees. At least not in the Bay!

Ever since downsizing I've been fighting a battle of expectations. I bought ceiling shelves. Moved everything I don't need to the racks outside. Installed some wall-mounted drawers. Try as I may I just couldn't hold down the frustration of having so little space!! I must've been kidding myself when I thought a small one-car garage could do everything I've been doing when the reality is I simply can't. There's room to store the car, but not to work on it. There've been days when I got so depressed I purposefully avoided going out through the garage. The car transformed from a source of happiness and pride into a constant reminder of the inadequacies of my current living situation. I had to do something.

Sell the car?

I thought about that. Oh yes, more than a few times too! I've even stalked Bring-A-Trailer and other car auction sites to see how much one like mine would go for. It wasn't long until realized however that even if I COULD sell it for more than full material cost of the car I'd still have to think about it. There are still so much I want to do! I want to learn how to do leatherwork so I can do my own interior trims. I want to sculpt a stylish trans-tunnel cover. I want to entertain the idea of a gated-shifter. I couldn't let the car go now. It's too important to me.

Olivia's been very well aware of how unhappy I've been. This, in turn, makes me feel worse as I didn't want my failure to meet my own expectations to bring her mood down. One day during dinner she mentioned the idea of storing it somewhere. "Too expensive." I said. It's true. Anywhere nearby will cost at least $200 a month just to store the car and that made no sense to me. She then asked what if I stored it somewhere further away and move-on to another life-goal? I stopped chewing as I did a few round of mental gymnastics. It's actually a great idea!

The core issue here is I simply cannot rent a place big enough to comfortably work on the car with any amount of financial sensibility. Due to our work commute and work hour needs we'd be paying at least $4000 a month just to be able to occasionally work on the car because land is so expensive here. Yes yes, rent being expensive is nothing new and I will spare you the rest of my thoughts on the matter. The idea is that I don't have to work on the cobra here and now.

I decided to put the project on hold until we move out of the Bay. It's been at the back of our heads for a while now. Sometime in the next 5-6 years Olivia would know which medical school she'll go to; and I would have saved enough funds to put down a mortgage for a house with a garage big enough for my workshop needs. I found a place to store the car 2 cities away for a reasonable amount of money and I plan to keep it there until we move out. I'll go every month or two to check on it. It has wheel cradles and a battery maintainer plugged in. I added generous amounts of gasoline stabilizer so the fuel shouldn't go bad for a long time. The car being away-on-leave also allows us tremendous freedom on the type of places we can move to. A enclosed private garage is no longer required. We can downsize further into an apartment if we want! Save more every month so I can get to that down-payment even faster.

So what now?

I've been donating some of my consumables (drill bits, pop rivets, grease, nuts and bolts, etc) to fellow local builders who are working on their cobras. My bigger power-tools have been lent to my friend who's building his GT40. He'd make better use of them than I for the next few years.

I still come back to forum to catch-up on a few build threads and to see if I can help out by answering some questions. It's good to still be in-the-know.

As for that huge cobra sized hole in my life I've dedicated it to two things:

First is career. Now that the pandemic is pretty much over (at least where I am right now) and everyone's back at the office It's a good time to start gunning for that promotion again. More salary is always good! Mo money mo car parts!

Second is music. Music has always been a big part of my life (you know how my username is "facultyofmusic"?) and I'd like to start learning the trumpet. I can't tell you how many nights I fell asleep to Chet Baker's mellow tunes or how many hours I spent watching Dizzy Gillespie's cheeks puff up as he dumps notes out of that horn. Jazz Trumpet has been stuff of dreams for me so I'm going to get started while I can!

It was the most perfect morning when I drove the cobra to its new temporary home. Cruising on the interstate I blasted "Take It Easy" by the Eagles in attempt to brush off the sweet sorrow of the occasion.

Plugged in the battery maintainer. Took the keys. "See you later buddy!" The door closed. I hopped into my friend's mini and we headed back home.

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[gbranham]

I realize it's a very long way away, but if you can get it to me in Tonganoxie, KS, you can store it for free for as long as you want.

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[460.465USMC]

Hey Daniel. Man, that's a tough choice. I thought prices were getting high up north in my neck of the woods, but nothing compared to where you live. Ouch!

I appreciated your build thread. You had/have a lot of clever ideas and ingenuity. No doubt these will also serve you well in your new, two-fold mission to make the next promotion at work, and learn a new instrument. I hope you check back in when you hit either milestone. In the meantime, thanks again for the helpful build thread, and best wishes on your next goals.