Dondero Father Son Mk4 build thread: Cooling System
Well it has started. We picked up the car Monday, got it setup in the garage and had a celebratory whiskey to cap off the day. Was able to make light work getting the chassis off the trailer by picking it with my tractor and then used an engine crane to wheel in into the garage. I've been plowing through boxes as much as time allows me and have only a couple more left. My dad came by on Thursday for day 1. We only had a few hours to work on it together so we were able to remove the body and store it away outside, as well as remove all the aluminum panels from the chassis. For the body buck I built, I combined the plywood measurements from the FFR template along with some ideas and dimensions from a low profile body buck I saw in a past forum post. My plan was to store it under my pool deck in the background of the picture and only had about 38" of clearance, which ended up being more than enough. Getting together again on Monday to crank through the front suspension. I'm still flying high with excitement to finally have this home in my garage now. FFR did a great job with everything and helped make an amazing, memorable day for us.
We ended up deciding on going with the Mk4 Complete Build kit. Some of the features it will have are Blueprint 347 EFI, IRS, double chrome rollbars, SS side pipes with Drummer Mike heat shields, and 17" Halibrand Wheels with Nitto 555 G2s. We are planning on putting in a quick release steering wheel in combination with one of Frank's I.E. 427 Garage turn signals as well.
Here are some pictures of the arrival day and progress so far:
Congrats! Sounds like a great build plan! I'm looking forward to following your progress! Awesome that you have your dad helping you make memories.
Greg
Built an early MkIII years ago, sold years ago. Back after 18 years to build a MkIV Build Thread Here Partners: Levy Racing, Summit Racing, LMR, Breeze, Forte's Parts, Speedhut, ReplicaParts
MkIV Complete Kit Ordered 4/18/23, Delivered 7/11/23, First start 3/15/25. Legal 6/13/25. Boss 427W, Edelbrock Pro Flo 4, TKX (.68 5th), IRS, Wilwood Brakes, 18" Halibrands, Toyo R888R Tires, Custom Speedhut Gauges
Thanks fellas, appreciate all the kind words.
cv2065, I'm fortunate to only be about 25 minutes down the highway from FFR so its very convenient. Will pay off especially if I run into a roadblock during the build and want to put a set of eyes on what I'm working on, I can always shoot down there and it won't be much time out of my day at all.
Bill there will be plenty of days for cigars in the future for sure haha. I was all over the place so much that day I don't think I would have been able to sit down and enjoy one for the life of me.
Congrats! Sounds like a great build plan! I'm looking forward to following your progress! Awesome that you have your dad helping you make memories.
Greg
Greg, I was browsing through your build thread and noticed your drivers side F panel when delivered was kinda all out of whack and not lining up....just like mine. The majority of the angled piece doesn't line up with the panel at all. Did you do much trimming for it to fit and if so do you want the F panel as close to the bracket for the shocks as possible or do you want a bit of a gap. Also is there anything to consider while trimming and moving the panel forward to think about down the line when the splash guard gets installed since it won't be in the exact spot it initially was. If I'm looking at this under a microscope in too much detail let me know because I'm sure overthinking everything is going to be my toughest challege building this haha.
Congrats, and enjoy your build! I just got my Mk4 kit and starting to dig in. Have fun.
For what it's worth, I just put on my F panels yesterday. My driver's side was okay, but I trimmed the top edge of my pass. side as well as the inner F segment that interfered with a weld. I have no idea if it will be an issue, it just bothered me how poorly it was lined up.
Congrats, and enjoy your build! I just got my Mk4 kit and starting to dig in. Have fun.
For what it's worth, I just put on my F panels yesterday. My driver's side was okay, but I trimmed the top edge of my pass. side as well as the inner F segment that interfered with a weld. I have no idea if it will be an issue, it just bothered me how poorly it was lined up.
Jay
Awesome congrats to you too as well. We will be alongside each other going through the highs and lows of the build. Look forward to following your build as well. I ended up doing the same as you, just trimming it to shape and fit along the frame as best as possible. Worked out well and onto the next.
Picture of the body stored under my pool deck. Like the deck was built knowing it was gonna house the body. Body buck setup worked flawless. Always looking to save a buck, instead of paying $6/caster and dishing out $25 for them, I ended up just buying a little dolly rated for 800lbs from home depot for $11 and pulled the casters right off of that and used them. Worked perfect. a6.jpg a7.jpg
My father came by this morning and we put a few hours into throwing parts on the car. We got the F panels on, upper and lower control arms, shocks and spindles. Happy to finally add a little character to the frame. Everything went in nice and smooth and all the tolerances were nice and tight. We stopped at the point where we had to add the steering arms to the spindle because in the manual I noticed they used button head bolts and I only had 1/2" bolts. After searching around a bit and going through the hardware box and not finding anything, I figured I'd contact FFR or check the forum. This forum is utter gold with the information it contains. Low and behold I found a post from last year explaining that they don't use the button heads anymore and the remaining 12 point bolts, which I was also questioning, went with the brake calipers. Problem solved. Going to hopefully get together again on Friday to chip away at some more. Hoping to wrap up the front suspension and get started on the IRS. Once the IRS is out of the way I'll be in a lot better shape space wise with what little space I have to work with. In the meantime I'll be organizing the work space and staging the tools and parts needed so we can jump right into it when my Dad comes back.
If it looks like we went rivet happy on the F panel the reason why was my father hated the holes left by the holding screws from delivery haha. After adjusting them to fit properly the screw holes didn't properly line up with the template pattern.
For anyone who follows along, any and all constructive criticism is welcomed. If you see something in any of the pictures that's questionable feel free to point it out. I'm virtually new to all of this so the input is welcomed.
Yeah, I'm at the same step and observing that finding the right hardware is more than half the battle! Can anyone confirm Dondero14 has the right bolt and the manual has the correct nut for the steering arm?
Yeah, I'm at the same step and observing that finding the right hardware is more than half the battle! Can anyone confirm Dondero14 has the right bolt and the manual has the correct nut for the steering arm?
Hey Jay,
I noticed that same thing while installing the steering arms that the bolts in the manual were different from the ones provided. I DID get confirmation from a previous post that they stopped using the button head bolt for that. In addition the manual doesn’t do a good job showing which one goes where. I’ve also read that the steering arm should be pointing up and out with the larger hole on the bottom. In the picture I have that steering arm on the wrong side of the car. Did some more building yesterday and corrected it all before anything was bolted in.
Hey Jay,
I noticed that same thing while installing the steering arms that the bolts in the manual were different from the ones provided. I DID get confirmation from a previous post that they stopped using the button head bolt for that. In addition the manual doesn’t do a good job showing which one goes where. I’ve also read that the steering arm should be pointing up and out with the larger hole on the bottom. In the picture I have that steering arm on the wrong side of the car. Did some more building yesterday and corrected it all before anything was bolted in.
Ugh... I installed it backwards, down and in. Looks like I get to experience the fun one more time! In an effort to help future readers and make sure I get it right this time.. a couple questions:
1. Up and Out, got it. The arm points towards the front of the car, right?
2. Looks like I need to take off the Hub Nut and Hub to get bolts that hold the arm out. Once I do this, is the Hub Nut still okay to reuse?
3. Is there a secret to redoing this that doesn't involve taking off the Hub? I don't think there is.
Ugh... I installed it backwards, down and in. Looks like I get to experience the fun one more time! In an effort to help future readers and make sure I get it right this time.. a couple questions:
1. Up and Out, got it. The arm points towards the front of the car, right?
2. Looks like I need to take off the Hub Nut and Hub to get bolts that hold the arm out. Once I do this, is the Hub Nut still okay to reuse?
3. Is there a secret to redoing this that doesn't involve taking off the Hub? I don't think there is.
Much appreciated...
-Jay
1. Yes the arms point toward the front of the car.
2. I’m not entirely sure and will let someone else answer that.
3. I don’t know much of a secret but just by looking at the length of the bolt and the clearance between the head and the hub I don’t think it’s enough to clear the castle nut for the spindles. May be worth trying it out anyways since you’re going to have to take the steering arm off regardless.
Well Friday we had a day for sure. Me and the old man wrapped up the front suspension, got the front brakes on and started chipping away at the IRS. Cutting the piece off of the rear spindle had me stressing leading up to it but went surprising smooth. Used 10 tpi metal sawzall blades and they made a nice accurate cut through. We got all the mustang lugs replaced with the supplied lugs, spindles cut and drilled for install including the extra lobe for the brakes. My step son helped us install the center section, which was a huge help having the extra set of hands. After the pumpkin was in place we installed the vent and ran the vent line up the frame.
I’ve gotta say, being someone who has never really messed with cars before I am loving every bit of doing this build. It is so rewarding and fun watching the frame grow and start to come to life. My father said with the time we’ve spent building, we are light years ahead of where he was compared to when he did his builds years ago. He is very impressed with how smooth everything has been able to get installed compared to all the redrilling and retrofitting he had to do back in the day with his. We put in about 6-7 hour of work together. He planned on sleeping over for the night so we capped it off with a couple large glasses of whiskey and a cigar together mulling over how much fun it’s been.
For anyone that hasn’t watched it, Random Werks on YouTube has some amazing advise watching his build. One of the biggest takeaways I got from watching his videos was to cut the addition lobe off the rear spindle to install the 11.65” IRS brakes. For those putting in an IRS that haven’t gotten to that point, it doesn’t reflect that additional cut in the manual until the spindle is completely installed on the car. It’s only mentioned in the additional instructions for the 11.65” 2015 IRS Brakes. This will either cause you to have to cut it while on the car or do much disassembly to take it off and cut it.
Man that’s incredible progress and great work. My new plan is to make sure you are at least 2 steps ahead of me so I can learn from you before trying it myself.
Thanks for the heads up on the IRS. After having to redo the front I’m going to be more careful and check around before proceeding.
Haha Thanks Jay appreciate the compliment. I’ve been scouring this forum and the manuals for a month before my kit came out of pure excitement and wanting to learn it all. If you have the time def try and check out some of those Random Werks videos of his build. They are a great watch and have a ton of great information. The guys is very thorough and meticulous with everything he does. Very talented.
Haha Thanks Jay appreciate the compliment. I’ve been scouring this forum and the manuals for a month before my kit came out of pure excitement and wanting to learn it all. If you have the time def try and check out some of those Random Werks videos of his build. They are a great watch and have a ton of great information. The guys is very thorough and meticulous with everything he does. Very talented.
Question out the IRS center section alignment. Is this offset normal and should it be lined up that close to the e-brake bracket. Not sure if I’m overthinking this or if I’m tightened down more to one side with the center section mounting bolts. IMG_7053.jpeg
Yep, normal. You can't really install it wrong. Well, you could maybe use the wrong bolts, but it sits where it sits.
Greg
Built an early MkIII years ago, sold years ago. Back after 18 years to build a MkIV Build Thread Here Partners: Levy Racing, Summit Racing, LMR, Breeze, Forte's Parts, Speedhut, ReplicaParts
MkIV Complete Kit Ordered 4/18/23, Delivered 7/11/23, First start 3/15/25. Legal 6/13/25. Boss 427W, Edelbrock Pro Flo 4, TKX (.68 5th), IRS, Wilwood Brakes, 18" Halibrands, Toyo R888R Tires, Custom Speedhut Gauges
Built an early MkIII years ago, sold years ago. Back after 18 years to build a MkIV Build Thread Here Partners: Levy Racing, Summit Racing, LMR, Breeze, Forte's Parts, Speedhut, ReplicaParts
MkIV Complete Kit Ordered 4/18/23, Delivered 7/11/23, First start 3/15/25. Legal 6/13/25. Boss 427W, Edelbrock Pro Flo 4, TKX (.68 5th), IRS, Wilwood Brakes, 18" Halibrands, Toyo R888R Tires, Custom Speedhut Gauges
Ah, yes...the pedal bender! I remember that from my MkIII days!
Greg
Built an early MkIII years ago, sold years ago. Back after 18 years to build a MkIV Build Thread Here Partners: Levy Racing, Summit Racing, LMR, Breeze, Forte's Parts, Speedhut, ReplicaParts
MkIV Complete Kit Ordered 4/18/23, Delivered 7/11/23, First start 3/15/25. Legal 6/13/25. Boss 427W, Edelbrock Pro Flo 4, TKX (.68 5th), IRS, Wilwood Brakes, 18" Halibrands, Toyo R888R Tires, Custom Speedhut Gauges
Bill my father has actually never seen those tools before. For his first accelerator pedal he stole one of my moms big sturdy spoons and used that haha. Said it worked great for heel-toe shifting.
Well we got a few more hours in on the build yesterday. Was able to get the upper and lower control arms, toe arms, cv axles, and left side spindle assembly all installed. Everything went pretty smooth with minimal bumps in the road. Definitely had a few take aways for when we do the right side spindles. Some things we found and luckily I saw it on a previous forum post is to keep the thread even on both sides of the linkage adjusters on the upper and toe arms due to the fact that they act like turnbuckles in a way. In addition, most of the parts went into the frame brackets smooth with the exception of one of the control arms and one of the toe arms. We had to pry apart the lobes on where they connect to the frame just a bit to allow them to slide in place. A couple bolts had trouble sliding in as well even though they were lined up but a brass hammer was able to do the trick. Upper and Lower control arms connected to the spindle easily but had trouble with the toe arm to the spindle. We pried apart the lobes on the toe arm for the spindle to slide in but was still too tight deeper into the opening. We used a pipe wrench to bend open one of the lobes slightly further in at the weld and that opened it up just enough to get the bolt through. A bit of caution if anyone does need to do any prying on the toe arm is to check the spacing to the spindle ahead of time before install and use a vice to hold it while prying. If installed already use caution while prying so that the toe arm rod end eye isn't getting torqued on against the frame. Once toqued down, all the lobes that I bent open a bit all pull back into where they should be. To add even more excitement we found out that our Blueprint 347 EFI will be delivered on Tuesday Woohoo!
We got the IRS all wrapped up, threw on the 11.65" brakes and ran into a road block that's kicking our butt and I'm sure others have had the same issue. We are having the hardest time figuring out how to attach the e-brake to the rear calipers. Tried a few different angles but nothing seams to work and safely clear the cv axels. Not to mention the directions in the manual show the brakes in a totally different position with a totally different bracket. Any and all help would be great and if you can include pictures even better. Is it worth swapping the 12 point bolt out for a hex head? I'm totally at a loss. Easy enough to move on to the next part of the build and go back to it later when I find better information. I've seen some people have countersunk the bracket and used flat head bolts but is that sturdy enough? I just want to make sure I'm going about it in the safest and cleanest manner possible.
Thanks,
Mark
Built an early MkIII years ago, sold years ago. Back after 18 years to build a MkIV Build Thread Here Partners: Levy Racing, Summit Racing, LMR, Breeze, Forte's Parts, Speedhut, ReplicaParts
MkIV Complete Kit Ordered 4/18/23, Delivered 7/11/23, First start 3/15/25. Legal 6/13/25. Boss 427W, Edelbrock Pro Flo 4, TKX (.68 5th), IRS, Wilwood Brakes, 18" Halibrands, Toyo R888R Tires, Custom Speedhut Gauges
I got some good advise from Mike Everson to countersink the hole and use a flathead bolt where the bracket bolts to the caliper right underneath the hole that gets elongated for the e-brake. I tried interchanging the hex head bolt and the 12 point bolt to see if I'd be able to slide into the hole easier but had no luck. The instructions are terrible and only reflect the 13" calipers for routing the ebrake. Another bit of advise he gave me was that the 11.65" brakes are usually used for the 15" wheels where as the 13" brakes are used for the 17" wheels (which is what we have). One of those situations where you don't know what you don't know. Kind of wished that got reflected in the descriptions when configuring the build kit. Since I'm going the direction with the countersunk flathead bolts, I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions where to route them. I've scanned the forum and some of the routing applies to some older LCAs from what I've seen or different brake setups. I just want to make sure I clear the half shafts safely along with not getting pulled on too much by the IRS control arms.
Aside from my issues with the rear brakes, since that wasn't holding anything up, we decided to move forward when we hit that road block. We were able to get the front and rear swaybars installed, the front drivers side footbox and firewall panels installed, and got most of the steps complete for the pedal assembly. Sway bars went in pretty smooth for the most part but had some extra spacers and an extra bolt for the front swaybars. Pedal assembly went in pretty smooth. We added oil and friction modifier to the pumpkin as well. I read up on that ahead of time and had mixed responses it seamed like. I pulled the drain plug out and it looked as if it was empty so I added the friction modifier to one of the quarts of oil. After dumping the whole quart in and pulling the fill tube out I used, I found that it was overfilled so my guess was that it must have had some oil in it already. I plan on draining out the excess oil to the appropriate level and adding a touch more friction modifier to hopefully replace what was dumped out. We also received our Blueprint 347 EFI as well. Thing is beautiful and cannot wait for the day we get to fire it up.
Pedal assembly went together pretty nice and lined up great. Was concerning a bit because the hardware that was in the box did not have alot of the hardware needed for installing. Even on the checklist, some of the parts were not even included. Various nuts were missing, 3 of the 4, 3/8" button head bolts and nuts for the front bracket that mounts to the front footbox panel were not included, as well as the washers for the rear mount bolts. Was able to find some extra button heads in the hardware box but not sure what they may go to in the future or if they were actually for this. All in all was able to muscle through just fine. Had a bit of a dummy moment for the both of us when trying to figure out how to set the proper alignment spacing for the balance bar. After the master cylinder push rods were all installed we noticed a wide gap between both of the pushrod mounts. After playing around with the threaded rod and figuring out how the assembly worked we couldn't figure out how to close the gaps without removing the threaded rod for the balance bar. The directions for this setup kind of suck and even in the Wilwood videos online still don't show how to close the gap to 0.25". I ended up calling Wilwood customer support this morning and the fine gentleman I spoke to enlightened me that all I had to do was disconnect the master cylinder push rod and spin the pushrod mount in closer on the balance bar rod haha. I literally was dumbfounded it was that simple and couldn't believe how overthought and complicated I made it in my head and got a good laugh at myself over it. In the end it was relieving knowing that it was a simple fix and will get to that tonight after work. All in all the build is moving along nicely and my father and I have been having a blast so far.
Been getting some work done. Completed aligned the balance bar and the push rods for the brake master cylinders. Started to dig into the accelerator pedal and we weren't to thrilled with how flimsy the throttle cable assembly was. We were going to get a lokar throttle cable setup but after doing some more research we decided we are going to go with the Forte mechanical throttle linkage instead and upgrade the accelerator pedal. We moved onto installing the steering rack and steering shafts next. Steering rack went in nicely and have a good even thread count on both sides of the tie rods. The steering shafts went together nicely until we got to the upper steering shaft, which was extremely tight. We ended up hammering it in and getting it all set in place...OOPS! After reading up on centering the steering rack I came across a couple threads about the upper steering shaft needing to go into the DD shaft smoothly without the need for hammering. So out came the steering shaft and I was able to pound out the upper shaft with a wooden dowel and a hammer. I hand sanded the shaft so it went in smoothly by hand and with extra tightness from the spring washers and tightened up the assembly again. In addition the the steering shaft we also attached the soft brake lines to the front brakes ensuring they weren't hung up on anything when the assembly was turned in both directions.
Thursday my father will coming by to work on running the hard brake lines. In the mean time I started lining up the aluminum panels for the passenger footbox. I have to say I kind of dreaded doing the aluminum work but have found it to be actually very enjoyable. FFR does a nice job with the way the panels all fit together. I plan on getting all the panels drilled and cleco'd together first to ensure everything fits the way it should before I start throwing silicon on them and buttoning them together with rivets. I plan on grabbing a rivnut tool for some of the paneling for easy disassembly on area that may need access to for whatever reason. I'd love to hear some suggestions of what people have decided to rivnut rather than rivet to get some ideas. So far my plan is to rivnut the transmission tunnel cover, the dash, and any access covers. I read a few threads to rivet from the engine bay into the footboxes to create a nice clean look under the hood and that the rivet ends on the inside will get covered by the heat/sound proofing and carpeting.
Hi Dondero, nice to see your progress. I'm slowly chipping away, just got the IRS finished and about to start working on the firewall panels, then pedals and steering. Happy to stay at least a few steps behind you so I can learn!
Well its been a while since I've given an update. Between birthdays, vacations, and holidays its been busy but have still been steadily making progress. Since my last post I finally tackled the rear brake caliper issues with the E-Brake fit and route its to be ran. I was extremely pleased with how they came out. In addition, thanks PMD24 for your thorough attention to detail on the rear brake calipers not being centered on the rotors. I was able get a couple more of the same size spacer washers and added an additional spacer to each bolt. This helped out a ton. I took the time to recess the bolts in the bracket because I wanted to route the E-brake along the back side of the shocks so that it was out of the way of the half shafts and didn't want to worry about making an additional bracket to hold it. Someone gave me a hand countersinking the holes at work but because it was in a loose vise and not clamped down, the hole ended up being off and when the bolt was in it sat at an angle. Luckily Factory Five is a stones throw away and was able to hook me up with a couple new brackets. Second time around I used the junk brackets to practice and found some really good clamp downs for the drill press to ensure it was level and had no movement. In addition, I was told by a friend to run a drill bit through the hole that's the same size so that I have the bracket nice and centered. I was more than happy with the holes in the end and threw it all together immediately to be done with it finally.
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Originally Posted by gbranham
