I was wandering through the " what did you do to your roadster today", and said to myself "self why the other guys and not us". I realize we are smaller in number but we were the world champs in 1965.
So I'll start. I am waiting for the coupe to arrive this week. I finished my body buck and rebuilt the power steering pump and I am going to go out to the shop and look at my Breeze hydro boost and mark the pressure line in and out, If I can figure out which is which and mark them, as such, since they did not come w/ directions. I will be posting pics when (hopefully) this week when coupe arrives.
Vinnie
spent this weekend tracked down a coolant leak.
found my heater core leaking.
might buy a new unit to replace it.
only had 1.5k mileage on it.
Not Happy!
I posted a number of pics from this week's Texas Cobra Club Spring Meet and banquet to Flickr. Many thanks to George and his fellow organizers who attended our gathering and who invite you to attend their London, Ohio meet in June. Proceeds from our Texas meet and their Ohio meet go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
I am at the point that everything is fitted! I have installed everything except the front windshield, wiring, and carpet.
I plan to take all the attachments off and start the bodywork. Hope to get most of the body work done by May 1st including epoxy primer. Going to reinstall everything, get it street legal, and drive the crap out of it this summer. Plan to do a final round of bodywork and paint late fall.
Amazing how much work it takes to get the car to this level of completion. I have taken my time and feel I have done things right. Can't tell you how may things I have done multiple times.
Looking forward to driving it around and maybe a few Autocross Races.
Well you probaly won't think that this is very clever, but I finished making my passenger footbox today:
Look closely and you are thinking there should be a steering wheel in there somewhere or what about some pedals? How come you have that foot protective hoop, my passenger footbox doesn't have one of those. This car will be right hand drive, of course - starting the driver's footbox next. Really pleased with my fabrication efforts!!
Finally got tired of trying to install the '88 Mustang EFI, what with having to mount all the sensors, wire everything up, route vacuum lines, etc. My son, who has extensive experience with carburetors, prodded me to just do it. I bought the carb and intake from Summit. Had to replace the distributor, because the donor one only works with the EFI computer, so got a coil-on-distributor off eBay. Had to get a fuel pressure regulator (Summit) to lower the fuel pressure to 6.5 PSI from 100. Had to get a small air filter housing and air filter (re-usable) that would clear the larger distributor cap (Summit). Had to get an angled coolant return line fitting (eBay) for the heater core return line because the distributor was interfering with a straight one. Bought Factory Five's wiring harness for the car, too, to get rid of all the complex, too long, and old Mustang wiring. The '88 mustang EFI was a speed-density system, not mass-air, so it was really just a half step up from a carb anyway. So for around $1,200, the car is running and has new wiring that is built for the car!
Tucked the coupe away after taking it to her first show. I still have a few minor things to square away but it was good enough for 2nd place in the coupe class at the Huntington Beach cruise in. Lots of nice cars were there.
Got my A/C topped of. Wanted to see if it could be made any colder. Interesting process. They put it on a machine that sucked out all the r134a and measured it. Then held the system at zero to completely dry it out. Lastly injected oil and refilled it. Turned out it was 0.14 lbs. low. Now it's blowing 40 degrees so I'm happy. :cool2:
My wife and I took our Coupe (and us) to it's first Shelby Cars and Coffee. It was about 80 miles round trip. The car ran great. We need to upgrade our hearing protection, 510 horsepower never gets quiet. It's a racecar.
Learned that Summit Racing does not ALWAYS have all the answers. Rainy day so I took my oil pan off and tapped it for my oil temp gauge (finally after 4 years) and used what Summit said was the top of the line Fel-Pro 1peice gasket that needed no sealing. Put it on took it for a drive when the rain cleared and the sensor worked great. Came home and next morning there is a puddle of oil at the front and rear seals. So, I figure I screwed up and bought another gasket even though Summit says you can reuse it. Replaced the gasket again (I do like how easy that they make it to install, totally simple especially when doing it from under the car)and ran it for 15 minutes in the garage with some craft paper under it. Yup, leaking heavy again. Went out and bought a cork gasket like I originally had on it and took off the Fel-Pro but there was no damage, just a coat of oil on the rear and front seal. I decided to try it one more time, but this time with gasket material on both the front and rear seals, top and bottom. Followed the instructions, let it dry overnight then added the oil. Didn't test it in the garage this time, drove it 25 miles. Didn't smell any oil cooking off the headers so that's a good sign. Get it home, put some clean craft paper under her again, check the next morning, dry as can be. So now I spent the next day cleaning up oil spray from the whole undercarriage. Lesson, don't trust everything you hear, even from some so called experts. Simple oil sensor job cost me about $110+ for multiple gaskets, gasket sealer and oil but now at least she is spotless and my oil temp gauge works even though I was surprised to see it climb past 160.
Have been working on the body for the last few weeks. Probably spent 50-70 hours filling, blocking, filling, blocking. Undercoated body and sprayed SPI Epoxy this weekend. Plan to reassemble, license, and drive for a few months to work out the bugs. I have an autocross Father's Day weekend that I plan to race in. :surprise: Everything was fitted so I have to reassemble and hookup the lights. Pressure is on!
Installed lighter wiper springs. Couldn't find replacements short enough so had to shorten them. Not the world's easiest thing to do. Now to take the coupe up to speed and check they don't flutter.
Completed rebuild of coolant lines using aluminum tubing with silicone connectors and elbows. Result is a whopping 20 degree F reduction in maximum operating temp.
See link to my blog below for more pics and complete description.
Steve, thanks to you too. I bought the aluminum tubing from Vibrant Performance (ordered through Summit). I bought the silicone elbows and connectors and the T-bolt clamps direct from SiliconeIntakes.com. I had to buy tube beaders also. I used Earls EZ Beaders which I ordered from Summit. Expensive but I had to have them. And I used thin wall plastic tubing to build the mock up with, which I ordered from Amazon.
That is a very clean setup for the cooling system! Just curious, what length of flexible connection did you use between the hard piping and the engine to allow for engine vibration?
John, the silicone elbows and connectors are available in red, blue and black from the source I used. My fans are SPAL fans. My radiator, shroud and fans all came from Griffin as a unit. I had to replace the radiator and fan that came from FFR since I have to have as much capacity as possible.
Well it is not my Gen-3 Coupe but Breeze made interior patterns on a customer Gen 3 Coupe at Mike Everson's. We shipped them down to Koolmat and Pat used them to lay out a Gen 3 Coupe Koolmat pattern. It is a 37 piece kit that includes the rear hatch area. It takes 89 square feet of material to make. The Breeze part number is 35531 and the price is $995.00 Breeze Automotive Factory Five Racing
Kind of pricey - yes, but not so much if you consider that Koolmat handles heat and sound damping in one material/installation, and you won't need to be fabricating reflector panels for the engine compartment. It took two people 3.5 hours to make the initial patterns, 7 hours total, so I figure getting a pre-cut kit saves about 7 hours labor on installing complete interior insulation of any type from bulk material. (not including roof)
I bought a new to fan and shroud and I'm in the process of installing it... more to come...too many margaritas. Kudos De Bat...should that be Capitalized?
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