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Surfdog57's Gen 3 (#12) build journal.

74K views 425 replies 33 participants last post by  SurfDog57 
#1 ·
Hi Ya'all I thought I'd start a thread to document my build. My kit is scheduled to be complete at the end of June. This will be an Occasional daily driver but mostly a track car! (I daily drive a family truckster when Ive got the kids in tow, and my 370Z when I'm solo, so this ride is mostly for summer cruising and the track (High Plains Raceway in Denver)
So here we go! Here are the options I have picked.

-Complete coupe Kit (yay!)
-shipping crate
-powder coat chassis
-FFR vintage gauges
-coyote 3v headers
-Roadster Coyote straight tubes
-body cutouts
-Comp aluminum race seats
-heat/AC
-wiper kit
-MKII floormats
-Carpet
-Battery cutout
-17" Halibrand replica wheels
-roadster Coyote installation kit
-IRS components
-12.19 IRS Wilwood brakes (I'm working to mod the order to slotted only, not drilled)

My plan is to drop in a Ford 5.0 (302) Coyote motor from Ford racing, paired to a Tremek TKO or T-600. The back end will host a Quaife LSD.



I have poked around a little bit and am suspecting to hit a few snags.

-I suspect it might be a bit of a challenge fitting my steering column around the coyote motor. (I don't think the kit was built with Coyote motor in mind)

-I will have to build up a custom drive shaft (no biggie)

-I foresee fitment challenges with the header/exhaust.

-I have to keep my wife from vetoing the project at every stage.(I plan to use the forgiveness better than permission technique primarily)

Wish me luck folks. My kids and I are super exited to get this project off the launchpad.

Here are some questions I need answered.

-Will a Ford Racing 5.0L 4V DOHC Aluminator XS Crate Engine fit under the hood (with that tall intake manifold up there) or am I limited to a "Ford Racing 5.0L 4V DOHC Aluminator Crate Engine"

-What gear ratios and specific Tranny would be best (Assuming that I'll probably be limited to the smaller 420 HP motor) (I'm thinking a T-600 but don't know about gear ratios etc so am starting from square one)

-How stiff is steering, and should I put in an electric power assist kit? Is it difficult to "retrofit" one if I decide later its needed, or should I do it on the initial build.

-should I do roll up windows or stick with scoops and sliders (remember I'll have AC) I lean toward roll-ups (despite the weight) primarily from a security standpoint (I will occasionally have to lock the car and leave it unattended I would guess)

Thanks in advance for any input you all generously provide. I look forward to bumping into you around the community.

-Cliff
 
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#125 ·
I chose the T56 because the TKO can't handle 8000 rpm and is close to its limit at 450 ft/lbs of torque. The T56 is good past 700 ft/lbs (as is my clutch) and okay in the shifts at much higher rpm. It's a 3500 dollar part vs 2500 for the TKO but arguably the most critical component of the build.



The fitment issues I had were due to not having the "coyote completion" install kit from FFR. (It's on its way now). Basically it has the spacers needed to make the engine and tranny mounts work. Somehow that 300 dollar kit did not make it on my original order. It also has other things to help the vacuum and cooling systems, electronic gas pedal install kit etc work better on the gen 3 frame. I won't know what all it contains until it arrives. I assume like most the other stuff from FFR it's pretty well thought out, we'll see.

I assume the 5.2 and T56 will work now but I'll have to wait for my kit to arrive to know for sure.

I'll report back if there are any more issues.

Once I get further along I'll come up with a list of all things that did not work. But here is a start:

-If using a dry sump, the power steering pump from FFR will not work

-If dry sump the a/c will not fit. (I know the a/c system is still being designed but it will not work with dry sump)

-If using fuel cell the frame is not right for mounting and needs to be welded up differently (modified) to fit the special fuel cell made by Fuel Safe for our cars. You will also need to weld up a system to mount it. (See posts above for details what I'm talking about)

-If using "stage two aero"(the one from the GTM) you will need to weld on and fab up a mounting system and brackets

-Factory five does not include a heat shielding kit for the foot boxes, but they should.

-No big deal but my fiberglass body was not done right. Factory five offered to send me a new body but it's not necessary I'll fix the one they sent, but that was a bit uncharacteristic QC.

-factory five only includes one rear side mirror. Most racing sanctioning bodies require two.

-factory five does not offer ceramic coating on the exhaust (I sent mine to jet hot in Oklahoma city and they gave me a great deal.). This seems almost mandatory considering how close those headers come to your toes.

Factory five does not offer a removable steering wheel which will be near mandatory on the gen 3/r version. (They are easily acquired from summit etc but considering all the other race upgrades available it's strange the don't offer one)

The kit comes with an inline fuel filter, but not a fuel pressure regulator. Strange. (Maybe that will come in my coyote completion kit?)

The wheel options are a bit narrow for racing. (I'll be running a minimum of 315s in back (11 inch rims) and 275s up front (10 inch rims). This is not a huge deal as I'll be running street wheels and separate race wheels but note I'll have to use spacers in front on the FFR wheels to get around the bigger 14 inch will wood calipers I used to replace 12.88 fronts on their "big brake kit". I think the 12.88 would be okay for street but I'm a racer and needed to bias my brakes to the front anyhow so I put on bigger, will wood 6 piston, 14 inchers. Unfortunately the FFR wheels don't have enough offset to get over them so... spacers. Bummer.

That's all for now. I love the kit and it's very well thought out but these were all things I figured out along the way specific to my race oriented build.
 
#126 ·
Manifolds and sidepipes are shipping from jet hot today (two part ceramic coated to keep my little piddies a bit cooler.). One layer of reflective 2000 degree coating and one layer on outside of off white (which has slightly lower temp range and thermal reflectivity)
 
#127 ·
I decided to do up all braided oil and fuel lines. (Dry sump plumbing) (fuel cell plumbing)

Awesome right? Well the fittings and hoses cost 1100 bucks!!?! From summit. It will look and work great though.


Also my ceramic coated manifolds and straight pipes are back from jet hot. They look awesome but get dirty pretty easily. A lot of care required to put them on (so far just manifolds) without turning them greasy black.
 
#128 ·
Bits not included in the FFR kit now includes:
diff breather

tranny breather

fuel regulator

Second brake reservoir (required for scca) (one per master)

Starter motor

I upgraded my remote oil filter mount

Clutch master cylinder.

The fun of buying parts has been matching the fun of strapping them in.
 
#129 ·
Nice work Surfdog.. you are making it look way too methodical and feasible.. :)
 
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#132 ·
Battery relocated from behind steering rack to passenger foot box





Also oil plumbing in process.
Fitting all the oil scavenge lines is pretty tricky I'll post photo when I finish solving the rubrics cube down there but here is what I have so far.



It's going to be a steel octopus down there.
 
#135 ·
Nice plumbing Surfdog.. :) Shame they are doing such a poor job with the Gen 3 bodies.. still patching mine in odd spots, but it was a whole lot better than what you have been sent. Will look forward to seeing yours run in the not too distant future.. :)
 
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#136 ·
I'm going to smooth down the outside best I can and put a basic paint job on it and shoot the inside with a dark grey polymer heat insulating/ strengthening coat. It should be okay for my purposes (mostly tracking and racing).

Making this fairly beat up body show car beautiful would take a lot of work I think.
 
#137 ·
Per the battery relocation.

It's a bit of welding to move it into the passenger footbox, but if you rivnut the footbox top for access it actually a pretty good spot for the battery to go if you need the FFR location for your drysump tank.

I test mounted my seats and I fit in the passenger side pretty well. (I am 6'1")

It also moves the CG aft a bit and puts weight opposite the driver for better cross weight balance.

The only downside is it move the battery UP about a foot which raises CG a bit. Oh well.


 
#140 ·
Hi Surfdog,



I'm very interested in how you mount your seats.



I'm going to use Kirkey Intermediate Road Race seats using the side brackets with sliders.



But it seems like I will need to weld in some square tubing or a full floor pan.



Dave (Gen III Coupe #17)


I haven't crossed that bridge yet. I'll post when I get there. I'm up to my eyeballs in body prep this month.

Seats are a way off for me I think.
 
#141 ·
I impregnated some fiberglass cloth with gel coat and reinforced the back of my pretty bad body flaws. Then I used gel coat paste and syringes (pumps) to build up the front of the flaws so I can work them down to a pleasing shape. It's fiddily work, but I think the repair once sanded down and buttered up with filler paste will look pretty good. It's a many step process. Minimum 30 minutes between layers. I've been at it all day.






I'm using a lot of impregnated cloth behind the repair and will completely fill the gap to make it nice and strong. That is a pretty high traffic area getting in and out of the -R style cage.

Obviously I've still got quite a bit of work to do sculpting the edges before it's ready for paint but we're getting there.

I haven't even started the hood and doors yet. Sheesh.
 
#142 ·
I found some good hub centric spacers about 1.5 inch is I think. Now my halibrand knock off knock off fit over my big 14 inch brakes (the halibrands had insufficient offset)



Also I finally mounted the lift to my nice 8' thick heavily rebarred shop deck.

Now if I can finally get some 220 out there I'll be all set.


 
#145 · (Edited)
Dash and wiring done

The Traveling builder pushed a 3 day build week with me.

Body is fit only took a day

Wiring is in 1.5 days

Dash is done and gauges are close to functional 0.5 days.

Mark (the builder) is very competent and fun to work with. I highly recommend him if your project needs a little push. (I was getting a bit stuck looking at the wiring)








Some notes:
The coyote motor barely fits under the hood unless you clearance it a bit by chopping out the end brace then it fits great.

Edit: you might be able to get by by only chopping out the forward half of the hood brace to fit over a cobra jet intake like mine. It is tight in there but I regret having to loose all the flex rigidity that brace provided. I will likely weld in a mid hood support coming off my frame (the "x" on the firewall) to add strength to that area.

The wiring is fairly straightforward but not *completely* idiot proof.

Fitting body panels without a pro around would be pretty tough.

The -r requires you to cut out the door frames a bit to get around the crash bars in door.

The hoods tend to be a bit crooked. I'm not sure how to get it flat so it hanks straight on both sides.

Edit: it's actually the main body that was tweaked. A little pushing and pulling to get it straight did a lot of good. I added an extra fastener in door jam to hold it a bit straighter.


Without that fastener, the left under hood body wanted to droop quite a bit. It's hard to explain but the fastener doesn't force anything so much as gently reflex the body to sit right. Nothing is forced.

Passenger side

Here is the difference from flat


Driver side


That gap will diminish a bit once I adjust the main body a bit with support panels.

Here is the fixed gap
 
#146 ·
Good call on getting Mark.
He came to see me for three days as well and I was actually driving my car by the time he left.
Great progress
How close are you to go cart?

John
 
#147 ·
Well I could go cart soon but instead I'm going to do a full tear down and try to get undercoat on the body and primer on top now that my body panels are straightening out.

My next step is mostly body work stuff. (I might gocart while the panels are out for paint.)[emoji41]
 
#149 ·
There is no doubt about it, your only going to get to set that hood back only so much to have that wheel arch match the pontoon arch. Then your still going to have a large gap between the back of the hood between the hood and the body. On mine I had too much, had to cut some off and section some from the hood just above the pontoon too but on a 68 GT350 I did I bought a used original hood that needed some major work to build up the hood gap down one side along the fender, similar to your issue. It can be done with both fiberglass mat an chopped fiberglass and rage body filler along with duct tape. Your going to need to bevel the inside edge, put the duct tape along the out side edge and then use the mat to glass an extension all along the back of the hood. 2-3 layers should work. Then the chopped stuff will smooth it out some. Once all the glass has dried you pull the duct tape from the outside of the hood (the glass does not stick to it) and trim down as needed then finish off the top with rage as needed. Same process on the GT350 and at the top of my door sills on my Daytona. Hope this was clear enough to understand.
 
#151 ·
Radiator shroud and some last little bits of Powder coated hardware is done. Time to install some door hardware!!



(I probably could have just painted this stuff but what the heck, I’m a bit held up by bodywork anyhow so I took the time, yes and money, to do it right)
 
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