[egchewy]

Days 1-5

3‐15-19

This week was a big learning curve. I basically did not get much done. F panels which was cool. I put the lower control arms on. One upper control arm. The bolt to the back did not go one way no room to get back there. Shocks are still waiting to be assembled.

I worked a lot of hours with little done. Basically having to make a run or two to the store for more tools. Which I thought I had plenty. I see why these builds take a long time. Once I get use to how things work on this thing and how the boxes are organized I'm sure things will go quicker and easier. In theory.

The ball joint was the biggest issue. Still working on this. I have to go get a a better heat source to loosen this up enough to get the ball joint out again. I was thinking a small propane torch?

Any newbies reading this I suggest getting the ball joint socket and using a impact wrench. The vise will work if the ball is threading somewhat easily. If not you will need a strong table and a lot of weight and torque. Otherwise if it's hard i suggest using the socket even if you have to buy a compressor and wrench. And don't start until you have everything or the threader locker will start doing its job.

One last thing, I was wondering if others thought the same. I wish FFR was more clear on what bolt asymbly bags part number is used for what part.

I opened box 1 which had upper control, ball joints shocks and steering assembly. Plus all the hardware. It was up to me by matching bolts with pics and video to make sure I was using the right stuff. The bags are marked but that did not match the parts list. I figured it out but it would make it so much easier to grab the bag for control arms only and bolt it on not have to sort through a bunch of stuff.

Jason

Been there, done that. Just very recently. I ended up using a propane torch to heat up the thread lock. I used an air impact gun w/ a ball joint socket (1-59/64"...for chrysler small ball joints) to remove it. I had a 2ft breaker bar w/ an additional 3 ft steel pipe cheater bar ready in case the impact gun couldn't remove it. As edwardb recommended, using a wire wheel on a drill to remove the coating on the threads of the BJ made it thread in smoothly. make sure you thread lock it and torque it down.
Pay attention to your spindles. They are labeled driver and passenger side, but you end up putting them on the opposite sides of the car (the passenger side goes on the driver's side and vice versa). And also pay attention to the control arms that attach the spindles to the outer tie rods. There is a subtle difference with the tie rod hole being larger on one side vs the other. The larger hole faces the ground and the smaller hole faces up.
I'm not too much farther on my build than you. There hasn't been a part that I haven't had to remove/redo.
make sure you check the settings on your shocks before installing them. It's recommended that they are set to the softest setting, which is supposed to be the factory default, but you might as well check them before you have to remove and reinstall them like I did. There's a link on my build page on how to reset the shocks.
Lastly, I decided to slow down my build despite my enthusiasm to dive right in and take some time reading others' build pages. Lots of mistakes that have been made before me, and I'm trying not to repeat history. Also it's nice to get some ideas on modifications that are easier to do now rather than later.

 

[egchewy]

Day 12
32 hours

3-25-19

Alright! Started what I am calling Phase 3, pedal box and steering to include firewall and some foot box panels. Phase 2 the rear axle and Suspension is on hold until the parts come in from FFR.

I got the firewall and front panel of the driver foot box done. Not much but it took me 2 hours. Not extremely happy with my drilling and riveting but it's good for me. I will have to get better before I start on the rest of the engine bay.

Next the pedal box.

Jason

Looks good. Are you installing heater or wipers? If so, you may need to remove the firewall to cut the hole for the heater before reinstalling it. Also, you may need to drill out the rivets in the lower inside portion of your DS footbox as the tabs for the inside wall fit under the front panel of your footbox and get drilled/riveted together.

 

[egchewy]

Thanks

No heater. I originally ordered it but I like the precovered dash and glove box better. I also ordered wipers too then decided against. That is still debatable.

The firewall I left the top driver side un riveted to make sure everything fits together later. Yes the instructions say to seal and rivet the front I assume this is good. It says to put the left foot box side panel on now. I think they mean passenger side because driver side would make putting the pedal box in more difficult. So I held off on that. However it did say to leave the lower right section unsealed and without rivets to allow for the other sections to be placed. So I assume riveting the front should be good. There is room to slip the bottom plate in.

I thank you for talking about the throttle linkage. I am not doing many mods. But the Forte throttle linkage sounds like a good one!

Jason

if you look at the inside panel for the DS footbox, you'll notice that there's a tab that should overlap with the front panel towards the bottom. This is just below the horizontal bend in the front panel. The inside DS panel should fit under the front panel in this location, so you may need to drill away some rivets to get it in. I actually drilled and mocked up my entire DS and PS footboxes and cleco'd them before doing anything else.

 

[egchewy]

I’d suggest getting some clecos and the pliers, and use them for every panel. Put everything together with clecos and make sure it fits before permanently attaching any panels.
I used 50 x 1/8 and 10 x 3/16.

Where am I supposed to be using the 3/16 rivets? So far the only place I've seen them need is attaching my breeze front battery box to the x member.

 

[egchewy]

rear calipers

+1 on Jeff's comment
also, did you need to shim your calipers? mine fit fine without any spacers. it looks like you used a spacer in your install.
I'd recommend also tightening down at least 2 of the hub nuts as the rotor sits a bit crooked if you only have it secured in one spot, which will affect your caliper and pad spacing.

 

[egchewy]

i'm just saying that in your pic, only one of the 5 hub nuts is tight to the rotor. I found that the rotor sits a bit at an angle unless you tighten another nut down. this will affect how your caliper sits and whether or not you need to shim them.

 

[egchewy]

awesome, jason! i can't wait for the day to get my engine running. i've been dragging my feet recently on the build. started putting the engine back together but snapped a couple of head bolts while torquing the heads back on have slowed me down. bought a whole new bolt set so hopefully that fixes that issue.

 

[egchewy]

awesome jason! one step closer. i'm still waiting on my dash to get back from the upholsterer, but will be wiring soon.

 

[egchewy]

looking good!

 

[egchewy]

Day 168 est
337 total hour est
4-6-2020

Seats installed with breeze mounts. Awesome ? View attachment 358125 View attachment 358126

Any issues with the low back seats interfering with the body? I'm wondering if I can fit the seats before getting the body on

 

[egchewy]

Day 181 est
360 total hour est
5-18-2020

It has been over a month since I updated this. I have not been making too much progress.

1. Trunk Air Struts -. I had to remove the original hinges and replace them with the ones that accommodate the air struts. No issues once I figured that out.

2. Installed Koolmat - This had many issues. All my fault. But it's mostly done just touch ups.

3. With help from the forum I figured out where my oil leak was coming from.

4. Put 40 test miles going around the neighborhood.
View attachment 358837

Next Carpet and seatbelts.

Jason

Where did the leak end up coming from? Intake?

 

[egchewy]

Day 184 est
370 total hour est
5-23-2020

Trunk carpet and access panels.

I thought about how I was going going to incorporate the access panels. Chewy was kind and told me he left his showing. I liked that much better than trying to cover them.

Thanks Chewy.

Next time

Seatbelts and interior trim.

Jason View attachment 358903

View attachment 358904

View attachment 358905

Looks good Jason

 

[egchewy]

For my record. I put more info in the DMV thread.

I passed inspection!!!

awesome! now to fix those leaks and then on to body/paint!

 

[egchewy]

Nothing fancy. Will get better plates next year.

Went out on the roads. About 12 miles. Under 3k rpm and a lot over 60 mph. Awesome times. The car drives straight as and arrow with rough alignment. Can not wait to get it aligned next week.

I am still getting use to the brakes, I kept it on the country roads. Loved every moment. Loud as frick. Love it!!!

I must be at the perfect height because the wind did not bother me at all. I was expecting to kinda get beat up by the wind nothing at all. Awesome 👍

Took it home, did quick walk around everything was perfect. No issues!!

Jason View attachment 359584

barely legal....😆
what do you have left to do before body/paint?

 

[egchewy]

Welcome back to the game. I always joke to my wife that my next build will go much faster. She's not laughing as she probably thinks that I'm not really joking.

 

[egchewy]

I used Gibbs BR30. pretty easy to find online and lots of zinc.

 

[egchewy]

Maybe have your tuner help out. I set my initial timing at 10* before TDC and ended up around 14* before it started sounding smooth.

 

[egchewy]

Awesome. Still a leak and the accelorator and clutch are funky. I am still going into have a pro look at before I doing anything else

Still leaking what? Oil?

 

[egchewy]

Rent a coolant system pressure tester from Napa. It'll let you pressurize your system and look/ listen for leaks.

 

[egchewy]

try these...https://eagleklaw.com/