Let the fun begin!!

 

Great! Looks like plenty o' room to get the work done. Enjoy!

(don't understand the repo cars)

 

That awesome. let the fun begin.

Did I hear you correctly, there were three Repo's on the truck..

How can that happen ?

 

Did I hear you correctly, there were three Repo's on the truck..

How can that happen ?

(don't understand the repo cars)

Actually 4, 1 under my car and 3 behind it.

I cannot understand it either. Apparently a pro builder out west bought 10, built and sold 6 and couldn't afford to keep the other 4. Damned shame.

 

congrats!! enjoy the journey its a blast!!!

 

Get some insulation in that garage before winter sets in... Oh and a heater will be necessary too! Looks like a great workshop, motor looks ready to go. Congratulations and welcome to the fray!

Mike

 

Hey Chief-

Congratulations on the delivery! It looks like you are off to a great start. Your garage is ready to go. However, as pointed out above, I think you are going to need some insulation...

I am sure you must be stoked to get started. Please keep us updated as you move forward!

That repo comment is very curious. I am not sure how that would work. It is unfortunate...

Let the fun begin! I look forward to following your progress. Best of luck!

Regards,

Steve

 

The piece of paper on the front with my name on it was one of my favorite bits.

Best wishes with your build.

Brian

 

The obligatory staged shot with the steering wheel. I was dog tired but still having a howling good time.

 

Hmmmmm maybe a repo sale when they get back to FFR! Congrats on the delivery nukem !

 

Nuke: You are on your way, now the fun begins. I'll share this for what it's worth. I found this late in my build from one of my fellow forum friends. If you have a question go to google or use the link below then enter site:ffcars.com what you want info about like site:ffcars.com installing motor and trans, trimming aluminum, adjusting side pipes, which motor mounts to use, mid shift kits, sway bars, SAI mod, Ackerman, power steering, power brakes, bleeding brakes, etc. It's all here you just have to get a bit creative with your search at times. Lots of info on this forum but I found that if I had a specific question this was a better source since I could see the history of the topic I had chosen.
Good luck with your build, I had almost as much fun building my car as I do driving it.
Keep us posted:
PS You can also contact the forum vendors for specific parts ,I recommend them, they answered a lot of questions about "What fits what" and I got a lot of add on parts from them. I recommend them.
HTH
CB

 

Just finished inventory. Only 17 boxes! The worst issue is they sent standard MK4 seats instead of the Kirkey low backs. Their backorder list has a set of stainless sidepipes. I guess they must figure the uncoated ones I got will get lonely? Their system must be getting pretty good after over 8100 cars. All those parts and only a couple mistakes.

 

Hey Nuke,

Two thoughts from an ex nuke mm to another

1. You eventually will have to set your coffee cup down and use both hands
2. Remember 50/50/90 for nukes. Given a 50/50 chance a nuke will get it wrong 90% of the time....don't over think it

Enjoy the journey!

 

Hey Nuke,

Two thoughts from an ex nuke mm to another

1. You eventually will have to set your coffee cup down and use both hands
2. Remember 59/50/90 for nukes. Given a 50/50 chance a nuke will get it wrong 90% of the time....don't over think it

Enjoy the journey!

In reply:
1. Absolutely not!!! That cup was surgically attached at initiation. The only time it wasn't in use for the precious life fluid known as coffee was when some wayward blueshirt (or more often an even more wayward JO) had to be shown the error in their ways.:rankn-cpo:
Just look at the properly hooked index finger on this fine example:

2. I just applied the 50/50/90 rule last night when putting heim joints in the panhard rod. As is typical, it bit me. At least I learned that the knurled end has the LH threads.

Thank you and all those here for their service.

MMC/SS(ret)

 

Not much accomplished in the past week. I was working 14hr days during the week and had a funeral to attend on Saturday. But I did get pushrod length measured (the Comp Cams Hi-tech adjustable pushrod is AWESOME for this). I also got the body off the chassis and hanging on the body buck in the ceiling. The chassis is on the chassis buck (on casters) and ready for me to start fitting, marking and drilling body panels & frame for rivets.

 

Well, it has been a while since I posted anything on here about my build. I have gotten some stuff done, but work and family issues have been slowing my build a bit.

I ordered a bare frame because I knew I was going to make several mods that would have had the frame getting re-coated anyway. I am coating the frame with POR15 when I get mods done, then a light scuff with red Scotchbrite then hammered silver paint.

First mod - I cut and re-welded the 3/4" by the power brake booster.

Then I cut the Driver side diagonal brace in the trunk, added another piece between the front gas tank supports and ran a brace front-to-back about 1" inboard of where the upper portion of the gas tank is. This is to allow me a dropped trunk 5" deep and 17"x24".

I also welded on 7/16-14 coupling nuts held from behind by Gr8 bolts, also welded on.

 

I also did the Jeff Kleiner throttle pedal mod:

You can also see I cut the top and front face off the 2x2 at the heel of the footbox and welded in a slanted piece (similar to Ryans88GT). I will bend the front of the floor aluminum to attach to this.

I decided to do a firewall forward mod. I went with 3". I will be running an FFR heater and a glovebox, either my own or one of Alex's. I attached the firewall below the 2x2 so that I can use that 3x2 space for a plenum for the DS & PS heat, or to run heater hose and wiring in.
I had to weld a couple tabs on the 3/4" tubes to support the top

And using the FFR firewall as a template for the top radius, I cut a new firewall from .090" aluminum. I ended up botching my first one pretty bad trying to bend it on my little HF brake, so I scrapped it and took the next one to the local sheetmetal shop and they bent it for me in 5 minutes.

 

I shameless stole Mike Kelly's Spark Plug Mod for my DS footbox. It takes nothing away from the pedal area and clears access to the back header bolts and sparkplug. It was a no-brainer decision to take it on since I am running a 351W.

The combination of all these mods in the firewall/DS footbox had me fit for a straightjacket for a couple days, but it all worked out ... more or less. I will have to touchup some scraped paint in the engine bay, but I am happy with the results so far.

 

Well, it has been a long time since an update, but things like life have been getting in the way of working on the car a whole lot.

Thus far, the engine and transmission are in, brake lines and fuel line routed, some electric done, firewall forward 3", trunk dropped, Breeze rollbars welded, Breeze trunk cubby installed with Replica Parts trunk supports thru 1 1/8" holes in cubby wall, almost all aluminum in, street dash pretty much done with homemade glovebox, gauges fit and 65 Mustang ignition/headlight/wiper/lighter & 66 Bronco heater bezels. I also have a S/C dash laid out and ready for a glovebox if I decide to go that route ... what's another $100? Oh wait, add $200 for Alex's glovebox (not making another one). Spent a bunch of time moving the FFR dash brace toward the left side of the dash and installed another brace to the right of the center-mounted heater above the glovebox. The heater sticks into the engine compartment about 2" and has a box sealing it off from the engine bay.

Engine installed:

Dash and firewall gap. Can't do this with mechanical gauges! There's about 1/2" clearance between the top gauge backs and the top of the heater. Plenty of room between the switches (especially headlight) and the bottom of the heater, though:

PS of dash gap. I used 16ga steel sheetmetal for the "L" heater support and tek-screwed the top brace to the heater's plastic box. I didn't feel like trying to use forceps and my far-sighted 50 year old eyes to use washer-backed rivets:

 

More:

Dash & trans tunnel cover. Fit the cupholders tonight:

Dropped trunk floor:

Breeze cubby & Replica Parts trunk lid supports. I trimmed 1/4" off either side of the cubby wall to bring it forward to 6" from the top 3/4" cowl hoop instead of the as-supplied 9 1/2":

Mustang switches & Bezels:

 

Is that Whitby's power brake mod ?

 

Same concept. Fox booster, Villager reservoir, Replica Parts booster spacer and Lodestone Billet Works reservoir nipples. I needed to use 2 of the base kit's master cylinder spacers between the booster and master cylinder to keep the booster pushrod from preloading the master cylinder´s plunger. The frame I just cut and welded on another section of 3/4" box tube with an inch of overlap and welded plates to cap the beveled ends.

 

Hey Chief-

Just needed to say that your build is looking awesome! Great attention to detail, and some nice creativity making it all come together.

I will look forward to seeing the rest of your progress. Great stuff!

Regards,

Steve

 

OK, so I am sending off to the Enhanced Inspection today to (hopefully) get title, registration and plate.

Here is the final list of what I ended up doing to this car:

MK4 base kit
- 351w F4TE (5.8L roller) with F303, 700DP, TW170 heads (about 400+fwhp)
- TKO600 (.64) from Forte's
- 95 SN95 dogleg spindles modified for 96-04 calipers
- SN95 pedal box
- 2.5 turn power steering with Heidt's valve
- GT front brakes, Cobra rear brakes & Fox power brake booster/Villager m/c and CNC dual reservoirs
- 3-link 3.27 TracLoc rear with NRC axles
- 17x9/17x10.5 FFR Halibrands with 255/40-17 & 315/35-17 Nitto NT05s
- Ceramic coated steel headers from Stainless Headers to ceramic coated FFR steel sidepipes
- Coupe taillights
- Hella LED backup light (wow is it bright!)
- FFR/Ron Francis wiring harness
- Kleiner mod to license plate light and o-ringed front turn signals
- FFR wipers with gearboxes modified by Mark Dougherty (still can't get the Park function to work on the Painless switch, blows fuses)
- FFR SS bumpers/overriders with FinishLine front grommets and Kleiner coupling mod on back
- S/C dash layout with FFR/Speedhut vintage gauges with oil temp (converted to Fahrenheit with water temp) and 65 Mustang switches/knobs
- made my own dash support tubes (3/4"OD SS tube)
- FFR heater in center behind dash
- FFR vinyl roadster seats, bottom cushion trimmed/lowered 1.5" with seat heaters
- Alex's wheelwell liners (modified for footbox cooling vents) & 4" glovebox
- Breeze stainless rollbars (PS removeable), offset solid steering bushings, cooling fan shroud, radiator cowl cover, zero clearance insulation, forward battery box and seat mounting plates (modified to ease seat removal)
- Russ' turn signal system, throttle pedal & rollbar trim rings
- Cobra Earl footbox vents
- FFR hood hinge system
- FinishLine RayDot mirrors and brackets, front bumper grommets, nose/trunk & side emblems and defrosters
- ReplicaParts trunk support kit, radiator trim, booster spacer
- DrummerMike heatshields on the sidepipes

Chassis mods:
- trunk floor lowered 5"
- removeable tranny tunnel top from dash tubes back with cupholders and ashtray
- Kleiner throttle pedal kickout
- Mike Kelly sparkplug mod (top of DS footbox)
- Firewall moved forward 3" with .090" aluminum

Lots of thanks out there to all who provided advice and encouragement.

Thanks to:
- Mark and Brendan Dougherty for the weekend of education and help pushing this car to the point where it was ready to go to paint

- Jeff Kleiner for his neat tips and tricks to make multiple modifications actually work

- Russ Thompson for his patience with my turn signal woes