Hurricane Motorsports
Public Area => Build Pictures => Topic started by: Greg K on August 25, 2020, 07:32:02 PM
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I figured today was good as any to get this started even though it'll be at least 8 weeks before my kit is ready. My build plan starts out fairly basic with a few personal modifications that'll make it different in some ways.
So starting off, the order was made after my visit and started out with the 427 kit with the following:
- Alum Firewall back of dash that will be powder coated
- Powder coated frame, powder coat will be the same hammered or silver vein used on the coyote build. Will also coat the latch backing plate
- Premium carpet
- Undercoating of the cockpit and trunk tub
- Upgraded aluminum fuel tank
- Upgraded front calipers to Wilwood D154
- Standard brake package for rear axle
- Eaton Detroit Tru-Trac LSD (3.50 Gear ratio)
- Roll bar and Quick Jacks to be chrome
- Roll Bar trim rings
- Wind Wings & Sun Visors
- LED rear tail lights
- Ceramic coated side pipes and headers
- Gauge Package Delete
- Wire Harness, switches, & Indicator Lights Delete
- Mirror Delete
- Shift Lever & Knob Delete
- Seats & Harness Delete
- Will be adding mounting tabs to the frame at specific locations for eye bolt anchors. These will be used for a clip in style safety harness.
- Utilizing a programmable solid state power distribution module with remote switch panel eliminating fuses and relays. Small fuse panel will still be necessary for brake switch and some other items.
- I plan on using the aluminum cobra bucket seats from Ultra Shield pictured below.
- Working on dash layout, preliminary layout pictured below. Gauges will be from Speedhut, but using dual gauge speedo with fuel level, tach, oil pressure, water temp and volts.
- Shift lever which I posted in another thread is the Jordan shifter.
- Planned power is 347 SBF w/ carb from Prestige Motorsports mated to a modified T-5, hydraulic slave for clutch.
- Superlite wheels, 15x10 rear and 15x8 front. Have always liked these wheels and found a good example of a roadster with them bolted on pictured below.
As for color, will be solid color no stripes, started out as race red, then I changed to a solid Porsche non metallic blue from the 60's, but came across HM-1001 pictured below after it was repaired and changed to silver, really liking the stance and look of this one. So it may be silver, but who knows, the color may change again. My side pipe coating as of now is silver, but most likely will change it to black like HM-1001.
Will update when I can as the build progresses and from updates or pics I can get from the guys at Hurricane.
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I used the Kirkey version of the seat you pictured above. Good call, that style really keeps you firmly planted. My first autocross in HM 1066 I was still using the stock driver's seat and found I was sliding around so much I had a death-grip on the steering wheel to keep my self in the seat. The Kirkey eliminates all lateral movement, enabling you to be much more aggressive in sharp corners.
Have fun with your build!
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Looking forward to your build progress. Enjoy!
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Looking forward to watching your build as well!
Are you going with the InfinityBox wiring harness? I really wanted to go that route but was very expensive. I ended up with the stock Haywire harness, no problems so far other than a faulty blinker relay out of the box...
I also have a Kirkey Race driver seat as well as the stock Sube Sports cobra seats. I swap out the stock with the Kirkey on track days, doesnt take much effort. I really like it.
I'm sure you will get lots of unsolicited advice along the way, as I did. So i'll go ahead and get started ;) mine is an early 2nd gen (HM2008) and I ordered black power coat frame and suspension. I ended up having to make a lot of modifications along the way, grinding off powder coat to weld, then re-coating it with black POR-15. Hopefully by now Hurricane has resolved the quality control issues I had. I would also strongly advise waiting to ceramic coat your exhaust until you have test fitted on your car with drive train and body installed. I had some fitment issues, and still do on the driver side. I also ended up swapping out the stock mufflers with 3" I.D. 24" long CobraPack from Classic Chambered Exhaust before powder coating. Very happy with the CobraPack muffler, and they will never rattle.
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Thanks Guys...I appreciate any comments or suggestions as we go down this road.
Looking forward to watching your build as well!
Are you going with the InfinityBox wiring harness? I really wanted to go that route but was very expensive. I ended up with the stock Haywire harness, no problems so far other than a faulty blinker relay out of the box...
I'll be using the system from Switch-Pros
I'm sure you will get lots of unsolicited advice along the way, as I did. So i'll go ahead and get started ;) mine is an early 2nd gen (HM2008) and I ordered black power coat frame and suspension. I ended up having to make a lot of modifications along the way, grinding off powder coat to weld, then re-coating it with black POR-15. Hopefully by now Hurricane has resolved the quality control issues I had.
Hopefully they have and that all of you have provided sufficient feedback to them as to what works and what doesn't. Alec was open to all sorts of suggestions during my visit.
I would also strongly advise waiting to ceramic coat your exhaust until you have test fitted on your car with drive train and body installed. I had some fitment issues, and still do on the driver side. I also ended up swapping out the stock mufflers with 3" I.D. 24" long CobraPack from Classic Chambered Exhaust before powder coating. Very happy with the CobraPack muffler, and they will never rattle.
You and I discussed the Cobrapacks briefly and I think they have good muffler design, Hurricane doesn't fabricate the side pipes in house, but I'm going to count on them being right, perhaps replacing them with the Cobrapacks down the road if necessary.
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Like those seats!! Very cool build you have planned. I'm still waiting for delivery date on mine. Based on the frame pics you took of mine it'll be a little longer. But I had to get a new garage in place among other things. So I needed extra time. I'll start a build thread soon as it gets here.
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From what I've head they're pretty comfortable as well. I think waiting for that that date is the hardest part, They just got real busy and with the move and getting things set up, set them back a little.
In the meantime, I'll be starting on a chassis dolly and a then a body buck or something to elevate or suspend the body above.
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Got the chassis dolly built this morning, now onto the body buck in another week or two.
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That's really nice Greg. Is that your own design? Looks super strong too. I have to get in gear here and do the same. Tic tok...........LOL ;)
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Thanks, I duplicated the dolly dimensions that Hurricane has around the shop, but in wood. It'll be used until the engine is dropped in.
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Got some reading material while I wait...
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Wow nice. I'm still in the hold pattern here. I still have my old FFR build manual and VHS build tape from 20 years ago!!
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Started on the body buck today, got the end pieces cut, will finish it next weekend.
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Looking good!
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Thanks Glenn, I used Paul's drawing as reference for the end piece measurements.
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One more item I can check off, got the body buck done, just need to add some foam to the top.
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Nicely done!
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Thanks Glenn, you know the kit can't come soon enough, so you have to do something to pass the time.
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Greg, are you planning to do your own body work and paint? If so, I made my body buck in two pieces so the top part could be lifted off and set down at working height and then put back on the bottom part and the car chassis would still park under it. If that is your plan, I don't have any drawings but I can tell you how I did it. Your buck could be modified to do the same thing if needed.
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I'm not planning on doing my own body & paint, but I can see what your saying and how it can be done fairly easily. When it comes time to paint I was planning to cut it down for my painter.
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The beginning of HM-2030's frame in the jig today.
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Nice! Moving right along now.
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I think you are getting the first new gas tank. Mine has the older square one.
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That's very possible, I know they had to make some modifications to the new style tank they had when I visited back in August.
I think you are getting the first new gas tank. Mine has the older square one.
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After a few setbacks in the shop this past month, the frame was pulled from the jig today. Just a few items to complete and won't be long for powder coat.
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Nice that's good to see! Yep things seem to be moving right along. Hope mine is coming soon. Maybe a Christmas present?
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Since my last update, the frame has been completed and waiting to go out for powder coat. Pics of it in line with others.
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Nice good to see the progress. Think my frame is besides yours. No roll bar mounts.
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Greg are you still going to pick up your kit?
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Yes, my current plan is to make the trip and pick it up myself.
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Nice I hope the weather is clear for your trip! I'd love to do the same but time and work just does not make it possible. Hey at least we are both in the final stages!! Fun times ahead!
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Picked ours up in a raging snow storm in 2012, little dicey pulling the trailer till we got back south.
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Picked ours up in a raging snow storm in 2012,
That is something we hope to avoid. Not sure if we're going to have an open or enclosed trailer when I do.
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When I picked up my FFR in Feb 2000 we had a open trailer. The sand and salt made a freakin mess of the kit. Even with it cleaned up the aluminum still started to pit. So if you have to go open trailer think about wrapping the kit up with shipping pallet plastic. And wrap it well!! Our trip was only 200 miles from Wareham Mass back to CT.
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I give up! LOL ;D
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I give up! LOL ;D
I know right !! :o There was a hint in my first post.
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Ha! Missed that.
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Got a an update today, headers and sidepipes are now off to be ceramic coated and frame is back from powder coat.
Just waiting on a few small items and should be ready for pick up in about 3 weeks if all goes well with the fiberglass shop.
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Looking good!!
Russ
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Yes sure does! Cool color and texture on the powdercoat.
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Got a an update today, headers and sidepipes are now off to be ceramic coated and frame is back from powder coat.
Just waiting on a few small items and should be ready for pick up in about 3 weeks if all goes well with the fiberglass shop.
I sure hope they fit around the footbox and align to the body once you put it all together. Mine were way off and had to be heated, bent, eventually cut and re-welded. That's why I got them bare, not coated and test fit before ceramic coating. I also replaced the mufflers with Classic Chambered 3" ID 24" long. Less restriction, better sound, and they will never rattle.
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I sure hope they fit around the footbox and align to the body once you put it all together. Mine were way off and had to be heated, bent, eventually cut and re-welded. That's why I got them bare, not coated and test fit before ceramic coating. I also replaced the mufflers with Classic Chambered 3" ID 24" long. Less restriction, better sound, and they will never rattle.
Hopefully they will and I won't have to go thru what you have. I read about your issues with the frame and where you changed out to the cobrapacks on your sidepipes.
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Decided to have the fuel tank painted. Thanks guys!
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Got a shot of the body today.
Trunk and door panels to be bonded together later this week.
Should be ready to ship out in two weeks.
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Good to hear its getting close. I know your more than ready.
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Got some good news today, my transporter called today and my kit will be picked up on April 26th or 27th and delivered on the 29th or 30th.
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Hey now that IS good news!! And the 4-27 pickup date is great! Been a long haul and wait but worth it for sure. Hope the back orders are not too bad. I still have a pretty good list of BO parts I'm waiting on.
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The day has finally come for my kit to be picked up from Hurricane since placing my order in August.
Headers/side pipes and some small powder coated items will not be making the truck and will be shipped later
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Fantastic news! I look forward to following your build as I patiently wait for my kit....
Happy Wrenching,
Jim
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Pics of parts and body on frame just before pickup.
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You lucky dog! Bet you have a great weekend :) I have a few more months to go so look forward to following your build while I wait.....patiently........
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Great news Greg. I know you are more than ready for it.
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Now the real fun begins!
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Can't wait for your build thread to start. Congratulations!
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Arrived this afternoon, in no time we had all the boxes, chassis and body off the truck. Start inventory tomorrow to organize and see what was shipped and not shipped. Think we got a few things also that weren't supposed to ship. The dolly I built for the chassis worked out perfectly.
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And they also throw in a boat anchor. Hurricane fabricates a bracket with lift ring that resembles an anchor that bolts into where the cross member bolts to the frame. Makes lifting with hoist really quick.
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Done for the day...
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Congrats and have fun! Very exciting day.
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Now the real fun begins. Keep us posted.
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Spent most of the day yesterday going thru all the boxes taking inventory, sorting and organizing parts. Missing parts list isn't too extensive and also received a few things not on my order list that'll be going back to Hurricane. Will be prepping for the windshield today.
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Not much done today due to some family obligations, but removed hood, doors, trunk lid and stored them away. Body is not exactly where I want it to cut slots for the windshield, cockpit and trunk tub need some minor cuts to move just a bit to make some adjustment.
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After making some adjustments to body's location, I went ahead made the first cuts on the body for the arm slots for the windshield.
Assembled the arms on the windshield and got them as best they could and thru it back in the box for next weekend when I'll have some help.
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Nice job. Yep having a 2nd person helps a lot. As you know I was stopped in my tracks with the 1 brace hole way off on my frame. Anyway keep up the good work. I'll have some updates soon.
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Today I was able to get the windshield set in place after massaging the slot just a little more on the driver's side. I was able to drill both holes on each side without having to remove the legs from the frame and body to get the upper holes done. Started holes with 1/4" and then finished with 3/8". Will cut the legs off later and back into the box it went. Later in the day I was able to get some help to remove the body and it get it up on body buck in a matter of minutes.
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Good progress!
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Now down to the bare frame. Needs a good wipe down.
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Just a little weekend update...Goal this weekend was to get the differential and rear axle completed and installed. Well that did not happen, the limited slip that was shipped with the diff was not what I ordered and will have to wait on the right one. Hopefully that won't take too long.
I proceeded in putting together the trailing arms, 3rd link and panhard bar. Assembled the coil overs for all 4 corners.
Once the frame is powder coated, most if not all bolt holes need to be drilled out or reamed for the bolts to fit. After that, I placed all bolts and nuts in their respective location at the front and rear suspension points.
Waiting on the rod ends for the front suspension, is why it's not together yet, but managed to run a bottoming tap in the lower control arms in preparation for the rod ends, this is absolutely necessary. Thinking that safety retaining washers may be needed for the upper control arm rod ends should one fail, so will picking up a few of those soon for when I assemble them.
Have seen some who have had issues with the rubber bushings for the steering rack, so I picked up these blue urethane bushings from Cardone.
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Good move on the steering bushings. Mine went bad just while I was building the car.
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Good move on the steering bushings. Mine went bad just while I was building the car.
Good to know. Can you post the P/N? I'll order some now :)
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Good to know. Can you post the P/N? I'll order some now :)
Rack Bushings #: Cardone 22-207MB, bought on Amazon
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Update on third member for rear axle...Alec was able to make a couple of phone calls and it looks like a new one will be shipped out today direct to me from John's with the correct limited slip. Hope it shows up in time for the weekend!!
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Good move on the steering bushings. Mine went bad just while I was building the car.
Good to know. Can you post the P/N? I'll order some now :)
Mine are Energy Suspension urethane.
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On Friday, the replacement center section arrived with the Eaton TrueTrac limited slip installed just in time for the weekend. Got it installed yesterday onto the housing, ended up brushing on 2 coats of black Rust Oleum Hammered out of a can. Pics when wet and pleased with results. Onto the axles...
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So if you have read your installation manual, you see a pic of the axle with the bearing, spacer and mounting bracket assembled. The axles arrived without the spacer and bracket installed. A loose mounting bracket with a cutout was supplied for installation. I hadn't located the spacer and thought I did not have it and how was I to install. I have the stock rear brake package and found the spacers in with the rear calipers. It was suggested I cut the spacer in half into two pieces and glue them to the bearing as mentioned in the manual. I decided to use the same principle used for the mounting bracket and cut a section out of spacer to get it onto the axle to retain the bearing and axle. I also spray painted the mounting brackets black to prevent corrosion. Will be working on the axles today and see how that goes after I get the rear end mounted to the chassis.
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Moving right along! Good work.
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Got some time to work on it again today. Was able to get the rear end hung on the chassis and decided to leave the axles for another day.
The missing rod ends for the front suspension and a few other missed parts showed up yesterday from Hurricane and also mocked up the front for show.
Will reinstall front driver side shock with adjuster to the inside.
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Your making great progress! Thanks for the tips and info along the way.
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So onto the axles and rear brake brackets...what should have been an easy day had its challenges.
As others have experienced with the standard rear brake kit, the bearing opening on stamped metal back plate for the parking brake does not line up with the machined opening for the axle bearing on the caliper bracket once the retaining bolts are inserted. This requires one to grind the stamped plate to match the caliper bracket to allow the axle bearing through. After matching both of them to allow the bearing thru, repainted them and waited for them to dry. :-\
So after paint was dry, time to insert axles into the housing, passenger side first, axle goes in fine with no interference, the retaining mounting plate is a little difficult to get into place but I get it and get the nuts snug. Decide to give the axle a turn by hand and i hear twang and then a click. Wheel stud heads hitting brake shoe springs and lever that expands brake shoes. Picture below. Wheel studs are threaded and have a lock washer. Lock washer needs to go for more clearance. So off to the parts store to get a loaner slide axle hammer to remove axle. Pull axle, remove studs, throw lock washers to the side add thread locker and replace studs and proceed to reinserting the axle. So after reinserting axle I give it one last blow and ping...the spacer ring falls off after gluing it to the bearing as instructions say to do. Now I'm removing the axle again, glue the ring in place again reinstall axle again, snug up bolts with retaining plate and torque to 45 ft lb spec...done!
So with what I learned on the first axle, Shouldn't have any issue with other side...right. :o Moving to the driver side with the wheel studs redone, spacer ring glued, axle slides in nice, a few taps of the mallet and it's good. Get retainer plate in place, get all the nuts on by hand, then with ratchet, then with the torque wrench. As i get close, one does not feel right and feel like that it's pulling the threads off. Decide to move on to the others, three of the four don't even get close and pull the threads off the t-bolts. Luckily the brake kit comes with these bolts but are hex head in lieu of t-bolts and replace them with new nuts. Not sure why they pulled the threads, passenger side had no issues. I think I may just replace all the t-bolts with a kit from Wilwood for piece of mind. Pics of both sides completed.
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Glad you are making progress and are clearly describing the issues and solutions. I was able to get Alec to send me a build manual early, so I am taking notes.
Thank you!!
Jim
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Took it easy today and messed around for a couple of hours...decided to torque all of the rear suspension bolts and a few up front and tagged. Did some online shopping and decided to pick up a new t-bolt kit from Wilwood part #230-12096 and some Torco RGO 80w90 gear oil for the rear axle.
I also want to address the lower control arms and spacers. 1/2" spacers are provided with the kit, I tried to make them work but it was not happening. I picked up an assortment of 3/8, 5/16 and 1/4 inch spacers for them. I believe some have been able to spread them, but with the reinforcement on them now, it's very difficult and when I did force a wider spacer in the bracket on the insides it seems to bind up the LCA. Spreading them also may also cause some alignment issue with the lower shock bolt tubes which I clearanced earlier in it's relaxed state.
So i placed the largest spacer I could manage on the insides, filled the gaps on the outside with a combination of spacers and torqued them in place. Took some measurements and all seems good where I have them for now. I think having some flexibility will aid if need be when alignment time comes. Also added some AN type washers to the LCA bolts, grade 8 washer do not fit on outsides.
After that I went on to the spindles, cleaned them up and painted them with the same paint I used on my rear center section. roll bar stubs came in handy.
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Glad you are making progress and are clearly describing the issues and solutions. I was able to get Alec to send me a build manual early, so I am taking notes.
Thank you!!
Jim
Yes. Thanks for the details! Will keep the rest of us rookies from having to go through the same exercises :)
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you may have to remove the lock washers under the studs for clearance. the supplier switched from press in studs to the screw in. use loctite.
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you may have to remove the lock washers under the studs for clearance. the supplier switched from press in studs to the screw in. use loctite.
Jason,
Already done...thanks
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oops, missed that part.
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oops, missed that part.
Any input on the spacer issue on the control arms?
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Bruce,
I do not think it's an issue at all or has any impact being forward or rearward an 1/8". It can be squared up and don't see any issues dialing in the track width, caster and camber.
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Small update for today. The new ball joints supplied are easily mounted in the upper and lower controls arms by hand, no freezing or heating needed. I know some have put a tack weld on them so they stay in place. I took another route, drilled and tapped the holders and inserted a 1/4-20 set screw in the lower half of the upper and the upper half of the lower. Along with some thread locker on the ball joint and simple persuasion of the torque wrench. The right socket makes quick work of it. Set screw with a little loctite and call it good. The right socket makes quick work of it. Hurricane supplies replacement boots for the ball joints from Energy suspension and work better than the boots that come with the ball joints. Bolted up the spindles, torqued to spec, one more thing done.
I also replaced all of the axle retaining bolts and nuts with the Wilwood kit I mentioned above, highly recommend it. Coilovers tomorrow along with steering rack will be bolted on and then who knows what's next.
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I found the Wilwood T bolts and the steering bushings in stock at Summit. Had a couple other things to pick up so got free shipping, plus I get a Military discount with them :) Thanks for all the heads up! Hopefully I wont run into anything that slows me down once I get started!
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So I worked on the front end a bit more today. Pic of the lower control arm set screw location for the ball joint if anyone was interested.
Re-installed the coilovers, installed the steering rack, the Cardone bushing works perfect, lubed inside and out with some Sil-Glyde and done.
After centering the steering rack, threaded the tie rods on, needed to cut an inch off each end of the rack. After cutting and installing tie rods all the way in, ended up with a little toe in which can wait to fine tune later on after brakes go on.
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.....The right socket makes quick work of it. ....
So your 1 59/64" was the correct size as opposed to the 1 7/8" recommended in the Assembly Guide or would either have worked?
Thanks for the heads up and great progress!
Jim
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Nicely done, where were you able to locate a spindle wrench? And what brand is it? Anything would be appreciated.
Michael-
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@Jim - very small difference between the two, but what I found was the 1-59/64 used more often for the K772 ball joint.
@ Michael - Assuming you mean the ball joint socket? Found on Amazon, Sunex 10213 now at a lower price and under $20
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oops, missed that part.
Any input on the spacer issue on the control arms?
things move around a little when welded. I usually grind them to fit when I put one together if too tight. or adjust the width of the arm. each one is just a tiny bit different.
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Things are really moving along Greg!! Nice to see.
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Thanks Glenn, don't hesitate to call if you need anything.
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Some wheels showed up yesterday afternoon... 8)
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Very nice. I almost got those too. Great look.
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Kind of a paint and wait kinda weekend...
Decided to paint the stock kit rotor hats and edges with primer and finish coats in black. Left to bake in the sun.
Stock kit rear calipers painted with a cast iron color. My front calipers will be Wilwood metric racing model.
Next time, buy rotors pre-coated.
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Looking good. Like the details.
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This weekend has been one of those for looking ahead and planning my next moves and not much wrenching.
For my wheel center caps, I debated between various cobra logos or something different, decided on using the Hurricane logo. Was able to get a preview of how they will look. Will be 45mm in diameter.
The rod end retaining washers came in this week so I installed them instead of just using the lock washer on the upper control arms.
Brake and fuel line plumbing is next on my list along with mounting my fuel tank. Mocked up how I will plumb the rear using a tee on the driver side tab on the axle. As you can see in the pics, I'll be using a braided line from the frame tab which seems to be more rearward than I have seen before on other builds. 90 degree hose end at frame tab and straight on top. From the tee on drivers side, there will be another braided line to the driver side caliper, hard line over to the passenger side tab and adapter, then braided line to the passenger side caliper. The rest along the frame and the front should be pretty straight forward.
Last Friday, Alec sent a pic of all the aluminum panels that I had powder coated, so they should be on there way soon with all of the door, trunk and hood hinges too.
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I like the powder coat you have on the frame. Good progress.
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Greg
I have a similar idea for the steering wheel center, but to use the Terlingua logo. Do you plan to do the wheelcenters or are you having them done?
Let's talk - sent you a PM
Paul
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Engine assembly has started...
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Not a whole lot done over the weekend, again some work, thinking, planning and messing up. ;)
Wasn't happy with the way the banjo brake fitting was working out on the rear calipers and then messed one up yesterday and decided to do something different, so waiting on new fittings for them.
As for the front end, hub rotors were installed, dust cap with kit was for a GM and not Ford, and wouldn't fit. So I sourced a couple from the local parts store that did fit the hubs.
Once I bolted on the caliper bracket, the Wilwood metric racing caliper with pads went on. You'll notice a gap between the pad and rotor, need to get a set of pad spacers for the calipers. The Ford rotor is .200" thinner than the GM rotor that the metric calipers are made for, so they make .190" spacers that go between the piston and pad so that the piston does not need to extend out as far as the pads wear. This is pretty typical for when you have this combinations, so these are on their way before I complete.
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Now that I had a hubs and the calipers on, I got a chance to throw a wheel on and see how it all worked out, plenty of clearance.
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Back at it one weekend at a time. Some fresh rubber showed up this past week, 295/50 for the rear and 245/60 up front. For a 15" tire, these have some better specs than most 15" tires you find out on the market today.
Last week I wasn't happy with the short banjo fitting on the stock rear calipers and replaced them with a 45 degree banjo, much better to work with. A longer straight would have worked too. Decided on a different way of transitioning from the frame to the rear axle, this will work better too with my setup.
Spacers came in for the front calipers, this was easy and no gap now.
Bent and installed a 30" brake line, no cut or flaring needed between the left and right sides.
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Mounted the tank, drilled and tapped the steel frame and installed 1/4"x1" bolts with lock washers and thread locker for studs. Used some 1/16" thick epdm washers between frame angle and tank angle and then backed it up with washers and lock nuts. It's rock solid and going no where. Not sure if I will add straps or not.
I also began working on the front hard brake lines beginning on the left front and then continuing on to the front right. Once I mount the pedals and master cylinders, I'll work back to them to complete the lines.
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Engine assembly coming along...
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Not much to show for the weekend. Mocked up the pedals and made up the rear brake line. Almost had it in one piece from the rear to the brake switch. When I was making one of the last bends, not paying attention the flare nut was on the wrong side of the bend. So had to cut it and insert a union and make up a small piece to the switch. Having to get another 40" piece for the front line since I made a wrong bend and wasn't happy with the first one I made up. Line for clutch line will be done later after trans is in and cockpit tub is fastened down. Will need to install a brake line adapter on frame to use a braided line to the clutch slave cylinder.
I also decided I would change out the fluid adapters on the masters that will accept braided lines from the remote reservoirs.
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Lookin good Greg :) I was on FFR forum looking at some of their builds and ran across a guy that did all brake and fuel in polished stainless and was an absolute work of art. Think I have to at least take a stab at it. Ya know, the more I follow your build the more I like the hammered powder coat. Think I might copy cat ya! Was thinking about epoxy chassis paint but not much more for the powder from a local guy I use here. Are you doing your inner panels in the engine bay the same? Or something different to contrast?
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Thanks Bruce, copy away...All of my sheet metal is also powder coated the same. Powdercoating was the easy choice for me. My footwells will be painted or add more undercoating/bed liner most likely, wish I had had Hurricane spray the whole tub. Only the engine side dash area firewall will have metal.
I thought about SS, but you won't see much of it and passed.
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Earlier I had talked about getting some Hurricane logos made for my wheel caps, they were delivered today and look pretty good based on the artwork I was able to provide.
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Lookin good! Your really rollin right along. Wheel caps came out nice.
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That's a cool unique feature for your car.
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Motor was on the dyno this morning...about what we expected for what we have in it.
And the plot I generated from the video.
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Have had my wheels and tires for a while and figured it was time to get them mounted and balanced.
Brake lines are pretty much done and will install fuel line once engine is installed to determine connection and location of mechanical fuel pump on my engine.
Had to spend some time today also cleaning up and reorganizing a few things to make room for the engine, trans may be another week or two till it's delivered.
And yes I had to throw the wheels and tires on to get a good look.
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How about a video update and walk around.
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My fuel level sender came in this week so I mounted it to the tank. Pretty simple thing to do.
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Lookin good Greg! Wheels are sharp!
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Greg, looking good. Just a thought when I saw your video. You might want to check the steering rack to make sure it moves freely. Mine was faulty and was bending on one end, but I didn't find out until the build was complete and then when I would drive the car the heat from the radiator would cause it to bind up even more and I had to replace the rack. Easier to check it now just is case.
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Hey Sam,
No issues, turns with ease in both directions.
Thanks!
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looks nice and clean Greg! I'm headed north Friday to pick mine up Saturday and will be working on it Sunday ;D
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Thanks, enjoy your trip.
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Very nice work, Greg. Thanks for the updates and video. My kit should arrive by Friday! Better clean up the garage….
Jim
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Engine came home today and also had some channels added to the top and bottom of the radiator. Hurricane's vendor screwed up and the mistake wasn't discovered till someone opened the boxes ::) If you look closely, you can see the upper bracket in the top channel that we used as a guide for the width and height of the channel.
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Nice engine!! Very clean spark plug wire routing.
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Greg,
I think you are setting a new standard for communication. Did you contract with HMC to produce updated 2nd Gen assembly methods and pictorials? The assembly guide sure needs an update, but your posts and pics/vids are keeping me rolling with good confidence. I am ready to run my brake lines now and appreciate the trouble you experienced, but you should feel good that you are saving some of us a LOT of headache.
Your engine looks great and should have more than enough power to scare yourself. I know you are ready to mount her and make clearance checks and driveshaft measurements.....
Have a great weekend,
Jim
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No contract, everyone has their own ideas as well on some things. Just sharing my experience, glad they are helping you along. I've kind have taken a little break the past week or two with some time off away, waiting on parts and only working on it on weekends since I received it.
Sounds like you are rolling along at a good pace to where you are now. I should have a couple of things to share this weekend, and you just might pass me by soon at your pace.
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A few weeks ago I wanted to see how the roll bar fit on the frame, no luck when I tried getting the back brace on the stub in the trunk area, couldn't even get it started. In trying, it seemed that the upper body brace was in the way or possibly the stub for it had gotten hit in transport to and from powder coat. I could see some corrosion in the tube and then measured with calipers and appeared that there was some interference in the dimensions. Got ahold of a 1.5" diameter flapper wheel and honed the end of it initially attached to the drill and was able to fit it to the stub, it was just over chromed. You can see some the copper inside at the end of the brace still after honing. I also used an extension after that to attack some of the rust up inside of the tube. Not sure if this result of the plating process or not, was pretty nasty inside.
Side pipes showed up on Thursday, they were well packed.
One other item I also addressed was the motor mounts. Tube mount on frame internal diameter is 1/2", motor mounts are made for 7/16" diameter bolts. Didn't care to modify the slots on the Prothane motor mount, was able to obtain some 1/2"x 7/16" steel sleeves that will prevent any movement between the bolt and tube mount.
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Was time to install the e-brake cable and handle. Drilled and tapped the upper x-brace for the cable bracket, other than that it didn't present any real issues. Not planning to do the modification some have done.
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"- Planned power is 347 SBF w/ carb from Prestige Motorsports mated to a modified T-5, hydraulic slave for clutch."
Hi, Greg.
I hate to interrupt your thread flow, but you should be getting close to mounting your engine/trans and we had discussed that you have worked out a plan for mounting the external slave for your T5. I was hoping you could share that plan with me. I am thinking along those lines since I am not fond of dropping the trans if there is an internal slave failure. Did you buy a conversion kit or adapt a more standard slave with a special bracket?
Thanks,
Jim
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Not a problem at all, I was going to wait to show what I'm doing on the clutch slave actuator till I had my bell housing and trans which I'm still waiting for. But I am using a slave from race tuning which includes the bracket, cylinder, and push rod as shown. See it here at Race Tuning (https://www.racetuning.com/collections/ford-clutch-hydraulics/products/external-hydraulic-clutch-slave-cylinder-for-79-93-mustang-5-0-t5-transmission)
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Thanks, Greg. That looks like an awesome set-up.
Jim
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I have pretty much the same set up on a TKX 5 speed. I got the whole set up from MDL (Modern Drive Line). They do the T-5 as well. Great customer service and very helpful putting everything together. Greg's looks a bit more stout though :)
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As I continue to wait on other parts for my motor and for my trans package...I brought out the cockpit tub and began fitting it up. Squared it up at the rear and drilled the most rear outer holes and bolted it down at the rear. Squared up the front that looked good to me and fitted screw and nut at outer front corners of the foot boxes.
After that I proceeded to layout the frame rail center lines and drilled the other bracket holes. Slot cutout for e-brake handle will need to be made a little longer to the front. Added a few other lines for glass that'll I'll trim to to my liking. Noticed the front bottom edge of the foot boxes have some high spots that cause the tunnel area to not sit flat to the frame so I'll address that too. Still not sure how I will finish the top and front side of the foot boxes as well as the front section of the tunnel. I have a few ideas but not finalized yet.
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Greg
Do yourself a favor and DON'T rivet/glue down the cockpit tub until you've put the body onto it and squared everything with the frame.
The bodies have a little twist in them and you can reduce much of it when you shift things around. If you mount everything down square, the rear will be offset about an inch to the passenger side.
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Won't be going down for sometime till after the motor, trans and driveshaft are in...just doing some prep. The tub doesn't really move much at all at the rear side to side, think you would have to make some notches at the wings at bottom, some trimming on the tub so it clears those wings and then open up the holes at roll bar stubs which I have already done. Now those holes I drilled may be off if it needs to shift. Tub will be coming back off next weekend. Once we get the tub back in later, will do just that to check how the body sits. Thanks
Greg
Do yourself a favor and DON'T rivet/glue down the cockpit tub until you've put the body onto it and squared everything with the frame.
The bodies have a little twist in them and you can reduce much of it when you shift things around. If you mount everything down square, the rear will be offset about an inch to the passenger side.
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Did start on the go pedal bracket today. Throttle shaft will get a bushing.
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Greg, I don't want to rain on your parade, but I hope you also aligned cockpit tub with the body on. Cockpit tub is the "saddle" for the body and its placement pretty much determines where the body aligns with the the frame, tires, etc. I didn't drill and rivet my tub down until after several trial fitments and I had the body aligned with doors, hood, trunk, windshield, front/rear bumper quickjacks, etc.
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You're not raining on anything...It's coming back out soon for other work. I just drilled the seat bracket holes, no rivets or adhesives involved. When I set and drilled for the windshield, I went thru a process of checking the body position, nose height, rear end height with quick jack bolts and a few other measurements with the tub in the same position. Is it right, who knows, but note taken.
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After spending an extended weekend with family last weekend and being out of town for most of this week, I was able to get back at it.
Ended up bolting on the front engine components of my motor, water pump, alternator and pulleys. Kit from CVF Racing.
Still waiting on the block plate, but my bellhousing, clutch and trans showed up this week too. So I'll be getting to it soon.
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Hey Greg, any chance you could provide some more details on your engine? What's heads and intake? Roller motor? Those look like really nice numbers for that motor. As you know I'm going with a 351 for a base. Will probably keep the cubes the same but upgrade the intake and heads to open it up some.
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It's a roller motor, bored and stroked seasoned block. Cam is custom grind from Comp, heads as cast are from Liberty Performance, Edelbrock Performer intake with Holley 650 Street HP carb. Would have to dig into the build file for more details. Could get more out of it if I had sprung for an air gap intake and more expensive quick fuel carb, but I'm happy with it.
Hey Greg, any chance you could provide some more details on your engine? What's heads and intake? Roller motor? Those look like really nice numbers for that motor. As you know I'm going with a 351 for a base. Will probably keep the cubes the same but upgrade the intake and heads to open it up some.
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About time for some updates on my progress and milestone this weekend. Been prepping for my transmission installing the flywheel, pilot bearing, clutch and bellhousing.
Temporarily installed my shift handle, makes this tranny shift real sweet and comfortable. The T5 upgraded by Pro Motion slipped in with no issues.
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The other day I built a set cribbing stands for after I install the motor and trans. Now on to the motor and trans install. Got the wheels and tires on and for the first time, the chassis hit the ground. Exchanged the engine stand for the motor mounts with no issue.
Earlier I obtained 1/2"x 7/16" steel bushings (see earlier post) for the motor mount bolt to the frame, having them made it a bit more challenging due to the tighter tolerances and not having any slop in the main bolt, but was able to get it all snug and mounted. Slots in the x-brace were just long enough forward for the trans mount bolts, closeups of mount shown.
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Rolled it outside for more pics and got to say I'm pleased with how things are coming together little by little. Put away now till I can get back to it next weekend. Next up will be fuel line, waiting on starter, and will plumb the hydraulic line to the clutch slave.
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Nice job!!
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Good progress....looks good.
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It was a good weekend for you. Thing is looking really good.
I just noticed you were able to keep the oil filter in the original location. Is that true for the Windsor platform? Can you use a factory oil pan on the Windsor with no clearance issues?
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Thanks guys!
No clearance issue with the front sump style pan or filter, pan is 8" deep. I went with the Milodon for the internal horizontal baffling.
I did not measure the actual clearance to the frame for the filter. If needed, will change out to the FL300 shorter style filter which would solve that if it's an issue.
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Line for the clutch slave cylinder completed over the weekend.
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Not much to report as of late. Did finish up the fuel line install. Used nylon braided 4 layer AN hose and fittings from Raceflux.
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Also decided to get the ride height set closer to what is recommended. When the coil overs were assembled, they were put together at full extension and were at full droop while on the chassis dolly. Now that the weight is on the springs and shocks, the ride height is not even close. QA1 has a chart for our shocks for the recommended ride height. Was able to get the front shock ride height to 12-1/4" and the rear at 14-1/4". This is measured center to center on the mounting bolts for the shock. This gave me 7" ground clearance up front and 5-3/4" clearance at the rear. These are measured to the main frame rail. The overall clearance will reduce more later with more weight to be added with the cockpit tub, upper frame section, body work and the rest of the parts.
Pics show the QA-1 chart, 1/4" of thread left on front shock and 3/4" on rears to achieve my current ride heights.
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Finished up my starter cables and mounted starter relay in trunk area. Still need to add a ring terminal for the jumper wire on the starter.
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While working on the cables today, FedEx delivered my Denny's driveshaft and installed it after I finished the cables. No issues and fit perfect, still debating to use a hoop or not.
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I would recommend installing a driveshaft safety hoop. The driveshaft is super close to your body with only the fiberglass tunnel protecting you.
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The wiring looks really nice Greg.
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Thanks Ben...more to come on the wiring.
Well I gave into installing a driveshaft hoop. Cheap insurance, obtained from Speedmaster, had to remove about 5 inches on each leg to fit the x-brace and drill new holes to fit existing bolts in x-brace. Height is ok for tunnel, but the ends of bolts may have to be cut for width, its going to be real close.
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I finally decided how I would finish off the foot boxes and use for a heat barrier. Ended up using DEI's Floor & Tunnel Shield. It is a peel and stick product with a heavy embossed skin on it with a fiber core. Cut it with utility knife and heavy duty scissors.
Will apply some metallic silicone caulk to the raw edges and seams next week and may use 1/2" aluminum trim on top edges.
The aluminum panel for the dash firewall and all other aluminum for engine area have been powder coated just like the frame, dash panel may go on next week too.
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Looks good. That should help with the heat.
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Got the edges of the heat shield caulked and trim mounted. Test fit the dash fire wall metal, is a little high from the center out to the passenger notch. Will trim when I get back to it.
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Got the edges of the heat shield caulked and trim mounted. Test fit the dash fire wall metal, is a little high from the center out to the passenger notch. Will trim when I get back to it.
Looks nice and clean Greg :) Good job! Should definitely help with the heat
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Thanks, now I have to decide is if I add additional inside or not. Sealing up the upper frame notch later and between sides of the body and front edge of foot boxes will be key to keeping any engine heated air from entering cockpit.
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Awhile back I noticed my engine builder was using a different type of spark plug wire loom separator on higher dollar builds, not sure why I hadn't noticed before, but I had to have them, just wasn't happy with what I had. Before and after pics of wire separators.
I've also have been wanting to get my headers mounted for some time and attempted to tackle the driver's side. Which should be a fairly easy item to install, is having some challenges. First off, I have 3 bolts I'm having issues with on the drivers side. Using 1" long ARP 3/8 bolts with 5/16 heads, Had to grind the bolt flange to get them on these three and one I cannot get a 5/16 wrench on. These 3 will have to be fully inserted into flange to start threading into head. Still tricky and still need to figure on how to tighten one of them. Looked over the passenger side and it appears I'll have a slight issue with one. Will see how I manage later today.
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What a day...was successful in getting the headers bolted up :o, not sure about the rest of you, this was one of the more difficult items to deal with single handedly and required a lot of patience on my part. There ended up being a few other bolts that just did not want to cooperate and more mods to the headers and bolts were done. Maybe ARP should be making 3/8 bolts with 1/4 inch heads for additional clearance. Actually, I think the headers need more straight running on the sides from the flange or a smaller diameter tube to help the transition from rectangle to round. See previous post and pictures above.
What I ended doing were the following to allow more clearance:
1. Opened up all bolt holes in header flange to 7/16. End to end clearance was not allowing the outer end bolts to even start on both headers. I think this helped the most in fitting them up along with the others below.
2. Had to grind off some of the flange on many of the bolts to go thru the header flange and be able to start them into the heads.
3. Ground all the washers all on one side to prevent any interference.
4. Took a 5/16 box wrench and ground it down on the outside to thin the wall of it and still had some issues on few bolts.
I'm sure I'm not the first to have these issues, but I think some refinements could be in order. ;) ;)
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That doesn't look like it was much fun getting those on. Seems pretty common with headers though. I will say, those tubes look nice and large. That engine should be able to breathe really well.
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Even though they posed some challenges for me, clearance to foot boxes will be good and I'm satisfied overall with how they turned out and with my progress.
So after talking to Alec, if you know what heads you will have at time of order, let them know what bolt spacing you have for the flanges, I did not know at the time what heads I would end up with. They can also do 3" spacing if you have dual bolt patterns. Had I known I may have held off and got the 3" spacing which would have avoided some issues and made it easier.
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Even though they posed some challenges for me, clearance to foot boxes will be good and I'm satisfied overall with how they turned out and with my progress.
So after talking to Alec, if you know what heads you will have at time order, let them know what bolt spacing you have for the flanges, I did not know at the time. They can also do 3" spacing if you have dual bolt patterns. Had I known I may have held off and got the 3" spacing which would have avoided some issues and made it easier.
Check out my post on how I made my own header flanges for the 3" spacing.
https://forum.hurricane-motorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=2352.msg24474#msg24474
I also used Stage 8 bolts, forget the length. I had to try a few times to get it right, with the thicker 3/8" flange.
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Bob, I saw your post about flanges before. At the time of order and even after I received my kit, I did not have my motor or know what heads I may end up with. We can't remember or not if Alec asked me before welding them up.
Would it have saved me some aggravation had we gone with 3" spaced flanges had I known, absolutely, but they are on now and going to live with them for a long time. I used ARP bolts, 3/8-16, 1" in length with 5/16 12-point head.
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Not much to show today, trimmed the firewall metal and fastened with rivets.
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Progress has been a little slow lately, but got the cockpit back in place with the upper frame section. Came up with a removable cover for the fuel sender and added some thru-feed power posts to the front dash.
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Funny how that "fuel sender" cover worked out! Great idea.
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Put a few hours in mocking up the steering shafts today. The upper splined shaft gave me a little trouble in the upper dash support with the bronze bushings. Had to hone the bushings and align them for the shaft to pass, then the mid bearing was pretty tight on the shaft too, but managed to get it to pass.
Pic below is gap to brake line before I finished mocking the upper section up, once I did, the gap ended up less than an 1/8 inch. A little too close for my comfort level, so I will be adding another brake adapter tab lowering it about an inch and making up a new brake line. Rubber boot pulled back to see a little more.
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Moving on...fastened a new brake line tab to lower the brake line going to the front left caliper., the welded tab placed the line too close to the steering shaft than I was comfortable with (see previous post). A few pics of the steering mocked up, new brake line and also mounted a battery disconnect to back wall of cockpit.
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Great reference pics of the steering shafts, thanks Greg.
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Moving on...fastened a new brake line tab to lower the brake line going to the front left caliper., the welded tab placed the line too close to the steering shaft than I was comfortable with (see previous post). A few pics of the steering mocked up, new brake line and also mounted a battery disconnect to back wall of cockpit.
Looks nice Greg. Question. What are you planning to do on the shafts for corrosion control? They are steel, so of course eventually will start rusting. I have noticed that most are just leaving as is, but if you look at some older pictures you can see the corrosion starting. wish they supplied SS :( I painted mine with epoxy primer and coat of urethane semi gloss black, but had to file it all off where the joints go together. Think eventually I'll just upgrade to stainless.
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Thanks, U-joints and shafts are steel, originally I was going to use black cosmoline on them, but it starts to melt at 115-125 degrees.
I'll probably do what I've been doing to other parts is coating it with black rust-oleum hammered paint after final assembly.
The telescopic shaft is only available in steel, if you want a stainless shaft, would have to get a longer 3/4 double d shaft, cut it and drill it. To replace all components, probably looking at another $600 to do it.
Looks nice Greg. Question. What are you planning to do on the shafts for corrosion control? They are steel, so of course eventually will start rusting. I have noticed that most are just leaving as is, but if you look at some older pictures you can see the corrosion starting. wish they supplied SS :( I painted mine with epoxy primer and coat of urethane semi gloss black, but had to file it all off where the joints go together. Think eventually I'll just upgrade to stainless.
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Thanks, U-joints and shafts are steel, originally I was going to use black cosmoline on them, but it starts to melt at 115-125 degrees.
I'll probably do what I've been doing to other parts is coating it with black rust-oleum hammered paint after final assembly.
The telescopic shaft is only available in steel, if you want a stainless shaft, would have to get a longer 3/4 double d shaft, cut it and drill it. To replace all components, probably looking at another $600 to do it.
Looks nice Greg. Question. What are you planning to do on the shafts for corrosion control? They are steel, so of course eventually will start rusting. I have noticed that most are just leaving as is, but if you look at some older pictures you can see the corrosion starting. wish they supplied SS :( I painted mine with epoxy primer and coat of urethane semi gloss black, but had to file it all off where the joints go together. Think eventually I'll just upgrade to stainless.
I looked at flaming River. Can get the two joints plus DD shaft that I would need for just under $300.00. That's from the firewall forward. I don't see need to go stainless under the dash and I have those painted. That's mill finished SS. Not polished.
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FWIW, I painted the exposed steering shaft from the fire wall forward.
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Looking very nice, Greg.
Did you or do you plan to weld that brake line tab or create a screw-on bracket? Mine has that same issue. Hope Hurricane is fixing this issue for any future builders!
Jim
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I had some brake line adapters on hand that I got from Speedway a while back. Adapter is riveted to frame with stainless 3/16 rivets. Thanks
Looking very nice, Greg.
Did you or do you plan to weld that brake line tab or create a screw-on bracket? Mine has that same issue. Hope Hurricane is fixing this issue for any future builders!
Jim
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Seems this weekend was spent going back over things after discovering an issue with my fuel tank height. The trunk tub would not sit right for me at the rear end of the car. Turned out the tub was hitting the top back edge of the tank. Ended up taking the tank down and adding spacers to my studs to lower the tank and all is good now after reinstalling it.
While I worked on that, I noticed another issue that I didn't see before. My rear brake line going over the rear differential did not have the clearance it once did to the trunk tub, went unnoticed till today. Realized I lost clearance when setting the ride height close to where it should be a while back when I installed my driveshaft, this lowered the frame to axle reducing my clearance. Where it was 3-4" is now 1" and will need to modify or re-do this brake line.
As some of you know, I will be using aluminum cobra style seats from Ultra-Shield race products. My plan is to side mount these seats on sliders and to fabricate the base plates to accomplish this. I actually found a base plate that is perfect for what I had in mind. Most race seat brackets have legs or something to match stock mounting points. The base plate I found is for a Porsche 911 by Planted that has no legs and adapts to three different width sliders. One of the slider patterns fits our seat tab dimensions exactly. This will allow me to use a 16" wide slider and side mounts for the 17" wide aluminum seat. Pics of base plates and side brackets below. My seats should be showing up after the first of the year. This setup is going to make it very simple and clears the hand brake handle. Base plates will be raised on 1/2" spacers.
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Seems this weekend was spent going back over things after discovering an issue with my fuel tank height. The trunk tub would not sit right for me at the rear end of the car. Turned out the tub was hitting the top back edge of the tank. Ended up taking the tank down and adding spacers to my studs to lower the tank and all is good now after reinstalling it.
While I worked on that, I noticed another issue that I didn't see before. My rear brake line going over the rear differential did not have the clearance it once did to the trunk tub, went unnoticed till today. Realized I lost clearance when setting the ride height close to where it should be a while back when I installed my driveshaft, this lowered the frame to axle reducing my clearance. Where it was 3-4" is now 1" and will need to modify or re-do this brake line.
As some of you know, I will be using aluminum cobra style seats from Ultra-Shield race products. My plan is to side mount these seats on sliders and to fabricate the base plates to accomplish this. I actually found a base plate that is perfect for what I had in mind. Most race seat brackets have legs or something to match stock mounting points. The base plate I found is for a Porsche 911 by Planted that has no legs and adapts to three different width sliders. One of the slider patterns fits our seat tab dimensions exactly. This will allow me to use a 16" wide slider and side mounts for the 17" wide aluminum seat. Pics of base plates and side brackets below. My seats should be showing up after the first of the year. This setup is going to make it very simple and clears the hand brake handle. Base plates will be raised on 1/2" spacers.
Hey Greg. Do you have something on the seats your putting in? I'm not real impressed with the supplied.
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Greg, I'd like do find out more about the seats you are ordering. Are these the ones?
https://www.ultrashieldrace.com/catalog/product/seats-hot-rod-cobra-bucket/cobra-bucket-seat/
17-18 week wait? Wow...
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Yes, those are the ones I have on order. Wait time is not that long for a single private order, 8 weeks for mine. 17-18 is warehouse like stock orders for dealers is what I was told.
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My gauges were delivered today, took advantage of a 20% off black Friday deal that Speedhut had...Pic below was my inspiration for my dash theme. The same vinyl also arrived last week. If you go back to the first post of this build thread, you can see the preliminary layout for my dash. Indicator lights will be added above the steering column and 2 toggle switches and an indicator light added left of the steering column once done.
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My gauges were delivered today, took advantage of a 20% off black Friday deal that Speedhut had...Pic below was my inspiration for my dash theme. The same vinyl also arrived last week. If you go back to the first post of this build thread, you can see the preliminary layout for my dash. Indicator lights will be added above the steering column and 2 toggle switches and an indicator light added left of the steering column once done.
Nice!
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After taking off some time for travels and for the holidays, was able to spend a little time on car this past weekend. Removed the cockpit tub and trunk tub...again! After lowering my tank a couple weeks ago, I saw I needed to redo the rear brake line on the rear end. Got this done and now have the clearance I'm comfortable with. Trimmed the trunk tub where it meets meets the cockpit tub to fit better and some other minor things. Will be getting back to it more now to start wiring and getting the dash going.
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Not much to show lately, my seats arrived today. These are the Ultra-Shield aluminum seat. Also added some Tech-flex braid to some cables that'll be visible in the engine bay last Sunday.
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My battery tray came in this week for the lithium ion battery I'll be using, so I decided to get it mocked up and fitted to where I'll mount it for now. Added pic of battery.
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Pretty cool how small that battery will be. Hope it works well I may do the same. Good stuff.
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I'll be watching how that battery works for you. We have so little space in that trunk!!
Your build is looking fantastic!
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Thanks Jim,
Wish I was spending more time on it lately. I'll make up for it when the it warms back up.
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Had to take advantage of the 70 degree weather and sunny conditions today and what a joy it was to work on it again.
Was able to mock up some cables, install fuse for cable on alternator cable, set the cockpit tub and upper frame section back on. Need to redo the heat shrink on a couple cables, just butted them up and need to overlap more. :-\
When I put my battery tray in I did not have my switch in place and it clears the battery. Next...will be prepping the dash for gauges, indicator lights and switches and switch panel. Found the perfect polished aluminum bezel for switch panel.
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Good progress today.
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Greg your wiring is immaculate! Glad you got to get back at it :)
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Thanks Bruce...more to come soon I hope.
I know some of you know what I'm doing and some don't for power distribution on my car and how I'm not using a premade wire harness. I'm laying it our myself and using a system from Switch-Pros. I have the 8 switch (also avail is a 12) model that is a fully programmable solid state module with a keypad interface. This system is popular with the off-road racing crowd and off-road in general for lighting and air compressors. Many use it for ignition, start function and also has external triggers to control fans and other items as well. For my setup, I'll be using it to power my ignition, start function, hazards, lo & hi beam lighting, turn signals and horn. Each switch can also be programmed to be on-off or momentary and other function where one switch can turn on others too. Other switch functions that can be done is dimming of lighting, flash and strobe functions. Power module will be located in the trunk area. Brake lighting, cooling fan and gauge power will be handled separately.
This part has been a fun project adopting it for my car, it doesn't provide everything due to limits of circuits. My inspiration for using this system was a highly customized austin healey bugeye sprite with all wheel drive, turbocharged honda, just wild on Switch Pros' facebook page back in March of 2018. Can see here at this link if you scroll down to the a March 4th 2018 post and see the 1 comment that is a video. https://www.facebook.com/DesigncraftFab/community/
The system also has bluetooth capability and this car had a tablet mounted in dash to communicate to the module for operation, will also work from mobile phones too, but I chose to use the panel that comes with the system. Programming is also done from app if you want to set switch functions and amp ratings to backlight color. Can be done manually as well. 4 switches are rated to 20 amps and 4 are rated to 35 amps, all programmable.
Pic of Switch Pro components below.
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Thanks Bruce...more to come soon I hope.
I know some of you know what I'm doing and some don't for power distribution on my car and how I'm not using a premade wire harness. I'm laying it our myself and using a system from Switch-Pros. I have the 8 switch (also avail is a 12) model that is a fully programmable solid state module with a keypad interface. This system is popular with the off-road racing crowd and off-road in general for lighting and air compressors. Many use it for ignition, start function and also has external triggers to control fans and other items as well. For my setup, I'll be using it to power my ignition, start function, hazards, lo & hi beam lighting, turn signals and horn. Each switch can also be programmed to be on-off or momentary and other function where one switch can turn on others too. Other switch functions that can be done is dimming of lighting, flash and strobe functions. Power module will be located in the trunk area. Brake lighting, cooling fan and gauge power will be handled separately.
This part has been a fun project adopting it for my car, it doesn't provide everything due to limits of circuits. My inspiration for using this system was a highly customized austin healey bugeye sprite with all wheel drive, turbocharged honda, just wild on Switch Pros' facebook page back in March of 2018. Can see here at this link if you scroll down to the a March 4th 2018 post and see the 1 comment that is a video. https://www.facebook.com/DesigncraftFab/community/
The system also has bluetooth capability and this car had a tablet mounted in dash to communicate to the module for operation, will also work from mobile phones too, but I chose to use the panel that comes with the system. Programming is also done from app if you want to set switch functions and amp ratings to backlight color. Can be done manually as well. 4 switches are rated to 20 amps and 4 are rated to 35 amps, all programmable.
Pic of Switch Pro components below.
Love the high tech! I cant see not trying to accommodate some modern tech in these cars to make more functional, driveable, and enjoyable! it is 2022 :) Think your elect skills are above mine though:( I was lucky to get the EFI hooked up and working! But I am not afraid to try new things and learn as I go.....even if it means doing something more than once... next time is better!
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for my build I was considering Infinity Box - www.InfinityBox.com - which is popular with the FFR crowd in the GTM - but its really expensive. Kind of wish I had ....
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I also considered ECUmaster's power management unit and the Racepak smartwire system, but decided these are way overkill for what we are doing and 3-4 times more $$$. Some real cool systems and displays out there but doing my best to stick to some kind of budget.....ya right ::)
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Thought I'd add my wiring diagram, work in progress and not to scale. Will print out on a 36"x24" sheet.
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Finally got started on the dash today, didn't get as far as I had hoped but was able to preserve my gauge layout as planned. Mocked up the grab bar and drilled the mounting holes, five across the top and another at bottom left of steering. Grab bar will hold passenger side of dash.
With moving the speedo to the middle of the dash, the face of the frame was interfering and was not able to lower the speedo where it needed to be to allow the line of smaller gauges above it to achieve the 3" separation I wanted. Got the angle grinder out with cutting wheel and cut the frame in the center to allow my speedo to be lower on the dash panel. Rough sketch of gauge layout on back of dash.
Still want to sand edges of dash and get rid of extra material around the perimeter, Then I'll transfer layout to the front and cut the holes for gauges, switch panel and drill a few for indicator lights.
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Greg and I discussed this some today. Looks like the newer frames may come with a bigger notch cut at the center. Here is a pic of mine.
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Finally got started on the dash today, didn't get as far as I had hoped but was able to preserve my gauge layout as planned. Mocked up the grab bar and drilled the mounting holes, five across the top and another at bottom left of steering. Grab bar will hold passenger side of dash.
With moving the speedo to the middle of the dash, the face of the frame was interfering and was not able to lower the speedo where it needed to be to allow the line of smaller gauges above it to achieve the 3" separation I wanted. Got the angle grinder out with cutting wheel and cut the frame in the center to allow my speedo to be lower on the dash panel. Rough sketch of gauge layout on back of dash.
Still want to sand edges of dash and get rid of extra material around the perimeter, Then I'll transfer layout to the front and cut the holes for gauges, switch panel and drill a few for indicator lights.
What is the rectangle between the two big gauges going to be?
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Bruce...that will be the switch panel to the power distribution module. Pics of original concept layout and switch panel with custom bezel I was able to find. Will not need to cut that out, just 4 screw holes and 3/4" hole to pass cable thru. Oil pressure, water temp and volt gauge, no other gauges. Speedo is dual function with fuel level built in. Will also have 3 indicator lights above steering hole.
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Bruce...that will be the switch panel to the power distribution module. Pics of original concept layout and switch panel with custom bezel I was able to find. Will not need to cut that out, just 4 screw holes and 3/4" hole to pass cable thru. Oil pressure, water temp and volt gauge, no other gauges. Speedo is dual function with fuel level built in. Will also have 3 indicator lights above steering hole.
Ahhhhh. Nice :)
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Worked on the dash a little bit today. Belt sander made quick work of the perimeter edge in getting it even and smooth. Roughed up the face of the dash by hand after using some prep cleaner on it before and after sanding. Wire wheel used on back side to rough it up a little to take glue better
Laid it all back out on the front and is now ready for the drill and hole saws.
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Good work Greg. Really enjoying the new innovations you and the other guys are doing on your builds. Very interesting.
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You've got to be getting excited to see this dash starting to come together and for the warmer weather haha.
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Some more step by step progress...cut the dash today for my layout with a few adjustments prior. Pretty happy how it has turned out so far, covering it with vinyl is next.
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Been working on the dash the last few nights... 8)
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A little more progress this morning. Have only the touch panel left to install right of the steering.
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Now with touch pad, will add the labels later, just tried one for show.
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Nice! I really like the dash covering too.
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Yep looks super good.
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Thanks guys! I'll get the labels on eventually, may still make a change on locations on touch pad. Was able to print the wiring diagram on a 36x24 sheet and taped it to the wall ;), wire is on order and one more look of dash.
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Spent a little time today planning and sorting out a few things. Other than that, no real work done on the car, but did settle on location of my brake reservoirs.
These billet reservoirs are from Howe Racing, one is dual outlet and other is single outlet. I attached to a strip of alum to hold for pics, will be adding a piece of angle to fire wall to mount these.
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Sometimes the things that seem the simplest and small take too more time than you think...finished the bracket for the brake/clutch reservoirs and mounted them to get line measurements to the masters. Also messed around with the throttle shaft and think it'll work out after trimming the carb side, I can still move the reservoirs more to the driver side if needed for more clearance. Have to also fab up a perch or base for the rod end on carb side to support cross shaft.
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Made a very rough and crude bracket that'll support the throttle cross shaft. Screwed some bolts into the manifold at a height to elevate the angle and just prove concept.
Will refine it and and make another and use 1" spacers and a washer underneath to get to height I need for the cross shaft rod end.
My rear tail lights came in this week too, board is completely sealed and held it it up to body to get a look.
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Moving right along and looking good.
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So I went ahead and did it...riveted the foot boxes down. Sealed with high density 1/16"x1/2" foam tape on front and outside edges, 1/4"x2" foam used on inside and rear edges. Liked what Bruce did with bolting the trunk tub and back of cockpit to frame, so I did the same. Also used the 1/4"x2" foam on the front edge of trunk tub where it meets the cockpit tub to seal that area.
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Good weekend for me and what I was able to get accomplished yesterday and today. Added a few misc electrical items to back of dash, got the brake reservoirs back on, steering shafts reassembled this time with thread locker and a look in it's current state. Received the lines for the fluid from the reservoirs to the master cylinders, but will connect those next weekend and will be close to bleeding the brakes and looking forward to the wiring soon.
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Back at it again today, was able to finalize the location of my power distribution module and junction box. Then I proceeded to see how the fan shroud I picked up was going to work with the fan and radiator. Fan shroud overall dimensions 22"x19.5", shroud is 1.5" deep.
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Checked fan fit to the shroud and to the radiator. Also adding flaps to let additional air thru when fan is not running. Will add a little foam tape to seal sides of shroud.
See previous post for more from today.
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There was a batch of radiators that were not fabricated correctly where PRC decided to change things and radiator did not have channels to mount. Had to add some channels that were fabbed up and tig welded to the radiator top and bottom. Channels were located to the rear so it would make it easier to mount the shroud, but what this did too was bring the radiator a little forward and made it a little taller. Bracket was not working in the intended location and radiator corners would hit upper frame. Drilled some new holes and added a little more bend to bracket and radiator is now at correct angle or as good as its going to get.
See previous post for more from today.
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Completed the radiator mockup and mounted finger tight, drilled bracket holes in channels to fasten the radiator to frame. Fastened the fan and shroud also to the radiator. Overall I think it came out pretty good with the modifications. Lower outlet is horizontal, upper inlet is not quite, can probably correct with the right fittings.
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Chipping away at things little by little. Nice attention to the little details.
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Really nice stuff there Greg. Looking good.
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Wasn't up for too much this weekend, but I took care of a few little things today. Wasn't happy with the air gap between my flywheel ring gear and pinion gear on my starter and had been putting it off for some time. Pulled the starter and installed a new mounting plate to give me a gap I was happy with and reinstalled.
Improved the fit of the top radiator bracket. Installed oil and 2 temp senders. Also installed the lines between the brake fluid reservoirs and masters. Still need to add an insulated clamp to fasten them to the tunnel transition. Now I am able to fill and bleed the brakes when I get to it.
Also started measuring, visualizing how and what I need for coolant hose and couplings. Will be using some silicone hose and metal tube and couplings. Coolant overflow tank and fill port ordered and on the way.
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Spent a few hours today contemplating a few things and looking ahead as usual. Found a home for my fan controller from Dakota Digital.
I then worked on the cross shaft support for the throttle, Used 1" tall chrome spacers to elevate it to get shaft level and aligned with bracket on top of footbox.
Still need to locate and drill hole for throttle return springs. A few tweaks and alignment will be good.
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The real wiring has begun...Roughed in wire, fuse and relay for radiator fan. Temp sensors, oil pressure and ignition wiring connected at engine and just draped over the dash for now. Waiting on some cable glands and loom I will use thru the fire wall for those. Finished the cross shaft for throttle with finish hardware.
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Made some good progress on wiring today. Prewired the fan controller and fan relay, only lack the temp sender wires to it. Thought the unused 1" bar made a good retail display.
Readied some wires that will go to the rear trunk junction box. Switch panel cabling ran from the Switch Pro to the dash panel. Wires from switch pro ready to make up in junction block.
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Was getting ahead of myself on a couple of things, so I worked on some trim pieces for the trunk in the front corners to seal the frame to tub. Saw I needed to install the inner fender liners, had to remove the radiator which made it much easier to get these pieces mounted. Both required minor trimming and radiator back in after. Got the engine loom completed for the most part in the engine bay and thru firewall to the dash area.
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More Wiring...Roughed in more wire, to the rear, and front. Loom to be added to it all. Preliminary dash wiring and close ups, This is about all the wiring that will be behind the dash.
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Man I'm embarrassed after seeing what your doing with the wiring! Not my greatest skill set but getting better from one build to the next. But not even close to the likes of what your doing! Looks beautiful!
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Appreciate it, my design and layout is coming together and working well for me. Have made some minor changes, but it's a work in progress.
Forgot to mention in my last post that this past weekend marks one year since I received my kit. It has definitely gone by quick.
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Was able to finish up the wiring and loom to the front for the lights and radiator fan. Mocked up some parts for the upper cooling hose to radiator. Will need a 6" long tube to fill the gap and then trim the 90 at the T-stat housing 3/4 to 1 inch to lower the fill neck. I have a 1.75" 90 to start my lower from the water pump inlet and then I'll see what I think I might need to get routed to the lower rad outlet. Also, made up some trim pieces for both sides to seal up the trunk tub before I pull my main wire loom thru the lower grommet to the trunk area.
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Looking good. Great progress.
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Greg I hope you dont have a problem with hood clearance once you get the body and hood on. I'd wait and do the final mockup on that upper radiator hose.
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I'm definitely paying attention to that. Stick is 1.25" wide, will be lowering that upper assembly approximately 3/4 to 1" and all should be below the upper frame.
Greg I hope you dont have a problem with hood clearance once you get the body and hood on. I'd wait and do the final mockup on that upper radiator hose.
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Finished up with the upper and lower coolant hoses. Lowered the upper with a 3/4" trim of the 90 at the t-stat housing. Lower hose route worked out real well with a 3/8" trim on the hose at the lower radiator outlet.
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Greg what serpentine system do you have? I have pretty much the same exact set up but with V-belt. I'd like to upgrade to the serpentine.
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Came from CVF Racing https://www.cvfracing.com/ford-289-302-351w-serpentine-conversion-kit-alternator-only/
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Came from CVF Racing https://www.cvfracing.com/ford-289-302-351w-serpentine-conversion-kit-alternator-only/
Cool. Mine is also CVF. Looks like I just need to order the pulleys
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Before and After...was able to get a little wiring in today.
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Another electrical in the trunk update. Finished up making up a wire loom for the license plate lamp and for the rear lights. Will be using a LED trailer converter for the rear lights. Will mount converter on inside of driver's side trunk panel. A few pics of of my progress today. Gorilla box is almost exact size of my battery that is on backorder. Mid June is when they say will be shipped. Main battery cables are just hanging below, just need to be pulled up thru the rear grommets.
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Decided to do a walk around to share my progress to date after clamping wire looms in the cockpit and messing around with the seat brackets and sliders.
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Very clean Greg! Beautifully done :)
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Thanks Bruce
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Very nicely done!!
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Appreciate it Sam!
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Been cleaning up a few loose ends around the car and also got to make up some metal pieces to patch up the trunk area. A couple pieces for the roll bar down tube and one for the fuel tank inlet. These will lay around awhile and get fastened later on with some sort of rubber seal.
Instead of talking about it I went ahead and put the carb on.
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Took the week off and spending some of my time on the build. Threw the seats in to see how they look, really happy with them and how they feel. Started on passenger side and it went together as planned. Pics below show the bracket and sliders loose to find the width of the seat and clear the hand brake. The base plate has 1/2" spacers underneath which also allows me to access button head screws holding sliders to base plate. Once I got sliders and side brackets tightened up to the width and alignment I needed, placed the seat back in with some weight and see what angle I want to put into them and then will drill the seat sides. Drivers side should go together quicker after doing the passenger side.
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Nice! Who makes the seats?
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Seats are from Ultra-Shield Race Products. Couple more shots.
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Wow, very interesting. Ultra Shield Race Products is in Texas, not far from me. I definitely need to check them out. I'm not very happy with my Sube Sports seats, after 10k miles my cushion is unglued and coming apart.
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Mine are a joke also. Need to do something different. I'm wondering if the sides on the seats makes it even more challenging getting in and out than it already is?
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They could be more challenging for some, but hard to say right now since my car is elevated on cribbage. I kinda have been stepping in and the sides seem to help in holding myself up and sliding in and pushing up on sides to get out now. Granted I do not have my steering wheel mounted yet either, but don't see that as much of an issue. I'm sure it'll be easier when it's on the ground.
With what I know now and how I have installed them, I would make some changes to the frame tab locations on the inside to position the base plate rearward and extended my inside lap belt anchor point tab a couple more inches towards the tunnel. The outside lap belt anchor point tab is good. Overall though I think it has turned out well and very happy with the setup.
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Some historical comments regarding seats:
1) I worked with UltraShield in 2018 to come up with a Cobra race seat that fit our cars better than the Kirkey's. We've installed them in three different cars now and everyone is very pleased with them. These are photos comparing them to my first car's steel tube seat. You'll notice they are considerably shorter in the knee length dimension.
2) The original Hurricane seat was a molded fiberglass bucket. Not the easiest thing to upholster or install. At the time of the GenII changes, I had a modified FFR tube seat that I had mounted in my car. Someone at Hurricane got the details and contacted Sube, the distributor in the US at the time for Cobra Seats and started purchasing a steel framed seat from them.
3) The seat that was chosen was done without any input and without any testing. In my opinion, the incorrect one was chosen. Having owned both a GenI and GenII, I am aware of the differences. Cobra Seats make three roadster seats, SS, SR and XL.
- SR: Original size Cobra seat
- SR: Similar seat just a little more upright. Allows you to sit further back in the seat and tilt it slightly
- XL/XL+: Same seat but developed for the replica market, seat length is considerably different
I have trouble getting in and out because the opening between the front of the seat and the dash lower edge is too small. This could be improved considerably by going to the XL/XL+ seat. My 2c
I don't have access to a GenI any more. How about one of the GenI owners measuring from the bottom edge of the dash to the front rollover point of the front seat. Let's do a comparison. I think you'll see a big difference, which makes them more difficult to get in and out of.
Paul
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Paul are these the ones? They look much better made than the ones I received in kit. Below are pictures of mine. The bottoms the glue keeps turning into a sticky liquid no mater how many times I clean it off. The seat cushions, all the material is coming loose and cushion keeps sliding forward whenever getting in or out. Pretty crappy quality.
And another $400.00 :(
And thanks for sharing the info Paul.
https://www.ultrashieldrace.com/catalog/product/seats-hot-rod-cobra-bucket/cobra-bucket-seat/
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Bruce,
Yes, those are what I have. Lead time is actually 10 weeks for individual orders.
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Let me know how they work out once you get the body on. I'm thinking that the shorter seat cushion is going to help a bunch as Paul says. Front of my seat cushion is only a few inches back from the door opening and makes it real awkward getting your feet in. I went by Jim's up in McKinney last weekend and checked his build out. Took him for a ride. He is over 6 ft and looked like he was doing yoga trying to get in the thing :)
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In and out is do-able, once you learn the trick.
Step into the cockpit and sit on the back of the seat - then slide down into it. Same way coming out.
If you try to sit down and swing your feet in and out, it is very difficult
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Enough about seats ;) ...mounted my dash this afternoon and started making up gauge connections and other wiring.
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A couple more pics of the finished wiring behind the dash....getting closer 8)
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Somebody had a productive week. Looking good Greg.
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In and out is do-able, once you learn the trick.
Step into the cockpit and sit on the back of the seat - then slide down into it. Same way coming out.
If you try to sit down and swing your feet in and out, it is very difficult
Yep thats how I get in an out.
I also have the Kirkey race seat for the driver side, I started with it in the car ... got a lot of questions: "why are your seats different?". I put it back in recently and couldn't get the feel or angle of how I like it and took it back out.
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Have not really gotten the chance to get in and out on a regular basis, but the step in sit on the back and slide in sounds like the thing to do. If one watches Ford vs. Ferrari I don’t think Matt Damon and Christian Bale ever opened the doors. They just step in like getting into a tub and slid down in.
Michael
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This past weekend I thru the steering hub on and the wheel on temporarily. I have misplaced my Hurricane logo center cap for the steering hub, so I need to do some more digging and find it. I obtained the black air cleaner but I may change it out for the partial finned polished one sooner or later. First start is still on hold but not far away.
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I vote for the polished air cleaner.
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This weekend I spent some time on linkage between pedal and carb. I started with a pedal position I wanted and no matter what combination I put together, nothing worked with the way my cross shaft was installed initially with a cut down arm on the carb side. I ended up swapping the the cross shaft around and now have a pedal that gives me full throttle with ease. 8)
The cross shaft could only move in one direction before so I fixed that too. Have some stainless 5/16 brake line on order to dress the rods up next weekend.
Received my coolant recovery tank yesterday and found a spot for it, waiting on a barb fitting for the filler neck and then I can plumb it.
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Took it easy this weekend not doing anything till today due to a back issue that flared up a couple of days ago, but it's feeling much better today.
Didn't like how my overflow recovery tank bracket was installed so I modified it adding new mounting holes and and taking 10 degrees out of the bracket. It now sits flush up against the inner panel and the angle it'll be at when lower panel is fastened to a bracket and the frame rail.
New air cleaner came in and much happier with this one than the all black.
Mounted and wired new horns inside the opening to the radiator on both sides.
Still waiting on a my battery that has been on backorder since early May, they say July 9th now. This one vendor has 40 on backorder of this specific model, I'm 3rd on the list. Hoping the manufacturer comes thru.
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Knocked out a few small things so far this weekend...finished off the threaded rods with SS tubing, made some brackets for the inner panels, painted and installed. Added a low bump stop to the throttle pedal from energy suspension, and relocated my inner eye bolts for the lap belt with a 1/4" plate of chrome moly. Plate is bolted to frame.
Hope to be bleeding brakes and clutch slave tomorrow...will be pressure bleeding with a billet cap I made up with a quick connect fitting.
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Was able to get the brakes and clutch slave bled yesterday. So easy with this setup. Used a quick connect adapter in an aluminum cap that I drilled and tapped. Was done in about an hour bleeding solo and few more minutes for the clutch. Couldn't have been any easier.
Only issue is clutch is not fully releasing, getting between .75"-.80" of travel at slave which calculates correctly based on bore sizes. May need additional preload on the bearing and or a larger master, will get it figured out soon.
Car hadn't been on the ground in almost a year, forgot just how low they are and felt good to get to this point.
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Was able to get a new 7/8" bore master cylinder in this week to replace the 3/4" for the clutch. Changed it it out today and now have a working clutch that releases. 3/4" masters used to work with a 7/8" slave when they had a 1.4" stroke, the new compact Wilwood's have 1.1" so the reason I had to go 1:1 ratio to get the minimum 1" of stroke at the clutch slave. Before I connected the lines back to the master, to let the thread sealant cure a few hours I worked on a few other things like painting the steering shaft, was starting show some surface rust from all the humidity lately. Pic of coolant overflow line routing. Connected lines, re-bled, a little firmer now, all that for just .30" more of travel. Next time do the math, it doesn't lie.
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Very interesting stuff. Hard to believe that little of a difference in size can make all the difference between the clutch releasing or not.
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My clutch slave push rod uses the cable ball seat at the end of the fork. The original cable had to pull the fork 1" to disengage the clutch fully. There are others who use the inner hole on the fork to fasten the push rod when using a hydraulic slave. It does reduce the length the slave has to stroke slightly, I just don't know by how much. Pic attached showing the clutch fork and locations one can use for the push rod.
Or eliminate the fork and use a hydraulic throw out bearing...YMMV.
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Very interesting stuff. Hard to believe that little of a difference in size can make all the difference between the clutch releasing or not.
Thought that was my problem with my TKO600. May need to try larger MC again
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Thought that was my problem with my TKO600. May need to try larger MC again
One other thing to do is also give your TOB a 1/16"-1/8" of preload at the push rod if its adjustable.
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I have a tilton internal HTOB, not a slave cylinder. It moves about 1" total, which should be enough. I dont think its a problem with the hydraulics, i think its internal to my TKO600. Sometimes it just will not go back into 1st gear. need to have the damn thing rebuilt/upgraded or just replace with a TKX. Sucks.. its got 10,600 miles on it now
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I don't think you have an issue either with the hydraulics. I've read some people have had that issue as well. When you have trouble is it when the clutch has been let out and sitting in neutral and then push in clutch and try to get into first? Can you get into first after a stop without letting clutch out in neutral? That would be the only differences, I've seen guys say with the clutch depressed go into 4th and then to first makes it easier after sitting in neutral with clutch let out. Other than that, I got nothing.
I have a tilton internal HTOB, not a slave cylinder. It moves about 1" total, which should be enough. I dont think its a problem with the hydraulics, i think its internal to my TKO600. Sometimes it just will not go back into 1st gear. need to have the damn thing rebuilt/upgraded or just replace with a TKX. Sucks.. its got 10,600 miles on it now
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I don't think you have an issue either with the hydraulics. I've read some people have had that issue as well. When you have trouble is it when the clutch has been let out and sitting in neutral and then push in clutch and try to get into first? Can you get into first after a stop without letting clutch out in neutral? That would be the only differences, I've seen guys say with the clutch depressed go into 4th and then to first makes it easier after sitting in neutral with clutch let out. Other than that, I got nothing.
That is exactly what is happening. After I drive a while, I would downshift to 2nd or 1st, then I come to a stop and go to neutral and let my foot off the clutch. When its time to go again, it will not go into 1st. or even 2nd now. Its getting worse. A while back I was advised to call Tremec experts MDL (Modern Driveline) in Idaho. Paul helped me diagnose over the phone, after several diagnosing driving experiments. He said there is a tab on the 5th gear shift rail that was too small, and doesn't reset the shifter back to normal - a reverse lock out or some such. it thinks its still in one gear so it wont let you go into 1st. If I shift to 5th then back to neutral it usually will then go back into 1st, but not without effort and resistance.
The best driving technique I came to is, just downshift while decelerating, it easily slides into 1st while its below 5mph etc. Then just leave it in gear with foot on the clutch. It really sucks in stop/go traffic, and i'm afraid of wearing out the HTOB.
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My battery finally made it here this past Thursday and I was able to install today and check out some of the electrical systems. Have a little more programming to do on the Switch Pro and explore some of the other options. Programmed the Dakota Digital fan controller, was pretty easy as well. Made a few clips of some of the electrical and combined in one vid. Some pics of the Antigravity Battery and screenshot of my phone that can also remotely control the Switch Pro via Bluetooth. I need a 2nd camera to show it operate from my phone. Programming and setup is also done from the app. Just need to add fuel next!
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Wow that is very slick!! Looks like everything is working great. First start soon?
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Pretty cool Greg! Couple dumb questions. What was the reasoning behind the special order battery as opposed to an off the shelf from the local parts store? How will you drive with the high beams on with them on a momentary switch? Wouldn't be better to have the horn on that momentary?
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Bruce,
No dumb questions, clips were taken in several modes of operation or steps in programming. I can customize each switch to on/off , momentary, and with options to flash and or strobe. Switches can also have secondary functions too. A quick double tap of a switch can change it's function from on off to flash or strobe too. Can designate some switches to be a master and one touch of one switch can turn other switches on as well. I'm using that with my ignition switch, where it also turns on the gauges currently. There is also another function to make the switches to also dim the headlights too. There's more than I have discovered yet.
Answers to your other questions, for the high beam I used momentary for a flash to pass type of thing, I have to see if I can program with a quick double tap to turn on. I don't need high beam that much and will have plenty of light I think with the Oracle H4 LED bulbs with the Hella glass housings. At the time the horn was not programmed to be momentary, it is now.
I wanted a lithium ion battery and was impressed by the power and the smallness. Battery had been on back order for 2 months. It measures less than 7" wide, 6" tall and 3" deep and weighs about 5 pounds.
I got rid of the car adapter posts and terminals and just connected cables directly, like the look better and simpler.
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Today, we hit another milestone, I was able to do an in car first start of the 347 SBF by Prestige Motorsports built for me last year. Backorders on parts have prevented me from doing this earlier, but the day finally got here. Yesterday we completed checking out the electrical systems and using the Switch Pros 9100 for power management, see yesterdays vid. It has worked well and simplified many things for me. Programming was just as easy and will probably make a few more tweeks to it.
So pleased how it fired off, I'll admit it definitely surprised me on the first crank and runs great, didn't need to adjust anything, let it idle some, gave it some revs, let it come up to temp to see the Dakota Digital fan controller do it's thing which it did. Couldn't be more pleased wit the outcome.
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Bruce,
No dumb questions, clips were taken in several modes of operation or steps in programming. I can customize each switch to on/off , momentary, and with options to flash and or strobe. Switches can also have secondary functions too. A quick double tap of a switch can change it's function from on off to flash or strobe too. Can designate some switches to be a master and one touch of one switch can turn other switches on as well. I'm using that with my ignition switch, where it also turns on the gauges currently. There is also another function to make the switches to also dim the headlights too. There's more than I have discovered yet.
Answers to your other questions, for the high beam I used momentary for a flash to pass type of thing, I have to see if I can program with a quick double tap to turn on. I don't need high beam that much and will have plenty of light I think with the Oracle H4 LED bulbs with the Hella glass housings. At the time the horn was not programmed to be momentary, it is now.
I wanted a lithium ion battery and was impressed by the power and the smallness. Battery had been on back order for 2 months. It measures less than 7" wide, 6" tall and 3" deep and weighs about 5 pounds.
I got rid of the car adapter posts and terminals and just connected cables directly, like the look better and simpler.
Ahhhhhhh. I figured something like that. Programmable switches :D Thats cool!
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Congrats on the first start! You jumped a bit at first lol but glad it went well. Nice!
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Ahhhhhhh. I figured something like that. Programmable switches :D Thats cool!
One of the other benefits is over current protection is built into the module and no need for fuses and relays. Each switch's over current is set individually, switches 1 thru 4 max out at 20 amps and switches 5 thru 8 max out at 35 amps and can be set as low as 5 and increased in increments of 5. If over current is detected, LED for that switch will flash and will reset itself automatically.
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Not much to show this weekend, but did a few things. After adding more parts and hardware, ride height was lower than I wanted so I adjusted it, made a few tweeks to my switch pro and verified the fuel gage calibration. Had some clean up to do in my other storage unit. Then I took a look at some of the hinges for the trunk lid, hood and doors. hood and lid are pretty straight forward, but need to get some spacers for the for side to side adjustments.
And then there are the door hinges. I had not had them out of the wrapping and box since I received them. First reaction is...these look odd and different not knowing how they are mounted to the doors by the angles and they do not mirror each other. I figured i had a 50/50 chance of temporarily mocking it up right, well it took two tries, door looked ridiculous pointing to the ground the first time and swapped hinges...much better. We'll see how these work once the body is back on.
Soon I'll be attacking the body to trim and prep it some to set it back on the car in the next few weeks.
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Hey Greg. For the spacers I got a bunch of the white nylon spacers from ACE hardware. Worked out great. And if you have to do some adjustment just use oversize and adjust with sander. I used them on the hood and trunk.
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Will take a look at that, thanks Bruce.
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Spent part of the day sanding fiberglass...removed all extra material left around the perimeter of the bottom edge of the body, straightened the cuts in the hood and trunk openings, and doors. Same for the opening in the nose and also removed more material from the rolled edges at the front and rear cockpit opening in body and smoothed them out. Rest of it will be left to my painter. Will be working on the wheel openings tomorrow to get rid of extra material there too.
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More cutting and sanding...today I worked on the wheel openings. Goal was to remove excess material and leave about 3/8 from outer edge. My painter will handle the rest from there. First 3 pics are the right front as received from Hurricane, then cut and then some sanding. Couple of the rear openings after I cut them, most of the bare spots as received when they originally trimmed at Hurricane and some of the trimmings.
Custom safety harness is on the way from Crow Enterprizes. Pic similar to what I ordered without sternum strap in a v-style with pull up lap belt with clip ins, plus sub belt.
I am also going with side vents from Vraptor Speedworks, those may get cut and sent out this week I think.
Other things I'm working on is paper work for the DMV to get it inspected by the DMV theft bureau before I can get it titled and registered. My certificate of origin was not signed and had to return it back to Hurricane last week, should get it back this week I hope.
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Coming along nice.
My MSO wasn't signed either, it's going out first thing tomorrow to get signed.
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Coming along nice.
My MSO wasn't signed either, it's going out first thing tomorrow to get signed.
Hope there is someone there to sign it with Alec gone :( Real curious to see where this company goes from here.....
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Sent my COA in last week as well to get signed. Alec directed me to other people to assist with anything else that is needed in a email. I'm sure someone is there to handle this. I'll followup and see.
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My custom harnesses from Crow showed up today on my doorstep I ordered last Monday. What great service and good to work with. Started with a V-style harness with sewn in pads, all black hardware, harness sewn into lap belt, less to mess with getting buckled in. Lap belt with clip in and I had them make it a pull up style instead of pull down because of limited room we have inside. Sub belt also included. They had me measure a couple of things for a custom fit so we wouldn't have excess material in your lap. If you are considering new belts or a harness, I highly recommend them.
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Those are real nice. Good call on the black thread.
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Time for our weekly post or at least it seems that is what it is...Anyhow, I planned on using the side vent louvers from Vraptor speedworks, and the openings that were precut from Hurricane were not exactly correct. Driver side had a bad angle and the passenger side was cut long. I don't do fiberglass and so I made the best of it and optimized the opening for these new louvers. I scribed new outlines for them and proceeded to cut a rough opening to accommodate the new vents. Louvers are easily formed and then a center brace is installed that lock them in place, will have a friend put a tig weld tack on the back side at each end on the center brace.
Openings still need some radiusing in the corners and a bit more clearance. What I like is the blade edge will be at the outside surface of the opening when its done.. Will be powder coated later. I should get a full pic of them assembled tomorrow.
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After working with the side vents, finally removed my side pipes from the boxes and mocked the up. Pretty straight forward and no surprises other than a bung I won't be using and need a plug for it. I increased the flange holes to 5/16 and will use 1/4" bolts to fasten them.
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Close up of side louvers. Still deciding if I leave them raw, powder coat or anodize them.
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This morning I visited our local DMV theft bureau office to schedule an inspection to verify serial number and whatever they want to look at before a title is issued. They should be able to do this within the next two weeks. I also went to another DMV office to submit the title application and obtain a registration and tag. 45 minutes later I walked out with a lighter wallet with a tag & registration in hand. It's registered as a '65 Shelby with the VIN number same as chassis number. After the theft bureau pays me a visit it should take 30-60 days for the title to show up. Now to get that body on and mount the the lights I'm ready to get it on the road.
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Each area seems to be a little different, but when I did my registration in NC the inspector checked the serial numbers for theft (even actually crawled under the car, had to jack it up for him) but checked that the lights, etc were all working as well.
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It was time for an alignment of the front end. I pretty much decided awhile I ago I would tackle this my self in measuring and adjusting the caster, camber and toe. I had squared up the rear end some time ago so that was done, so on to the front end.
Started with 24 pounds of air in the tires all around. Re-checked the ride height and made some notes for future reference. Also measured the rake in chassis and had 1.0 degree from front to rear. This gave me 4.5" to lowest point on my oil pan and 4.5 inches at the bottom of the shock mount at the rear.
Earlier I had test fit the caster camber adapter rim mount I picked up recently, very easy to work with. After getting the car off the wood stands, I cut up some 1/4" thick plywood for the rear tires to sit on and for the front I picked up 2 pair of 12x12 .125" thick aluminum plates. These would be my turn plates, used grease between the plates to allow the front end to move and not bind up the suspension. These worked great.
I would measure and adjust caster first, then camber and then toe at the end in that order. To measure the caster, with this setup, starting from straight ahead, one turns the wheel out 20 degrees, level and zero the gauge, then turn it in 20 degrees from straight, level gauge and then read the caster. Made the adjustments one can make with the given upper control arm components. As Paul P indicated some time ago, a shorter tube is needed up top to reduce caster more than what I was able to achieve. Measured camber and adjusted, no issues here, pretty easy and quick. I went thru this procedure 2-3 times on each side for repeatability and after locking it all down.
Caster ended up at 7 degrees positive and negative camber at .625 degrees. Will see how this goes, may need to reduce caster some and get a pair of shorter tubes for the caster adjustment.
On to measuring and setting the toe. Here is where I decided to string align the car. his took the most time since I was working alone. I made up some equal length pieces of conduit with equal length cuts in it for my string. Goal is to align strings parallel to the center line of the car. Set the conduits on jack stands at height of the center of the wheels at the front and rear of car. Measured the distance of the line from the axle which was squared up previously, and measured from a point on the frame forward behind the front tires on each side till equal distance on each side of the car. I think I had to go around the car at least a half dozens times or more to get these lines parallel. A second person would be helpful because of the back and forth from side to side measuring and making small adjustments to get it right. Once I got them aligned it was easy from there and be careful not to bump the conduit or jack stands.
As a check, I checked the rear wheels and they were square to the line. Front not so much, RF was out an 1/8 inch and LF was in 3/8 of an inch. Was able to get both the LF and RF toed in 1/16 each for 1/8 inch total toe. As for the line I used, 60lb mono yellow line with about 3 oz. of weight and I used to cheap chalk line reels where I replaced the string with the fishing line.
Overall I was pleased how this all worked out and have a setup I can always go back to or make adjustments if need be.
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Thanks for the detailed explanation of how that was all done. Looks like a slightly tedious but simple task. Lot of check, measure, recheck, adjust, repeat.
Almost go cart time it looks like.
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It was good practice because I plan on doing it again soon. I think 7 degrees of caster is more than I need and want to get it to at least 5 or little less which is going to require replacing the 5" tube with a 4.5" tube. Same procedure after swapping the front adjusting tube. Ordered the tube from Jet Racing out of Nebraska.
In the meantime, wasn't sure how much outside work I could get done today with the threat of rain, I messed around with the headlights. After figuring out how the headlight housing gets held in with those little tabs and screws, I proceeded to work on the openings on the body, did a little sanding and removal of some excess fiberglass in the light openings. I got ahold of Metro Moulded headlamp gaskets which are a little larger and thicker than what comes in the kit and I like how they also hug the trim ring. I used them as template for the holes that needed to be drilled, will need longer screws because of the thicker gasket and will probably back them up with a lock nut instead of the metal retainer clips they come with.
Headlight housings are Hella, DOT approved, will use an LED bulb with them, not DOT approved ;).
Also worked on and fitted the turn signal lamps, had to enlarge the hole to drivers side to allow the ground to get thru the hole and drilled mounting holes for them too. I'm using the L692 instead of the winged type L539.
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I wasn't really happy with the alignment numbers I achieved last week so I decided to change out a few things this weekend.
Started with purchasing two 4.5" swedged tubes for the upper control arm. I was at 7 degrees of caster and wanted 4.5- 5 at most. The 4.5" long tube was able to get me the 4.5 degrees, but it ended up making the camber go from .6 degrees to 3.0 degrees. There was not going to be enough adjustment on the back tube to my liking and if I had another pair of 4.5" long tubes it would of worked well I think. I ended up shimming the cross bar with stainless washers amounting to .275". The washers took out 2 degrees of camber. The rest would come from adjusting the rear tube on the upper control arm.
After all these modifications, I ended up with 4.5 degrees of caster on the left and right, .40 degrees of camber left and right and a little less than an 1/8" total toe. I then took it for a little ride up and down the side street a few times, felt good, no video, maybe tomorrow.
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Not the greatest quality, but a little video from today, very short side street.
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Very nice! Sounds good too!
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Doing great work Greg. Enjoying following your build.
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Don't have much to show this weekend. Messed around with the body a little, cut slots in the cockpit tub for the shoulder harnesses, and mocked up and drilled mounting holes for the rear tail lights after sanding the high spots on the light pads. The lights are different from the norm, they are LED with a solid metal bezel. So close to throwing the body on...
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Worked on a few things today...prepped and mounted the hood and trunk lid hinges to the frame. One of the trunk hinge arms is going to need some manual adjustment with a little more bending to match the other length wise from the hinge barrel (about a 1/2") if that makes sense. Didn't take pics but will later on before I make the adjustment. Hood hinge positions look pretty good.
Redid some wire loom clamps in the cockpit, will be better for when finishing the area below the door sills.
Fit the fuel filler to the body, I originally wanted the fuel filler to be at an angle with the hinge at about 10 o'clock but settled on the hinge being at 9. When the cap was opened at 10 it would hit the body and at 9 it has plenty of clearance, pic doesn't show it, but there's 3/16 of a gap when open. Did not want to raise the base for the cap. 3" hole saw and drill body for the mounting screw pattern and done.
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Greg, do you have an after pic. of your loom rework? If you have a before pic. that would be good too, but I could go back through your build and find one probably.
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Greg, do you have an after pic. of your loom rework?
I just reworked the clamps and how they were fastened. Loom was not changed.
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Accomplished a couple of things, but nothing really major. Had some unexpected visitors, showed and talked about the car for about 2 hours. Anyhow, I decided to massage the rough openings for the side vents and exhaust pipes. They look so much better now. My plan is to bond weld mount studs I picked up for the side louvers, may get these on tomorrow.
I had the side pipes on before for show awhile back. I opening up the rear bracket slot to 11/16 of an inch to fit the silicone bushing. Bushing has a 3/8 bolt opening, but going to use a 5/16. This should allow the exhaust a little movement and still be firm.
Should be hanging side pipes tomorrow too.
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So the side pipes went back on today with the gasket at the flanges and think the bushings will work well, not snugged up in this pic. My drivers side ended up looking good where it ended up, the passenger side ended up about 3/4 of an inch more inboard than the drivers side.
I still wanted to remove more material from the wheel opening on the body, was going to leave this till paint, but looks like I'm going to do more. I back cut the flat area on a 45 and sanded a little, left just enough to hand sand later and round the edge. Think this is going to make the wheel openings look better as I was thinking of leaving a flat area, not anymore. I'll tackle the rest next weekend.
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:o Oh...I also ran the motor after installing the pipes and sounded pretty good, a little mellower than the open headers.
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:o Oh...I also ran the motor after installing the pipes and sounded pretty good, a little mellower than the open headers.
LOL. But not much!
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A few weeks back I made some initial cuts on the body wheel openings. Wasn't really happy with them and was going to wait till it went to paint, and saw what I could do last week, I cut and sanded more off. It helped I had the day off and what great weather today and few hours later I had all of the wheel openings done and happier in how they will look. Once sanded and shaped a bit more by hand, I think they will turn out great when it becomes time to paint.
Have one before and after and some more afters from today.
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Looking good. I had to work on mine as well to get them in better shape.
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After massaging and improving the openings for the side vents, I bonded some stainless studs to the inside of the body and have them mounted. And if I can round up enough help next weekend, will drop the body back on for the first time in over a year.
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Greg, that's the way I mounted my side vents as well.
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With the hurricane this week, didn't make any definite plans not knowing how long it would hang around, we just got more rain and wind mainly Thurs night and Friday.
Going to try to round up some to possibly get my body on tomorrow. Prepared a little more with adding the bulb seal to the frame. replaced what was on top of the firewall and also reattached the cockpit stripping with black adhesive. The flashings for the roll bar downtube and fuel tank inlet I made awhile ago, so thought it may be easier to do with out the body on so I finished them up.
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Had the day off today and took care of a few more loose ends before dropping the body on tomorrow. Had to open up the rear portion of the side pipe opening on the driver's side a 1/2" to clear the pipes. I measured from the threaded rod inside the body to the opening and found it too long after measuring the slot for the bolt in the cockpit tub to the pipes. Now we have clearance or it would have hit the pipes. Checked the passenger side and it was good.
Added weather-pack connectors to the front marker and rear tail light pig tails, mounted the head lamp buckets, still have to add weather-pack connectors to the head lamp pig tails, but will wait till after the body is on. Should get interesting after the body is on, still much to do.
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Body is on...went pretty smooth. It's sitting on there pretty good and not way out of whack :o wheel opening heights are fairly close on both sides and spacing from wheels pretty close too. There will be some tradeoffs here and there, but pleased how it is sitting at the moment.
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Back at it today with some small stuff...Worked on the nose brackets, front quick jacks and parts. Installed the nose brackets, spotted the holes that needed to be drilled for the quick jack bolts, removed to drill and then reinstalled the brackets. Mocked up what Hurricane sent, said 7 inch bolts but were actually 8. I wasn't planning on using the yellow zinc bolts anyway. Made some 6" studs out of stainless threaded rod, added chromed acorn nut to one end with thread locker, some chrome and stainless washer in between with the chromed spacer included with the quick jacks finished off with stainless locknut on backside. I also used the rubber grommets in the body.
After finishing the front I worked on the rear hardware. Made up some 4.5" studs just like the front and cut some 5/8" .095 wall stainless tube to make spacers for the rear. Spacers will go thru body and and rubber grommets back there instead of the body being squeezed by the spacers provided. I plan on polishing the spacers up a bit for a little more shine.
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Got a little bit done today between taking the wife to lunch and grandson's 2nd B-day on Zoom for two hours since they are across the country from us. I was able to prep the outer fender panels, will be adding rubber edging to the upper and outer edges. I'll also bond another stud between the exhaust opening and side vents to give them another attachment point with an angle I'll make. Also worked on getting the front lights wired. Really like the output of the Hella DOT housing and Oracle LED bulb. Sun was still out but came back later to see after it got a bit darker this evening with just one wired up. Tried an amber LED in the turn signal, but wasn't happy with it, standard bulb went back in.
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Finished up the wiring to the lights on the passenger side and and attached the outer fender panels today.
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Wiring looks nice and clean Greg.
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Very nice Greg. Is that the rubber edging we were talking about?
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Thanks Ben...yes that's it Glenn.
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Had the day off and spent some time working on the car today. Got the wheels and tires back on and off the jacks from last weekend.
Made a pair of brackets for the outer fender panels that are attached to a bonded stud. Finished up the support bracket and 1.5" Alum standoff for my coolant hose and then worked on assembling the fuel fill between the cap and tank. 45 degree angle hose to a 12" long stainless tube and coupled to the tank.
I also received the 1/2" angle door sill from Dark Water Customs yesterday, looks like it's going work well with some trimming of the ends.
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Little by little we get things done. Polished up the stainless spacers this morning that I cut to length a couple of weeks ago. Had to enlarge the holes on the body to accommodate the grommets for the QJ spacers. Mounted up the rear quick jacks with the spacers thru the body. Now on to what's next...roll bar...doors...we'll see.
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Looks great Greg. Chrome Quick Jacks look so nice.
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Instead of looking at the doors or roll bars, I decided to finish mounting and wiring of the rear tail lights today. Also came up with a method of transferring the roll bar stubs to the body using some 1" and 1-1/4" schedule 40 pvc pipe. They fit the stub pretty well and just one layer of masking tape on the 1" gives enough friction for the 1 inch pipe inside of the 1-1/4. Will do the same for the down tube as well. Will mark the 1" to the underside, find center and drill 1/4" hole and then hole saw from above is the plan.
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Looks great, glad you are making progress on one or another thing. I find myself paralyzed at times on what to "finish up". Lots of little stuff to finalize on the chassis before moving to the cockpit and trunk tubs.
What size hole will you drill? Havn't looked forward into the manual, but I know that there is some wiggle room with the bezels provided.
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Will do a 1/4" from below to be a guide for cutting with hole saw from above. Will start with 1-5/8" which will be close and can adjust from there. Will probably do that after I get the doors hung.
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Doors Doors Doors...got to be patient with these. Spent a few hours sanding gaps and fitting the doors today, got both of them hung, still need to do a little more on them and make some additional adjustments on the hinges. Overall the gaps are not bad all around, the cut made by Hurricane on the rear top edge of the door was more than I liked, But I think I can cheat it up a little and move it rearward at the hinge a bit.
Both of the doors seem to be proud of the body midway down the door, driver a bit more than the passenger side as seen in the pics below. Also ground down the excess material and bonding adhesive along the inside top area of the doors. They look awful in pics, but not really that bad. This area will get filler and be built up and blended to look like the last picture when it goes to paint.
Also plan to do some mods and upgrades to the door latches before mounting them, will document and share what I do to them.
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Had the day off from work today and was able to work on the door latches everyone loves...When I visited Hurricane in 2020, they were working on a customer's car and a latch was basically in pieces on the floor of the car. I had read before people having issues with these latches falling apart, difficult to close or open and losing the knob on the latch lever. Found some ideas looking into these issues and here is what i have done to my latches.
Latch 1 Pic:
1. The lever is just pressed together to the lever disk, one of my latches was fairly tight and the other was just ok and easily came apart when I pressed on the center of the disk.
2. The external spring was removed and tossed to the side. There is a spring behind the latch pin and it is plenty to engage the pin to the striker.
3. The cotter pin on the right secures a spring retainer that is behind the latch pin. I would remove the pin and the spring to lubricate and modify the pin.
Latch 2 Pic:
1. There is a spring washer behind the latch plate that keeps tension on the lever arm and lever retainer
Latch 3 Pic:
1. Backside pocket for spring washer and lever disk.
2. No lubricant in this part, so I added some synthetic grease in the pocket for lubrication when reassembled.
Latch 4 Pic:
1. What I'm showing here is that the latch pin is not fully engaging with the striker hole, gap at lever handle.
2. Hole was smaller than pin diameter. The latch pin is slightly tapered to the tip. Full diameter of pin is 11mm, hole was a little smaller than 11mm. I opened up the hole in the striker with a 7/16 drill bit. Pin then fully engaged.
Latch 5 Pic:
1. With the pin fully retracted by the lever, some of the pin is still high in the slot, sometimes this can catch on the striker when trying to open. When I removed the pin, I filed some off the tip where it was almost flush with plate.
2. To prevent the latch lever assembly coming apart, I used a stainless 5/16 carriage bolt 3/4" long in to the lever disk. I was going to not use the spring washer initially, that didn't work so the spring washer went back in.
Latch 6 Pic:
1. Reassembled latch, an AN960 9/16 washer and 5/16 washer were added and a 5/16 nylon jam nut secures the lever now. You do not want to make this real tight, just enough to holt it all together with no play in the lever handle. If it is overtightened, the lever will not move.
2. Before reassembling, I also added some grease internally where the latch pin slides.
Latch 7 Pic:
1. To address the lost knobs, I drilled and tapped the knob and used a No. 6-32 thread button head and washer to secure to the lever arm.
2. The carriage bolt head is also ground down flat, you could probably use a stove bolt here too and cut to length. The door also has to be relieved a little bit to accommodate the bolt head.
I believe these things will make a smoother operating latch and that won't blow apart now. One other thing I did was run a #8-32 tap into the bonded door inserts, most of the screws would not start without doing this this. I also have a #8 lock washer and flat washer between the door and latch.
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Nice write-up Greg. I'm sure it'll help a lot of people, myself included
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Weather was not cooperating today and wasn't able to trim and sand edges of the hood and trunk lid today due to rain like I wanted to so I did what I could inside to stay dry.
Follow up to to door latches, striker/receiver has about 1/2" inch clearance from wing/banana bar. I have two sets of plates, one to mount and another I cut to act as a spacer, will also require thicker 3/8 fender washer to get it positioned for the door latch. Both sides are the same but didn't complete these.
Worked on the trans tunnel cover, installing and placing a few riv-nuts for my shifter boot ring. I then ended up working on the trunk lid accessories.
Started with opening up the bottom of the trunk lid to access screws and nuts to attach handle and latch, latch retainer showed too.
Drilled holes for the license plate light, mocked up, you can also see holes inside lid to accees the light's studs with nuts.
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Now the trunk latch. Hole saw for the latch handle and rod, easy enough. Install handle and notice that the mounting angle for the hook latch is not square to the square rod of the handle. Drilled the mounting holes for the hook assembly and see it's not going to lay flat, but I tighten it up any way. This puts it into a bind and doesn't work smoothly at all. The outer handle surface on lid and the surface for the hook latch are about 10-12 degrees off from each other. I know why, but doesn't matter, i do not like the bind they are in. Also with the hook latch mounted flush to the inside surface, it is not inboard enough for the catch stud shown in above post. So to get rid of the bind and for the hook latch to catch, I had some spacers and beveled them so the latch assembly is not put in a bind. When the lid is closed, the hook will not be 90 degrees to the catch stud but that'll will be fine, with it's adjustable height.
I originally wanted to install the latch in the opening we created similar to what Jeff K did, but without the glass work. Then I noticed it would not be inboard enough to latch with the parts I'm working with. Had I known, I probably would have just created holes for he fasteners only. Will make some sort of cover for the internals later.
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Finished up the door latches, I drilled and tapped the wing bars for the latch receivers, if in the future it needs to be removed, nut on back side does not make sense to me. I used (4) 3/8 fender washers behind the bracket and spacer I cut from a second set of brackets on the driver's side and 2 washers and spacer behind the mounting plate on the passenger side.
Started on the trunk, doing this alone is fun...it's in the hole after some cleaning up of the edges, but still needing some adjustments and a little gapping to get it closer to where it needs to be. Will get more pics tomorrow. Body support makes a good prop.
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When I started on the trunk lid, I wasn't sure this thing was going to work out and be a nightmare fit wise and would require a ton of bodywork. I was wrong after I figured out what it wanted adjustment wise at the bracket and hinge. Both hinge arms had to be mounted towards the drivers side of the bracket and the passenger side needed 3 washers behind the bracket. Passenger side bracket adjusted as high as it could go, the drivers side a little less, but still just a tad low that I can make good later. This got the trunk lid looking good fit wise. Working on the trunk lid is not the most comfortable, glad the car was also elevated some.
After I called the trunk lid done for now, decided to get to the roll bar. Used my PVC pipes to transfer the center of the roll bar stubs to the underside of the body. After drilling a 1/4" hole from below, the rest was done with a 1.5" hole saw from above in reverse. Opened them up just a tad more with a flap sander for final fit. Will be using trim rings as pictured. I'll get to the down tube next weekend.
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Everything is looking awesome! Totally jealous of your progress, as well as the fantastic powder coating. Wish I had researched that before ordering my kit.
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Thanks Kamal...little by little it's getting there.
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And ya didn't have to lock the wife in the trunk? ;D
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Not yet...have a u-bolt on order for the latch, then we'll see. ;)
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Finished up the roll bar downtube and worked on fitting the hood. Did not realize I was going to have an issue with my overflow tank interfering with the hood. Easy thing was to notch the underside of the hood and move on. Hood is in the hole, but it looks like my hood hinge mounting pads are not letting the hood down at the front. I think the radiator cover may be interfering there. Will get a look at it later as to why the front will not sit down.
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Managed to get the hood bolted to the hinges this afternoon. Will update tomorrow with more detail as to what it took to get it set in place.
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Looking good there Greg, it’s always a rush when one figures out a remedy for the issue at hand and move on to the next issue. Stack’em up and knock them down like dominoes. Before you know it you’ll be on the road.
Michael
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As promised...what I had to do to get the hood to work for me. My upper frame came with 4 holes drilled up front for the hinge brackets, I initially used the inside for starters. This did not work and had the hood over to the drivers side a little over an inch. Removed all of the spacers from the bracket so it could move freely side to side. Moved it as far as it would to the passenger side, still not enough. Ended up relocating the passenger side bracket to the outer hole in the upper frame. This made a big difference in getting it to sit right side to side.
Now the hinge arms were pushing the hood rear rearward a little too. I ended up bending the drivers side 3/8 of an inch shorter and the passenger side an 1/8"shorter, measured from the center of hinge barrel to the bolt flange. Long side of hinge arm was held in vise in aluminum blocks I use for fuel hose fittings and the short side is what is pulled back to the bolt flange. This ended up squaring up the hood, and after that I had to raise the brackets some on each side to get the hood height up front set.
Got to say this hood looks pretty good. In the process I had cut on the radiator cover because it was not allowing the bolt flanges to be low enough for the hood and the slots for the hinge arms really didn't work out either, so I'll be making another cover later.
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More work related to the hood today, latches primarily and the hunt for lost bumpers...
Installed the hood latch handles, paddles and pads for the hood. During the day I lost a bumper, found it...lost it again, not to be found hours later under the 2x4 I was using to prop the hood on the back side of the engine block. It was ridiculous the time I spent looking for that thing. Anyhow, I decided to secure them finally later in the day. I also opened the underside hole in the hood to 7/8 for the paddles which are 3/4 to keep them close to the underside and so I could also shorten the square rod on the handles. Found a 7/8 x 3/4 reducing bushing with shoulder to insert later in the hole to make it cleaner looking. Also showing gaskets for the handles after paint. Also on the underside of the handles next to the screw holes are locators that I removed with rotary cutoff wheel.
Hood scoop is a little rough...couple air bubbles in the gel coat, ton of overspray from Hurricane, not sure why. Scoop still needs trimming and shaping , had to re-drill some holes to match and to accommodate the #8 screws.
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Knocked out a couple of things yesterday...Hood Prop rod, mounted it on the drivers side due to other things in the way on the passenger side. I took a die and threaded the end of the prop rod and put it thru the 1x1 upper frame with a 1.25" chrome spacer I had and 5/16 nut on backside. Added 1/2" stainless washer to hood where I drilled hole in hood for the other end. Rubber piece is on order to hold rod to the inner fender panel.
Finished the trunk latch using a stainless u-bolt. One leg goes all the way thru the 2x2 under the trunk tub and other leg is thru fiberglass only.
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Not much has happened in the last couple of weeks. The radiator cover panel was an issue with the hood hinges...not enough clearance for mounting pad to the hood. I initially had cut the offending material out of the cover, but it really didn't look good with triangle cut outs. It all originates from the radiator not coming with any channels originally and had to add my own to make it work. Well one change leads to others it seems.
Anyhow, I made a new shroud/panel that lowered it and how it attaches. This cured the interference with the hood hinge mounts with the hood.
Also pics of the hood prop rod holder.
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Was able to spend a couple hours on the car today and mounted some gas struts on the trunk lid temporarily. Bracket on lid is just held with rivets, will change to riv-nuts, but need to get some for thicker material. They are 15" long extended at 20 lbs each, they help raising it some and enough to hold the lid up.
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I love seeing all of this finishing work, I know I'll reference it soon(ish) when I get there!
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No major accomplishments recently to really speak of...picked up some leather door checks from the other side of the pond. They come tan but will get the vinegar black treatment soon. They come with the black brackets, but will only use one on each and mount it to the inside of the upper frame upright. Will use a 3" long 5/16 shoulder bolt that will work perfectly on the hinge arms to attach the other end, socket cap screw used just for visual.
Also found time to get back to the hood scoop for some trimming and sanding, stilll have a few minor high spots to take care of around the perimeter, but looks and fits much better than before. Opening also trimmed to open it up more than it was too.
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Greg,
Have you started the engine with that Anti-gravity Battery? Or have you determined that it will, in fact, start a Windsor motor? I'm about to order one. Oh and where did you get those door straps from? Look very nice.
Kamal
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Have started mine many times and no issue, I also have their battery mount. The check straps are from here on ebay https://www.ebay.com/itm/281321646337
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I was originally going to make these straps black, but they had already been dyed with a tan color. After testing on the backside of one of them, I knew I was not going to be happy with the outcome, so I left them alone. Mounted one end to the uprights on the upper frame and added a 5/16" shoulder bolt, 3" long by drilling the hinge arms to locate. Could have done it several different ways, but this is what I ended up with the premade straps.
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Looks great, and my favorite color of leather!
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I like the tan leather look.
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Progress slowed for a bit due to concern for my engine. Between the holidays and cold weather, I had what we thought was a possible coolant leak. Have no idea where the evidence came from or how long it had been in a little spot on top of the timing cover on the passenger side. So I kept an eye on it to see if it would reappear after wiping it up. Then we had some humid weather that played games with me.
Got ahold of a cooling system adapter/hose and pressure tested the system over the weekend. I can relax and sleep better now, no major repairs needed. Tested it to 10 pounds and held it there for 10 minutes and then 15 pounds for 5 minutes...No leaks! 8)
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Mounted the windshield today, went in just the same after drilling the holes for it when it first arrived. Escutcheon plates will be put on after paint.
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Can't beat that. Always nice when things like that come together as planned.
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Slowly but getting there, started on getting the seat bases bolted back in, need another hand to get them tightened up and couldn't help myself with another shot of the car from today.
After getting the bases done, will work on the belts and bolting the seats in. Once the seats are set, I'll probably ditch the adjuster bars, I bent them by hand and not happy with how they turned out, should have used a bending tool instead.
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More seat work today...Driver's seat has just a little more lean back than passenger side. Passenger seat can also move back a click or two. The lap belt is a pull up style which makes it easier to adjust in these cars. Need to bolt in shoulder harness to frame behind tub still though.
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Greg, are those Kirkey seats, or from that place outside of Tyler, Texas?
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Bob,
They are the Ultra Shield seats, just south of Tyler.
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Bob,
They are the Ultra Shield seats, just south of Tyler.
I may have to butt-test yours at some point , or more importantly get the wife to butt-test. If wife ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
My Sube-sports seats from hurricane are not holding up well...
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I planned to have all LED lighting for my build, one of the last items to convert was the license plate lamp.
Started with obtaining a dual LED module for the lamp, removed the bullet connectors and bulbs from the lamp.
Used 2 sided tape to mount the LED module to the upper part of the back plate in the lamp, the existing brass roll used to secure the wire internally and out the back.
Reassembled and connected to a 9-volt battery to test.
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Nicely done, any information on the LED you used would be greatly appreciated.
Michael
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Michael,
I purchased this LED module along with some other items for another idea I wanted to incorporate into my build.
https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/highsider-smd-license-plate-light?sku_id=10093418
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Another lighting project I wanted was to have a third or high mount brake lamp. Were many options from surface mount lights for a miata, jag, and retro thunderbird. Hella used to make one that was available from New Zealand or Australia, but was not longer available. So I turned to the motorcycle market and decided on these small dual function run/brake lights from motogadget. A few pics of them below.
They are small but very bright, in the video below, I show the run function and then switch to the brake function. They definitely will get your attention.
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Well done. They are bright!!! Yep that'll work great.
P.S those seats are badazz!! Super cool look.
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Nothing really accomplished today, decided to get a different bracket for my fire extinguisher from Eddie Motorsports, will mount on top of tunnel as shown and forego the armrest plans I had before, When I sit in it, just don't feel the need. Also picked up a drink holder, just need to fab or come up with a bracket to mount on top of tunnel.
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I like that drink holder. Wish I had found one like it when I was building. I used some SS ones I found in a boating supply store, but they required cutting holes in the top of the trans tunnel near the back wall of the tub. Fortunately they were short enough so as to not interfere with the drive shaft.
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Got the car back on the ground today and cranked it up for the first time with the body on. It hasn't run since the end of August, hard to believe its been that long. Added some fuel to the tank I had in a container and it started just fine. Drove to the gas station for more fuel, put about 10 miles on it with no issues.
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Nice Greg! Go put some miles on it and have fun!!
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I wasn't going to put the headlight trim rings on till after paint but changed my mind, but wondering if anyone has had this issue mounting them.
The issue is the alignment of the screw hole in bucket and trim ring. Bucket is mounted with the gasket that came with it. Trim ring is held on by one screw and up top by two tabs that create a slot with the gasket. See trim ring for the screw hole and drain holes, screw hole is top one. The screw will not align with the hole provided on the bucket, so I ended up using one of the drain holes that align perfectly. 2nd drain hole ends up at the bottom.
After paint I will be using the gasket from Metro, that I think gives it a more finished look.
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Weather didn't cooperate like I wished so I could go out and put some miles on the car today, so I messed with some mirrors. Mounted the rear view I picked up that has a slight convex shape to it. Side view that I will mount low to the windshield side arm, just need some hardware I didn't have for it.
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Mirrors look great!
Would be nice to know about the headlights and trim rings. Mine are the same way??
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Mounted side mirror this afternoon and went for a drive. Side mirror is in lowest position, can rotate and reposition if need be outward and up. Both rear view and side mirrors are working well for me and happy with them. Position of side will also allow me to install wind wings if I do.
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Recently I surpassed 100 miles on the odometer for a grand total of 128 miles to date. Brakes are getting better each time out and was confident enough to take it to the freeway this past weekend. Things are a little different at speed than on the back road 2 lane, but I'm getting more comfortable and familiar with the handling of the car. There are things that still need to be looked at after things have settled suspension wise and handling needs some improvement. Have some new tools on the way that will make a big difference in making alignments easier and quicker for me, now that the body is on.
- Steering is a little twitchy but tracks straight at speed, will be revisiting front end alignment and toe.
- Steering is really not retuning to center on its own like it should, again will revisit front end alignment.
- Some vibration sounds, believe it is the drive shaft loop, took mallet to it and tapped the loop a few times and sounds like what I'm hearing. I think adding 1/4" thick polyurethane pads to where it is bolted to the x-brace may cure that.
- I know sidepipe mountings make a little too, could be improved, but for now it's ok.
Still it's been a blast so far driving it around here.
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This weekend I worked on updating the car's alignment with a set of hub stands to make the changes and for measurements. After resetting the caster, camber, toe, and wheel base, squaring it all up with the string attachments was much easier than using jack stands for alignment that I did before. Another reason for these stands was that I could make adjustments to access the suspension components easier and be able to make the measurements without having to put the tires on and off after a change was made. So hoping to get it back out today if the rain clears out and dries up to see how it feels now.
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Greg
Can you share a name / website / link to the stand manufacturer or source?
Paul
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Paul,
The hub stands are from Motive Engineering. https://www.motiveeng.com (https://www.motiveeng.com) Specialize more with off road vehicles but they have two different types of hub stands. They can be used on all four corners to measure Ride Height, Toe, Caster, Camber, Wheel Base, Thrust Angle and Bump Steer. There are others out there that are cheaper and more expensive as well. Each stand has a 1,000 pound capacity.
I'll be changing the bearings on the front set of stands to transfer ball units (see pic below) for making caster measurement more easily and doesn't impact other functions. They used to offer them and originally designed them with them but changed to a roller bearing to keep price down. One can still do caster with the the roller bearing, just not as smoothly. Most use these stands for alignment purposes mostly.
I know you have an independent rear end, these stands can make setup much easier along with the front end without having to take tires off and on and allowing access to the suspension with the body on. I will be getting some steel plates, my aluminum was too soft for them and don't feel like taking up the carpet. They should work well on smooth concrete.
Overall I'm happy with them and how easy it was to work on the car and I'm sure they'll be even better with the transfer bearings.
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Took the car out for it's first night drive after waiting for some storm cells to pass and figuring out the where the dry roads were. Not having done any headlight alignment, it wasn't too bad. Being seated much lower, you definitely get much more glare and light in the eyes from oncoming traffic on a 2 lane road and also from behind in the rear view mirror. Divided 4 lane and multilane roads were ok. Knowing there was another storm cell brewing in the area, got it back to the garage in time, three minutes later it was pouring heavy, got lucky I didn't get caught out.
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Finally got around to popping a couple riv-nuts for the drink holder after getting a bracket made for it. Bracket will be hidden under carpet and with enough clearance for carpet at the back edge of the holder. Good for 12 oz cans with an insulator to plastic water bottles. Also found a skinny insulated tumbler that will fit for those mornings for cars and coffee events.
Didn't do any driving this weekend, having my lap belts modified and should have them back this week. They custom made them originally to my measurements and ended up being a little snug :o. So we're having them made longer now to also accommodate larger passengers and still adjust down for the wife.
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400 Mile Update 8)
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Besides driving and posting the update above, I decided to make a framed radiator screen today from 3/4 x 1/8 aluminum flat bar and #6 SS mesh. Will mount it about 3/4' from the core with some spacers at the bottom and SS angle brackets up top to the inner fender panels later this week. Size is 26"x19"
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Will that slide in from the bottom/underneath?
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Yes it will slide up from below, just need to raise the front of the car up to do it. Could also do it from above as well.
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Nice, I did something similar using a screen door screen that I modified by shortening it up since it fit width wise, but a couple inches too long. Added some bulb weatherstripping around the perimeter for spacing off the radiator as well as fabricating a mounting brackets using the center bolt of the radiator bracket to secure the top and two lower birdcage bolts to attach the bottom. Now that I reflect yours is probably a lot easier to install and remove without having to take half the front apart.
Michael-
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A couple of us on our older builds used the screen door solution as well.
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Mounted the screen I put together yesterday...my son and grandson here for a visit.
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Was it very difficult getting the car seat to work with the racing harness setup? 🤣
Looks like you finally got a break in the weather.
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We tried but was a no go, so just a few times up and down the street we went at low speed. The little guy did not want to stop. Will need to grow a bit more till I hand it over to him...😜
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I've decided to put my body and paint work on hold till some time next year due to working with a new painter who has a line of cars in front of me now.
Guess I'll be focusing on more driving, refining a few things and planning for it later.
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Looks good without paint. Of course the Hurricane bodies when the Iowa boys took over were very good out of the box so to speak.
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The car looks great! Forgive me if I missed it, but did you polish that gelcoat?
Curious to hear your impressions of driving it? If you hadn't seen, I'm finding brakes, ride, and steering to leave a lot to be desired as supplied by Hurricane. Slowly working through those issues though with good progress.
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No polishing, maybe it's just the angle, lighting, a little distance and or time of day it was taken, but have heard some people taking a clay bar to them.
See my 400 mile update video above, it's got scratches, overspray and bonding drips on it. All trimming and gapping by me hanging the panels and doors.
Love driving it and is basically what I have expected building it myself. Brakes have gotten much better over time and comfortable in how they operate. Ride is a little stiff but not uncomfortable to me, I have made some shock adjustments and manual steering is what it is. At speed it's much easier and not really concerned about hanging out there and reacts immediately with small inputs. After doing two alignments myself, the car hooks up and launches well and when the secondaries open up fully, hang on. I think to appreciate it, one needs seat time and miles under their butt. Just remember, it will try to kill you!
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400 Mile Update 8)
Are those Kirkey seats?
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Are those Kirkey seats?
Bob,
No, they are the Ultra-Shield Race Products Cobra Buckets there in Flint, TX
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Are those Kirkey seats?
Bob,
No, they are the Ultra-Shield Race Products Cobra Buckets there in Flint, TX
I"m going to visit them next trip to Longview!
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Not much to update other than I decided to upsize my coolant recovery tank from the 1 quart I had to a 2 qt. Canton. The 1 qt. was just enough but occasionally spit some coolant out. Do not see that happening with the 2 qt.
Awhile back I also did another short Blueridge parkway drive, only recorded 40 miles of it on Relive, but was 200 mile round trip from the house. https://www.relive.cc/view/veqzojVdzBv
Hwy 80 and 226A are pretty challenging and tight, the parkway portion is a nice cruise.
The local cars and coffee event I organize monthly was featured and a few of the cars as well in the local chapter of the Antique Auto Club of America's magazine recently.
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Still waiting on my painter to take my car some day so in the mean time, just driving the hell out of it. Another trip to the Blue Ridge and did another section of it. This was part of a 265 mile ride this past Saturday.
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Thanks for the update. Glad you are enjoying your Cobra in the mean time.
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Just like some others, my rear suspension got noisy and with some creaks. I thought it was the 100 degree temps I was driving in. So I decided to replace the rod ends like others. The third link rod ends were in the worst shape and most difficult to change out with the help of a cordless impact, but got them all yesterday. Replaced the QA1 XM rod ends for the FK JMX rod ends. No noise or creaking heard after a short drive, we'll see after more miles are put on them, but happy I did them now.
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Was able to spend a couple hours on the car today and mounted some gas struts on the trunk lid temporarily. Bracket on lid is just held with rivets, will change to riv-nuts, but need to get some for thicker material. They are 15" long extended at 20 lbs each, they help raising it some and enough to hold the lid up.
Greg, do you have the part number or where you purchased these gas struts and mounts? thanks.
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Here are the parts and sources.
Mounts on the trunk lid: https://www.ebay.com/itm/254780125185?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=c21GlWM6SNG&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=dAmm00YuRPi&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
Gas Struts: https://www.boatandrvaccessories.com/products/attwood-sl33-30-1-gas-spring-15-x-925c
I changed my struts to the 30 pound link above and work much better than the 20 I had originally. You'll have to source the 10mm studs and coupling nut I used on passenger side to attached to the trunk tub. The trunk lid bracket shown is on the driver side, mounted 12" from front edge of lid to center of the ball. Ball studs are mounted 2" below opening lip and 1 inch in from corner of trunk tub.
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Been putting this off for long enough...closing off the opening from the rear wheel wells to the cockpit tub. This is my take on it, so many other ways one can do it and seems many have struggled in this area.
The inside cockpit sheet metal inspired me to do this, started out with a similar piece and then trimmed it down and put a 90 degree bend to attach to the banana bar. It is sealed behind and will get another sealant along edge to cockpit. Have a side bulb seal on the alum and seals up real good. Still have a little bit of work up top to finish, but happy how it turned out. Will get some coats of undercoat or bed liner to match.
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Added some kick panels to the side of the foot boxes after sealing perimeter of foot boxes with epdm round foam rod and seam sealer.
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Your kick panels look much nicer than mine haha. The ABS plastic is the way to go for sure.
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Thanks Ben, took me long enough deciding what to do. More to come.
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Closed up the trunk tub today with aluminum fillers and bulb seal. Body feels more solid now with them installed.
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Looks good. Nice touch.
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Nice Greg. Filler panels look real good. Nice finished look.
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Back to the cockpit now, pulled the seats and started working on interior panels, moving wire looms out of cockpit and some door sill trim fitment.
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Finished installing the inner metal panels. Body bolts and wire loom hidden now, panels sealed underneath and under door opening lip, Will be leaving the powder coated latch striker bracket exposed and carpet will be installed tight around it. Hex bolts will be changed out for chrome button heads as will the door bracket bolts.
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Been working on padding and carpet to fit before it goes for paint. Used the original carpet kit as template to cut new pieces, everything is oversized and plenty to trim. Been able to get the foot box area fitted and under the doors. Under seat areas and back wall are easy, the wheel wells will be my challenge when I get to them.
I'm using a thinner pad and a synthetic square weave I was able to find in a charcoal color. Once I get the pieces fitted, will get many of the edges bound. Hard to believe the cockpit takes all of 10 square yards and doesn't include the trunk.
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Was able to get to the floor pieces fitted this afternoon. My overhead lights created a shadow line, carpet is darker than what my camera is capturing.
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Looking good. Can't wait to see the final product.
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Spent a little time with the padding on the trans and driveshaft tunnel. Fit the carpet to the driveshaft tunnel. I am really liking this carpet. I'll trim and fit the trans tunnel piece tomorrow.
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Had the day off so I worked on more pad and carpet fitting. I wasn't liking how a single piece of carpet was working our for me, since the trans tunnel has multiple angles in the transition, ended up making it in two pieces and lays down really well. The lower piece will get bound and overlay the upper piece a bit. Back wall got fitted as well today. I also plan to do the wheel wells in two pieces and making templates with padding at the moment, the dent will get built up with additional padding to smooth them out.
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Picked up the pieces of carpet I had black vinyl binding added to today. Just a couple sample pics of the binding. Should give it a nice finished look once all assembled and installed.
Soon the tear down will be happening to send the car to my painter.
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I've been wanting some sort of tow hook for some time for that occasion we all dread. Since there are not many spots on the car to latch onto, i came across the new Bronco's rear tow hook and picked one up to see if it'd work. I plan to mount it on the 1x2 right behind where they are stacked, the drop is 2-1/2" to the bottom of the loop and will be mounted with two 1/2" bolts.
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Had this aluminum heel guard plate made recently that will be placed on top of the carpet. The tear down has begun and have the front lights, windshield, quick jacks left and side pipes left to do.
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Just another blue cobra...I don't think so!
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Looks good me.
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Spent some time today making vent screens for the openings in the front of the body. Two for the brake duct and one for the oil cooler location. Material is a a welded stainless screen, a little smaller openings than the aluminum ones you see out there. Made some blanks to form them over out of 3/4 oak and beat them over with a hammer and trimmed them to fit. The oil cooler opening will just be rectangular and I'll break the sides to fit.
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I did the same thing for my Cobra. They look great.
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Finally on the way to the painter today. Also wanted to share how well the Bronco tow loop/hook worked out. The clearance to ground is 3.5" for the tow hook and do think that there will be no issues driving with it in place.
Will update the progress as things go bodywork and paint wise.
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What is going to be he color?
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Just scratching the surface now...
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Wasn't happy with the finish on the side pipes which has been degrading from the flange to the collector. While in for body and paint, it seemed to be a good time to also have them stripped and recoated by Jet Hot, I also decided to cut them up and upsize them with a new muffler with Classic Chambered's Cobra Packs. Once the new mufflers get here we'll weld them back up and have new coatings put on.
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New Cobra Pack mufflers from Classic Chambered, ready to be welded back together soon.
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Back on the body after a 3 week break. Should see it in full high build polyester primer by the end of the week if all goes well.
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Nice glad to see em back at it. Still doing pink with yellow stripes yes? :o
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Nice glad to see em back at it. Still doing pink with yellow stripes yes? :o
Maybe some rainbows too! ;D
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Got the new cobra pack mufflers welded in and then cleaned them up to be smooth with a flapper disc, black will be stripped and then recoated black.
and another milestone getting the first coating of high build polyester primer this morning!
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Won't be long now!
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Another sneak peek...
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So far I like it....
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Last one till we get it back together... 8)
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Wow!!
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Got it home Saturday and got right to work with the trunk carpet today, many other things to do to get it back together. It's been a long summer...
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Love the color. Can't wait to see it back together....
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Slowly getting the carpet in...foot boxes, trunk, backwall and wheel wells done.
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Nice work. Are your seats going to be gray as well?
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Sam, I have the Ultra Shield cobra seats in black.
Finished up the carpet last Sunday.
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Nice work.
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Windshield & dash back on along with other exterior items.
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You do good work!
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You do good work!
Thanks Sam, it's taken some time to get to this point.
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Now enjoy!!
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Got it out yesterday on the road for the first time after 11 months, fired up right away on the first hit of the button, just wished the sun was out to show it's true colors.
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Looks stunning! Great job.
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Thank you again Sam!
Looks stunning! Great job.
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Looks great, love the color. Welcome to the no stripes club.
Mark
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Thanks Mark!
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Got it out yesterday on the road for the first time after 11 months, fired up right away on the first hit of the button, just wished the sun was out to show it's true colors.
What do you think of the Ultra Shield seats? Im very unhappy with the Sube' Sport Hurricane-supplied seats we have.
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What do you think of the Ultra Shield seats? Im very unhappy with the Sube' Sport Hurricane-supplied seats we have.
Bob,
I have no issues with them, find them comfortable, and I've spent 8 hours in them on several occasions and around 3700 miles to date. I also used a Planted seat base for a 911 and universal side mounts to install them, I had sliders mounted originally with this setup, but removed them.
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Captured yesterday at a local cars & coffee.
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Beautiful!
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Awesome Greg, I really like the color!
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Very nice Greg. Beautiful color.
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Love it!!
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Thanks everyone...when the suns out, the color changes.
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Cool pics it looks great! Hope you get some good drives in before the cold weather.