HM-2016 BUILD THREAD (MN)

[aarvig]

Well, this will officially be the start of my Hurricane 427 build thread.  I recieved some pictures from the Hurricane boys in Lake City showing their progress on my frame and body build.  I thought I would post them here for  your viewing pleasure. The first photo is of the frame in the jig during the welding process.  This is a really cool shot of both the jig and the frame together.  The jig is a really nice set up that produces an accurate, strong frame in the hands of a skilled welder (Jason Kruse ).  They also sent me a picture of the car body after it had been pulled from the mold.  One thing that I really appreciate about the Hurricane body is the location of the mold lines.  They are in very inconspicuous places which should make finishing the body a lot easier than many of the other kits that are currently on the market.  One of the things that has always impressed me with Hurricane is the absolute superior quality of their fiberglass.  The guys at Bowie Intl/Porta Vet work with fiberglass all day long (building high end portable veterinarian clinics for the back of F-250's and the like) and since Hurricane is housed in that factory you get the same talent building your fiberglass cobra body by hand.  I haven't seen anything better in the cobra kit car market.
My build plan is as follows:
Hurricane 427
Either Smeding Performance or Mike Forte Dart 427
Tremec TKO 600 w/.64 OD
3.50 Ford 9" rear end
Nitto 555G2's w/17" Halibrand style Vintage Wheels
Aluminum firewall option
Dual chrome roll bars, one for my honey
Jet silver ceramic side pipes and headers
Midnight Blue/white rally stripes (subject to change)
Lots of questions posted to this site😜

[s_reynolds]

Congratulations.....the build has started!!

Sam

[Russ Rittimann]

Congrats on the build.  Keep us posted.

Russ

[Bob Worley]

Looking forward to your build, Aaron!

[MFE III]

Congratulations and I look forward to following your build.  A couple of observartions:
  1. I think Smeding and Forte are both good choices. I have the Smeding 427 W and am very pleased. I have also dealt with Mike Forte and if you can get by his whining about his divorce and x-wife, he is very good to deal with    Maybe you can play one off the other to negotiate the warranty starting from when you first fire the motor and not purchase date.  When I bought my motor, it was a 24 month warranty (now I see it is 36 months) and my warranty was half over before I first fired it.
  2. There is lots of good information and debate out there on the .64 or .82 OD ratios. Some have said that the .64 is a little awkward for street driving; a big step between 4th and 5th and not really usable much below 70 mph. I went with the .82 and am pleased. I am running the same rear gears and tires as you are planning and 5th is very usable.  At 80 I'm taching about 2,900.
Good luck and looking forward to your build.

[aarvig]

Got the call from Jason the other day.  The car is ready to be built to Stage 1.  I upgraded to the stage one build level and asked the Hurricane boys if I could come down to Iowa and help them assemble it to that level.  They readily agreed and I am headed down Father's Day weekend with my boys.  I'll make sure and post some pictures on here of the assembly.  We're getting close!!

[Bob Worley]

Fun times! Looking forward to more pics and updates!

[s_reynolds]

Looking forward to the next pics. Enjoy the experience!!

Sam

[Paul Proefrock]

So, do you get to bring it home with you?

A-N-T-I-C-I-P-A-T-I-O-N

 

[aarvig]

Paul,
Not quite yet.  We are going to have it to a roller stage, then Jason is going to fit the body so he can weld/assemble the door hinges for proper fit and do final prep.  Should take a couple of weeks then I'll be back down to pick her up and bring her home!!  My poor VW is going to have to sit outside for awhile!!
On another note, I have really been doing a lot of thinking (playing with the Tremec gear ratio calculator) and I believe I may switch from a .64OD trans to a .82OD version.  I'm running the 3.50 rear end gears with 315/35r17's and it just looks like it's going to be more usable.  I'm not planning on driving this much over 75 on the highway anyway, mostly around town and back roads cruising.

[MFE III]

good choice on the OD ratio.  I think you will be much happier

[aarvig]

We finally got to start our project on June 18, 2016.  My dad, Rick, along with my sons Levi (9) and Chase (7) made the journey with me to meet Jason on a Saturday at Hurricane and begin wrenching on our future hot rod.  It was a boiling hot, humid and breezeless but beautifully sunny and clear day as we began our adventure in the cool little town of Lake City, IA. 
What a blast.  Jason was very welcoming and a lot of fun to work with.  I can't speak enough of how great the Hurricane guys are to work with.  Before you buy one of these kit cars...really research the company and product.  Speak with owners, visit the companies.  I'm glad I did, and I'm glad I went with Hurricane. 

First order of business was to run a tap through the lower control arms to make sure the Heim joints threaded on without any issues.



Next order of business...The rear end differential.  This is a really high quality, new Ford 9" unit with 3.50 gears that Hurricane provides.



We found it easiest to park the rear on a set of simple sawhorses to assemble.  It worked fine for us but if you are working alone a flat workbench may work better.



Install the gasket.



Install the differential utilizing popeye type forearms...



A little gentle persuasion helps move the differential into place.



Torqueing diff.  We started at 25 ft/lbs and then went around again at 45 ft/lbs.

[mandmGuys]

Starting out is fun time - Looks like a Fathers day for the books - there will be more to come.

Congratulations

Mark

[aarvig]

Next step were the rear brakes and axle installation.  I opted for the standard brakes for budgeting purposes.  Brakes can always be upgraded and these will be, just not now. 



The next step we found to be absolutely necessary.  The rear brake backing plate and brake shield both needed to be enlarged to get them to fit over the rear axle bearing.  So we took a carbide tip in a dremel tool and rounded them out.  After this step was complete, the brakes fit like they should.  Since we had little ears and eyes watching us there was a lot of "what the heck's" and "my goodness" as opposed to other "colorful" adjectives describing frustration.
Another thing we did was install the right brake on the left side and the left brake on the right side.  We did this to allow the calipers to be placed in the forward position allowing for easier routing of the parking brake cable and more room between the bleeder screw and the shock absorber.



Axles go in with a slight love tap using a 2x4 and a hammer, line up the T-bolts with the hole in the axle and install your nylock nuts and torque as specified.



Get help from a buddy, use a floor jack and lift the rear end into place. 



Installed shock absorber and brake.  You can see the orientation of the brake with the caliper forward.  An interesting note on the QA1 shocks.  They recommend using anti-seize compound on the beautiful finish to prevent galling...which will void the warranty (galling, not anti-seize) on the shock.  Strange to put the silver goop on such a beautiful finish.  You'd think QA1 would have their own lube for that, but we did it anyhow in very conservative amounts...and it still looks great.



Installing rear caliper slide pins with help from my dewds...



After the rear brakes and rear end were hanging, we just had to do this for fun...

[aarvig]

Here is a pic of Chase installing the upper control arms.



Levi doing his part on the other side...



We actually ran into a fit problem with the supplied upper and lower ball joints.  I'll try to get some pics of that as well but I don't have them posted to photobucket yet.  We had to stop at the front end because Jason was not satisfied with the fit of the ball joints.  Apparantly they have had some difficulty with the All-Star Racing brand and Jason was told by their supplier that the parts problems had been fixed, apparently not, because we couldn't get them to go in straight.  So, Jason is ordering all Moog upper and lower ball joints to rectify the problem.  Gotta love the customer service. 



Here are the new Vintage Wheels that I ordered for the car.  Hurricane went through and performed a bunch of measurements on the backspacing of the wheels because I wanted to push the wheel out to fill up the wheel well a bit better.  After a bunch of painstaking measurements, they were able to push the rear wheel out 1/4 inch further without any frame/body contact anywhere in the suspension travel cycle.  I think this will make the car look a bit beefier. 



Obligatory motor sounds and facial expressions...



Found our body hiding in the Hurricane secret hallway...