Herman's Factory Five Racing 65' Roadster Build Site

DECEMBER 2005

12/2/05 - Today was a pretty busy day; I had received the IFS bracket bolts from Five Star Ford (Max) so it was time to finalize the torque settings on the bolts ( 110-150 ft-lbs.) as well as the lower control arms after setting them to parallel to the ground and torqued to 100 ft-lbs.:

Just for fun, I mounted the front wheel and measured the clearance up front; there is about 3/16" clearance between the front caliper and the spokes on the wheel. Didn't have a chance to check the rears but that'll eventually get done.

I made pretty good progress on the main driver aluminum cockpit panel. Since I have the Breeze adjustable seat brackets, I tackled getting the hole patterns drilled out along with all of the frame mounts holes:

12/4/05 - Yesterday was Shelby's birthday! Well, my daughter Shebly that is. No work on the car for the most part; just enjoying the day with my daughter and visiting aunts and uncles. But today, work resumed. I've completed all the drilling for the floor pan of the driver side panel which includes the Breeze seat bracket. In the course of drilling so many holes, I drilled a couple that tunred out to be off by a full inch from any frame members. I'll "fill" in the holes with rivets during the assembly later. The panel will not be bolted down yet. I need to run the rear brake line so access to the 4" main rail is important here since it'll be easier to drill and screw in the line holders with this panel out of the way.

Still had some household chores to do today so the last thing to have be done was the Billet Specialties over flow tank. I drilled and tapped two holes into the front cross-member and used Loc-Tite on the screws:

12/6/05 - I measured out the rear brake line late yesterday night and came with with 101" from master cylinder to driver side "T" for the first rear brake; since the "T" is incoporated into the caliper brake line, I only needed to route one more line from the "T" to the passenger side fitting, which turned out to be 47". Since I'm also going to be using a pressure light switch for the brakes I had to make up a second "T" at the front brake lines; this is in addition to the "T" to split the left and right front calipers. I went to Napa Auto Parts and handed them a picture of another FFR owner who did the same thing but this store didn't have quite the pieces in the photo, however, I did get something that allowed the switch to be at 90 deg. to a different kind of "T" as seen in the photo. If positioned correctly, the switch won't be as noticable. I also purchased a number of brake lines for the rear brake run: a 72" line, 30" line and a 51" line. Also a coupler between the 72" and 30" line. Total cost was only $23.08. Not bad when you consider all lines are pre-flared.I should be done with the rear brakes this weekend and may even get some or all of the front brake lines routed (still missing the banjo bolts and washers for the front calipers but Five Star Ford should have this to me by Monday next week. Stay tuned!

12/7/05 - I made my first pass at a few things with the brake lines. But before I went to work, I should mention that I almost had a little scare with the tube nut size on the rear brake fittings; it appears that they are larger ( 1/4" ?) than the 3/16" lines I bought. I panic'd at first but after a plea for help on the forums, someone reminded me that FFR supplies flare adapters to mate the 3/16" to the 1/4" IFF on the rear brake fittings! Thanks to FFCobra.com guys for reminding me (I even checked it off during inventor but with so many parts, it's easy to forget.).

Then I tried my first "bending session" for the MC to my brake-switch "T". Disaster! Bends started out ok, but a slight adjustment (by hand) resulted in what I felt was a slight kink. I didn't want to chance it so I cut this part out. This was a 20" line. So with this part cut out, I still had 12" left so I decided to try my hand at double flaring to salvage the line. Let me tell you this: I suck at double flaring. However, I was determined and after the 5th try (whittling away about 1/4" every time), I got a reasonable double flare. Part of the problem is making sure you have an absolutely FLAT cut or file it as flat as possible. My other attempts seemed to always be "lopsided" flares but the last one while not perfect looking, did have a good 45 deg. surface to mate to the bubble flare. I then bent ths remaining 11" line and miraculously, got it lined up without any kinks this time.

The 90 deg. elbow allowed me to have the brake switch face away from the engine so it would not stand out as much when you look into the engine bay; it also allows me to try and hide the wires a little bit better.

12/17/05 - During the past week, I was attempting to make some double flares on the brake lines since I felt there may be times I need to make a custom sized line. This turned out to be more of a challenge than expected. At last count, I made 13 passes to make a double flare and none of them turned out; all were off to one side. I concluded the problem was not me but the flare "clamp" itself. I finally went to Home Depot and bought a nice RIGID flare tool. The clamp is far superior to the typical flare tool The Rigid clamp is machined where the garden variety clamps are all cast. When compared side-by-side, there's no comparison. On my 2nd try with the Rigid tool, I came up with a perfect flare. All subsequent flares (I've now done another 6) have all turned out great! I threw away the "Performance Tools" brand I got at Pep-Boys.

I pinged FFCobra.com members on the initial lines I did in as seen in the 12/7/05 entry because I just wasn't too happy about how they turned out and I got many different opinions on putting a loop from the master cylinder before heading off to wherever the lines were run. Some, however, said it's not necessary; others had their own opinion and it seemed just too confusing. That's when HankL and blackwag (Hank and Ed) PM'd me and offered to help me today! I was very grateful and took them up on their offer; it made me feel a little better about how this day was going to unfold.

Ed arrived in his roadster and drew stares by my neighbors and their gardener(s)! Ed supplied me with a bevy of stainless steel insulated line clips of every conceivable size! I will pay him back for each one but he saved me a TON of time ordering them at this point. Thank you ED! He also brought his flare tool and it did look nicer then my PT brand but I stuck with the Rigid since I know it works fine. Unfortunately for Ed, it began to rain and he had to take off earlier than expected but it was still appreciated.

Hank stuck around and helped me with understanding the whole concept of loops/coils in the lines, how bends are done both by hand and with the tools I have, and really helped in doing the measuring and how to approach each section and bend. With his techniques, I did not need to make a template out of a hanger. Last Sunday, I spent over 3 hours with both hanger and then the 3/16" tube for there rear brake line from the MC. With Hanks help, I started with a fresh line and knocked it out in about 15 minutes and it looked far better than my previous attempt. I have to say, after doing that, things got a whole lot easier.

Then Hank brought out his hydraulic flare tool. I kid you not; from the time it took me to go to the kitchen, get him a glass of tea, and get back to the garage, Hank finished a double flare with this tool. It's simply an amazing flare tool; it's portable and works kinda like a bench reloader; you just change dies. I didn't get a picture of it in action but trust me, this thing turns out quick and consistent double flares in about 30 seconds or less per flare!

Hank paid a few hundred for this many years back and we figure it may have gone down in price. It's overkill for my application but damn it's sweet!

Moving along, we spent some time looking at how to route the front lines.I didn't have the front brake hoses so I didn't finalize the installation but together, we knocked off most of the front line. We actually screwed up the first brake line since I was still trying to "learn" the bending tool but on my 2nd attempt, we got a few bends done correctly. I did come up short on one side, but with the flare toos, I made up a 4.5" section to help bridge the gap as seen in the picture on the left.

Also, when we did the front lines, Hank had suggested I try a different location for the hydraulic brake light switch, than where I had originally located it. His suggestion was to locate it under the MC so it would be less noticable, which was one of the issues I had. Not only did it look better, but it will help shorten the electrical wire runs later on!

In the photo on the right, you can see how clean the bends were done! And the route for the rear line was so much simpler to route than my complicated setup last week!

Hank did have to leave by about 12:00 to tend to his other appointments, but it was a helluva lot of fun having him here to teach me tricks of the trade.

The one thing I enjoyed the most from Hank was just how much experience he shared with me on every aspect of plumbing the brake lines and I really cannot thank him enough for instilling in me a whole lot of confidence in tackling this part of the build. I can truely say, I could NOT have gotten this far this quickly without him.

Below are a couple of pictures of the cross-over line Hank initialliy helped me with. I finished it up and it does look pretty good if I do say so myself!

As of tonights entry, the line from the MC to the rear "T" and to the passenger side brakes are bent and done. The front is mostly done, however, since I do not have the front brakes lines yet from Breeze, I will have to wait until next week to finish the fronts. Also, the passenger side rear cannot be finalized because I just discovered the adapter nut that FFR sent me is defective! If you look at the picture on the right, you'll see the "flat-spot". I have no clue how this could have happened . I didn't catch this until I tried and almost stripped the tube nut on the line. I'll contact FFR on Monday to see if they can ship me out a good one.

One final note on the rear brake line run from the MC to the "T", I still wasn't convinced the short 90 deg. bend would be feasible so I decided to simply rotate the "T" to a 45 degree angle. This allowed a better shot at it, however, the line from the "T" to the passenger side did involve a tighter than planned bend but from what I can tell, it's not that bad at all compared to what was originally planned..

12/20/05 - Well tonight was one of those nights when I looked at the front brakes and decided, hell, that little 4.5" section doesn't have to be there... so with my new-found knowledge of double flaring, I made up a new line that eliminated the intermediate link. While I was at it, I clipped down the front lines up to the passenger side. However, I have yet to get the Breeze front brakelines. Serves me right to order these things just before the Christmas rush!

On another subject of the "flat-spot" adapter (see 12/17), Rich Oben is 100% against adapters whenever possible. Upon his suggestion, I decided to cut off the 3/16" tube-nut and put in the 1/4" tube-nut supplied by Breeze when I bought the rear brake lines. Worked out 100%!!!! Thank you Rich for convincing me. However, I was still a bit lazy to do the other 2 on the driver side so I'll just wait and see if they might leak. If so, not a problem to redo it. No close up pics of the rear.

12/24/05 - Happy Holidays! This past week I received the front stainless steel brake lines from Breeze, and a tube bending plier from Eastwood. I proceeded to finish the brake lines today; I originally drilled out a 3/4" hole on the F-Panels thinking they'd be fine where I located them, however, when I forgot about the wheels! I mounted my front wheels and unfortunately the lines rub the tires. I moved the mount points to a better location and it worked out better.

After clipping the lines in, I bend a couple of small lines I made up and finished up the lines.

12/29/05 - The last couple of nights I've been working on the mounting plate for the fuel pump and fuel filter. Due to the IRS cage, conventional locations are no longer an option for an external electrical fuel pump and fuel filter. After looking at a couple of IRS builds, I obtained some 1/16" thick weldable steel (not sure what gauge) and cut out a 24"x4" plate. I could of taken the piece to a steel mill and have them cut it for me but oh no, that would of been too easy! I had to do this myself, by hand! I won't go into how much time it took but suffice to say, it would have been quicker, cleaner and less taxing to the muscles to have a steel mill do the work for probably just a few bucks.

Once the piece was cut, I took the cut edges to a grinding wheel to remove any burrs and sharp edges, and rounded all 4 corners. Then drilled out a series of 3/16" holes where I will rivet in 3/16" steel rivets once the plate has been painted (POR-15). I mocked up the units with the connecting fuel line. Not really sure I will stick with this or use a 45° -6 AN fitting on the fuel filter for a more straighter run but as is, the bends aren't that bad; no kinks but I would like to have anchored down the line with a line clamp. I'll be looking at the Russell' fittings today since I do need to buy 4 3/8" NPT plugs for the 2 unused ports on both the fuel filter and fuel pressure regulator.

The first location will work but since the fuel pump has the fitting at 45° from the plate, it makes a compound "S" bend. To remedy this scenario, I would probably get (2) 45° fittings; one for the fuel filter, the other for the pump. Combined with a shorter line, it should be a very straight and short link and a clamp would not be necessary:

The second loction puts less stress on the braid. The mounting plate for the fuel filter does come off and can be reversed to allow for this position. Again, if I use (2) 45° fittings, it would alleviate the stress on both ends and could use a shorter line as well.

Time to get online with Summit Racing again...

12/31/05 - The end of the year and yet I'm still working at it! Yesterday my Summit Racing parts came in which inluded the plugs and 45 deg. elbows for the fuel system. The plan was to take care of the off-set of the fittings between the fuel pump and fuel filter as seen in the picture. The 45 deg. elbows when twisted just right, "should" line up the hose to the point where my original 11.5" hose would have made a compound "S" bend to avoid kinking. I just felt this was not the best method and came up with the new setup.

After the elbows were fitted and the plugs installed, I realized that the route my tank-to-pump line was taking would not make it to the pump in it's current orientation. So after some fiddling, I realized the bracket on the pump rotates around the body of the pump. Once I did this, I moved the filter to the other side and swapped the "OUT" fitting and plugs. The results are in this picture.

A note about the hose; I found that by wrapping duct tape tightly around the braid and then using a high-speed cut-off tool, I came up with a PERFECT cut. Just a few tiny frays found but cut those off with my Fiskar scissors. Assembly was a breeze compared to my very first attempt.

I've painted the steel panel upon which this assembly will be mounted, on the 3/4" cross bar between the fuel tank and IRS. More pictures next year with the final setup installed.