Herman's Factory Five Racing 65' Roadster Build Site

DECEMBER 2007

12/13/2007 - I received the Dark Water Custom's air-splitter today. It somehow survived UPS in good condition, despite the "tabs" from the splitter piercing through the box. Nothing chipped or scratched though! I'll probably try to install it over my time off of work next week.

12/13/2007 - Today didn't rain and was actually sunny for the entire daytime (rain coming in the evening) so I took advantage of the weather to install the DWC air-splitter, and to also install the Finishline over-rider rod grommets up front. With the overriders removed for the air-splitter, this was also an opportune time to trim down the threaded rods on each overidder as I had made them 1-1.5" longer then really necessary. So the first step was obviously removing the overriders.

With everything removed, I went to work using my 4" cutting wheel to remove the excess rod material.

Afterwards, I took a caliper and measured one of the grommets, then compared it to the current cut-outs, and marked the excess that required removing. About 20 minutes later with my die-grinder and carbide grinding bit, all four grommets went in perfectly. Sorry for the blurry pictures in advance but I was running low on battery so I didn't re-take a number of shots.

Finally, it was time to install the brackets for the air-splitter. Following the instructions that came with the air-splitter, I loosely install the overriders and brackets (snug enough to keep them from drooping but able to move the brackets a little.) Then in went the air-splitter and 4 pan-head bolts. I snugged them up a tad, then tightened down the over-riders. I tilted the air-splitter down a few degrees, then did a final tighten down of the pan-head bolts. I have to say, this thing looks great! Note the "clearer" picture of the grommets.

Overall, a very productive afternoon.

12/24/2007 - Merry Christmas... ok, it's Christmas Eve but what the heck. I've been wanting to add a license plate frame for sometime but wanted something very simple and ended up with exactly that. A steel chrome frame with some chrome plastic caps over the screws. The only problem I ran into were the screws; the very pointed tips of each screw dug into the trunk. Even worst, the "license plate nuts" are about 1/2" thick and the bottom two pushed the frame far enough that the T-handle for the trunk would hit it.

So I took my handy dremel tool w/cutting wheel and whacked down some screws and the two lower nuts. The frame looks good and completes the rear-end.