Herman's Factory Five Racing 65' Roadster Build Site

MARCH 2003

3/10/2007: The first thousand miles - the reflection of a journey.

Today was another breakfast get together of the BAACC Club, which isn't a normal club in the sense of the word. Weather was good for a brisk morning run (45 deg. F) and promised to be almost 70 deg. F by noon. As I pull out ( I never start my car "in" the garage) FFR4883, aka SNKVNNNM, I note my odometer is reading 965 or so miles. Livermore, the city where I go to breakfast at, is almost 40 miles away. The first 1,000 miles of SNKVNNM will occur today.

As I drive along Interstate 280/680, I drive at a leiurely 70mph. As usual, people driving around are looking but I believe they're just puzzled at how I can stand the wind-chill... I guess I've grown accustomed to this after over a dozen times of driving below 50 deg. and yes, in Northern California. For us, 50 deg or lower is pretty cold and the mini-heater is simply useless in this temperature and at this speed. Still, I have a great feeling inside. I'm actually not thinking about the other cars or the cold but more about what has occurred since I put on the first few miles back on September 30th 2006, and even further back, on the day I started the project in October of 2003.

The journey has taken me down many paths both figurative and literal. As many have said before, having the internet has proven it's value in the form of FFCobra.com and without this virtual community of experience, I don't know if I'd be typing about my firt 1,000 miles in a car that I built. Before I even ordered FFR #4883, I had never used a rivet gun, nor an engine hoist or a sand blaster. I had "ideas" as to how this pile or parts were to come together. It did help that I do have a bit of mechanical experience in the repair and modification of my daily driven VW Passat. Hand tools were never a problem. But working on a fully functional car is one thing. I have a manual and when it points to a part and it' location, it look exactly like that on the real thing. But on FFR 4883, the manual describes building up a car with some picutres and diagrams but mostly words. It's not exactly like a Revell plastic model kit. The one thing I still remember back in October 2003 when I asked my wife for the donor was "there's no turning back; I "know" I can build it, but will I "finish" it???"

During the 3 year journey, when I told people what I was about to do, they couldn't really grasp the concept. I believe most thought this was more like a restoration but I assured them this is more like that Revell model only larger! Aside from the body being molded and the frame being welded, everything else was left up to me to assemble. But there appears to be this large void from the time of I told them, to the finished product. It's only then they realize what all those late nights and weekends were all about. But in between, it was always: are you done yet? Maybe I should have stayed away from the Revell model analogy. I could whip those together in a week!

They of course are not with me during those drilling sessions at odd angles; they don't feel the tired arms, abs, legs and neck. They didn't bleed like I did. However, I do beleive we swear the same! The point is, if you looked into a crowd of people, how many do you think really built a car? You'd probably say zero. I guess in that respect, I can understand the disconnect. Unless you hang around car people or auto dealerships and auto repair shops, I suppose, it's hard for the average person to grasp the concept of building your own car. Since my crowd generally doesn't know people like this, I can't blame them for feeling a bit lost in what I was doing all those months.

As I pull into the parking lot, I see a couple looking over the lot full of replica Cobras, GT-40's, and some newer cars of the more modern era: V10 Viper, Audi S6 and a Ferrari (don't recall the model). The couple were not quite sure what to make of the gathering; everyone else was inside eating. As I parked, and walked towards the restaurant, the couple stop me to ask what each of these cars were. So I spent 10 minutes going over each replica: "this is a GT40 replica, and over there is the new Ford GT; they look similar..." "most of the roadsters you see are modeled after the Ford Shelby Cobra of the 1960's. A couple are based off the 289 model and the rest are 427s." "And look, we even have a Shelby GT-350.". They were very impressed to know that every kit there were pretty much assembled by hand. As you can see, they are just another example of those same people that didn't initally grasp the concept. I'm always happy to educate them though.

I get to ordering my food, talk shop with a couple of the locals, and after a shorter than normal gawking session, I leave Livermore; the sun is nice and warm at 10:00-10:30AM so I put away the ski jacket and make my way back home. When I finally park the car, I'm over 1,000 miles. I don't know what the next 1,000 miles will bring but I do know it's going to be a lot of fun and a lot of educating!

3/25/2007 - This entry is somewhat unexpected. I begin with a early morning phone call from my sister in-law in San Mateo, CA. She has some computer problems. After some time on the phone, I suspect either a bad hard disk drive, or just a bad/corrupt Windows OS. Usually, my wife just packs up the family and we head up there. But today, the kids just didn't feel like going. Well my oldest is about 15-1/2 and can take care of Shelby who's 9. Unexpectedly, my wife turns to me and asks: "hey, let's take the Cobra up to my sisters!". Whoa, where did that come from??? Now she has ridden in the car only 2 times and both in the winter, however, today was a nice 70 deg. So I said "sure!".

On the way up, I take the long way, interstate 280, and for the first time, she's expereinced the FFR at 70mph. Her words: "this is a lot more comfortable than you Volkswagen." I have a 98' Passat and while I did firm up the suspension some to take the boat-ride feel out, it is still a car with a trialing arm axle; just a slight step up from a live axle. Have an IRS in this car was a good decision based on her comment. :)

She was very comfy in the car and was taking in the scenic 280 like she's never done before.... without the top.

We'll skip to the return trip, which was 9:00PM. She wasn't as cold as she thought she was and with only partly cloudy sky's, again she's just enjoying the roofless flight home, gazing at the stars. Her only other comment was "it's too bad it's not an automatic!" :)

3/29/2007 - With such good weather every week, I've been driving to work every Friday and just not really wanting to work on the car anymore but alas, some things need to get done and one of them was last months start on the nose aluminum. Today, I stopped by a local place, Metal Supermarkets, and purchased a sheet of 5052 aluminum, measruing 3'x3'x.040" . It's a lot but more than enough for those "possible" mistakes. After getting it home, I laid out the cardboard templates I made back in February. This weekend I'll get to use the metal shears I bought.

The metal has a number of scraches on one side but a bit nicer on the other. I should be able to polish out the side facing the radiator where it wll be seen the most. Of all the aluminum panels in the car, I will probably polish these up a bit since they will always be exposed to the public, unlike the engine bay.

3/30/2007 - Today would have been another breakfast drive to either Livermore, San Jose or Moutain View, but I got up a little late and decided to skip the driving and watch a DVD rental from Friday evening (Flags of Our Father directed by Clint Eastwood). After the movie, it was 10:30 so figured it was too late to go drive so I felt now would be a good time to start on the aluminum for the radiator. I only had a couple of hours before I had to go to the Orchard Supply "How To Fair" in San Mateo and I had to get used to the new pneumatic shears I bought. After some practice and realizing I have to oil the shears "cutting" blade every so often, I got cracking and got the lef and right sides done. Spent time still doing some minor triming but the results aren't too bad for my first time.

One ot the issues I had was keeping the aluminum pieces from shifting in the metal brake. I started with 2 clamps as shown in the picture but this was not quite enough. I used 4 Qwik clamps but still had issues with shifting.

! I finally used 2 Vice Grips for a total of 6 clamps before the top-bar would stop moving. I will likely get another 4 vice grips in place of the Qwick Clamps as they seem to do a much better job. I still have the bottom aluminum to do as well as the top so we'll see how this goes.

Not bad for my first piece of metal fabrication. So I'm not Chip Foose but I'm sure even he had to start somewhere! :)