Herman's Factory Five Racing 65' Roadster Build Site

* * * * * November 2005 * * * * *

11/2/2005 - The day started with a list of things still required to make the garage habital for both my wife's SUV and the FFR. The day was mostly overcast with some sun. I went over to Home Depot and spent nearly $100 worth of shelving hardware, fire extinguisher and bike hooks. Then headed off to Ford to pickup up a few misc. pieces ( fuel bag and spindle nuts). Spent the better part of the morning installing the shelving and adjusting it so it wouldn't hit the garage door going up/down. Then got the bikes off the ground. Had a little lunch and then contacted Rich (driver for Stewart Transport today.) He was about 10 min. from Salina and will call back for directions when he hit's a rest stop (he just delivered a kit in Santa Maria.)

I actually don't recall much of the next few hours of waiting. Went back into the garage and rearrange yet more things and killed time on the computer. By 2:45, Rich called and asked for directions; he's now in Monterey, CA. My estimate is 1.5 hours to my house and as expected, he arrives promptly by 4:15PM!

I took a quick picture of my baby; this is the very first glimps of SNKVENM:

Rich had actually been scheduled to be off of work this week but since the original couple that hauled my kit to AZ were going on a well deserved cruise, he got the call from Colin to help get the CA shipment taken care of, plus a few other items. This rig isn't normally what he drives but he had little problem using the equipment, however, there was onea little problem keeping the hoist centered on the frame; 2 or 3 times it kept slipping; nothing broke or cracked but it was obvious I needed to do something so I brought one of my Qwik-Clamps and made sure the adapter didn't slide around. It worked like a charm. Here's a couple of pics of the hoist doing it's thing:

Yes, it was getting dim by the time he left at 5:30PM ( 1hr. 15 minutes ). Rich did have one more delivery in Sunnyvale (see the BMW in the photo?). Fortunately, it was only 10 min. from my house. After he left, my wife came home but didn't say much (she's been on an intense project at work and didn't look too chipper.) I helped the daughter with her homework, ate dinner, loaded up the dishwasher and then headed back out to start inventory. I had received 18 boxes, and a list of back ordered parts such as my blank dash and tubular lower control arms up front. So far, I got boxes 1, 2 of the way, checked off the header box, Performer Seats, and the lower steering shaft. I have a LONG way to go before I can say I've inventoried everything.

Summary of "The Day":

Words can't describe the incredible feeling I have of seeing "my" Factory Five Roaster being lowered onto the dolly and rolled into my garage. I have waited 8 long years for this day to arrive and it seems all so surreal. I've read everyone's own uncrating day experiences through the forum but I knew that each one is that persons own personal and unique experience all unto itself.

It hasn't quite sunk in yet, that after many years, it's really in my garage. My neighbor/friend just came over at 10:00PM to look and sometime in our discussion, I thought to myself: "wow, this really is mine. It's really, really here! Life is good." :)

11/3/2005 - I continued with some more inventory checking today. I went to the IRS section and confirmed all parts in the few boxes it came in. I assembled the coilovers rather quickly, just like I did the fronts yesterday. Making a bit of progress on the invetory side; out of 18 boxes/cartons that were delivered, I've pared the physical boxes to 12. Have gone through boxes 1-4, 7, 9, 12c 12c-2, 14, 15 (I believe there's another that was part 1 and 2 but forgot which one).

I also found the serial number in the driver side dash support area. I'm F5R1004883RD:

11/5/2005 - I had some time today to remove the body with one of my brother-in-law's and my neighbor. It took only 30 minutes to build up the buck and move the body over to the garden area via the RV gate:

Yes, I took the obligatory "vroom, vroom" picture!

With the body off I can really start digging into the project. As mentioned before, I will be taking picutres and marking up the aluminum panels on Sunday before removing sections off. Some will stay on simply because of space requirements.

11/6/2005 - Today was a rare "free" day; nothing to do; I couldn't sleep this morning; I was up by 7:30AM and began the build! I've allocated about 30 minutes prior and post build for "getting ready/cleaning up". I needed to move my wife's Highlander out, then roll the box ladened chassis to the center of the garage, then unload all the boxes (the reverse is true when I'm done.)

My agenda was simply to do the following:

Rivet the F-panels
Install the steering rack
Install the rear differential. (pumpkin)
Install the fuel tank.

I was so excited to start that I finished the driver side F-panel... then realized I did NOT silicone the panel to the frame!!! D-OH! I think it'll be alright. On the 2nd F-panel, I hung the caulking gun next to the passenger side F-panel so I could not forget. However, I wanted to do a lot of caulking if I went to open up the silicone cartridge and one F-panel seemed hardly worth it so I clecko'd the F-panel and will try to get to the firewall panel before I cut open the silicone cartridge:

I then took some photo's of all of the aluminum panels that were screwed on. I'm not going to post them since many have seen this a million times before, but I did label them and noted which panels over-lap the others. I then removed just the trunk panels today so I could work on the IRS diff. installation:

I decided to tackle the diff. myself because I just felt like I could. After reading how others have done it, I decided to use my hoist to assist in the process, along with a small bottle jack; as it turned out, it was a good 20 minutes before it was installed but it wasn't all that bad:

After the diff was bolted in I made a hasty decision to install the rest of the IRS to help clear out another box so I can store the panels I just removed. As it turned out, this took up the rest of the afernoon and I never did get to the fuel tank. Still, I felt it was a good productive "first" build day.

And one more thing while I was cleaning up...

11/9/2005 - I found some time to install the fuel tank and pickup. After finding the end-caps at the 4 posts that rests on the tank rim, I noted 3 of the surfaces were bent up from being in the Mustang donor. I carefully flattened the contact areas as best as I could and proceeded lifting the tank and cover until they contacted all 4 posts. Then installed the straps:

Also temporarily mounted the Ron Davis radiator to get it off the bench while assembling the CV joints:

11/13/2005 - On Friday, I receveid Richard Oben's silicone CV boots for the inner CV joints. With that, I was able to assemble both half-shafts. I did note that on the forums someone had a timely question regarding the symmetry of the shafts. As it turns out, one side is 3/4" longer than the other with respect to the center section of each shaft. The longer side faces towards the differential. Something I was totally unaware of. After assembly of each shaft, I was now able to complete the assembly of the rear-end of the FFR:

I did find the hardest part of this whole assembly were the coilovers. Even when the coils are full "loose", the Bilstein gas shocks need to be pushed in a bit. This was rather difficult on the first strut, taking over 20 minutes to work the top of the shock with the 2 bushings and bolt. Eventually it was installed. On the other side, I tried to force it from below only this time, I used a bottle jack to facilitate with the compression; this worked out a bit better with less stress on me!

On Sunday, I decided to tackle probably the harder of the two foot boxes and get the pedal box assembly squared away. This area requires a LOT of driling and alignment and some cutting as well. Also, this was a good time to reassemble the footbox and drill out the holes for the rivets. I've decided to not do any additional work on the aluminum. It really looks fine the way it is despite some scratches.

I did check the pedals a number of times while sitting in the driver seat and bent both the brake and clutch pedals for clearance until I felt it was good for my feet. I didn't have the "West Coast Pedal Bender" but I did have a bench vise and a good lever: a 4 foot pipe clamp which I have for some furniture assembly.

Also, I did rivet in the passenger "F" panel after applying the silicone - yes I remembered this time. No picture of this but it's not a whole lot different from the driver side.

Note the Master Cylinder has been installed.

I depressed each pedal and noted I now have adaquate space between all 3 pedal. I inserted the brake pushrod without the clip.I'm still not done with the aluminum drilling; the floor under the pedal needs to be drilled from below but my casters are about 3" too short to allow the drill get under. I will need to raise the chassis on jackstands next week in order to gain the clearance necessary.

11/15/2005 - I had a little time today to install the steering system. This involved removal of the aluminum panels so I can install the sealed bearings. I did find inside the pedal box, an interference with a steel bracket. I don't recall what was attached to it but it's directly above the brake pedal. The bracket prevented the steering to gain any upward movement such that the inner/upper steering rod would not go into the lower portion. It took me about 30 minutes trying first with a Dremel tool to cut out the welded in bracket. Then my larger cut-off wheel but room prevented me from getting a clear shot at it. Finally I decided on brute force and it eventually came off after lots of back-and-forth/side-to-side wrenching with my vise-grip fastened to the metal SOB. :)

Only one bolt was missing or not part of the steering kit: the lower pinch bolt that prevents the rack from seperating from the lower portion of the mid-shaft. I found a 5/16" bolt and secured it. Everything else pretty much fell into place once the stupid bracket was removed. I tighted up the lower 1" pillow bearing, and shimmed up the upper pillow bearing by 1/4" to start. With the steering wheel in place (but not bolted), the thing looks pretty good if I do say so myself:

Below is my first attempt at the gauge placement. There is actually a specification for spacing and height of the gauges for the 427 SC layout, however, seeing this is my own customized ride, I didn't follow the specifications. I originally clipped the dash to the frame and put the steering wheel in place and began to arrange the paper cutouts. The blue masking tape delineates the frame's 3/4" tube where the gauges cannot go beyond.

As I progressed, I realized the spacing isn't far off from the original. The big difference is, my tachometer and speedometer are the Autometer 5" gauges. Looking back, I think I should of went with the 3" versions because as you can see, I have no space below the tach for any switches. I'm guessing the original Smith gauges were smaller than the Autometers.

You'll also notice the 2 air-craft flip covers; these are to house the hazard switch and the fuel pump (ignition would be the key'd igntion.) However, the one on the left, when flipped to the "on" state, might interfere while driving; in a race, I can see myself accidently hitting it or getting hung up on it momentarily; the problem is, the steering wheel is only 2-3" away from the dash itself. So the left flip switch may go to the far left of the steering wheel for the "hazard" switch. I may put the "Start Engine" button there in it's place.

Another idea I'm toying with is just below the dash on the center area, is build a console for just switches. This would be neater but it would involve longer wire runs, but given that it might be easier to service the switches in this location, might just be enough to go with this plan instead. This makes the dash much cleaner. Decisions, decisions...

While I'm at it, here's a picture of the VIN plate I received from Factory Five Racing along with the MCO package:

11/18/2005 - A bit more progress today. I was able to complete all of the 2-5/8" holes on the dash. I've ordered a adjustable "beam style" circle cutter for the 4-5/8" circles for both the tach and speedo. That should arrive possibly before or after Thanksgiving Day. The 2nd photo was shot w/o a flash to reduce the glare. I'll be taking a better photo after all gauges are installed and in daylight:

11/20/2005 - While continuing work on drilling out rivet holes for the driver-side footbox, I learned something: heat treated steel is much harder than untreated steel. On Saturday, I spent well over 1 hour on just ONE HOLE. The hole is pointed out in the next picture and after working a few days on just rivet holes, I've come to a conclusion: wherever there are weld joints near an area you are drilling into, you should try to drill the hole further away from the weld bead (1" seems to be about right.) In the hole I've pointed out, this area was welded (heat cycled) 4 times. Immediately below the final hole, is the 2"x2" welded to the horizontal 2"x2" member. The second weld is not in view but it is the second 2"x2" going across towards the passenger side. The third weld is the round tube to the left, and finally, there is a body mounting plate. Drilling the last hole proved to be akin to filing jail bars. It just took so long. The preceding holes were all done rather quickly (5 in only 10 minutes.)

For the bottom hole in that same area, again this was hard, however, the lesson learned allowed me to prepare. I positioned the drill under the 2x2 (the first cleco you see under that same area) and used my 4' ft. bar-clamp as a lever. Coming from below proved to be so much better since the floor won't move! I got through this particular hole in only 5 minutes. The rest went like butter - only a few minutes to complete the other 5 under the footwell. I now plan my drillings by looking where the weld joints are and will move the hole further away if possible, to avoid wasting time.

I had time to caulk and rivet in the firewall so this panel can now be considered done from that chore (will still need to drill into it a few times for things such as the wiper motor, heater hoses, etc.

Next was the passenger footbox. I wasn't in the mood to complete the last portion of the driver side since it would require a few more holes from below, so just to be productive, I've drilled nearly all of the "easy" to reach holes on the passenger side; I'll save the underside drilling on both sides for another day:

In addition to this weekends work, I failed to mention that I received my Summit Racing package late Saturday (we were up in SF at my nieces for a baby shower). I opened it up today and received most of the Russell AN fittings and Earls inline fuel filter. I took some time to assemble the fittings for the pickup to fuel pump hose. This things was a huge pain in the butt. Getting the fitting into the inner hose would simply NOT go in as hard as I tried, using anti-sieze liberally. I ended up cutting a tiny amount of the inner hose at a slight angle, just enough so the fitting would guide itself into the hose. This seemed to work out best at both ends.

11/21/2005 - I decided to get the passenger foot box completed this evening. After looking over what would go in this area, there's no compelling reason not to button it up. It took approx. 2 hours to complete the remaining rivet holes and install the rivets. I did have a rivet jam which consumed a good 15 minutes, and nearly screwed up installing the front-most panel (doing it last instead of 2nd to last) but I was able to get it taken care of after a little "persuasion" with the rubber mallet. The silicone was a bitt messy but nothing really to talk about.

Sorry about the blurry picture. I'll update this later when I have better daylight; flourecent lighting seems to to be a 50/50 proposition with my camera.

I noticed the new mounting bracket for the donor hand brake. This looks to be a great idea, however, when the handle is lowered down, it rubs against the aluminum panel next to the bracket. As I looked straight down, I can clearly see the metal bracket sticks out by 1/4". I could of cut the aluminum but I think if I did that, the brake boot would not cover the recess, so I simply cut down so ensure it won't interfere.

I also received the tubular lower control arms (back order) today. As many have suggested, I will probably work on the grease chanels in the bushings to ensure I have enough lubrication in the steel bushing area.

Once this modification has been completed, I will likely install the front suspension and possibly get the car into the "roller" stage.

11/22/2005 - I started on the front suspension today so I could give my hands and arms a rest from all the drilling. I got through some of the installation when I noticed the rear portion of the lower control arm has a sizable gap. Now FFR has supplied 3/4" ID washers and I suspect they could be for taking up any gaps such as this, since the nuts and bolts have built in flange/washers. I'll be pinging FFCobra.com for a definitive answer but with that much gap, I don't want to bend the tabs inwards.

I continued on with assembly of the upper control arms. The drawing that FFR supplies indicates the collar that the upper ball joint threads into, is cocked-off at an angle when in fact, mine are straight! Using the bolt heads as my only reference, I ended up threading it with the collar "up"; now if the intent is to have the rubber boot seal over the collar, then I have it backwards. Again, I'm going to defer to FFCobra.com for some answers.

I guess I should of opened up the IFS bubble wrap because the IFS bracket was NOT painted; it is still raw welded steel. I'll have to take some time to paint it. At this point, I think Rustoleum will do the trick:

11/23/2005 - By the time I got home today, UPS had just delivered my circle cutter. This was needed for my large 4-5/8" gauges. However, there's a slight problem: the cutter is designed to be used in a 1/2" chuck of a drill press! I only have a 3/8" chuck on any of my drills!!! So, what was I suppose to do - buy a new drill press? Or even a 1/2" drill???

Well, I literally took matters into my own hands and cut the circles with the cutter - by hand. This took about 20 minutes per hole but it got done. I will admit it felt rather silly doing it this way but I wasn't about to let this become an obstacle. I'll get to the front suspension tomorrow if possible, in-between smoking the turkey throughout the day.

11/23/2005 - Happy Thanksgiving Day!!! While smoking a turkey all day, I was in and out of the garage working on both suspension arms. I found preparing the grease gun a slight challenge but got it working and greased all the fittings up front. In doing so, I've verified that Factory Five had provided slots in the LCA bushings for the grease to flow.

I've put together most of the suspension but need to first get some nuts and bolts for the IFS bracket and spindles; I did not have these since I never removed them from the donor. The ones in the picture are neither long enough nor thick enought; just there to keep the IFS bracket on the spindle.

Also, the castle nuts are about 3/8" below the cotter pin hole. Will need to get some 5/8" I.D. washer/spacers to bring it up to the hole.

I wasn't sure how to really adjust the upper control arms but since it forms a triangle, I decided to measure the distance from the grease fitting on top, to the bolts at both ends; I came up with 7-1/2" center-to-center on both arms. I repeated the same measurement on the driver side. If nothing else, I now have a starting point.

I'm not sure if this is the correct sequence for assembling the tie-rod ends, so nothing here is tightned; I'll post this on FFCobra to get some verification.

11/25/2005 - I spent yesterday at the San Francisco International Car Show so nothing to report from that day in terms of the build, however, today, I'm smoking turkey number two and in-between shoveling charcoal, I worked on a lot of little things but I did manager to install the coilovers on each front suspension member; torqued down and cotter-pinned all of the castle nuts. Still need the bracket bolts but will have to get those next week. The rest of the day was just a few miscellaneous things.

Assembled two 1/2" steel braided hoses with -8 AN fittings for use between the fuel pickup and the fuel pump, and the fuel pump and fuel filter.

Positioned and drilled the 3/4" tube to mount Russ Thompson's gas pedal. After this, I riveted in the right side panel of the drivers foot box; left top-side panel is only 1/2 riveted in. The final right top-side panel will be done last but will be making an access panel for those times when I need to get to the top of the pedal box for either the clutch or gas cables.

Finally, riveted in (using the 3/16" rivets) the lower radiator support bracket; I used 2 rivets per side.

The next item to tackle after the IFS brackets are finally bolted/torqued into place, will be the fuel system. There is no good area's to place the pump and filter so I will be fabricating a steel plate above and just behind the IRS.

11/27/2005 - I didn't do a whole lot today. My whole body has been tired and aching from doing work on Thursday and Saturday, pretty much 9 hours each day. And as mentioned before, Friday was the SF Car Show so nothing done that day. I did manage to install the transmission mounting bracket, drilled out the passenger side aluminum seating panel, and torqued the passenger side rear spindle before my arms began to really hurt. I called it quits so I can let my body recover from all this work. I'm just gettting a bit old I suppose. :( No pics today since nothing really looks any different from yesterday. My plans for the next few weeks until Christmas will be focused on getting the rear brake line, fuel line and fuel return line routed. This will involve a few pieces to get into place; primarily, the fuel pump and filter. I need to get a steel plate mounted just behind the rear differential so I can mount both units. The steel plate is pretty thick for just metal shears so I may be looking into someplace that can cut the steel for me, but I may first try using a recipricating saw with a carbide blade first. Once this is cut, I can drill and rivet it into place, paint it, then mount the pump and filter. This will allow me to begin the hard tube routing.

11/28/2005 - I received my package from Breeze Automotive; (2) rear rotors for the T-bird rears, a pair of brake lines for the rears as well, their adjustable reclined seat brackets, and a couple of brass fittings. I've gone over the seat bracket installation instructions and they appear to be clear enough. The brakes lines look great as does the rotors. I test fitted one of the rotors and it seems fine.

I called my local Ford dealer regarding the strut bolts and nuts for the front spindles. I was quoted $8 ea. bolt and $4.50 per nut; this added up to $50 + tax. (about $55 total) and that would of been a special order too.. I called Max at 5 Star Ford and he was able to get me evertying for about $30 + shipping and he has them in stock. They should arrive by next Monday.

Today was another day of rest. Not a motivational thing but still recovering from the long 4 day Thanksgiving day weekend of eating and working on the FFR. I'll probably get the brake lines bolted in this week and maybe even the rear brake line will be routed. Still mulling over the fuel line and return.

11/29/2005 - Today I had a little time to drill out the brake hose mount. Using photo's from other people's build, I settled on using the diagnola 3/4" tube near the rear cockpit wall. I felt drilling through the 3/4" tube was easier than drilling into the 2x2 and tapping out the threads for the bolt.

With any luck, I may have time tomorrow for the other side. For now, I mocked up the brake caliper and painted the hub of the rotor so it wouldn't look so ugly when the rust eventually gets to it.

11/30/2005 - The last day of November yet what a ride this month has been; just 2 days before my birthday (11/4 ) I received one of the best presents I could of ever asked for!!! Looking back over this month, I feel I've made more progress in these 4 weeks than at any time during the motor build up. I think a lot of that is just simply preception but if you asked my sore muscles, they'd say so as well! Today, the kits gone from just being a body over a frame and 18 boxes, to having both front and rear suspension members hanging off the frame, the passenger side foot box completed, the pedal box installed, the dash cut out, steering 90% installed, radiator mounted, fuel tank mounted, yet it's far from being a roller much less a go-kart. From a suspension standpoint, I can pretty much say the rearend is done. the only bolts not torqued down are the inner hiem joints with the shims; these will obviously be adjusted when I get closer to doing the toe for the rear. I understand it's a huge PITA but good thing is, it's done only once and that's should do it. Once the bolts for the IFS brackets come in, the front will be completed entirely!

So on this last day, I turned the car around in the garage and installed the driver side rear brake line; this line has a built-in "T" to allow the fluid to go to the passenger side. I elected to drill and tap into the 2x2 for this particular mount. In retrospect, I probably should have done the passenger side this way but what's been done is done.

I also had a chance to install the adjustable clutch cable assembly and noted the cable does rub on the upper portion of the aluminum adjuster. Many have mentioned it's slight and will wear a bit but not all the way through so I'm just going to grease that part of the cable and see what happens from there since there's no way to lower the quadrant. I also mocked up the Breeze adjustable seat mount. In it's rear most position, it seems to just touch the rear panel area near the door-strike cross-member; now it's just a matter of angles or possibly some fore and aft but not a lot (maybe about 1/2" at most.)