Wallace18's 65 Coupe build thread.

[RM1SepEx]

So you are going to keep this one Tom?

[wallace18]

So you are going to keep this one Tom?

I hope so, but anything but my wife and dog is for sale if the price is right. LOL.

[wallace18]

Getting closer to done. I finished up the side windows, rear view mirror and front headlight covers. The RF one was distorted in manufacturing some how. FFR is on the spot with a replacement on the way. I made some more little covers on the interior. Taking it to get windshield on the 13th installed. then final polishing by Huegenics. Then inspection and to the Good Guys National in Kissimmee on the 25th. If you are in Florida look me up there on the 25th. I will have a FFR display and info as well.

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[RM1SepEx]

I hope so, but anything but my wife and dog is for sale if the price is right. LOL.

I can relate

[Carlos C]

Tom:

Do you have an address and schedule of events? I live about 1 1/2 hours from Kissimee, and would love see your car in person.

Carlos

[wallace18]

Tom:

Do you have an address and schedule of events? I live about 1 1/2 hours from Kissimee, and would love see your car in person.

Carlos

The show is at
Osceola Heritage Park
1875 Silver Spur Lane
Kissimmee, FL 34744

Saturday 7AM to 3PM

I will try to be there by 8AM if I can. If it is a rain out I will not go.

[wallace18]

Drove the coupe to Mauldin's Auto Glass shop on Friday afternoon. It was fun driving it with no front windshield. Got tons of looks and people taking cell phone pics at every intersection. I was able to tune it some on Friday and it seems to run pretty close to perfect now. The sound from those pipes is amazing IMO. Power is every where in the RPM range. I hope the windshield will keep out that radiator heat. LOL. Hope to get it out of the glass shop on Wednesday and get it titled and tagged on Thursday. Then a final polish by Huegenics. Maybe a small local car show on Saturday then the Good Guys national in Kissimmee on the 25th. Can not wait to see it fully done and give it a proper drive.

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[jkrueger]

Looks nice!

[tango68ss]

Drove the coupe to Mauldin's Auto Glass shop on Friday afternoon. It was fun driving it with no front windshield. Got tons of looks and people taking cell phone pics at every intersection. I was able to tune it some on Friday and it seems to run pretty close to perfect now. The sound from those pipes is amazing IMO. Power is every where in the RPM range. I hope the windshield will keep out that radiator heat. LOL. Hope to get it out of the glass shop on Wednesday and get it titled and tagged on Thursday. Then a final polish by Huegenics. Maybe a small local car show on Saturday then the Good Guys national in Kissimmee on the 25th. Can not wait to see it fully done and give it a proper drive.

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Tom,

She's gorgeous! You do great work! I hope to see you at GG in Kissimmee if I can get out of work....

TC

[wallace18]

Just brought back the Coupe from Mauldin's Auto Glass. They did a fantastic job, IMO. They had to grind a 1/4" from the center top and bottom of the windshield to get a proper fit with the molding. They also blacked out a surround all the way around the inside for a OEM look to it. I take it tomorrow at 10AM to get titled and tagged. Woo Hoo!

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[jayguy]

Looks great!

[JOE A]

Tom, I too, would love to see the car in Kissimmee. I live in the Jupiter area and its a good drive but if the weather cooperates I will take a road trip. Are you going to be displaying in a special area? I think this is a pretty large show.

[wallace18]

Tom, I too, would love to see the car in Kissimmee. I live in the Jupiter area and its a good drive but if the weather cooperates I will take a road trip. Are you going to be displaying in a special area? I think this is a pretty large show.

I do not think it will be in a special are. Just where ever they tell me to park it among the other cars. It will not be in the car corral though.

[wallace18]

Well I passed inspection and I am titled, tagged and insured. The car drove great on the 140 mile round trip to Ocala and back. Got lots of stares and cell photos taken on the road and interstate. Even a Florida Highway patrol guy took cell photos going down I-75 at 70 mph, LOL. Thanks again to Factory five for such a great kit and help, Forum members for their help and kind words, my wife, Marsha for her help and understanding. Also Huegenics for awesome paint and body work, Mauldin's auto glass for a super install of the front windshield, Jerry, Terry and all the local hot rod guys for their help as well. This has been a fun but difficult build. The car came out so much better than I hoped for. Don't forget I can build a FFR car for you if you can't yourself.

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[CraigS]

Your car is really nice. I especially like the install by the auto glass company. They are a far cry from typical.

[John Dol]

Tom,

Great job! Has to be nice to be tearing up the roads now.

John

[flynntuna]

Congrats Tom, beautiful job.

[Garry Bopp]

Very nice, Tom! More pics, please. These coupes always draw lots of attention ... as it should be!

Garry

[wallace18]

Well a few things have happened the last few days. One the new wilwood pull-type slave cylinder started to leak after only 150 miles. Also the pinion bearing failed on my rear end. A call to Mike Forte had a push type slave cylinder on my way to fix the leak. I made a bonsai run to Prestige Mustang in Monroe, GA to get a good 3:27 rear end from a Mustang GT on Friday. I installed all yesterday and all went well. Here is the before and after pics of the stuff. I highly recommend Mike's clutch slave set up for the T-5. Very nice kit, IMO.

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[wallace18]

Had a great time at the Good Guys show today. I met 3 other FFR coupe builders there. Joe A., Carlos C, and I forgot the other guys name. ( sorry about that) . Had a ton of interest in the car. Lots of photos taken and questions of what is it, did you build it, etc.. etc. I had on my FFR swag and display. I handed out lots of FFR info. I think I may have sold at least 3 folks on buying a 33 kit. I hope maybe 1or 2 customer builds possible also. Great weather and a good time. I t is so much fun talking cars to car people. Mine was the only Coupe there so it got lots of attention all day. Here is a few photos. One is 3 of us FFR coupe builders together all from Florida. Carlos I forgot to get a picture with you. Please forgive an old guy for being forgetful, LOL.

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[Carlos C]

Hey Tom:

It was great to finally meet you in person. It took me a couple of hours to find you, but it was worth it. I did meet another FFR owner, who had just finished building a beautiful '33 Hot Rod.

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Don't worry about not getting a picture together. I was going to do it once we got done talking, but then people kept coming up to you while you were trying to pack up to leave, so I figured not to bother you with it. I did take one of your beautiful car though.
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I'm sure we'll catch up again. Congrats on a beautiful car. I'm hoping that after the next couple of spinal procedures, I'll be able to get back in the garage and continue on my Coupe build. Looking forward following your next one...

Carlos

[wallace18]

Thanks Carlos, My prayers are for a successful recovery for you. It was great meeting you in person.

[wallace18]

Went to a great car show in Lake City about 40 miles away today. Super weather and a great place for the show by a lake. We even had a fly over for the National Anthem. Lots of interest in the car. Most do not know what it is. LOL.

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[wallace18]

At the Good Guys show in Kissimmee a photo was taken of my coupe. The background was an ugly chain link fence and brick building. The photo folks digitally cut it out and added it to this background. I had to take a picture of a picture to show here. So the quality is not as good as in person. But I liked how I could ad the Huegenics to the photo to give my painter a little gift. I like how it came out for the most part. It feels weird not working on building a car. But I am enjoying driving the coupe. I seem to have all the bugs worked out for now. I hope to go to a show at Don Garlits museum on the 25th of this month. It is a Salute to our heroes Car show. It is about a 35 minute drive from my home.

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[John Dol]

Tom,

If you get the itch you can come over and help me out! LOL
Cool looking pic. Seems like your car is getting some well deserved attention.

John

[wallace18]

Yesterday and Today was a good day for sure. My step daughter Lauren got released from the hospital, after a scooter accident had her air lifted from Key West to Miami Kendall hospital. She is going to be OK. Just going to be sore for a few months. I came home on Friday from Miami and went to the Tri-County Cruisers June Classic Car Show today. I was fortunate to win best of show. Also won $100.00 but gave it back to the Disabled Veterans charity of the show. What started out as a bad week turn good. God has a way of doing that for us, IMO.

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[Mitch Wright]

Tom,
Your Coupe looks great.

[H R Lucky]

Great job building your coupe Tom!
Good on you for winning best of show.

Nevin

[wallace18]

After putting on about 800 miles on my coupe, I decided to install electric P/S. I had the FFR electric unit on my 33 build and I loved it. The straight shaft along the frame support rail got me thinking about it for my coupe. I am not a fan of hydraulic P/S. Most new cars have gone to electric P/S. I was fortunate to get a unit from Mike Everson at a good reduced price. I am also documenting this in another thread called (Seriously thinking of adding P/S to my coupe). I am posting in both for future forum folks who may read one vs. another. Here is some pics. First is the shaft I plan on cutting. Then the components I am using from Unisteer. I cut the shaft about 9" from the weld at the u-joint near the foot box. Then welded the couplers to the shafts after carefully measuring so I can remove the unit if needed in the future. If I was doing this from scratch I would have used D-shaped tube instead of the 3/4" round that came with the kit. Since this is an after thought I am using what I got. The motor plate from Unisteer came right next to my frame support tube. I am going to fab up bolt on mounts to the car and weld them to the motor plate. Here is what I got done yesterday.

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[Carlos C]

Tom:

Please post plenty of photos and details on this electric pump installation. The blower and the rest of the accesories I have planned for my engine, prevent me from using a belt-driven unit, so I'll be following your progress closely.

Question: Did you go with a manual rack, or did you do the specified surgery to convert the P/S rack to a manual? How will any of this now affect the addition of P/S? Will you have to change to a power rack? Thanks.

[wallace18]

Tom:

Please post plenty of photos and details on this electric pump installation. The blower and the rest of the accesories I have planned for my engine, prevent me from using a belt-driven unit, so I'll be following your progress closely.

Question: Did you go with a manual rack, or did you do the specified surgery to convert the P/S rack to a manual? How will any of this now affect the addition of P/S? Will you have to change to a power rack? Thanks.

Carlos, I hope you are doing better. I am using the manual rack that came with my complete kit. The unit is all electric. It has a torque sensor that reads input from the steering wheel and adds power assist with the electric motor. No hoses, fluid or pump. This is the best way IMO to go. All I am doing is basically putting the unit inline with the steering shaft. Then fab some brackets. Finally I will mount the ECU and finish up the wiring. You can go to Unisteer and check out the unit as well as instruction from their website.

[wallace18]

I finished up my mounting bracket and mounted the ecu and hooked up all the wires. I hope to finish up the unit today. I made a mount for the ecu and cut a hole in it to allow air to go around the heat sink fins. It is mounted a fair distance from the engine so hopefully no heat problems. My ecu on my 33 was closer to the exhaust and did not have any problems. My bracket is a bolt on deal. The unit could be made with a weld on the frame bracket. You would just need to loosen the 2 large bolts that hold the rack on the allow clearance to install the u-joints and collars. I may go that route down the road if this bolt on deal does not work out. Here is a few pics.

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[wallace18]

I finished up the unit today. All I can say is Wow! What a huge difference. The car is so much easier to drive around at slow speed. Plus I really do not notice any loss of feel driving at speed. I am really glad I did this. Total work time to install was about 10 hours. I spent about 680 dollars on the whole deal. All I can say is if you are thinking about adding P/S to a coupe without all the pulley, hose and fluid stuff of a conventional unit this is the way to go, IMO. I am sure someone could make an even nicer bracket setup than mine, but I am happy with it. I hope this will help someone else. Pics include the yellow LED for the unit I put behind the wheel.

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[RogerB]

Nice build.. Congrats!! How did the air conditioning work out? From the pictures it looked like a nice compressor.

[wallace18]

Nice build.. Congrats!! How did the air conditioning work out? From the pictures it looked like a nice compressor.

A/C blows very nice cold air. Very welcome here in Florida. I installed the March Sport Track system. Very happy with the outcome.

[wallace18]

Here is a poor video of me driving my Coupe. Forgive me I suck at this sort of thing. LOL. Don't laugh too hard at the end watching me try to turn off the camera, LOL.

[daveb_vt]

Thanks for sharing the video, that looks and sounds incredible

[John Dol]

Pretty cool Tom!! looks like you need a remote for the GoPro!LOL

John

[wallace18]

Pretty cool Tom!! looks like you need a remote for the GoPro!LOL

John

Yea I could use one for sure,LOL.

[mjazzka]

Great video, the sound in that thing is incredible! Great job. Any problems reading the gauges behind the steering wheel?

I quite enjoyed the end of the video, lol! A remote is definitely in order.