Wyoming 818R Build Thread

[shoeish]

I'm working on my body. I'm asking questions and getting good answers here:
http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showt...ment-Questions

[shoeish]

I've made pretty good progress on the body. The instructions from FFR really should read "THIS WILL NOT BE EASY BECAUSE OUR BODY SUCKS, SO BE PATIENT EVEN THOUGH WE HAVE DECADES OF EXPERIENCE DOING THIS. HERE ARE SOME PICTURES FOR REFERENCE:" It does not say that. You all have been tremendously helpful with your pictures of completed work.

Anyway, progress!

I had to flip my front-rear LCA bushing. Per the pictures, the "divet" has to be on the bottom. (thanks BobnCincy). This pushed the front tire about 1/2" forward. My body is about 1/4 behind where the manual says to put it.




Passenger side from top:


Driver Side from top:


Driver side from bottom:


Notice the "v" in the LCA bushing is pointed down.

[shoeish]

With the body being towards the rear of the car my hood and front fenders are getting close to the windshield.







I set the windshield in place. It turns out that the black fiberglass on the windshield surround was cut in an arbitrary place on one of the two sides (Again, "OUR BODY SUCKS...). I leveled the windshield (measuring with the brackets to random references on the frame), then measured 20.5" from the bottom sill on the side sail to the bottom of the windshield, made a mark, and cut/filed away. This made room for the doors.

[Hindsight]

Thx for sharing... abt to start on my body so this helps.

[Mechie3]

At least yours is too close. My fender/hood/door gap is huge making it look like you cut a hole there.

[shoeish]

At least yours is too close. My fender/hood/door gap is huge making it look like you cut a hole there.

Got a picture?

[FFRSpec72]

I think you will find that you have to open up the gap on the fenders where it meets the door to get the surface air to flow down the sides and get the turbulence out of the wheel wells

[shoeish]

I think you will find that you have to open up the gap on the fenders where it meets the door to get the surface air to flow down the sides and get the turbulence out of the wheel wells

I didn't think about that. How much do you think I should go? Thanks!

[FFRSpec72]

I didn't think about that. How much do you think I should go? Thanks!

I'm about 1.5" gap, I think Mitch has 2" and the other R here in Seattle that has done some track testing is about 1.5 but may go more once they get more results

[Mechie3]

Got a picture?

The top trimmed surface from FFR was just odd.

[shoeish]

More info, as promised.

The "tabs" on the fenders that mount to the top of the side sails are arbitrarilily cut. They interfere with the door.
Driver side:



Passenger Side:



To get my doors to fit, I had to trim them. I did one, then clamped them together and mirrored it. It *almost* worked.


Here is what the cut looks like on the top of the passenger side door. This + 3/16" or so.


Passenger side fit BEFORE the final fit on the hood and front fenders.


Once you get the front fender mounted to the front bumper it can be marked and trimmed.

[shoeish]

I'm about 1.5" gap, I think Mitch has 2" and the other R here in Seattle that has done some track testing is about 1.5 but may go more once they get more results

Any chance you can snag some pictures so I can copy?

[shoeish]

The car with everything mostly sitting there:

[Pearldrummer7]

Wow! It looks awesome dude. I would recommend doing lights before you bolt a single thing up (as you know I believe), and keep on keeping on. The body freaking sucked to do, as you said.

[FFRSpec72]

Any chance you can snag some pictures so I can copy?

Here are mine

WP_20150524_11_45_06_Pro.jpg WP_20150518_07_22_13_Pro.jpg

[Mitch Wright]

Like Tony (I believe most R builders) my doors are fixed not hinged.

[shoeish]

Wow! It looks awesome dude. I would recommend doing lights before you bolt a single thing up (as you know I believe), and keep on keeping on. The body freaking sucked to do, as you said.

Done! I pulled them for the rest of the cluster duck.

[RetroRacing]

We did not read the manual after the first day.....it was easier that way.

[Hindsight]

My biggest fear in the whole body fitting process is thinking I have something right in a certain spot, and them trimming something to get it to fit, only later to realize I was mistaken and now I've trimmed something too far and it will look bad after re-adjusting everything the way it should go.

Yours is coming together nicely though.... you are taking a good approach.

[shoeish]

My biggest fear in the whole body fitting process is thinking I have something right in a certain spot, and them trimming something to get it to fit, only later to realize I was mistaken and now I've trimmed something too far and it will look bad after re-adjusting everything the way it should go.

Yours is coming together nicely though.... you are taking a good approach.

I have the same exact fear. I already have a few holes in things I'm not proud of. The shear number of forum threads and pictures I looked at before making any cuts was huge. I then fear that once I make a cut or file something to get it into place that I was wrong in wanting to get it where I did. As it turns out FFR was obvious about some of the lines that you should be aiming for. The next fear is that once I get it all to fit none of the finish aluminum is going to line up and cause me another endless additional hours of work.

I'm still not sure how I want the hood to line up with the windshield. I'm just going to make the hood line up with the top of the fenders and see what it looks like from there.

Gorilla glue and masking tape fixes holes smoothly. A Dremel with a small cylindrical bit held at an angle (toward or against the direction of your cut) makes nice, straight, quick cuts. A flat/round file smooths everything out well enough.

Anybody have ideas for the door insides?

[shoeish]

Hood panel gaps... Much sanding, wow.

Step one, place hood on car. See how bad it is. Mine was 3/8 to 1/2" too high. I started with 3/8, which is two paint sticks thick. I drew a line.


I was then scared of what my beltsander was going to munch through and how quickly, so I made some max-depth marks. This turned out to be unnecessary.



I'm doing it for a cause.


This wasn't enough, I had to go another 1/8 to 3/16. I made lots of marks on the hood, sanded more, more marks, more sanding, more straightening, more notching for windshield clearance...


The nose looks like this:


And now I have this:

[shoeish]

Continued...

And this:


You are wasting your time if you are using anything other than this product to remove sharpie from anything.
http://www.amazon.com/Homax-Group-74...NMR8HBE1TJJTDC


It's seriously ridiculously amazing and I'm still considering making an infomercial for it.

[Hindsight]

Hood fit looks really nice, with the exception of the driver's side hood to bumper joint, but obviously that isn't your fault. By the looks of it, your only option may be to build up the bumper there to make it match the joint on the other side.

[shoeish]

I was noticing how much work I've done over the last year. Almost a shame that it gets covered with FFR's ****ty body.


Back to body. I am now going to make the rear hood panels fit, they are VERY bad.




The rear bumper top is completely terrible and the gap is more of a V.



The driver side front fender also had a cavity. (please note that this picture was taken before I watched bobncincy video on headlight mounting and I do NOT have it mounted this way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlPaGiM453c)


I found one on the passenger side front wheel well arch, too.

[shoeish]

Where do these panels go and how? I can't figure it out.

[Mechie3]

That was a cavity you found? Oof.

That aluminum goes on the side of the front subframe. Flat end down it attaches to the undertray.

[C.Plavan]

I just clicked on this thread- I shouldn't have. I'm having body fitting flashbacks. We all feel your pain!

That cavity is horrible. I had one in the side vents- I just cut the 8itch out and used Kirk818's ducts.

[Bob_n_Cincy]

Where do these panels go and how? I can't figure it out.

here is somebodies picture

sheet4.jpg

[THE FURNACE]

Brutal. A lack of QC. Looks painful alright!

[shoeish]

Cancer fixed.


Rear Edge fixed


More cancer fixed:


It's looking awesome.

[shoeish]

How you ask? With this magic.



Find a spot. Grind it out (more than this picture suggests)


Slather it on.


And sand.

[shoeish]

Decision time.

#1 Big gap here (between hoods):



Or

#2 Here (at front)



I'm thinking #2 and use some bondo/something to blend it a bit better, BUT I don't know what goes here and if that would work.:


Any ideas?

[Mechie3]

Whichever is the least amount of work. Erik bonded his engine cover and trunk together. Some people with R's cut off the little wings on the engine cover to make it easier to remove.

[RetroRacing]

We cut and attached the extension to the rear hump valance, made it easy to remove for engine access. We also put the two rear pieces together, cause our wing is rear mounted to the frame, so we can.

IMG_0683.JPGIMG_0684.JPG

[Mitch Wright]

As Craig mention I am cutting the wings and bolting them down with 2 buttonheads on each side and then will have 2 1/4 fastener in the front of the engine cover and 2 hood pins for the rear. I think for now I am leaving the rear deck and engine covers separate but have thought about making them one piece like Retro did. My thinking is for now they are easier to deal with apart.

[shoeish]

Thanks for the ideas everybody. I made the decision to whack the little wing off the rear hood. I wish I would have done that first thing to save all the scratches on my rollbar.

To mount them, I took a piece of 16 ga steel and put a 1.25" bend in it. I then mounted it with rivnuts. These will get smaller (and lighter) at some point.


I then took perforated base studs and bent the shafts and epoxied them to the winglets. http://www.mcmaster.com/#97590A445


Then I made holes.


And it fits!

[shoeish]

I took everything off so I could work on the body. I also need to be able to access the inside of the doors so I took my side aluminum pieces off.


I filled and fixed lots. I really, really made a difference.




Whole album:
https://goo.gl/photos/oMUkQMbXkbEwzyB49

I also drilled mounted my first two quicklatches. It takes a 3/4" holesaw to mount these.(http://www.quik-latch.com/black-anod...uik-latch.html)


It came up short so I ordered these. http://www.quik-latch.com/elongated-...latch-pin.html



If you haven't held and touched one of these quik-latches they are impressive. ZERO play/rattle. The nut on the bottom seems like its lacking in some surface area so I snagged some 3/4" washers.

[shoeish]

OH YEAH! FFR sent me the revised shift mechanism. This fixes that issue. It also looks really neat.

[FFRSpec72]

The body work is sooo much fun on these, sometime I feel that the Cobra body is easier since it's one piece but you have the seams to deal with, and here you have to worry about all the panels fitting together.

I assume you will add some tabs to the hump deck so that they slide under the section you cut off (like how the rear lid holds down the hump deck) ?

Also just as a suggestion that you look into the springs for the quick latch and also maybe the thicker studs

[shoeish]

I am going to put quicklatches on the front of the rear hood, as well. I will have 5/16" studs all around. What I'm doing for the gap is a surprise; I have a plan I swear.

Since I will be using it on the track, I figure that at some point I will have to push the car. The body is not strong enough to deal with such things, so I made better rear hood latch mounts that will be the beginning of a light reinforcing system for the rear of the body.