Gene's MKIV Build Thread

[Gene]

I have been hearing an intermittent noise that sounds like it's coming from the engine area. At first I thought it was air in the power steering pump. However, when I got a shorter belt and ran the engine without the power steering pump, the noise still came back at times. Today, I ran the car and and listened trying to find the source. Whenever the noise appeared, I pushed on the driver side side pipes using some welding gloves. Each time, when I pushed on the side pipe, the noise went away.

Has anyone ever heard of something like this?

I will be playing around with the exhaust to try to fix it, but if anyone has any ideas, I sure could use the help.

Thanks

[Gene]

Well I found the cause of the noise. It sounded like marbles rolling around in a tin can. I was afraid it was serious. It wasn't. Just a loose O2 plug in the J pipe. Tightened its up and the noise is gone. Amazing that something like a loose plug can be amplified through the exhaust system and sound so serious.

I talked to Jeff Miller last week and he said he should be finished painting my body next week. I can't wait.

[wareaglescott]

Wow that is interesting the O2 plug was causing that. Its weird how sound gets amplified at times and makes it so hard to determine the source. Glad you figured it out.

Looking forward to seeing some paint pictures. Do you have any in progress pics to post?

[Gene]

This weekend I took my 35 Ford to the Goodguy’s meet at Del Mar. While I was there I had a chance to talk with the guys from Wilwood. They explained the basics of the balance bar and how it should be adjusted for a Factory Five Roadster.

When I put my pedal box together I didn’t understand the balance bar and how it should be set up. I had both master cylinders threaded into the balance bar the same distance. The Wilwood guys gave me a step by step procedure for an initial setup for the balance bar.

1) Center the cross shaft in the balance bar and thread both clevises in till they touch the pedal.
2) Back out each clevis 4 turns. This will provide 3/16 gap on each side of the pedal.
3) Thread the clevis onto the front master cylinder 4 turns.
4) Thread the clevis onto the rear master cylinder 8 turns.

The finished setup will work like this.



This is easy to do when you are putting the pedal box together and don’t have the driver side foot box finished. Unfortunately, I didn’t learn this until two days before I’m scheduled to put the body on for final assembly.

When I put my driver side foot box together, even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to get at the screws with the body on, I used rivnuts to assemble all the aluminum panels on the top to the foot box.



I was able to open up the whole foot box and get at the master cylinders, balance bar and clevises much easier than trying to get at them through the smaller top panel only.

The next challenge was to turn the master cylinder rods in the clevises without disconnecting the brake lines. There are no flats on the rods and the boot makes it difficult to turn. However, with a little dishwashing soap on the boot and a vice grip pliers with plastic tubing on the tips to protect the threads, I was able to get the job done.



Wilwood also recommended that when bleeding the brakes you use three people and bleed both the front and rear calipers at the same time for each side. I had a couple of friends over and we did re-bleed the brakes using their technique, but we didn’t get air from any of the calipers.

Finally we took the go-kart out to a deserted street in an Industrial park and did some brake tests. I took it up to 20 mph, 30 mph and 40 mph and did panic stops at each speed. In each case it stopped quickly and in a straight line without holding the steering wheel.

Tomorrow I will go to Jeff Miller’s and get my body on. Looks like I am finally almost done.

[Gene]

Spent the day at Jeff's today. What he accomplished in one day, it would have taken me three weeks working 8 hrs a day. He adjusted the door latches, put on the body, doors, hood and trunk. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to take many pictures as he assembled things. I didn't get home till almost dark so I haven't taken many pictures of the finished product but here is one part way through the assembly.



I am happy to report that both my 35 Ford and the roadster both fit in the garage. I was a little worried about that.



Thursday I should be able to post some pictures of the painted body in the sun. I will admit that I was worried that my color choices wouldn't look as good as I hoped. I had nothing to worry about. I think it looks pretty good, especially in the sun.

[KDubU]

She looks fantastic! What are the colours if you don't mind sharing?

[carlewms]

Gene,

Congratulations ... looks great! I think the color choices are really neat BTW.

Carl

[Gene]

Thanks for the comments guys.

The body color is PPG 5096 Toreador Red. I chose Ford R3-7356 for the stripe, but Jeff pointed out that that was a three stage paint. He didn't recommend mixing a three stage and two stage paint. He picked a two stage that matched the ford color almost exactly.

[wareaglescott]

Looks great Gene! Cant wait to see some more pictures.
Throw in one of the 35 if you don't mind. Would love to get a better look at that one!!

[Gene]

As promised, here are some more pictures of my newly painted car.

[Gene]

And here are some more.

[Vette1972]

Really nice colors! Congrats!

[Gene]

And per wareaglescott's request here are some pictures of the 35 Ford.

One at Bonneville


One at Redwood National Park



And one in Wisconsin on the way to the EAA convention in Oshkosh.



We do put a lot of miles on that car and I expect to put even more on the new car.

[wareaglescott]

Two nice looking rides!

[Gene]

I ran into a slight glitch when I went to put the radiator floor aluminum in. The aluminum piece was several inches too short.





I talked to FFR and they said the 94 Mustang radiator I used was shorter than the others they designed around.
Fortunately, I have a friend who owns a sheet metal shop. I gave him a template and he made me a new piece. He made it from dark grey anodized aluminum. I think it looks pretty good.

This is the piece with the protective plastic still on.


This is the new part in place.



I will also need to make some changes to the side pieces and will paint them black.

[Gene]

Because I plan to drive this car a lot, I decided to go with two outside mirrors. In order to be able to see both mirrors, they have to be forward and in line with the front of the windshield.



The problem with that is that it's hard to get at the bolts on the drivers side. The bolts that come with the mirrors are too short to get through the body and driver side foot box. I purchased some M5 x .8 x 70 and 80 mm bolts that would reach through to the mirror. But with the fuse box in the way, it was very difficult to reach the bolts through and hold them in place long enough to get them into the mirror. My solution was to feed a 12 gage wire through the holes in the body and foot box, then heat shrink the wire to the bolt.



It was easy to pull the wire and bolt back up through the holes, and hold one in place while bringing the other up through the holes. then using a flexible attachment to a screw driver, bolt the mirror on.

[Gene]

Once the mirrors were on, I couldn't resist driving up to Factory Five at Huntington Beach. I still have to adjust the ride height, align the front end and headlights and install backup lights. Oh yea, and get through the CHP, BAR and DMV registration process.
It was a beautiful day with lots of beautiful Factory Five cars.

[wareaglescott]

Love the ingenuity with the bolts for the mirror. Sharp thinking. Car is looking great.

[Gene]

While I waited for my appointment with the CHP to get a VIN signed to the roadster, I added back up lights. I decided to attach two 12 inch LED light strips just below the body. I attached 3 X 1 x 1/8 angle brackets with the 3 inch leg riveted to the bottom of the 3/4 inch square tube at the rear of the trunk. I attached the two 12 X 1 X 1/8th flats to the angle brackets with four 1 X 1/8th flats. Then added the adhesive backed LED strips to the 12 inch flats.

[Gene]

I took the roadster to an alignment shop that was recommended by several friends. I was told that they were experts on Cobras. When I dropped it off they didn't ask for the the recommended settings. Later I called and asked what settings they used. They said 3 degrees for caster. I explained that FFR recommends 7 degrees for power steering cars. They said they couldn't change it that day and I would have to bring it back another day to get it changed to 7 degrees. I reluctantly agreed and picked up the car.

On the way home I noticed that the suspension was bone jarring tight. When I got home I also noticed that the gap between the right tire and fender was about 1 inch. The gap between the left fender and the tire was nearly 3 inches. I called back and complained and they said they would fix it when I brought the car back next week. I told them I wouldn't wait.

Talking to FFR they said that cranking the pan hard bar will not really effect the rear end alignment. The data from the alignment shop showed little difference in angle before and after they worked on it. They were just getting the front and rear wheels in line with each other.

I jacked the car up and started to adjust the pan hard bar to get the distance between the tires and the fenders closer together. As I cranked it back in the left wheel suddenly dropped. As I continued to crank the bar in, it dropped again. They had cranked the pan hard bar out so much that it had jammed against the left shock absorber. That explained the rough ride.

I will take it back to get the caster adjusted but I will never go back there again after that.

[wareaglescott]

Wow glad you caught that.
If it were me I think I'd stand there and watch them next time.
That is one aspect of these cars that is a challenge. I find it very difficult to find people to work on it that I avtuallly trust and will do quality work!!

[Gene]

Today I finished the California DMV process and got my new plates. I am street legal and ready to go. I will post an overly detailed report on the whole process tomorrow on the thread "More on California registration process".

[rx7922]

Today I finished the California DMV process and got my new plates. I am street legal and ready to go. I will post an overly detailed report on the whole process tomorrow on the thread "More on California registration process".

congrats!! where in cali do you live?

[Gene]

I live in Orange County.

[Gene]

My throwout bearing has made noise since the first time I started the car. Because it looked like so much work to change, I decided to wait till it failed to fix it. Well, after about 5,000 miles it failed. I pulled it out and took it to McLeod to see what I did wrong to make it fail. They said it was nothing I did and they repaired it at no cost.

In order to get the throwout bearing out, I had to pull the trans. Since it was out, I called Tremec and asked if the 3 drop per day leak between the main case and the extension housing was covered under warranty. They said it was but that I would have to ship it back to Michigan for them to repair it. I did and when they got it, they said since it was modified it wasn't covered under warranty. The modification they referred to was the removal of the unused mounting boss described in the FFR manual. I asked if the modification caused the leak and they agreed that it didn't and resealed the trans under warranty.

Now that the trans is back, I have to readjust the clutch pedal travel, reinstall the throwout bearing, adjust the bearing air gap and reinstall the trans.
First was the clutch pedal adjustment. I hooked up the lines to the throwout bearing before installing it. I measured the dimension from the back face to the bearing.



Then I depressed the pedal and measured the amount of bearing travel.



McLeod recommends maximum travel of 0.500 inches with 0.440 inches required for full clutch function. My travel on the first measurement was only about 0.375 inches, so I rotated the rod on the clutch master cylinder clockwise to increase the bearing travel. After a few iterations, I got the travel to 0.497 inches.

Next I will follow McLeod instructions to measure and adjust the bearing clearance, and reinstall the trans.