460.465USMC's MK4 Build #9890 - V.I.N. for the Win and Spring Rumble

[Fman]

Chris those heat shields look great on that black side pipe, nice work! as you drive the car more you will probably realize that the vulnerable spot to burn your leg is actually closer to the bend at the end of the side pipe. I ended up re-adjusting and shifting mine towards that area.

[egchewy79]

just curious, will the powdercoat on the heat shields hold up to the temps of the pipes? I have polished stainless on mine but didn't know.

[460.465USMC]

Chris those heat shields look great on that black side pipe, nice work! as you drive the car more you will probably realize that the vulnerable spot to burn your leg is actually closer to the bend at the end of the side pipe. I ended up re-adjusting and shifting mine towards that area.

Thanks for the heads-up, Travis. To slide the shields down I will need to either drill new holes, or buy a larger clamp for the forward position. Not a huge deal either way if that will provide better protection. Honestly, I'm a little surprised how hot the heat shields get. I measured the pipe around 300 deg or so, and the heat shield was only ~100 degrees cooler. That's still plenty warm to burn the skin.

just curious, will the powdercoat on the heat shields hold up to the temps of the pipes? I have polished stainless on mine but didn't know.

Hi Chewy. Good question on the powder coat. I'm taking a bit of a gamble betting the powder coat will hold up. The hottest I've measured the pipe is 315 deg. in certain areas, which is well below the temp for baking the PC. Plus, there's a small air gap between the pipe and the heat shield. I can't find a local ceramic coating shop, so will proceed as is and find out how it holds up. Worst case is if the PC doesn't hold up, I'll remove them and ship them out for ceramic coating.

[460.465USMC]

A couple months ago I saw this flag and mount on a fellow forum member's fantastic build (jiriza84641). It's a bit early to be adding bling, as my build is still in gel coat. But it was a no-brainer for me to make this exception. It is a very high quality piece, made right here in the good ol' US of A. It's solid.

No, those aren't my pink fingernails. My color of choice is orange. My teenage daughter played Vanna White, so I could photograph the flag at full furl.







I'm working through the splash guard and Vraptor wheel well liner install. It's very time consuming, but I'm making progress. I can already see the Vraptor liners are going to be a really nice addition to minimize the amount of rocks/pebbles/sand and misc. road debris from flinging into the body.

I decided to put a stake in the ground and schedule my state vehicle inspection. I want to drive this thing before the snow flies! After I finish the splash guards/liners, I'll install the mirrors, wind wings, and sun visors. Then off to inspection and licensing. I'll have a list of misc. "non-functional" bits to complete post-licensing, such as nose aluminum, nose grill, aluminum sill plates, etc. If all goes well, this plan will get me on the road in the not so distant future. Can't wait!

Happy building!

[D Stand]

The flag, and car looks great! I just got mine legal over here in Bothell. You are going to have a blast getting it one the road. Care to share where to buy that flag?

Dale

[460.465USMC]

The flag, and car looks great! I just got mine legal over here in Bothell. You are going to have a blast getting it one the road. Care to share where to buy that flag?

Dale

Hi Dale. Yes, it’s been a long haul, and I’m very much looking forward to getting some driving miles.

I’ll text you the contact for the flag. The gentleman was great to work with, and shipped it right out to me.

For anyone else interested in the flag, just send me a PM.

[460.465USMC]

I'm chipping away at my list before the State Patrol inspection. I finally finished the splash guards and Vraptor wheel well liners. Phew, getting those to fit are tedious. My 275/17 tires up front don't make it any easier.

All of my splash guards required some trimming. Some more than others. Here's an example of the front PS splash guard where I cut off the kick out on the bottom, notched the top right (room for fan wire), and drilled holes for the 10-32 screws that thread into the nut serts I installed way back when.




I anchored the outside corners of all the splash guards with 10-32 perforated studs, glued in place with HSRF. Great idea I picked up from the forum (Edwardb and others). This really stiffens the splash guards, plus no visible screws or rivets through the body. Here's a view of the DS stud. I left the stud long in case I need to adjust later on. The HSRF will be painted to blend in with the underbody coating (not that they would be visible except when I'm underneath the car).




Here's an example of the Vraptor liners. This is the rear side of the front PS wheel well. I secured the liners to the splash guards with 8-32 black oxide coated SS screws and washers, and lock nuts.




Forward view. I added an L-bracket to the bottom 3/4" tube to hold the front of the liner in place. Ditto for the DS.
The liners wedge pretty well in the wheel well with the included bulb seal. Solid.




Next up was the mirrors, visors, and wind wings. Not sure why F5 has their logo (circled) facing the cockpit instead of outward?




Closer view of how the mirror attaches to the wind wing.




If there's a tricky part, it would be the sun visors. Lots of warnings about cracked windshields from threading in the supplied mounting screws too far. The windshield comes pre-tapped for the F5 sun visor mounts. I measured the depth of the tapped holes beforehand to ensure the mounting screws wouldn't come into contact with the windshield frame, putting pressure on the glass.




With mirrors, wind wings, and liners installed, the next logical step was to go for a drive in the neighborhood, right? I live in the country, so use "neighborhood" loosely. It was in the nineties today. I'm happy to report no engine temp issues. The car is tracking straight from my initial alignment, and the steering is responsive. So far, so good with my DIY alignment. I'm pleased with these Breeze side mirrors. They provide a decent view, and don't vibrate, so the reflected image isn't distorted. The rear view mirror is a bit small (compared to DDs), but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Build on!

[cc2Arider]

Nice progress Chris! Are the VRaptor liners made from Kydex? They kinda look like it. I wonder if they can be shaped with a little heat?

Craig C

[460.465USMC]

Nice progress Chris! Are the VRaptor liners made from Kydex? They kinda look like it. I wonder if they can be shaped with a little heat?

Craig C

Thanks, Craig. The description on his website for the liners is "durable textured plastic": http://vraptorspeedworks.com/mk-4-wheel-well-liner-kit/. I imagine if you reach out to Shane he will be able to give you more detail on the material.

[460.465USMC]

Oops. Meant to include a photo of the rear view mirror install. I ordered the rear view mirror bracket from Dark Water Customs. Nice piece. He supplies nuts that fit into the channel, and the associated flat head screws. Here's the view from above:

[Papa]

... Not sure why F5 has their logo (circled) facing the cockpit instead of outward?

Chris,

Any chance you have the wings on the wrong side? The logos are different than what my wind wings have, but the logos are readable from the outside of the car. I also mounted my brackets opposite of how yours are, but mine could be wrong.



Dave

[JohnK]

Next up was the mirrors, visors, and wind wings. Not sure why F5 has their logo (circled) facing the cockpit instead of outward?

Hey Chris - nice progress! I've been traveling for a few weeks so getting caught up on your build thread. It's looking great.

I ran into the same issue with the wind wings. I don't think they were designed with the Breeze mirrors in mind. If you install them the way you did (and the way I did) with the mounting brackets facing forward in order to sandwich the visor between the bracket and mirror, then you end up with the logos backwards. If you install them the way Papa shows with the mirror nested inside the upper mounting bracket then you can get the logos facing out. The way you did it seemed more secure to me so I put up with the backward logos.

Nice progress Chris! Are the VRaptor liners made from Kydex? They kinda look like it. I wonder if they can be shaped with a little heat?

Craig C

I believe the wheel well liners are made of ABS. It is definitely heat-moldable as it's the same material that Alex used to use for his glove box kit.

[460.465USMC]

Chris,

Any chance you have the wings on the wrong side? The logos are different than what my wind wings have, but the logos are readable from the outside of the car. I also mounted my brackets opposite of how yours are, but mine could be wrong.

Dave

Hi Dave. Thanks for your input. As best I can tell, I have them mounted per F5 instructions--see picture below. I think it's possible to swap mine to get the logo facing outward, and looks like yours have been doing just fine like that for some time. But I think I will stay as is for now, as the small black logo isn't very visible either way, and I like how the plexiglass is sandwiched between the mirror and the bracket.

[460.465USMC]

As of yesterday my Roadster is legal. Wahoo!




The amount of red tape in WA is still pretty minimal, and the process fairly easy (or so I thought!) to title and register a F5 Roadster. The process I followed has three parts: (1) obtain weight at a certified scale, (2) State Patrol (WSP) inspection, and (3) fill out paperwork and pay sales tax at a local licensing agent. Walk out the door with license plates in hand. Parts (1) and (2) went smoothly, and the officers were friendly and helpful. Part (3) is where things went south.

I'll spare you most of the gory (and boring) details, but suffice it to say Part (3) was not smooth sailing. The discussion at the licensing office took an unexpected turn because WSP identified my Roadster as a 2020 model year. That designation triggered questions: "Where is the odometer disclosure from F5?", and "Where is your EPA emissions certification sticker showing your vehicle is compliant with California state emissions requirements?" (You read that correctly, WA state follows California's emission requirements). Huh? None of the other WA state licensing experiences I've read on the forum mentioned these. Nor did my conversations with other in-state builders. The helpful lady at the licensing office made a couple calls to two different subject matter experts. But after 1+ hours it was clear I couldn't move forward without these items.

Back out to WSP to see if they could shed some light on the 2020 model year determination. They don't take walk-ins, so I drove back out there at risk, hoping they would talk to me anyway since I was there earlier. They were happy to chat again and genuinely wanted to help. Long story short, they looked up several years worth of F5 and kit vehicle inspections and found all of them had been designated with the same model year as indicated on the F5 MCO--manufacturers certificate of origin. This is the piece of paper with the make/model, year, and serial number F5 sends about a month after you receive your kit. So, the issue was not related to the State Patrol designation. It was then suggested I try another licensing office.

At this point I'm 3+ hours into my licensing experience. Trying to look at the bright side, I reminded myself I'm legally driving the Roadster back and forth across town between the licensing office and WSP. Legal, because the licensing office gave me a two day transit permit. And, it was a beautiful, temperate day to do so. This can't be all bad, right?

Guess what, same experience at the next licensing office. Okay. I began to realize something must have changed in the state's licensing procedure for kit vehicles (designated as KITV in WA). At this point, I was 95% sure I'd be going home to lick my wounds and regroup. While still at the second licensing office, as a last ditch effort I called the same expert the licensing offices had just been speaking to. (I got their phone number courtesy of the helpful officers at WSP).

Well, you already know how this ends. The conversation with the expert was productive. I was successful in getting my Roadster licensed. The title should arrive in 4-6 weeks. All said and done it took 6.5 hours, so perseverance and patience prevailed.

I have clocked 350 miles so far. Many of them were driven going back and forth from home to WSP to licensing office, times two. With plates installed, I drove about 100 miles last night. Smiles for miles.

Issues so far:

• Fault Codes: P0507 ("idle air control system RPM higher than expected") and P0100 ("Generic"; "Mass or volume air flow A circuit"). These triggered one time, somewhere around the 100 mile mark. I'm assuming they're related to the MAF position, as I haven't yet had the Coyote tuned. I reset them and they haven't come back yet, and there was no noticeable change in engine performance when they were active.
• Lid of Aston Lemans cap fell apart.
• Need to track down the annoying rattle that I hear on bumpy roads. It seems to be coming from behind the dash.
• Side pipes are slowly starting to sag. I'd say at least one inch after 300 miles. Bummer! Thought I had solved this one up front.
• Sounds like one of the PS rear e-brake pads is rubbing slightly. Requires further investigation.

I got this surprise the second time I filled up. Thankfully, the spring, metal cover, and screw were not lost. Nothing some Loctite won't solve.




I'm looking forward to sorting out these issues and more driving. As I mentioned last time, I have a number of items left to complete, but those are lower priority than driving right now. I'm going to double check with Ford Performance, but from what I understand I should get 500+ miles on the motor before the professional tune. Shouldn't be an issue to drive that much by week's end.

[Papa]

Congrats, Chris! Looking forward to meeting you face-to-face when you are out my way.

Dave

[Jeff Kleiner]

Big congratulations Chris. I’ve enjoyed following along and talking with you! Now go enjoy some miles

Jeff

[egchewy79]

Congrats. Now you can get pulled over for a completely unrelated issue now!

[D Stand]

Congrats on being legal Chris! Go burn up the rear tires…

Dale

[Railroad]

On the screw and spring in the filler cap, the screw has an ideal position and it is not tightened down.
Your blue loctite and testing is the right answer.
Congrats on your jumping through all the hoops.

[Nigel Allen]

Nice job mate. Have watched your build and loved every bit of it. Thanks for taking the time to document it here. Wishing you many happy miles.

Cheers,

Nigel
PXL_20230726_020750273.jpg

[Ted G]

Looks great Chris and congrats on getting your plates. I'm still waiting for mine in CA but have a two month pass and just hit 700 miles last night. Think I'll post a page with my issues thus far as well. I know this helped me during my build when other posted this.

Semper Fi (From an Army guy)

[460.465USMC]

Congrats, Chris! Looking forward to meeting you face-to-face when you are out my way.

Dave

Thanks, Dave! You've been a real help along the way. Yes, looking forward to meeting you as well, and hopefully seeing your Roadster in-person.

Big congratulations Chris. I’ve enjoyed following along and talking with you! Now go enjoy some miles

Jeff

Thanks, Jeff! Driving is my #1 priority now until the snow flies. Your advice and help along the way has been so key for me. Thanks for patiently answering so many of my dumb questions. I'm sure I still have a few more in me.

Congrats. Now you can get pulled over for a completely unrelated issue now!

Doh! I hope not. Thanks, Chewy. Appreciate your insights into my build along the way.

[460.465USMC]

On the screw and spring in the filler cap, the screw has an ideal position and it is not tightened down.
Your blue loctite and testing is the right answer.
Congrats on your jumping through all the hoops.

Ah, good insight, Railroad. Thanks for this tip, and a number of other good insights along the way. Much appreciated.

Nice job mate. Have watched your build and loved every bit of it. Thanks for taking the time to document it here. Wishing you many happy miles.

Cheers,

Nigel
PXL_20230726_020750273.jpg

Thanks, Nigel. It's been so much fun, and dare I say addicting. I also appreciate you hanging out on the forum and helping us less experienced guys with tips and advice.

Thanks for the photo of your build. Beautiful!

Looks great Chris and congrats on getting your plates. I'm still waiting for mine in CA but have a two month pass and just hit 700 miles last night. Think I'll post a page with my issues thus far as well. I know this helped me during my build when other posted this.

Semper Fi (From an Army guy)

Thanks, Ted. It may still be in gel coat, but the smile on my face while driving is just as big.

Semper Fi! My son was in the Army, attached to the 161st SOAR in Fort Campbell. My niece was a captain in the Army as well, so Army is family to me.

[Ted G]

I was also at Fort Campbell... Go 101st Airborne!! I was a medic in Field Artillery

[danmas]

I was also at Fort Campbell... Go 101st Airborne!! I was a medic in Field Artillery

I was a red leg also!

[Papa]

I was also at Fort Campbell... Go 101st Airborne!! I was a medic in Field Artillery

I was a red leg also!

101st Air Assault here! Screaming Eagle or according to the helicopter pilots, dope-on-a-rope.

[Ted G]

Air Assault!

[460.465USMC]

Congrats on being legal Chris! Go burn up the rear tires…

Dale

It's a great feeling to finally get to this point. I will need to let some smoke out of the rear tires.

[Blitzboy54]

Semper Fi my friend. Congratulations, I’m super happy for you. I hope to meet up someday.

[mmklaxer]

Congrats!! Another Red Leg here, though planted firmly on the ground during my time at Fort Hood...

[460.465USMC]

Semper Fi my friend. Congratulations, I’m super happy for you. I hope to meet up someday.

Thanks, Jesse. Yes, it would be cool to meet up. Is Wisconsin the halfway point?

Semper Fi!

Congrats!! Another Red Leg here, though planted firmly on the ground during my time at Fort Hood...

Thanks, sir. It's been fun to see your build progressing.

[460.465USMC]

I'm going to double check with Ford Performance, but from what I understand I should get 500+ miles on the motor before the professional tune. Shouldn't be an issue to drive that much by week's end.

Update: 438 miles clocked in so far. I spoke with Ford Performance on Friday, and they said there is no special requirements for break-in before the dyno session. I expect to have at least 600-700 miles (just for fun) by then, and will get on the dyno with a fresh oil change/filter.

[460.465USMC]

Priority #1 is under control: driving and smiling. Up to 620 miles now. I underestimated the level of confidence I'd have driving a car I built. To be honest it lacks a bit. I suppose extra caution is best during the shakedown phase, which for me is probably in the 1,000 mile range. A couple brief spurts up to 80+ MPH to pass on the highway, but pretty tame otherwise. So far so good.

One of the items I'm most surprised (pleasantly) about is how well the car tracks given my DIY alignment. No complaints so far.

Been able to knock out some small items between drives. Here's what I've been up to.

Herb's door panels: I figured I'd wait until paint, but quickly realized there would be just too much storage utility to leave them collecting dust on the shelf. So, I mounted the door panels. Nothing special here other than they fit like a glove. I'm happy I chose the larger pocket option.




Coyote engine cover: as mentioned previously, I bought a modified Coyote Gen 1 cover from Forte. The initial fitment was good. But once the silicone elbow was in place it did not fit. Not even very close. I trimmed it in about four places--see blue arrows below--and it fits now. I used an air saw to make the rough cuts, then finished with round and flat hand files. Worked pretty good. I'm planning to add some color when the rest of the car is painted.




Side pipe heat control: I mentioned before how hot the heat shields get I bought from Cobrastuff. With only 1/16"-1/8" air gap away from the pipe, I'm honestly not that surprised. They get hot enough to burn skin quickly. Long story short, I picked up a couple 4" clamps from Cobrastuff which mount to the 4" muffler section. The 3" clamps at the rear were reused, but with 1/4" spacers added. The result is I doubled the air gap, and dramatically dropped the temperature of the heat shields.

I did a quick comparison between additional air gap and the smaller gap. With the pipes at operating temperature, here's what I found:

• Before (1/16"-1/8" gap). Forward edge of shield: 220 deg. Middle: 245 deg. Rear: 178 deg.
• After (~1/4" gap). Forward edge of shield: 138 deg. Middle: 160 deg. Rear: 125 deg.

The shield also better matches the contour of the pipe. Whereas before it pulled in at the corners where it attaches to the clamps. I also slid the shield to the rear about 3", so it better protects where your foot naturally wants to go when exiting (good tip from Fman).




A very kind forum member sent my wife and I a memento of our son, Ben. I found a very good spot to hang it from the dash, just forward of the shifter. We wish so much he were here to go for a ride.




Next week, I have an appointment with a local tuner who also has a dyno. I'm very interested to experience the before and after. The Coyote is running pretty darn good right now. However, the exhaust smells like it's running a bit rich, and it has thrown the two air sensor related fault codes a couple times now.

Enjoy your build.

[Blitzboy54]

I wish Ben could go for a ride with you too. Lovely gesture indeed.

I wish you and your family well.

[M22_COBRA]

In all my experience in fighting heat in race cars... Air gap is key, but air gap with air movement past it is KING ( false floors, honeycomb / heat sync board, offset clam shell exhaust shields....)
Really nice build you got going, I'm enjoying the read as I'm in research mode right now.

PS - The Keychain is awesome. I plan on doing a memoriam with challenge coins for fallen family between the dash and the tunnel.

[460.465USMC]

Hi M22 and welcome to the F5 forum. I don't have any racecar experience, but benefits of an airgap is one of the many things I've learned about from the seasoned builders/engineers/mechanics on this forum. No doubt there is a formula somewhere to estimate the benefit. I was taken aback to see the benefit of an additional 3/16" inch or so. Wow.

Best wishes on your research. Lots of fun awaits if you decide to go for it.

[460.465USMC]

It's been pretty smoky here in Spokane recently, so I've been spending time in the garage whittling away at my list of remaining items. Recently completed are the radiator aluminum panels, front grilles, front license plate mount, and rear wheel spacers.

Radiator aluminum panels: the three radiator panels (sides and bottom) that come with the kit all required some trimming to fit. I opted for bulb seal along the top, so needed to trim a little material on those. It was quite a few rounds of fit, trim, and repeat. But, like many aspects of the build it eventually comes together with some patience.

Here's a view of the PS side panel. I painted a large batch of black rivets a while back, so used a few to fasten the side panels. The lower two holes are for 10-32 screws to fasten the side to the lower horizontal radiator panel. I did the same on the DS.




Front grilles: I opted for the Breeze front grille set, which includes a grill for each of the four openings. They come in raw aluminum, so I powder coated to match the headlight trim rings, etc. The main opening is secured with 10-32 screws, so removable in case I need access. Two each top and bottom. The main grille is sandwiched between the body and the horizontal radiator panel. The other three are held in place with silicone.




Front license plate bracket: if your state requires a front plate, the aluminum bracket from Replicaparts is a good option. I also powder coated it to match the theme. There is about 6" of clearance from the bottom of the plate to the ground. This is well above the lowest part of the body.




Rear wheel spacers: I had these in mind as a future enhancement to allow my 315/R17 rear tires to better fill out the wheel well. However, I decided to pull the trigger now after realizing the spacers will (more importantly!) also increase the e-brake caliper-to-wheel clearance. The wheel opens up [i.e. ID increases] from center to the inboard edge. I measured the ID of my wheel with my digital caliper and determined a 1" spacer will give >3 mm of additional clearance in diameter (1.6 mm more in radius).

Early on, I removed material from the top of the caliper to provide the necessary clearance. However, after I put some miles on, I discovered the top of the e-brake caliper still makes contact (barely). I'm assuming the contact is caused by expansion of the wheel after it warms a bit.

1" wheel spacer




View before adding 1" spacer




View with spacer




Smooth sailing on e-brake clearance? Check. Smooth sailing on wheel well clearance? Fail. Fail on the DS. We all know the bodies are not symmetrical. I've discovered one more asymmetrical location for my particular body is the rear wheel wells. The DS extends ~5/16" less than the PS. With the spacer installed, the DS wheel well lip rubs on the outer edge of the tire in sync with dips in the road. No issue on the PS. Dang! I was so close to calling this one complete.

What to do? I have a 1/2" spacer on order for the DS. I may also trim ~1/4" off the wheel well lips (common practice), which I hadn't done yet. We'll see if the wheel studs are long enough for the 1/2" spacer, or if I'll need to replace with longer studs. Thankfully, I did not need to trim the wheel studs because my wheels have pockets plenty deep for the original studs. Thankful X2 that I didn't apply the red thread locker that came with the wheel spacers. I used blue, and will monitor. I can always come back later and apply red once they've been proven. I've learned (mostly) that I can get bitten by even the simplest of "mods" like adding an innocent wheel spacer. Thanks to Fman for planting the blue loctite idea in my mind when he added his spacers.

Happy building!

[buttsjim]

Congratulations on getting the Cobra legally on the road. I have really enjoyed your thread, and am looking forward to reading your driving experiences.
Jim B

[cc2Arider]

Looks good Chris! I just noticed some texture on your radiator panel -- is this powercoating or?

Craig C

[460.465USMC]

Congratulations on getting the Cobra legally on the road. I have really enjoyed your thread, and am looking forward to reading your driving experiences.
Jim B

Thanks, Jim! It's an absolute blast to drive. I really enjoy the visceral driving experience.

Looks good Chris! I just noticed some texture on your radiator panel -- is this powercoating or?

Craig C

Thanks, Craig. Yes, the radiator surround panels (sides and bottom) are powder coated to match other visible panels, such as the dash and transmission tunnel cover. It's Charcoal Rock from Prismatic Powders.