Well... it's finally time to post something after lurking around here for the last 12 months...

First, I want to say thank you to all those who are active on this and other forums dedicated to FFR cars. Your posts, pics and comments have been incredibly helpful. Also thanks to the guys at factory five for their patience and for not laughing out loud at some of the stupid questions I've asked over the last year.

So the back story is I've been wanting a Cobra or Daytona Coup for years. In late 2019 I got the "will you just shut up and go do it" talk with my wife. At the time I was doing a lot of business in Boston so I arranged my schedule for a visit, that was February 21st 2020 (same day as the Porsche Club was doing a visit which was a bit confusing when I pulled into the parking lot). Anyway, the visit was important for me because I'm 6'4" and I was really concerned about fitting, which turns out was a valid concern. It's a tight fit but tolerable -- for me, there is plenty of headroom but a little tight on leg room and in the foot box for my size 13s. I met with Dave Brigham from FFR and we worked through an order for the complete kit that day. I got on a flight home that night and a few weeks later Covid-19 appeared ... Factory Five was great in the beginning of the crisis and over communicated to keep me updated. I was very concerned I wouldn't see the car for many months but I took delivery on May 31 2020 ... I'm guessing mine was one of the last cars shipped before things really shutdown due to Covid.

I thought about detailing my whole build and everything as I went but I could never do as good a job as so many others have done on this forum so I'll leave that stuff to them. I reached a major milestone last weekend in driving the car 8.5 miles in go cart mode, everything went perfectly until I ran it out of gas (don't ask - senior moment). The body is almost ready so I'll be getting that part done in the next few weeks and then it's off to registration and then hammer down.

The original plan was get the complete kit, have a project for a couple years, then end up with a hot rod that would see a track day here and there along with some local auto-cross from time to time. Well, that plan lasted about a month. With the Covid lockdowns I had a lot more time to think about and work on the car. Thank goodness I had something to do during this time but it also meant I had time to browse catalogs and websites resulting some extra spend in a few areas (ok a lot of areas). To sum it up, I ordered everything new and complete: FFR Coupe kit (sans powder coat), Blueprint 427 engine, TKO600 from American Powertrain and Moser 9" rear (3.89) and lot's of odds and ends from various sources. Everything pretty much went together as planned although a few of my upgrades required some finagling, like the radiator. My build plan was to mock up the car nearly 100% then tear it down, go to paint and power and then do final assembly. In hindsight I would take the same basic approach again if I had it to do over because it allows for mistakes and some cutting and welding before powder coating if necessary. Yea, you're basically building the car twice but I think you end up with a better build overall as a result.


10 lessons learned (in no particular order)
1. The manual is helpful and a great reference but some sections are dated or simply inaccurate (i.e. Gen 1 to 3 or Cobra not Coupe)
2. The body is not symmetrical -- this one got me in more than one place but especially when hanging the nose -- measure your fog light / hinge mounts mine were off a ton
3. Inventory is important, there are lot's of little parts (some unrelated) in bags, it can be confusing to figure out what everything is. IMO for some of the smaller things like fasteners, wire, etc. it would be easier if FFR gave a specific list of what to get because most of what you need can be ordered online or obtained at the local hardware store -- take time to organize and label things, you'll appreciate it later on -- I used paper wire tags which worked well
4. Get a plan organized from the beginning -- think through the build and get some semblance of a written plan or list together, it will force you to think through things and allow for organizing parts and prioritizing build and outsourced activities
5. Working with fiberglass sucks
6. Tools -- having the right tool for the job can make a big difference, harbor freight is a great source for cheap single / limited use tools - also good source for bits, scuff / sand pads, saw blades, electrical, etc. At a minimum invest in a quality air compressor, a pneumatic drill and riven gun, a quality set of tin snips, cut off wheel and angle grinder.
7. Clecos are your friend -- buy 200 of them
8. Wiring harness -- if you are deviating from the FFR dash/switch/knob layout you should probably consider building the wiring harness from scratch
9. A few useful websites -- summit racing, jegs, amazon, online metals, bolt depot, breeze automotive, grainger, speedway motors to name a few
10. Resources -- the google machine is a great help but don't trust everything you see on the interweb -- my first stop was always these forums and from time to time an email to FFR to validate what I found or was thinking


All in all it has been a great experience so far, I look forward to completing the project but also have started thinking about the next one and what I'd do differently which I don't think is uncommon...


Here are a couple videos -- I'll post another once the body is on

Walk around....

It's alive!