"The Black Mamba" build

[Mark Dougherty]

Eric
Great job
outstanding work

It helps motivate you also when Dave Smith says he will put your car in the FFR booth at SEMA.

Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing it in the FFR booth This Year.

[Erik W. Treves]

Started interior ........and...... it's a roller!

[Wayne Presley]

Congrats Erik

[Erik W. Treves]

thanks .. your support has been awesome!!

[Erik W. Treves]

Started fitting the body...everything is pretty much right on.....dash is coming along as well

[Gumball]

As a guy who is quickly approaching five years (this coming October) on a Roadster build, your progress amazes me.

[Wayne Presley]

Yeah, not bad for an Army guy :-)

[Erik W. Treves]

Yeah, not bad for an Army guy :-)

Hee hee...given the right set of "technical manuals"...

[Mark Dougherty]

you know
for some as vertically challenged as yourself, you do good word

[Erik W. Treves]

thanks Mark

[Wayne Presley]

Yeah, not bad for an Army guy :-)

you know
for some as vertically challenged as yourself, you do good work

That's some east coast speed machine love....

[dagall]

Man, That is looking good. Question about the side pipes. Are they supposed to stick out like the Roadster pipes or will they tuck more under the body when your done?

[Erik W. Treves]

here is the original

Ford+Cobra+1962+CSX+2001+3A.jpg

[NukeMMC]

Man, That is looking good. Question about the side pipes. Are they supposed to stick out like the Roadster pipes or will they tuck more under the body when your done?

I believe the FIA rules required the sidelines to not be outside of a plumb line from the body's width. Eric's basis for his build is CSX2001, which was not an FIA car, but was raced in Europe and had FIA and comp-spec work done. As you can see by his pics of CSX2001 above and in earlier posts, he is keeping things very close.

[Erik W. Treves]

Thanks...I am trying to stay as close to the original as I can...I took some departures in places..the tires for one. I could have gone with original tires, but they are very expensive and handle like crap...I will plan on driving the car afterwards..so the Hoosiers seemed reasonable and they don't look too bad...the radiator upper hose is on the opposite side than stock..but the FFR radiator was free with the kit... lot's of little things here and there, but I am TRYING to stay as close to the core as possible.. the black wheels...I think this is a personal choice here as well. The Meatballs will be vinyl and not painted. The emblems on the nose and trunk are $300 a piece...I am going to have to think about that for a bit... anyway...it may not be perfect or exact, but I think I have given it my best and hopefully the end result will be my best car...though the Green Lantern is a hell of a car!

[kkcalm5]

Erik
first gotta say very nice work.
I am looking at a 33 HR build in the near future and am liking the 289, may have to rethink.
question: there has ben lots of talk on the boards of the problem with fittmit of the body and panels on the 33 and MK4
How is the fittmit on the 289 since you have one of the first and are at that stage.
thanks
kevin

[Erik W. Treves]

no issues with any of the panels or the body...

[Erik W. Treves]

Working through the final details before paint...I covered the tunnel...it looked great all day...it has developed a small crease just below the shifter..so I may have to recover... but overall I like the look... I also changed out the yellow lenses for period correct clear and then got colored bulbs... roll bar should be here tomorrow so I should be able to weigh the car and setup the suspension...have to get moving. I have to carry the car down to House Of Power and get some VeryCoolParts dyno tuning for these webers...the thing fires right up and sounds awesome...I hope we're close! I snap a pic tomorrow with the scales and roll bar.

[Raceral]

I'm getting that tingle up my leg

[Erik W. Treves]

TMI...lol

[Mark Dougherty]

eric

grear progress so far

[Erik W. Treves]

Went for a short drive around the block today....drives nice....WAY louder than my turbo car...

[Erik W. Treves]

dyno time (311 HP /386 TQ) AND DROPPED OFF FOR PAINT!

[Mark Dougherty]

hey
look at that
A Wayne P siting
You know its right if he tunes it

[Erik W. Treves]

Now that I have 5 minutes and have had a good night sleep, I figured I would debrief the trip to "house of power"...

So kinda of a whirl wind trip..Hit the road Sunday afternoon and back to the house monday night...

Once again..thanks to Wayne Presley! I have to say, I followed his recommendations to a tee and did not deviate...this paid off huge when it came down to the mustard.

The car fires right up and has excellent idle characteristics. Responds excellent to throttle and sounds awesome. I spend a lot of time sync'ing the carbs and Wayne gave it the thumbs up when he rechecked it. The Mallory dissy worked perfect right out of the box as did the crane ignition.

The car has a VERY broad power band from 2000-5000. The carbs did come setup rich. We did not have the jets to get the AFR down to where we needed, but made a change anyway to see how the car would react. It reacted in a very predictable manner, which was really neat to see, since I am fuel injection guy...too easy...more work than pushing a few buttons, but still easy... I had Wayne order me up some smaller jets and will make the change...my guess is that I will pickup a little up top.. The cam is just the limiting factor I believe at this point. No big deal since most of my driving is in the 2000-5000 range.

Body is at paint...so this weekend I will finsih up installing the interior and getting everything finished.

I was able to get 4* caster and 1* camber out of the Hotrod spindles with pin drives...but that's it! I will probably leave it like this...might make a slight adjustment..but looks good.

anyway...I will add more as i think about it....

once again!!!!

THANKS WAYNE!!!!!!!!

[Jeff Kleiner]

Really great numbers Erik! All those torques will make it so much fun to drive

I was able to get 4* caster and 1* camber out of the Hotrod spindles with pin drives...but that's it! I will probably leave it like this...might make a slight adjustment..but looks good.

You didn't say whether camber is + or -. I retrofitted one recently, also a power steering car, and was running out of adjustment at similar settings. By shortening the rear adjuster sleeve approximately 1/4" I was able to achieve my desired -.75* camber and +7 degrees caster.

Cheers,
Jeff

[Erik W. Treves]

+3 caster. not sure how it would drive with - caster>?

BTW ..that was - 1* camber...

Good news is I don't have to rip off my front end !!!

[stack]

Great work Erik. It is going to be some car.

stack

[rec1971]

may b I missed it in post ,,,,but what size tires,,,,an where would u get them ??

[Erik W. Treves]

tires are 245/60/15 and 275/60/15

[rec1971]

could u fit a305-315 size tire o your car?? or r these tires about as big as u could go??did u get the tires from a hoosier dealer?? like 2 know more about tires??? looks like a awesome car,,,have u decided on paint???what about a wrap??

[Erik W. Treves]

No wrap...it will be black. Do a search..tons of info on tire sizing. Tire width is a factor that needs to be taken in account as well as overall diameter...Tires can be bought on Summit Racing.

[Erik W. Treves]

Pretty much finished up the rolling chassis...interior is all in and dash is fully functional. I just have to wipe everything down one more time and begin the waiting game on the paint....guess I will just clean the garage next weekend....need to start working on getting it titled as well...

here is the dash...I need to add the labels for the switches...(Spare "diff", "wiper", "Aux", "Hazz") and then BATT.

on the dash...top left toggle is lights, top black knob is heater blower w/pull for heat, bottom black knob is gauge dimmer...

[WIS89]

Erik-

Spectacular! Everything is just perfect, and your build has been so fast as well. It is really a great model for others to emulate.

I have really enjoyed following your build, and can't wait to see her all buttoned up.

Really well done!

Regards,

Steve

[Erik W. Treves]

Wow.. Thanks. Glad you enjoyed the journey

[Erik W. Treves]

As I wait for paint....

the real one...



my attempt...

[carlewms]

Eric,

Very nice...dash and your recreation of the sub panel look great.

Carl

[ehansen007]

What's that medallion? Would be cool to get that too but could be a tough find. Looks like a masons badge or similar.

[Erik W. Treves]

St. Christopher..I ordered one from Germany ...so still working it

[Gumball]

Eric,

I'm having some difficulty with wheels and tires on my Mk3 and noticed that the pic you have in post 98 looks similar to the issue I have. When I did my bodywork, I was able to shift the body over a little to account for what seems to be a normal misalignment of the older FFR bodies in relation to the front wheels. With the 17" wheels I was originally using, the 245 tires had a nearly vertical sidewall and they were at the edge of acceptable in relation to the fender flare. I picked up a set of the FFR 15" wheels and just had Avon CR6ZZ tires mounted on them today. Unfortunately, these new tires (also 245 in the front) have a much more pronounced sidewall bulge and look like that pic in post 98.

It appears that in post 102 you've corrected some of the protruding sidewall, but it could just be the angle. Did you do anything between those pics to align the body or move the tire in (negative camber, perhaps)?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated... I'm thinking my best bet will be to order a set of custom backspaced wheels from Richard Oben at North Racecars.