Mladen's MK4 Build Thread

[mladen]

Starting a bleated build thread for my MK4 Roadster. Will try to catch up to the current step, and add notes and photos as I remember and find them.

Build:

MK4 Complete Kit - Order date 03/04/2021 - Delivery Date 07/22/2022:
- Powder coated chassy
- FFR Power Steering
- Hydraulic clutch
- Vintage low-back seats
- FFR vintage metric gauges
- 15" Halibrand wheels with Cooper Cobra tires (235/60 R15, 295/50 R15)
- Sun visors and wind wings
- Chrome driver roll bar (passenger life deemed not worth the purchase of a second roll bar. J/k, going with just the one for the looks)
- Battery cut-off switch
- Side louvers and brake duct wire mesh
- 2018 IRS

Additions/changes to the FFR kit:
- Blueprint 427w EFI, Stage 1, Alternator + PS, with TKX manual with 'long' 5th gear (Ordered 05/11/2021, expected delivery 08/29/2022)
- Mike Forte's throttle linkage
- Gordon Levy's Wilwood Brake kit for 15" wheels
- Gasn polished headers
- Russ Thomspon turn signal, drop trunk, gas pedal
- FFmetal firewall forward kit
- FFR heater/defroster
- Mike Everson radiator aluminum, firewall support, rear quickjack plates, underdash filler panel, steering and windshield trim plates
- FFR quickjack bumpers
- Darkwater Customs door sill trim, behind seat storage cubby
- Cobraheat seat heaters

Still considering:
- Herb's door panels
- Glovebox
- Alex's wheel well liners (if available)
- Footwell air vents
- Cup holder
- In-tank fuel pump
- Breeze automotive radiator and related accessories
- Battery relocation kit
- LED lights
- Boig radiator tubes
- FFR oil cooler

[DIBaledo]

mladen,
Great work on the inventory tracking spreadsheet. My kit is scheduled for delivery in early November and this is a great way to review what’s in store for me. I know there has been a lot of discussion about why this is not directly available from FFF though I guess it’s really different for each build. How did you get it in excel? Were you able to import it directly from what FFR sent you or did you have to separately type in each entry?

David…

[mladen]

mladen,
Great work on the inventory tracking spreadsheet. My kit is scheduled for delivery in early November and this is a great way to review what’s in store for me. I know there has been a lot of discussion about why this is not directly available from FFF though I guess it’s really different for each build. How did you get it in excel? Were you able to import it directly from what FFR sent you or did you have to separately type in each entry?

David…

It was a pretty manual process. I scanned the shipping list and then did OCR on every page, then manually transferred it to sheets. OCR is not perfect either so I had to do a lot of manual editing and formatting. It's been really helpful so far, making it easy for me to search through by part name or number when I need to find something. The sheet should be mostly usable by others since it seems like FFR follows a pattern with what box contains which parts. What throws it off a little bit is items that are on backorder and arrive separately. I've been throwing those into an "other" box, but you could potentially add them to boxes where they belong. If I had done that I probably wouldn't have spent 3 hours looking for the 4 nuts that hold the brake and clutch switches

[mladen]

Here's a long post with some past updates.

07/22/2021 - The big day. Kit delivery

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It was a bit hectic delivery. I'm fairly certain I checked that box that I foresee issues with delivery by using a giant 18-wheeler. The driver was surprised too. He couldn't even enter my driveway. We ended up loading parts onto his dolly and then slowly towing them up to the house with my UTV After it was all done, he thought he would have to reverse out of our neighbourhood, half a mile to the main road. Luckily it didn't rain those days so within a short 10 minutes he managed to turn around on the empty lot across us. It was also the day I had all new cabinets for the garage delivered, so it's a mess (not that its much better now)

Does everyone sit in the car as the first thing when you get it, or is that just me?

[mladen]

08/15/2021 - First boxes from the POL started coming in.

The list has almost 100 items on it. A lot of stuff on backorder and missing. Including the build manual

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I got the wrong seats. FFR promptly shipped out the right ones and a shipping label for the return.

The second order of business, sending the steering boss to Russ for the turn signal modification.

[mladen]

09/01/2021 - Got the turn signal mod back from Russ

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09/21/2021 - More POL parts coming in, including the manual

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10/17/2021 - Correct set of seats has arrived

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Still not making any progress on the car really. Missing a lot of the pieces needed for the initial steps, and don't feel confident yet about doing this out of turn. Also, we moved into the house about a month before the kit arrived, so I spent about a year renovating things from the basement to the roof, which took a lot of time.

[mladen]

12/11/2021 - Winter is off to a very warm start. Spent the day building the body buck so I can occupy only one bay in the garage

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Part of the renovation in the house included new drywall, I took the opportunity to replace/upgrade the insulation. That left me we a lot of old insulation, that I thought would be a great idea to throw in the attic space above the garage, which is uninsulated. Turns out it's pretty tiring to walk on joists, and also crouch to reach all the corners as the roof slopes down. Long story short, if anyone is interested to know, the circumference of my *** is just shy of the circumference of this hole in the ceiling. I manage to hold myself up and not fall completely through. Stay safe everyone.

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[mladen]

01/22/2022 - Actual work on the car begins

Removed all the aluminum panels. Started installing the front lower control arms, and hit my first snag. No matter how much I tried to persuade it, the second bolt just couldn't align. After reaching out to FFR, Dan suggested I try doing it in reverse. So After setting the right bolt first, the left one aligned much easier. Still a bit mindblown about how that works, but it worked, so I'm happy

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[mladen]

01/30/2022

Received the Gasn headers. It was quite the wait, but they are absolutely gorgeous. The problem? I received 302s instead of 351s. It will be a bit more to get the right ones but Georgies is on it!

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Managed to put together the front wheel assemblies without issues (or so I thought, update later), including the brakes from Gordon. Started prepping the pieces for the rear wheels.

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[mladen]

01/31/2022 - The day of the first costly mistakes

I made an assumption based on missing information about assembling the rear rotors. I torqued the bolts to 25 ft-lbs and stripped one. Called Wilwood support, and learned that, yeah, 25 is way too much. Should be 15. Downside? On the rear rotors, the threads are in the rotor itself. Implication? Buying a new rotor and bolts. Cost? $130. Kinda glad that the bolt stripped the threads, had it not I might have assumed that everything is fine, and risked a pretty catastrophic failure down the road (no pun intended).

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The other issue? Replacing the wheel studs on the rear wheel hubs. Knocking the original ones out was easy. Putting in the new ones, not so much. I used washers, which mostly got bent. This resulted in the 5 studs not being perfectly aligned and the brake rotor would not go on, even with moderate persuasion. Getting them inserted using nuts required more force than what the manual suggests the torque should be. All of this led me to doubt the bolts because of the stress I put on them. So again I decided to pay for my mistake and for peace of mind. Bought a new hub and bolts for about $185. I also invested in the Lisle 22800 Wheel Stud Installer which made the process much easier the second time. I thoroughly suggest it.

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[mladen]

02/03/2022 - IRS Center Section

I stressed a lot about drilling out the front holes in the center section as I read quite a few stories online about difficulties with it. Or that I might slightly be changing the direction of it and create alignment issues when mounting. One of the suggestions I ran into was to use a reamer bit like this one. I haven't even tried a regular drill bit, but the reamer made it feel trivially easy.

I used the floor jack to prop it up, and a couple of spare sets of arms that belonged to my neighbors, and we quickly got it into place. The first 3 holes (fronts and driver side one in the back) aligned easily, but it made it impossible to align the last one. We struggled for about an hour. Tried using a pry bar to gently coax the center section into place, we also tried ratchet straps. Eventually, what I did was pull the metal sleeve toward the back out of the rubber bushing. What this allowed me to do is to have more free movement of the tip of the bolt by moving the head side to side or up and down. I was able to angle it slightly, but enough where it aligned with the hole in the center section. Now, the stress here was that you have to do this blind, that is, you do not know exactly how it aligned, and because this part is not perfectly aligned and the bolt is not angled a bit, you do feel more resistance when threading it in than you do with the others that align perfectly. This made me consider if it was crossthreading or not, which would damage the mounting point. I held my breath and decided to go slowly. Luckily the pressure didn't change and eventually the bolt thread fine.

I also set up some of the control arms for the rear suspension at this point. One thing I noticed here is that some of the bolts I received had a standard vs flanged head. I reached out to FFR and they quickly sent me the correct one.

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[mladen]

02/03/2022 - Non build-related item

Decided to adopt this little cutie and share a life together. Her name is Babygirl and she's a Lab mix. About 12 weeks old.

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[mladen]

08/21/2022 - Back to work - More brakes

A lot of time has passed since I last worked on the car. I was missing some small items that I needed in order to proceed per the order in the manual. I also had a ton of renovation to finish in the house, painting, new interior doors, new floors, but finally ready to proceed. At this point, barring any discoveries down the road, I think I have everything from the FFR kit!

I started by completing work on the brakes. For the rears, I need to tap the mounting holes on the callipers. They're aluminum, and it was my first time doing this. I actually used the aluminum pieces that we trim from the rear spindles and tapped some threads into them as practice. The work on the calipers went without a hitch and I have some nice threads cut. Pretty happy with the Gearwrench tap and die set I bought, the tools worked well and the threads feel very tight (not sloppy) when screwing in the bolt.

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I also wrapped up the fronts by tying all the bolts with safety wire. I decided to do it with them mounted, thought I'd save myself the hassle of taking them off and putting them back on again... How little did I know.

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An embarrassing point. So much time has passed that I lost track of the e-brake. Gordon Levy said he wass sending it in a separate package. Now I don't know if I haven't gotten it yet, or I did and I don't know where I placed it at this point I'm not even sure what exactly I'm supposed to be looking for (what the contents of the e-brake package are). Reaching out to Gordon to see if he can help me.

[mladen]

08/23/2022 - Pedal Box

Worked on the peddle box today. I didn't read the entire section before proceeding, so I didn't pay attention to the balance bar adjustment, specifically the spacing. This cost me a bit of time later. The first thing I did was install all the aluminum panels for the DS footbox, then mark and drill all the holes. After checking all alignments I proceeded to install the front panel first.

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I'm using clamps here to hold it in place as I siliconed it to the frame. Only the bottom left portion will be riveted to the frame, the rest hold onto the other panels. After doing this I realized that predrilling the holes might not have been the best idea as I didn't consider that I will be glueing this panel first. It's possible that the drilled holes will not align when I get to them.

Another observation is that the side panels on the DS footbox came from FFR with extension mods already made, so I didn't do anything extra to modify them. I'm not sure if it's possible to squeeze out even more space by further mods, but I decided to not try that at this point.

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I set up the pedal box as instructed. Added both the clutch and brake switches, assembled all three master cylinders, mounted the pedal box on the frame, installed the master cylinders. Then I realized that adjusting the distance between the two brake mounts requires not having at least one of the master cylinders connected, so I had to remove it. The distance needs to be between 0.20" and 0.25", so you might as well do this even before you install the pedal box in the car. The adjustment between the front and the rear you definitely want to do once everything is in place though.

I decided last minute to go with the Russ Thompson throttle pedal, so waiting on that part to arrive to install.

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Also today, my Cooper Cobra tires have arrived. Purchased on Amazon. The fronts have a 5/22 manufacture date, but the rears are 5/21. Not great but not bad. I guess they probably won't last that long as the first pair anyway

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[mladen]

08/25/2022 - Power steering rack and steering column

Moved to installing the steering. While prepping the rack I notice that it came with bushings installed already. Trying it out I quickly realized these will not work for the FFR frame, so I removed them and started looking through the parts. Sure enough, there are two bolts, washers, nuts, metal sleeves, and 4 rubber bushings (halves) that work instead. Getting the rack installed took quite a bit of angling to get it into a position where it would sit into the mounting points. The manual suggests mounting the driver side bolt first and then dropping the passenger side into place. This nominally worked, but when I install the driver side bolt it leaves the passenger side rotated upward where I could not get the holes in the mounts to align. I removed the bolt on the driver's side and replaced it with a screwdriver. This kept that side in place but still allowed a lot of wiggle room. I could now twist the passenger end enough to put the bolt through, and after that, the driver-side bolt still aligned well. I swear this is some geometry black magic happening

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Onto the tie rods. The manual suggests that you thread them on by an inch or two, then check the center to center distance, which should be 53 and 1/16". Once I did that I realized that the rack will be way too wide and it probably would fit only if both wheels were turned to full lock towards outside of the car. I reached out to FFR and Dan G. suggested to center the wheels as best as I can, and then keep threading the rods until I can match that. In my case, that meant threading the tie rod ends until I had about 1.95" of thread left on each side. And that's when the fun stopped...

Trying to marry the tie rod ends to the steering rods, I realized that the bolt won't fit from the bottom as instructed. But, it will from the top. Then, cold sweat started breaking out of me, as the realization hit me that the steering rods are not identical, and the hole is tapered, and wider on one side. I look over the steering rods to see if there are any markings as I didn't remember any, and sure enough, none. I look back at the manual, and the only thing it mentions, along with a low-def black and white photo, is that you should install it so the tie rod ends mount from the bottom. Sure, I thought to myself, why not, I'll pay attention to that when I get to the tie rods which I didn't even have yet at the time. The only thing the photo told me was that the steering rods should be angled outward when installed. When you have a 50/50 chance to install them right, of course, you will not install them in the correct way. So I spent some time in a state of grief, on the verge of crying, as my mind failed to accept the fact that I will have to take the front wheels completely apart. Quickly looking at the bolts, it was clear that I can't just remove the nuts, the bolts were too long and hit against the hub. So my next desperate attempt to minimize the undoing I have to do was to try removing the castle nut, maybe that will give me enough room to remove the steering rod. Nope. Just got me extra work as I have to go to the store to buy more cotter pins. Eventually, I caved in, removed the brake calipers, brake rotors, axle nut, wheel hubs... I was able to remove both steering rods. At this point, it was getting late, and my mood was not the best, but I wanted to reassemble everything. Well, life has a way to kick you when you're down, to really drive the point home and make sure you don't forget the lesson. So, what happened you ask? Well, I reassembled everything, proceeded to check if the tie rod ends align now, and realized that I installed one of the steering rods in the opposite direction, angled towards the center of the car, not out........... Back to taking everything apart I went. I wrote a rant thread about this in the main forum. I got three things out of it: I vented, I decided to start this doc, collecting the things "unwritten" in the manual (hoping that others will start contributing to it too), and lastly, Gilmore pointed out that the axle nuts are 'single use' and that I should replace them, and let's be honest, after all this mine have seen a lot of action. So I ordered new ones.

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Moving on to the steering column. Fairly straightforward, but I did have to do a couple of things that others have documented in various build threads. First, when I put everything together, I ended up with about 0.5" of the lower steering shaft protruding into the u-joint. I found 3 answers to this issue around. The most common, which I ended up doing, is mounting the bearing inside of the footbox. Pretty easy, though you might need to grind off a little bit of the bearing mounting bracket or the pedal box mounting bracket, which I did. The second option suggested to another member by Dan G was to split the difference between the two u-joints and have it protrude a little bit on both sides. The third, and most extreme, is to shorten the lower steering shaft.

Another issue I had was with the upper steering shaft would not go through the upper bushing in the pillow block. You're not supposed to use a lot of force to drive it in, so I used 600 grit sandpaper and gently sanded it down until it could go through with mild pressure by hand.

Finally, the manual only suggests to drill and indent for the set screw on the 1" DD shaft. I ended up making them in each place where there was one in the u-joints. Three in total if I remember correctly.

EDIT: I rewatched the FFR build video for the steering system and one thing caught my eye, in the video, they call out that you should orient the pillow block so that the set screws are pointed into the firewall. The manual does the opposite and tells you to point it toward the rear of the car. I followed the manual when I installed. Not sure if this has any implication, just wanted to call it out for noobs like me who depend on the written instructions a lot

[mladen]

Quick update, got the tires mounted on the wheels. They look really nice, can't wait to see them on the car!

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I went to do a final check on the steering system and I noticed that the upper u-joint is slightly rubbing on the flange bearing. You can see the little groove that's left on the u-joint where they rubbed against each other. I can definitely feel a slight grinding as I turn the steering shaft.

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Does anyone have recommendations for a solution here? What comes to mind as options are:

1. Don't do anything, eventually, the friction will reduce, but some will still be left over. Not sure if this can have downstream effects. Simplest, but definitely not ideal.
2. I change the position of the lower steering shaft, moving it slightly into both u-joints. This will move the upper u-joint downward, clearing the bearing. But, it will also require moving the upper shaft down with it, which will slightly move the eventual final position of the steering wheel closer to the dashboard. Not sure if this will have any implications.
3. Using a bracket to move the flange bearing even further into the footbox. My kit did come with 3 of these brackets that came with the steering hardware, that look like they fit the description. I haven't run into an explanation in the manual of what they are supposed to be for yet.
Edit: 4. I file off a little bit of the bushing bracket where there is contact. The bushing is angled away from the lower part of the bracket so it will not impact the operation.

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[edwardb]

#2 is the right answer IMO. Move the joint down a bit by adjusting the u-joints so it clears the bearing shell. Don't quite understand how that changes your steering wheel location. That's determined by the upper steering shaft location. Which is movable inside the lower shaft.

[mladen]

Thanks edwardb. Maybe I'm not thinking through that point. At the moment, the upper u-joint has the middle shaft (1" DD, hollow one) set flush in the joint. And the upper steering shaft is inserted just until the washer disappears. That means that if the upper joint moves down, both the 1" DD and upper shaft will move with it, to preserve the 1"DD still being flush. Though I doubt this would be more than 1/4".

[edwardb]

Thanks edwardb. Maybe I'm not thinking through that point. At the moment, the upper u-joint has the middle shaft (1" DD, hollow one) set flush in the joint. And the upper steering shaft is inserted just until the washer disappears. That means that if the upper joint moves down, both the 1" DD and upper shaft will move with it, to preserve the 1"DD still being flush. Though I doubt this would be more than 1/4".

Maybe I'm not explaining well. Or missing something in your explanation. The upper steering shaft (the one the steering wheel attaches to) is supposed to slide in the hollow lower shaft. It's that way in order to be collapsible. Not that we ever want to find out how that works... So the location of the hollow lower shaft doesn't dictate the location of your steering wheel. You can set it where you want, within a certain range. The 1/4" or whatever you need to move the lower shaft shouldn't be an issue. If the upper steering shaft is tight in the lower hollow shaft to where it won't reasonably move (some builders have that issue) you need to address that. Could be as easy as light sanding with emery cloth, removing rust if there is any, removing any burrs, etc. Discussed in a number of posts.

[mladen]

It's possible that there are further adjustments down the road that I'm not thinking about. But here's how I saw that. The hollow DD shaft is "locked" into position with the u-joint by being flush with it. The steering column (to which the wheel attaches) is similarly locked into position with the hollow DD shaft by the fact that the manual says to drive it in only until the spacer disappears. So my thinking is that if I make any modifications around the lower shaft which result in the upper u-joint moving down, it will have to move the DD shaft and the upper shaft with them, unless I other let the DD slide out a bit, or retract the upper shaft more. I'm assuming that I will leave those two as is, so the whole thing would move down. But as you said, 1/4" won't make a difference really.

[edwardb]

...The steering column (to which the wheel attaches) is similarly locked into position with the hollow DD shaft by the fact that the manual says to drive it in only until the spacer disappears...

The steering column is meant to slide as I described previously. "Drive" is a relative term. But if you had to hit it so hard it doesn't move and is locked, you've defeated its purpose and made this situation harder than it needs to be. I'll stop the back and forth. Have explained it as best as I can. Good luck.

[JB in NOVA]

Mladen, just caught up with your build. Looks like you're moving along! There are several of us in Northern Virginia who have recently completed builds or are still in the process, so feel free to reach out to any of us if you have questions or want to borrow any tools or equipment. For instance, I have an engine hoist gathering dust in my garage, which you are free to borrow when the time comes. Good luck, and I hope to see you at cars & coffee when you're done.

[mladen]

Mladen, just caught up with your build. Looks like you're moving along! There are several of us in Northern Virginia who have recently completed builds or are still in the process, so feel free to reach out to any of us if you have questions or want to borrow any tools or equipment. For instance, I have an engine hoist gathering dust in my garage, which you are free to borrow when the time comes. Good luck, and I hope to see you at cars & coffee when you're done.

Thanks JB! Wish I looked at your build thread earlier. Seems we got caught with the same issue on the steering rods I'm definitely looking forward to meeting owners/builders in the area soon, and I appreciate the offer on tool loans. I do have an engine hoist, but I see you have some wipers for the inspection day that I wouldn't mind borrowing if they're available

[mladen]

Ok, very big day today! Probably felt just a little less excitement than when my kit was arriving. The engine came, nicely packaged and wrapped up. I can't help but think that Blueprint put the nylon intentionally in a way that you can unwrap it to see it, and then easily wrap it back up to wait for installation day

Can't wait to get this dropped in and fired up! Hopefully in 2-3 weeks.

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[JB in NOVA]

Make sure you insulate those ignition wires! (Ask me how I know). Here are some that are simple and inexpensive: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092RWJ72X...t_b_asin_title

[mladen]

I don't have the in-tank fuel pump yet, but I prepped the fuel tank as much as possible and going to mount it up. I hit a common issue, the straps are too short, get longer bolts. Something still seemed off to me. The manual says that the longer tank strap is for passenger side, when I do, the strap is so long that I easily connect the two mounting holes. The shorter one on the driver side gets nowhere near it.

Looking more closely at the photos in the manual, and mounts on my car, I see that they are reversed. The manual has the mounting bracket high on the 3/4 tube on the passenger side, and all the way at the bottom on the driver side. On my car this is reversed as you can see in the photos. This tells me that perhaps the longer strap should be on the driver side, and not the passenger, as the manual suggests. When I do this, the driver side does reach close enough for the bolt to be connected. The passenger is still too short. The strap (shorter one) is not the right shape to contour around the tank, which I did my best to correct. I also straightened the tab as mentioned in the build videos. It still leaves me a few inches short, so off to the hardware store I go to get a longer bolt. Just thought I'd mention here in case the mounting brackets are reversed for anyone else.


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First photo is when using the longer strap on passenger side. Second photo is showing both brackets. Note: (tank edge has been straightened after taking these pics)

[Chopper]

I believe your observation is correct. The bolt holes should be on the driver and passenger side on the inboard (axle side) of the tank hangers. Looks like they got swapped by accident.

[edwardb]

I'm assuming you "adjusted" the frame members after the pictures were taken to extend the plastic end pieces all the way down to the tank edge? They bend very easily and not unusual to require a slight bit of adjustment. After you bent the flange on the tank as described in the manual and you mention. Maybe won't help the bolt length situation. Do what you have to do there. But required to make sure the tank is mounted solidly. Strange your mounting tabs are reversed like that. Haven't ever seen that before.

[mladen]

Yeah, the driver side one was ok. The passenger, as seen in the photo, starts pushing against the tank when it's raised to make contact so had to bend that one member forward a bit to create more space. Still needed a much longer bolt. The original is 2" and I have a 4 1/2" now

[mladen]

Since I'm waiting for the fuel pump to arrive before I proceed, I wanted to double-check the alignment on the upper control arms, as I've seen folks needing to cut the adjusters to meet the stated measurements listed here.

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I converted these to metric as it's easier to compare the callipers against it since the divisions aren't fractional. Let's call these A: 6.875 = 174.6, B: 8.23 = 209, and C: 7.375 = 187.3

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The above photos are from the passenger side. I can get the A, and B aligned. C measurement I can't get too on the rear side. Set at the shortest position, it is still 2mm too long. Question 1: Can I leave this as is, or should I take this apart to shorten the adjuster so I can get it to spec?

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This is the driver's side. One thing that comes to mind here is, that the clevis bolt is in the rear, not in the front. I can't flip the control arm because then the upper ball joints wouldn't be angled correctly. Question 2: Did I receive two passenger side control arms or is this expected?
All the measurements on the driver side are actually in spec, so if the answer to the previous question is that it's fine, I think I'm good on this side. Though given the clevis bolt is in the back, I can only confirm measurements B and C, and not measurement A, which is expecting bolt-to-bolt measurement in the front.

[Jeff Kleiner]

The arms are not side specific; driver’s side has the welded end to the front and passenger side has it to the rear. Measure from the cross shaft pivot to the ball joint grease fitting on both sides.

Jeff

[mladen]

Thanks Jeff. That's what I did and looks like driver's side is in spec. Do you think I can leave the passenger side with the rear being 2mm too long, or should I cut the adjusting bar to bring it to spec?

[mladen]

I've decided I'll take the passenger upper control arm apart as soon as I find someone local with a lathe or milling machine to shorten it nicely.

In the meantime, started on brake lines. I followed a combination of build manual and EdwardBs build thread. Ran the lines out of the footbox as per the manual, but going from driver's side to passenger I took Edward's route.

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I bought a pretty fancy pipe bending tool, but I just can't really grok it. I ended up making all the bends by hand, around one of the posts for the roll bars to avoid kinking the lines. Worked out pretty well, aside from making the loops, as you can tell by the photos. Not the cleanest of looks

I also started on the rear brake lines.

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Of course, no part of my build is complete without mishaps. Made the first bend, and then realized the fitting slid down. I ended up using this piece for practice making loops. Ordered replacements from Summit, so completion of rear brakes will have to wait.

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One tool recommendation to make. I use this daily but never occurred to me to share it. Some time back I bought this convertible garage chair. It is a great investment. Converts to a low seat, for when you're working around the wheels and things, or to a higher one for the rest.

[mladen]

I paused work on fuel and brake lines as I'm waiting for some parts to come in. Namely, more 3/16 brake lines, since I messed one up. And an in-tank fuel pump (and related parts) from Breeze and new 3/8 brake lines from Summit.

I also took the plunge and got a crap load of stuff from Breeze that was on my potential mods list: pre-cut koolmat kit, LED lights, battery relocation kit, radiator mounts...

In the meantime, I started work on aluminum panels. Saw a really great post and pics from Jeff K around using scotchbrite pads to lightly brush the panels. I then sealed it with Sharkhide.

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It is way more elbow grease, gloves, rags, and acetone than I anticipated. How much more, you ask? I call this next picture the: "I'll just put one glove on since I'll probably use just one hand to do all this"

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The results look good though. Totally worth it. I, unfortunately, thought of this after some panels were already fully in place, so the results won't be perfect. Doing this on all panels that will be visible from up top or inside the engine bay. Everything exposed toward the road I'm planning to cover with Herculiner (truck bed lines) for protection. Trunk will be carpeted inside so also only treated below.

[mladen]

Still working on cockpit aluminum. It is taking way more time than I thought. On the order of 6hrs for each side, and still not done, nor worked on the exterior finish.

Wondering if anyone has thoughts because I ran into a couple of issues with this.

First, the front flanges. The manual tells us to mark them, but not drill them yet. I can't figure out why, nor can I find a step later in the manual that actually completes this. "this" being riveting to the A shaped piece of aluminum sitting at the front of the transmission tunnel.

Second problem, the vertical piece of both floors is instructed to only be glued to the transmission tunnel. My assumption is that it's because the top cover will sit over the edges on the sides. The problem? After keeping it with 4 clamps for 24+ hours, the aluminum peeled back very quickly. I'm using Gorilla silicone, so should be good. Any issue if I hit a couple of rivets in to keep them in place? Will it interfere with the top piece later on?

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A few suggestions for folks that will work on this. When you're installing the floor, drill holes for the rivets alongside the door a little further in. I used the standard spacing that the rivet tool provides, and once you get to adding the little side piece that is below the door, the flange can overlap those rivets. So just move them inward, there's room since the frame below is wide. Then once you add the side piece you can drill additional holes for it. I figured this out for the driver's side.

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And maybe a third question. When do you all think about waterproofing the cockpit? I have a lot of little holes everywhere where the panels don't fully meet and overlap. You can see that ugly splatter of silicone in the photo above, where I saw one. I'm getting tempted to do a similar thing all around.

Another thing the manual tells you is to install the under the door piece but not rivet the rear side, and later they have you return to do the rear corner that goes underneath it. This made no sense to me as you can clearly do these pieces together, holding them both with clecos as you drill and then gluing and riveting them both at once.

[John Ibele]

I'll do my best to answer your questions, and hopefully some more experienced builders will chime in.

First, the front flanges. The manual tells us to mark them, but not drill them yet. I can't figure out why, nor can I find a step later in the manual that actually completes this. "this" being riveting to the A shaped piece of aluminum sitting at the front of the transmission tunnel.

I've gotten to the point of buttoning up my cockpit - everything but the final fitment of the transmission top cover - and I haven't found a reason not to rivet these in place earlier.

Second problem, the vertical piece of both floors is instructed to only be glued to the transmission tunnel. My assumption is that it's because the top cover will sit over the edges on the sides. The problem? After keeping it with 4 clamps for 24+ hours, the aluminum peeled back very quickly. I'm using Gorilla silicone, so should be good. Any issue if I hit a couple of rivets in to keep them in place? Will it interfere with the top piece later on?

I think you're right about the reason the manual is written this way, but again, I don't see a problem with putting a rivet or two to hold the sides in place. I had countersink rivets on hand which I used when doing my dash, and I've found these handy in a few other places as well, including the transmission tunnel sides. That way the sides are still a flat surface after riveting, and don't create a gap with respect to the top cover when it's installed.

And maybe a third question. When do you all think about waterproofing the cockpit? I have a lot of little holes everywhere where the panels don't fully meet and overlap. You can see that ugly splatter of silicone in the photo above, where I saw one. I'm getting tempted to do a similar thing all around.

Keep in mind, this makes it harder to get the water out of the cockpit when you get caught in the rain (which you will)

I did my patching before putting my sound dampener material in place. I used silicone for small spots, keeping it as neat as I could, aluminum tape (check out the HVAC aisle at any local builder's store) along most cockpit panel seams, and then aluminum patches siliconed in place for larger gaps.

Shot of transmission side after e-brake was done, showing countersunk rivets and some aluminum tape on the A panel. And yeah ... the vinyl e-brake boot is going to do a great job keeping the rain out of my cockpit . Come to think of it, maybe this can be my cockpit drain!

Good catch-up on your build thread, and good progress! Hope that helps a bit.


Untitled by John Ibele, on Flickr

[mladen]

Thank you, Jon. These are great suggestions. I didn't even know countersunk rivets existed. I ordered a bunch from Amazon and will use those to rivet the sides in. I'm planing to use screws for the top so it can be removed if needed.

For waterproofing, also a great idea on the aluminum tape. I have some already form when I was installing a new dryer vent. And good point on the drainage. I've been stressing over any small hole, and I completely forgot the huge gaping hole that will be there for the e-brake and shifter levers

[John Ibele]

One point I missed. You do want your foot boxes sealed well, though. This is to keep the heat from the engine bay out.

[edwardb]

Thank you, Jon. These are great suggestions. I didn't even know countersunk rivets existed. I ordered a bunch from Amazon and will use those to rivet the sides in. I'm planing to use screws for the top so it can be removed if needed.

For waterproofing, also a great idea on the aluminum tape. I have some already form when I was installing a new dryer vent. And good point on the drainage. I've been stressing over any small hole, and I completely forgot the huge gaping hole that will be there for the e-brake and shifter levers

Rivets into the tunnel wall aluminum are fine. Where they contact the frame. Have always put them there on mine. If you're planning a removable cover, countersunk flush rivets along the top edge work fine. Aluminum tape works well for covering any gaps. Put it on the inside before any insulation or carpet. The only exception is where the round chassis tube goes through the footbox on the RH side front. Most including me make a filler piece out of aluminum sheet. It's a large gap. I guess I'm the exception. In 10+ years and thousands of miles (and plenty of rain...) I've never had so much water in the cockpit that a drain was needed. But if you feel the need, add something purposely after everything is done, e.g. insulation and carpet, seats installed, etc. Don't plan on water finding it's way to whatever gaps you leave behind. As for the e-brake and shifter opening, you'll find water doesn't come in through those. Even in heavy downpours. There's positive air pressure in the tunnel and unless you're fording a river or whatever (!!!) those openings don't take in water.

[mladen]

Ok, some small updates, and progress on the aluminum. I have both sides of the cockpit done as far as the manual suggests before going into the wiring harness. Before I get to that, there's some work I need to do, like doing some planning for the heater behind the firewall, and thinking about where I'm going to run air intake into the footboxes from the brake scoop openings. Oh, and still waiting for the e-brake from Gordon Levy, I need to install that and route it through before I start working on the trunk aluminum, so it's easier to access.

I started using Herculiner bed liner on the aluminum panels that will be exposed to the road but not visible from the engine bay. Won't cover everything, like inside of the trans tunnel, mainly concentrating on the bottom of the car and panels around the wheels. I'm slightly regretting this decision because it's such a mess to work with, even with miles of masking tapes and dozens of rags. I'm trying to pay attention to not apply it where it will connect to the cockpit back piece, or where the bulb seal will go. Once I get to that, I'll fill in any gaps.

During drying time I've been doing little things, like assembling the drop trunk kit, making progress on the fluid reservoirs, reading the wiring harness manual, partially installing Russ' turn signal (will do more once the dash is in place. Also need to find a local machinist to modify the boss to fit the NRG quick release).

Speaking of aluminum, the thing I predicted will end up biting me, has bit me. Predrilling the passenger footbox was a mistake. What I neglected when I fully dry-assembled it was that the front panel will be riveted into the thick mounting plate, moving the top and outer side panel further back. Now they don't align.

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You can see how that corner in the front is being bent and pushed out by the side panel, when the side panel is attached to the 2x2 (near the door hinge), and the top panel doesn't fit. I think to resolve this, I need to redrill the holes near the door and also on the top. In that middle photo, how does the positioning of the top panel look to you all? I'm thinking if it might end up being too far back and interfering with either the windshield or the dash.