Eaton's Mk4 #9130 Oregon Build- First Year of Street legal driving

[TMartinLVNV]

That is some serious surgery! I have the Quicktime setup coming from Forte as well. Does it hang lower than a standard aluminum bellhousing?

[Mark Eaton]

That is some serious surgery! I have the Quicktime setup coming from Forte as well. Does it hang lower than a standard aluminum bellhousing?

I'm not sure but I have been advised by several experienced builders that if it hangs below the chassis to trim it. Someone even had a horror story of a low hanging bell housing catching on a speed bump and doing damage to their drive train.

[edwardb]

The SFI versions of the QuickTime bell housings have that full circle and unless you want to be banging into things, needs to be trimmed off. The non-SFI versions that I've used don't have the full circle and are flat along the bottom. Something to check when you're looking for your engine/trans combination.

[PrestonT23]

Great job on the build so far, keep it up!

[Mark Eaton]

To preface this post I must say that I have read MULTIPLE body fitting threads and spent a lot of time thinking about the advice given by very experienced builders. I think I have a good understanding of the interface between the body and chassis in three dimensions, however, my inexperience is abounding.

I began by trimming 3/8” off of the dash rolled lip and 1/4” off the rear cockpit lip using carbide tip burr on the air die grinder.

With my father helping me last weekend we installed the body with no bulb seal in place. I put in the quick jacks and to my delight the measurements from the front shock mount to the wheel arches was equal on both sides at 17-1/8"!! Great, I don't think I need to pound on the outriggers with a hammer and 2x4.



The "up and down" looks pretty good, I should have included a measuring tape here but I think I have plenty (3/4") clearance for the hood hinges. I held the hood in place and it looks like no interference .



So, I think I'm good from side to side and up and down. Next is "front to back". Here I may have a problem. The DS door jam appears to be even with the mounting plate for the striker.



On the PS the door jam is about 1/16" in front of the mounting plate.



I may be answering my own question here but I think I need to move the chassis forward a bit? How far? I've tugged it every way possible and I think the only way to accomplish forward movement is to trim the aft most trunk panels and enlarge the rollbar holes.

[Mark Eaton]

Here are some more photos. Aft trunk panels that may need to be trimmed (its the same situation on the other side).



roll bar holes which may need to be opened up to allow forward movement of the body...



dash, looks like there is room to move forward...



And here's a real rookie mistake. Notice my turn signal snuggled up under the body .



Honestly, I am so happy with the position of the turn signal I am thinking about just carving out a hole for it and leaving it there. Thoughts?

[PeteMeindl]

Nice job on fixing the issue with the transmission sticking out below the chassis just a bit, Mark! I've noticed this on my car and am also worried about the same things you are. Have others out there run into trouble with this? I don't have the same skills as Mark to remedy the situation! No plasma cutting here, unfortunately...

[Mark Eaton]

So, I took the body off and trimmed the aft trunk panels, cockpit panels, some of the dash, and some off my rear speaker panels and I now have pretty good forward position of the body.



I also had to open up the rollbar holes



Next, I worked on to the door latch mod which have been touted quite a bit. I took Fixit's advice and widened the hole on the laser cut spacer from FFR to prevent it from rubbing on the pivot



The only part of the mod that wasn't clear to me was how to separate the pivot from the latch itself. Finally I ended up whacking it with a hammer and 1/2" ratchet extension and it came apart nicely. I put in a 5/16" carriage bolt with a locking nut and washer, lubed everything with white lithium grease, tapped the knob for a #10-32 bolt. I also touched up the sanded metal with rattle can clear coat.

[Mark Eaton]

I have been looking into these systems for quit some time. Never a question of "should I put one in" but "which system is best for me". I chose the Fire Bottle ARMC-500 from Crateinsider.com. It comes with one automatic nozzle and 2-manually operated nozzle and uses Dupont FE-36 fluid.



I perseverated over three installation locations: trunk, PS foot box, and engine compartment over the PS footbox. Here's what I decided on



I modified the mounting bracket a little to make it more solid



Now that it is actually installed I realize that I have room for the 10lb system which comes with 2 automatic nozzles, oh well....

I have the automatic nozzle line running through the cockpit rear panels in proximity of the fuel tank.



Here is the pull lever for the manual activation

[Mark Eaton]

I got started on the carpet and some leather interior over the last couple weeks. I had purchased a cowhide off Ebay to cover the dash but didn't like the look. Also, the thing was damn near big enough to cover the whole car. I decided to use it for some interior instead of the dash. I'm happy with my powder coated dash.

To glue everything in I used this DAP Wellwood industrial grade HHR contact adhesive. I really like this stuff. It's tenacious and a little tricky to deal with so I just applied a little at a time. I used tailor's chalk to mark the spots for adhesive.







Subwoofer and rear speakers. The power amp is behind them. I also installed the seat brackets I had fabricated previously along with the waist belts and anti-sub belt. I secured the seat brackets with 3/16" rivets.

[Mark Eaton]

Here are the front speakers in the foot boxes. I covered the outside of them using cat saucers which I riveted the the outside of the footboxes. I also completed the DS footbox with only every 5th rivet and no seam sealer or silicone. I am positive I with have to disassemble that thing within the next 1000 miles and am now prepared .





5 channel power amp. I had the power routed through the MDS but as I read the instructions it expressly says to install a 60amp fuse within 18" of the power supply. Rather than make a bunch of phone calls to JBL or Crutchfield I just re-routed the power directly from the battery. Ignore the carpet. I will redo it at some point, maybe...



After Jeff Kleiner's recent tirade against Optima batteries (I have one of their Yellow tops) I decided I had better be diligent about keeping mine charged. I hooked it up to my charger, which I think is high quality, and set it to a 2 amp charge. I hope that qualifies as a trickle charge. The battery has been directly connected to the Holley Sniper for a year now and never dropped below 12.7 V.

Here is the DS footbox assembled and ready for disassembly!

[Mark Eaton]

Finally, I got the transmission tunnel cover installed! But not without issues... Upon install the shifter was bumping against the fore rim of the hole. I couldn't figure out how on earth that happened. I went back and looked at all my photos and it fit perfectly before I added leather. It didn't matter, it didn't fit. I took a break to think about it. I figured I could either redo the entire cover, which I really put a lot to time into, or I could switch back to an aft shifter position which is what I did. Problem solved.

[Mark Eaton]

I installed the louvers EXACTLY as per Edwardb's 8674 build. Not much to say except "Thanks Paul!"

My first time mixing HSRF

[Mark Eaton]

I also ground down the parting lines and trimmed 1/8" off the hood, trunk and doors.







I have enjoyed doing rudimentary body work myself but I will hold off on any further because I want to finish enough to drive this thing legally.

[Mark Eaton]

I didn't have a good picture in my mind of how these are supposed to fit together. For some reason I thought the light should fit flush in the bucket and because of that I puzzled over this thing needlessly for some time. And I damn near modified the bucket. I will post two photos which would have helped me tremendously in understanding how it fits together...

Here they are:



and here, the yellow arrow is where the mounting flange screws into the bucket. That wasn't clear to me in the instructions.



I did have to open up the holes a little, and I drilled for M5 bolts which I used with Nylock nuts. I prefer M5's over the acclaimed #10-32 bolts, they seem sturdier to me and thread with less effort.



Final product. I didn't realize the mounting flange would be so prominent. I will take it all apart later and powder coat that with my beloved "Misty Lava" from Prismatic Powders.

[Mark Eaton]

I have been wanting to Powder Coat my gas cap with the Misty Lava powder. Wasn't sure how to tape it off in order to maintain it's functionality or whatever so I just taped off the spring on the latch and removed the inner gasket and powedered the rest. Here it is...









Overall it turned out well. I have oval top #8-32 machine screws on order from McMaster which I will powder coat to match. Next up, the hood and trunk handles.

[Railroad]

Good job. You probably know about the hi temp tape and silicone plugs offered by Eastwood. They work well on keeping the powder coat out of places it is not wanted.

[Mark Eaton]

In build school they made it clear to take your time with this, don't rush, plan to spend a day doing it. I read a lot to threads. Below are 2 posts that helped a lot. the first is Fixit's post. Next is a drawing by CraigS that really helped me understand in 3-D how this thing is supposed to fit together.


Fixit: https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...l=1#post367063


CraigS: https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...l=1#post388335

I will say that I really HATE brass. I just don't like the way it behaves.

First up you screw the BRASS side posts into the windscreen frame. I used antisieze and made sure the screws were correct size and thread. They all screwed in nicely, 5M x 5mm, nice looking oval top philips machine screws. All of them too long. I measured the holes and they were all consistent at about 4.66mm depth. I ground each screw as shown.





Next up was bending the brass side posts to try to get them in proper 90º orientation. Here are photos of what it looked like out of the box.





As expected, not in the required 90º planes. I removed each side post 6-7 times and carefully bent and torqued to get into the proper planes.

[Mark Eaton]

The back and forth of removing and reinstalling the side bars to get them bent properly was a bit tedious. I forced myself to be patient and resist the urge to just bend them while attached to the windscreen. Ultimately, I arrived as close as I was going to get it.



It was worth the effort because she then snuggled right down onto the chassis.




I Trimmed the side posts at 13” from the lowest hole at 45º. Also drilled and tapped the side bar holes to 1/2-13 using a 27/64” bit.

All good! It feels solid.

[Papa]

Mark,

Nice work on the windshield. I was lucky to have one of the founders of the build school in my shop who guided me through the initial installation. It certainly gave me piece of mind that it would go together without breaking it. One of the tricks he showed me was when installing the side rails you slowly turn the screws in while gently wiggling the rail. If the screw bottoms out and there is still movement on the rail, the screws need to be filled down.

Your build is coming right along. Keep up the good work.

Dave

[cv2065]

Looks great Mark. Its one of the final things I have to do as well.

[TMartinLVNV]

Mark, this is very timely for me. As with many other parts of the build, I'll be using your posts as a guide. Did you fit the windshield into place solo or did you have a helper?

[Fixit]

Very cool!!
Nice to see the youngsters involved... but one thing - get some real shoes on the boy in the shop. Flops are not good/safe in a shop environment!

[Mark Eaton]

Mark, this is very timely for me. As with many other parts of the build, I'll be using your posts as a guide. Did you fit the windshield into place solo or did you have a helper?

Terry, I actually installed it by myself. It is not heavy just a little awkward. i did have to widen the DS side slot a little with some 80 grit.

Mark

[Vspeeds]

Mark
I haven't been on the site in awhile. You've made some great progress. And I love all of your do-it-yourself things, like powder coating, etc.

[Mark Eaton]

Very cool!!
Nice to see the youngsters involved... but one thing - get some real shoes on the boy in the shop. Flops are not good/safe in a shop environment!

Thanks John, You are correct. That photo was taken 8/2017 when the kit first arrived and I hadn't quit prepared the shop. I currently run full safety at all times. Everybody wears proper eye gear, gloves and footwear whenever they are working in the shop!

[Mark Eaton]

Nothing too exciting here. I would characterize the wiper install as fairly tedious and irritating. The fact that I had to work around my heater and fire suppression system didn't help. As usual I surfed the forum for ideas. The kit comes with very cool 5/16" SS tubing. It is more difficult to work with than the plain NICOP which I had accumulated from my brake line debacle. I got frustrated and went with the NICOP. In my view the real achilles tendon of this procedure is the sh*ty ferrule nut which needs to thread PERFECTLY onto the wiper motor assembly. It is fine thread and in a tricky position. And did I mention that my heater and fire suppression bottle were in the way??





At any rate, I finally got it all installed and it runs impressively smoothly.

[Vspeeds]

Mark
I had a tough job getting that ferrule nut on also. I was on the fence about buying a wiper system, but glad I installed a working wiper as I needed to use it on my commute in to work. Hopefully you wouldn't have to use them.

[Mark Eaton]

Once again the most helpful thread for me was Edwardb's 8674 thread. I did his latch mod, here's the link
https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...l=1#post259469

First off slot the outer holes to get the nut plates with HSRF in. Also, orient them transversely...



Here they are from underneath.





Shark gives a good description of how to do it here

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...l=1#post374958

[Mark Eaton]

I powder coated the latches



I made new catches out of 1" square steel and notched them



Nosed it in and it snuggled right down into place without much drama...





I also found these awesome mirrors from a Porsche 356 thanks to GodadGo!

[Mark Eaton]

I am on a serious push to get street legal right now. I have my sites set on the Huntington beach show. My intention is to drive the Roadster from Meford , OR to Huntington Beach CA. It is 730 miles and I have my brother planning to fly in from New Mexico and drive with me. I can hardly wait!!!

But first I need to be street legal. I have made significant progress in January and am about to document en masse...

Here are the doors, not even close to their final position but good enough for inspection, I think...





I used to those God awful self tapping screws for the latches.





They actually open and close really nice and solid!!

[Mark Eaton]

This is pretty straightforward



I made a fancy license plate bracket thing:



And an inside cover, not because it's needed but because it was fun to do. I used M5 nut plates, four of them held and two broke off. So I then put in two 5M rivnuts, and one of those got all jacked up. I'll deal with that later it's not necessary for "Street Legal"...



Of course I couldn't help myself and installed LED lights for the license plate bracket. these are form superbrightled.com. Part# MAL-S-WW2





Finally, the only tricky part of all this, because of all my trunk mods the "catch" couldn't be installed as per the manual so I tapped the back of the trunk with a #10-24 tap and screwed in the FFR screw with sheath powder coated to Misty Lava, of course. Don't judge the carpet

[TMartinLVNV]

Mark, it's looking real good. I think you will be able to drive yours to Huntington. I can't wait to see it in person. I won't have mine there

[Mark Eaton]

A couple months ago my father was in town and we worked on some radiator cowls and mesh covers for the oil cooler and front brake vent holes. Also, I had been working on a bracket for fog lights. I got everything powder coated and installed using adhesive mount studs from McMaster and HSRF.



Here are the fog lights mounted on a bracket and secured to the body using the adhesive mount studs.



Radiator cowls and radiator mesh. All installed using nutserts.







Lights work!!

[Mark Eaton]

I trimmed the splash guards, fabricated two extra for the rear as demonstrated by Edwardb, coated them with the left over Raptor truck Bedliner from my body, and secured with a variety of #10-32 nutserts, Adhesive mount studs and self tapping screws (using tap magic).

[toadster]

awesome work and pics! keep it up!

[Mark Eaton]

It took me two days to get these fairly ok. I used the "nibble" technique so that I wouldn't make the cut outs too large. I had to fabricate some couplers for the mounting brackets. I have a feeling I'll be fabricating another set of couplers before all is said and done, although, I'm pretty happy with how they are at the moment. I put 5/16" Nutserts in the chassis to secure the mounting brackets.

[Mark Eaton]

I have been working on my headrests for some time. I got the idea when I was at the HB show in 2018. Also, my Cubby sound system modification forced me to remove the normal anchor tabs for the shoulder belts and relocate as shown. I designed and made the head rest template then took it to a custom auto upholstery shop to have them made. They used my left over cow hide.



I completed them last weekend.

[Jeff Kleiner]

I'm afraid that with the belts mounted in those locations if they ever had to do the job they were intended for they'd squeeze your neck and try to pinch your head off. Just sayin'...

Jeff

[Mark Eaton]

That would be a bummer. Jeff, come check it out at the HB show.

Mark