Greetings!
The final payment was made last week so I’m taking that as the signal to start my build thread.
Ordered Feb 12, 2022
Scheduled build date Nov 5, 2022
Delivery ?
Configuration:
Complete kit
351w engine, .040" over, stock crank, roller rockers, Edelbrock ProFlo4 EFI, AFR Heads
Hyd clutch master cylinder kit
Diamond stitch seats and door panels
Carbon fiber dash
Power steering
Std with front lower arms
IRS 3.55:1/ 2015 parts w/ kit
Tremec TKX 2.87/0.68
Wiper kit / wind wings / visors
Chrome bars / passenger roll bar
Heater TBD…
GasN polished touring pipes
More to come
My dad had a donor 351 from years past, so I started this journey in 2021 with that. Chris at C&C Motorsports in Brookings SD took care of the machining, and I’m trying to take care of the assembly myself. It’s been a great learning experience because everything I thought I knew - isn’t a quarter of what I need to know. I ordered in February thinking I would have all summer to put the engine together; someone else had other plans. After a derecho, some family health issues, and other interesting life experiences, here I am. Not really behind, just not where I wanted to be.
I’ve got the bottom end of my engine assembled, the rest should come together soon now that harvest is over and volleyball season is coming to an end. Last summer I bought a mustang IRS from a local junkyard, and just because I could, it tore it down and rebuilt with new gears. Last weekend I built the body buck, hope to build a frame dolly soon. I have an unheated shop but hope to roll it up to my heated garage for a couple months to keep progress going. Last year one of my boys rebuilt a 460 for a 1988 ford and it got **cold** in January!
The forum has been a great source of information from many knowledgeable people and I just want to say thanks in advance! In addition to reading the forum up, down, and both ways, I've been watching Mark's and Dan's YouTube videos religiously. I've considered creating my own YouTube channel but that's tough. As an engineer, I can recognize a person by the shoes they wear, not their face. To put myself out in front of a camera would be very difficult!
I managed to score a free oven and started to dabble with powder coating. I love this finish, and can't wait to do more!
I'm not sure if I'm up to the challenge for painting but we'll see. The paint scheme will be a maroon or dark red with a charcoal ghost stripe.
Here are some unknowns I still have. I know these have been posted in other discussions, but just throwing them out there for comment...
I haven't decided on wheels/tires yet but I think the 17" wheels seem like a good compromise.
I'd like to consider a keyless start option. Any suggestions?
I originally thought A/C was a requirement but realize now it will be ok. I do still plan to install a heater. I've seen several options from Vintage Air, Summit, etc. Any recommendations?
The air vents seem very useful. In SD it can get to 95 degrees in the afternoon, but can be 50 degrees in the morning. What is out there for kits or parts for air vents?
I'm sure there are many more questions I can ask, but there's also much more time. I think I'm looking forward to the build as much as the finished product, but they will both be awesome!
Welcome to the fun! Sounds like a good solid plan you've put together. Love the Windsor.
For the keyless ignition might as well go with the best, Guard Dawg. I installed the PBS-I model and have been very impressed. It's programmed so that all I have to do is walk up with the FOB and it energizes and the button lights up. Press the button once and ACC #2 activates. Press it a second time ACC #1 & Ignition activates. Press on the brake and the light flashes and the engine can be started. I also wired in the neutral switch on the Tremec but you can use the clutch pedal switch as an option. I just felt safer with the neutral switch in the tranny. To kill the engine you have to press on the brake and hold the button for a couple of seconds.
Congratulations Daren. Sounds like you will have your kit soon. Ditto on the Digital Guard Dawg. You can wire the transmission nuetral switch and the clutch switch in parallel, so either one will work, allowing you to start in nuetral or with the clutch in.
Thanks for the info!
I haven’t looked into North Race Cars yet. I’ll have to check them out.
Guard Dawg sounds exactly like the system I was looking for too.
I certainly hope delivery is soon, the wait is almost over!
Last edited by Countrymile; 10-28-2022 at 10:52 PM.
Exciting news today! I got the call from Stewart. The delivery date is set for around Nov 29, +/- a day. I'm disappointed I won't get to have the Thanksgiving weekend to get started, but it will arrive a day or two before my birthday which will still be pretty awesome.
In the meantime I did finally get a chance to work on my engine last weekend, I was able to take it off the build stand and started working on mating it up to the TKX. I realized I need a different water pump - one with the DS outlet and also with reverse drive to accommodate the power steering pump, which I haven't bought yet. So it begins... Like they say, you learn more by failing. It's still giving me goosebumps looking at the engine, I can finally see something that looks like it might be in a car someday.
I started on the inventory right away, I took off Friday to celebrate and finished up the inventory Friday afternoon. There are a few items on the POL, maybe 30, and just a couple items that I found missing during inventory. I'm with the group missing the IRS hardware kit, and the driver said everyone's missing their windshields right now too. That shouldn't slow me down for a while. On Saturday morning I took off the body and moved the frame to the heated garage. While in the process, I managed to talk the twins into helping me take my first ride! IMG_1263.jpgIMG_1265.jpg20221203_105833.jpg
I was able to start on the front end on Saturday afternoon. I installed the F-panels, I finally decided to go with Sharkhide on the panels rather than powder coating. The powder will chip too, and since I live on a gravel road I won't be able to avoid the chips unless I trailer the car everywhere. I bought it to drive, so I felt the Sharkhide will hide the chips for a longer period of time. I also installed the lower and upper arms, and the front shocks. This is where I ran up on my first (minor) parts shortage. The spacers for the ball joints are missing, as well as the lock nuts for the steering arms. so, I need to decide if I want to buy some specialty fasteners from Ace Hardware or wait for the POL shipments to start arriving. There should be plenty of work for me to do so I'll probably just wait it out.
I took the opportunity to shorten up the rear linkages as have been noted on the forum. Despite others saying not to, I overthought this. My OCD was getting the best of me and I believed I could reassemble the arms so the welded arm could be the trailing arm on both sides; the threaded boss for the ball joints determine the orientation of the arms so this is not the case. So, for those of you thinking about adjusting these in the future, read up on it. Just pull the assemblies out of the box and adjust what needs to be adjusted based on how it sits on the bench. Ask me how I know... 2022-12-04 23_41_08-Photo - Google Photos.jpg
Anyway, I'm pretty excited to get started on the next component! What an exciting experience. I tracked down the serial number on the frame today, looks like my build is #10539.
Congrats on delivery, Daren! Although I see that fine looking engine in your post from the 15th, and the bottom two photos in your last post. But all the attachments (5) in the first part of your post don't show for me.
Anyway, I did want to say welcome aboard and congrats on the first big milestone of the build itself, getting everything in your garage. I know everyone these days has a POL list, but I'm glad you're at least able to get started. Good luck!
MK4 #7838: IRS 3.55 TrueTrac T5z Dart 347
The drawing is from ~7th grade, mid-1970s
Meandering, leisurely build thread is here
Thanks John! I do believe that the POL problems are getting better based on my work life. We still have shortages, but they are not the long-term ones that we dealt with a year ago. I have already received two notifications for shipments from factory five so that’s also a good sign.
Alright I think I fixed the links with the pictures. Let me know if there are still any issues with them.
My first POL delivery had the hardware I was missing for the front steering arms. Perfect timing! Every POL delivery will be just as exciting as the first delivery day - I can't wait to get home to see what arrived. While I was waiting I started working on the pedal box. IMG_1457.jpg
It seems like this is going really fast. I suspect when I get to brake lines and wiring it will slow down.
-Daren
Well, I meant to post updates weekly, but work schedules and the excitement of the new project got the best of me.
Since delivery, I've gotten most of the front axle installed (just waiting on the brake rotors). The prelim measurement of the steering linkage seems off, but there's plenty of adjustment on the ball joints to make it work I believe. When it gets on the ground we can see what it looks like.
I purchased a couple bolts so I could hang the center section for the rear axle, and dug through the spare bolt bin for a couple temporary bolts, but I didn't want to go all in. I already paid for hardware so didn't want to spend too much on extra. I installed what I could and will wait for the rest. At least the center section is not sitting on the floor anymore. I had a difficult time getting the differential holes to line up, as well as some of the A arm bushings (front and rear). In the case of the differential, there's about .060 difference between C/C of the housing bolts and the C/C of the frame mounts... and that frame is solid there with no movement of the bushings. I was able to get it by changing the sequence of the hardware installation, as well as some elbow grease and a big pry bar. It seems like FF could spend some time working on their weld fixtures or on weld sequencing though. In my experience it usually just wears out bushings when you put stresses where they don't belong, or else moving parts just don't move quite like they're supposed to. OK, I'm off my soap box.
I moved forward with a bunch of the aluminum panels. Got the firewall installed, most of the footwells, and most of the cab.
I received the RT Drop Trunk, so preassembled that, thought I could install that and the fuel tank and run the fuel lines but then realized the pickup and fuel sender are on my POL list. Is it safe to install the tank and work through the access holes, or will I regret it?
Installed the Breeze battery tray.
I mounted the brake reservoirs. My plan for this next week is to run the brake lines. I was hoping to have the rear calipers in place so I could get the location right for the rear flexible lines, but I'll have to rely on the manual and pictures from the forum. There shouldn't be too much difficulty from what I've been seeing. I started to form the first line the other night but I'm not happy with it. That one will probably end up in the scrap steel.
The steering U joints arrived Monday night, so that was great. I was able to finish the steering assembly so I could sit in the seat and make vroom vroom noises.
I'm not out of work yet. I ordered the Breeze radiator mounts so when that gets here I could install that too. There's also a floor-mount hand brake on the way from Speedway, so I can put it on the top of the transmission tunnel. Maybe I want the transmission in before locating it, but I think it will be plenty of room. Sometime I also want to move the shifter to the front location on the TKX. With all of the great weather we've been having the packages have been slower to arrive but they haven't stopped (neither have the opportunities for things to purchase). If everything is ok I could move forward with the fuel tank, and at least mount the filter and the fuel lines.
Have a great holiday season! Can't believe the year is almost over. Of course the build is always more fun with help.
I'm terribly sorry, I went all-in on the project for the last couple months and haven't posted much. Last weekend, I hit a milestone, we installed the engine!
First off, Last week was a huge delivery week. I received the fuel pickup, exhaust headers, and front brake rotors that were on the POL from Factory Five. I also received the wheels from SVE that had been on backorder, and my touring pipes from Gas-N arrived. I'm just waiting for a couple more items from FFR... the CF dash and the seat belts are still not here. I haven't received my IRS hardware kit, I see that's on schedule to arrive tomorrow now. Unfortunately in December I decided that it was too important to wait for this so I had sourced the hardware myself. If anyone doesn't have theirs yet and has a need, let me know. I'll have some extra bolts on Monday.
Here's a short list of the deviations... I will try to add some pictures soon. I've been bouncing around a lot from project to project due to the parts shortages, perhaps I will just group posts together by project. My son in the heavy equipment industry calls his version of this "machinery ping pong" - when he uses every one of the pieces of equipment on his job site in the same day
Lokar top-mount hand brake and cables
Evil Energy 100 micron prefilter/fuel pump/30 micron postfilter
Boss audio bluetooth radio
Kicker marine speakers
seat heaters
A bunch of stuff from Breeze Auto - front battery, radiator mount & shroud, lower cooler tube. I bought the seat mounts but I'm not sure they are for me. It tilts the seat back but pushes the base forward to do this; being 6'4" I'm comfortable without them. It seemed like it pushed my legs a little closer to the steering wheel.
Forte midshift kit, throttle linkage
under dash lights
Last weekend was engine install day. In January I spent some time prepping some of the electrical work and installing the park brake to prepare for this.
This weekend I set the transmission mount / driveshaft angle, wired up the Edelbrock EFI, and finished up all the fuel lines. The boys helped with the wiring and installed the exhaust manifolds. My next step is to continue wiring; I have a subpanel in the back where I'm hooking up the seat heaters and other items, and I also plan to wire up the mock dash panel. If I figure out what I need to dress the front of the engine, I might try to get the engine started. Then I'll be mounting the seats and finishing off the cab. I need to take some time to go through the Signal Dynamics PentaStar XP module too, I know there are some posts here on this forum but I think it takes time regardless.
My big hurdle with the engine is the power steering mount. I heard the standard mid mounts can interfere with the steering shaft. I had my eyes on CVF, but the measurements in their catalog look like the pulley will interfere with the shaft. I might buy their Clevor mount package, it looks like it will be a little higher up; but then I know the through bolt will not line up with the cylinder head without some modification. Maybe their normal SBF package will clear just fine?
How did you decide on the seats? I'm the same height as you and when I was ordering the kit FFR strongly recommended the Kirkey seats.
Edit: Oh, and a quick note, a lot of the more experienced folks here recommend to definitely wait with seat installation until the body is back on, as it could interefere.
Mk4 Complete Kit, Blueprint 427w EFI Stage 1, IRS, 15", Gordon Levi Wilwood brakes, FFR Power steering (Build Thread)
How did you decide on the seats? I'm the same height as you and when I was ordering the kit FFR strongly recommended the Kirkey seats.
After reading a lot of forum posts last year I had the understanding the "big & tall" seats were going to be ok. With the seats moved back to the rear of the cockpit, I feel they are ok. Comparing it to my 63 F100, it's about the same, maybe even a bit more leg room. I did put 3 washers under the steering shaft bearing, to raise that up. That helps. 2023-02-14 17_12_50-Window.jpg
Originally Posted by mladen
Oh, and a quick note, a lot of the more experienced folks here recommend to definitely wait with seat installation until the body is back on, as it could interefere.
Aha. Thanks for the suggestion. I guess the holes are drilled now, I'll have to keep my fingers crossed and watch that when the body goes on.
Thanks: 
Likes: 
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Countrymile
