So a little over a year since I ordered the kit, and about 10 years since I first thought about building one of these I finally started.
So first thing I did was build a building. I don't have enough room in garage and the detached building I have is already dedicated to other projects so I looked into getting a 20*30 metal building. I marked where I wanted it and my wife said "It doesn't look that big, you should get a bigger one"
Are you done laughing at me? Moving on!
So at my wife's suggestion, built a 24*45 building.
After finishing electric and other necessities, it was too hot to work on car (we had a 3-month stretch where it's over 110 everyday and I didn't have a air conditioning put in)
Started by the book with the f panels. I've seen a lot of people use rhino lining to cover them and I didn't want the bare metal look so I decided to paint them a semi-gloss black. Not sure if I'm going to regret this later. In my mind that would make touch ups down the road super easy.
When I bought this house it had a wood shop in it and the guy left most of the tools because I do woodworking as well and in those tools I happen to have a original "Pop" rivet gun. It works but there is a significant amount of pop and I already scratched the panels. We'll see how easy the touch ups are now.
Decided to skip the book and jump right to the UCA. Using the FFR power steering, and many people said you have to modify them if you want to really aggressive camber which I do so I started on that. Looked at quite a few threads here. Decided I didn't want to change band saw belts and pulled out the sawzall. I'm not very skilled with a sawzall so I made a little jig by drilling a hole and putting the bolts through and cutting it flush. Worked like a charm. So if anyone's like me and you hate a sawzall, it's super easy.
From other posts I saw I had to strip the powder coating out of the ball joint threads and the wire brush I got for my drill wouldn't fit inside. So I had to bust out the dremel tool which is super time consuming. When I got done, the ball joints that came with the kit were able to thread in with minimal effort.
I got everything put back together and what should be the right way and I'll take him over to my buddies tonight and tack weld the ball joints in place. I seen some people say to tack weld and I've seen some people say to use red loctite and I'll be honest on more comfortable grinding off a tack weld than I am trying to cook off the red loctite.
I love seeing first build posts. Congratulations! You've got a pile of fun in front of you. And a supportive wife, and a great work space. It'll be fun keeping tabs on progress. Enjoy!
MK4 #7838: IRS 3.55 TrueTrac T5z Dart 347
The drawing is from ~7th grade, mid-1970s
Meandering, leisurely build thread is here
Put the LCA after having to grind down a bushing. Bushing stuck out about 3/32 from the rubber and wouldn't allow a flush seat. Finally got them in and got the upper ball joints tacked in place. Went to install the UCA and ran into a snag. The plates where the UCA mounts if you use the FFR spindle are welded too close to the top plates and you can't get a socket on the back so you can't tighten them down. Same on both sides. Frustrating beyond belief....
Of course I don't have a 90° 3/4 open ended wrench and neither do the local stores so waiting until Monday for Amazon to get here. I suppose I could have ground down the plate to give me clearance but that's just more effort than I'm willing to put forward at this point.
Put the LCA after having to grind down a bushing. Bushing stuck out about 3/32 from the rubber and wouldn't allow a flush seat. Finally got them in and got the upper ball joints tacked in place. Went to install the UCA and ran into a snag. The plates where the UCA mounts if you use the FFR spindle are welded too close to the top plates and you can't get a socket on the back so you can't tighten them down. Same on both sides. Frustrating beyond belief....
Of course I don't have a 90° 3/4 open ended wrench and neither do the local stores so waiting until Monday for Amazon to get here. I suppose I could have ground down the plate to give me clearance but that's just more effort than I'm willing to put forward at this point.
Started assembling the shocks but just feeling put off by the UCA debacle so called it a day.
Debacle? No. I'm a little concerned that grinding appears to be the first choice when encountering a problem... Not clear what part you're describing with the bushing. But I've assembled multiple front suspensions without grinding anything. Figure things out first with changing parts being the last resort. At least for me personally, when I find the parts don't fit as I think they should it's often my error. Access to that UCA nut is a common issue and reported by multiple builders. It's not a mfg error. If you can get a wrench on it, fine. Many just wedge a screwdriver in there and tighten from the other side.
Last edited by edwardb; 10-28-2023 at 02:53 PM.
Build 1: Mk3 Roadster #5125. Sold 11/08/2014. Build 2: Mk4 Roadster #7750. Sold 04/10/2017. Build Thread Build 3: Mk4 Roadster 20th Anniversary #8674. Sold 09/07/2020. Build Thread and Video. Build 4: Gen 3 Type 65 Coupe #59. Gen 3 Coyote. Legal 03/04/2020. Build Thread and Video Build 5: 35 Hot Rod Truck #138. LS3 and 4L65E auto. Rcvd 01/05/2021. Legal 04/20/2023. Build Thread. Sold 11/9/2023.
Put the LCA after having to grind down a bushing. Bushing stuck out about 3/32 from the rubber and wouldn't allow a flush seat.
Grinding down a bushing for proper fitment? Something doesn't sound right and you might want to revisit. You want any critical parts 100% correct. Forum is here for you. I'd check with people here before grinding on anything like this.
The other 3 were perfectly flush but this one stuck out a bit. if I widened the brackets out farther to fit a the spacer washer, there was still a gap between the rubber and the washer. If I tapped it in, it just stuck out that far out the other side. Hit it with a sander for a bit and now its flush like the other three.
As far as the back bolt, i noticed on the Youtube video they leave that one of the video lol. Screwdriver trick seems like a sure fire way to scratch the powder coat and an equal PITA should i ever have to remove it. Proper tool was 8$ on amazon and only cost me some time waiting.
Back at it again. No one replied back after the picture of the bushing sticking out and my remedy so I'm guessing it's good to go?
Assembled the shocks and thanks to Jeff, one of them was not at the softest setting so I got it adjusted to match the other 3. Put the rear ones to bed until the rear gets ready for them
received_264214266161408.jpeg PXL_20231101_173857414.jpg
Had some confusion putting the FFR spindles on. Keep spindle is stamped one with DSS and the other with PSS, which I'm assuming stands for driver side and passenger side spindle but when those were put on the appropriate sides they didn't match up in any way to the video that's posted on YouTube. I emailed Travis at factory five and sent him a picture and he confirmed that I have the mounted the right way even though it appears they're miss stamped. The wider part of the 2nd piece is down and away which looks to match the video.
I installed the shock on the Pass side but in a video I saw, the guy mention that The bolts aren't quite long enough to fully engage the nylon on the nuts and recommended removing the washers to allow for more of the bolt to engage the nylon. Anyone here have thoughts on that?
I also made a place to store panels. I don't have a lot of shelving in here yet and I don't like the panels resting on the floor so I hung them off a cheap Amazon coat rack. I kind of like it. It keeps them off the floor and frees up more space for me
FedEx showed up and delivered my rear spindles and hubs so I'm going to pause for today and take care of some other things. So when I come back out I can clean and cut hose spindles as needed and clean and chase out the holes on the center section and get started on the rear.
I responded previously to your post about the difficulty with the UCA nuts and also grinding that bushing. I had suggestions for both plus a mini-lecture. My guess is not appreciated. Which is perfectly OK. Not sure what you expected regarding that bushing now though. You already shortened it. So a bit late. Personally, I wouldn't have and on my builds haven't found it was ever necessary on those parts. Only if I measured all of them and found one was a different length. Don't recall you mentioned this. Those inner bushings span the ID of poly bushings pressed into the control arms. The poly bushings don't press in necessarily 100% the same or repeatable until torqued in place. So judging the length during initial assembly may not be accurate IMO. The inner bushings bolt tight against the control arm tabs with just enough clearance to allow the poly bushings and control arms to move. Too short and you might be dragging the tabs on the poly bushings. I don't know if that's the case with yours or if it's necessary to replace. But just reinforces my earlier comments about using the grinder last and checking all other options first.
As far as the spindles and marking, they aren't mismarked. The manual has a whole paragraph explaining that they are marked for the FFR Hot Rod and are installed on opposite sides on the Roadster. Plus this is talked about a lot on the forum. You aren't the first one confused about this. But you may want to consider just how carefully you're studying and following the build manual. In addition to the manual (I agree it doesn't cover every single detail) learning to search on the forum will be a big help. Don't use the forum search. Use Google. From a browser, enter "site thefactoryfiveforum.com/ search words" Note minus the quote marks and replace "search words" with whatever you're looking for. You'll get a nice clickable list of posts to check. Highly recommended.
End of lecture (gentle suggestions ).
Last edited by edwardb; 11-01-2023 at 04:42 PM.
Build 1: Mk3 Roadster #5125. Sold 11/08/2014. Build 2: Mk4 Roadster #7750. Sold 04/10/2017. Build Thread Build 3: Mk4 Roadster 20th Anniversary #8674. Sold 09/07/2020. Build Thread and Video. Build 4: Gen 3 Type 65 Coupe #59. Gen 3 Coyote. Legal 03/04/2020. Build Thread and Video Build 5: 35 Hot Rod Truck #138. LS3 and 4L65E auto. Rcvd 01/05/2021. Legal 04/20/2023. Build Thread. Sold 11/9/2023.
Edward I apologize if I've given off the wrong impression. I greatly appreciate any advice you have to give. I read yours and Papa's bills through every part I'm getting ready to do before I do it. I thought your paint marker on bolts you've already talked was the greatest thing since sliced bread and I bought two of those paint markers to help me mark things up before I torque things down. Genius! I mistyped but that one bushing was a 16th bigger than the rest. I mentioned it on the Facebook form. Everyone's hit with various different solutions. You and another person had asked me to clarify and so I put the picture in.
As far as the manual, the only thing I saw was a two sentences direction that said install the spindles and then the next page is about the different mounting brackets if you're using donor spindles. I looked all the way through completion of the rear suspension and didn't anything about those FFR ones or the mounting of them or being stamped for the hot rod and not the roadster.
I'm definitely going to take your advice on using Google. When I search on the forum it doesn't keep everything together. So if I search "IRS rear suspension" it gives me every thread that says either IRS or rear or suspension which is all of them lol. I had to go eight pages deep before I found the answer to why I had four of the same shocks when the manual said there should be a two and a half inch difference. Good thing about that is I sometimes see other posts that are super useful. Saw one that had all the torque specs listed in a single post for the whole car. Saved that one lol
Anyway, I hope you're not upset with as am definitely not upset with you ��
Edward I apologize if I've given off the wrong impression. I greatly appreciate any advice you have to give. I read yours and Papa's bills through every part I'm getting ready to do before I do it. I thought your paint marker on bolts you've already talked was the greatest thing since sliced bread and I bought two of those paint markers to help me mark things up before I torque things down. Genius! I mistyped but that one bushing was a 16th bigger than the rest. I mentioned it on the Facebook form. Everyone's hit with various different solutions. You and another person had asked me to clarify and so I put the picture in.
As far as the manual, the only thing I saw was a two sentences direction that said install the spindles and then the next page is about the different mounting brackets if you're using donor spindles. I looked all the way through completion of the rear suspension and didn't anything about those FFR ones or the mounting of them or being stamped for the hot rod and not the roadster.
I'm definitely going to take your advice on using Google. When I search on the forum it doesn't keep everything together. So if I search "IRS rear suspension" it gives me every thread that says either IRS or rear or suspension which is all of them lol. I had to go eight pages deep before I found the answer to why I had four of the same shocks when the manual said there should be a two and a half inch difference. Good thing about that is I sometimes see other posts that are super useful. Saw one that had all the torque specs listed in a single post for the whole car. Saved that one lol
Anyway, I hope you're not upset with as am definitely not upset with you ��
I hope you keep following my progress,
Paul
If you clarified that the bushing you ground down was longer than the others, I missed it. So sorry about that. In that case, correcting the part was the right decision. Unfortunately, you received my standard comments to not assume there is something wrong with parts first. Often the case with new builders and more than one has had to replace stuff as a result. Including me.
The paint marker idea isn't my original idea. Just passed it on. Standard in the aviation industry for one. Same as our use of Clecos. Although they typically use a material that's specifically made for that and put a stripe on the bolt head down onto the mating surface. So they know something is torqued plus can be inspected to see if it's moved. I've done that on some of the critical suspension bolts on my builds. My oldest son, who's in the aviation industry, said at their shop each maintenance person actually has their own color. That way they not only know when something is finalized, they know who did it. Interesting.
I don't have the most recent copy of the Roadster build manual. But on the copy I have from a couple years ago, on page 44 (doubt this would be the same as yours...) in the front suspension section, it shows a picture of the various spindle pieces, then a paragraph that says: "The spindles are marked DSS (Driver Side Spindle) and PSS (Passenger Side Spindle). These refer to the way they are mounted on the FFR Hot Rod. Which is rear steer. The FFR Roadster uses these as front steer so they are mounted opposite. The DSS spindle is mounted on the Passenger side and the PSS spindle is mounted on the Driver side." No reason I know of this would be omitted from later versions. But if not in yours I can understand it would be confusing.
Paul B. (EdwardB on the forum)
Last edited by edwardb; 11-02-2023 at 11:11 AM.
Build 1: Mk3 Roadster #5125. Sold 11/08/2014. Build 2: Mk4 Roadster #7750. Sold 04/10/2017. Build Thread Build 3: Mk4 Roadster 20th Anniversary #8674. Sold 09/07/2020. Build Thread and Video. Build 4: Gen 3 Type 65 Coupe #59. Gen 3 Coyote. Legal 03/04/2020. Build Thread and Video Build 5: 35 Hot Rod Truck #138. LS3 and 4L65E auto. Rcvd 01/05/2021. Legal 04/20/2023. Build Thread. Sold 11/9/2023.
In regards to the manual, I really recommend give the whole manual a read through to get comfortability. It does jump around from time to time. Especially when you get to the dash and electrical harness section and your bouncing between the supplement and the main manual. I also recommend spending the $10 and get the PDF one as well, that way you can now use adobe to search items in it.
Paul,
Marking nuts & bolts after torqueing is an old but very useful tool. The importance of proper torque on a fastener cannot be overstressed, you might find this interesting.
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Originally Posted by Parsaver
