Andy LV Hot Rod Build # 1196

[peterh226]

How about a picture of your bias bar. Just curious.

[HVACMAN]

I had a similar issue with the neighbors across the street. When I came back from a tour of the neighborhood the lady came out yelling at me but I ignored her at the time. A few days later I noticed her husband trying to change the bulbs in his outdoor lighting, so I walked across the street and gave him a hand. I talked him off the ladder (he's 87) and changed the bulbs for him. The next day he showed up in the garage asking many questions about the car. Come to find out he builds RC aircraft, another interest of mine.

On the brakes, be sure you bed the pads well. Mine didn't stop that well either at first. Now she stops on a dime with surprisingly little effort for manual brakes.

[e36m3]

Andy, what did you use for cruise control?
I’ve been thinking about getting the Dakota Digital unit.

I went with a Dakota Digital unit. I'll post more on it, I've got to dig up some pictures.

[e36m3]

HVACMAN and Peter,
I forgot about the brake bias bar, thanks for the advice! I'll take a picture tonight.

[e36m3]

Picture of current brake bias bar setting

Thanks,

Andy

[FF33rod]

And not to make any assumptions, which is the front master cylinder?

Steve

[e36m3]

It's been 8 months since I last worked on the build.

September last year I had my 5th back surgery, fusing of vertebrae at L2 and L3. I now have 8 screws and 2 rods in my back. I’m fused from L2 through L5. I spent 12 weeks not being allowed to bend over or lift more than 8lbs & then 8 weeks of physical therapy. That’s all behind me and I’m doing good.

In February, my 97 year old father passed away from congestive heart failure. Like most WWII vets he didn’t talk about the war at all when I was growing up. I knew he was in the Philippines. I found out recently that he was in the South Pacific for 1½ years and earned 5 battle stars, one tip of the spear medal for amphibious combat landing at Luzon, and the Philippine Liberation ribbon. He was an AMTRAC driver, part of the 658th Amphibious Tractor Battalion. Kind of amazing what you don’t know about your parents.

Then the 2nd floor of our house had all the flooring replace with hardwood. I didn’t do the flooring install, but did all the trim cutting, finishing, and installation. It took way longer than I thought it would. Kind of liek my build so far

Picking up where I left off working on stuff that need improving after 1st go-kart run, clutch effort too high and brakes barely stop the car.

I’m installing Mike Forte’s hydraulic clutch kit. Also it looks like I’ve got the brake bias bar set up wrong, bias towards the rear instead of the front. How'd I miss that???

My wife is gone for the weekend so all this weekend will be working on the build!

[33fromSD]

Gald you're feeling better, sorry to hear about the passing of your father.

Jim

[e36m3]

I finished installing the Mike Forte Hydraulic Clutch kit. I'm very happy with the pedal force. A big thanks to 33from SD for his detailed instructions on how to install Hydraulic Clutch kit with the tranny in the car. Link to his directions are here https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...rte#post432716.
I had to do a littel triming on the slave cylinder bracket to get it to fit in the bell housing opening, but that was easily handled with a cut off wheel.
I was worried about clearance between the nuts on the slave cylinder bracket and the throw out bearing. I ended going with 5/16" bolts rather than with the 1/2 bolts that came with the kit.
Since I already had installed a cable actuated clutch I had to plug an 1 3/8" hole. The clutch reservoir hides the patched hole.

I sorted out the brakes by adjusting the brake bias bar correctly.

Here are some pictures.
throwout.jpgslave.jpgclutchhole.jpgfluid.jpgbiasbar.jpg

Thanks,
Andy

[e36m3]

I'm getting close to installing the body for the last time (hopefully).
I spent time yesterday checking bolt tightness that are easy to access with body off and marking them with a gold sharpie so I know I checked them.

Before installing the body I wanted to mock up the door hinges and hardware that goes in to the door to better understand how it all goes together before the body is in place.

When I started putting the brass bushings in the hinge arms I found on one side of the hinge the bushings would easily drop into the hinge hole, but on the opposite side of the hinge hole the bushing had to be tapped in with a rubber mallet.
I think all the holes and slots in the hinge arms are CNC laser cut so that is why I figure the hole is a slightly different diameter from one side to the other.

The problem I ran into was the brass bushings that I tapped into place with the rubber mallet the shoulder bolts wouldn't fit into. All the other brass bushings the should bolts fit fine into.

I figure the combination of the laser cutting of the holes and the build up of powder coating in the holes caused the brass bushings to shrink in the inside diameter. I ended up using a round file to slowly and carefully take just enough material out of the ID of the brass bushings so the shoulder bolts now just fit.

shoulderbolt.jpgfile.jpg

Thanks,
Andy

[e36m3]

I just realized I never posted any pictures of the Dakota Digital Cruise Control installation on my car.

I bought the universal kit and when it came time to hook up the speed sensor to the tranny, nothing matched up. I called Dakota and found out I needed their SGI-100BT signal interface to get it to work with a T5.
I already had the system installed so I bought the SGI-100BT, I think it was about $100.

The install was pretty easy. Since the car isn't street legal right now I haven't tried the system out yet.

Thanks,
Andy

box.jpgtranny.jpgcarb linkage.jpgcarb2.jpgfull pic.jpgcontrol.jpg

[e36m3]

Looking for some techniques, how did you go about trimming the dash panel to fit into the dash opening?

Thanks,

Andy

[e36m3]

It been little while since I posted an update. Since last posting I've mounted the body, aligned the roof, and got the doors cut and mounted. The doors took me forever, more on the doors in the next post.

At this point I had all the body cut outs and had ground down the mold seams on the body.
I mounted the body onto the car and then realized I have forgotten to cut out the defroster vents, so off came the body again. No other surprises.

Body-before-defroster.jpg

My sons were home visiting, so I had them help me with setting the roof on the body. My wife and I them spent I think the next 30 or 40 minutes adjusting the roof location on the body to get it centered and lined up the door openings. My wife has a much better eye for this than I do and a lot more patience. I clamped down the roof in the back and drilled holes.

roof.jpg

I ground down some high points on the bottom of the roof where the windshield frame interfaces with the body.
I didn’t drill the windshield frame holes yet because when I push down on the windshield frame to drill holes the bottom of the frame moves. I need to figure out how to support the bottom of the windshield frame so the holes are drill in the right location on the body.
How did others do this?

Thanks,

Andy

[peterh226]

I had an interesting time with the roof. Ended up getting the back set where I wanted it and bolting it in place.
Then I had to persuade the front into place where they needed to go. I got it to stay in place long enough with straps to get holes drilled and some bolts in place.

Later on I found that the bolts holding the front windshield frame into place were twisting the frame in a way that it was not going to fit the glass right. I figure this out once I glued in the glass and then bolted the top on as I was getting it registered. I ended up with wax paper, then bolting the top the way I thought it should be and filling the gap with tiger hair and then filler to get it to fit right. It finally seems like it will be OK, but I've spent a lot of effort on trying to get the top to fit and look OK. I still believe I'm gonna have some challenges with window alignment. Check out the post below as well as a couple on either side.

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...l=1#post480197

[e36m3]

I had an interesting time with the roof. Ended up getting the back set where I wanted it and bolting it in place.
Then I had to persuade the front into place where they needed to go. I got it to stay in place long enough with straps to get holes drilled and some bolts in place.

Later on I found that the bolts holding the front windshield frame into place were twisting the frame in a way that it was not going to fit the glass right. I figure this out once I glued in the glass and then bolted the top on as I was getting it registered. I ended up with wax paper, then bolting the top the way I thought it should be and filling the gap with tiger hair and then filler to get it to fit right. It finally seems like it will be OK, but I've spent a lot of effort on trying to get the top to fit and look OK. I still believe I'm gonna have some challenges with window alignment. Check out the post below as well as a couple on either side.

https://thefactoryfiveforum.com/show...l=1#post480197

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the response, I had forgotten about the problems you had with your windshield frame. Seems we have the same issue, I'm going to try your idea with the tiger hair when I circle back to working on attaching the top again.

Thanks!

Andy

[e36m3]

I have no idea how long it took me to cut and align the doors or how many times I had the doors on and off the car. I was eventually successful. I thought I’d jot down what I learned for when I have to put the doors back on after paint, hopefully it helps others too.

The 1st door I was pretty nervous about cutting too much material, so I would only trim off about 1/16” at time, it took forever to get it to fit.
The 2nd door I was much more confident and trimmed about an 1/8” each time.

The template for cutting and drilling the holes in the doors I must have taped in place too high on the doors. I had to cut the slots further down and hog out the holes in the doors further down to the get the right alignment of the doors. At least it is fiberglass so this wasn’t a big deal, but worrisome when you’re doing something that you’ve never done before.

I found that the allen head bolts that go through the bronze bushings on the door arms have to be very snug to eliminate any play in the door arms.

One of the first problems I ran into was when I tightened down the door latch on the fiberglass on the driver’s door the fiberglass cracked.
At first I thought I’d ground away too much fiberglass when I was fitting the latch into the door so I got out some resin and fiberglass cloth and repaired the cracks without the latch mechanism installed. I finished the repair with a little body filler and primer.
I double checked the fit of the latch in the repaired fiberglass door, tweaked the opening a little to make sure the latch worked correctly then installed the latch and tightened it down. Once the bolts were tight the fiberglass cracked again. At this point I said next time I’ll do the repair with the latch mounted. It is on the to do list because I then went down the mount and align the doors rabbit hole.
crack.jpg

Getting the doors to stay where I wanted them aligned while tightening down the bolts was a challenge.
I’ve got a small 110Vac winch mounted on the ceiling of my garage that I’ve used for installing and removing the body.
The winch came in very handy for getting the door height tweaked in before tightening the bolts.
I took a length of wood added a strap to hook the winch to and drilled a couple of holes to hook some adjustable hold down straps. I use the winch to get the door height close and then adjust the straps to dial in the front and back edge door heights.
Pass-inside-straps.jpg
winch.jpg

The 2nd problem I ran into was at the rear edge of the door where the inside top edge of the door was hitting the body when the door was opened. I ended up using a Dremel with a sanding drum to grind out some of the inside edge of the door. Even with the removed material it would still hit. To overcome this, I had to cheat the door up higher and space rear door edge far from the body. I found that if I put a square on the door and made sure the body was about a 1/16” lower that the door edge there is enough clearance to clear the body. I think now I’ve got enough clearance, so they do not scrap after painting adds additional thickness.
pass-backedge-upper-interference.jpg
pass-door-up-higher-clearance.jpg

I found that tightening the nuts on the Door Hinge Standoff Assembly and door hinge arms so they can jiggle just a little all but eliminated the door from shifting when I tightened down the nuts the final time. Make sure the door hinges are pushed towards the inner edge of the door as far as they will easily go.

part 2 next, thanks.

Andy

[e36m3]

I found to keep the back edge of the door from hitting the body edge I had to cheat the door up a little higher than I would have liked, but I think it will be okay.
pass-door-up-higher-clearance.jpg

To be able to set this height consistently, I found that if I put a straight edge on the top of the door and have top edge of the body be about a 1/16" lower than the door top I get the right clearance.
drv-square-dorr-higher.jpg

To set the gaps between the back edge of the door and the body, I used two paint sticks to set the gap. I used blue painter tap to hold the paint sticks so when I shifted the door around the paint sticks wouldn't drop.
then I'd use gorilla on the top and bottom of the door to pull the back edge of the door tight to the paint sticks.
pass-backedge-tape and spacer.jpg
I kept trimming the front edge of the door until I was happy with the gap to the body. The gap I was looking for on the front edge of the doors is a little more than one paint stick thickness.

Once I was happy with how the height of the door was aligned with the belt line at the back edge of the door, I always bias the front edge of the door at the belt line up a little (1/16"??) because is always seems to drop a little when I remove the winch support. Then I tighten down the Door Hinge Standoff Assembly nuts. I use a ½ drive air impact wrench to tighten these down. Then I’d double check the vertical alignment one more time.
Door Hinge assembly.jpg

I gotta run I'll post part 3, doing the final tightening tomorrow.

Thanks,

Andy

[JimLev]

Doors are a PITA to do. Wait until you try to get the windows to seal up at the top edge of the roof.
Have you fitted the hood yet?

[e36m3]

Doors are a PITA to do. Wait until you try to get the windows to seal up at the top edge of the roof.
Have you fitted the hood yet?

I haven't tried the hood yet, I'm still savoring my victory with the doors. Next step is the door strikers and then the truck lid.

thanks,

Andy

[e36m3]

Looking down from the top of the door next, I’d align the outer edge of the door with the body and tighten down the nuts on the upper door arm using a battery powered 3/8” rachet. I found the tightening the nut closest to the hinge pivot minimized any shifting of the door alignment while tightening the nuts.
top door looking down.jpg
pass-tightening-upper-door-arm-1st.jpg

Next step I’d put a two taped together pieces of 3/16” thick trim in between the door and the body to keep the outer surface of the door aligned with the body when the lower door arm nuts are tightened. There isn’t much room inside the door to tighten the door arm nuts, so I use the same ½ drive air impact wrench to tighten these down.
pass-inside-wood-trim-spacer-set-outerdoor.jpg

Then I’d go back to the top door arm nuts and tighten those with 3/8” rachet with a length of pipe over the handle to really torque the nuts tight. I am pulling on the pipe and with the other arm on the door cross bracket to prevent putting stress on the fiberglass part of the door.
pass-upper-door-arm-craftsman-pipe.jpg

That is how I did the alignment on my, you results will definitely vary...

Thanks,
Andy