Mike in Texas FFR Roadster Build - Assembly, Going in the Right Direction

[Railroad]

I was not a big fan of the blue, until it got its stripes. Fabulous! I will bet the trim will dress it, even more.

[Mike.Bray]

I've certainly made my share of not so great decisions in my life but trusting Riggs Fabrication to do my paint & bodywork ranks up near the top. They build nice cars, not Riddler caliber cars, but nice. But they have no clue when it comes to paint. I think they're trying to "do it all" so they're becoming a Jack of all trades - master of none shop. Went through three different painters, massively over budget, and a colossal and very fundamental screwup that is documented earlier in this thread. But after a quick 12 1/2 months my baby came home yesterday, less a couple of boxes of parts that I need to go back and collect.

Yesterday afternoon my good friend was nice enough to pick my car up and bring it to me.



The wankers at Riggs couldn't even charge the battery for me so we had to find a way to get it up my driveway and into the garage. Fortunately my truck has a winch so that got us most of the way, at least close enough the three of us could then get it into the garage.



In the end the color turned out spectacular and I really like the stripes. Depending on the angle and lighting they shift from a brilliant white to a silver. It's a neat effect.

So today I'll pull the battery and probably get it exchanged as it doesn't look like it's taking a charge. Then there's a pretty long to-do list to get going on. After sitting on my butt for a year I'm ready. I just hope I can find all of my parts and remember where they go!

[Mike.Bray]

I got the engine fired up today without much effort and pulled it out onto the driveway so I could spray the engine compartment down. Glacier Speed Painters sent it back dirtier than I can even describe, it's going to take me a month to clean it. Very disappointing.

But on the bright side, it's a nice sunny day here so I got to see it outside in the sun. That blue really sparkles in the sun, it looks amazing.

[cc2Arider]

VERY NICE Mike

Did you get the radiator surround painted white? If so, that is a nice touch! Tough to keep clean, but I suspect with your background building HotRods, not too much out of your wheel-house

Craig C

[buttsjim]

Beautiful! All your pictures look great, but I think that rear three quarter view is my favorite--something about that blue on the rear fenders and deck slope. I hope the issues with the painter are the last of your troubles, and that everything (especially including titling) goes super smooth for you. It's amazing that it's been 12-1/2 months--you're a patient man!

[Mike.Bray]

Spent the afternoon cleaning and doing some little things now that the car is back home. There's a pretty long list of to-do items, trying not to rush or get overwhelmed. I just need to remember it's like eating an elephant, just take one bite at a time.

Did a test fit of my 3D printed air duct for the footbox cooling. I had to change out the seatbelt mouunting bolts from hex head to button head for a little clearance but that was it, the plenum slipped into place nicely. Now to get the mirror image printed for the DS.

[Mike.Bray]

Received my center cap for the steering wheel today, also 3D printed. I think it's going to look nice when it's polished and the background is filled with black.

[Bill Elliott]

Glad to see your car is back home with you, that blue is truly one of a kind!! Looks awesome.

[zarnold]

Your a trooper Mike, way to hang in there. Now back to the fun stuff

[cv2065]

Looks great Mike!!

[460.465USMC]

But after a quick 12 1/2 months my baby came home yesterday, less a couple of boxes of parts that I need to go back and collect.

Yesterday afternoon my good friend was nice enough to pick my car up and bring it to me.

Congrats on getting it back home, Mike. I was wondering what happened. Sorry to read about your bad experience. I hope things improve going forward. It looks great!

[Jeff Kleiner]

I know all about what you’ve had to endure so am happy to see that it’s back home, hopefully without too much of a fight.

Jeff

[Nigel Allen]

Happy to see you moving forward again Mike.

Cheers from down under

[Mike.Bray]

I went back and forth all through the build whether I should install a battery disconnect or not. Now that the car is mostly assembled and almost finished I've decided to add one. I don't recommend this method though, do it as you're wiring.

Two things convinced me to add it. One, these cars sit more than they are driven and there are small draws on the battery. Second, I'm using the FFR supplied switch with the removable key, a small theft deterrent. I mounted it under the hood which can be locked adding to the theft deterrence.

[Mike.Bray]

Had most of yesterday free so worked on checking a few things off my to-do list.

First up, changing out the valve covers. I thought I would like the classic Cobra covers but the more I looked at them the less I liked them. After seeing what Papa Dave did I had to follow suit and I like these a lot better. I think they compliment the stacks better than the Cobra ones and I have to say the quality is top notch. Also slipped in the screens for the stacks, they're advertised to keep out rocks and small animals



Next up, installing the headlights. No big dramas as I had already prepared everything and had pigtails installed through the buckets. The only issue I ran into was on the PS, the paint shop for reasons known only to them removed the Weatherpack connectors from the harness so I had to reinstall them. Of course I got two wires crossed on the three-way connector and didn't have another housing. Thanks to my buddy Terry down the road I was able to borrow one and save a drive to Summit. I really like these headlights, they have built-in halos that I'm using for DRL and turn signals. Notice what's missing from the front of my car?



Next installed the door panels from Herb's. I really like these, I think they give the car a more finished look and for not a lot of money.



Also installed the door straps. My wife and I had dyed these black a few months ago and after seeing them on the car I'm glad we did it.



Taillights and sidepipe hangers are installed. Next up, the oil catch can for the engine and continue cleaning.

[Ted G]

Looking great Mike!!

[Rebostar]

Mike, looks great. Back to the fun stuff!.
I love the "missing" turn signals! Where did you find those head lights?
Allyn

[Mike.Bray]

Mike, looks great. Back to the fun stuff!.
I love the "missing" turn signals! Where did you find those head lights?
Allyn

These are the headlights I used. https://www.carid.com/1965-ford-gt-h...parentsubmodel[]=SUBMODEL|With+Factory+2-Headlight+System

[Mike.Bray]

This afternoon I had a little free time so I worked on the footbox venting system. Attached the blower to the plenum and then fitted a piece of 1" x 4" x 0.125" aluminum RHS to the other end. For reference I made the tube 24" long. Covered the RHS with some marine grade carpet I had, the thin stuff kind of like felt.





Installed my buttons and ran all the wiring and Weatherpack connectors for the blowers.



And finally fitted the finished product into the passenger side, plugged in the blower, and test ran it. I have to say I'm reasonable pleased with it. Everything fits really well and there's a decent amount of air blowing into the footbox. It took more work than I thought it would but I enjoy this process.

[JayOH]

Is the air just going to blow out the end of the rectangular tube towards the front of the foot box or are you going to add an additional feature to send the air towards passenger’s legs/seat?

Better question, is the purpose just to provide passive cooling to the passenger by directing airflow to the foot box to prevent stationary air from heating up too much or is purpose to provide active cooling by directing air towards the passenger to cool?

[Mike.Bray]

Is the air just going to blow out the end of the rectangular tube towards the front of the foot box or are you going to add an additional feature to send the air towards passenger’s legs/seat?

Better question, is the purpose just to provide passive cooling to the passenger by directing airflow to the foot box to prevent stationary air from heating up too much or is purpose to provide actively cooling by directing air directly towards the passenger to cool?

Yes, the air blows out the end of the rectangular tube into the footbox.

The theory is twofold. First, by pulling (relatively) cool air from behind the seat and blowing it into the footbox it will help keep the area cool as the footboxes tend to heat up from the engine and headers. Second, blowing air into the footbox will slightly increase the pressure inside creating a pressure differential between the inside of the footbox and the engine compartment.

I think blowing relatively cool air into the footbox will help. I doubt if the pressure differential created will be enough to make a difference though. Either way I don't think what I'm doing is going to hurt anything, just remains to be seen how much it helps.

[Mike.Bray]

Small update, got the steering wheel center insert finished today.

Here's the part raw from the 3D printer. Material is aluminum.



And here it is after my buddy Matt Bufford did his magic and made my junk look good.

[egchewy79]

looking good. love the custom touches.

[Mike.Bray]

Took a few more bites out of the elephant over the past couple of days.

Started with the windshield. I had previously installed Forte's quick release windshield brackets, these things are gold.



My wife and I dropped the windshield in, marked the two holes, and slid it out to drill. I know the frame is brass and how "grabby" brass can be with a twist drill so I used a step drill. It was easy as could be. We dropped it back in and popped the quick release pins in. The entire process took us 30 minutes. Those are Mike Everson's trim rings around the posts.



Next up mounted the windwings and Breeze rearview mirrors. No drama here, very quick and easy. I do really like these mirrors.



Next up was the sun visors. I had read horror stories about the FFR provided screws being a smidge too long and cracking the glass so I certainly didn't want that. Decided to do the "Kleiner Sun Visor Mod" using 6-32 square nuts in the channel on the top of the windshield frame with 6-32 x 1/4" flat head screws secured with a little blue Loctite. I still need to insert some vacuum hose in the channel to finish it off.



And the finished sun visors.

[Mike.Bray]

Next up I finished the footbox cooling system on the PS. Wrapped the fan with some sound absorbing material and secured it to the floor. Installed the seat and everything fits really nice. Almost looks factory original.

[Mike.Bray]

Did the final alignment on the doors and latches, I think they turned out nice. As others have said, there's a lot of work in the doors.



While I was in the general area I went ahead and installed the sidepipes. I've been storing them in my wife's office so she was happy.

Added the weather seal for the hood. For reference the large seal is McMaster #93085K14 the the small seal is McMaster #93085K67



And other than aligning the headlights the frontend is now complete. Installed these grommets for the quick jack posts and installed chrome washers & acorn nuts. Also glued the screens in the brake ducts.



Started on installing the side louvers, will finish them up in the morning. Probably install the hood also.

[Ashaw65]

Good luck with the build. I'm in Houston and look forward to seeing your blog.

[Mike.Bray]

Small update today.

I debated back and forth about how to install the side louvers, permanently bond them to the body or make them removable. After seeing how convenient that hole is when installing the sidepipes I decided to make them removable. Ordered up some Rotaloc bonding fasteners and made the louvers removable.



Next up, installing the Breeze roll bar for the last time. I just don't like the way the FFR bar looks, the paperclip look. The Breeze bar is bigger diameter (1.75" OD) and welds together instead of bolting. You have to fit everything up, weld the diagonal brace on, and then get it finished - chrome in my case. Because it's a welded assembly and larger diameter than the FFR one there are couplers to attach it to the standard roll bar mounts in the chassis. The couplers are just pieces of 1.5" x 0.125" DOM tubing about 8" long. The roll bar and couplers have to be match drilled to the chassis so it can be bolted in. No big deal except the paint shop lost the coupler for the diagonal bar. Ugh. Off the Metal Supermarket for a piece of overpriced tubing, sand the crap out of the OD to get it to slide freely, and match drill everything. A quick three hours later and the roll bar is installed for hopefully the last time.

[Rebostar]

Mike
Your car is looking awsome!! Where can I find that cool carbon fiber console cover? I need one!!

Allyn....aka Rebostar

[Mike.Bray]

Where can I find that cool carbon fiber console cover? I need one!!

Tricked you lol! it's not really carbon fiber. I started with this heavier tunnel top from FFMetal. It comes blank so you can put the shifter hole where you need it. The FFR-supplied one already has a hole and it's usually in the wrong place. FFMetal also sells the Firewall Forward Kit and Fat Tire "F" panels which I would recommend.

Then I covered it with this stuff from Amazon.

If you're interested I used 10-24 screws from here.


Mike