Casey Family Build Thread (coupe)

[Rodster]

Julie -
At least you will be there to receive the kit. Got the call from Stewart and they said, "we'll be there tomorrow." What!

In my case, I had to be in the office, then school, and had to get a friend to meet Stewart Transport.

On top of all this, they were re-surfacing the streets in my neighborhood. And the trailer couldn't make the turn into my street, so driver Bob and my friend Dennis had to wheel the chassis / body and all 26 boxes down the street to my house at the end of the block. I am sort of glad I wasn't there, and yet - it was like the expectant dad being away from the first born child . . . . .

Exciting - better than Christmas!

Here's Bean one of my animal nephews saying Hi to Tucker. . . .

Bean.JPG

[MRSQSL]

Good news and bad news. The car should be arriving around 7:00 tonight. I'm so happy the whole family will hopefully be a part of the delivery (sorry you missed yours Rodster). The bad news is that there is some damage on the nose according to the driver (not his fault as it happened during the Mass to PHX portion of the trip). It sounds like they are willing to make it right, but we need to see it first to see how bad it is. Fingers crossed it's a little rubbing and Jeff will have no problem getting it fixed. Sounded more like a gouge though.

[xlr8or]

Woohoo... !!

Make sure you check everything else as well. If the body was damaged that means something moved and your car may have as well so check the stuff that was on the opposite side of where it was hit and around the seams between the body parts.

[leriksen]

I'm sorry, I smiled at his name - in Australia 'Tucker' is slang for 'food' - ie you give your dog his tucker...mate of mine had a blue one, called Tacho, went everywhere in the car with him. We have 2 rescue kelpies, who love to play with heelers (which is what we call that breed here).

Dog on the Tuckerbox

I'm very excited to see you put the coupe together - I'm torn between the coupe and the roadster, so having the same people build both will hopefully answer a lot of questions. Have fun!!!

[QSL]

Kit was delivered!!!!

Thanks for the stand Scott, it worked great!!!

coupie0001.jpg coupie0002.jpg coupie0003.jpg coupie0004.jpg coupie0005.jpg coupie0006.jpg coupie0007.jpg coupie0008.jpg coupie0009.jpg

[Pedalmasher]

Nice!!

[MRSQSL]

I want to go in the garage!!!!!! I love my new car. Yay! The stand makes it high enough that I was afraid to sit in it, so no Casey butts have touched it yet. I couldn't resist doing a little inventory last night. I LOVE inventory. I would be willing to travel around the country doing inventory for new owners. I may need a couple days of training at the FF facility so I can figure out what all these parts are supposed to be called (again with not naming things correctly) and my travel would need to be paid. Hmmmmmm...I don't see this being a viable career path. Sigh.

The truck arrived on time last night and it was filled with my Coupe, two roadsters and one hot rod body (which I never did get to see since it was so deep in the truck). I had 20 boxes, but one actually belonged to Mike for Scoopy, so that's cheating. A few things are backordered, but since I don't speak car, I'm not really sure how important they are. There does seem to possibly be an issue with sidepipes. They are definitely not here and may or may not be backordered. Mike emailed FF last night and they are checking into it for us.

The damage looked really bad to me, but Mike and the driver didn't seem terribly concerned. A picture has been sent to Jeff Miller to see if he can fix it. The car was too close to the front of the trailer and a big hole was worn into the fiberglass right at the back where the spoiler is. I've found a way to strike just the right pose when standing at the rear of the car so that I look completely natural (at least in my mind) while covering up the flaw. I'll practice this weekend at the welcome home party.

Anyway, the delivery went smoothly except that I was so excited when the truck pulled up, I forgot to get a pen to mark off boxes and progress ground to a halt until I fetched one. Oops. The neighbors came out to watch and I suspect the other residents were surprised to see another truck dropping off another car. This is most likely the last for us though. No more money and no more space. Maybe when the kids grow up and get married, they'll get a car and we can foist ourselves on their delivery and inventory (and build). Maybe we'll have grandkids one day. Hmmmmmm...I'm gonna have to live a long time so I can keep seeing these cars get delivered.

I forgot to mention that my power steering arrived the evening before Coupey. I had a bonehead moment (as usual) when I pulled out the pieces and parts. I got to the reservoir thing and handed it to Mike while commenting that the power steering was smaller than expected. Okay, so I'm an idiot. I thought the reservoir was the entire system. D'oh!!!! Anyone want me to come do inventory for them? Anyone?

[Timb]

I couldn't resist doing a little inventory last night. I LOVE inventory. I would be willing to travel around the country doing inventory for new owners. Anyone want me to come do inventory for them? Anyone?

Aww dangit my daughters had the same idea....maybe you could take the west coast and give us the east Congrats on the delivery you are going to love the coupe!!!

[Fluge]

Congratulations....brings back memories...

Makes me want to do it all over again...and I'm not even done yet.

Marc

[MRSQSL]

Aww dangit my daughters had the same idea....maybe you could take the west coast and give us the east Congrats on the delivery you are going to love the coupe!!!

I give up. You win the inventory contest. Your kids are so darn adorable, everyone is gonna want to hire them. Besides, Mike keeps telling me I'm on my own building this one, so I think I'll be a little busy. Maybe your girls can come help me build instead.

[CJBergquist]

Congratulations. Let the games begin.

FYI, mine came with a ding in the same place...Jeff fixed it..

[MRSQSL]

Wow! If you took that picture and photoshopped it so the gel coat was red, I would swear to you that was our car. The damage is identical. I mean, IDENTICAL!!!!! Did Jeff have any issues fixing it or was it a piece of cake for him? I'm really surprised Stewart hasn't figured out they can't load the coupes however they are loading them. Don't get me wrong, I love Stewart and would use them again. Maybe Factory Five should tape a piece of that foam stuff along the back before they leave the factory.

[vnmsss]

Congratulations on your new Coupe!! Really sorry to hear about the damage, and I know between Stewart and Factory Five, it will be made right.

I'm heading over to Cal Speedway (Fontana) with my new Coupe for the weekend, so will unfortunately miss the welcome party. Will look forward to seeing you in the next few weeks, and to following your Coupe build!!

Karen
PS....I'll be in garage 62 and welcome anyone that wants to stop by!

[xlr8or]

Congrats on the delivery Julie.
I had a much smaller but similar mark in the same area but mine didn't go all the way through. You should be just fine sitting in the car on that dolly I did. If you want to be sure just tie it down to the dolly with some straps.
You'll find that with the car up at that level the rivets and drilling will be much more comfortable. You can build the entire chassis minus engine/trans on there then just lift it off with the engine hoist like they did when removing it from the truck.

PS: I'm going to have to miss the delivery party on Saturday.

[MRSQSL]

Karen, have fun with your coupe this weekend. I'm a little jealous you get to drive yours while I only get to pet and ogle mine. Some day. If I ever accidentally say "wanna race", I don't mean it. We all know how that would turn out.

Scott, Mike had originally suggested we use tie downs, but after he observed and shoved and observed some more, he decided the stand was definitely sturdy and encouraged me to climb in. Bawk, bawk! I haven't yet. I'll probably pull myself up into it over the weekend. I'm anxious to get building and finish inventory, but this is a super busy week for me. Thanks again for lending us the stand. I'm super bummed you won't be able to make it this weekend. Nobody else is allowed to not come!! The weather will be gorgeous and we'll order some delicious pizza.

[QSL]

crazy how it seems these all get damaged here. Nothing that some of the extra red tape could not fix. Almost looks new now. LOL

[Pedalmasher]

Perfect place for a CHMSL...

dv

[Gordon Levy]

Congrats, I look forward to following the build.

[MRSQSL]

Perfect place for a CHMSL...

dv

I'd like to buy a vowel please.

I Googled that, so no explanation is needed now (Google images to make sure I fully understood). Just for future reference, if you are talking to Mike, abbreviate away. If you want me to have any clue what you're talking about, I need stick figure diagrams, arrows and very basic explanations with non-technical words.

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

[Pedalmasher]

Hee Hee - I did that on purpose - - Knew you would be up for the challenge!!

In fact - I'm wondering how many others "Googled it"...

See y'all at 7:30...

DV

[Rodster]

I guess I am lucky, then - I have no visible damage at all on my Coupe body parts or boxes of parts - and I was the second to last shipment in that huge trailer. I have noticed other people getting fancy Factory Five logo boxes. All of my stuff came in ugly, plain brown U-Line boxes, except for my Halibrands and some small back ordered parts.

And, Yeah Pedalmasher - I had to Google that, too.

Looking forward to seeing your Coupe and meeting everyone at the Pizza gathering!

[Pedalmasher]

Yes!!!!

Here's challenge part 2:

Julie's car will be different from Mike's, cause her's might have a "PRNDL"...

Ready,

Google!!

DV

[JJ'snakepit]

Congratulation Mike on Julie... I am sorry I won't be able to make it tomorrow, I have a lot of catching up to do. HB is coming real soon and I am bringing my car. I was hoping to at least drive it off the trailer. I am sure Coupey is going to be awesome.. Relax and enjoy the build.. I too look forward to reading this thread.. Have fun tomorrow take lots of pictures.... JJ

[CJBergquist]

Jeff did a great job. There is no evidence of any damage.

[QSL]

it was a big weekend for us! Lots of fun, thanks to everyone that came to our welcome home coupey party! Also had the kids change the brakes on the challenger too LOL.

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[QSL]

last batch of pics!

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[MRSQSL]

Week 1:

Finally into the positive numbers. Woohoo! It's been a long wait, but Coupey is home and has been officially welcomed and/or blessed by the SoCal Factory Five community. Thank you to everyone who made the trek out. I wish we could have car parties every week.

Saturday morning Pedalmasher arrived right around 7:30 and off we headed to Cars and Cosi in Temecula. Scoopy performed beautifully as usual. I'd admit to a moment or two of giant smile while we were "racing" Derrick on the freeway, but that would be illegal and I'm quite certain we would never do anything like that. For the record, motorcylces are really fast. Anyway, he said we are definitely still smoking. I wasn't happy about that, but it is either the intake gasket or the valve seals. In my unprofessional opinion, I'm thinking the symptoms match valve seals more, but I would way rather replace the intake gasket than remove whatever pieces and parts have to be pried apart to fix the seals. Mike is on his own (I think) since I have my own toy to play with now.

After the car gathering, we lead the caravan home, passed out beverages and oohed and aahed over the new car. I think maybe the others love the coupe as much as I do. It's irresistable. Ever tried to stand next to it without reaching out and petting it? Impossible. The pizza arrived and we chowed down. Unfortunately, people had other things to do and the party goers trickled away until it was just the two of us (kids weren't home). I jumped into inventory with a modest amount of progress. One would think that after having done inventory and built Scoopy, I would have some clue what all the little thingymabobs are this time around. Nope. Even Mike was commenting that he was seeing new parts. Well, new as in not on the Cobra, not new to his brain. I had plenty of questions which he was forced to answer. I thought I could use the process of elimination to figure most of it out on my own, but when you have four different parts that all look as if they don't belong on a car, it's difficult to decide which is which. I finally decided that since there were four unmarked boxes on the paper and four oddly shaped objects before me, they most likely match up and it's safe to check them off and move on. It's not like FF would grab miscellaneous items to wrap up and throw in the boxes just to mess with people, right? Speaking of wrapping, I don't know what's going on anymore. When we got the first kit, all the boxes were white and the contents were gently placed inside in whatever form they originally came in. This kit had brown boxes and mostly everything in them was wrapped in brown paper. I'm not complaining. I'm simply wondering if something happened in shipping previously that caused them to overdose on brown wrapping paper. EVERYTHING was wrapped. For instance, the strut things for the hood were wrapped. Those brown papers are huge so unwrapping took quite a few wrist flicks and I was tired after a few boxes.

Mike and I were exhausted by the time we called it quits. With the opportunity to take Scoopy for a spin and then having so much fun talking to people and discussing the car, we were overstimulated and needed some sleep. I didn't make it past 9:00.

This morning, we got up and the guy who built our little aluminum coupe body came by to grab some more tubing for the frame he's making. He walked up the driveway, saw Coupey and fell in love. I think I may have seen him hug the car when he thought we weren't looking. I'm not sure exactly what we are going to do yet, but with help we are going to revolutionize the dash. Well, that might be an overstatement. We will work with him to design a dash that is slightly less rectangular than the stock one. He needs the gauges and stuff first, so it'll be a long time. Speaking of gauges, Mike convinced me I should get customized gauges from Speedhut. I spent about an hour this morning playing with different ideas on my iPad. I really couldn't find anything that floated my boat, so I opted to search the internet for other companies that could custom make gauges. I found that Autometer has a custom shop now and I picked out the number and variety of gauges. When I went to the part where you could begin the customization process, a screen popped up announcing I needed flash. Nooooooo!!!!! Apple and flash can't co-exist. I shut off my iPad in a huff and stormed downstairs. I guess I'll try again tonight on Mike's computer. All I know is that I don't want anything I've seen so far. I love JJ's gauges but when I try to picture them on my dash, it doesn't work as well as it would in a roadster. Sigh. If making decisions is always going to be this tough, I'm in big trouble. Oh and we are back to blue and white for the car. That's this weeks color choice. Ask me again next week.

I feel like I'm leaving something out. Hmmmmmm. I know. I finished inventory today while Mike changed the brakes on the Challenger. Aly and Steve helped some also. He still needs to do the rears. I think everything was in inventory (other than the backordered stuff) except for the footbox cover and the sidepipes. Mike says he'll contact FF for me since he wants to ask them about the small chip in the windshield anyway. It's way up high and I'll bet nobody noticed it over the weekend. If I think of anything important that I missed, I'll log back on tomorrow and add it. As it is, Mike keeps asking what I'm typing. I think he's concerned I'm telling all his deep dark secrets. I'll save those for week 2.

[xlr8or]

Great pics and commentary as usual. Wish I could have made it there.

[bil1024]

Great thread! Enjoy

[Rodster]

Yup, you guys missed a great event.

Julie, there are some weird-looking metal parts for the Coupe. Be careful when you inventory the rear brakes for the IRS - The Factory sent me a brake kit for the solid axle, so now we have to do some exchanging. The critical part is a pair of crescent-shaped metal pieces that are used to mount the calipers to the spindle (you know, the thing that looks like it came from a bag of jacks......) I got a milled square-ish piece instead.

Kinda reminds me of that Neil Young song Rust Never Sleeps when it goes - "you pay for this, they give you that. . . "

Hmm. Now that I think about this, that song also applies to some steel parts like door hinges and rear hatch hardware, that are not powder coated. . .

[Made_In_America]

Dakota Digital has some nice gauges you may want to take a look at. I really like their MVX series.

http://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm

[MRSQSL]

Thanks for the link. There are some really interesting gauges there. I actually designed a set I really like with Autometer yesterday and sent Mike the link so he could see. He liked them, but he's concerned about quality. Sad face. I'm definitely stuck now. This link added another dimension of uncertainty as now I have other options. I wish I could see them all in person so I could get a good feel for how they look and quality and such.

[Jacob McCrea]

Great thread! Enjoy

Agreed; I'm enjoying following along from afar.

[QSL]

Been collecting some 1-1/2 dom tubing, Tube dies and other misc. bits. We hope to start on the coupe this weekend with the big work being completed by 03/17. We are adding some side impact bars and additional support in the front for Julies high speed 45mph runs.

[QSL]

just brought home the 40+ feet of 1-1/2 .120 dom tubing.

tubing.JPG

[vnmsss]

just brought home the 40+ feet of 1-1/2 .120 dom tubing.

tubing.JPG

Awesome! Not sure if you're using your own door bar design, but we have a set of jigs which Hank fabbed up for the door bars on the new car. We kinda figured the jigs would be like the travelling pedal benders, and you're welcome to use them.

Karen

[frankeeski]

just brought home the 40+ feet of 1-1/2 .120 dom tubing.

tubing.JPG

Looks like fun!

[QSL]

Awesome! Not sure if you're using your own door bar design, but we have a set of jigs which Hank fabbed up for the door bars on the new car. We kinda figured the jigs would be like the travelling pedal benders, and your welcome to use them.

Karen

that would be great! PM inbound

[MRSQSL]

Pop quiz. You are undoing the header bolts and you drop a thick e clip. Where does it fall? A) Straight to the ground where it rolls gently to rest right by your foot and you can easily bend down and retrieve it. B) Straight down under the exact center of the car, so you can't reach it from any angle. C) At an angle uncalculable by man which will lodge it firmly between the footbox aluminum and the frame with the bottom of the "E" under the aluminum so that it is impossible to pull up. The answer is C. Perhaps the coupe will not have this issue, but we spent the weekend working on the Cobra (don't ask why I'm updating this thread instead of that one). Mike had to take a screwdriver and a few yoga classes to get it unwedged. And so began week 2. Okay, that's a lie. Week 2 started on Saturday morning. We got up and headed off to the Temecula Rod Run with some friends. We did not drive Scoopy as the weather has been pretty bad (rain) and we didn't register as participants anyway. I guess this is an annual show where they block off a main street and park cars (1972 and older - I think) along the sides. Tons of people showed up. We saw two Cobras. I think both were Factory Fives, but I wouldn't swear to it. We also saw a GT40 which was a Superformance. The guy was entertaining serious offers only of $250,000 or higher!!!! Where's that shocked icon? I don't see it so we'll go with those two instead. The highlight of the show for me was a Chihuahua pulling a very small wagon. I snapped a picture on my camera, so I'll probably be responsible for posting since it isn't on the camera Mike uses.

After the show (where I didn't get any new dash or gauge ideas), we headed home. Karen came by to see our cars and let us pick her brain once more about building the coupe. I love her!!!!! We'll meet with her again in a week or two for the jigs to do the side impact door frame mod. I'm sure I'll have more dumb questions by then. As Mike and I were discussing later, Karen is extremely intelligent and I feel like she is telling me important, logical, well thought out things and I'm stumbling around saying things like "car is pretty" or "car goes vroom".

Saturday evening didn't go as planned. I was going to mark and photograph the footbox aluminum and then remove it. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling great so I sat in the garage and watched Mike remove the sidepipes and header bolts (and throw e clips into positions you couldn't replicate if you tried 1000 times). It didn't bother me so much, but one of the sidepipes was sticking out too far and you could see the bolts (headers to pipes) through the body cut out. He decided to remove the headers, cut off the necessary amount, weld on new flanges and reattach. Fortunately, we know an amazing fabricator who came by Sunday morning to help.

Before I get to Sunday, let me point out something so incredibly stupid that I can't believe it took me until last week to realize. Because we are doing frame mods, the frame is not powder coated. Because the frame isn't powder coated, I can't go shoving suspenion parts or any other parts on. This made me sad. I wanted to build when I finished inventory. It'll be worth it, but how idiotic that I figured I'd do inventory and hop straight into building.

Okay, so Sunday Martin came over to help with the car. He is the one that made mini coupe in aluminum and also welded our roll bars. I have to say that if anyone in so cal needs any work done (especially hot rods or muscle cars), this is your guy. Okay, commercial over. The first thing they tried was using an old ban saw to cut the pipes. I'm not entirely certain what went wrong, but I believe it wasn't cutting at the desired angle (probably something to do with shims). Martin offered to take us to his shop where he had tools that he knew could get the job done. To make a long story short (instead of a short story long like I usually do), the three of us (mostly those two) spent the day putting the headers and pipes on and then taking them off and perfecting the millimeter or so that annoyed them (dang perfectionists) and then repeating. Up, down, up, down. I think I have massive leg muscles now. Okay, maybe not massive. In the end, Martin took the headers home so he could weld the flanges at his shop and will be returning them this evening. I spoke with him a tad more about the coupe dash. He showed me a picture of one he had fabricated for a truck. I believe my dash worries are over. Now back to the gauge confusion. Oh, so I was supposed to do the coupe panels Sunday while Mike and Martin were working, but there wasn't enough room in the garage or enough hands for two projects. Nothing accomplished for me.

Yesterday evening, Mike and I did yet another leak down test. I wasn't strong enough to get the stupid quick disconnect connected, so Aly had to come out. She couldn't do it either, so she ended up disconnecting and connecting the other end which worked well. Nothing more than 8% on any cylinder. The spark plugs look better than they did before Mike removed the PCV. It appears the valve cover gasket may have had a leak (I think that's the one he told me). It may still be that the intake gaskets are bad. I don't know. I'm sure we will be dismantling things for awhile until the problem is solved.

Alyssa is currently registering for classes for her senior year. She brought me the form to sign last night. I was delighted and extremely jealous to see that she is trying to get into a welding class. I've spent the day pondering ways to quickly learn extreme movie makeup so I can pass as a teen to take the class with her. Think I may need a fake ID as well. Maybe she will make me one of those pretty welded roses I saw on the other forum in the off topic section. I should show it to her and plant the seed now. Insert evil giggle.

[WIS89]

Karen-

Once again demonstrating that you ROCK!!

Great thinking on the jigs, and even better idea to share them. Your generosity is inspiring!!

Regards,

Steve

Awesome! Not sure if you're using your own door bar design, but we have a set of jigs which Hank fabbed up for the door bars on the new car. We kinda figured the jigs would be like the travelling pedal benders, and you're welcome to use them.

Karen