So I am about 9 months late starting this thread! Better late than never. My plan was to start and keep up a lightweight thread on here and post regular YouTube videos. I have somewhat failed at both! I have posted a total of 6 YouTube videos with a 5 month gap between video 5 and video 6 where I got totally lost in the wiring! I just posted Video 6, and here is a link to my channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQ...zGAkeqEdYp_8-Q

My kit arrived in March 2023 and I have worked on it regulary since then. I work full time and the time I spend on the build probably averages 5 hours a week. I tell people that I work on it often, but not a lot, meaning that I may go out to the garage and spend 30 minutes on something and call it quits. After hitting the build hard in the first few weeks it started to feel a bit like second job. I then went through some turbelent times at work and spent a bunch of time landscaping my back yard - I find hard manual work is the best cure for stress! And the winter storms out here in Califrornia had really done a lot of damage to our yard. I also found that I liked being outside in the air more than being in the garage for extended periods. Don't get me wrong, I have really enjoyed working on the build, especially when I backed off a little and stopped feeling like it was a race. I now liken it to a fine dinner, which should be savored not rushed. I am definitely not a "foodie" and my favorite food is toast with peanut butter, but I think you get my point. A friend and fellow FFR (Coupe) builder told me you will have more fun once you get to the point where you stop treating the build manual like the bible, and just go your own way, which I did about six months ago. I have really enjoyed working on the wiring, my dash and the rest of the electrical, plus my fire supression system, over the last 5 months!

A summary of my build:
- Complete Kit with IRS, AC, Powersteering
- Ford 302 Crate motor from Ford Performance - the motor is new but was sitting in the back of a friends shop for almost 20 years. Four dual downdraft weber IDFs 48s.
- Tremec T56 Magnum close ratio
- Bunch of stuff from Mike Forte for the front of the motor including Alternator, PS/AC bracket, serpentine belt setup, etc
- Mike Forte's throttle linkage system. Hydraulic clutch. Electronic ignition.
- Diff from Mike Forte
- Boig cool tubes
- Howe Ball Joints
- QA1 shocks and Willwood brakes from Gordon Levy
- 17 inch Halibrands - plan on putting on Toyo 888s

I am very much a novice at this. I've been around and loved cars my entire life but not done any serious wrenching beyond replaced brakes, starter motors, etc. I grew up in England and wanted a Lotus 7 when I was a teenager but ended up with rusty old Minis, MGBs, and that type of thing.
I have many friends who are into old Corvettes and Mustangs and I've worked on their cars a little, so I have a little experience from that. One of my closest friends is a Ferrari mechanic, he grew up in the San Francisco area, went to work at an exotic car dealership and ended up going over and living in Italy for 2 years to be trained as a Ferrari mechanic - he now runs the service department for an Infiniti dealership - he is working on my engine with me and will be showing me how to tune Webers!
I also build and race remote control warbird planes, a scaled down version of the Reno Air races, with planes reaching 160mph. The planes are built from plywood, balsa, fiberglass. The engines are supercharged mixture injected running on Nitro/methanol - they are a combo of 4 stroke and 2 stroke technology - so i am used to building kits, which is why I thought I would be able to handle a car kit!

I am following a similar approach to Hank (Hank's Build) in that I want to build a "trackable street car". I plan to take the car out to tracks in California (Laguna Seca, Sears Point, Thunderhill) and do some autocrossing but this will depend on whether the car I build is really upto the task! I visited Hank last fall and spent a wonderful afternoon in his garage. He has been a lot of help to me as have others including PaulB, Shakey, Gordon Levy, Mike Forte, Dave Tabor, Greg (RSnake). Also, all the guys in the Sacramento Factory Five Builders Group have been tremendously supportive (Kevin, Ron, Ted, Travis, Dave, David, Todd, Ken, Tim, Richard, Stan, Boyd, and others)

I plan on painting the car myself. I've used a 2K clear coat on the aluminum panels (after DA-ing them to 350 grit) which gives a kind of slightly whitish "patina-d" aluminum look that standards up well to oil, fuel etc. I very much like the look - I'm looking for an aged look. By saying I'm looking for an "aged" look this gives me a good excuse to make some mistakes and say "it's good enough"! I also painted the gauge cluster and switch panel along with a custom built fiberglass fuse box - I did these in the light metallic silver-blue paint that I plan to use on the car. If you look at my latest YouTube you will see the results - which are not perfect but I am very happy with the results. Doing this, plus painting the wheels of my VW SUV has given me some experience handling the paint guns and I've learned what a chore it is to keep the guns clean and that preparation is everything.

Last but not least, thank you everyone on the build forums here - I have been reading pages for the last 18 months and they have been tremendously helpful to a novice like me.