Ehansen007 289 Build- 1000 mile report!

[ehansen007]

[cnutting]

Excellent, congratulations!

[jmccabe]

Congratulations Eric. Still as beautiful as the first time Ive seen it .

Jeff

[Mark Dougherty]

much deserved
well done eric

[Marty Prario]

HB was the 1st time I saw your car in person. What a beautiful car, WOW. Nice Job Eric.

[ehansen007]

Well after 6 months of building and 6 months of BS motor work and DMV she's all legal!

[David Hodgkins]

Congrats! How did you get the plate to fit?

[ehansen007]

You mean without the screws going through the back? I used nuts as washers. Everything else lined up fine. I also took some steel wool to it to give some age! What's interesting about these new cal plates is that they are actually not black. They are a deep metallic brandywine if you put it in the sun. Weird.

[WIS89]

Eric-

I love the color, the plate, the black-out effect, and everything else! She is really a beauty!

Congratulations again on a really fine build. If I can emulate a fraction of your skills, I will be set!

Well done on the award as well, although it isn't a surprise given your outstanding build; awesome!

Regards,

Steve

[wallace18]

Super Job! I really like the plate too.

[68GT500MAN]

Glad to see that it now has plates and all is well.
Doug

[ehansen007]

Thanks Fellas! See you out there!

[ehansen007]

Soooooo. It's been an interesting 1000mi to say the least.

After having to rebuild the entire motor due to something ruining the piston rings, I got the car back on the road the day before HB show. I managed to get it to the show and had a good result however the clutch slave pushrod came out of the cylinder and the clutch stopped working! I figured out a way to get it working just enough to get it home. I pulled into the driveway and it popped out again. So, we pushed it into the garage and put the cover on it and headed out the country for three weeks. Since I've been back and fixed it, it's a lot of just driving it to local shows and testing it and working out the bugs and rattles. I recently took it up to big bear for my longest road trip to date Some findings thus far:

The EFI works great however it's taken some time to adapt to driving it in the mountains. The changes in Altitude does take the Holley system a while to learn and compensate. We're working on a new map now to fine tune it.

As we all know the Wagner brake pads that come with the kit are awful so an upgrade is in order. I've tried the Hawks before but found them to need heat to get working well. Per Dan's recommendation, I picked up the cheapest ($29) Semi-Metallic pads from Napa and just got them on the car. They had actually sold me the Ceramic pads (which is what the 99GT calls for) and they had little bite to them. The cheapo Napa pads are MUCH better. They work great. So thanks Dan!

Bias Ply tires lose air way faster then regular tires. There always seems to be one tire that loses it faster than the others as well. They are sticky though and really fun on the asphalt. Not so much on the concrete freeways.

The S10 tailshaft on the T5 is the bomb! So glad I redid this when I had the motor out. The shifter is now where is should be, in any car for that matter, and it's just so smooth.

The electric power steering upgrade is just amazing. Although I have the 289 with the narrower front end, I was lucky to have some shorter and longer turnbuckles handy from the 818 so I could get the caster where it should be at 9 degrees. Now that it's there it's perfect. Fully adjustable and I'm waiting on the ECU upgraded firmware to I can hook it to the GPS and have it dynamically change based on the speed. Can't wait.

Suspension. It's on the softest setting for the Konis and I even switched to some #275 springs in the back and it could be a lot better. Even with the 15in wheels at 25PSI. The guys I run with are all going to QA1s and seem to really like the compliance so I may move to those as the next step.

So for now the car is pretty damn good. It runs strong and clean and I never smell like gas when I get back. Just enjoying it so far.

[Mark Dougherty]

great
thanks for the update
glad to see it getting driven

[ehansen007]

Thanks Mark!

[JB91710]

The fuel smell in the garage is what keeps me going!
Doug

Try intravenous. Doesn't smell as much.

[flynntuna]

Great write up.

http://reincarnationmag.com/garage/f...second-289-fia

[japollon]

Hi Erik, Did you eventually put cats on your car? I am in CA also and am wondering related to my 289 build. Thanks

Because I believe it will run better, burn cleaner, get better MPG, and more efficient HP. Coming over from electric for me meant I had to run a clean car. I hated the carb setup in the hot rod and how it always smelled of fuel in the garage and when running. And, I spoke to Erik Treves and the the 8 stack Weber setup was still not cheap. 8 Stack just looks so good though. I wouldn't run anything else on this car. This will be the cleanest running 289 so help me if I even have to put high flow cats on it!

[ehansen007]

Yes, I've had them on the whole time. The sound vs the J pipes is better I think. Especially when it's popping off throttle. But yeah, no smell, still great performance, sound, everything! There seems to be this allegiance to loud and smelly that I just can't figure out with the old guys. Maybe it's because they are loud and smelly too?

[myjones]

Erik
HEY HEY;
What happened to the respect your elders advice you got as a young lad.

For the record, this loud smelly old fart is building a SMPI COP 6 pack Hemi 33.
It won't have Cats <no room on the 33> but it will burn pretty clean so no love for carbs from this old skool fool.
DB 7L Hemi33

[ehansen007]

I'm working hard to become an old fart. Just ask my kids.

[ehansen007]

Got some updates done for the show and had a great time driving it the last year. The only problem is that now the pilot bearing shaft must be seized because I cannot get the car in gear while it's running. So now I have to pull the transmission. I think the car may be cursed to be honest.

[ehansen007]

Wow, it's great going back over this post after all these years. I'll have to admit I'm getting the itch again to build but it will have to wait. It was unfortunate that I had to sell this car in the summer of 2017 to pay for some of my sister's cancer therapy. When she started to recover I decided my wife had been such a saint through all my builds, that I wanted to buy her something she could enjoy- a Jag F-Type. That car was awesome but even that didn't last long in our stable as we moved on to more practical transportation purchases.

I really did enjoy this 289 build and Jeff Miller went over the top with the paint however my neighbor had built the engine and the entire situation of putting it back in his shop over and over only to have him screw something up...got old really quick. From a fried rings, to 1 tightened bolt holding the tranny/motor together, to putting a hole in the radiator, the car was a nightmare and as soon as it was running well, I sold it for $46k.

The reason I bring this up is because I happened to be browsing BAT the other day and came across this! $70k!

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/fa...4-roadster-21/

Just goes to show that you never know and certain cars go for certain people. I miss the days of the build and adding progress posts and getting awesome feedback and help throughout. This really is a great community and while the builds have come and gone, I miss the people the most. One thing that has been keeping me busy however is writing. I published my first book last year about golf and started working on my second...a book about building cars. Imagine that. We'll see how that goes but I've already had one trip back to visit Mr. Smith and he's agreed to write the forward. I can't wait for that. I hope to make some good progress this summer and share the results here.

Take care everyone!

Erik C. Hansen
FFR Builder and now AUTHOR!...LOL. Playing Sideways (can be found on Amazon)

[Jeff Kleiner]

Your FIA has always been one of my favorites Erik! I’ll look forward to reading the new book

Jeff

[rpard508]

Eric,
I know it’s been a while, but do you remember the name of the color of that beautiful shade of blue you and Jeff Miller used on your car? It’s really striking and not very common! I’m about to get my 289 FIA build sprayed and am looking hard at something like that shade of blue.

Best regards,
Rich
rpard508

[ehansen007]

Eric,
I know it’s been a while, but do you remember the name of the color of that beautiful shade of blue you and Jeff Miller used on your car? It’s really striking and not very common! I’m about to get my 289 FIA build sprayed and am looking hard at something like that shade of blue.

Best regards,
Rich
rpard508

Yes, it’s called Pozzi Blue and it was from PPG. Best of luck. That color was amazing. So many thought it was black but it was so deep it took direct sunlight to bring out the blue.