Papa's MKIV Roadster Build - #9115 (Post Grad) - One million + views!!!
I've decided to do a build thread and hope this provides some return to the community on the help that I've already received and know I'll need as my build progresses. My experience with working on cars is pretty limited. I've done normal maintenance and some basic customization and mechanical repairs, but that's about it. So, this build, much like wareaglescott's build, will be from the perspective of the novice builder willing to learn as I go and humbled by the knowledge that is available from the many gracious gurus that are so willing to share their time and experience with us beginners.
My build will be based on a complete kit, now sitting in my shop along with some Factory Five upgrades and a few modifications to the basic "by the book" build. My car will use a Moser 8.8 3-link rear axle with Wilwood brake upgrade front and back. I plan to use BluePrint Engines for the powertrain, having selected their 347 c.i. with EFI and the Tremec TKO 600 transmission.
I will be using my roadster exclusively on the street, no racing. I live in Colorado, and can't wait to someday drive the roadster into the Rocky Mountains for a day trip to Breckenridge or Estes Park (Rocky Mountain National Park) with my lovely wife of nearly 32 years by my side.
Build Thread Table of Contents
Topic
Post Number(s)
Delivery
1
Rear Axle
8
Body & Aluminum Removal
12
Assembly Begins
13
Front Suspension & Brakes
23
Rear Suspension
32
Firewall
42
Pedal Box Assembly
42
Fuel Tank
49
Passenger Footbox
62
Passenger Floor
70
Driver’s Floor & Foot Box
81
Rear Cockpit Aluminum
85
Steering
86
Brake Reservoir
98
FFMetal Battery Box
98
Brake Lines
107
Rolling Chassis
137
Trunk Aluminum
139
Wiring Harness Install
140
Dash Install (Initial)
174
Engine Uncrate
179
Foot Operated Headlight Dimmer Mod
196,517
Electrical Switches
203
E-Brake Cable Install
207
E-Brake Handle
216, 226
Fuel Filter Mount
224
Fuel Lines
233
Wiper Motor Install
249
Engine Install
255
Heater Bypass
280
Seat Heaters
297
Power Steering Lines
306
Electrical Buss Bar
335
Boig Cool Tubes
342
Throttle Cable Mounts
352
Fan & Horn Wiring
356
First Start
357
Drilling Roll Bars
387
Mounting Dash (Final)
418
First Go-Kart
430
Coupler Mod (Retrofit)
454
Trans Tunnel Cover Upholstery
457
Breeze Seat Mounts
466, 664
Body Fit (Rough)
480
Hood Fit (Rough)
513
Hood Hinges/Latches
524
Trunk Lid & Door Fit (Rough)
541
Le Mans Gas Filler
544
License Plate Bracket
561
Tail Light Wiring
582
Headlights
585
EFI Swap from FAST XFI Street to Holley Sniper
618
Side Louvers
639, 687, 731-735
Trunk Carpet
640, 662
Trunk Lid Access Cover
649
12v Power Point
664
Trunk Lid Wiring
667
Driveline Safety Hoop
682
Premium Soft Top
688, 776, 1119
Carpet
693
Body Under Coating
702
Splash Guards
715
Door Strap & Seatbelt Pad Leather Dye
743
Breeze Upper Radiator Panel
755
Door Latches
770
Gap Filler Panels
784
Radiator Aluminum
785
Trunk Gas Struts from Relicaparts (Mike Everson)
796
SDC Self-Cancelling Turn Signals
807
Door Sill Aluminum
826
Gas-N Side Pipes
828
O-Ring Mod for Wheel Spinners
834
Getting Ready to Ship To Jeff Kleiner For Paint
846
At Jeff Kleiner’s For Paint
872, 895, 922, 929, 942, 954, 979, 986
Headed Home After Paint
1007, 1014
Final Assembly
1029, 1044, 1056, 1061, 1067, 1075, 1114, 1118
Getting Legal
1129, 1143, 1183
Ride Height Adjustment
1131
Finished!
1170
Russ Thompson Turn Signal Retrofit
1277
Radiator Replacement and Addition of Breeze Upper Mount
Being an Electrical Engineer gives you a huge advantage over a lot of us.
To give you an example, it took me 40 hours to wire my dash.
That's why you never give a wrench to a banker. Looks Like A Great Combination To Me!
Look forward to following along!
Wow I am envious of that potential drive in the rockies. Sounds amazing!
My Grandparents and Aunts/Uncles are from the Westminster and Lakewood areas. Spent a ton of time in Denver growing up. Would be amazing to drive the Cobra up in the mountains.
MK4 #8900 - complete kit - Coyote, TKO600, IRS - Delivered 6/28/16 First Start 10/6/16 Go cart - 10/16/16 Build completed - 4/26/17 - 302 days to build my 302 CI Coyote Cobra - Registered and street legal 5/17/17
Build Thread http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/showt...e-build-thread
PHIL 4:13 INSTAGRAM - @scottsrides
Good Luck! I'm excited to watch your build progress. You'll have a few months head start on me.
Started dreaming of a Cobra around 1987
Purchased Complete Kit 6/9/2017, Delivered 9/4/2017, Rolling Chassis 3/30/2018, Engine Dyno'ed 3/4/2022, Engine installed 8/27/2022, First start 6/13/2024, Go Kart 8/19/2024 Click here for my build thread
Serial #9158
Design Engineer at BluePrint Engines
Thank you all for the kind words of encouragement! So, to catch this new thread up, I received my rear axle and Wilwood brakes a couple of weeks ago. I installed the brakes on the axle and replaced the chrome diff cover with the cast cover.
I also had my grandson "help" me. He installed a lug nut for me and was so proud of himself!
Last Saturday, the bulk of the kit arrived and my wife and I spent about six hours doing inventory. I found a few missing items and e-mailed Courtnie. She was right on getting the parts ordered for me. I also have several back ordered parts that should hopefully start arriving soon. Today, I got a shipping notification for two boxes coming from FFR.
Little man looks pretty pleased with himself! Where did that red hair come from? Handsome fell right there.
Congrats on starting the build. You are really going to love it. It is both enjoyable and rewarding, and I think you will have a terrific time.
I look forward to following along with your build thread.
Regards,
Steve
My mother, wife, and two daughters are all redheads (Lord help me)! Today I will be removing the hood, doors, and trunk and marking the aluminum in preparation to remove the body.
Complete Kit pickup 09/05/2015, 351w, QF680, 3.55, 3-Link, 15" Halibrands with MT's, Painted Viking blue with Wimbledon white stripes on 03/15/2017. Sold in 08/2018 and totally regret it.
Lots of progress today! I got the body off the chassis and onto the buck and into the eventual parking space for the finished car.
After marking and documenting the aluminum panels, I removed everything down to the bare chassis.
Finally, I drilled the F-Panels and cleco'd them into position. Now I need to decide how I want to finish them before permanently riveting them and starting on the front suspension.
I'm thinking the reason the F-panel riveting shows up very early in the manual has to do with lack of familiarity. It's much more likely a foreign process to most that tackle the assembly. As to permanent or not the picture shows some mounting slots that might not be so easily accessible after the rivets are in, so I say no rush.
May I ask where you purchased the axle from? Thx, BB
I ordered it with my kit from Factory Five. It was shipped direct from Moser Engineering. I swapped out the stock chrome diff cover for the cast one shown in the pictures.
I ordered it with my kit from Factory Five. It was shipped direct from Moser Engineering. I swapped out the stock chrome diff cover for the cast one shown in the pictures.
Hey Papa,
Great idea ditching the chrome differential cover and going with the cast piece.
While things like that may look nice at a car show, oil pans included, we all know that they store heat much like a nice shiny silver teapot.
None of us need any extra heat if we intend to really drive our cars so Bravo on ditching that particular piece of chrome.
Steve
PS: I have a Moser Rear as well (TSD-500) because neither F-5 nor Moser were offering the 8.8 units at the time of my order.
Great idea ditching the chrome differential cover and going with the cast piece.
While things like that may look nice at a car show, oil pans included, we all know that they store heat much like a nice shiny silver teapot.
None of us need any extra heat if we intend to really drive our cars so Bravo on ditching that particular piece of chrome.
Steve
PS: I have a Moser Rear as well (TSD-500) because neither F-5 nor Moser were offering the 8.8 units at the time of my order.
The chrome cover just looked ... cheap. The cast cover also has the added advantages of both fill and drain ports. Without a fill port on the cover, you would be forced to fill via the vent tube.
The chrome cover just looked ... cheap. The cast cover also has the added advantages of both fill and drain ports. Without a fill port on the cover, you would be forced to fill via the vent tube.
More progress today as I began assembling the front suspension. I decided on black bedliner spray for the exposed aluminum panels and scuffed and cleaned the F-panels then sprayed them. They came out really nice and after several hours of drying time, I mounted them.
While they were drying, I addressed some areas on the chassis that were missed when they powder coated it. I used a rust converter and will touch up the uncoated areas with POR15 after the converter is completely set.
Finally, I got the lower control arms, upper control arms, and front coil overs installed. Please check my work on the uppers as I had to flip the mounting bar to get the proper (I hope) configuration on the pre-assembled arms.
I had to use a large flat screwdriver to wedge the rear upper control arm bolt in order to get it torqued. It was too close to the chassis to get a wrench or socket on it.
Back to work (that pays the bills) tomorrow, so the build will wait for another day off to get back into it.
Being an Electrical Engineer gives you a huge advantage over a lot of us.
To give you an example, it took me 40 hours to wire my dash.
That's why you never give a wrench to a banker. Looks Like A Great Combination To Me!
Steve
Wiring doesn't bother me as long as I have a readable schematic to work from. When I tackled the dash replacement on my 1970 El Camino, I didn't have much to go on, but got it done.
Looking good. You're off to a great start. One suggestion: For the upper control arms, I'd recommend flipping those attachment bolts. Wherever possible, it's good build practice to always put the head of the bolt on top and the nut on the bottom. In the unlikely event that a nut were to work loose and fall off, the bolt is more likely to stay in the hole and help limit potential damage.
Hopefully also you used Loctite in those upper ball joints. They look pretty clean so thought I would ask. Some have had trouble with them backing out once driving. In addition to Loctite, good practice to put some paint marks on the ball joint side and upper control arm so you can visually monitor if they've moved or not as part of ongoing maintenance.
Last edited by edwardb; 06-27-2017 at 06:40 AM.
Build 1: Mk3 Roadster #5125. Sold 11/08/2014. Build 2: Mk4 Roadster #7750. Sold 04/10/2017. Build Thread Build 3: Mk4 Roadster 20th Anniversary #8674. Sold 09/07/2020. Build Thread and Video. Build 4: Gen 3 Type 65 Coupe #59. Gen 3 Coyote. Legal 03/04/2020. Build Thread and Video Build 5: 35 Hot Rod Truck #138. LS3 and 4L65E auto. Rcvd 01/05/2021. Legal 04/20/2023. Build Thread. Sold 11/9/2023.
Looking good. You're off to a great start. One suggestion: For the upper control arms, I'd recommend flipping those attachment bolts. Wherever possible, it's good build practice to always put the head of the bolt on top and the nut on the bottom. In the unlikely event that a nut were to work loose and fall off, the bolt is more likely to stay in the hole and help limit potential damage.
Hopefully also you used Loctite in those upper ball joints. They look pretty clean so thought I would ask. Some have had trouble with them backing out once driving. In addition to Loctite, good practice to put some paint marks on the ball joint side and upper control arm so you can visually monitor if they've moved or not as part of ongoing maintenance.
Thank you for the tips. I did use blue thread locker on the upper ball joints. I ran three or four beads on each before threading them in. I will definitely flip the pivot bolts over as you suggest. I hadn't thought about it, but it makes a lot of sense. They are all still just finger tight right now until I get the spindles mounted. I'll also make sure to put some paint marks in the ball joints to keep track of any movement down the road.
Today I received a good number of backordered and missing parts. So far, I'm very impressed with the responsiveness from FFR. Courtnie has been great to work with through the entire process.
Hey Papa. Good luck with the build. My 2012 build was similar to yours except I used a Coyote power plant. I used to live in the Canadian Rockies and my experience with the Coyote at elevations from sea level to above the tree line has bee fantastic. 87 octane pump gas and ran like a top.
Hey Papa. Good luck with the build. My 2012 build was similar to yours except I used a Coyote power plant. I used to live in the Canadian Rockies and my experience with the Coyote at elevations from sea level to above the tree line has bee fantastic. 87 octane pump gas and ran like a top.
Yep -- EFI is a must-have at altitude! My home is at 6,100 feet and we get up over 11,000 feet going to Breckenridge.
More progress today on the rear suspension. With a few extra hands, I got the rear end in place and then completed the shock install and track bar install.
After adjusting the top link to get the rear shocks connected on the lower end, it seems that the clearance for the coil-over springs is going to be very close when it comes time to get the pinion angle adjusted. Has anyone had issues with this?
I don't know if they changed anything since my kit was shipped (2015) but I think you've got your rear shocks upside down.
Also, I've got the Moser TSD-500 rear and I had to clearance the brackets a bit, but that is because my pinion angle is different because of how my engine sits.
I don't know if they changed anything since my kit was shipped (2015) but I think you've got your rear shocks upside down.
Also, I've got the Moser TSD-500 rear and I had to clearance the brackets a bit, but that is because my pinion angle is different because of how my engine sits.
Hope this helps.
Steve,
The manual specifically states that the shock body goes up unless using the double-adjustable shocks. I will wait and see what it does when it's on the ground with some weight on the rear.
I'm not saying this is relevant but we had this conversation on the 33 forum, discussing red vs silver shocks.
Jim @FFR cleared it up:
"Monotube shocks like the red ones that come with roadsters and came with older 33 kits can be mounted either direction. Twin tube shocks, like the current 33 nickel plated ones or the optional aluminum body double adjustables, must be mounted body down. "
I'm not saying this is relevant but we had this conversation on the 33 forum, discussing red vs silver shocks.
Jim @FFR cleared it up:
"Monotube shocks like the red ones that come with roadsters and came with older 33 kits can be mounted either direction. Twin tube shocks, like the current 33 nickel plated ones or the optional aluminum body double adjustables, must be mounted body down. "
As I said, this was a slightly different context, so take that into account. I only mention it because noticing you have red shocks.
I suppose if it doesn't matter, then I could flip the shocks over. My reference to the manual was about the red vs. silver shocks, and there are different pictures in the manual that show them in either orientation.
I called Dan at Factory Five since my shocks are oriented in the same position as in the 2013 assembly video.
Dan stated that the Red Shocks can go either way and that you've got them in the correct position as outlined in the later manuals.
I've got them inverted like in his video, but you've done it by the book so yet again I've gone against the norm.
Hope I didn't cause you too much grief.
I called Dan at Factory Five since my shocks are oriented in the same position as in the 2013 assembly video.
Dan stated that the Red Shocks can go either way and that you've got them in the correct position as outlined in the later manuals.
I've got them inverted like in his video, but you've done it by the book so yet again I've gone against the norm.
Hope I didn't cause you too much grief.
Steve
Not at all, Steve. I just wanted to know if anyone has had clearance issues. If flipping the shocks over is a good solution, I'll be happy to do what works best in spite of what is written in the manual. That's why this forum is so awesome!
One of the cool things about monotubes (like the reds) is that they can be mounted either way and work fine. If you need the clearance on one end or the other, mount them that way. Otherwise, mount the heavier end at the top to minimize unsprung weight in the suspension. Looks like things are going well!
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Originally Posted by WIS89
