Slow and Slightly Angry's Type 65 Coupe Build

[JohnMac]

Zink chromate....

[Snowman]

With immense excitement, I received the front control arms and the radiator. That radiator is huge but I will probably need every bit of it. With some disappointment I received one of my lower A arms in a less than complete state and the incorrect ball joints for the uppers.
Attachment 143877 missing the bushing on one side.
Attachment 143878
Vertical threads rather than horizontal.
I installed one lower A arm and 1 coilover and assembled the other coilover. No pics for this as it lacked the climax.
End result - you win this round suspension.

FWIW the Howe Racing ball joints are popular options (check Paul's thread). I picked up a pair from Summit https://www.summitracing.com/parts/hre-22320s

They're a bit pricey, but are definitely quality units. If for some reason FFR will be delayed in getting those to you I'm happy to give you the ones from my kit since I went with the Howe units.

Cheers,
Patrick

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

Quick update: To factory five's credit, they were very quick in sending the missing parts.
On another note, found the clutch position sensor brackets and replace my fabricated brackets with the ones that I paid for in the install kit. They look just a small amount better than mine!

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

After a short hiatus, work resumed this weekend. A short recap with some pictures.

Engine X Frame
Obligatory pic of the x brace aluminum panel with fuel line stub outs.20210425_163747.jpg most of the fuel system is together, aeromotive 340 pump and hanger, trickflow filter.
I stripped 2 fitting installing them on the fuel line so I am waiting for that. I will wait until test fitting the engine to locate the aeromotive regulator. It makes sense for me to wait, there is no real rush.

Pedal Box
I installed the Ford racing control pack supplied accelerator pedal (fly by wire). 20210425_164822.jpg
It's a bit tough to see but I drilled a new mounting hole about 3/4" to the right of the factory hole. This allowed for more room. I had shaved the pedal down and moved it as far as possible to the right (against the engine bay).

When installing the steering column, I found little/no room to install the requisite plug. 20210425_164835.jpg
Image is where the steering column goes when the plug is in (it was actually touching). Loose fit the mount for the column allowed for enough room to put the plug in..
20210425_164843.jpg looks like I will have to do the same during final install.

New Stuff
Received another box o' parts from FFR with the rear control arms and most of the toe link. Put those together along with my coilovers. Everything went together pretty simple and torqued most of it down.
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You may notice the IRS spindle in the first picture but that is a temporary install from my donor until my FFR parts come in.

Center section/3.73 differential
Pulled the donor center out, sand blast and naval jellied it to get rid of the surface rust. A coat of primer and a coat of engine enamel black and it was ready for install.
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Tried to use the motorcycle life and lowering the car on the hoist down without much luck. Try #2 was successful. I used a ratchet strap attached to the roll cage to hold the weight while we got the bolts in.
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I purchased a unisteer EPAS before I received the kit. It is huge! So big in fact it likely will not fit. Apparently I did not do enough research. Snowman (Patrick) was kind enough to send over a template of the bracket he made to hold his kit in place. Neat and clean placement,, not sure how the body of my pump will fot still.. I'm not ready to give up on it yet but there may be a reasonably priced unopened unisteer electric power steering kit for sale soon.

[Snowman]

Thanks for the shout out. I hope my chicken scratch wasn't too difficult to discern. Looking forward to how your steering turns out, whatever path you end up on.

Cheers,
Patrick

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

On the cusp of summer, I received what i believe to be the last of my kit. After an enjoyable but socially distanced summer full of kids baseball, I was ready to attack the build again. Unfortunately, shoulder surgery sidelined me this fall so it was further pushed. Finally after nearly 10 months of inactivity I was able to pick back up on my build. I know, I know, you can all breath easy now.

With the final suspension pieces on hand we made short work of the hubs and finally got all 4 corners wrapped up. I threw on the 19" donor mustang rims to make it a roller.20220212_153640.jpg20220212_153633.jpg20220212_153649.jpg
As you can tell in the last picture, the camber and toe are set up for F1 (that is top in toe in!).
I picked up the tires I wanted. Bridgestone s007 run flat, since I don't intend to have a bottle jack or spare. 325/30/19 rears, 285/30/19 fronts.
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After moving the rims from one vehicle without an engine to another vehicle without an engine, I have been revisiting my thought on brake upgrades.
Turns out I have 15" brembos just laying (attached) around.20220212_153730.jpg
I have not decided if I want to invest in a machinist making a bracket, keeping the brakes FFR sent me, or yet reaching out to Gordon about a full upgrade.

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

Got the transmission mounted (with the formacars Shifter kit)put together this weekend. And...20220326_163128.jpg20220326_163105.jpg
Well she fits, mostly. Need to figure out the intake but we dryfit the nose and the supercharge tucks under the hood. It felt pretty good and a positive milestone.

[Ltngdrvr]

I'd give a quarter for guys to figure out how to turn their pics so they come out right side up! LOL!!!

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

New cross drilled and slotted zinc coated rotors on.
I mounted my air cups on the bottom of the coilover.
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Took a 4 day weekend to Italy to watch the f1 race in monza. Quite an experice.20220911_142037.jpg 20220910_154405.jpg
Ended up with covid from the trip...not quite the best experience.
Drilled out the driver side aluminum panels, finished up the brakes - had a dead irs caliper from my donor (no lines run yet).
Finally, I got the donor driveshaft apart. I picked up a flange from the 2005-2012 mustang to create the room I needed to material the driveshaft with the transmission. I just need a good measurement on the gap to get the driveshaft cut and finished up.
It feels like pretty good progress and I had my little guy (3 yo) with me so all of its a win.
Also not sure how the pictures are going to end up (right side up or flipped) but I do my best what I have.

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

Just had the long time in the garage yet, 5hr. Got the flexible brake lines attached to the frame. Moved on to the battery tray next. Bought a 51 series battery, oops, too tall, gotta go exchange it for a 35 series. Put the wiring on a bit of a diet, but more to be worked on next time. After that, we tackled the fuel system. Completed the runs using the stainless shielded PTFE lines. Hooked up the lines to the x plate aluminum that I made earlier. Connected it through the regulator and on to the coyote. Had 2 small leaks when pressure testing, quick fix, held 55 psi no problem. Clipped the feed and return lines in the trans tunnel, when we pull the engine a few more clips will need attached. Pretty happy with the progress for today. Moving on to the brake lines and possibly getting the wiring (engine only) wrapped up next time we get time.

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

No pictures again this time but got a little of this little of that done. I applied the MT82 tail flange conversion (to 11-14 - narrower 4 bolt) to ensure that connection would not hit the relocation kit from FormaCars. I put on a 11-14 MT82 Flange BR3Z-7089-A and 11-14 MT82 Flange bolt, BR3Z-7L013-B. The flange cleared but the abutting connection for the universal joint was a bit too large. I got to have some fun with the angle grinder. Fits like a glove now. Next step is to get a measurement for the driveshaft and have one cut.
I ran the hard brake lines for the front with little to no issue. The rears on the other hand were a bit more difficult with the supplied lines. The 8" (driverside) looks like it will be too short to meet the flexible brake line attachment.
Next, I drilled a ton of holes to finish up the driver and passenger aluminum. The obvious ones (sheet to sheet) were easy. To get the more difficult ones I used marker lines on the underside to locate my supports and drilled the aluminum. After replacing the aluminum into the cockpit, I drilled out the frame rails. Only had 1 empty hole near the trans tunnel. Pretty happy about the results. Only have to wrap up the radiator and trunk area holes to be done with the tedious task of drilling out the aluminum panels.
Lastly, I purchased wheels. I got a bit of a deal so they are not the correct offset. They are Forgestar F14 19x10 +42 offset fronts, 19x11 +26 offset rears. They look good on. When I get the body back down out of storage, I will be able to measure out the spacers I will need to sit the wheels in the right place. Tires will be mounted tomorrow and it will give me a better idea of the clearances.

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

Knocked out a few things since last post.
The low hanging fruit. Brake line plumbing - picked up a 20" line and ran it from the T to the driver side rear caliper.
Next, I took my mustang driveshaft (rear half) to a local driveshaft shop.
IMG_20230304_214516.jpg
They reduced it down to 18.75" with some slide in it to get it in and out. Worked perfect.
IMG_20230304_214513.jpgIMG_20230304_214511.jpgIMG_20230304_214505.jpg
I was pretty happy with the process and minimal cost to use the MT 82 trans and part of the driveshaft.
After that, we took care of the parking brake. Using the original mustang linkage mounted to the handle and brake lines (for now). I don't love it but they work.
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I mocked up the headers to run the battery cables for the starter and alternator.

I convinced my wife to help make the cables. So at least I can tell her it was her fault for motivating me on the build.

On a separate weekend, I prepped my dash for carbon fiber skinning at my house. I sprayed down a black epoxy paint as a base. I will put down a coat of clear, put the cloth down and clear, clear, clear, clear, sand/polish, matte coat.
I will post additional information about this process when I get the time to work on it. I am planning to do the trans tunnel and the door sills as well. I ordered 3 yards, so I should have enough.


Lastly, no big movement on the engine but I am looking for the right location for the computer, fuse box and 2" grommet hole for the inter-cabin cables.
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[Slow and Slightly Angry]

Having all kinds of issues with uploading images.
A few more of the prepped dash.
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[Slow and Slightly Angry]

Got the fiber laid and 2-3 layers of epoxy on the dash.
Had some issues with uncredited epoxy so I had some scraping to do. A lot of sanding ahead of me. Pretty happy with how it turned out so far. I think I will cf the door sills and the (yet to be made) lower dash piece.
20230526_172557.jpg

Monday I am going to work on my updated power steering setup. Previously, I had been set on doing the unisteer EPAS. Unfortunately it didn't fit anywhere along the steering path. I have since bought a PS rack and a Nissan (Japanese reliability above swedish?) Electohydraulic pump. It will be interesting.

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

Time goes by, life consumes said time.

I've mad some progress.
I've decided to buck the volvo hydraulic electric pump trend and went with the Nissan altima pump. It works on limp mode. I think I'm going to buy the electric controller from reform motorsports. I mounted the pump next to the battery on the tray. Bent some lines and all of the connections hold. I did end up buying a new hydraulic rack so more into the cost bucket.
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I installed the quick release steering wheel. Thanks again Scott for the 3d files for the jigs (also if anyone needs the jigs, let me know paying it forward). I didn't love the idea of drilling more holes in the ffr leather wrapped steering wheel so I bought a full carbon fiber steering wheel that had a mated bolt pattern. Since the inner portion (horn area) was different than the gasketed ffr blank, I did have to buy a plate to cover the gap. I will eventually 2sided tape the ffr emblem on the blank.
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Surprise, there's a lot if carbon fiber on the dash area.
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I've been slowly final installing the aluminum panels. The seat areas and half the driver footbox are siliconed and riveted in place.
Working toward getting all the brake and clutch plumbing done.

[JimStone]

Looking good! Keep up the good work, and thanks for the build thread. I love watching the progress you guys make

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

After about 6 months, a full bathroom reno, kids basketball, baseball and tennis, I'm back at it.
Last weekend I put in some time with the old hand powered rivet gun. Put the footboxes (not the tops) and the passenger/driver seat surrounds in. I used black silicone but I may have been better off with clear. It cleaned up fine but looked rough until it all dried.
After the rivet work, I installed the radiator. FFR designed that area really well and it went together pretty simply.
20240601_214321.jpg.
The plumbing of the intercooler, radiator and a/c condenser will be interesting in that space.
Fast forward to this weekend.
Grand plans of turning a key...were quickly dashed after getting the engine in. Just so many things that I didn't really think about until it was in there. Headers, cooling plumbing, wiring...
So the engine went back in without too much fuss. Pretty much needed a shoe horn to get it in with the panels installed. 20240601_214319.jpg
I installed the headers. Pro tip from a non pro. Find someone with skinny hand to help, those clearances are tight.
With my shifter conversion kit, they supplied an alternate trans mount. So I painted that up and finished up the engine install.20240601_192717.jpg
Installed the driveshaft, all glorious 18" of it.
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Next I moved to plumb the front air cups. Built a bracket to house the compressor to go between the radiator tunnel and the battery box/repossessed electric power steering pump area. Wanted to test it out before I fully installed it and one of the fittings came incomplete. It was a bit of a bummer after a long day.

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

Snuck back over to the garage on Father's day to work on the car with my dad and 2 boys.
We figured out the wiring for the tankless air cup setup - only blew up 2 fuses, I think this may be a new record.

It is all in place and plumbed but still needs final wiring to clean it up. I will post a video and some pictures when it is wrapped up.

Takes about 3 seconds to fill and a half second to drop the ~1.5" of lift it provides.

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

Worked last weekend on the overall wiring.
Did A LOT of reading and re-reading of the Ford Performance, FFR Coyote Install, the RF harness and main manuals. Some of it seems to go fairly smoothly, like plug the 2 giant plugs into the computer and all of the direct wiring to the engine harness.
I ran into some trouble with the VSS speed sensor in my MT-82. I chose to stay with the vintage (non-gps) gauges. The RF chassis wiring harness has a 2 wire connector for the speed sensor while the MT-82 has a 3 wire connector. The diagrams are available online so I know what they do, but I have no clue how I can match them up without potentially messing some things ups. Most of what I find is using the 3 wire from the harness to a 2 wire sensor (so opposite of what I have). Guessing working backwards would work as well? I will be getting a tune for the engine/ecu after its up and running so that may solve some/most of any problems but has anyone else run into this and figured it out?

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

Seems like every 2 months or so I get a day to work on the project and today was the day.
Goal for the day, start the engine. Had made some progress on this front last time and I felt like we had a solid chance. Got all the connections made, tied in to the chassis harness (just 2 connections, not including the fuel pump. Wired the starter (with the Ford wiring harness), and directly ran the alternator to the battery. Hooked the battery back up turned the key and boom, what a noise. Wasn't plumbed for coolant so quick turn off. Boy was it exciting. My son and mom wanted to see it again, so we gladly obliged.
Started with the plumbing. Got the radiator done, a good bit of lithium grease but it all fit. So much more cooling to go - intercooler, reservoir and overflow tank. But called it a day before then to watch wvu play.

[JimStone]

Congrats on first start! That's a big accomplishment

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

I got the 2nd start recorded.https://youtube.com/shorts/yjgaRDEBA...3-KA5MFJQ0kva9

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

In the same trip as my start video, we got super close to being fully plumbed, coolant, brake, clutch and fuel. Just threw fuel in there but it's been done for a while obviously.

Mounted the radiator a while ago but fit the intercooler in front of it (opposite of the a/c condenser). Since I have my electric power steering pump right in the way, I had to route my return radiator line through the inner fender aluminum.
And because the intercooler line and connection weren't in line with the radiator, I had to pop another hole in the aluminum by the radiator. Intercooler pump and the two overflow tanks all mounted. Only thing left is the heater core for the hvac system.

Once that is all fitted, should be ready for coolant. I'm interested to see how much both systems will need. Waited on the hvac lines since I didn't have the wiper motor mounted and I didn't want to interfere.

Went a bit unorthodox with my clutch line. Went through the top of the trans tunnel so I could use my existing clutch feed and connected it to the wilwood master.

Ran the y and the clutch lines to the reservoirs that I mou Ted on the angled panel of the driver footbox using the firewall connectors.

I'll get some pictures after my next trip back.

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

Plumbing and electrical were the name of the game this past Saturday. As previously mentioned, we got most of the coolant and all of the hydraulic (brakes and clutch) plumbed with just the heater box to finalize.
First order of business was to route to the heater. Had to take a few steps back to iron out the wiper motor, computer and fuse box. Two steps forward one step back type of stuff.

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Since it doesn't seem like we will need access often we siliconed and riveted the passenger footbox. We then moved the fuse box to the firewall (optional x plate) and the master 250 fuse to the side. This allowed us to position the wiper motor and heater valves on the footbox and plumb the remaining lines. I've added a few images of the "re-routing" of the radiator and intercooler lines.

A not so sneaky hole in the radiator tunnel for the intercooler. Perfect to go to the intercooler pump though.
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Fan lines just a dangling at the time.

A fairly major re route through the interior wing panel using the corrugated pipe.
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Finally, return line snaking through with the radiator hose.
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Good progress. It is pretty exciting with each step of this to actually see something come together now

[Slow and Slightly Angry]

Spent most of this past Sunday wiring the gauges and figuring out the sending units. Had to replace the oil pressure and water temp units with the ones that came with my digital gauges (not sure I had to do it or not but its made sense to at this point).
I think all of my reservoirs had leaks, the coolant expansion chamber both lines (re-taped and installed), both brake/clutch reservoirs (added tape, managed to forget to put tape on to begin with.

I did run into a question I need some help with on the gauges. I have auto-dimming feature tied to the headlights. Is the HDLT-SW-DIM (blue) line the one I need to jump off of to attached to the +12V headlight line on the gauges? Any help would be appreciated.