The Gentleman's Roadster, Bismarck Build

[Jeff Kleiner]

Question: Should I get the aluminum panels off and send them straight to powder coat or should I drill for rivits, fit with clecos, and get farther along before powder coating?

Fit and drill first. You may find that you need to do some minor trimming which you wouldn't want to have to do on a finished piece and also doing it first avoids the potential of marring the coating if a drill bit walks or slips. If you use a #30 bit rather than 1/8" you probably won't need to clean the coating from the drilled holes but if you do a twist with a hand reamer makes short work of it.

Jeff

[John Ibele]

To add just a bit of detail if you haven't seen it elsewhere ...

Do any minor trimming / fitting of the panel.
Mark for holes.
Center punch holes if you don't want the bit to wander.
Clamp panel to frame.
Drill hole #1 through panel and frame. Insert cleco.
Drill hole #n (other end) through panel and frame. Insert cleco.
Drill all the holes in between and remove panel.
Clean up holes as needed per Jeff ... if you're lazy like me, you grab a somewhat sharp 1/2" bit because you never got around to getting a hand reamer.

A few spots will have frame welds underneath the panel so the panel doesn't lie flat on the frame. Drill and cleco first and last holes. Hit the panel with a rubber hammer right over the weld. You now have a conformal fit of panel over top of weld. Drill remaining holes and carry on.

[Highplainsdakota]

Thanks John, that's great advice. I think I saw a thread on the rubber mallet trick, but assumed I would understand once that problem arose. You clarified that for me.

Bit of a silly question here, but when we talk about "Minor trimming / fitting", how will I know? Do I look at how the panels fit before I first remove the body after delivery and trim away things that touch the body? Someone mentioned a sharpie's width away from the body for bulb seal pieces (width of actual standard marker body, length of felt tip, what are we talking about here?). Jeff mentioned he rarely has to trim any panels on a MK4 except maybe the end of the trunk floor? I don't want to miss an easy step before I start removing everything. I will be taking multiple pictures as I go

[John Ibele]

In retrospect I didn't think it was vital to do that marking relative to body in the very beginning. My body went on and off multiple times when I got to that point in the build, and on one of those fits I marked to trim any pieces (like trunk sides and back of trunk) as needed for bulb seal. Those parts that contact the body can be trimmed after install.

After you remove the body, the panels are held in by self-tappers for shipping. Usually the panel fit of these is pretty good, but you may want to shift some slightly, or bang a weld with a rubber mallet, or trim a piece if hangs over just a bit. But these are typically pretty small adjustments, and keep in mind that a lot of stuff faces the road, gets painted with bedliner / under coater, or gets covered with sound mat, trunk liner, or carpet. You'll know what bugs you and what doesn't when you see it. (And no one else will see it regardless.)

And when you get the parts back from powder coating, just remember they all fit well when you sent them out. So if anything is way off, it means you just don't have something lined up right. Don't trim anything. Ask me how I know

[Highplainsdakota]

Great news, my MK4 arrived yesterday! The delivery went smoothly, even though it was -7 and snowing. Driver wasn't too impressed with the ND roads in these conditions, but he made my delivery risking his own off time for Christmas. Big thanks to Stewart Transportation.

I also sent a big check to Mike Forte to get my engine in the works. Lots going on right now. I took the body off and started documenting the panels and their locations. The body was a little rough from the mold. Ok, it was a lot rough. I'm already a bit worried about how to do the sanding and filling of the seams, but I have time to figure that out. Looking at attachments for my die grinder that will help in the rough sanding.

One issue I noticed during inventory is I'm missing the Certificate of Origin and Nameplate. I'm not sure why these weren't included but they are marked 0 on the sheet, so FFR knew they weren't included?

[Jeff Kleiner]

Great news, my MK4 arrived yesterday! The delivery went smoothly, even though it was -7 and snowing. Driver wasn't too impressed with the ND roads in these conditions, but he made my delivery risking his own off time for Christmas. Big thanks to Stewart Transportation.

I also sent a big check to Mike Forte to get my engine in the works. Lots going on right now. I took the body off and started documenting the panels and their locations. The body was a little rough from the mold. Ok, it was a lot rough. I'm already a bit worried about how to do the sanding and filling of the seams, but I have time to figure that out. Looking at attachments for my die grinder that will help in the rough sanding.

One issue I noticed during inventory is I'm missing the Certificate of Origin and Nameplate. I'm not sure why these weren't included but they are marked 0 on the sheet, so FFR knew they weren't included?

The CO and plate will be sent later, generally with the final POL shipment. RE:the mold parting lines (not seams)...are you doing the bodywork and paint? If no just leave them alone.

Jeff

[Highplainsdakota]

The CO and plate will be sent later, generally with the final POL shipment. RE:the mold parting lines (not seams)...are you doing the bodywork and paint? If no just leave them alone.

Jeff

I was planning to do the bodywork just to get the hood, doors, trunk rollbar holes done. I'm definitely not doing the paint. I don't know who to trust after the really high paint quotes I received earlier from local shops. If someone is willing to do the body work and paint all in one go that would be great. I'm doing a custom roll bar so at least one hole has to be filled in and two more cut where I need them.

Jeff, Do I gather from your previous posts that you do bodywork and painting yourself? I agree with your statements about having a shop that has "done a few" cobras before so I'm not the guinea pig.

[Highplainsdakota]

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[Highplainsdakota]

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[JMD]

Great news! My delivery driver from Stewart did an excellent job. It was definitely the best way to get the car.

Lovely shop space, I have garage envy. I look forward to seeing how it goes. Which engine did you order from Forte?

[Highplainsdakota]

I’m having him do a SBF 363, mild cam, edelbrock pro Flo 4, TKX with 0.81 high. It’s supposed to be around 440 fwhp. Rear end is a 3.31 with Eaton Detroit truetrac

[Highplainsdakota]

Quick questions:

I see in other build threads black powder coated aluminum panels with what looks like black rivits. Are they spray painting rivits? Sharpie? Mine's going to look like hundreds of raw steel rivits along black powder coated panels. What is the solution here?

I understand there are several aluminum panels that will be covered in sound dampening material, carpet etc on one side and lizard skin or some other material that faces the road on the other. Is it worth sending everything to powdercoat since I don't know exactly which will still be visible?

Thanks

[Highplainsdakota]

I'm continuing to think up questions watching other build threads and I'm trying to avoid mistakes. Let's have a quick jump into the chassis grease discussion. Somewhere there are apparently poly bushings that require special poly safe grease that costs $85 per tube and is on back order until January, and likely needs a dedicated grease gun to avoid mixing/contamination. (all these things are already ordered and in the works). So....Which bushings are poly? It says nothing about greasing these in the manual but many forum builds say grease the bushings when you assemble which seems like good advice. I don't want to use the wrong grease on a bushing that is a pain to remove later. Thanks

[danmas]

Quick questions:

I see in other build threads black powder coated aluminum panels with what looks like black rivits. Are they spray painting rivits? Sharpie? Mine's going to look like hundreds of raw steel rivits along black powder coated panels. What is the solution here?

I understand there are several aluminum panels that will be covered in sound dampening material, carpet etc on one side and lizard skin or some other material that faces the road on the other. Is it worth sending everything to powdercoat since I don't know exactly which will still be visible?

Thanks

Many people powder coat the entire aluminum set of panels. Some do only some and some do none. For me I powder coated the engine compartment and some of the side panels.

Rivets can be ordered that are already black.

Here: http://https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-abs6266lurr2

[JMD]

That's going to be a lot for a car like this! Good gear selection. Hope you enjoy it!

I’m having him do a SBF 363, mild cam, edelbrock pro Flo 4, TKX with 0.81 high. It’s supposed to be around 440 fwhp. Rear end is a 3.31 with Eaton Detroit truetrac

[John Ibele]

I'm continuing to think up questions watching other build threads and I'm trying to avoid mistakes. Let's have a quick jump into the chassis grease discussion. Somewhere there are apparently poly bushings that require special poly safe grease that costs $85 per tube and is on back order until January, and likely needs a dedicated grease gun to avoid mixing/contamination. (all these things are already ordered and in the works). So....Which bushings are poly? It says nothing about greasing these in the manual but many forum builds say grease the bushings when you assemble which seems like good advice. I don't want to use the wrong grease on a bushing that is a pain to remove later. Thanks

Search "chassis grease poly bushings site:thefactoryfiveforum.com" and you'll find some background. You should be able to see in the manual each spot which has poly bushings. What I got out of this and other reading was that a synthetic, silicone-based grease was going to be fully compatible with the poly bushings.

But you'll find that many who know this don't actually go to the trouble of having a separate grease gun filled with the stuff. The thinking here is that the most important thing is to use grease, period, and any incompatibility will have only minor impact. Many who are using the red grease are likely thinking there's it's fully compatible because it's 'synthetic', which doesn't always mean is entirely a silicone-based grease.

I decided I wasn't going to use the super heavy duty, tacky stuff, with the thinking that I wasn't going to be driving in wet conditions much, and I was going to be greasing the chassis every fall, not once every 5 years. I didn't see the need for high impact / load resistance either, since the purpose of the poly is to absorb such impacts and spread out high point loads. So one grease gun, multi-purpose chassis grease on all the zerk fittings for me. I'm not saying that's the right answer, just my own thought process.