Steering system installed

Next on the list was the steering system. I borrowed my husband's drill press to drill the holes for the brake light switch mount.

Then drilled the holes in the frame for the master cylinder mount. 

Master cylinder mount brackets were painted glossy black to match the frame.

Getting the brake and accelerator pedals installed. Always nice when you can sit in the engine bay of the car to reach these places.

Once the pedals were installed, I had to do a test fit of the driving position. ;-)

Installing the steering shaft.

Got the front steering rack bolted on and the shaft attached.

And the shaft from the rack to the cockpit.

Everything has been fitted up, so I just need to temporarily disconnect the shaft to paint and install another aluminum panel, which is the one that goes behind the master cyclinders. After that I'll install the shaft again, do the final bolt up, and loctite all of the screws that require it.

Panhard rod & rear brakes installed

I'm on vacation from work right now, so my FFR build is on FIRE! Updating the blog is lagging a bit behind the actual work.

Got the panhard rod installed. For those that don't know, it's the long, shiny bar.

And the rear rotors and brake calipers got installed. Had to do some shimming to get the calipers on the rotors straight.

Now that the front and rear brakes were assembled, I could do a test fit of my wheels. Opened up one of the wheel boxes and fit the rim up. Here's the front, and now you can see why I painted my F panels this color:

And the rear:

So far so good. I ordered a pair of cleco pliers and set of clecos for the upcoming aluminum work. And this week I'm going to place an order for my engine, tranny, and EFI system. Details on all of that in future blog posts.

Since today is Christmas, here's what Santa brought me for my FFR.

Torque wrenches:

And Cobra valve covers and air cleaner:

Santa knows girls like shiny things for Christmas. :)

Front brakes and rear end installed

The day after I installed my front shocks, Koni sent a recall alert. Thankfully my date codes were easy to access and were outside of the affected date range, so I was good to go. I'm not very far along in the build and haven't bolted many parts on, so it would suck to have to unbolt the parts that I just put on and send them back. So the build continues.

I got my front brake calipers assembled, which was easier to do on the workbench.

Then it was time to put the front rotors on and bolt the calipers on.

Assembled front end.

Next was the rear end, which has been sitting on a furniture dolly ever since it was painted and assembled. I got the control arms bolted on, then we wheeled the rear end under the car.

Just a few small snags here. The bolts to mount the control arms to the frame were missing in the hardware bag, so Zac made a quick run to Ace hardware to get temporary bolts. We ordered the correct strength bolts through McMaster-Carr, which will be here next week and I can switch the temporary bolts out. Also, the rear shock springs came in contact with the frame, so we decided to flip the shocks upside down for better clearance.

I'm glad I painted the rear end glossy black, which matches the frame nicely.

And here's the rear end with the floor jack rolled away! In the background, more cardboard boxes broken down. I can now fit my wheels and lower steering shaft boxes in the garage and move them out of the front living room.

Garage update, and front suspension & hubs installed

First, a very important garage update. The floor is done! We finished coating the floor of the first bay, Zac installed the baseboard trim, and moved everything back against the walls. A few update pics of the garage before the motorcycle lift and all of the motorcycles moved back into the first bay (they were crammed into the 3rd bay while the work was going on).

(Click photos to enlarge).

My FFR build is taking place in the 2nd bay in the middle, where it's easy to reach the rack of boxes. Hard to believe the garage is now this complete. We have a few things left to do (another row of lighting and a drop ceiling) but at least the garage is to a point where everything major is now in its place, the floor is done, and we can now work on projects.

And now back to the build. With the F panels painted it was time to silicone and rivet them in place. The seasons have changed and it got cold in the garage, so for the next few months of pictures I'll be in my Dickies.

In anticipation of my build, Zac bought me an air riveter a few years ago. I finally got a chance to use it!

These are now, officially, the first parts installed on the car. Major milestone!

With the F panels in place I could now bolt on the upper and lower control arms.

This pic signifies another major milestone. First FFR cardboard box empty and in the recycle bin! Box 22 was the first to be emptied.

Next, I assembled the Koni shocks and started the install onto the car.



The spacers were too large to fit, so I called in the assistance of Machine Shop Boy. Zac put all the spacers up on the lathe and turned them down so they would fit. Yay for Machine Shop Boy!

 Koni shocks and spindles installed.

Next, the front hubs went on. These had to be torqued to 225 ft-lbs (I start having trouble torquing around 100) so I called in the assistance of Brute Force Boy, who had to put his body weight into it. Given that he's 80 lbs heavier than me, I think this was the correct call. I'd rather these be the correct torque than have my front wheels fall off. However, I was able to handle the dust cap installation without an issue.

Look, a front end! At least parts are going on the frame so that the innocent passerby can now differentiate the front of the car from the back. When you have a naked, black, spidery looking frame in the garage, most people have a hard time telling it's a car.

At this point, Box 1H just had steering components in it. I repacked those into Box 15 (a smaller box), re-labeled it, and sent big Box 1H to the recycle bin.

Next on the list is installing the front brakes, and installing the rear end. The rear end is still sitting on a furniture dolly under the back of the car, so it will be nice to get that bolted on.

Wheels, aluminum, and a glossy rear-end

Travel for work has ramped up over the past couple of months, so I haven't been out in the garage to work on my car as much. This is why I like not being on a schedule and building when I can...I don't feel guilty for not being out there working on the car. I feel with all the other souces of stress in life, the build of the car shouldn't be one of them.

My husband was telling me that my car's rear-end was getting in the way in the garage, and I really should get it prepped to get it out of the way. (Yes, I realize how unique my situation is, most guys have their wives complaining about the car). First step was to get it prepped for paint.

It was time to finally purchase a hoist, which will get used for a bunch of other projects. The rear-end was hung from the hoist in the front yard so that I could coat it in glossy black acrylic enamel to match the frame of the car.



The paint didn't come out too bad!

The next day after the paint was cured I removed the axles, installed the rear brake brackets, re-installed the axles, added oil, and sealed it up.

Next I removed all of the aluminum panels. They are now in organized piles, stored up in the garage attic where they can't get stepped on or damaged.

The naked frame of the car.

The F panels are the first to go on, so I drilled those and painted them a hammer grey. I left them to cure in the garage during the week, since this is how far I got in a weekend.

In other news, my wheels and lower steering shaft arrived. They take up a lot of room, so right now the boxes are living in my living room. I could throw a nice cloth over the wheel boxes and use it as a coffee table next to the couch.

Like a kid at Christmas, I couldn't resist opening one of the wheel boxes. I also unpacked my FFR box with the FFR badges inside. My plan is to purchase 4 additional FFR badges and attach them as decorative caps on the hubs. My husband is already planning on how to machine a backing plate (he loves doing such things).

Body off, aluminum marked, & wheels ordered

With the body buck complete, it was time to move the body off of the chassis this weekend. I kept an eye on the weather, because a tropical storm in Mexico had been causing high winds. Saturday morning the weather was perfect, so I called Ryan over to help Zac and I move the body.

(Click photos to enlarge).

While I unbolted the body from the chassis, Ryan and Zac moved the buck into the back yard.

The plan was to get the body buck in the backyard, wheel the chassis out to the front yard, lift the body off, lift it up and over the fence, and place it on the body buck. This is because right now we don't have a gate large enough in the front yard to wheel the car through.

Lifting the body is definitely much easier with three people. Ryan was at the front, Zac was at the back, and I ran around the outside while they lifted to peel the sides up and over the chassis, and to make sure it didn't get hung up on any parts of the frame.

The guys getting psyched up for "The Big Lift."

I managed to get this photo while we were in the middle of lifting the body over the fence.

The body safely resting on the buck.

It was much easier to move than expected. Later on we put a stabilizer bar in the cockpit, and tied the body down to the buck. I didn't want to risk it blowing off in high winds. Zac and I then pushed it under the porch for storage.

I'm thinking a few patio chairs and it would make a nice table.

That would be the dining room window it's next to. I can now gaze out the window at breakfast or dinner and see my car's body.

Once the body was off, we wheeled the chassis back into the garage. 

The almost naked frame.

  

The next step was to go through and mark all of the aluminum where it contacted the chassis, and where the panels overlapped. I marked the overlaps of interest with a letter on each side, then an "O" for over and "U" for under. I started with A, and by the time I was done I ended with AT.

Marking the panels. Zac loves that he can sit on the fender of his '57 Chevy and work in the engine bay. I joked that I can do the same thing right now and sit on the frame rails.

There was lots of crawling around underneath to do the markings on the underside. Advantage #1 of being a girl...I'm smaller and fit under there easier.

An example of all the markings. The kit looks like it's prepped for surgery.

After I finished all of the markings, I took a bunch of pictures with my camera to refer to later on when the panels are ready for assembly. I'll spare the blog readers that volume of pictures. The next step will be to remove the panels and put them in the attic for storage, where they can't get damaged. It's amazing the amount of disassembly, even on the complete kit, that is required before you get to the assembly steps. I have yet to install my first part, but I figure this prep time and attention to detail now will pay off later when I'm staring at a panel wondering which way it goes.

Today I also ordered my wheels. Wheels are one of the first aesthetic choices for the car that has to be made. I've been thinking about this for a long time, and it helped to attend the FFR car show at Huntington Beach earlier this year. I was able to compare the looks of several different types of wheels, and took a ton of pictures to refer back to later on, which I pulled up and reviewed today. I kept going back to the look of my favorite set.

The final choice: Mustang Bullitt wheels in Anthracite grey, size 17 x 9 purchased from OE Wheels.

These had previously been on backorder, and when I checked the website today, they were in stock. So I went ahead and placed my order. All four wheels will be 17 x 9. I thought about 17 x 10.5 on the back, but I just don't care for the deeper dished-in look on the rim that the 10.5's have. My current thinking on tire size is 245 up front and 275 in back. 
I won't be purchasing new tires for the wheels yet, since I won't need good tires until the car is in the go-cart stage. I figure, why purchase new tires only to have them sit around for who knows how long? So my plan is to buy a set of used, cheap take-offs to put on for now, then switch them out later on (which may be a year or so down the line...who knows). Hey, it works well in the motorcycle racing world, so I figured the same idea will work well for my car.

Today I went to Ace Hardware and picked up Rustoleum hammer paint in dark grey for the engine bay aluminum panels. I think the grey will go nicely with the gloss black frame and tie in well with the Anthracite color of the wheels.