Motor, transmission, wheels, misc

I reached the point in the build where I needed to put the motor and trans in the car, so I did.  The transmission bolted up to the bell housing very easily.  I had The Engine Factory ship me a complete transmission so the clutch plate, throw-out, bell housing, etc. were already installed.  I chose to remove the temporary rubber plug they ship the transmission with , although their instructions say it is okay to just leave it in place and it will push forward with the transmission input shaft.  I swung the motor with the engine hoist I bought at Northern Tool & Equipment.  I chose not to use the Harbor Freight option as it had too many complaints.  The NTE one I bought bolted together quite easily all things considered and works very well.  It came with an engine leveler as well and that thing was worth it.  I bolted the transmission to it and lifted it in as a single item.  I put the wheels and tires on before I did the motor as I wanted the car to be fully supported by its own suspension before adding the lump in the front.  A car without wheels and tires is a front yard "objet de art." With wheels and tires it looks most excellent, like someday it will actually move under its own power.  The wheel dollies worked very well and I am still able to move it around as need be in my smallish garage.  The engine hoist fit very well between the dollies and the frame.  Scott helped guide the trans in and between the two of us we had it done in less than 30 minutes.  The motor mounts supplied with the kit fit perfectly and landed on the frame with no additional effort.  The trans mount fit like a glove and required no adjustment.  I figured this would be a weekend long project with lots of swearing.

Most of the time since my last update has been spent continuing to work on small things.  Like I "assumed" the motor used an attached fuel pump.

So when I originally ran the fuel lines I didn't think about needing to plumb in the electric fuel pump Engine Factory sent.  I finally figured it all out this past weekend and the fuel lines are complete.  I mounted the pump to the passenger side main chassis tube as it is the only solid hard point below the gas tank, a requirement for this pump otherwise it can become air-bound.  I had to rewire the Ron Francis harness which uses a standard Mustang wet electric fuel pump for an injected engine inside the tank.  It worked well other than needing to elongate the wires which I spliced in the middle to keep the markings correct neat the terminal ends.

A lot of time spent on other wiring projects like the neutral safety switch, more engine wiring, dash wiring, a/c wiring, etc.  Lots more to do though to make sure it is all neat and clean. 

I decided to mount the brake fluid reservoir to the engine compartment side of the driver's footbox inside panel.  I added a stiffener made from 1.5 inch wide AL flat stock and mounted it on the interior side of the panel.  The supply line will need a grommet to keep it from chafing and keep hot engine air out of the people compartment.  I am not installing power brakes (yet - wait until I'm too old to push it and have enough money to buy it).  I do wonder how long it will be before the Great Parent of All of Us (government) decides to require little black boxes in all cars.  Thus far the kit cars don't require them but it likely won't be long until the Great Parent decides to ensure our safety for us.

My big delay now is it is too humid in FL to paint any of the panels so I can start installing them.  I'm finally at the point where I need to affix things permanently but the paint I am using, most notably the undercoat for exterior exposed panels, doesn't like to cure in 90% humidity.  I can only hang so many curing car parts in the kitchen before my wife starts reminding me of the time I rebuilt my old Honda 750's four carburetors in her living room in college.  I'll never live that down.

I plan to spend the next few weeks cleaning up a lot of unfinished electrical and plumbing work, measure (twice), and cut the a/c supply/return lines and have them professionally crimped by a local shop. 

Finally, a huge thank you goes out to Bruce and Vicki.  That was a fantastic dinner and I can't thank you enough for the excellent poster. They gave me a very cool art poster of a Cobra Coupe done up like a movie poster.  It was done by the Shelby American Automobile Club a few years ago and has all of the names of the drivers for the original cars on it.  It will have a place of honor in the garage as soon as I get it framed.  

Tail light access panels, a/c continues

I shifted to working on the trunk area AL panels.  A few builders added rear access panels on the back of the sidewalls in the rear to access the tail lights.  The lights on the Type 65 are integral to mounting the fiberglass body and once that is permanently installed it can be a pain in the rear end to change light bulbs and check the wiring.  Given I am doing the wiring myself I will probably need to access these lights at some (many) points.  I made my panels over sized.  I can stick my arm all the way in there without having to slice my hands to ribbons.  The photo above shows the access panel from an odd angle so the cover plate for it looks much larger than the hole.  It is one inch larger in all dimensions to provide a lip to completely cover it up.  The black bar running along the left edge of the hole from this camera angle actually sits a couple inches away from the AL panel so it is not blocking access, veen though it looks like it does.  I originally planned to size the panel with this cross bar as the left edge of it but I needed the extra space to make sure I can actually stick my hand all the way in.  The angle approach worked well.  I've seen a couple of other efforts on line with much smaller panels.  Would probably work well if the lights were a straight shot from the side but they are back and angled down from where the trunk area is.  Long term I will put a gasket between the access panel and the inside panel (same for all access panels like battery and fuel filter) and then install some sticky backed sound deadening panels on the outside of the side panels.  The floor of the trunk area will be covered in dynamat or raam mat and then carpeted.  I plan to paint the interior walls with either a textured paint or just use undercoating from a spray can.  Same thing I used on the battery box.  To install the panels I used my new favorite item, rivnuts.  McMaster Carr sells lots of options and I am close to the distribution center they have in GA so for me everything ends up being next day from them regardless of how I pay for shipping.  Their website is a little lacking but I can always find what I want and their customer service is excellent.  Not a paid advertisement for them, just passing along a good source for weird stuff.

I think I do finally have all of the knowledge I need to wrap up the A/C work, when it is time.  A male trinary switch screws into the supplied dryer.  A female trinary switch is screwed into a separate fitting in the high pressure supply line.  It took me a lot of digging to figure out what most people already know who have chosen to do this.  The dryer in the Type 65 is mounted to the front of the engine compartment on the X-frame member in the frame.  I will run the A/C lines and evaporator drain lines through the front of the passenger footbox compartment.  Nothing else for the A/C will be installed until well after the engine goes in as I need to run A/C and heater supply and return lines around the lump.

As much as I keep pushing it off, installing the motor and trans for the first time is pretty much the next thing to do.  But first I will paint all of the cockpit AL panels and put them in again.  And then I will do the motor, maybe.

Wiring continues, thoughts on a/c work, rivnuts

Since my last update I continue work on the final form of the dash, and fitting all of the components behind it.  What you finally see is the easy part.  The wiring, ducting, and connections behind the face are the frustrating part. 

I chose to wire my dash so all items can be easily removed in the future instead of permanently connecting wiring harnesses before installing the dash.  Perhaps if I was more confident in my ability to produce the correct connection on the first try I wouldn't go with easily disconnected wire looms.  I broke down and finally bought a decent spring loaded wire stripper.  Should have done so years ago.  I varied the kind of connector I used based on what kind of thing I was wiring.  I used blade-style and male/female insert-style connectors so I can't incorrectly connect the wires.  This took a lot more time but in the end should help when I need to disconnect something after the dash is installed, if for instance I need to change a burned out light bulb.  As I also added a clock, and the Vintage Air slider knob panel has built in lights I needed to wire those into the Ron Frances loom (which come wired for five small and two large gauges).  The picture above shows the five main gauges for monitoring engine performance. 

I also installed the battery cut out switch and will install a separate 40 or 50 amp circuit breaker.  I avoided doing so for a while but it just makes sense now.  Too much work done to fry it all if I did something incorrectly.  The CB should help avoid that.

The Vintage Air A/C system instructions are confusing at best.  FFR provides two sets of VA specific instructions and their own FFR set which really just tells you how to install the brackets for the Sandon Compressor.  I had The Engine Factory do that so much of what FFR provided doesn't do me much good.  Even though the slider panel for controlling the system indicates it will control the A/C, it doesn't.  I must also install the old-fashioned A/C knob somewhere close to the evaporator.  The instructions also call for a vacuum line to the heater regulator valve but my valve is only cable operated.  The VA system discusses the importance of an optional trinary safety switch (to shut off the Sandon compressor if the system pressure is too high/low or turn on the engine fan if the system is too hot) but did not include any fitting into which the switch goes to sense temp and pressure [late addition, after much webpage viewing I figured out the switch is screwed into the dryer cannister - NOWHERE do any instructions mention this].  Plus the wiring diagrams show the switch having one black wire with a green stripe, one black wire, and two blue wires.  My switch has two black wires with no green stripe and two blue.  Kind of critical as one senses temp, the other pressure.  Most builders recommend using another manufacturer for A/C as the VA one is difficult.  I see why and wish I had done more research before charging ahead.  Final comment is the "complete kit" comes with insufficient amounts of ducting and vents for the kit.  I can't recommend the other kit most people use as I didn't buy it but I would strongly recommend checking out both before buying either.  Once I solve the wiring and plumbing problems I will post what I did.  I spent a lot of time scouring the internet looking for solutions. 

For now I moved on to rough fitting the trunk AL panels, and once again chickening out on doing final install for cockpit AL panels.  I did some more work on making the dash look pretty with the center console control panel removable front plate.  The Rivnuts work great and look good.  Picture here is work in progress - idea stolen from cbergquist1 flickr page.

One final planning piece is I decided to paint the inside (unseen) part of the dash panels appliance white.  Should help me see stuff behind the dash when the inevitable happens and I need to figure out why something isn't working.  I figure the white should provide a good background and additional visible light to see what I did wrong, or what part failed.

Dash layout - don't look behind the curtain

Lots of work lately on the dash layout.  Which really means working behind the dash.  I ordered a Vintage Air heat and a/c unit for my car as Florida weather and small hot car means grumpy driver.  To fit the air unit behind the dash lots of people end up modifying the firewall by cutting a hole in it for the back of the condenser unit to stick out into the engine bay, then they build a cover around it.  The instructions say to cut the bottom lip of the dash panel.  This worked probably okay on the previous model of the vintage air unit but they relocated the vacuum attachments for the dash vent and main vent activation valves so even with the bottom lip cut out the condenser still doesn't fit in the space between the dash and firewall.  So I cut off about one inch of the plastic case for the condenser.  I did this before calling vintage to ask their opinion and you can guess what they said, we don't recommend cutting it.  Too late.  So I bought a black plastic 6" paint scraper and used it as the raw material to block off the hole I cut and then used a two-part epoxy to put it on.  Worked like a charm.

As I started looking at dash layout options I realized each one of these car's dash layout is kind of like a fingerprint - no two are alike.  There isn't a single page in the instruction manual that says "you will need all of these switches and in this location."  As I think I've complained before the manual is pretty good but it assumes one is building from a donor car - which most people don't do anymore.  I kind of used a standard dash layout like the one in my daily driver truck (1985 Dodge Ram) so it makes sense to me.  I located commonly used switches like lights and signals close to my steering wheel so I can use them without taking my hands too far from the wheel.  I also needed to locate the the vintage control panel and that is the blue rectangle in the middle of the transmission tunnel center section.  I wanted it dead center but the defrost/vent diverter cable comes off the right side and needs about four inches of clear space to not bind the cable too much.  Doens't look as symmetric obviously but works for me.  I am also a time freak so I put a clock in the center as well.

When I originally mocked up the five main smaller gauges they were all flush to the dash, and from my driving position I couldn't see about 25% of the gauge face, so I installed angle mounts for them.  Except the instructions were useless so I spent a lot of time ovalling the gauge holes to get them where I wanted them - as originally cut they are a perfect fit for the 2 1/16" gauges.  Bisect a plane with a cylinder on an angle and you get an ellipse - thank you 9th grade geometry.  It took me quite a few hours last weekend but I am happy with the results.  As I angled them left and rotated them clockwise about 45 degrees I also had to modify the new metal brackets that hold them on the back of the dash.  The instructions with the angle mounts even came with handy templates to cut out and use.  They assumed the gauges have no electrical connection posts so using them as directed would result in an aluminum bar running directly across the + and - posts.  Called a short circuit - thank you 11th grade electronics class.  Also results in fires and damaged equipment.

Finally I stole heavily from cbergquists flickr pictures and installed a removable panel in the center section.  Once I rivnut it in place it will make a world of difference getting into that space and if I break down and install a stereo later on all I have to do is cut a new center panel instead of having to bend a whole new piece.

One bit if cleanup last weekend was to cut down the box the motor came in so it would actually fit under my body buck - which I designed to hold the body and still roll over the engine.  I put the engine on a left over dolly I made for the rear differential and just had to cut down and rebuild the box the motor came in, plus narrowing the pallet it was shipped on - otherwise known as taking a hand saw to it.

Lots more work to do behind the dash with wiring in each electrical/electronic item.  Probably take some leave and spend 2-3 days playing hooky just working on it.

Missed some weekends doing a trip to Disney and taking my daughter to visit colleges.  Time flies.  I do really enjoy solving the various problems that come up building this car.  I can see why lots of guys say the saddest day is the day they are all done.

351W Motor arrived from Engine Factory today

This thing is a piece of art.  The team at Engine Factory did a fantastic job putting it together.  I originally planned on just using the bracket supplied by FFR for the AC compressor but after talking to Chris at EF I am glad I went with their March billet pulley mount.  I compressed the picture above but it is awesome.  They ship all the boxes for the parts they use with the motor and put handy explanatory tags on everything to show where stuff goes.  I flattened all the boxes but cut off any part numbers or descriptions in case I damage something later on and need to replace it.

I went with a 351 Windsor motor with a carb instead of EFI.  EFI is a lot more expensive and complicated and given I don't plan on modifying this engine, or trying to squeeze out more HP (400 rated already in a 2500lb car) a carb is fine.  I also understand old-school carbs.  This does have electronic choke so it will still be very reliable to use.  They also install a custom air cleaner designed specifically to fit under the deck hood of the coupe.  From what I understand the 351W fits okay but not with a lot of room to spare so every little bit helps.  And as I said before I'm building my car, not someone else's interpretation of a Cobra Coupe so not having the Cobra stamped air intake doesn't bother me.  And this one looks really good anyway.

No seriously, just look at this thing.  It is bee-you-tee-full.  Some day I will actually hear it run.  I mean in the car.  EF also sends you a video of it running before they ship it.

Panels, electrical, steering block, battery box

I stopped posting for a while, but I didn't stop working on the car.  I ran into a problem with the steering block mount location and moved along to some other work.  Since I haven't really completed anything since then I've been going back and forth cleaning up work already done.

Steering block: FFR confirmed the upper steering block was welded in the wrong position.  I found mine was about 7/8 inch right of where it needed to be. FFR sent me a knew bracket so I ground off the old one, built a bracket to hold the new one in place and riveted it to the main cross member the old one was welded onto.  I don't know how to weld and didn't feel like paying someone a few hundred to fix it.  The bracket and rivets seem more than strong enough to hold it in place.  I painted it all with appliance paint and it matches the powder coating quite well.  Everything lines up nicely now.

Battery box: The two main locations for the stock battery mounts don't seem to work with the three link suspension so I did what most people do and built a battery box.  The hole in left side of the rear deck above is where it is.  I riveted the pieces together after painting them all with appliance paint, then I painted the whole exterior with under body coating in a can.  It looks pretty good.  I do need to move the battery cable hole to the side vice the front of the box but that is minor as it still needs holes for ventilation.  I will cover this up with an access panel rivnutted to the rear deck floor.

Fuel filter access panel: I installed a hinged access panel (right side hole in rear deck photo above) to change the canister fuel filter when needed.  It turned out pretty well and actually works given the jigsaw is not the steadiest tool in the world for straight cuts.

Rear deck panels: the rear deck ships as a single piece but getting it in and out results in numerous scratches to the powder coating and lots of cursing.  Given I was going to cut the access holes I figured cutting it in half and riveting the two halves together made the most sense.  The long double line of clecos in the picture above shows the seam.  I used 1.5 inch wide flat AL bar stock as the doubler to hold the two pieces together.  I've mentioned the number of clecos I've purchased before.  The photo above took all of them.

AL panel corrosion: I treated all of the AL panels with a combination of Alumiprep and Alodyne to combat corrosion.  Given I will dynamat, paint, undercoat, or carpet all exposed panels I don't care about the blue-gold discoloration the Alodyne leaves.

Electrical wiring: I ordered the complete kit with the Ron Francis wiring harness and loosely installed all of it.  I wanted to rough it in for dash layout and I am about ready to install the motor.  I also added in a push-button switch to remind myself to engage the clutch before starting.  Although not a true clutch safety switch it won't allow me to start the car without pushing the button which will hopefully remind the monkey behind the wheel to push in the clutch pedal.  I will also hide the button so it will sort of act like an anti-theft device.  Because I am a time freak I also ordered a clock from Autometer to go in the middle of the center console panel.

Drilling holes: I drilled a pile of holes in all the panels for final installation.  I will also undercoat all the panels not in high heat zones before I install them.  I keep chickening out on installing the panels permanently as I know I will goon something up.  Within the next couple of weeks I need to permanently install at least the front panel on the drivers foot box.  Given the electrical wiring, cables, steering shaft, etc. travelling through it I can't keep removing all of them every time I need to do something in that area.  Time to fish or cut bait -- soon anyway, maybe.

Tires: I bought Kumho Ecsta XS tires.  They look fantastic on the wheels. There aren't a lot of companies making the tire sizes needed for these and the Kumho's had great reviews plus I got all four mounted and balanced through Tire Rack and Tire Kingdom for less than $950.

Engine and Trans: I ordered both from The Engine Factory and they will be here tomorrow.  The EF guys are superb and keep you interested by sending photos and videos as they go.  I went with their AC bracket instead of the one supplied with the Vintage Air system as it just looks better.  I'm not going for any "look" with my car other than it be mine so purism is not my goal.

Fuel and brake lines installed

After a lot of looking online to figure out the best way to route the brake lines I dove in this weekend and installed all the brake lines and ran the fuel line from the filter to the engine bay.  I ordered the motor and transmission from The Engine Factory Monday with delivery in late March.  I chose to go with a complete turn key system from them as they do a lot of FFRs and I have yet to read a bad review from anyone who used them.  I am going with a 351W mated to a TKO 600.
The picture above was my method for roughing in the brake and fuel lines.  I used some leftover four strand house electrical wire I had.  I removed the sheath and used one strand of the red wire cut to 60", the length of my stock brake lines.  I used this as a pattern to fit the brake lines and bent the 3/16" brake lines based on the pattern.  I didn't plan it this way but every brake line I needed to run ended up using exactly the 60 inch length.  I figured for sure I would need to cut and reflare a line but I didn't.  FYI, AL fuel lines need to be flared with a 37 degree flaring tool.  Most other lines, including brakes need to be done with a 46 degree flaring tool.  It took me a lot of website viewing to figure that out - and Summit had the kit I needed to flare the lines for the AL.  Everything I've ordered from them has shown up in one working day too, and that is with standard ground shipping.  The house wire worked well for both the brake and fuel lines.  Altogether it took me about 6.5 hours of dedicated time this weekend to route all of them and cleco them in place.  I also had to buy yet another batch of clecos as well.  I think I finally have enough with a total of about 200.
The fuel line was quite easy once I figured out the right combination of 6 AN to 3/8 fittings I needed to join the outflow of the fuel filter I got from Summit Racing to the 3/8 AL fuel line.  I left the AL line in one piece and ran it from the filter (see photo below) down the square downtube, forward along the passenger side of the main frame tube, crossed it over at the athwartship main tube and then forward again along the drivers side main frame tube.  I left this piece long as I will need to eventually run it to the fuel pump on the motor when it arrives.  I have about one foot of stainless braided fuel line I will use to connect the 3/8 AL line up to the fuel pump on the motor.  Overall the Summit kit Chris from Engine Factory recommended was exactly what I needed.

This coming weekend I will reinstall the AL cockpit panels and if I have time I move on to installing the electrical wiring.  Time to think about putting some rubber on the wheels too as it won't be long before I have to check the tires and wheels for proper fit and ensure they don't interfere with anything I've installed.  My only concern right now is how I chose to run the main brake lines in front of the driver's side footbox.  The lines from the front wheels run on the outside of the stiffening arm on the left side of the engine bay.

Also had a couple of visits from some friends.  A friend of ours for several years came by with his grandson after going to Cars and Coffee, a monthly car show here in Jacksonville.  He has a sweet 1985 Porsche in great condition.  Then my friend from Bahrain came by in his 1951 Chevrolet truck he restored.  It is a fantastic looking truck done on a real-man's budget.  The blue color and interior are superb.  He was even followed into my driveway by a couple who just picked up a 1948 Ford truck project and wanted to take a look.  It was a mini car show right in the driveway.  I appreciate the great support.  Also nice to be in Jax where it was at least 75 today. Considering it is mid-Feb and Boston was just clobbered by a couple feet of snow it wasn't a bad day.

If you are reading this and working on a car of your own I have lots of additional pictures and as I move along I am borrowing heavily from others.  Let me know if you have a good idea, or want to know how I did it wrong so you can do it right.  I bookmarked cbergquist1's flickr page as he did a great job documenting his Coupe build.  If you have a question, he probably has a picture of it.

Cockpit aluminum rough in complete

Over the last couple of weeks I was able to complete the cockpit AL rough-in.  It is a very repetitive process of figuring out how the panel sorta goes, drilling one or two holes to give it a try, then removing it several times to drill holes in the new panel with the drill press then fit in the car.
As the FFR manual is a little sketchy on details here is the process I finally came to as I fit these first 20 panels.  There are at least another 20 to go in the rest of the car.
First of all do not follow the manual explicitly.  It advises to drill, glue, and permanently rivet each panel as you go.  This will most certainly end in tremendous frustration as each subsequent panel must be fit in relation to the previous one.
Loosely fit the first panel.  The manual encourages tracing out the panel locations before initial disassembly.  This is definitely a good idea but must be tempered with the fact they do not fit all panels in the car when they ship it, over half come in another box.  Also they are not in final fit position.  There is some minor adjustment needed for each panel and permanently installing each one as you go will guarantee by the time you come back around to fit the last piece it will be way off from the first one.
Clecos - buy more than you need and then buy some more.  I started with 75 and quickly added another 50.  I still need more for final fitting.  I figure at least another 100 to make it all work right.
Clamp the adjacent pieces in the frame and mark them again with witness marks on the front and back of each panel so you can line them up when they are removed for drilling with the drill press.
Remove the panels, drill one hole, clamp with a cleco and verify the pieces still line up with the marks previously done.  Drill one more hole and install another cleco to hold the pieces together.  Test fit in the car.  If all still lines up, drill all remaining holes in the panels and install them back in the car.
Move to the next piece adjacent and do it again.  I found that I typically installed and removed each panel at least 5-6 times to make it right.
After I fit each major subsection of footboxes, seating panels, and rear wall of the cockpit I pulled the pieces out and assembled them on the floor.  This ensured I had all the holes drilled properly and the pieces would line up.
Finally I removed all pieces and assembled them on the floor in the picture above.  I again found holes I needed to drill out and line up better.  Overall I had to trim only one panel (the rear wall of the cockpit) about 1/4 inch along a two inch seam where it joined the inside panel on the back of the drivers cockpit.  No new pieces were needed.

I also started installing the gas tank and fuel lines.  The instructions largely consist of "install the gas tank and fuel lines" and nothing in the manual explains the fuel hose and clamp parts I received with the complete kit.  From my searches on-line and in the two main forums everyone seems to go with a completely different set-up.  Given my cash on hand is sitting in the garage already I need to make what I have work as best I can.  This week I will call the Engine Factory to see what they recommend for the 351W I plan to buy from them.  I figure they probably know what I need and how to make what I have work.  The basic idea makes sense obviously, push go-fast pedal to floor, throttle opens on carb, gas goes in, magic happens, car goes faster.  I plan to run a carburetor rather than EFI.

Next couple of weeks will be running the fuel and brake lines.  Now that the gas pedal is in I will modify the AL panel for the trunk area to add access panels to the gas tank as well as a small compartment for a tool kit, etc.  Pretty common modification to do and it requires a bunch more clecos and rivets.

Passenger foot box clecupine

After a couple of days at Disney World I got back to the Al panels in the cockpit.  (If you haven't been to see the new Test Track by Chevrolet - drum roll please - DON'T BOTHER!  Spent three hours in line and ended up on the exact same ride with less to entertain your brain while waiting in line.  Pretty obvious Government Motors had a hand in it - overwrought, inefficient line process, ultimately a bore.  This is what happens when Disney partners with the government, er I mean Chevrolet.)
First part is installing the passenger side foot box.  The picture is the standard one every builder has of numerous clecos holding together various Al panels.  To me it looks like a genetically mutated porcupine created by some aircraft manufacturers black programs office.  Thus a "clecupine."
So this weekend I did the first fit on the passenger side foot box Al panels.  The basic process is drill a hole, stick in a cleco, remove the panel, make sure everything lines up and do it again.  I did a rough fit of all panels with only a couple through and through holes drilled in the adjacent panels, then marked the outer panel hole locations, removed everything, drilled the outer panel holes with my bench drill press, attached them all together on my bench, marked the holes on the inner panels and drilled them using the outer holes as a guide for my hand drill.  Probably an easier way to do it but this one worked for me.  Overall the rough fit FFR did to ship the car worked pretty well.  The number in the photo is the FFR part number I wrote on all pieces before initial disassembly so I could refer to my pictures while doing the final fit.  These will be covered by acoustic mat and under body or heat reflective material so I wrote them big.
Best part of the weekend was a friend and shipmate from my time in Bahrain stopped by to take a look.  It was neat showing him what the project looked like given I bored him with my dream while in Bahrain for nearly a year.
Also spent a few hours installing new doors in the Master Bathroom.  One project for me, one for my wife.  Part of the deal to build the car.
Gotta buy more clecos too.  I used all I had and it wasn't enough to complete the job.  Aircraft Tool Supply did me right the last time so they got some more of my money tonight.

Pedal box install, with difficulty

Over the Christmas and New Years' weekends I got to work on the clutch, brake, and gas pedals.  It went swimmingly for about five minutes until I realized I received zero directions for the parts and the build manual assumes you are cobbling together a new car from old parts from a donor car (i.e. junker).  I figured I would go with all new parts straight from FFR to avoid the pitfalls of dealing with donor body problems.  I did find a set of instructions posted online from 2009 but FFR changed the process since then as the clutch pedal was prone to snapping.  If you've ever had a clutch cable break (me, once on a motorcycle in college - NOT FUN) then you know what it might be like to have the whole pedal snap.  So the new version is beefier but installs on the underside of the bracket vice the top.  The stop for the clutch pedal pivot also installs differently.  So the instructions were pretty much useless.  I imagine FFR has a set but they also enjoyed a four day weekend so I could either lose four days of build time and wait to call them or slug it out.  The parts bag I opened up had very few of the bolts and nuts I needed so a trip to Ace got me back on track.  And then the next day I found the bag of pedal box parts I needed with the gas pedal box.  Progress was made but could have been a lot easier with the proper instructions, if only I had them.  The gas pedal itself was pretty easy but the throttle cable will take some figuring as the manual assumes EFI and tells you to not do the throttle cable mods if you are going carburated.  So since I am nowhere near needing to install the throttle cable itself I will wait for that one and add it to the list of questions for FFR.  They did strengthen the gas pedal bracket pivot though as it was also prone to breaking off, usually when a builder was showing off the car.  I also had to use three washers as a shim on the inboard side of the back bracket for the pedal box which supports the brake master cylinders.
Finally I was able to install the steering gear (sorry, nautical term) today.  It went in pretty easily with some minor bushing shortening.  The grinder will become my new favorite tool for this project.  Of course it all comes out again as the next step is to start installing the Al panels in the cockpit area.  I plan to treat all of mine with Alumiprep 33 and Alodine 1201, usually done by aircraft builders.  Then I will lizard skin, undercoat, and Fat Mat all pieces.  Painting or powder coating seem to be popular but I want something I can touch up easily and inexpensively if need be.  The final point of the work this weekend is the steering wheel doesn't line up with the holes cut out in the Al dash panel, not even close.  My guess is so many people customize it they end up building their own dash panel for the steering column and main gauges: Speedo and Tach.  Although I suppose the gas gauge is really the "main" gauge as that is the only one you MUST pay attention to.
The list of things I need to go back and resolve continues to grow and my personal build diary seems to add more TO DOs than DONEs.
BTW, I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and will enjoy a Happy New Year.  Building this car is incredibly rewarding as I get to share my dream with lots of people (not talking about this blog) and I have stolen heavily from others who have gone before and posted their trials and tribulations.  Shout out to Scott too for helping me figure out the upside down pedal bracket installation process.

Rear suspension complete

Just a quick update to the rear suspension.  After doing it the right way it all seemed to go together pretty easily.  The panhard bar went in fairly straightforward and the single hole I had to drill in the drivers side main tube of the frame worked well to support the lower forward end of the panhard bar support bracket.  Final adjustment won't be for a few months, until I install the engine and transmission and align everything.