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.
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