Gone very far to the Dark Side

10 minute(s) of a 189 minute read

Into the home stretch.

2-4-2015

Almost ready to pick up:

The two jobs I had to work the hardest on was fitting the engine/transmission package as a single unit. Clearances were very tight (a few 32nds in places) & they had to be loaded in at a very steep angle. Was the only job I needed help with. I ran the engine crane. My son in law ran back & forth checking the clearances. My daughter in the last phase stood on the trans tail shaft to get it steep enough to clear the firewall cross member.

Second was fitting the carpets. Was a two part process. Two sided aluminum insulation was cut to fit, glued in & the seams taped with aluminum metal tape. Then the carpets had to be fitted & cut so there were no seams showing.

The glue for this process was 3M/90 & its an instant bond adhesive so you have to get the placement exactly right the first time.

2-7-2015

Did a timing belt water pump replacement on the Xterra & had to drop it back at my grandsons university. His school is about 15 miles from Whitbys so I stopped in to see when the car will be ready to pick up. Should be good to go in another week to 10 days.

Did not set the camera right DUH & the actual paint is a bit darker than the flash pictures

2-17-2015

Snow delay. Last step is a dyno tune. Shops are closed for the duration & the tires are not streetable in this weather. ETA TBD. Have a front set of more street friendly tires, same NITTO 555's but not the 555R compound now on the car, but they are here & the car is there.

2-19-2015

Car is at the dyno shop YEA!!!

2-20-2015

Expected, not yet weighed, 2250-2350lbs with driver. 5lbs & change per horsepower. Performance on these cars is really traction limited. hard to say how much more or less powerwould effect it. The 555R rears are a drag radial compound for straight line performance which should be pretty good. Track day would require different tires.

I am taking the 555R's off the front when I get it home. Have slightly wider 555 street compound tires for it in the garage.

2-21-2015

Maybe Key is traction. A number of guys with similar power are talking about not going to WOT before part way through 3rd gear.

Car will run in the 11's right out of the box. 10's with a tune & driver experience. Will take some time to develop feel & muscle memory to keep the tires from going up in smoke.

A very strong short wheelbase car tends to need a lot of respect from the driver. Especially cars with no nannies.

After doing all the normal break-in checks for leaks, loose bolts, wire connections etc the first thing to do will be balancing the brakes. System is unique with two separate master cylinders. One for the rears & the other for the front.

There is a balance bar that connects the two piston shafts. You can vary the amount of stroke (pressure) between the two master cylinders. Object in to prevent the rears from locking up early.

2-28-2015

Just thee visual things to do when I get it home: Put on the knockoffs, swap the front/rear black quickjacks for polished stainless steel versions & swap out the modern standard sealed beam for the classic 1950's Lucas tri-lenses lights modified to take halogen bulbs.

3-3-2015

License plate is good to go

3-4-2015

I weep anytime I watch Mecum & think what my bank account would look like if I still had the cars I once owned in my 20's & 30's to sell today.

Beautiful Seaside NJ before it became famous. Still lived in Jersey City

3-5-2015

Brought my oldest daughter home from the maternity hospital in that car. Got hooked on cars as an early teen helping the older guys with their cars passing tools & stuff. Learned a lot about mechanics & it kept me out of the Infantry when I got drafted.

Tried to have at least one performance car ever since.

3-6-2015

Sorry but the GTO is long gone was replaced by the StingRay & a Country Squire, Family stuff had started to take over. Gave up sports car racing (TR3 A&B, Morgan+4 SS) in 1969 the year we bought our first house.

The last car before the big drought in new performance cars was a 1969 Firebird 350 HO. It was replaced by a Volvo station wagon.

During the new performance car drought the StingRay under went a number of engine changes, 1 trans rebuild & two rear end gear choices. Rear spring was swapped for a composition version.

Car was at Englishtown quite often since by that time I had moved to Centeral Jersey.

3-7-2015

Honey I'm HOME!!!!!

More later have a few short ones from the phone will update over the weekend. Vid duped for some reason, Sorry

3-8-2015

10 seconds before the phone shut down, missed it climbing onto the trailer.

3-9-2015

Pictures for auto insurance company

Picture on the fridge was the inspiration that kept me working for the year & 1 month it took to assemble it.

The trans input point for the shifter is very far back because the car is really a front mid engine layout with a lot of set pack. Drive shaft is only 30" long.

Needs to bend forward to a place it where it would normailly be in a regular car.

Plate came today all most legal.

3-14-2015

Not sure what that is. I had the guys dyno tune it to upper mid level for the motor, good for your cardio vascular health. Wanted it to run well on normal 93 octane with no additional parts but the ECU flash unit & a sub 7000 RPM shift point. Dynos best run at these requirements was 446whp & 405ftlbs. For some reason they all seem to be down on torque compared to horsepower.

That said it will break the 315's lose with a sharp throttle input in 3rd gear. Another rainy day here. Am putting on emblems & stuff. Can post some pictures but they are just little things to pass the time. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny so will try a quick run around the sub-division.

Want to get the engine heated up to flush any remaining air out of the cooling system.

3-17-2015

Car passed the NCDMV home built inspection today. State will issue a VIN# for the car & Ishould have the final docs in two weeks. Till then just a few zips around the sub-division (private streets).

Got a few more trim items done today. SS quick jacks front & rear, Ford Cobra side emblems over the heat exhaust grills, one of the sun visors, 255X40X17 front tires replaced the 245's, all 4 knock-off, Cobra Snake & Script on dash, insulated heat shields & steering wheel center cap & logo.

Still need to carpet the trunk & install the Lucas 1960's headlights with the halogen conversion bulbs.

Its traditional on the FFR build site to "graduate" your car when its passed inspection & is ready for the road. Here are my yearbook shots.

I should add there is no glove box because I mounted the heater core where the glove box would normally go. The rest of the free space between where the heater core is & the instrument pack starts are a number of black boxes for some of the computer controls.

Also use the Bluetooth connection for my iPod that is loaded with my 50/60/70's oldies songs. My doors have pockets built into the interior trim that can carry things like the iPod.

Overall the Cobras are pretty spartan because they were designed as race cars that could be driven street legal to comply with sanctioning body rules for production sports cars. Their sole purpose in life was to give Ford a car that could beat the StingRay in production car racing here & in Europe