Ordered my gas pedal and matching brake/clutch covers, and the competition layout dash.

I got the 7/16th hold drilled in the pedal box for the MC. I reassembled the pedal box, however it most likely will come apart after I get my new gas pedal. The gas pedal is going to be aluminum, so it will clash with the black donor pedals. I'm either going to strip, polish and clear coat the pedals or I'm going to just repaint them with aluminum paint.

Not much to do tonight, still waiting on the front IFS brackets from Factory Five, still waiting on the IRS spacers from Factory Five. Tomorrow I will get the MC hole drilled into the pedal box so at least I can start putting that back together and then permanently fasten it to the frame. So, what does one do while they wait for parts to arrive??? Well, they drill rivit holes of course. I got just about all the drivers side foot box drilled out with cleco's installed (see the pictures). Compare it with the post on the 22nd to really see what I did.

I picked up a 7/16 drill bit, but it wont fit on either of my two cheap drills. Time to make some phone calls and see if I can borrow a drill. Ah ha, the other Matt in Allen building a cobra has one. I'm going to go visit him on Tuesday with my pedal box and drill the hole for the master cylinder. So the pedal box re-assembly will have to wait until after that is done.

I picked up some generic boot clamps, and I finished assembling both half shafts. I tried to put the spindle into the axle and it doesn't go in all the way. I wonder if I just need to torque down the axle nut to get it to seat all the way in? I posted a question on FFCobra to see what the pro's say.

The differential is in! The drivers side coil-over and upper control arm are installed. Ooops, the upper control arm is upside down, the quad shock mount is supposed to be facing down. No big deal as the spindle is only temporarily on, it will need to be removed to install the axle assembly later.



To Do:

• Order Russ Thompson's Gas Pedal


• Order competition cut out dashboard

I went to the local Harbor Frieght and they didn't have the same torque wrench that I wanted from the online store. I headed over to Sears and picked one up there. I also picked up a couple different socket organizers. My (borrowed) socket collection is as disorganized as humanly possible. We'll see how well they work. I'm going to stop by Napa on the way home and see if I can't knock off about 5 items that I need.

With the help from the other Matt in allen building a cobra, I got my bushings pressed into my spindles. I also painted the differential with POR-15 and touched up some of the aluminum paint on the front. They are all ready to be bolted up to the car.

I picked up my new rear calipers from AutoZone last night, they don't come with the mounting bracket, so I have to use the old ones. I started cleaning them up so they would be ready for painting.

Here are a couple of pictures:

Picked up the fixed differential and the pressed in spindles/bearings/hub assembly from Allison Autocare today. They said everything looks good except the axle seals on the differential should be replace. I looked on the Napa website and I think I found the right ones to replace them. They are around $10, and the guy from Allison said they are easy to replace. I was already planning on going to Napa today anyway looking for bigger boot clamps, so I'll see if they have the axle seals.

I ordered an alumium racing jack and more clecos.

Now I only have to paint the differential and then I can get the whole rear end built!!!

Thnigs To Do:

• Buy new axle seals

Drilled the 4 mounting holes through the 3/4" frame for the pedal box. Marked and cut the edge off the pedal box. Marked the spot to drill out the hole for the master cylinder. Temporarily mounted the pedal box.

Drilled and placed cleco's in the top and front of the foot box. Temporarily placed a few other panels for future drilling. I think I'm gonna need those extra clecos.

Things I need:

• 7/16" Drill Bit


• Really buy the clecos

Updated Progress Pictures:

Not a very productive night last night. I went to pick up my new rear calipers from AutoZone, and they ordered the wrong ones. No biggie, I'm not in a rush to get them, so they reordered them. Tried to get a bigger boot clamp, but AutoZone doesn't carry them, so I will try Nappa. I did get longer bolts for the differential mounting, and I got a couple of cotter pins I needed.

Othan that that dismal shopping trip, I packed up all the parts that need some sort of fixing/pressing by the pro's into the car. Now I just have to drop them off and get them all ready.

I called FFR, they said they are waiting on the irs spacers and the shoulder bolts before they ship out all my back ordered/missing parts. They said they should arrive at FF near the end of this week, or early next week. Realistically I won't see them until the beginning of next month. No big deal, there is tons of stuff I can work on. Although it would be nice to finish the front suspension.

I dropped of the differential, hub, bearings and spindles at Allison Autocare. It's all supposed to be ready tomorrow. I also mailed the brake pedal to Micheal Everson to be modified.

More things to do:

• Buy my very own Torque Wrench


• Buy an Aluminum Racing Jack

Installed the steering rack. Mounted one of the rear lower control arms. Cleaned up the garage, took stuff to the dump. Positioned the roll bars for now, and noticed that the passenger side support bar doesn't line up straight.

Here is an updated picture.




To Do:

• Buy T Fitting for flexible brake line on the drivers rear side (wasn't on my donor IRS)


• Missing nuts for both motor mounts and the transmission mount.


• Differential front bolts are too short for the nyloc to grab.


• Buy Bigger Boot Clamps

Started putting the rear axles back together. The boot clamps are too small, so I have to get some replacements from Napa or Autozone.

Called Mac Tools, $50 bucks to recalibrate the torque wrench, and they want me to mail it to them. How lame, since it isn't my torque wrench, I'm going to head off to Harbor Frieght and buy one for myself.

I also decided to hold off on buying more cleco's until I actually need them.

Progress! On both sides of the car the lower control arms were beat into place, upper control arms were finger tightened on and the Coil-Overs were installed. Doesn't sound like a lot of work for 2 hours, but all the brackets had to be widened for anything to fit.

Took a trip to AutoZone and picked up a new set of front rotors. Ordered new fully loaded rear calipers for the T-Bird disk brakes. Also picked up some caliper paint, CV grease, and a clamp tool.

The breeze order came in. Now if the factory five order would just come in.

New Things To Do:

• Research fuel pump/gas tank changes for going EFI to Carb


• Replace Mustang MC with a aluminum 1984 Jeep MC


• Buy braided stainless steel brake lines and fittings


• Buy pre-flared brake lines

Current Progress Picture

Original Goal: Build a factory five roadster (Shelby Cobra Replica) in less than a year for $18,000. Then it was $24,000. Then it was $28,000. Then it was $32,000 when I ordered the kit. Now it's more like $35,000. And in reality I've given up on the budget.

Before Kit: Built Body Buck, Ordered Engine from Engine Factory, Ordered Donor/New Parts form AMP, Ordered Kit. Tore apart the front and rear suspension components, and started cleaning up the used parts. Of course, I didn't get everything cleaned before the big day.

After Kit(9/12): Removed body and got it up on the buck. Marked and removed all the aluminum panels from the frame. Painted the frame with POR-15 (What a pain in the butt). POR-15 on all brackets, and old donor suspension components. Cleaned/Painted gas tank, and donor pedal box. Except for the parts that are on order, everything is pretty much painted/preped for assembly (finally).

Front Suspension Mockup: I have the wrong IFS bracket, called FFR and am exchaning for the correct one. The pivot bolts on the upper control arms are too short for the nyloc nuts to grab enough threads. Got new bolts at lowes. My only concern now is that I have to mount the bolts upside down. If the nuts backs off, now the bolt will fall off. I will use some lock tite on these as well. The upper ball joints are missing their grease fittings, told factory five about this too. Needed to replace the bolts that connect the spindle to the caliper, ordered those from the local Ford dealership. I will pick those up today. The front suspension is on hold until the parts from factory five come in.

Steering Mockup: Missing steering rack bushings, ordered offset solid bushings from Breeze. So far it looks like that is the only thing holding up the steering installation. The parts are due to show up today.

IRS Mockup: Too few spacers, factory five is aware of this. Unfortunately I have no idea if/when these are being shipped. I should call and bug them about it. I need to fix the gears in the differential, and have the bearings/bushing pressed out/in, which I will do as soon as the replacements arrive (today?).

Aluminum Panels: Finally got something permanetly attached to the frame. The 2 F panels are rivitted on the frame!!! Pop rivits are pretty cool, I had never done it before and it is very easy to do. They look good, and they help cover up the average looking frame paint job. I also temporarilly drilled out the rivit holes for the dash area fire wall and used the cleco's to hold it up. I'm so glad I ordered the cleco's, I think I'll order some more so I can keep busy with the aluminum panels while I wait on all the parts I have ordered.

Things I need to do.

• Call Mac Tools to get the torque wrench calibrated.


• Figure out what type of grease I need for the IRS


• Buy new front Rotors


• Buy new Rear Calipers


• Buy more Cleco's


• Shorten Brake Pedal.


• Research/Buy E-Brake Set-up.


• Wheels and Tires.


• Find a chrome/ceramic coating place


• Find a place to press out old bearings, press in hubs/bearings/bushings, fix differential gears