Passenger Seat Back In

December 30, 2016 -

  I put the passenger side carpeting in as well as the seat and the harness. (This photo should be rotated 90 degrees counter-clock wise. It is in every other application I open the file with.)

Carpeting

December 13, 2016 -

  I started with the back wall of the cockpit per the manual and got on the outer sides of the rear wall and the small pieces on the side of the door sills.

 

  The manual has you do the main tunnel cover and I prepped that area by taking the ball off of the shifter and the seat heater buttons out of their holes. I also had to remove the seat belt bolts. But then I saw how there is so much space around the emergency brake handle and thought "Shouldn't there be a panel patch for that huge opening?" So I'm waiting to hear back from another builder about that before carpeting that area.

Carpeting

December 12, 2016 -

  In order to do the carpeting you have to pull out the seat belts and seats. I did that today and it felt like taking a step backwards but sometimes that's what you have to do. Tomorrow will try gluing in the big back panel with 77 spray adhesive.

Passenger Side Radiator Panel

October 4, 2016 -

  I attached the passenger side radiator side panel today.  I put the bulb seal along the top but noticed it didn't need any trimming like the driver's side. (Caveat, the radiator front aluminum panel did need to be trimmed along the end so it would lay flat, short of the frame.)  I suspect possibly my radiator isn't totally level maybe? I don't think this is a serious issue but might check with the forums and will have Whitby check it out as well when they get it for the body work.

Driver Side Radiator Panel

September 29, 2016 -

  I attached the driver's side radiator side panel.  This took a lot of trimming along the top and I did put the bulb seal on the top of it.

Radiator Front Panel

September 21, 2016 -

  I attached the front panel of the radiator using stainless nuts and bolts I bought at the hardware store. I used these instead of the rivets mentioned in the manual because I think the painter will need to remove this in order to take the body off for paint and I thought I would make it easier.

Side Pipes

July 24, 2016

  When I first tried putting the side pipes on something was clearly wrong.  They were pointed in weird directions.  After some back and forth on the forums I discovered that I had the J-pipes in the wrong place.  The J-pipes go in between the header attached to the engine and the side pipe.  The longer J-pipe was supposed to go on the drivers side.  After switching them I found that the collar that attaches the J-pipe to the header interfered with the oil temperature sender on the driver's side.  This could be fixed with a T attachment or one could move the sender down to the oil pan.  I didn't mess with what is already there so instead I ground down a notch in the collar to give some room.  By the way, the manuals never said anything about which J-pipe goes where.  Lastly, put your socket headed bolts on the inside.  You won't get a ratchet on them on the outside in some places.
  So you might think, ok that's a reasonable amount of frustration for one job.  Wrong.  Next you have to put on the rubber hangers that hold the side pipes off the frame.  The bigger one went first and wasn't too tough.  The smaller one however required drilling a hole high up close to the footbox floors through the 2" x 2" steel cross member of the frame.  Under the car going across the back of the footbox flooring is another cross piece that prevents you from holding a drill level.  In the manual they showed someone using a 90 degree drill to be able to fit in there.  I didn't have that tool and neither did a few of my friends I asked.  Maybe I should have bought it.  Instead I tried to drill this hole from the other side, inside the footbox to the outside. I started with small drill bits, and when I came out in the wrong place I plugged the hole with silicone and a rivet.  Michele was super helpful in tightening this bolt as one person can't reach under the car and inside the footbox to access both ends of the bolt.  Thanks Michele!  Not ideal but I got it done and I guess that's how a lot of this project has seemed.
  Here's the end product:

Driver's side

Passenger side

Michele and I testing it out.  It sounds much better than before!

License Plate Final

June 23, 2016 -

  A new day brings fresh eyes to a project and my short circuit was immediately obvious.  Both the license plate and the aluminum panel I cut were so far up inside the plate holder they were shorting out the circuit between the metal bracket that holds the light bulb and the copper base plate that powers the bulb.  I disassembled the unit, took out the plate I had cut and used the Dremel to cut out a large notch so the holder plate wouldn't touch the bulb contacts. Here's the notched plate holder.

  Here you can see the notches I had cut in the contacts so that the license plate could go up as far as possible.  I can't believe it didn't occur to me that I could short this circuit with the *metal* license plate.

  So I figured I needed to insulate all this with some electrical tape.  These were very small pieces of tape smooshed on with the smallest needle nose pliers I had.

  And here are the lights working, two blown fuses later.  That's not bad considering some have to keep disconnecting lights one by one and testing with a fuse to find a short.

  Lastly, here's another old plate fitting in there nicely with the lights on.  Incidentally, when this circuit shorted out, the running lights and the gauge lights were all not functioning.

License Plate Holder Part 2

June 21, 2016 -

  Here is what the license plate holder looks like with an old Virginia plate in it.

  The light isn't working and my running lights are blowing a fuse so I suspect there's a short somewhere and this new addition is my prime suspect.  Electrical investigation to follow...

License Plate Holder Part 1

June 16, 2016 -

  Unfortunately Factory Five doesn't leave enough space between the trunk handle and the license plate holder/light for a typical 6" x 12" license plate.  Some choose to cut the plate which I hear might be illegal in some places if not all.  Some choose a different trunk opening mechanism such as a cockpit switch that pops the trunk lid open so there is no handle on the actual trunk.  JKleiner on the forums suggested modifying the license plate holder/light and that is the route I took.  It wasn't hard but took a little patience.  This is after most of the modifications.  You can see three holes in the light assembly.  They are where I drilled out the old rivets that held this all together.  The two close holes in the middle held the insulating board and the hot conductor for the lights, so that got moved up 3/8" and re-riveted.  The plate that holds the two bulbs also got moved up 3/8" and you can see the hole on the right but the left side hole is covered up by the buld holding plate.  See how that bolt coming out at you in the middle is off center low?  It used to be off center high so this bulb holding plate got flipped around and the bolt coming out at you is in the same place relative to the back of the assembly.

  Then you can cut a slot in the clear plastic and put it all back together.  The Dremel will tend to melt some of the plastic but it can be cleaned up with a file.

  I slid the test plate I had in there and I thought it could use a little more room so I used the Dremel to cut a little notch in the plate that holds the bulbs so the license plate could slide up just a little further into the assembly.  (Look closely.)

  To finish up the JKleiner mod we need to cut some aluminium and drill holes so that you can attach a license plate with its pre-drilled holes higher up that the stock holder positions the plate.  That is why this is part one.  I suspect a slight trimming of the bottom of the license plate might be necessary but if it is, it should be very slight.  And for the ultra observant, yes, that is my new wedding ring in the first picture. :-)

Dead Pedal - Heater Wiring - Body Finish

June 11, 2016 -

  I haven't posted in a little while but that doesn't mean I wasn't doing anything.  I'm not sure if this is in the right order but I used Comet, hot water, and Scotch brite (rough side of sponge) to scrub off the wax left from the fiberglass mold process.  Then I used a little drum roll sanding piece on a Dremel to take down the edge that sticks up from the body.  Its not a seam of fiberglass panels coming together but rather the excess fiberglass that was pushed into the seam of the mold in which the body was formed.  I didn't quite take it all the way down to be smooth as I think I'll leave that to the paint and body shop but I didn't bring it down so that it won't cut you.  (Yes I cut my finger pretty good on it while scrubbing before putting gloves on.)

  I also cleaned up the wiring under the dash on the passenger side.  There was a lot of wiring for the heater controls just hanging down.  I tackled this by drilling a hole in the top of the inside of the interior of the glove box.  Then I created a zip tie loop through that.  Then I created two more zip tie loops making a chain behind the glove box that reach down and hold up all the wires.  The chain was needed to cover the long length from the top of the glove box.  I did this because that was the center of the horizontal droop of the wires and there was nothing else I could find to loop a zip tie to up above.  Note that I made a hole to the right of the glove box's locking slot.  The lock's rotating tab comes up and into it's slot from the left and I didn't want the zip tie to interfere with that action.  Here's a close-up of the zip tie hole. (This is a pretty custom idea I just came up with on the spot. The forum might've had better or different ideas but this seems to work well.)

  Here is what the cockpit looks like with the wires cleaned up.  The level of the camera is the top of the seats (pretty low) so if you can't see wires there, then no one should see them sitting in the seats.  The controls are just clipped onto the dash there for now. I'm not convinced yet on where I want to put them.

  I spent several days of charging and cutting with the Dremel's cutting wheel to cut through the left side of the driver's footbox to put in the dead pedal I bought.  I guess one could make their own dead pedal and maybe even one with a flex point so the angle of the pedal could change but I bought this one on Dark Water's custom parts site and I'm pretty happy with it so far.  After multiple charge cycles I had the front edge, top and bottom cut for the square hole. I decided to leave the flap that was cut because, it fit, it had sound dampening and heat shield covering on it already, and why no have something stronger if you can?  Today I finished drilling the holes and riveting in the dead pedal box.  I cut myself a couple times before putting gloves on.  (This should sound familiar from earlier in this post although that was a couple weeks ago before. But word of advice, wear gloves.)  Drilling and riveting in the footbox was a contorted job but hey what isn't in this little car?  I think it came out nice though.  And just those two extra inches bumped out for your left foot feels nice!

Passenger Door

May 6, 2016 -

  A couple nights ago I worked at fitting the passenger door.  This was a lot harder than the driver's side door.  This one took a lot of sanding to get it to fit ok where the top of the door meets the rear body panel part.  At this stage you really want the top two corners to fit with the body well.  Later you can move the main body in or out some to get the bottom corners to look right.
  Today I put the striker and the latch on.  Fairly similar to the driver's side here.  I ended up using the latch spacers on both the passenger and driver sides.  I think riders will feel a lot safer now.  :-)  Here is a picture of both doors latched.

Door Latch 1

May 1, 2016 -

  I've attached the driver's side door and did some sanding down of the edges on it with a Festool random orbit sander and connected dust collector while I wore a 3M respirator.  That got the door edges fitting pretty well. (I'm sure it all changes some after painting.)  Then I attached the stiker and then the latch.  (I did grease up the insides of the latch mechanism while I had it open per the instructions.)  Here's a picture of the latch attached to the door and locked onto the striker.  I show it closed to show it is all lined up.

Windshield Part 2

April 17, 2016 -

  I wish this advice was in the manual, but in order to bolt the windshield on the driver's side you need to remove the fuse panel. That made it a lot easier. On the passenger side it's more difficult, especially if you have your engine ECU and a windshield wiper motor mounted in this area like I do. And definitely try not to drop washers and nuts in the dark spaces between the body and the frame that you can't see. Anyways, the trick to the passenger side was to put your arm and socket or wrench behind that ECU. Yes you will still have to tighten it from 1 foot away moving one click at a time without being able to see what you are doing and you might even have to lay superman style across the engine like I did, but you can do it. Here it is all tightened down.

  I forgot to mention, in order to drill the holes in the side mounts of the windshield, get a step drill bit that looks like this.

  It works *way* better than your conventional bits!

Windshield Part 1

April 10, 2016 -

  After attaching the windshield side supports, I was able to get help fitting the windshield into the car and see how they lined up with the frame mounts for the windshield.  Of course the windshield side mounts were about 3" - 4" too long and prevented the windshield from sitting down on the body.  After pulling it back out, trimming the windshield side mounts with a Dremel and a hacksaw it fit in nicely.  This is to show you how much had to be trimmed off on both sides.

  Unfortunately the slots in the body aren't quite far enough forward for the side supports to line up with both holes in the frame mount on each side.  I will need to expand those slots in the body just a little more forward. Here's a shout out to my fiancee and helper Michele for helping me fit it!

Turns out the windshield moved slightly between marking the driver's side and then going over to the passenger side. So I decided to just drill the driver's side, bolt that side in, then mark the passenger side. Turns out the sharpie is pretty easy to wipe off the chrome finish.

Body Dash

March 10, 2016 -

  I haven't gotten a lot done lately. Still wrapping up house build punch list items but I also got another case of the frustrations when the passenger side windshield support wouldn't fit in the slot in the body because it was obstructed by the dash aluminum. I spoke to Factory Five and some others and there are ways to adjust the body. Some that have gone before me highly recommend trimming the body away from the dash covering regardless, so that the fiberglass body isn't digging into the dash. I trimmed off about 1/4" using a Dremel.

  This created a lot of fiberglass dust which is blocking the view of the gap I created between the body and the dash but you can get the idea here.

  I should have done this at the beginning of the project for anything related to cutting the fiberglass but I invested in a decent respirator for this kind of work. I highly recommend it.

  In the end, this didn't help the body move at all and the trick to getting the windshield to fit in the slots is just to lengthen the slots themselves. (More chances to wear the respirator!)

Hood Part 3

January 10, 2016 -

  Most of this was actually done yesterday but I wrapped up the hood latches today.  The only odd thing I found was the metal brackets that are the "catch" for the swinging lever under the hood needed holes bigger than the 7/64" drill bit the manual recommended. Other than that it was pretty straightforward.  I did go with the manual's recommendation when drilling the big 5/8" holes through the hood of stepping up in drill bit size slowly and using reverse for the larger bits.  I also used some masking tape on the top side of the hood to help prevent chipping. Maybe it helped. Unless you have a *really* big chip, the hood handles will cover up divots around the edge of your holes.

Hood Part 2

January 9, 2016 -

  While the hood was mounted, it wasn't aligned very well. To line it up there are 8 nuts to loosen and tighten where the bracket and frame mount come together. First I decided that it would be easier to access these nuts from beneath the car so I jacked it up and put it down on the jack stands.  With the nuts loose I put something heavy (my pancake air compressor) on the hood to hold it in a good position.  From below I tightened the nuts. I came up from beneath the car and found that the vertical alignment was good.  It now sat down onto the body the way it should but somehow I moved it while tightening so I loosened the 4 nuts that hold the horizontal alignment and put it back into a good position.  Then I went around tightening each of the four nuts little by little so as not to move the hood.  I also got up periodically to check the alignment. Yeah it sounds annoying but it was more like a slow and steady wins the race kind of feeling.  Here's the hood down so you can see how much aligned I got it:

  Ultimately the hood needs to be trimmed, filed, sanded by a body shop so I didn't drive myself too crazy over it.  Next up are the hood latches.