August journal

8/5/00	Today is THE day!!! I've spent so much time trying to finish the truck, that the days passed fairly quickly. So fast, that I didn't even have time to strip the donor Mustang. My buddy Ron Smith and I left before breakfast (4:00 am) and drove to Baltimore where we caught a cheap flight to Providence, RI. We took a cab to the Ryder Truck place, rented a 15' van, and drove the 45 miles to Wareham, MA to the Factory Five Racing facilities. We spent a few minutes socializing and checking out the factory cars before heading over to the loading dock to see the Cobra with "Chamberlain 2229" written on the nose with a paint stick!! How cool! The factory guys had us loaded up within 30 minutes and we headed for Virginia at about 10:30 am. After a long, relatively uneventful trip, we arrived home in Warrenton about 9:15 pm. I wanted to open up the boxes so badly, but I was pooped and decided I better call it a day.
8/6/00	Today we had a "Cobra Unloading Party"! I planned on inviting a few friends over to help carry the body/chassis off the truck. Well, it got a little out of hand and we ended up having a major party with about 35 people (wives and kids included) in attendance! It took all of 20 minutes to unload and another 30 to pull the body off the chassis and position it in it's new temporary home atop my custom body buck (see pictures). The rest of the day was spent grilling, drinking beer, and talking Cobras. Future Cobra owners Kevin Moses, Sean Westmoreland, and Brad (sorry, forgot your last name) stopped by to check out the kit in it's raw form. Kevin has a FFR on order, and Sean and Brad hope to place their orders in the relatively near future. My buddy Manny Berrara helped me inventory all the parts and then the "party" broke up around 6:00 pm. I finally got to spend some time alone with my new toy. Spent a few hours organizing parts, carrying boxes down to my basement workshop for safe storage, and started removing the aluminum panels that FFR attaches temporarily for shipment.
8/7/00	Finished removing all the factory-attached aluminum. Started stripping parts off the donor Mustang. Removed the radiator, shroud, overflow tank, steering column, dash switches, ignition, turn signal, and part of the wiring harness.
8/8/00	Removed balance of wiring harness, fuel tank & cover, driveshaft, exhaust, emergency brake handle. Those that have been through this process know that you have to nearly strip the car just to get the wiring harness out. Very frustrating. I took a small break and riveted some of the aluminum chassis pieces to the FFR frame. If you are thinking about building one of these cars, I have one piece of advice. GET YOURSELF AN AIR RIVETER!! I got mine from Harbor Freight ($39), and it is AWESOME!!
8/9/00	Removed front struts, springs, and A-arms from the Mustang. The FFR Cobra comes with special adapters that bolt on to the spindle assembly in place of the struts. The adapter has a ball joint that allows it to attach to the tubular upper A-arms that come w/ the kit. Cleaned and painted the lower A-arms, spindles, and brake dust shields. Assembled and installed the front coil-over suspension on the frame.
8/10/00	Removed and cleaned the lower steering shaft and steering rack assembly from the Mustang. The FFR Cobra uses the stock Mustang rack, but all the power steering hoses are removed, effectively converting it to manual steering. Since the Cobra weighs in about 1000 pounds lighter than the Mustang, manual steering is not a problem, and has a better "feel".
8/11/00	Installed the steering rack on the Cobra frame. Since the track width of the Cobra is a bit narrower than the Mustang, the tie-rod ends need to be turned in a little bit.
8/12/00	FINALLY!! The Mustang tear-down is done! It's been tough working on a dirty, grimey, 142,000 mile donor car with a nice new Cobra kit sitting right next to it. But, it's a necessary evil. I got through it with a judicious amount of cussing, some skinned knuckles, and a lot of sweating (it's been 90+ here all week). Removed the engine and transmission, complete rear end assembly, pedal box (clutch and brake), gas pedal, master cylinder, distribution block, vapor canister, misc. brackets, etc. Also removed the Mustang GT ground effects and front and rear spoilers. These are worth $$$, so I'll sell them to buy other "goodies"!! The donor car also had BBK lowering springs and BBK strut plates. These sell new for a couple hundred bucks each, so I'll easily get some cash out of them too. Now, the question is how to get the Mustang out of my garage?!?! Right now it's just a bare body sitting on jackstands with no wheels, suspension, etc. I'm going to try to balance it on a dolly w/ casters and see if I can push it out of the garage without it rolling down my driveway into the neighbor's lawn!!
8/14-8/18/00	Finished installing rear & shocks. Looks like quad shocks are not going to fit with the larger 295 series tires. Oh well, I'll try them and see how bad the wheel hop is. If it's too severe, I'll probably cut the mounts off the rear axle and move them inboard of the frame rails. Installed battery, cleaned, painted, and installed gas tank.
8/19-8/20/00	Removed master cylinder and rod from power booster. Cleaned and painted pedal box. Shortened gas pedal. Added Forte's adjustable clutch quadrant. Installed pedal box and pedals. Installed floor and footbox aluminum (300+ rivets!!!). Cut out tilt mechanism from steering shaft and welded solid. Installed steering shaft and steering wheel.
8/22/00	Received one of those wonderful Summit Racing boxes from UPS!!! (FMS Cobra valve covers and intake plate, Fel-Pro gasket kit, Moroso remote water fill neck, Moroso solid motor mounts)
8/23/00	Say goodbye to the poor Mustang GT that was sacrificed for this project.
8/26-8/27/00	Not too much to report this weekend. Our son, Adam, turns 4 on 8/28, so we had a birthday party for him. Installed master cylinder and started routing the brake lines. FFR provides 25' of brake line and 25' of fuel line for the project. You need to get a good double flare tool to make the proper connections. I spent a bunch of time perfectly bending the brake line to the rear, only to fail miserably at the double flare exercise. After numerous attempts, and a busted flare tool. I threw in the towel for a few days.
8/30-8/31/00	Several people on Cobraforum have had great success using pre-flared sections of brake lines available from most parts stores. The trick here is that the Mustang uses a bunch of different thread sizes, so you have to find several adapters to mate to standard 3/16" brake line. Once I found all the adapters and bought the right lengths of brake line, it was a cakewalk!! The whole job of routing the brakelines took all of about 90 minutes, and looks awesome! Following is the list of parts for the brakes (using stock Mustang master cylinder, front disk, rear drums). Passenger Front: (2) 7/16"-24 double flare (DF) to 3/8"-24 DF adapter -- NAPA/Edelmann 7818 (1) 72" preflared 3/16" line w/ std 3/16" DF fittings (3/8"-24) Driver Front: (1) 7/16"-24 DF to 3/8"-24 DF adapter -- NAPA/Edelmann 7818 (1) 10mm-1 BUBBLE flare to 3/8"-24 DF adapter -- Edelmann 271300 (1) 20" preflared 3/16" line w/ std 3/16" DF fittings (3/8"-24) Rear: (1) std 3/16" brake line coupler -- NAPA/Edelmann 302X3 (1) 40" preflared 3/16" line w/ std 3/16" DF fittings (3/8"-24) (1) 72" preflared 3/16" line w/ std 3/16" DF fittings (3/8"-24) The passenger side front is a 'little' tight if you follow FFR's routing along the front X-member, but it works well. I used a 30" line for the driver front, but it was a little long, and I had to make a cute little loop at the end. 20" would be better I think. When you do the rear brakes, start w/ the 40" piece at the rear and the coupling will end up being hidden inside the rear control arm bracket!