Front end

I chose to go with a manual steering rack with my kit.  Although general parking lot maneuvering may get tough at times, I liked the idea of a simple and easy system.  Factory Five included everything I need to get the steering together, which was also a plus. 

Here is the lower steering shaft bearing, mounted towards the front of the car.  

There seem to be a lot of extra holes cut out on this panel... HMM...

DOH- this panel is for a donor build.  The open hole above the bearing is where the stock mustang master cylinder bolts up.  I will be using a Wilwood pedal setup, which has 3 master cylinders behind the footbox panel.  After some assistance from the great folks at ffr.com, I have learned that there are two footbox panels; the donor panel (shown here) and the non-donor panel that I don't have!  I've sent an email in to Factory Five but have not heard back.  Hopefully I will remember to call them this week.  Otherwise, I will go with a blank panel from www.ffmetal.com and cut my own damn holes.

Anyway, thats a problem for later- back to the steering setup. 

 Here is a picture of the original setup, using the stock bushings supplied by Factory Five.  

After taking getting everything bolted up, I measured the offset of the driver's side to be .5" greater than the passenger side.  This isn't a huge deal, but it can lead to bumpsteer if the sides are not even.  Given that I needed the spindle bolts from Breeze, I seized the opportunity to order their offset bushings.  

The power of USPS! Behold- the first upgrade!

Finally got my spindle bolts and the offset bushings.  Ill start with the bushings as I sort of forgot to blog the whole spindle situation.  

These bushings are sweet!  Its ridiculous how well they fit into the steering rack.  Here is the rack on the bench as I planned the install. 

 

Note the hole and the screwdriver slot.  The stock bushings feature a centered hole with no adjustment capability.  

As you can kind of see- there isnt a huge amount of offset from the stock bushings.  But, all I need is to squeak out 1/4" in order to get the steering rack centered.  I figure if I go with a 90 degree angle I will be right on the money with centering.  Unfortunately I wont get any potential benefit from a lower rack, but thats the way it goes.  I spent a good 10 minutes messing with the calibration before I ran out of time for the afternoon.  Here is how I finished:

Pretty dang close.  It is hard to tell from my uber high-tec measuring techniques, but I would say I am within an 8th to a 16th of an inch from side to side.   I will do the final tweaking next and tighten everything up here.  I still need to shorten the ti-rod arms, and will probably do that next as I await a new footbox panel.  

Oh yea, I also received the third to last backordered parts.  Arguably one of the nicest parts of the whole kit:

Reverse-winding speedo says it all.  But seriously- a clock?  How many times will I really look at this tiny thing?  You want to know what time it is?  Time to get real.  The kit should have included an oil temp gauge instead of this useless clock.

Up next is the spindles installation!

first things first

OK where to begin?  After getting everything stripped down, checked, inventoried and oriented.  I decided this project was going to require more space in the garage then I originally planned.  So, I used a few spare pieces of wood from around the garage and built a second 2x4 ft bench.  This gave me tons of extra space to actually work on parts.  I still have power issues over there, and need to really consider adding an outlet to the wall.  Maybe this spring.

Not sure why the build manual wants me to fasten the F panels first, but what the heck.  I ordered some cleco pliers and fasteners, as well as a bottle of aluminum protectent.  I really want this car to keep its simplistic roots, minus of course the sophisticated engine management system the coyote 5.0 will have.  So, the plan for now is to leave the panels unpainted, but protected from corrosion from Sharkhide protectent. 

After cleco'ing the F panels in, it was on to the lower control arms, and suspension.

Notice in the above picture I had to remove the F panels.  I am not sure why anyone would fasten these in from the start, as I have had them off and on about 3 times now. 

After getting the two sides assembled, it was time to source some front spindles.  I decided to go with 94 mustang spindles, which feature a more narrow track width than the 96-04 spindles and a dog leg tie rod arm (sweet!) which improves the front end geometry.  Here is one spindle sanded and painted. 

Of course- I dont have the bolts needed to get these installed.  The fun part of about this kit is finding out whats included and what is not included.  How do they decide? Who knows.  At least it gives me a chance to order steering offset bushings.

I am about to start on the steering components next, and plan on using solid offset bushings.  Offset bushings are designed to reduce steering rack offset which will improve bumpsteer and balance the front steering.  More on this in the next post! 

Getting Started!

Alright- I will do a traditional blog for the cobra build.  I've already started: so lets catch everyone up to date.

I originally ordered my Factory 5 mark iv roadster November 12th 2010.  I elected a few options to start:

• Standard width independent rear suspension
• Front lower control arms
• Body cutouts
• Vintage gauges
• Passenger side rollbar
• Heater
• Windshield wipers
• Front hood hinge kit
• Powder coated frame
• 17x9 and 17x10.5 Halibrand replicas 
• Wiring harness

The car arrived December 20th and Scott from Stewart transportation unloaded everything with no issues.

 

And here is the car resting on jackstands- havent even got the inventory list off the hood yet!

The first line of business was to complete inventory.  Here are the boxes getting ready for the count, all 18 of them in original shipment.  The windshield box showed up 3 days later.

Holy build manual Batman!

RTFM

After completing inventory, I decided to get the frame completely disassembled.  Here is the frame with nothing but the door hinges on.  

And thats basically the start of the process.  Its all uphill from here!  First line of business will be to get the front suspension built.  The plan is to complete the front suspension, the steering, and get a few panels fitted before March.  Then, I will acquire all of the rear end components needed and get started there.  Then it will be on to the pedal assemblies and remaining brake components, maybe even the brake lines.  From there, I have no idea!