Category: The Build

Rear splash panels and windshield would be the title of this post if I didn’t run into yet more problems that are going to cause me to spent more money and time because of things that Factory Five screwed up.

I started off wanting to do two things this weekend: get the rear splash panels installed in the rear wheel wells, and get the windshield installed. As I’ve said for a few months, the windshield is the thing really blocking me finishing right now, because I’ve got a lot of tasks left that I can’t do until its on.

As has happened numerous times in the past, problems with the parts in question left me mostly stuck.

Continue reading “Rear Spash Panels and Windshield”

I’m starting to get back into the swing of things working on the car. I’m still pretty busy with stuff most weekends but I’m being better about taking a few hours here and there to work on the car. Today was a good work day — I spent about five hours working on the car, and actually managed to make a good bit of progress. Its been two months of frustration getting the body fitting and bolted down, but I’ve finally gotten it as close as its going to get, and all the bolts are in.

I also got the front elephant ears installed.

Continue reading “Final Body Bolting and Elephant Ears”

I once again got some more time today to spend in the garage working on the car — a very hot garage. Summer is definitely not a good time for working on the car. I’ve been struggling with getting the body fitted the last two months, and I think its about as good as I’ll be able to get it. I wanted to get more body-related details done, so I could get the body bolted on and get the remaining sheet metal on the car to ensure the body will not shift any more and I can get the windshield on.

To that end, today I wanted to finalize the fuel filler, and my replacement light showed up from Factory Five, so I wanted to get the tail light swapped out, too.

Continue reading “Fuel Filler Cap and Tail Light”

Its rapidly getting to be the end of July and its been nearly a month since I posted an update on my progress here. Its been a busy month — between trying to enjoy summer, a lot of busy weekends, and a week and a half spent on vacation, I still haven’t gotten a lot done.

For the most part, what time I’ve spent has been fighting with the fitment of the body on the car. The Factory Five bodies are (in)famous for being poor quality — even cheap knock-off fiberglass bodies typically come in paintable gelcoat, whereas the Factory Five bodies take hundreds of hours of prep time to paint. Well, its sort of hit or miss if the things even fit the car properly, and I’ve learned the hard way that paying Factory Five to cut the body openings is hit or miss as well. I’ve wasted a dozen hours or more trying to figure out what parts are okay to have out of alignment and what is important, because the body and frame don’t match well enough for all the openings they’d cut in it to be in the right spot.

I have made some progress, however.

Continue reading “A Long Delayed Update”

Its been a couple weeks since I’ve gotten an update posted on here. Having missed the boat making the Factory Five Open House this year, I’ve been in less of a rush and have been taking care of other things around the house the last few weekends.

I have spent a number of hours here and there working on the remaining list of tasks to do before getting the car registered though. While I’ve not made a lot of progress, I figured it was a good point to get an update posted on here.

Continue reading “More Body Work”

Finally, after two weeks of trying to get help with getting the body on the car, my parents were in town this weekend and I was able to get my dad to help me again. Since they’re around, thats pretty much all I did on the car, but that was a big step and it means I can work more easily on doing more items from the punch list over the next few weeks.

I, unfortunately, forgot to double check that the flash card was in my camera when taking pictures. Fortunately, my parents got some photos (and video!) of the process.

Continue reading “Mounting the Body”

Today was a busy day on the car front, but the only thing I got done on the car was replacing the throttle cable and putting a couple bolts in at the front of the footbox that I forgot.

What I really spent the day doing — four or five hours, was pushing the car out of the garage and cleaning the garage. It was a huge amount of work. The garage had become a huge wreck since the last time I did it, and since I couldn’t find help to put the body on, it was a good productive thing to do anyway.

Continue reading “Replacing the Throttle Cable”

I’ve really run out of any major things to do on the car at this point, at least before I get the body onto the car. I tried to spend some time in the garage today doing some stuff, and I spent more time thinking about things I could do that actually doing anything.

I finished up the high beam switch wiring, and got some photos of the bulb seal from yesterday, though.

Continue reading “More Bulb Seal and High Beam Switch”

Its the end of the week, and unfortunately coming into the weekend, I think I have to step back and just accept that the car isn’t going to be finished by the Open House. I’ve tried really hard the last few months but its just gotten too close.

Things going on at work kept me at the office late Monday and Tuesday, and kept me out of town Wednesday and Thursday, so I haven’t touched the car since last weekend. I did get a bit of time this afternoon to get some stuff done. I have no idea when I’m going to be able to get help with the body, though, and I’m assuming this weekend will be basically a write-off where the car is concerned.

Continue reading “End of Week Update”

Considering I’m really running out of time to finish the car if I want to be able to drive it to the open house, this weekend was not nearly as productive as I hoped. My goal was to get some help today to get the body on the car, in which case yesterday I would’ve focused on getting the bulb seal on the car. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any help, so I did what I could.

Most of the items on my punch list are things I can’t do before the body was on, but I had some stuff I could do even without it on.

Continue reading “More Cockpit Details”