Factory Five 289FIA Build

[xb-60]

Will you leave it a bare aluminium panel? (I would)

[Bill D]

Originally Posted by xb-60

Will you leave it a bare aluminium panel? (I would)

Yes. It will be sanded to give a nice brushed finished

[Bill D]

Added a notch to the fiberglass for the door light wires to pass thru. Then sanded the panel with 220 grit and finally 400 grit.mthen countersunk the rivet holes. Time for other door

[Bill D]

Original cars had a bracket welded to the body to which the hood prop rod was attached.



Since I can’t weld aluminum to the fiberglass, my only option is to mount it to the firewall with rivets

[Bill D]

Spent the last few days trying to find a picture of a 289 engine bay that shows the prop rod retaining clip. Today I found it.


And then searched for “metal prop rod retaining clip”. To my surprise, I found one. Made for early Jaguars. Ordered it tonight



Life is good

[Bill D]

Hood prop rod and associated hardware installed.

[1795]

Nice job Bill You're almost there. Just in time for driving weather.

Jim

[Bill D]

Finished epoxying the faux rolled beads on the transmission tunnel cover. Still need to doma final sanding with 320 grit sandpaper. Will install when I get the car back from paint.

[Blas]

You forgot cup holders?
Amazing project, I have enjoyed following your progress.
Blas

[Bill D]

One door panel and the transmission tunnel cover are complete and ready to install

[xb-60]

Wow....nice work Bill

Finish line is coming closer

Cheers,
Glen

[Bill D]

All the panels are complete. Whew!

[Bill D]

I have an update. It’s not good.

The painter is having difficulty fabricating door hinges that open the door far enough to prevent the doors from hitting the body. Not his fault. He’s not a custom fabricator. Coupled with the virus pandemic no progress after 6 months.

This has me in a quandary. Do I just leave it and hope something miraculous happens? Or do I bring it home and at some point in the future find a custom fabricator? Either way, I’m just depressed and would really like to sell it to someone who is motivated to finish it. I’m just no longer interested in the project

[CompClassics]

Can you post a photo of the issue and the hinge mechanism?

[Bill D]

No. The car is in another city and the doors are not mounted.n

I’ll try to describe the problem

Now, when you open the doors, the leading edge of the doors hits the body before the doors are fully opened. Trying to fabricate new hinges that move the doors out further to be able to fully open them

[ALF]

Would the door hinge limiter straps not be an option?
As sold by Nick


Bill, don't stop your great work.
My car has left for painting in December 2019 and is still not back.
You're not alone with this kind of frustration.

[cobrakiwi]

Bill
Stick with it, the doors hinges can be tricky to get right, believe me I know.
I use a steel stop for the hinge so the door won't open into the cars body as your describing.
I would not trust the original strap type by it's self.

[jolsen42]

Originally Posted by Bill D

No. The car is in another city and the doors are not mounted.n

I’ll try to describe the problem

Now, when you open the doors, the leading edge of the doors hits the body before the doors are fully opened. Trying to fabricate new hinges that move the doors out further to be able to fully open them

When you say the doors hit the body, and what do you mean fully open? If you are using the FF hinges they are adjustable up and down and in and out. Has he tried shims? Mine can only open to between 60-75 degrees open with limiting straps. That's more than enough to get my fat ass in. Have you called Bruce and see what he recommends? Contact "Ivy Green" on this forum, he's building a "Bruce" roadster and see what he's done, Stacy is very helpful. Don't you DARE whimp out.

John O

[Ivygreen65]

Bill,

I had struggles with Bruce's door hinges also. My issue was that the top arm of the hinge was about 1.5" up into the dash and I couldn't open the door due to interference with the dash. After some surgery, I was able to relocate the arms on the mounting plate and make them work. I also added bronze bushings to tighten them up and make operation quite a bit smoother. This doesn't sound like the issue that you have, but know that your struggles are shared by others. Bruce makes you think outside of the box in order to make things work sometimes.

I'm having issues posting photos, but if you'll PM me your number, I'll text you some pics of what I did with mine.

Stacy

[mr bruce]

My door hingers are different from the f-5 hinges, the solution with the fiberglass dash is to trim the ends of the dash to clear the hinge, The reason the hinge arms are spread further apart is to stabalize the door for a more solid feel, that is why the are made of 3/8" plate, arms close together= more flex on the hinges, as for the bronze bushing, I musta missed shipping them with the body/frame. As for Bill D, the doors were hung and clearanced when the body/ frame was shipped. I sent 4 round shims to put between the hinge post on the frame and the door hinge, this spaces the hinge out so the door opens 90 degrees when it's open, keep in mind the body was made to fit onto the F-5 frame so there is some fludgeing needed to make things work.