Just want to introduce myself. My name is Cliff and I recently purchased Minor Applemans FIA. I had it shipped from Maryland to Oregon and it arrived last week. The paper work was lagging the car so we drove it into the back of my shop and started inspecting and detailing.
The car was titled in 02 and is suppose to have 7500 miles on it. The odometer is not working. The car came with all of the build documentation and it is a very nice car. There are a lot of details we are changing and correcting, but the basic car is in beautiful condition. It has been sitting the better part of 4 years so cob webs and spider nests were everywhere. We pulled the front wheel bearings last night and the grease appeared to have crystallized for lack of a better word. We cleaned it all up and everything looked good so we repacked them and put it back together.
The seats were not bolted to the frame so we have welded tabs with nuts to the frame such that the seat can be pulled from above. I purchased a Kirkey and we dry fitted it earlier this week. What a thing of beauty. When I got the car I could barely reach the peddles( 5'6"). We found the procedure for adjusting them and had to use all of the adjustment. With the 427 seats I can reach them but not optimally - with the Kirkey I feel like I am 16 again in a Sprite - what a feeling. We are setting it up so either seat can be swapped in a matter of minutes. The stock seat with slider to the frame tabs, the Kirkey straight to the tabs. We have attached surrogate frames for both seats which screw to the tabs.
Lot's of little stuff i.e. shrink tube crimp connectors, coil to front of block, a couple of throttle linkage brackets to square the assembly, re-route wiring in engine compartment; pull all the colored silicon, etc,etc.
The steering rack boots were blown out so that will be repaired tomorrow.
The engine compartment is a little on the bling side for me so I am trying to take it back more towards the original look. I have purchased a set of Cobra valve covers but will have to run spacers - 351w roller. My plan is to fit the spacers and covers and see if there is any extra material in the spacers which can be milled. I have seen a couple of setups - one where the spacer was screwed to the cover - another where the spacer was glued to the cover. If anyone has opinions on this I am very interested.
We are going to pull the rear wheel bearings this weekend. I am a little uncertain about the torque. The 427 manual says 225 but I read the thread here about torquing them to 140. Is the 225 just to pre-load? It would be great if someone could advise me on this.
I was going to have the center of the FIA wheels painted the same color as the stripe on the car. When we got the tires off it was apparent the rear wheels are of different width. I called Trigo and ordered one to match the other 3. The odd ball is a 10" I think manufactured by PS engineering. I would have gone with the 10" but it appears they are no longer being made. If someone needs one just PM.
I first learned of ERA's FIA around 97-98 and have been chasing ever since ( I will be 55 next week). I actually gave up on ever owning one, but the moons aligned and I have one sitting in my shop. I thought my mom was going to pass out when she saw it - it is a beautiful car.
My plan is to tweak it over the winter and then next spring get some lessons and open track it.
I realize this is a lot of wind - sorry for that - I'm really happy - I'll keep the rambling to a minimum after this.
Glad to be here
chr
Era 2076
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