It has begun - G-Pete's 289FIA Scratch Build

[Fullchat289]

[quote=G-Pete;1143518]
The motor went in without problems and the motor mounts are welded in place.




Hi, it's me again...lol

It's looking like your shifter location will be back at your hip or a little forward of that point. Are you planning on running a forward facing shifter like on big block cars? For reference, my shifter location is a few inches aft of my steering wheel.

Looking good, though! Always great to see your thread bumped with shots of progress!

- Allen.

[G-Pete]

The forward bend shifter arm is in the plans. My interest was leaning towards to have the car balanced.

Speaking of weight - I just had a chance to put that 'thang' on the scale ---- 1471 pounds!

Just ordered the Polyurethane Transmission Mount of a 79-95, they are 1/3 of the price of a 96-04. I have to fabricate a bracket anyway...

[G-Pete]

...more pictures on my picture website...G-Pete image event

[PDUB]

Originally Posted by fasterpatrick

I think you could pull something like this off with out looking to out of place.
Patrick

I think Patrick is spot on... an ounce here will prevent a pound, not if, but when the clutch, etc. breaks down in the future... especially if you drive it as you plan in your description. Good luck, you are very talented!

[StewbieC]

Well done on the build so far.
Hope you manage to squeeze in some footwells and wheel wells with one of those huge Modular V8's.
It's pretty tight on my 289 and I've only got a 289 lump under the hood!

Great job!

[mickmate]

Superformance did the bolt on shock mounts. We watched one fail, unload the suspension and FIRE the car off the road. If you must have that I would recommend using all 4 bolts not 2. I don't see a need for them with adjustable coil overs and ask yourself who uses an adjustable shock mount and why? I'm excited to see it sitting on wheels with a drivetrain in, it's looking good with the hairdyer lining up nicely with the hood line.

[G-Pete]

Thanks for you concern Mickmate.
Below is a different shot of the adjustable brackets. These are designed to use 4x 0.375in bolts. The brackets are 0.25in steel (most kits use 0.1875in). With other words, before this bracket fails the 0.5in shock bolt fails.

Now to the reason of the adjustment, the coil over shock has no ride height adjustment by itself. What is adjustable is the stiffness of the spring, which translate how tall the shock is compressed under the weight.
So, if you want a lower ride height you need to "soften" your car. These brackets allow to choose the correct firmness of the car and independent to the position of the frame to the surface.

[G-Pete]

During the summer we had 98-104F in the shop. There is not much fun in the "fun project" - so I took 9 weeks off the cobra. Freshly fueled up after a very nice (10 Day) vacation in Key Largo.

[G-Pete]

...getting back to the W77 roadster.

The engine sits on the motor mounts - missing the mount for the transmission.
Here the cross brace.




These are the frame mounts - later on I will take a pic from the bottom.



With the wide 4.6 modular engine there is not much room for the headers and after back and forth (making my own headers) I decided to modify the Ford "racing headers".



Cut and re-weld into a 3 inch collector.



On the power plant

[G-Pete]

That's pretty much the space on the front of the foot box.



Never was not happy with the center tube, after setting the body to the correct height in relation to the frame. It was a start and held up the body while building the upper frame part.
Time to cut it out.



The Pines II was used to form the upper tube. 16 bends starting 3 degrees and then in the center 4.5 degrees.



That's a nice shape.



Bottom center frame tube.



Side center frame tube - ready for final weld (when body is off)

[G-Pete]

Here the passenger side, the rocker panel tubes connect the center and rear upper frame.



Driver side, top view.



Center tube - extended support.



Short throw shifter is " a must".

[G-Pete]

Front rocker panel brace is formed.



0.125 inch mild steel, total length 16.687 inch.



Driver side.



Driver side inside view.



One of the next steps will be the splitting the body in two half parts. This will be at the bottom radii of the doors. This makes it possible to take the front or rear body off by myself. Right now it is a two person job and kinda difficult.
Stay tuned...

[tkb289]

G-Pete,

Great progress and beautiful craftsmanship

Looks like you have quite a shop at your disposal, with a wide variety of tools and machines, that you are putting to excellent use. Keep up the good work, thanks for keeping us up to date.

[PDUB]

Awesome shop, awesome work!

[G-Pete]

Foot boxes, the bottom are one inch below the top of the frame and have on the side a slight angle.



This is the top of the pedal unit. To squeeze more room out of it the clutch arm need to be straight and the shafts cut off.

[G-Pete]

Just like here - that is close to 0.5 inch



Cutting the shaft tube by 0.25 inch on one side. That is 0.75 inch more room, so I can get space between the foot box and exhaust headers.



Steeda clutch bracket attached to lever.



Fitting the assembly into the food box.



Clutch and brake pedal preparation. They come not drilled - good thing.



The fork for the clutch pedal.

[G-Pete]

The brake lever needed a little more work to get the spacing right. Also the fork sits in the center.



Without the pedals.



Gravity pulls the AC Pedals down to the 5 degree stop.



The movement forward.



That's it for today...

[G-Pete]

Front floor, 0.102 steel four brakes for stiffness.



Front and rear section of the floor. The tubular rail frame has the tendency to twist under load. The welded floors prevent the twist between the motor mount and rear axle.



Detail of the rear section.



The rear floor is 1 inch below the main rail top. The front floor is 2 inches below the main rail. The seat adjusters raise the seat bottom even with the top of the main rails.

[G-Pete]

Throttle pedal - used in the 60' 70' on race cars.



Fuel Cell pedestal, over the rear axle.



This is a 15 gal. unit.



Front view of the cell, one side on the top is the vent (roll over locked) other side is the return line.

[G-Pete]

Lower steering column mount.



Upper mount.



With a quick disconnect steering wheel the in and out of the Cobra will be much easier.



The outside of the foot box.