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

[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...