I have an FFR roadster and am helping a friend build a coupe. Both of our cars have very few donor parts. Specifically, my buddy used a donor emergency brake handle and pedal box. Everything else is brand-new. In fact, he used a Breeze Automotive EZ-pack to build his car:
http://www.breezeautomotive.com/deta...=546&cat_id=37
FFR has recently addressed the shock issue and discovered that the Bilstein coilover coils were binding under full compression causing lateral stress on the shock rod. They have corrected it with fewer coils spread farther apart.
FFR had one batch of bad axles they sent out with their IRS a few years ago. I have not heard of an axle breaking in quite some time. There are plenty of guys who run big-blocks with IRS and really hammer those axles.
All FFR bodies require some work to get right. If you plan to have it professionally painted, the painter will work out all those details.
Finally, FFR designed the coupe to use manual brakes. Personally, I can't stand having to use both feet and full leg pressure to get a car to stop. On both my roadster and my friends coupe we've added a brake booster which requires cutting one of the 3/4" tubes and welding a u-shaped tubing support around the booster. If you are not comfortable welding, there is a vendor the sells a bolt-on booster frame mod that looks nice.
I haven't seen the shell valley coupe, so I can't comment on it. I will say there are a lot of mis-conceptions about FFR that fly around, from "it's a rebodied Mustang" (funny since Mustangs are unibodies) to "it must be built with 20 year old parts." Although FFR started out their business advertising the donor idea, most guys have stopped using donors and use new parts.
Good luck with your build. The coupes get a lot of stares out on the road and are a blast to build.
Still looking
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