Factory Five build

Coming soon, a Factory Five Racing Mk4 Roadster. The car will be my Father’s and I will be helping if not doing most of the hard work as 61 years and a 100% military disability have taken its toll on his body. A child of the 60’s horsepower wars, the Cobra was always his dream vehicle.

He started down this road several years ago when he was finally able to start saving for it. 4 years ago he picked up an ‘02 Mustang as a donor but soon realized a Mod engined SN95 was too much of a compromise as a donor. 

 A few months ago he finalized on a 331 stroked Windsor and bought a used 302 short block. We got it striped down and ready for the machine shop, probably in September. He considered reusing the rotating assembly and building a 306 but the stock bore rebuild it went under from the PO was suspect and he decided to get new parts and more inches.  When built in in the Comp Cams(?) dyno sim program, it should put out around 450/450.

He also just decided to sell the mustang and return the proceeds to the cobra fund. To prep it for sale he took it to a detail guy who ended falling in love with it and bought it. The money from the sale put him at his $ goal and he decided to pull the trigger as FFR is having a sale right now. Yesterday after getting home from the bank he went to buy it. I don’t have any further details yet as I was just over for a visit and had to leave before he went online to order.  

I will share what I can about the build, although he is concerned about workshop security so I will have to go through him with pictures and such. I know there have been a few FFR builds on the forum and am open to suggestions, tips, and hints.

Great! Look forward to the build. I know he wants to build his own but I have a friend who has a beautiful Factory Five Cobra sorted and finished. He's 70 plus years old and his wife is dieing and I suspect he wants to sell it and move on. In any event good luck with the build. And keep us posted here

Talking with him some more, delivery should be late August. I want to put up pics, but I only work off of my phone so that will make it difficult. Maybe I’ll start a readers ride for it. He has a presence on the official and an unofficial FFR forum, under some variation of Miller Sailor. 

Factory Five does good stuff. I'm looking forward to this.

BTW, you can upload pics straight from your phone to the forum if that makes it easier.

Parts keep accumulating. We have a Fox 8.8 mostly torn down, just waiting for the kit to arrive to see if the quad shock mounts can be removed. 2 week ETA on the kit.  Hopefully pictures coming on my next trip on Wednesday. 

In!

Almost stripped 8.8. At an impasse in pulling the axle bearings from the ends of the tubes. Also the top bolt of the rear end cover is broken as is the tip of the easy out we tried using to fix it. Probably helicoil time. 

Also spent time cutting old deck 2x6 to make dollies. Not sure what for, but they will eventually be useful. 

Great project.  I'll be following. 

It should be delivered this week and my next day over will be Thursday unless it shows up tomorrow. 

The transport company had truck issues so it will not be delivered until this week or next. More tools are also on the way for the axle bearings. 

I'm ;looking forward to this build.

I also am 61 and have restored dozens of cars in my years, still working on a few, but always wanted to build a Factory Five kit.

I have the engine built and waiting.

Good for you in helping him out.

Steve

Cool stuff, Brian. I have an axle bearing pullers if you need to borrow one. I do not have the slide hammer to use with them, but autozone loans them out. I'm in Ithaca. 

In reply to TenToeTurbo :

Thank you for the offer, but his new puller arrived and that is done. It is nice to know there are some local members. If you shop at wegs, feel free to swing by the deli and say hi.

It should be delivered tonight but I work too early tomorrow to stick around for it, although I will be stopping by after work. 

It arrived late Thursday And I swung by Friday to check it out. 

It took dad two days to inventory everything that came with it. We got all the body mounts and the the hood/trunk/doors removed yesterday. 

More pictures!

My civic getting tires changed behind the Cobra. With that in there I can only get a second car halfway in. 

Inside the engine bay pretending to be a small block ford. 

I also cut the quad shock mounts off of the 8.8. Patience and an 11 amp Dewalt 4.5” angle grinder with a cutting wheel made for a fun task. I still have more cleanup to do on it.  

Attempts at acquiring a body buck fell through so it will be stored on some very large sawhorses with another 2x4 bracing the cockpit. 

Dude! Dig that wood paneled garage. I think that has more style than my living room. Love the car too, of course!

Sadly a picture free update. The body is off of the frame and the rear end is on its way to the shop for powder coat. I anticipate the next photo update will be the frame with the aluminum panels removed and hopefully the powder coated 8.8. We are also waiting on a few more suspension parts on back order. 

dculberson said:

Dude! Dig that wood paneled garage. I think that has more style than my living room. Love the car too, of course!

For the next couple years it will be his living room

WELL, If you can get to N.Georgia I can get you our body dolly to use, I built a 427 cobra A couple years back, IT is for a Unique kit but I would think it's close enough to make do. I BELIEVE I still have the buck plans if you don't get a copy, but it may also be on the Unique Web site

twentyover said:

dculberson said:

Dude! Dig that wood paneled garage. I think that has more style than my living room. Love the car too, of course!

For the next couple years it will be his living room

I wish. I can only get over there about once a week. 

I just spent some more time with the car again. We are on to drilling all the rivet holes in the aluminum panels. The vertical panels in the trunk and most of the driver side foot box is done. 

Gratuitous shots of the body peeking out of the cover didn’t want to load. 

For now things are going together with self tapping sheet metal screws and then rivets on final assembly. The time table may be getting bumped up because the garage is a rental and the landlord is looking to put everything on the market in the spring. 

The FF Metal F panels have shown up. 

The shape of the aftermarket piece on the right allows increased front tire clearance for wider rubber in front. Waiting for these had work at an impasse as the front suspension can not be mounted until the F panels are in place. 

Here is the passenger side panel and suspension going on.