It’s been a while since my last update. A big item I’ve worked on has been the interior lighting. Factory 5 supplies a small 1 foot led strip light. If you want to split it up and use it in several places, you can cut it and solder on some new wires. Soooooo… that plan didnt work. I’m pretty good with soldering, but I could not for the life of me make those cut strip lights work. I had also planned on adding more lights.
Wired up the 2 footwells with 2 of the pods, using the headlight switch courtesy light function to control.
I then ran power wires from the same fuse to the Breeze Glovebox (remember my glovebox is behind the seats with a door in between) and the trunk. I wired in the mini switches with 2 light pods in the glovebox…
and the light strip in the trunk.
I know you can see the reflection of the individual leds in the trunk, but once the carpet goes in, you wont see that anymore.
Took a while to work out the wire routing and make it work, but I’m happy with the end result. It really looks better in person.
I’ve been working for close to 2 weeks on the pushbutton start / ignition system with RFID security. I’m not mentioning the companies name because I dont think it was an issue with them. They gave me good support and I believe they make a good product. I just dont believe their product is designed to work well with my setup.
So I gave up. I tried so many different ways, but every time I overcame one issue, something else wasn’t working as designed. And I mean the problems changed… one time the RFID wouldn’t program but the starter did kick in. When I fixed the RFID, then the starter would only engage when releasing the button. It just went on and on and I finally gave up. In 15 minutes, I removed the pushbutton start / RFID and had the Factory 5 keyed ignition installed and everything working.
With the keyed ignition, the Boss 427 finally gets to turn over! (Sorry about the noise in the video… had the big shop fan running)
And finally, my custom made gauges from Speedhut arrived. I designed everything about these… the font, the tick styles, the needles, the colors. The speedo is GPS driven. Although its a totally modern setup, yes the speedo operates backwards just like the original AC Ace and the Shelby Cobra.
History on the backwards speedo goes back to the AC Ace, the car that the Cobra was created from. Rumour is that when originally designing and building the car, the mechanical cable that ran from the transmission to the speedo was turning “anti-clockwise”. Normally, this would be fixed by a small gearbox on the back of the speedo. But AC decided to not add additional parts and simply operate the speedo backwards. When AC lost their engine contract and Carroll Shelby approached them with the idea of placing a Ford small block V8 in their car, he opted to leave it as is because he thought it was cool.
While I’m not building an exact replica by any means, I am proud to pay respect to the original in several ways. This is one.
And just as a side note, the 427 Cobra soon became the fastest production car in the world, capable of 0-100 and back to zero in less than 10 seconds. Backwards speedo or not. 🙂
Worked for a week on the engine front accessories. I’m running a 1-wire alternator, standard rotation Ford Racing water pump and power steering. After lots of research and looking, I decided on a setup from Jones Machine Racing Products. They make everything in house, including their power steering pumps and alternators. After buying their kit for a small block Ford, of course I ran up against a few potholes. First, the power steering pump with integrated reservoir would not install… hits the steering shaft hard. So had to trade in for a slightly different pump with a remote reservoir. This means I also had to buy the material to make a -10AN supply hose.
Installing the crankshaft and water pump pullies was no issue. But did find that since the small block Ford kit is designed for a 302 and not a 351 based engine, ahem, the deck height is different and required a new, longer belt. Jones got me the right belt (with a spare!) and accepted the trade of my kit belts.
Now to install the alternator… looks like the kit is setup for a different standard rotation waterpump as some of the standoffs are not right. Quick call to Jones and they got the proper parts coming to me right away. One more quick hacksaw adjustment to the standoff behind the alternator to line up the pullies and voila… we have accessories!
Tomorrow I’ll finish up the heavy electrical and see if the car accepts power. Heard my custom gauge set from Speedhut is on its way…
Here’s another gratuitous picture of my girl because, hey, it’s my blog!
Difficult to show electrical work, which is most of what I’ve been doing. Brother Bwana came up for a long weekend and even though I was battling sickness, I took advantage of the help to get the engine and transmission in. Just FYI, here’s some details: You know the engine (Ford crate Boss 427W). Parts I had to order and add: Ford billet steel zero balance flywheel, McLeod Super Street Pro clutch, all ARP bolts, Quick Time bellhousing and a Tremec TKO600 5 speed transmission with the cruiser overdrive.
So we got the engine in and secured. Bwana headed back to Asheville and I went into a medicated coma for about a week.
Took about 2 days to get it all wired in… and it wont turn on. Lots of troubleshooting later and I’ve done everything right. Both the RFID and the ignition will come on, but then cut right out again. Hint: I dont have a battery hooked up yet, so was using a 6amp 12v battery charger…
After talking to the head engineer at Watson’s, we figured the issue was the power source I was using. He suggested getting a good charged battery installed and properly wired and then try it. I tend to agree.
So lets do some battery! Not a lot to show, except I’m custom building every cable. 4ga from battery + to start solenoid, 4ga from battery – to chassis ground, 4ga from chassis ground to engine block. Also a 10ga from the alternator + to a cutoff switch and then to the battery +, and a 10ga negative cable from the alternator case to the engine block.
Still have some small details to finish up, but will be slapping some battery power to the Boss tomorrow! Hope I dont let all the smoke out…
Been keeping busy on the Boss, just not doing stuff that’s very photogenic. Lots of wiring up switches and running harness’s mostly. Started working on the footbox fans and will update you on that later, but for now…
My brother Bwana came up from Asheville for a long weekend and we decided it was time to do some major stuff. He got to dig in and turn some wrenches on The Boss, so I’m going to let him do a Guest Blogger Entry and post his own pics and update. Keep watching… but here’s a teaser
So the engine I bought has an oil pan that hangs too low. It would hang about 3/4″ below the frame rails… not good for ground clearance. I bought a new pan and pickup from Breeze and worked on installing that this week.
Inside the Boss427. Pure Art.
When I replaced the oil pickup, we had an immediate clearance problem.
The rod for #3 cylinder hits the oil pickup tube. Installed a 1/4″ stack of washers under the bracket and voila!
We now have clearance. If that rod had been allowed to wear a hole in the tube, the oil pump would have been drawing air instead of oil and the engine would have lost oil pressure. This could result in either a major inconvenience… or total engine destruction. Its good now!
Spent the better part of 2 days getting the headers to fit. Some of the bolt holes were not lining up very well at all. A total of 6 (out of 16) bolt holes had to elongated, and this stainless is tough stuff. Finally got the headers on for a good fit. Final install will be after the engine is installed.
Worked on my glove box. This has been a thorn in my side trying to find the right concealed hinges to make this work. I finally decided a stainless piano hinge would not look too bad and could be easily worked into the plan. So got that cut and installed today. Its only temporary until I start doing leather and carpet. It will have some reinforcement to stiffen the door and also a locking latch out of a 70’s era VW bug.
Lastly, some cool stuff showed up today. You’ll see these within the next week or so…
Ok, really short post. Excited to say I ordered the first item that involves color choice today. Placed an order for the leather that will cover the dash, center console, rear glove box door, shift and brake boots and possibly the rear bulkhead. Purchased from The Leather Hide Store.
Also a tip to the external colors I’m working on. This will be very close to the stripe color, although that paint will be in metallic.
Found a local young man who loves to weld. Bruce from Biggdaddy Steelworks came over to the BOSS427 Garage and welded up my Breeze stainless roll bars for me. They look great, and will be even better when they are all polished up. Didn’t take long, didn’t cost much and he did a great job. Look him up if you need some welding done.
While he was doing that, I couldn’t work on the car so I turned to my left and started assembling some of the components to my engine. Installed the Edelbrock AirGap RPM manifold, Pertronix Ignitor III distributor, Canton billet thermostat housing. Started the test fit on the Gas-N Stainless headers, but that’s going to require a bit of hole stretching.
This electric work sure does proceed slowly. Or maybe it’s because I only get about 3 hour per day to work on the Boss. Just dont seem to be getting a lot done.
I replaced all of the running & taillight bulbs with LED’s. I usually use www.superbrightleds for most everything, including the led’s in my garage and house. But I had heard great things about these JDM Astar leds. I checked out some research and they certainly got great reviews, and for about 1/2 the price of the best superbrights. I’m here to say I am not disappointed. Also required changing the turn signal and hazard flashers from the old style mechanical units to new, updated electronic EF32RL’s from Amazon.
LED light test on the workbench
I temp wired all 6 lights on the roadster, hooked up the ignition, headlight and turn signal switches and applied power using a battery charger. All the functions work well and my mods are working great. (PS -> That’s the first time electric power has been applied to The Boss!)
With all this electrical work, I need a place to run the wiring to. Time to temp install some switches. I had already bought a blank dash from Factory 5 so I could design my own. Did some layout work…
Initial dash layout, with a photo bomb by Trinket
…and drilled for my switches. There’s spots for seat heaters, footbox fans, headlights, high beams, fog lights, windshield wipers, keyless ignition, heater fan, turn signals, hazards, eng fan over ride, etc. I temp installed the switches just to have a place to start running wiring to.
switches temp installed
The gauges I have marked out are going to look awesome. A tribute to the original Cobras, but completely modernized and custom. It’s requiring about a month to have them custom made by Speedhut.
The rest of the plan for the dash is to test fit everything, then remove it all and cover it. The dash will have 1/8″ foam covered by light gray leather. This same leather will be used on the center console and the glovebox door in the rear bulkhead, and should be very close in color to the center stripe when the car is painted. I may also get custom inner door panels made… remains to be seen.
Not much else to report. Should have some more parts coming in over the next few days, so maybe I’ll set aside the electrical and work on something else for a bit. Found a local guy to come to my shop and weld my stainless roll bars, I think that will be tomorrow.
In the meantime, here’s a pic of my helper, trying to hide when I was cranking up the Boston and Led Zeppelin…
My girl Trinket
Till next time, take care of yourselves and your families, and once again… Thanks for reading.
I’ve begun installing the wiring harness. Not very glorious and lots of small details to take care of. Perhaps I’ll get some pics tomorrow.
A few of the mods I’ve done or are doing. If you’re not into the electric geek stuff, this is a good time to move on. 🙂
The F5 Roadster harness comes ready to also be used in the F5 ’33 Hot Rod. As such, there’s an extra connector in the harness just for the ’33. Instead of tying it back and always having it there, I elected to open up the harness and remove the extra connector.
The next thing I did was to remove some more excess wiring. I’ll be using a GPS-based speedometer, so don’t need the normal speedo wiring that’s used from the transmission. Of course, I removed that. The fuel injection system I’m using by FiTech controls the fuel pump without a relay. So I also pulled out the wiring that drives the fuel pump relay, leaving the direct fuel pump wires for the FiTech.
The next thing I did was to work on my mods for the exterior lights. The Roadster has 6 parking / tail lights… 2 in front, 4 in the rear. First, the fronts. I do not like turn signals that flash bright/dim/bright/dim. This is a function of the lower wattage parking light and the brighter turn signal. I am incorporating a special type of turn signal switch made by Ron Francis. It’s made to turn off the brake signal on rear lights when the turn signal is activated. I’m just using it to turn off the parking light when the TS is switched on. It will work for all 6 lights. This will make the lights flash on/off/on/off instead of bright/dim.
Now with the 4 tail lights. The stock design is 2 lights on each side, 1 is brake and 1 is turn signal. Not for me! I want all 4 to be brake lights and to have a brake light override when the turn signal is activated. Remember, the dimmer parking light is already over-ridden. So now I’m installing a trailer light controller by Reese Hitches. It takes in the brake signal and the turn signals for each side. When the brake is activated, all 4 lights will be bright. With the brake and a turn signal, the side that is signalling will be on/off/on/off, overriding both the dimmer parking light and the brighter brake light.
Clear as mud?
Oh, and since the rear tag light is tapped of the rear park lights, well, it wouldn’t be good to have my tag light turning off whenever I applied a turn signal. So I ran a new power wire for the tag light back up to the dashboard, where I will tie it in with the headlight switch.
Tomorrow I will run some new wires for interior lighting and perhaps begin to install some electric items for testing… keyless ignition (yes, I’m going pushbutton start) with security system, headlight switch, maybe install some front & rear lights so I can test my wiring mods. This also means it’s time to buy a battery and make some new battery cables.
More tomorrow and perhaps I’ll try to get some pics for ya!
Few things have happened
I have fixed a small coolant leak at the heater select valve, and replaced the power steering pump with a unit that is setup and dyno’d for flow and pressure to match the Fox Mustang steering rack. Also has a reservoir mounted right to the side of the pump for excellent fluid supply.
