Boss 427

Finished painting and clearcoat on the side fender louvers. Came out pretty good, but not as good as the stripes Whitby painted. Plan on giving them a buffing once the’yve dried for a few days. Now I can start reassembling the splash panels and the exhaust.

Removed the roll bars today. They’ve been sitting in there just loose since I picked up the car from Whitby. Removed em, painted the stub bars in the trunk and the cockpit cubby hole, then reinstalled with the ReplicaParts trim rings, made for the larger Breeze roll bars. Still need to tighten down the install bolts and install the screws in the trim rings. But thats it for tonight… cuz I got a date! See yall later…

Started today by removing he side vents that I glued in yesterday. The mount studs took to the adhesive very, very well. Hopefully it lasts.

Cleaned up the vents, a little sanding, some wax & grease remover and 2 wet coats of primer later…

Tomorrow they get color, then Saturday clear coat.

Finished up the carpet on the passenger side, under the door. There’s 2 pieces that go in here, and they lend a nice, finished look. Something you’d never notice, but hoo boy you’d see if it it wasn’t there. Received my new Kirkey seats today, but just 1 cover… 1 is back-ordered. Installed one of my Herbs Door Panels custom panels, made with my leather to match everything else. Does this look inviting enough to go for a ride?

One thing I need that I need to work on is cupholders. I’d like to have a retractable that stows under the dash.

Tomorrow, some color on the vents and work on finishing the drivers side interior.

Got my side vents glued into place. I’m using a set of mount studs from McMaster Carr. I used some structural adhesive to bond them in, aligning the louvers and using tie-wraps and sticks to hold them in place.

I’ll take em apart tomorrow and start painting the louvers so we can get this stuff back together for good.

The next steps will be to install the exhaust with the Breeze angle plates that are on order, install the vents after they’ve been painted and buffed, then install the wheelwell splash guards and paint them and parts of the inside of the wheel well with the bedliner.

No picture, but finished assembling and riveting the aluminum panels that fit under the doors in the interior. Tomorrow I’ll get em covered and trimmed out.

Still working on the Boss. But the things I’m doing aren’t very glamorous or even photogenic,

I’ve installed the rear splash guards in the 2 front wheel wells. Required a lot of trimming and test fitting. Got em pretty good, but not perfect.

Also installed the aluminum trim under the doors, inside the car. This fills the space between the frame and the body and creates the door sill. It will be carpeted soon.

I’ve oredered some truck bedliner (Herculiner) to cover the front and rear wheel well splash guards and the tops of the wheel wells… the exposed fiberglass body inside. This should keep down on the pinging noise of rocks and stones as well as prevent stars in the paint from inside impacts. Don’t actually know if it will happen, but the guys on the forum say its a good idea. And I really dont want to damage this paint.

Also ordered some Breeze 1/2″ sidepipe spacers to align the sidepipes, some steel wool to mix with vinegar to make Vinegaroon for my now-tan door straps.

Oh, and I ordered new seats!

Ok, more later. And maybe some pics next time.

So I went ahead and installed both seats. I’ll keep these to go ahead and get me through inspection and such, but they will not be around long. They dont match the personality of the car and they dont look good. And I will never like the idea that both shoulder wings are bent at different angles.

I added a sticker I bought a long time ago to the windshield.

Installed my Tangent lights in the oil cooler scoop. I bought the manufacturers prototype set, as it was all he had left when he was going out of business. Remember I installed all LED’s a little while back. Later on, I’ll rewire the blue lamps to come on with the ignition like a set of DRL’s. Now, the blue and white Tangent lights are tied together and are selectable with the headlights on.

And here’s a few shots of how the lights look.

Last, I installed the Mike Everson / ReplicaParts inner radiator scoop liner and a Speedway nomex / honeycomb radiator protection. All went it very well. I may paint the aluminum the same color as my stripes a little later.

Also in the nose section is a set of plastic scoop adapters that mount behind the brake cooling holes. These adapters adapt down to a 3″ round exit. I cut and sanded the scoops to fit…

…and then used some aggressive sealant / adhesive to bond them in place. Used an old F5 Forum trick to hole them in place… a couple of yardsticks and some thread-all with nuts.

Once they were dried and solidly in place, I installed and secured the SCAT hoses feeding the footbox fans. These things will move some serious air… probably more than I need. 🙂

Got to wqork on the pipes. I really cant run it at all right now because I am in the suburbs and the open headers are not terribly friendly. No big deal, went well. Used stainless bolts, washers, lockwashers and nuts with some anti-seize. Pipes look amazingly straight and level. Surprising…

Thanks for staying with me.

Now all the front lights are in and working, time to install the front bumpers. I bought the units from Finishline. Turns out they have a little different mounting method than the ones from F5. The Finishline pieces use a welded in nut, where the F5 piece has a bracket. The difference is you can mount the F5 at an angle, but the Finishlines will not.

The Finishlines use a 3/8-16 thread. I’m also using their front body grommets, which have a 3/4″ hole. So I used McMaster Carr and got some 3/4″od, 1/2″id aluminum tubes with some 3/8id x 1/2″od nylon bushings. Stuck the bushings into the tubes and then the 3/8″ threaded rods fit right in there. Works nice.

This is where some would disagree with what I’ve done. They like the bumpers to angle down and back to match the angle of the nose grill opening. This really does not bother me, and I actually thing they would look add if they were angles that much. Onward..

Finished the upper radiator cover by Breeze today. Here’s a few pics to show how it cleans up a kind of sore area.

Decided to install some lights today. JW Speaker 8700 evo 2 LED headlights and the Factory 5 front and rear parking / turn signal lights with LEDs in em. Yes, they are really that bright.

So now I start into Final Assembly. These are a lot of smaller, more detailed items that may not be very impressive (no “WOW” factor), but it’s all parts that make up the car as a whole. Some of the stuff is outside and visible, some of it is buried deep.

First up, 2 items that make it easier to work on the car and 1 item that must be done now for safety.

I installed the Breeze polished stainless steel hood and trunk prop rods so I can work in those areas without a 2×4 to hold things open. I decided against using the gas struts provided in the kit simply because I don’t like them. Gas struts don’t last long and they are a pain in the ass when they get weak. The classic prop rod doesn’t really get in the way and these from Breeze look really nice.

They are supposed to mount through a steel frame member, and I did that for the hood. But on the trunk, I would have had to drop the fuel tank, and I didn’t really want to. So I used an Adel clamp to hold the end of the rod to the floor and a cotter pin to hold it in place. Otherwise, all installed as Mark from Breeze intended. I did shorten the trunk rod about 4″.

Next up is the fuel cap and filler hose. I really needed to do this as I can smell gas in the garage. This consists of a large Cobra-accurate aluminum fuel filler with a modern click-type sealing cap inside. I did not use the self tapping screws supplied, but instead used oval head stainless screws with washers and stainless nuts on the inside. You’ll see me do this a lot in the upcoming pages. I also replaced the fuel filler pipe gasket where the tube goes into the tank with a Ford Mustang piece. Its a better piece in the long run. Installed a ground strap from the fuel filler to the chassis and good to go!

Last item I started, but needed to take the dog for a walk and do some chores. I got 2 clecoes installed in the Breeze upper radiator panel. This serves to make an otherwise ugly area on top of the radiator look nice and closes off that area when the hood is open. It prevents hot air from circulating back over the top and through the radiator when idling, and also seals off the top of the radiator, keeping the cool air going through instead of over.

Kinda hard to see, but its one of those things. You may not notice it, but you sure would if it wasnt there.

OK, more tomorrow.

Couldnt get this to load with the previous post.

She’s cracklin’!