This past week or so has been spent on getting the pedal box, brake booster and master cylinder installed. The kit is designed to use manual brakes, but I have read about some guys that weren't happy with their brake systems due to the amount of foot pressure required to lock up the wheels. If one was to follow the FFR instructions, they say to bolt the master cylinder right onto the firewall and leave out the brake booster all together. In order to use the brake booster I had to cut a non-load bearing frame member so the booster would fit. I also enlarged a few holes on the steel firewall plating to make room for the brake booster.
You can see the frame modification in the photo below. Notice how the frame "dog-legs" around the brake booster. It used to be straight!
I'm not very happy with my pedal configuration right now, but I still need to bend the brake and clutch pedal arms. I have a small tool (pedal bender) on the way, thanks to the ffcobra forum, that will help me get the pedals in the correct location. I may end up buying a new gas pedal assembly, but I'm going to hold off until after getting the other pedals bent and see how it feels then. Right now my size 10 feet would have a really hard time. The photo is sort of deceiving. There is about a half inch of clearance between the gas and brake pedal. They're not touching, even though the photo makes it look that way. The below photo is the gas pedal that I'm thinking about buying. It's a Russ Thompson pedal and is built specifically for a FFR Cobra car.
http://www.norcal-cobras.com/store/russ_garage/russ_garage.htm
The gas tank went in with no problems at all. It took several hours to clean and paint it, but was an easy bolt in process.
I picked up a new chrome rear diff. cover off of eBay. The original one was pitted from rust and looked awful. I figured I might as well take a photo of the new cover now because once the car is built I won't be able to see the chrome cover. At least I can look at it while I'm building the car!
I also just got started bending some of my brake lines. I remembered to save the Mustang rear axle brake line, so I was able to use it by just changing the bends a little bit. The brake line that does all of the looping is a new line that is provided by FFR. I'm the one that made the loop and bends in that line. It was all made possible by cousin Tim again. He loaned a tubing bender to me and it's working great so far. Some guys really have trouble with the brake lines, but so far everything has gone smooth for me. I'm hoping that I'm not going to have to flare any new connections since all of the FFR provided lines are pre-flared. If I end up messing up any of the FFR lines, pre-flared brake lines at Auto Zone are very inexpensive.
Time to head out to the garage and get to work. I think I'm going to start drilling some of the hundreds of holes required to install the aluminum panels. I've been looking forward to getting to play with CLECKOs! Check back later to find out what a CLECKO is!
