Trick or Treat?
By: Duane
April 1, 2002 - After a year of blood, sweat and tears, I'm just about finished
my build. Did I mention a lot of blood and sweat? Anyway I learned a bunch and thought I'd share a few of my favorite tips and tricks that made the build easier and the car better.
1.) Raised Body Buck. Did you buy your car without telling the wife? Was she surprised to come home from work and find you making varoom-varoom noises in your new toy? Better build a raised body buck so she can at least continue to park her car in the garage. And with a few simple mods, you can answer yes to your neighbors question of whether that's a bed you've just built.
2.) Use of a full size template for the required body buck cut out. It's would be a real hassle plotting out the end cutouts for the body buck. Instead, use a full size template. Many people have now made these and a simple post requesting one should result in either an electronic file or the full size template being sent to you for free!
3.) Harbor Freights Air Riveter ($25.00 on sale!). Unless you're 17 years old and single, I can't imagine doing this by hand? My $25.00 riveter has worked like a champ.
4.) Welding alignment nuts on the front upper control arm mounts before your build. I never did this but wish I did. Makes alignment easier and keeps it aligned.
5.) Are you proud that you double flared all your own brake lines with that fancy $75.00 tool, but are tired of cleaning up brake oil from the garage floor? Well invest $20-$30.00 and sail on down to NAPA to buy some
pre-flared brake lines and adapters. It will save you a whole lot of time and help assure a leak free system.
6.) A stopper placed just in front of the brake pedal arm to prevent the little plunger going into the MC from falling out. I used the stopper but others use a spring, regardless, this mod should be mandatory. Before modifying mine I played with the arm by pulling it back and wiggling, much to my horror, the plunger fell out. Enough said!
7.) Cut off switch with a low amp breaker across the terminals to keep power to the computer. The switch can be used as a safety and or security measure.
Engineer Ed came up with a super idea associated with this; wire in a fuse, or better yet, resettable breaker across the switch terminals to keep power to your computer and stereo.
8.) Power steering, makes steering with the donor rack muuuuuuuch easier. Your wife will love you for this one if she's going to drive it ? and what the hell, you'll love it to! If you feel it's too twitchy, add the Heidt's adjustable valve and dial in the perfect amount of assist.
9.) Use of adjustable clutch cable and quadrant to bring the clutch flush with the brake pedal. Not only does this make the pedals look better, it makes the car easier to drive.
10.) I loosened up the connection of the cats (read also J-Pipe) to the headers, lifted the car up and parked my BBQ under them, pushed on the damn side pipes with all my might, kicked them, swore at them, club'd them silly and I still couldn't get one of those damn side pipes to align right! Do yourself a favor if you run into this, take the car to a muffler shop and have them cut and weld the J-Pipe so that the side pipes exit through the body perfectly.
11.) Trunk Hoop. If you plan on sneaking someone into the local drive in, without this hoop you won't be fitting your 6'4", 250 pound buddy in the trunk. With it though, you'll be able to fit Kate Moss with no problem!
(editors note: FFR kits made after VIN #32xx do not require this mod, FFR
includes it.)
12.) Pro Liquid Buffer Aluminum polish. Simply put, this stuff works the best on aluminum panels!
13.) Fuel filter Connectors, this one came from Carl I believe. Instead of just putting the new fuel lines on your fuel filter with a hose clamp, cut the quick connects off of the donor fuel lines and put them on your fuel lines that connect to the fuel filter and fuel tank. It will make replacement really easy.
14.) Aftermarket ignition switch. It's nice to have the switch on the dash, even with the donor gauges, and they're cheap.
Well that's my list. I know everyone else has their own favorites. Feel free to add your favorites by clicking on "talk about this article" link below.
Duane
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