Category Archives: replicabuilding.com

Almost There …

I spent another five or six hours working on the car today. My goal going into this weekend was getting the car done, as far as registering it is concerned. I didn’t have a long list of things on that punch list, and frankly decided to take care of items that were on my “post-inspection” punch list, too.

Its not “done” yet, but its close and I see no reason to think it won’t be by Tuesday.

Continue reading Almost There …

Heater Valve and Door Latches

An quick midweek update: I’m getting very short on tasks left before getting the car inspected. At this point, its largely wrapping up some of the electrical work before putting the dash on, but there were a couple things I decided I wanted to take care of tonight.

The door latches weren’t installed completely — the latch on the door was, but the catch on the chassis wasn’t. I wanted to get the doors wrapped up.

I also bought a replacement heater bypass valve last week because I decided I wanted to have a variable electronic one, rather than a simple on/off vacuum actuated one. I also wanted to swap that out today.

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The Home Stretch

This was one of the more productive weekends of work on the car that I’ve had in months, if not since last summer. I’m getting down to the end of my punch list of things to get done before getting it inspected, and its starting to really feel like I’ll be driving it this year.

The list of remaining items to get it inspected was pretty small — wipers, fix the hazard lights, get the seats in, the dash and steering wheel installed, and install the mirrors. While there’s other stuff to do on my list, like get the heater ducting run completely, strictly speaking they’re not necessary to get it inspected.

I managed to get a lot of those items taken care of this weekend.

Continue reading The Home Stretch

Windshield Repair and Install

After the disappointment of last weekend, with discovering I had the wrong splash panel and the windshield was cracked, I really wanted to try to make more progress this weekend. Its getting close to September, and it won’t take many more wasted weekends before I can’t get the car on the road this summer/fall.

I had talked to Factory Five this week about the windshield and the splash panel, and they were going to ship me both. Knowing the condition packages from them have gotten here in before (drop kicked was the way I described it to them), I decided I’d rather take part of a day this weekend and drive down there. Its about 90 miles each way, but its worth the time to avoid getting another broken windshield and losing more time.

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Rear Spash Panels and Windshield

Rear splash panels and windshield would be the title of this post if I didn’t run into yet more problems that are going to cause me to spent more money and time because of things that Factory Five screwed up.

I started off wanting to do two things this weekend: get the rear splash panels installed in the rear wheel wells, and get the windshield installed. As I’ve said for a few months, the windshield is the thing really blocking me finishing right now, because I’ve got a lot of tasks left that I can’t do until its on.

As has happened numerous times in the past, problems with the parts in question left me mostly stuck.

Continue reading Rear Spash Panels and Windshield

Final Body Bolting and Elephant Ears

I’m starting to get back into the swing of things working on the car. I’m still pretty busy with stuff most weekends but I’m being better about taking a few hours here and there to work on the car. Today was a good work day — I spent about five hours working on the car, and actually managed to make a good bit of progress. Its been two months of frustration getting the body fitting and bolted down, but I’ve finally gotten it as close as its going to get, and all the bolts are in.

I also got the front elephant ears installed.

Continue reading Final Body Bolting and Elephant Ears

Fuel Filler Cap and Tail Light

I once again got some more time today to spend in the garage working on the car — a very hot garage. Summer is definitely not a good time for working on the car. I’ve been struggling with getting the body fitted the last two months, and I think its about as good as I’ll be able to get it. I wanted to get more body-related details done, so I could get the body bolted on and get the remaining sheet metal on the car to ensure the body will not shift any more and I can get the windshield on.

To that end, today I wanted to finalize the fuel filler, and my replacement light showed up from Factory Five, so I wanted to get the tail light swapped out, too.

Continue reading Fuel Filler Cap and Tail Light

A Long Delayed Update

Its rapidly getting to be the end of July and its been nearly a month since I posted an update on my progress here. Its been a busy month — between trying to enjoy summer, a lot of busy weekends, and a week and a half spent on vacation, I still haven’t gotten a lot done.

For the most part, what time I’ve spent has been fighting with the fitment of the body on the car. The Factory Five bodies are (in)famous for being poor quality — even cheap knock-off fiberglass bodies typically come in paintable gelcoat, whereas the Factory Five bodies take hundreds of hours of prep time to paint. Well, its sort of hit or miss if the things even fit the car properly, and I’ve learned the hard way that paying Factory Five to cut the body openings is hit or miss as well. I’ve wasted a dozen hours or more trying to figure out what parts are okay to have out of alignment and what is important, because the body and frame don’t match well enough for all the openings they’d cut in it to be in the right spot.

I have made some progress, however.

Continue reading A Long Delayed Update

More Body Work

Its been a couple weeks since I’ve gotten an update posted on here. Having missed the boat making the Factory Five Open House this year, I’ve been in less of a rush and have been taking care of other things around the house the last few weekends.

I have spent a number of hours here and there working on the remaining list of tasks to do before getting the car registered though. While I’ve not made a lot of progress, I figured it was a good point to get an update posted on here.

Continue reading More Body Work

Mounting the Body

Finally, after two weeks of trying to get help with getting the body on the car, my parents were in town this weekend and I was able to get my dad to help me again. Since they’re around, thats pretty much all I did on the car, but that was a big step and it means I can work more easily on doing more items from the punch list over the next few weeks.

I, unfortunately, forgot to double check that the flash card was in my camera when taking pictures. Fortunately, my parents got some photos (and video!) of the process.

Continue reading Mounting the Body