Maybe we're back on the move again!

I've been getting a little frustrated waiting for my kit to arrive. As I've said in a prior post the kit is in Greensboro NC at Whitby Motorcars. They will be doing the fiberglass work on the car, I'm allergic to fiberglass, and also doing the painting. So they have been fitting the body parts to the frame, which is what's taking the time. You will see in the photos below that part is a really messy job. Jeff called me this morning and said he has all the body parts fitted and just needs to do some finish up work plus paint the firewall and then they can ship off the remainder of the kit to me while they keep the body for painting. They did a great job on painting my Cobra so I'm hoping the 33 turns out as good.

Steve and I have been trying to get things ready for when the kit, minus the body, arrives. I've purchased all the parts that aren't included in the kit and they're stored and ready to go. We've also built a dolly we will use to roll the car around the garage during the build. I think we'll pull the cars out of the two car side of the garage then move the 33 over to that side when we work on it, more elbow room. When we're finished for the day we will just push it back over into the third stall.

The engine should be almost finished, it's being built by Proformance Unlimited in NJ. They will hold the engine for me until I'm ready for it and the transmission, which I'm also getting from them.

Getting there slowly

Well things kind of slowed down here for a while. My kit is at Whitby Motorcars in Greensboro, NC and I'm waiting for them to ship it to me. They are fitting the firewall for me and then keeping the body parts that they will be painting for me and then shipping me all the other parts. I think their schedule has been very hectic so it been a little slow in coming.

They've gotten the firewall fitted, here's a photo of the kit as it sets in their shop.



I've been on the phone ordering parts like crazy and have received quite a few of them. The headers came and had a flaw in one of them so I'm sending those back for some new ones. I have almost all my parts ordered. Here's a picture of the bad header and the wheels and tires I'll be using.

 

 

Steve and I have been starting the build of a dolly to put the 33 frame on so we can roll it around the garage to work on it.

 

Hopefully once we get the kit parts in we can get going in earnest on this build . One good part about this delay is that the weather has started to cool off so that will make it easier for us to work out in the garage longer during the day.



 

 



3 Day 33 Hot Rod build school in Howell, MI

We had signed up for a 3 day build school, Fri, Sat and Sun, at Mott Mott Community College in Howell, MI. This is not run by Factory Five but they supply the kit to them and approve of it. They have a course for both the Cobra and the 33.

We flew into Detroit, had our bullet prove vests on : ) , and rented a car and drove about 1 hours N/W to Howell. It is very pretty country there.

There were 14 folks in total signed up for the coarse plus two instructors. It was a very interesting course that went from 8 to 5 each day. We learned quite a few nuances about the 33. We started with a bare bones frame and at the end of three days we had assembled a running 33 Hot Rod however not show ready but running : )

I felt the course gave Steve and me some great heads up on things we need to watch for in our build.

On Sunday after class was finished Steve and I drove about 45 minutes away to Commerce Township where my aunt and uncle Don & Bev Taylor live and they fed us a great dinner and took us out for boat ride on their lake. It was great for me to have a chance to visit with them, we don't see them that often.

 Here are some photos of our time there plus a final video of our work.

Trip to Factory Five Racing in Wareham, MA

We were signed up for a 3 day build class for the 33 in Howell, MI so we decided since we were heading somewhat up that direction that we would make a stop over in Wareham, MA the home of Factory Five. They are about 1 hour S/E of Boston. So we flew into Boston, rented a car and drove down to their factory.

For cars guys it was a fairly interesting tour. They have a toltal of 6 kits they offer. The Cobra, which we've already built one. https://www.factoryfive.com/kits/mk4-roadster/

The 33 Hot Rod which we're going to build one. https://www.factoryfive.com/kits/33-hot-rod/

Type 65 Coupe, this type of car is what Carroll Shelby raced at Lemans and won. https://www.factoryfive.com/kits/type-65-coupe/

GTM Super Car which looks like an exotic car like a Lamborgini or the likes, this is a mid engine car. https://www.factoryfive.com/kits/gtm-supercar/

The Challenger Car which is basically a Cobra set up for racing. https://www.factoryfive.com/kits/challenge-car/

Their newest car the 818 S&R (street and race, which is actually two different cars. These are also mid engine cars. https://www.factoryfive.com/kits/project-818/

We were able to look at the cars they have on display in their showroom and then take a tour of their factory. I found it very interesting.

We drove back to Boston and stay overnight to catch our flight out to MI the next morning.

 

 

 

 

Installing 4 Post Lift

Well today we were able to get the 4 post lift installed. We talked about installing it ourselves but after watching the installer do his thing I'm glad I decided to have them install it.

The installer was really good at installing and it went really smooth. We had a problem that took a little while to fix where the locks on the back of the lift weren't locking in place, which theoretically could cause the car to fall, not likely but possible. He finally was able to figure out the problem.

 

Here are my pictures from the install. One more thing off the check list :)

 

Getting garage ready

Made one small step in the process. I had Overhead Doors come out and take my third car garage door and move the opening up close to the ceiling to allow me to put in a 4 post lift, which will then give me the ability to have two cars in that stall when I'm finished and also we can use the lift during the building process. While we're building Steve G will be storing the Cobra in his garage, which I had to really twist his arm to get him to agree to that one : )

The lift has been shipped from CA and will be installed mid week next week.

The beginning

I'm starting this blog to chronicle my build of a Factory Five Racing 33 Ford Hot Rod. My good friend Steve Gross, who also helped me build my Cobra and was my long time hangar mate, will be helping me in the build. This should be a fun adventure.

I've been trying to go through the things that will be necessary to get started on this build. Since I've sold my hangar I no longer have the luxury of a large work area so we will be building this in my third garage stall of my three car garage. When you're used to a lot of free space you have to really rethink things when you change to a somewhat smaller space.

Thus far we've flown out to Greensboro, NC to a company called Whitby Motorcar who will be painting the car for me, they painted my Cobra and did a fantastic job, as well as they will be doing some extra items for me on this car. Our visit was to review with Jeff, at Whitby, what they would be doing for me and also to see other 33's that they were working on. It was a very productive trip for us. We were able to see some things others were doing on their 33 build and just by co-incidence they had a 33 kit there that a client of theirs ordered but had not started on and had decided he wasn't going to go forward with the build, so I ended up buying this kit, so I now have the kit to get started with.

One of my first tasks was to figure out what to do with the garage to get it ready for the build. When we're finished I'll have a Cobra and this 33 but not enough garage space for them both, so I've decided to add a 4 post car lift in my third stall to solve this problem. We'll be able to use this lift during the build to lift up the car to work under it, which will be great. So I've got Overhead Door coming out this week to install a direct drive motor on my third car door opener and to raise the tracks of the door up close to the ceiling. This will allow me enough space to lift one car up close to the ceiling and park the other under it. I've ordered a new 9000 lb 4 post lift from BenPak which is a very good lift. They will be installing the lift next week, I hope.

Steve and I will be going to Boston at the beginning of Aug for a day to visit the Factory Five Racing facility, which is the company who supplies the kit. We should hopefully gain some more in sites, I hope. Going to see if we can find Cheers Bar while we're there, maybe Norm will be there : )

We're then heading over from there to Howell, MI, which is just south of Detroit about an hour, to attend a three day weekend 33 Hot Rod Build School. We've built the Cobra but we're hoping this school will give us some building tricks for the 33 to save us some build time. It hopefully should be interesting and productive.

Traudl and I are then heading over to Germany for a visit and we will also be visiting Italy and then hopefully when we get back in the beginning of Sept we can start the building process in earnest.

Here are a couple photos of what we will be building. If you click on a photo it will enlarge.