So easy a girl can do it

Matt

Member
Nope. I'm Matt's wife. We watched some build videos and I said "I bet I could do that". He said "I know you could" so I did :)
2007 LS, Manual Transmission, stock everything.
 

ctuinstra

Goblin Guru
Love the wrap. Great job! Makes me feel kind of lame since we took delivery of the frame late December and don't even have it running yet.
 

Matt

Member
Keeping everything stock really made it quick. I could follow the videos with ease. Then I had my husband guide me the rest of the way. The wrap was our first one. Of course I picked the hardest wrap matching up lines down the center. (The print company sent us the hood in two pieces) The nice thing is if I start to hate it I can change it.
 

Dreamer

Member
Start to hate it? Not a chance. It's beautiful! Fantastic job. I'm still trying to convince my wife to accept that I'm going to do this project. If she said she was going to do it instead, I might have a heart attack.
I'm probably going to go all stock myself as too much power tends to get me in trouble. Anything that you learned that wasn't in the videos?
 

Matt

Member
Wow. Thanks for all the responses. I received a bare frame, sheet metal and many bags of well marked hardware.
20180102_143353.jpg


I wanted to paint the frame instead of powdercoating in case the car gets modified in the future. Touch ups are much easier. (After driving the car for the first time, I'm thinking my dream of turbocharging may not be needed. (yet)
20180107_113132.jpg

Of course, the hoses were a nightmare. It didn't help that I didn't find the slug until after the install so we used "creative resources" to get this done. I wasn't near strong enough to pull so my husband had to struggle through this. The other surprise was how hard the rivet gun was to squeeze those rivets. I didn't think it was necessary to buy a gun for the small amount of rivets used. Lucky for me, my husband was strong enough to manually get these in. I raptor lined the floor pan, fire wall, inside side panels and inside fiberglass pieces. Loving that stuff so far.
Once I flipped the car over, the assembly began. I assembled in build order (skipping assembly of backordered parts)
Struggles: 1. pedal box - brace hole didn't line up but everything else did so I drilled a new hole.
2. clutch pedal - disconnect tab hit steering column and bracket slightly out of place. Ground bracket and tab (a little too far) and got to use my new 3d printer to build a clutch pad.
3. wiring - I followed video and wrapped the whole thing and had to remove tape in certain areas to fit.
4. overflow tank - bracket not close to tab. built a brace to connect.
20180109_152659.jpg
The best part of this build was the important pieces (engine, subframe) fit perfectly. I was worried the holes wouldn't line up or frame would have to be tweaked.
I was impatient while waiting for backordered fuel line parts so went to the local parts store and made my own pieces to get the first start.
20180112_185549.jpg

Ok so this was long winded enough. If you want more, I will describe stage 2 and 3.
I'm located in Walla Walla Washington.
 

Briann1177

Goblin Guru
I'm interested in the stage 3 stuff. There doesn't seem to be a lot of information out there especially for the fiberglass body parts.
 

Andy

Well-Known Member
My side panels had to be match drilled to the frame and riveted in place. The nose was all drilled just had to pop rivet the nose to the dzus bracket on the front and then painted. I don't have a engine cover but from the looks of Matt's build it just had to be painted. When painting the nose and the engine cover sand to remove the mold release. If you look at the hardware for the wing and pictures of the completed cars you can see what goes where.
 

George

Goblin Guru
Wow. Thanks for all the responses. I received a bare frame, sheet metal and many bags of well marked hardware.
View attachment 2793

I wanted to paint the frame instead of powdercoating in case the car gets modified in the future. Touch ups are much easier. (After driving the car for the first time, I'm thinking my dream of turbocharging may not be needed. (yet)
View attachment 2794
Of course, the hoses were a nightmare. It didn't help that I didn't find the slug until after the install so we used "creative resources" to get this done. I wasn't near strong enough to pull so my husband had to struggle through this. The other surprise was how hard the rivet gun was to squeeze those rivets. I didn't think it was necessary to buy a gun for the small amount of rivets used. Lucky for me, my husband was strong enough to manually get these in. I raptor lined the floor pan, fire wall, inside side panels and inside fiberglass pieces. Loving that stuff so far.
Once I flipped the car over, the assembly began. I assembled in build order (skipping assembly of backordered parts)
Struggles: 1. pedal box - brace hole didn't line up but everything else did so I drilled a new hole.
2. clutch pedal - disconnect tab hit steering column and bracket slightly out of place. Ground bracket and tab (a little too far) and got to use my new 3d printer to build a clutch pad.
3. wiring - I followed video and wrapped the whole thing and had to remove tape in certain areas to fit.
4. overflow tank - bracket not close to tab. built a brace to connect.
View attachment 2795 The best part of this build was the important pieces (engine, subframe) fit perfectly. I was worried the holes wouldn't line up or frame would have to be tweaked.
I was impatient while waiting for backordered fuel line parts so went to the local parts store and made my own pieces to get the first start.
View attachment 2796
Ok so this was long winded enough. If you want more, I will describe stage 2 and 3.
I'm located in Walla Walla Washington.
Is that a Cobra Kit car in the background?
Brad
 

ctuinstra

Goblin Guru
I had the same problem with the pedal box hole not even close to lining up. I was afraid that if I drilled a new hole it would be too close to the edge. I ended up using the slug from the hoses as a spacer and this lined it up well other then it's slightly rotated down.
 

Matt

Member
First of all great job!
The car looks good.
Are those the factory LS seats?
Thanks. Yes, the seats are stock. I needed to have sliders and the height because I am 5 foot tall. It works for me. If you are planning to use stock seats, take off all plastic side pieces and driver height adjustment lever and file down the front brackets at the bottom where it goes through the car before putting the seat in. Then with a little cussing and deadblow hammer you can get the front bracket around the bar and floor pan and through the slots. (Sorry no pictures to show this better)
 
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