Factory Five Roadster Body Install - Project Snake Charmer Part: 12

A high-speed rotary tool with a grinding stone made quick work of the area we marked off with a white grease pencil. When sanding or grinding on fiberglass, be sure to wear a mask and eye protection.

Here's the rollbar downtube-to-body fit after a few minutes of work with the rotary tool. All three holes needed just a little work, which is common since every body/chassis mounting is just a little different. We'll install some polished-aluminum trim bezels after the car is painted to seal the trunk and add some good looks.

The fuel-filler neck from the body to the fuel tank is a stock '79-'04 Mustang part that is cut and lengthened via a section of fuel-filler hose. Our filler neck, from All Mustang Recycling, was cut via hacksaw and the top half mounted to the body via the supplied hardware and body spacers. Don't forget to use the supplied ground wire to prevent static discharge.

While this fuel cap was simply laid in place for mock-up purposes, make sure you drill the mounting holes for the Le Mans fuel cap into the body via the included paper template before painting the body. The less you have to drill, cut, or file on the painted body, the better. We're using a quick-fill fuel cap for easy fueling without having to remove the inner cap once the Le Mans cap is flipped open.

The same goes for the license plate light and mounting bracket. Drill your mounting holes now, verifying placement and fit. When you get the painted body back, simply drop the parts into their mounting holes and tighten the hardware.

The hole for the trunk-latch mechanism is premade in the trunk lid, but we wanted to make sure there are no surprises when the Roadster comes back from paint. It's best to double-check and adjust the fit of any part going into fiberglass with a bare body. We assembled the trunk latch and handle, fit it to the trunk, and found our mounting-screw holes needed to be opened up to the next drill size for a better fit.

While we initially planned to use a Branda Performance oval Cobra air-filter assembly, the dual-stud mounting configuration, while historically more accurate, created fit problems with the mass air meter from the Mass-Flo EFI system. The base of the Branda unit also raised the whole air-filter assembly too high to fit under the Roadster's body. We're sure the Branda part would fit great on a carburetor-equipped 302, but on our EFI 351, it simply wouldn't work. We ended up using a Ford Racing Performance Parts single-stud version. The base of the filter housing is shown here, with the mass air meter wiring passing through the base and connecting to the meter itself.

Flipping over the base of the air filter shows how we riveted the mass air meter electronics to the base, then routed the wiring forward to the grommet and back to the meter to take up some of the wiring length.

Here's the completed installation of the FRPP air-filter assembly with one of Mass-Flo EFI's custom air filters. It is specially made to give the EFI enough surface area to support the engine while just fitting under the hood.