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

The finished harness was reinstalled in the engine compartment, and the Mr. Gasket retaining clips made for a super-clean and secure retaining method for the harness.

We've said it before, and here's proof that we practice what we preach. When building your wiring harnesses, think of any options you may add later and run the wiring for them now. In our case, with the front harness we just finished, we added this power lead for a possible line-lock device. We have a Hurst unit on the shelf and we're contemplating installing it, so we added the wire we would need right away instead of trying to shove a wire through the firewall later.

The Seals-It firewall seal (PN GS404-16, $27) we mentioned last month ended up being just a hair too big for the wiring running to the front of the car. To reduce the size of the 1-inch center hole, we popped this Mr. Gasket grommet in the center, effectively reducing the size of the center opening to 11/42 inch, and our harness fit perfectly. The Roadster kit comes with a block-off plate to rivet here if you want to route your wiring a different way.

After completing the wiring, we asked some neighbors (ironically, the same gang that helped us remove the body from our kit 11 months ago) to help us reinstall the body for some test-fitting. We'll see how our riveted aluminum mates with the body and test-fit some of the body components.

With the body securely bolted to the chassis at both ends and the sides, a standard Sharpie was utilized to check for proper panel gaps. We placed the Sharpie on the edge of the fiberglass and allowed the tip to touch the aluminum panels (mostly in the trunk, but the rear cockpit wall and firewall should be checked as well)....

....so that the Sharpie left a mark anywhere the aluminum was too close for the installation of the body gasket. Once checked, the body needs to be removed and the offending aluminum trimmed away.

After trimming the aluminum, the body-gasket material (called bulb seal in the build manual) was applied to the edge of the aluminum panels as called for by the instructions. For the trunk sidewall, we carefully notched the bulb seal to allow it to pass over the gap made by the trunk support without having to cut two separate pieces.

The rollbar is a two-piece assembly that slips over welded stubs, two of which are in the trunk and a third outside of the left-rear frame area. The rollbar requires drilling to secure it with the kit-supplied bolts. Use a sharp center punch to mark your holes; then drill a small pilot hole completely through the bar tube and the mounting stub. Drill the hole carefully, and either use a step bit or work your way up to the proper size.

Once the rollbar mounting holes were drilled, we reinstalled the body for a check-fit of the three rollbar tubes to the body openings. If you didn't order the body cutouts from FFR, you'll have to drill these three holes before putting on the body. As you can see here, our angled downtube made contact with the body.