Our completed Project Snake Charmer, ready for its first cruise-in. Stick around for a full feature with specs and costs in another issue.
Finishing a project car can be a religious experience for some-a huge weight or burden off their shoulders. No more late nights grinding away at a metal hulk; sanding for untold hours until your fingertips bleed; or taking that first nervous drive down the street after installing the running gear and hoping you put the brakes together right. Once your project is complete, tagged, and insured, the short trips to the corner gas station or a few laps around the block begin. Success leads to longer and longer trips as your confidence builds in what you've taken so long to painstakingly build in your garage or home shop.
We're happy to announce that we've come to the same point in our Factory Five Cobra replica project. We've installed the last part, thrown away the last box, and had our project car tagged, insured, and aligned. Now it's time to put some miles on it and see what she'll do.
Our Roadster has been a very enjoyable project from many aspects. For starters, there's the something-different factor. Sure, we get a thumbs-up or "nice car" when we drive our '66 Mustang, but when you're driving the Roadster, you're undeniably a rock star! You can't stop for gas without a 15-minute conversation about the car, and for the uninitiated, when we tell them we built the whole car ourselves, save for the engine and paintwork, the questions start right back up (which is why we keep FFR DVDs in the car with us).
We can say that the build of our Factory Five Roadster has not only been rewarding but also fun and educational. Meeting fellow builders, attending their build parties, and discussing upgrades and options at events and on the ffcobra.com forums is something we don't see too often in the Mustang world. Building a project like this also taught us new procedures we've not used in the past, and allowed us to purchase tools we didn't have (hey, it's always good when you can use your project as a valid excuse to hit the tool store). We're looking forward to displaying the completed project during the fall show season here in Florida, and who knows where we'll take it in 2009? Look for a full feature on the Roadster with specs, build costs, and more in an upcoming issue, but for now, let's wrap up our build with a few safety items, an alignment, and a road test.
For street use, an oil-to-air heat exchanger is probably something that wouldn't be required, and frankly could keep the oil too cool, causing advanced engine wear. But what would a 427 SC replica be without an oil cooler in the lower nose? We ordered the optional FFR oil cooler kit, which uses high-quality Setrab products and braided -10 cooler lines. | 
Fitting the cooler into the nose can be tricky. Sliding it in from behind requires careful attention as the cooler is wiggled, angled, and slid into place. The cooler bolts to the lower radiator aluminum panel for retention. We also mocked up our Mr. Gasket Shadow AN fittings to start on the braided line routing. | 
To combat having the oil too cool for the engine during normal driving, we picked up this billet thermostatic sandwich adapter (PN 502ERL, $99.99) from Earl's Performance Plumbing for our Roadster project. It easily attaches to the block before installing the oil filter. AN -10 lines are then routed from the adapter to the cooler in the nose to complete the cooler's connections. |
Before we can have our project aligned, the chassis' ride height needs to be set and the Panhard/rear axle setup centered. The ride height is easy to adjust with the Roadster's Bilstein coilover shocks. With the weight off the suspension, a simple twist of the adjustment collar will raise or lower the ride height. Adding tension to the spring increases the ride height. | 
To measure ride height, simply measure from the bottom of the 4-inch round tubes of the frame to the ground. Using a tape measure can be tricky, so it's best to make a simple gauge that'll fit between the frame and the ground. We had a bunch of old light-switch covers in the junk drawer, so we cut a pair of them to match our desired front and rear ride heights and adjusted the suspension until they fit. Don't forget to roll the car back and forth after each adjustment to settle the suspension. | 
With the ride height properly set, you can see how much more room there is between the wheel opening and the tire compared to the dimensions seen in photo 24, later in this story (that image was taken before we set the ride height). |
While the car is in the air, the side pipe's rear hangers are installed as well. The mounting brackets are included in the kit, but you'll need a single late-model Mustang exhaust hanger isolator as part of the installation. | 
Now that the ride height is set and our rear axle centered, it's alignment time. We took the Roadster in our Pace American enclosed trailer to J.B. Alignment Service in Groveland, Florida. There, Jim Schoenberger took great care to set up our Roadster with the alignment specs we desired. Jim has worked on just about every domestic suspension, alignment, and brake setup out there and the Roadster's adjustable A-arms were no problem. No high-tech hardware here, just simple alignment tools and decades of knowledge. | 
With the alignment and ride height set, we also had Jim check out the pinion angle one last time and lock it in by tightening the upper link locknuts. Our first testdrive after the alignment was smooth as silk. |