01-01-10 Bare frame

Made enough progress since the last one to warrant a mid-week update. All aluminum, suspension and pretty much everything except road grime and silicone goop are all off. Gonna take a wire wheel or something else to knock most of that silicone off in a reasonable amount of time, and probably the rest of the POR15 paint with it, which suits me just fine. Then I'll be making some modifications to the frame with the help of a competent welder before taking it over for powdercoating.

A reference shot of the left rear suspension before removal. I'm going to replace the knuckle bushings with either polyurethane or spherical bearings to eliminate some of the slop. Also you can see the original builder added a sway bar on the bottom. A nice touch but there is so much play in the rubber bushings and end links that it probably doesn't help much in the handling area. Those parts will have to get upgraded.

And the right front suspension (forgot to remove the wrench for this shot). Note the nuts/bolts on the upper control arm. Not happy with the thread engagement there at all. This was an issue Factory Five dealt with a while back. I'll replace those bolts with something a bit longer. If those backed out while in motion it could be...bad. Also I'll be getting the SAI (Steering Axis Inclination) mod kit designed by FFR builder/racer David Borden. Should improve the handling and high-speed stability

Here you can see where some dribbles of brake fluid at the master cylinder mounting location ate away at the paint and allowed some rust.

And the bare frame with all bits and pieces removed. Biggest hassle was the differential, it took several somersaults in three dimensions to wiggle the thing out of there. Not easy with a 60+ pound chunk of cast iron when you can't get any decent leverage on it from all the interference from the other parts of the frame.