How This All Began

For car guys like me, sometimes the build is more fun than the finished product is itself. I thought about building a kit car from Factory Five Racing. I had investigated their MKIII Cobra kits about 5 years ago but in the end, concluded an open air roadster was not for me.

I found this really nice 67 Mailbu Sport Coupe project car. It had been tubbed and painted but needed finishing and i wanted it to be “cloned” into an SS.

The price was right so I brought it home and started work on it… and so the project began. It got the full SS treatment, with a full SS interior, New wiring, power steering, power disc brakes, Tremec 5 speed etc etc.

Below is a few pic of the Chevelle 427SS – Pro Street… I loved it! It won a ton of trophies for me. The bottom pic is a rendering of the car done by Sam Ames. (Wait till you see the ones he did of the 33 below! They’ll blow your head off!)

And this was the last Cruise Night that my wife Julie and I attended with the car …Sept 28, 2012

So as time passed I kept getting numerous emails from Factory Five land in my Junk folder. Early in October 2012, I just happened to open one of those emails and browsed their site again. Seems in 2009 they introduced a new kit…. the 33 Hot Rod. It was love at first site!! FFR’s poster child ’33 at the time (pictured above) was owned by a fellow name Kevin Shea.

I made the descion to build one of those so… The Chevelle was listed online and sold to a cool guy from Edmonton within the week. It was locked and loaded headed out west to it’s new owner. Here’s a Video and some Pics of the very emotional day the Chevelle head west to it’s new owner!

The Vision For My ’33

So it was out with the old and in with the new. This ’33 shown below is actually a pic of Kevin Shea’s but I photoshop’d it white because I saw it like that in my minds eye:

Mine would feature the following:

FFR 33 Hot Rod
Hard Top w/ power windows
Full Fenders
Larger Wheels and Tires
302/350HP – Full exhaust
Ford AOD Automatic
8.8″ Ford w/ 3:55 Torsen trac lock
AC / Heat
Power Steering and Brakes
Killer Sound
Custom interior

https://www.facebook.com/samamesdesign/videos/Of course my pic was not good enough so I had to commission my friend Sam Ames of Ames Flames and Customs again. I sent him all the pics and ideas I have and he came up with what the finished product should look like. We’ll test that theory over the next bunch of months!!

These are unbelievable. Just a plug for Sam here. If you need artwork done for a car you love… look him up! (Link above)

October 24, 2012

I ordered the kit! The order went in through Factory Five’s Canadian Importer / Distributor “Western Canada Cobras”. A fellow named Al Beix who is an absolute Prince of a guy; he and another fine chap named Jeff Collins of Whitby Motorcar will supply most all of the parts for this project.

The Players

I will be building this in my garage at home. My #1 helper will be my grandson Kamryn.

Kam had an early interest in Harley’s & Hot Rods 🙂

We both attended the Factory Five ’33 Hot Rod Build School at MOTT Community College in Michigan. It’s quite an experience where in three 8 hour days, 10-15 classmates do a complete build from bare frame to running driver under the supervision and guidance of the Factory Five Instructors. Below is a video of the completed car that we built that weekend:

And as much as I’d like to believe Kam and I will be able to go it alone; I’m know we will be relying on a number of people to help us along the way. First and foremost… Julie – My Darling Young Bride. She is in charge of most things but in these situations, primarily First Aid 🙂

I will also be leaning heavily on the members of the Factory Five Forum as well as the wonderful members of FFCars.com. These forums have been a great help so far. All very friendly, and knowledgeable members there.

Next, Al Beix of Western Canada Cobras, Jeff Collins at Whitby Motorcars as well as Kevin Shea (the owner of the black ’33 above) have taken every call and email of mine to date with stride and promised to continue doing so!

As we near completion I’ll be reaching out to professionals like Todd Dixon (Dixon’s Auto Body & Paint); both a friend and business associates here in Welland.