Driver's controls

Once the steering rack is in, the next sensible thing to do is to put on the steering column. At least, so I thought. According to the assembly manual the order of event's should have been reversed. I did not check that until it was too late. :)

The problem with installing steering column was very simple: the steering rack connecting bit would be sticking out too far leaving not enough room to slide the column on. According to the manual, I was to install the column first and then swing the rack in with the driver side connected before installing.

Let's keep it in order. Firstly I needed to put the aluminum panel on. I choose to coat my aluminum with rubberized black paint. That meant that the panel would need be sprayed a day in advance to allow the paint to dry.

Notice that Factory Five does include the little fill plate that is just to the top right of the big bottom opening. It would be perfect time to put this plate on. I simply glued it in with silicon. The main panel was siliconed and riveted in place.   

I did not want to undo the rack so ended up wiggling the column on. It would not go in without a fight, but with a bit of authority, it clicked in :)

The next step is to install driver's pedals:

The donor parts would need to be modified here. The mounting bracket is removed from the pedals. This mod would allow the pedals to sit deeper in the foot well. Also, the angling bracket from hydroboost was removed and another spacer was placed into that spot. This is a critical combination of changes. The end result should have the distance from the brake pedal to the brake booster exactly the same as it used to be on the Mustang.

The gas pedal had to go through a series of adjustments. Both ends needed to be trimmed. The pedal part needs to be moved up and straightened. The top part did not require the adjustment but I trimmed it anyways since the bottom part was shortened. We have some basic physics here: the shorter the bottom part the less foot action is required. This effectively results in drastic throttle actuation with a small foot movement. That's why I cut off just over half an inch from the top too. Frankly, this pedal does not look promising. The fact that guys over at ffcars.com don't believe in it at all does not add any hope either. I'd just have to live to see it in action.

However form this angle, it does not look bad at all. Perhaps I am wrong about it...