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Customer Profile – Dave Hall FFR 5332K Tucson, AZ Forum Handle: FFR 5332 Email: DavidH33522@aol.com Dave Hall is a Factory Five Homebuilt Hero |
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| Several months ago, Hot Rod magazine launched a campaign to find the best Homebuilt Heroes nationwide. While we’re a bit biased, we feel that the FFROG community could sweep the contest, if they were only to enter (a reminder to all of you procrastinators out there – the contest ends on August1, 2007). |
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Dave Hall is one of the few who’ve answered the call (he’s the first and only entry that we’ve received), so he’ll be receiving our prize package of a T-shirt and License Plate Bracket, and is eligible for a $2000 cash award! Dave Hall’s story is much like many that we’ve heard over the years – what is remarkable is that regular guys like you and me, and Dave, are capable of building a Factory Five worthy of the cover of Hot Rod magazine. |
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Dave is a regular guy, one of us that dreams big, but usually is handicapped by real life and day to day struggles of family, home and work. By day, Dave is an account manager for a private security agency. That means that most of the guys he works with have necks the size of sequoias and many of the people he meets through work are the type that could Darwin award winners or should be in prison (often times fitting into both categories). His outlet was cars, as it had always been. |
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As a child, he would attend vintage races with his brother and father, and those memories were among his fondest. Now, as an adult, every time he came home he looked longingly at his garage, and heard its cries for involvement in his life. |
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He searched far and wide for something fast and fun, yet within his budget, and that could be tinkered with. Several deals fell through; many more opportunities were purposely passed up. In 2004, his brother loaned him a Factory Five DVD, and he watched it with the same skepticism a child reserves for his first plate of broccoli. He had seen a few kit cars (VW or Fiero contraptions) over the years, and his memories always flashed back to a terrifying ride in a Bugatti/Volkswagen at speeds approaching 35 mph - a "Kit Car" was definitely not what he had in mind. |
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Twenty minutes into the DVD, however, he was turning the corner and the term "kit" was definitely one that you used in speaking about a Factory Five. He was ready to order!
A few weeks later the Stewart Transport truck was in front of his house, along with a handful of local FFROGs who showed up to help with boxes and kick start the build (talk about motivational speakers). The following year and a half the garage came to life as Dave, his brother and father worked feverishly each Sunday in the Tucson heat. In a very short time they were roaring up and down the street in a FFR go kart. |
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The powertrain specs are impressive: - 5.0 rebuilt short block engine - Ford Racing B303 camshaft - Edelbrock Performer aluminum heads - Ford Racing roller rockers - Fidanza aluminum flywheel - Typhoon air gap manifold - Holley 670 Street Avenger - Standard rotation aluminum water pump - Billet aluminum under-drive pulleys - 4 into 4 Jet Hot coated exhaust system - AFCO aluminum two core radiator - Borg Warner T5 (rebuilt), torque rated to 330 ft-lbs. |
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| Driving the FFR chassis will give anyone an injection of high-powered adrenalin, and the Halls were not unique there – the body went on immediately! Dave and his girlfriend Dawn covered many miles with their gel coated body before reluctantly taking the skin back off, thus temporarily ending the weekends of play and replacing them with weekends prepping the body. | |
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Most people don’t undertake their own body preparation because it is a lot of work. Body preparation is much like time spent in prison – eat, work, sleep, repeat. The steps are a bit different (sand, sand, sand, prime, sand, paint, sand, paint, sand, paint, etc.) and you can shower off the fiberglass dust in peace, but you get the idea. Doing your own prep also means making mistakes, correcting runs, fixing orange peel, eliminating bugs and . . . more sanding. Stepping up to the plate for girlfriend of the year award, Dawn offered her own backyard to build a spray booth out of a portable garage, as well as her car trailer to transport the body back and forth. Dawn is no stranger to cool cars, and she was anxious to add Dave’s Factory Five to her fleet of Corvettes, Camaros (including one pro street drag car) and a restored Corvair. (She already has an eye on our GTM to add to her Chevy powered rides.) |
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After plenty of trial and error, the paint job came out pretty well, and four solid coats of clear allowed cutting, buffing and ultimately a paint job he was proud of.
The carpet was the only thing not done at home, since a friend of Dawn's family owns a well established upholstery shop and the price was too good to pass up. He went with a light grey carpet that looks great against the black exterior, and gave the car a unique, yet classy appearance. Dave admits that the car is not perfect, and he knows it has it's little flaws that probably only the four of their build team are aware of, but he wouldn't sell it for any price! |
| As for performance, it's unlike anything he’s ever driven, and a driver of a late model Viper was more than amazed when all he saw were Dave’s tail lights after a 0-50mph “challenge”. | |
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| Some more vehicle specifics on FFR 5332K include: | |
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Suspension/Steering/Brakes
Flaming River manual steering rack (15.1)
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Interior
Paint Three coats acrylic enamel...color sandedTwo additional coats acrylic enamel Four coats of clear Wet sanded (1000,1500, 2000 grit) Buffed (Meguire's #84, #3, #81, orbitally applied Eagle One Nano Wax) |
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