DuPuis Family Cobra Build

There hasn't been a whole lot of progress on this, but I have made a few changes to my plans. Yesterday I called Factory Five and made some order changes.

1) I changed from a 302 to a 351 (more on that in a bit). The motor mounts for this are the same, but that changes the exhaust. For the 302, the stock option is a "J-Pipe" to connect factory or bolt-on exhaust manifolds to the side pipes. For the 351 you have to use their 4-1 headers, which bolt up to the straight pipes. I was fine with this since that was going to be an upgrade anyway.

2) I opted for the 3-link rear end. The 3-link is universally praised as better than the 4-link in comfort and handling, with the 4-link only being considered better if your goal is drag racing. Since that's not my goal, the 3-link made sense.

3) FFR sells an aluminum racing radiator that's designed to fit right in, is brand new, reasonably priced, and has more than enough cooling capacity. Sounds good for what I want.

4) I ended up deciding to go with powdercoating on the frame. Few reasons for this. First off, they're running a sale and I needed a bit more to get me above the next threshold which would take the discount from 20% off all options to 30%. That extra bump made it essentially free. Also, I decided that while I think painting the frame would be a better result long term (and black is not my favorite color), this isn't a car that's going to be used on salty roads, so it is rather indifferent. This way I can get right into building the car.

One guy on the Factory Five forum made me a very nice deal on a set of SN95 spindles and new front brakes, so those are on the way.

I'm still debating what to do on the rear. I'm starting to get some bites on parting out the donor car that I bought for the engine (really the heads) and sold the AOD out of it this morning. I'd rather sell that donor car as a whole, but I haven't been getting bites on the complete package yet. We'll see how the rest of the parts sales go. Basically if I decide to part the thing out, I figure I'll rebuild the rear end the way I want it. If I can get a bite then I'll buy a rear out of a later car that already has disk brakes and go with that. In a lot of ways I'm leaning towards rebuilding the rear on this one, just because then I can go 31-spline, all new center, axles, and disk brakes, etc.

On the engine, I decided to go 351. I thought about this for a while, but decided it made more sense for what I wanted. Biggest reason is I like torque. More displacement = more torque. I really like insane levels of torque. These heads were really more appropriate for either a high-revving 302 or a 351 having the bigger valves and bigger intake runners. The concern I had was that I might end up with an engine that really needs to get wound up to work. On a car that's primarily going to be driven on the street, I don't feel like that will end up being a lot of fun. Additionally, it might be fun to make a 7,500+ RPM 302, but from reading up it seems like on a stock block that's asking for trouble.

Since the 302 block I had is basically toast and I don't expect to use the intake it came with, I need to get something else anyway. Looking at the economics, getting a 351 short block makes a lot of sense built with the pistons I want to use. The goal will be a high compression 351, which I think will be a lot of fun and make more torque and probably more power. The 351 weighs more, but between the aluminum heads and intake I'll be using, I don't think the extra weight will be tremendously noticeable vs. a 302. People on the forums said that there wasn't necessarily a huge feel difference between a 302 and a 351 from the engine weight.

Another decision I've made is that I'm going to put electric power steering. This is a common thing done on the Cobra using electric power steering out of some GM vehicles. The nice thing about it is that you can adjust the assist with a dial, so you can go from max assist all the way down to zero. That works well for what I want since when Laurie drives it she'll probably want more power assist and when I drive it I'll want almost zero.

The build date is September 8th, so I should have the kit at my house by the end of September.
 
Zeldman said:
Excellent choice.!!!

(Boss 539. Just leaving that out there if you want insane torque...:lol::lol:)
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There are plenty of people who've done 427W strokers. I'll stick to just a 351 for the time being I think.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
There are plenty of people who've done 427W strokers. I'll stick to just a 351 for the time being I think.
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We had a customer bring in a 390 built from a 351C that we put in a '68 Torino. It was a torque monster..
 
Grum.Man said:
Just put an LS in it and be done already!
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:no: :no: :no:

There's one guy who put a 383 in. Honestly, I don't understand why. The thing comes designed around a Ford motor, basically any Ford motor you could want. 302, 351, 4.6, Coyote. Take your pick. Any of those will bolt right up (provided you order correctly when you buy the kit). Yeah, LS engines are great, but if you want that, build something else.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
:no: :no: :no:

There's one guy who put a 383 in. Honestly, I don't understand why. The thing comes designed around a Ford motor, basically any Ford motor you could want. 302, 351, 4.6, Coyote. Take your pick. Any of those will bolt right up (provided you order correctly when you buy the kit). Yeah, LS engines are great, but if you want that, build something else.
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Most of the ones I see around here are chevrolet powered. Of course everything around here is LS swapped now. It will be nice to have an old school Ford engine. I'm delightfully surprised when I see an old carbed engine at a car show anymore much less something with a blower instead of a turbo.
 
Grum.Man said:
Most of the ones I see around here are chevrolet powered. Of course everything around here is LS swapped now. It will be nice to have an old school Ford engine. I'm delightfully surprised when I see an old carbed engine at a car show anymore much less something with a blower instead of a turbo.
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The LS swaps are popular these days, and I can understand why. It is a very good engine and there are lots out there now at reasonable prices, especially if you don't mind settling for a 5.3.

The old school carb'd Ford engine is exactly what I'm going for. Old school build. Yeah, I'll have some modern touches in it, but those will be purposefully installed and not just modern for the sake of "Making it better and easier." If I want easy, I could buy a modern Mustang for less money.
 
Sounds like you have a plan. I'll be looking forward to hearing about the rest of the build.
 
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1RTK1 said:
It would be reeeaaaly fun though
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It would, but I’m going old school.

If I did SOHC I’d go V10 for more weird. Or weld a couple V8s together for a V16.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
It would, but I’m going old school.

If I did SOHC I’d go V10 for more weird. Or weld a couple V8s together for a V16.
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Is there an optimal V angle for a V10?

180 degree crank offsets for four cylinder pairs calls for a 90 degree V angle. 120 degree crank offsets for three cylinder pairs dictate a 60 degree V angle. It probably doesn't matter much for a five cylinder pair. I'd Google it but I'm too lazy. Okay I just did. Google says 72 degrees would result in an even firing sequence. But in any case there is no intrinsic balance.
 
A fun video to watch... and with a weight similar to what Ted’s building, perhaps similar results. Amazing.

 
If I see Ted or Laurie driving that around town, I'll do the best I can to pull up next to them at a light. That way I can roll down my window and listen to that sweet, sweet music of a big American V8. Drives my wife nuts when I do that, but nothing else on the road has that sound.
 
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Sac Arrow said:
Is there an optimal V angle for a V10?

180 degree crank offsets for four cylinder pairs calls for a 90 degree V angle. 120 degree crank offsets for three cylinder pairs dictate a 60 degree V angle. It probably doesn't matter much for a five cylinder pair. I'd Google it but I'm too lazy. Okay I just did. Google says 72 degrees would result in an even firing sequence. But in any case there is no intrinsic balance.
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As you noted, 72 is optional. The Ford V10 is 90 with a split main crank to account for that and it results in am even firing order. I owned a V10 Excursion for quite a while and it was one of the smoothest engines I’ve ever driven.
 
I haven't had a lot to update on, because mostly I've been continuing to do the prep work for the impending arrival of the Cobra. No, it's not here yet, but the garage is getting emptied, I've got the electrical almost completed, etc. Once the 9N tractor gets its new engine and I can finally get the thing evicted from the garage, then I can (hopefully) install the lift and be done with that. I think the concrete is thick enough, but we'll see once I start drilling in.

We've decided to change up the plan on the color scheme. Since I decided to go ahead and have the frame powdercoated, we're also going to go ahead and change up the color scheme. It'll be an all-black job, similar to the Ram. Black wheels, black paint, black interior. I ordered the kit without any chrome so everything's black already there, at least almost everything. We'll add in a couple of red accents (very minor... like stitching on the seats), and then probably do the racing stripe as a very subtle one, also dark colored, sort of a ghost stripe. Black frame LED headlights like what we have on the Harleys. That fits my wife's preferences on paint scheme. I'll like it too, of course, but for her that's ideal.

I traded the remains of the Mustang donor car for a T-56 transmission. That was a good trade in my opinion. The particular T-56 I got was spec'd for a 4.6L conversion, but it has no bellhousing and I could add that to make the 351 fit. Ratios are ideal and would pair very nicely with 3.55 or 3.73s in the back. I'd love to have a 6-speed. It's easy to convert to a mid-shifter location (put the shifter in the middle of the transmission instead of the way back).

The question if whether or not I want to use it. The Cobra is designed around a T-5 or 3550/TKO transmission. The T-56 is about 2" longer than those. 2" doesn't seem like a lot, but it impacts the driveshaft, which is only about 10" long normally. That extra 2" of length of the T-56 can cause the driveshaft to bind.

There are two ways around this: 1) go with an independent rear suspension (i.e. pumpkin doesn't move). This doesn't work since I ordered the 3-link solid rear end option. 2) Move the engine and transmission forward 2". This is not a trivial matter. It would involve some level of custom motor mount work and then would also move the headers forward 2". I'd need to do something custom to make the exhaust all line up if I did it. In addition to that, it would obviously move the CG forward, which is the wrong direction (these cars love an aft CG). Also since the hood slopes down going forward, that will make less hood clearance.

So, the positives: Use a transmission I already have (although with a somewhat unknown history), get the 6th gear.
Negatives: Substantial

I'm never one for doing things the easy way, so once I get the car here I'll start looking over and decide how much extra effort I want to put in for this. I am torn. I figured the trade was worthwhile regardless because a T-56 (especially of this type) will be a lot easier to sell than the Mustang was. I also hate the idea of dumping a 6-speed in favor of a 5-speed. That just feels like the wrong direction. Power wise, the thing will have more than enough power and torque that it doesn't actually need that 6th gear, but I don't need to build this thing in the first place, so "need" isn't really the word to be thinking about. :)
 
The 6th gear is just another overdrive gear correct? How much do you plan to drive this at interstate speeds? Also with the powdered coat frame moving the engine mounts will be a big deal.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I haven't had a lot to update on, because mostly I've been continuing to do the prep work for the impending arrival of the Cobra. No, it's not here yet, but the garage is getting emptied, I've got the electrical almost completed, etc. Once the 9N tractor gets its new engine and I can finally get the thing evicted from the garage, then I can (hopefully) install the lift and be done with that. I think the concrete is thick enough, but we'll see once I start drilling in.

We've decided to change up the plan on the color scheme. Since I decided to go ahead and have the frame powdercoated, we're also going to go ahead and change up the color scheme. It'll be an all-black job, similar to the Ram. Black wheels, black paint, black interior. I ordered the kit without any chrome so everything's black already there, at least almost everything. We'll add in a couple of red accents (very minor... like stitching on the seats), and then probably do the racing stripe as a very subtle one, also dark colored, sort of a ghost stripe. Black frame LED headlights like what we have on the Harleys. That fits my wife's preferences on paint scheme. I'll like it too, of course, but for her that's ideal.

I traded the remains of the Mustang donor car for a T-56 transmission. That was a good trade in my opinion. The particular T-56 I got was spec'd for a 4.6L conversion, but it has no bellhousing and I could add that to make the 351 fit. Ratios are ideal and would pair very nicely with 3.55 or 3.73s in the back. I'd love to have a 6-speed. It's easy to convert to a mid-shifter location (put the shifter in the middle of the transmission instead of the way back).

The question if whether or not I want to use it. The Cobra is designed around a T-5 or 3550/TKO transmission. The T-56 is about 2" longer than those. 2" doesn't seem like a lot, but it impacts the driveshaft, which is only about 10" long normally. That extra 2" of length of the T-56 can cause the driveshaft to bind.

There are two ways around this: 1) go with an independent rear suspension (i.e. pumpkin doesn't move). This doesn't work since I ordered the 3-link solid rear end option. 2) Move the engine and transmission forward 2". This is not a trivial matter. It would involve some level of custom motor mount work and then would also move the headers forward 2". I'd need to do something custom to make the exhaust all line up if I did it. In addition to that, it would obviously move the CG forward, which is the wrong direction (these cars love an aft CG). Also since the hood slopes down going forward, that will make less hood clearance.

So, the positives: Use a transmission I already have (although with a somewhat unknown history), get the 6th gear.
Negatives: Substantial

I'm never one for doing things the easy way, so once I get the car here I'll start looking over and decide how much extra effort I want to put in for this. I am torn. I figured the trade was worthwhile regardless because a T-56 (especially of this type) will be a lot easier to sell than the Mustang was. I also hate the idea of dumping a 6-speed in favor of a 5-speed. That just feels like the wrong direction. Power wise, the thing will have more than enough power and torque that it doesn't actually need that 6th gear, but I don't need to build this thing in the first place, so "need" isn't really the word to be thinking about. :)
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Well, let's think about this. You're building a Cobra replica. That means you have a big, torquey motor in a lightweight, somewhat draggy roadster body. Your most likely use is driving on secondary roads, maybe going to a car show, and the occasional track day. I suppose at some point one of you is going to find a stretch of lonely road and wind it out a couple of times, hopefully not too often. If you have a dyno chart on the engine, you can take your gear ratios, your final drive ratio, and your tire diameter, and graph just how much torque you would have available for a run through the gears. If you did this for each of the two transmissions, when you allow for the time that it takes for the extra shift, I suspect the difference between the two transmissions may actually favor the five speed. If you move the engine forward, I'm almost certain you would hurt lap times, and you'd have a car more prone to understeer. If you shorten the driveshaft and it binds, not only will it make the car unstable when that happens, you may break something as well.

While it's true that more is usually better, it isn't always. I could see working hard to get a close ratio six speed in the car if you were installing a high revving four banger and were going racing, but you're sneaking up on six liters of V8 mill up front in what's mostly a street car. In this case I think you're looking at a lot of extra work for little or no benefit.
 
I'm with Hangie here, full stop. The power/weight on this thing means 5 gears should be way-plenty, and I'd do it with a pretty tall rear end, too. You're never going to have a dead band with that engine in that car.

---

One other question: what seat material you talking about - leather or fabric?

You ever had a convertible with black leather or vinyl in the summer sun? Something to think about, if you don't want Laurie leaving seared skin behind on warm, sunny days.
 
Ted, with a driveline that closely coupled, the need for precision in aligning its components is essential.

I'm sure you can find good advice and instructions online to put the X, Y, and Z axes of the components in their proper place, since plenty of kit Cobras have been built.

Thanks for the project update.
 
Grum.Man said:
The 6th gear is just another overdrive gear correct? How much do you plan to drive this at interstate speeds? Also with the powdered coat frame moving the engine mounts will be a big deal.
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FormerHangie said:
Well, let's think about this. You're building a Cobra replica. That means you have a big, torquey motor in a lightweight, somewhat draggy roadster body. Your most likely use is driving on secondary roads, maybe going to a car show, and the occasional track day. I suppose at some point one of you is going to find a stretch of lonely road and wind it out a couple of times, hopefully not too often. If you have a dyno chart on the engine, you can take your gear ratios, your final drive ratio, and your tire diameter, and graph just how much torque you would have available for a run through the gears. If you did this for each of the two transmissions, when you allow for the time that it takes for the extra shift, I suspect the difference between the two transmissions may actually favor the five speed. If you move the engine forward, I'm almost certain you would hurt lap times, and you'd have a car more prone to understeer. If you shorten the driveshaft and it binds, not only will it make the car unstable when that happens, you may break something as well.

While it's true that more is usually better, it isn't always. I could see working hard to get a close ratio six speed in the car if you were installing a high revving four banger and were going racing, but you're sneaking up on six liters of V8 mill up front in what's mostly a street car. In this case I think you're looking at a lot of extra work for little or no benefit.
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SCCutler said:
I'm with Hangie here, full stop. The power/weight on this thing means 5 gears should be way-plenty, and I'd do it with a pretty tall rear end, too. You're never going to have a dead band with that engine in that car.

---

One other question: what seat material you talking about - leather or fabric?

You ever had a convertible with black leather or vinyl in the summer sun? Something to think about, if you don't want Laurie leaving seared skin behind on warm, sunny days.
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1st gear, 4th gear, and top gear (5th in TKO, 6th in T-56) are essentially the same ratios between the two boxes. Basically for TKO vs. T-56 is the 4-5/6 range.

TKO:
4th: 1:1
5th: 0.62 or 0.68:1 (also they have an 0.83, but I wouldn't go for that)

T-56:
4th: 1:1
5th: 0.8:1
6th: 0.62:1

I'm going from memory so I might have the numbers a bit off, but basically with the T-56 you don't have that very significant 4-5 RPM drop.

As far as needs go, it's absolutely true there's no need for that extra gear. More than enough torque, especially with the 351 that I'm planning on. It's more a question of wanting the extra gear because I can.

That said, I am leaning towards the TKO just because it'll be easier and bolt right up and agree with the extra work for little functional benefit. Plus the TKO is a great transmission - I've spent about 80,000 miles driving them behind Jaguar V12s and love the things.

Normal use that's planned is a bit different than stated. I do expect I'll drive it to work a good number of days when I can, plus take the kids (one at a time) to school for a treat or pick them up, similar. Drive to the airport/around town/etc. The roads are primarily 55-75 MPH roads, so it'll still see highway use. But again, reality is I can do just fine with the gears in the TKO.

Color of seats is going to be black. The default they come with is black vinyl. Leather is a $500 upgrade. I'm generally thinking vinyl because, being a roadster, it'll undoubtedly get caught in the rain at some point. Some people also put in the high-back seats that are more racing-y. I may opt to go that route, but for now just took the stock seats that are included. Yes, I know about the issues with them sitting in the sun - BTDT. Towels to cover them will be important.

3393RP said:
Ted, with a driveline that closely coupled, the need for precision in aligning its components is essential.

I'm sure you can find good advice and instructions online to put the X, Y, and Z axes of the components in their proper place, since plenty of kit Cobras have been built.

Thanks for the project update.
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It is definitely a commonly noted issue and something to watch for. I am planning on solid engine and transmission mounts which will help that.
 
Oh, rear end ratios.

I've run the numbers and 3.55/3.73 in top gear gives the best numbers. That said, plenty of people have gone for lower numerical gears. So what I'm most likely to do is find a good rear end to bolt in, try it with whatever ratio is in it, and then change it if I'm so inclined.
 
T-5 TKO, all day. 6 speeds is a waste on a car that isn't driven on the highway for long periods of time, or trying to get into high-triple digit top speeds. 3.55 rear will be fine. Cheap to swap to a 3.73 if you feel it necessary, but I think you'd have problems with wheel spin in 1st/2nd.

Re: seats. I'd go leather (or vinyl) with suede inserts. It keeps you from sliding around as much when getting sporty in the curves/corners. 5-point harnesses help, too, but that doesn't sound like where you're going with this build.
 
SoonerAviator said:
T-5 TKO, all day. 6 speeds is a waste on a car that isn't driven on the highway for long periods of time, or trying to get into high-triple digit top speeds. 3.55 rear will be fine. Cheap to swap to a 3.73 if you feel it necessary, but I think you'd have problems with wheel spin in 1st/2nd.

Re: seats. I'd go leather (or vinyl) with suede inserts. It keeps you from sliding around as much when getting sporty in the curves/corners. 5-point harnesses help, too, but that doesn't sound like where you're going with this build.
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The car will be traction limited in 1st and 2nd anyway, even with 315s on the back.

I am going to be putting 4-5 point harnesses in, probably 4.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
The car will be traction limited in 1st and 2nd anyway, even with 315s on the back.

I am going to be putting 4-5 point harnesses in, probably 4.
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Right, but I'd imagine the 3.73s would exacerbate that problem. I'm thinking coming out of a turn in 2nd and dropping the hammer . . . 3.73s might have just a little too much torque getting to the ground. My experience with the leather seats is from many experiences with lap belt muscle cars or standard shoulder belts and full-leather/full-vinyl seats. I much prefer the leather/suede combo in the Pontiac GXP and 300ZX I've owned. Held me in place really well, and still looks great.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I traded the remains of the Mustang donor car for a T-56 transmission. That was a good trade in my opinion.
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Yes, that was a good trade. I really don't think you will miss that 6th gear. What are you going to use for rear end...IRS or a 9 inch?

And I'll agree with SCCutler on black seats.
 
SoonerAviator said:
Right, but I'd imagine the 3.73s would exacerbate that problem. I'm thinking coming out of a turn in 2nd and dropping the hammer . . . 3.73s might have just a little too much torque getting to the ground. My experience with the leather seats is from many experiences with lap belt muscle cars or standard shoulder belts and full-leather/full-vinyl seats. I much prefer the leather/suede combo in the Pontiac GXP and 300ZX I've owned. Held me in place really well, and still looks great.
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Fair point on the 3.73s. We'll see how much I race the thing on the strip. And if I find a rear end with 3.27s, I'll probably just put it in as-is since changing gear ratios is easy enough.

Zeldman said:
Yes, that was a good trade. I really don't think you will miss that 6th gear. What are you going to use for rear end...IRS or a 9 inch?

And I'll agree with SCCutler on black seats.
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Rear is a Ford 8.8", which is what the car is designed for.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Rear is a Ford 8.8", which is what the car is designed for.
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I keep forgetting about the 8.8. Cheap, plentiful and streetable. I just have too much 9 inch stuff laying around in Texas to not use it, unless my friends have taken everything...:lol::lol:
 
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Ted DuPuis said:
The car will be traction limited in 1st and 2nd anyway, even with 315s on the back.

I am going to be putting 4-5 point harnesses in, probably 4.
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The seats in that car are upright enough to where a four point harness is plenty. Schroth has some very nice products for high performance street cars.
 
Supposedly the Cobra is getting on the truck tomorrow. Exciting! This weekend was a lot of prep work to try to get things ready for its arrival. Among the work included:

- Finishing up the garage electrical. This finished setting up my garage, which now has its own subpanel, added on the order of 40 110V outlets strategically positioned all over, added power and lights on reels from the ceiling, air compressor reel hooked up, 60 gallon air compressor hooked up, infrared heaters hooked up vice and bench grinder now installed and bolted to the floor. These were all items I've had since Ohio, but never took the time to install here. This was a combination of not having projects big enough to justify, and also planning on building the hangar. I started the garage electrical a couple years ago, but finished it up over the past 4-6 weeks.

- Got the engine for the 9N back from the machine shop and started getting the 9N back together so it can get out of my garage. This is the big thing and what I really hope to get accomplished before the Cobra arrives. They completed the short block and didn't think they had a lot of the remaining parts of mine. Turns out they did, or else I've managed to lose the oil pickup, head, timing cover all things that I'm pretty sure I brought them. Still I got the flywheel and clutch on the engine, engine attached to the tractor, and have a list of some things that I do need to order to finish it up. Really if I can get the oil pan on that means I can bolt the front suspension back together (the oil pan is a structural component on this tractor) and then I can push the tractor outside or generally elsewhere/around if needed.

- General cleaning and reorganizing. Threw out a good bit of items, found new/better homes for a lot of other items. Made the garage more functional.

It felt really good to hear the compressor fire up for the first time since moving here. Laurie bought it for me as an anniversary present probably 5 years ago now. Because it's a 60-gallon that runs 220, we never had a good way of hooking it up. Plus we were planning on building a shed for it like we did in Ohio to keep it outdoors. Then we were going to put it in the hangar/shop when we built that. Well, we might do that eventually, but for now it fits nicely in a corner of the garage. The infrared heaters (also a carryover from the Ohio garage) also work, although this is not the weather for using them.

Once the 9N is out of the garage (that's been a year and a half coming...), I plan on installing my lift. It's a MaxJaxx half-height lift. I can't use a full height lift in my garage and I had this lift from Ohio. Again, been here 3 years and, like the compressor, haven't used it at all.

I'm not optimistic about getting everything done before the Cobra kit arrives, so I'll have to stash some parts in various places until the 9N moves out most likely.

One thing I haven't yet figured out what I want to do in the garage is figuring out ceiling lighting. Right now the garage has 3 single bulbs in the ceiling, plus the garage door openers also have lights in them. In the daytime when the weather is nice this isn't a problem. Open up the doors, things are good. At night and then coming up in the winter where the doors will be closed, there won't be enough light. There's a beam that runs width wise down the middle of the garage, so I can basically put whatever I want up for ceiling lights without worries about height. Currently the 3 light bulbs in the ceiling are all on the forward side (near where the front of the car would be pulling in). I've been getting by with those 3 lights, turning on the lights in the garage door openers, and using a shop light as well. It works but it's far from ideal.

In Ohio it was a 2.5 car garage (this one is 3) and I had a total of 24 T8 bulbs in the ceiling, or maybe it was 20. I forget whether it was 5 2-bulb troffer lights per side or 6. It was BRIGHT, and I loved it. What I'm currently leaning towards is buying 6 4-bulb T8 shop lights and hanging those from the ceiling, basically forward and aft per bay. This will also give room in the middle to add a couple of ceiling fans, which I've wanted to do but haven't yet. I'm open to ideas on what to do for the garage lighting, though. I'd originally thought about just getting some ceiling fans with lights in them already, but the standard 52" fans are going to be a little wide to fit nicely. Really a couple of 42" fans would be ideal. The fans can wait until next summer, though.
 
I went with some of the ridiculously expensive bright LED bulbs for my 3 screw-in fixtures in my 3 car workshop ($25 each? Can’t remember). Could you just add 3 more fixtures on the dark side and use 6 total LED bulbs? They are seriously bright enough for me that I would never consider going back to fluorescents.
 
While you ponder motors, you can watch this electric Cobra rocket up Knox Mountain to second place.


Cobra kit car, Tesla Model S motor and inverter, Kia Soul EV battery.
 
Costco sells LED fixtures with 48" tubes. I replaced the T8 lamps in my garage fixtures with LED lamps, and it's made a huge difference.
 
I Removed all of those single LIght Fixtures and put in dual 48" LED's hard wired in.
 
455 Bravo Uniform said:
I went with some of the ridiculously expensive bright LED bulbs for my 3 screw-in fixtures in my 3 car workshop ($25 each? Can’t remember). Could you just add 3 more fixtures on the dark side and use 6 total LED bulbs? They are seriously bright enough for me that I would never consider going back to fluorescents.
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I could do that, although what I like about the longer/tube lights is that the light is coming from a larger area, thus hopefully more even.

I know LEDs are the way of the future. I found these which look interesting:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078WJF8GZ/ref=emc_b_5_i

Claim 4500 lumens per unit, and would probably be sufficient if I put 6 of them up.

Dav8or said:
While you ponder motors, you can watch this electric Cobra rocket up Knox Mountain to second place.


Cobra kit car, Tesla Model S motor and inverter, Kia Soul EV battery.
Click to expand...

That was making the rounds on the forum. Some people were complaining about it not being "right." Of course, these things are kit cars. Build them however the hell you feel like. A lot of those folks are pretty snobby about these things.
 
SoonerAviator said:
I just had 6 - 4' LED lights put in my 24x30 garage addition. Plenty of light for most any project, they were about $35/ea at Home Depot. They are also linkable, so in your case, you could easily wire up one in place of each bulb socket and then link another without having to worry about junction boxes/etc.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Lithoni...ight-MNSL-L46-1LL-120V-40K-80CRI-M6/300263607
Click to expand...

I've seen those. Not enough light for me to consider putting them up. I like really, really bright in my garage. That was my favorite feature of the Ohio garage - it was bright enough in there that I rarely needed a shop light at all.
 
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