What dumb mistakes have you made along the way?

[Okiesnake]

The most costly mistake I made was not shaving off the bottom of the bell housing flange. This combined with having the car height set too low allowed the springs to bottom out and I hit the bell housing so hard that it bent the bottom of the flange. I was traveling (at slightly over the posted speed limit) on a road that had a series of slight dips. I didn’t think it had done any damage other than just the bending of the flange lip. However, about 800 miles later, the transmission would sometimes be difficult to shift into second, especially under quick acceleration and sometimes it would be difficult to downshift into 1st. The bellhousing was just slightly bent enough that the transmission was at a slight angle to the engine and causing it to bind. It caused me to have the transmission rebuilt and the bellhousing replaced. I now have shaved the bottom of the bell housing. I also used the alignment specs that eliminator suggested on another post http://www.uniquecobra.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=159&SearchTerms=alignment . The alignment guy had to raise up the car height in order to get the car to set up to these specs. The car handles much better now, has a smother ride and now the car springs never bottom out.

Hopefully others can swallow their pride and let the rest of us benefit by learning from their mistakes. Please feel free to share them here with the rest of us.

[dmiller]

i should have mounted the fuse box first, in a position that was accessible from behind the instrument panel. instead, i drilled holes thru firewall and snaked the conduit, then mounted the wiper motor, and found that the location of the fuse box was limited to poor places.

Mike Geddes suggested that had he known then what he knows now, he'd have fabricated a watertight box and mounted the fuse box in the engine bay. i think that would have been a good idea.

i ended up building a 90 degree bracket to support the fuse box, to allow me to see the fuses from the passenger footwell, and if need be, only one nut holding it in place, so can remove and replace fuses.

[Brent]

I would have removed the floor on the driver and passenger and reworked that area to lower me in the car. After looking at it, it would have been easy to do. Too late now.

Brent

[Okiesnake]

Brent,
How would you have reworked the floor area under the seats? There seams to be a couple of major frame support pieces under the middle of the seat areas. I had also thought a dropped foot pan on the passenger side (like the driver’s side has) would have been a nice benefit for the passenger's side.

[Brent]

The frame rails would need to be moved. Not a big deal and probably about 20.00 worth of materials.

Brfutbrian said it best. "Take your time building it after that you will have years to drive it"

I should have done that.

Brent