Hello everyone...I'm kicking off my first post with the start of my STi build. I ordered my kit in early September 2018 and picked it up in Homedale last week. What an experience! I was immediately greeted by Brandon, had a good chat with John, and Debra gave me the full tour of the Kitfox facility. I have never felt more welcome. I can't say enough good things about these people, I'm glad I picked up in person and had a chance to start this journey by making some new friends.

I rented a Penske 16 foot truck as has been mentioned before on here and had plenty of room for everything. Loading took at most 30-45 minutes, Brandon and his son really have this operation down to a science at this point. Room to spare...

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Then the real journey began. 1,000 miles from Homedale to the suburbs of Phoenix, AZ. The drive went smoothly but it was long! 7 hours of driving the first day and nearly 10 the second day (over an hour more than expected--mostly due to hitting traffic in Las Vegas)..

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Less than 15 miles from home and a crash happened on the freeway...All lanes were shutdown but thankfully it wasn't serious and I was only stopped for about 5 minutes.

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With the help of some friends, we unloaded the same day I arrived.

Inventory took a few days to complete, some parts really wanted to stay hidden--especially in the Powder Coat box. Advice for future inventoryists (I'll be submitting a new word suggestion list to Webster's in the fall), if it's wrapped in packing foam, unwrap completely and check ALL parts within. Sometimes there is only one part, sometimes there are several. Once checked I rewrapped and wrote the parts number/s and description on the outside of the foam to ease future searches. It felt incredibly good checking off all items from each list!

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Yesterday marked the official first day of building! I began by reaming the elevator and horizontal stab. This sounded so easy but turning the reamers was anything but. I ended up grinding the non cutting ends flat on my bench grinder as has been recommended here in the past and that made a huge difference.

With that complete, I moved onto fitting the ribs for the horizontal stab.

This is where I'm a little unsure of things. In the second photo you can see where the bottom rib (L -- 11070.304) doesn't touch the metal rib but in the manual it shows it touching and also gives a measurement off of center at 34 1/2 inches. I have it placed at 34 1/2 inches and it isn't even close--but the manual says the dimensions have a +- tolerance of 1/8". Other ribs line up perfectly, some within the +- 1/8" so what am I missing? Should I leave it at 34 1/2" or keep sanding so it rests against the metal rib?

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Thanks in advance! I'm looking forward to sharing and interacting with all of you as this build goes on.

Darren