Building a Cobra. GD 427 Mk4 (Euro)

Driving the Dream

2012-01-27T20:50:00.000Z

Over a year on after completion I thought I would note a few small things I found useful and have learnt living with it.

Marking nuts on suspension and other bolts holding important things with a dab of bright nail varnish is a great visual check. It helped me notice one screw that came loose on the gearbox mount! Not something I would think about checking.
Brake cleaner (not aerosol) in a pump spray (Comma do one) is great for quickly cleaning the engine from oil and dirt. Also cleaning nice shiny wheels.
Windoline Glass cleaner I found best for cleaning the car in the garage without rolling it outside and in out the sun or winter rain! It's best at picking off bugs and crud while leaving no streaks! It not solvent based but still dries quick. Wax after.

Made notes on whiteboard of things I spotted or thought of over time. Now getting on with them in the winter months.

I was given a Ryobi Impact Wrench for Christmas by my wife, and its a really useful thing to have in the toolbox or boot. It would have saved loads of time at the track day and will come with me to the next ones!

Its amazing how different dry November roads are to warmer days! I went for a drive just to use up some fuel before winter set in and fish tailed the back end while joining a dual carriageway. It was reminding me who was boss! And I do think that learning how it behaved on the track and realising what not to do possibly helped me at there!

Although I have 2 trolley jacks, lifting onto axle stands is trickery and dangerous if the garage floor isn't smooth as it wants to pull the cars towards rather than roll as you jack up. I went a bought 2 scissor jacks from screwfix and they lifted straight up safely. One crank handle got straightened to work in a drill for ease and speed.
Small selection of spares and essential imperial and metric tools in the boot is a must.

Now to carry one with a few mods and changes. :) This blog will continue as the car still isn't quite finished! :P..... are they ever? ;)

Rear suspension,

2011-10-29T20:46:00.003+01:00

On the track day, both the rear adjusters came loose and one lost its grub screw. As I now have no idea where I had them set to nor where number 1 click would be, I gave Proshock a call and explained my problem to them.

His advice was to take a good one off the car, (Front) remove the springs and turn it 7 clicks or 180 from first click. Then get a feel for the force needed to compress the good one, on a bench or vice, and turn the dial shaft on the faulty one till you get the feel pretty close.
When happy the shock is the same, turn the shaft back 180 and this will be set as first click. repeat for the other rear and locktite the grub screws in.
I was lucky not to loose these bitsThe adjuster knob has a tiny spring and bearing, these were held in with a dab of grease and fitted with a little pressure to seat the bearing into the click ring.The chap at Proshock was willing to have them back and get them reset on their machine if I wanted. But I think I managed to get them pretty close as even what looks like 2 clicks was a noticeable change

First Track day 30th July

2011-08-21T19:56:00.010+01:00

Well I finally made it to a track day. GD Organised through Javelin track days. 2.5 hours to get there but what a hoot!
Emptied the boot, Quite surprised how much crap we managed to take and fit in there!!
We had a good safe briefing, then a few sighting laps to get the idea of the track. Then we went out and had some fun.
I spun a couple of times, well 3 to be honest, the 3rd corner was a real tight hairpin and caught a few people out. the other 2 were just me pushing my limits past my luck! :P
I managed to catch the 2 spins on camera.We did have a bit of a rig that we built to hold my camcorder at the angle I wanted to capture to include the front lines, dash, track ahead and hopefully look nice, only cos the marshals and organisers wouldn't allow cameras on a (non fixed mount), i.e. suction cups, adhesive pads or clamps. It had to be hard mounted! So my work buddy built a monstrosity that wasn't going anywhere and they had no excuse not to let it go out! I had to capture my first track day on camera! Needless to say we got ripped about it by others and it was quite funny to see Andy's face when he saw it.

Few laps n spins Video

A little shaky as I later found out that image stabilization isn't good for high frequency vibrations! Hay ho, Not brilliant but I'm happy with the sound I caught!

I had one minor issue during the day, and that was the adjuster knobs on the rear shocks have a grub screw holding them on. one grub screw was gone and the other was loose. so I want able to precisely adjust the shocks as it was still soft for the run in period. Luckily I bought a scissor jack the day before! I took the wheels off and managed to find a rough setting using a screw driver in the slot. After a few goes at refitting the wheels, lowering, doing a bounce test and jacking up taking the wheels off, bit more tweaking...... took about an hour and half. so lost a bit of fiddling time with the camera.

On the way home we detoured to fit a Tunnel run in to end the day with.

Had a cracking drive back too. plenty of pleasant drivers, one truck had a play in the road works on the M25, egging me to blip the throttle, him with his fog horns.... a right giggle!

As you can see, these sort of track days have plenty of room to fall off, and not much traffic to work around! I would recommend it to everyone.

Made it to Stoneleigh!

2011-05-07T19:29:00.006+01:00

The is just a brief, quick post to chuck a video up and a couple of pics.

My hot start issue has been resolved! The injectors were out of phase with the spark! the dizzy needed rotating 90deg to get it right and then reset the ht leads. I installed a new MSD Dizzy from the states and somehow managed to break off the center coil nipple and melt the hole shut which Wasnt noticed till the day before stoneleigh as we were trying to sort the timing on the new dizzy. No wonder it ran rough, surprised it ran at all.
So I refitted the cap from the old dizzy and seemed to get the timing sorted.

Bit the bullet the next day and tagged along with another cob for the drive up. I dont think I would have done the drive alone. Not that far.

I wil add more info at a later date as time is in short supply.

Enjoy the short vid.

Its first stay away from home, next to Grandad.

2011-03-12T16:21:00.009Z

Well it wasn't planned..... I have a gremlin, I think with the fuel pump/evaporation as it doesn't like starting from warm. The pump was sat under my bench unsealed for a long while (same time as the engine but that was sealed and cranked over every 2 months.)
Spoken to a few people and amongst some other small issues I have with my EFI, this needs to be checked first. Rob has been greatly helpful with tips and bits to check as it was his old system. But I knew from the Dyno day that there was a little issue. Hence why Ken Coleman was going on at me about sticking a bloody carb on it. LOL
I wont be beaten easy.

Anyway, I went to see a mate about 30 min drive, and after an hour I went to start and it wouldn't have it. So his dad told me to wheel it round the back as he had some space in his garage and pick it up another day.It looked nice parked next to his AC Aceca! think I gave him a little push to get it restored! :)

First load of Mod's

2011-02-27T21:19:00.008Z

So 2011 is well and truly here.
Decided to get on with some tweaking. First was to fit my new "old" plates to the beast.
I got the plates made off ebay and just tucked the numberplate bar up inside the nose section. I also stuck a cobra badge on till I visit the factory to wind Andy up and let him replace it with a GD one maybe.
I could have gone with the ACC variant but wanted something different, someone at work told me of a site that does prefix plates by search http://www.theprivateplatecompany.co.uk/
So a few afternoons of browsing, I found this for £250 + transfer & admin costs. Took a while as the fella who owned the plate had to MOT his vehicle to release the plate. No probs, it took over Christmas to get done and as I wasn't driving it I didn't mind.

Also lowered the suspension a little as I felt it was a little high.
Andy told me that the exact rough measurement between wheel and arch of 2 fingers at the front and 3 fingers at the rear. :)
Also 2 to 3 clicks of the shock settings all round for its run in period. Any more and the piston won't be allowed to bed in correctly.

Then I went about fitting the last bit of boot carpet that arrived after my IVA. This meant taking out the roll bars and cutting the roll bar hole into the last bit of carpet.
Laying the carpet in the boot and lining it up evenly, I chopped down one of my white chinagraph pencils so it fit into the mounting holes and marked the underside of the carpet.
Measure the roll bars and cut them out with my red circle cutter. (Good bit of kit that!)

Then a case of temp refitting the roll bars to align the holes and then glue it down.
Another thing that I spotted was the exhaust bobbin nut. It was digging into the boot floor carpet. So I made a hole in 2 bits of off cut and placed them over each nut.
Also took the headrests off. Like the look without for the time being.

Final thing was the silencers. They do make a nice burble, but I wanted a bit more roar. So I spoke to Andy and he made me some pipes that I swapped out for the silencers. Holy c&@p, it now sounds how I wanted it to!

I intend to do a little video drive and get some quality sound at some point. Lots of videos out there only to have the wind drown out the sound of a V8 in full song.

First Local meet.

2010-11-13T20:44:00.003Z

I managed to squeeze a couple of hours last Sunday to pop along to my local meet. I have been a few times before and knew some of the chaps who gave plenty of ribbings as to when will it be ready in the past, so this was my first visit completed.
Plenty of nice comments and nice to see it alongside others.
From Left: AK, GD Mk3, Pilgrim Sumo, My GD Mk4
The red one with stripes is a Dax. I think the other red one may be a Pilgrim Sumo too.

Good turn out of 7 cobs in total on a brisk November afternoon.

Just over 5 weeks to the shortest Day of the year, then Summer will be on the way! :P

First Few Miles

2010-10-27T13:11:00.004+01:00

Its been rather busy lately with work and the little man, so not had much time to drive. Had one Sunday afternoon to make some cosmetic updates, like the side vents, wind winds, stone guards and add the plates.

So far I have driven it to work once, and also took the father in-law out one afternoon when he came round, it was more "how's the car getting on?" "oh its done and passed, wanna go for a little drive?" needless to say he was rather speechless when we got back. :P
Then I took it out for another, longer drive round some local lanes last Sunday. Although it was bitter cold, 3 deg's it was a lovely sunny drive. I treated the car with respect and it drove really well.
With the days getting shorter, I can't see many more miles clocking up. So far I have done 190 miles.
Still need to sort out the idle/cruising idle as its still not 100%. But that's bolt on EFI for you. great when set up properly........ Still got to do that bit. But it runs fine away from idle speeds
May even look into the hardtop as I could have used it a bit more this month. :P

As soon as the shortest day has passed, I'll know summer is on its way! :)
Bring on 2011.

IVA Passed. Wooohoooo!

2010-09-20T20:27:00.000+01:00

All the fail items were fixed, some easier than others and after just over an hour it passed.

I have handed in the paperwork to my local DVLA office and will be sleeping under the letter box till the paperwork comes through. :D

Wow, what a journey from start to finish.

D Day

2010-07-29T19:38:00.001+01:00

Having had yesterday to final check and final fit some major bits, I found that the engine wasn't ticking over as it should, and its first drive up and down the garage block was rather lumpy not running right between 1-2k rpm. So I buried my head in the EFI book of words to try and figure it out. But with no joy.
I had to raise the suspension so the indicators are 350mm from the ground. So a little worried I called it a day. Work has been a bit silly and taken all my time as well as father duties in my spare evening time.

So I drove it to the test which was a great drive, left extra early to take a longer route to bed brakes in and check for gross error while still close to home. Had some fella at my first stop, fuel, coment about my number plate falling off, told him its a kit car and they do that. :)

Image centre caps fitted, nearly forgot. lucky I put them in the boot when they came.

Here we go....
Sadly it failed on emissions, hand brake not bed in enough, sticker for light switch should read side/dip and not side/main. Earth strap from the Tank to the chassis, as he wasn't happy with it being earthed through the neg on the sensor loom.
I had fitted a loom cover in the engine bay and the bolts protruded into the passenger side... doh
Rear Fog light should only come on with side, dip and main. Mine came one separate. Easy fix.
The seatbelt eye bolts undid with him twisting the belt latch, so I must locktite them.
Steering wheel needs to be (E) marked or a certificate of conformity to EU standards?!?!?! I called him up yesterday to clarify it, and basicly the centre boss should compact if your face was to come into contact with it. Never mind the radius's, the centre basically needs to be padded if there is no E mark on the wheel. So that's now an easy fix.
The tester was really helpful on some other parts such as the braided hoses touched the wish bones and I was told to wrap them with rubber hose and cable tie them while it was on the ramp. I also added locking nuts to the anti roll bar tie rods.
He was happy with the drilled pedals as they come from GD, the holes act as anti slip in the way that rubber on your soles presses in. That was his reading or the rules.
So a small list, but plenty to do. Emissions being the big one. It must be a duff spark plug or a blocked injector as it was set up perfectly on the dyno at EDA. So its not timing.

I had plenty of positive comments on the build and lots of attention, lots of people loved the paint job! :P heheh

Wheels are here

2010-07-23T21:13:00.004+01:00

The wheels finally came yesterday, So it was straight on with them. But that was it, I had little time to do anything else and was itching to drive it out. Oh well.Lowered onto blocks as I didn't want the body to land on the jack. Its close on the nose!
Image forgot to send the blank centre caps....

Finally looks like a car. So Close!

IVA compliant bits

2010-07-18T21:22:00.005+01:00

Had to add the final touches to conform to the IVA rules.

Headrest extensions for fixed seats. 50mm from top of seatI blanked off the side vents and siliconed round the lip as this could possible be below the radius requirements. The N/S has 2 holes with rubber edging.

Label for brake reservoir
Blunted/rounded door handles,
Switches have to labeled, but cos they are within the 127mm radius outside the steering wheel they are not radiused but also exempt. :P
Also had to cover the clock adjuster knob as it may be classed as sharp. (bottom middle dial)
EDIT: The Lights should read "Side & Dip"!

Mirror stub is contactable
Although the rear Fog supplied by GD that matches the reverse light is E marked, it wont pass as it has to be a parabolic lens designed fog lamp.
Front nose will allow the test sphere to enter and fail even with the number plate bar, so I made up a blank plate from MDF and filed the edges round and attached with some P Clips.
I fitted a steering wheel that has radiused edges and no slots like the motolita. Also used the Vecrta stalks as they show the correct symbols. EDIT: The centre of the steering wheel had to be padded for the retest, the inspector felt that it was a hard contactable area!? So i padded it with foam and gaffer tape. Think there will be a pic somewhere.

Boot handle too has some minor edges that could fail the test.

Best Speak to GD about these bits.

IVA put back.

2010-07-05T19:22:00.005+01:00

Well today was the last day of the allowed 3 days in advance to change my IVA date. Having spoken to GD and the wheels should be ready by the end of the week, however there is no stock of Toyo tyres in the UK at present! Delay from China has back logged most places. So I may have to get some Michelin's.

So a call to VOSA to get the date moved from the 8th, resulted in a bit of a pause on the phone, and then I was told the next available date is the 29th July!!!!
Wont make the GD track day on the 25th then. :(

Still No Wheels

2010-07-01T17:06:00.004+01:00

I have now got everything ready for the IVA. But Image wheels are pissing about with various excuses. I'm gutted as my wheels wont be ready till the day after my test date!!! ArSE!!!
So much for their 6 week lead time. Ordered them about 9 weeks ago. To say I'm Annoyed at the mo is and understatement.

GD have been very helpfull trying to get stuff to me before they went to goodwood yesterday for the rest of the week.
Will re-evaluate on Monday and may have to rebook the test date. :(

So close...

Off to go and throw some blunt soft things about in the garage.

Brakes

2010-06-29T16:44:00.002+01:00

2 days before he was born, I got the brakes through.

330mm vented beasties on the fronts may be a little over kill but I plan to make them work for their money.

They should stop me.Using the ezbleed off the tyre pressure, I got all the system bled. Just need to wait for the pads to turn up to check the pedal feel.

He beat me to it.

2010-06-19T22:48:00.004+01:00

Our son "Harry" was born Yesterday morning. Mum is doing well after the op as he was bum first.
6lb 9oz

I had already put the IVA date back to the 8th July. Will see how things go, may need a bit longer.

Cheers Ryan, I deleted my last post cos it was a little confusing. ;)

Checking it over

2010-06-04T19:42:00.003+01:00

Today was spent checking over some bits. Ran the engine up to temp, made sure the dials and instruments all worked and made sure the fans kicked in. When I was on the phone to GD, I asked them about the speedo, Andy knew roughly what my setup should read in 5th @ 1k rpm = 32mph. So I set about adjusting the speedo as it was reading 130mph on tick over in 5th, lol. just a little over. :P
I entered the number of 30000 that I was told and that was spot on. I will have to fine tune it on the day as that isnt the exact figure, more a ball park number. Also I'll try to adjust it so it reads a little over the true speed as there is less chance of a fail over reading speed than under reading.

Next I plugged up the EFI adjuster box to get familiar with the settings, 15mins later it starts to run rough. Noooo
Panicked I flick through the menus to see what I have unknowingly changed. It starts to cough, missfire and get worse. The throttle does nothing either... stopped the engine, try to restart... NOTHING!

That will be its first 5L of fuel gone then, LOL

Got my IVA date

2010-06-04T19:35:00.002+01:00

Well, this will be an interesting month to say the least. IVA test date is 29th June, 6 days after baby due date. Bearing in mind, babies can be up to 2 weeks late.

Still waiting for my wheels to be made too.

Not ideal but no choice really, suck it n see.

Headrests are Wrong

2010-06-04T19:26:00.003+01:00

Yesterday Andy phoned me for a change, lol. He had spotted my blog and saw the headrests I made up.
Unfortunately, they wont pass as they have to be "50 mm" from the top of the seat. I'm sure I read it to be 150mm, but re reading the IVA manual 50mm is correct. I'm sure they changed that a day after I made them.
That didn't go down well with my wife to who I told the second pair were right when we made them. Waste of a day really.

Anyway, GD will get some to me before my test date. Oh that came through the "ebay chute" this morning. 29th June. Gulp.

Clutch sorted

2010-06-02T19:17:00.002+01:00

After a chat with Andy (again) he gave me a few ideas to raise the biting point off the floor. Last resort would have been a larger master cylinder. And that would have meant a heavier pedal.

I knew I had some float in the clutch fork and reduced this to about 1/2mm then wound a bit out of the pedal adjuster and reduced the spacers that the Master is mounted with. With the help of my younger brother, we managed to get a bit more air out of the slave cylinder. Now it is biting about 2/3 of the travel down. This is while on axle stands and watching the hubs turn. so could be a little higher on the road.
I think my bro shat himself when I told him to fire it up, as he was sitting there :P hehe

Anyway, the clutch pedal is a bit heavy but I have fitted a street Twin and that will be heavy. I would compare it to a truck clutch, heavy but manageable. Unless your a wimp with less meat on you than a butchers pencil.

Fixed seats

2010-05-30T15:26:00.001+01:00

My understanding of the IVA rules, to use roll bar head rests, the seats have to be fixed and not adjustable. So as only I will be driving it, once fitted I can set the seat to its optimum position and remove the handle that makes it fixed allowing roll bar headrests to be used.

Bleeding Clutch

2010-05-29T23:12:00.006+01:00

In more ways than one!

I bought one of the one way bleed kits and also one of the kits that works off a tyre to pressurise the system. Great idea when you know not to tighten the reservoir lid too much as it pops a thread and then pisses brake fluid out. :(
The trick was to snug it tight till you see the rubber seal touch all the way round. Too much and you can see it lift away about to jump a thread, easy to see now its soaked with fluid.
Anyway once I realised how to seal it, it worked really well, and it took a litre to do just the clutch.
One last pump on the pedal with my wife in the drivers seat, got a bit more air out of the slave cylinder as the bleed nipple is on the bottom.Fluid all over the place, in my hair and on my clothes, but that's another tick off the list.

Need to look into it as the biting point is right on the floor. Ran the engine and tried the gears. Further investigation required.

Steering wheel

2010-05-28T18:25:00.003+01:00

I went for the leather Motolita wheel as opposed to the wooden one. I tried both out when I was up at GD and personally felt the wooden one was a little thin and didn't like the varnished feel but they do look nice. So I decided to go for the leather type. Rather pleased with it. Nicely made.With the polished boss attached, it was now a case of fitting 2 bolts with long shanks to act as indicator cancellation. Carefully measured the angle the where cancel switch is positioned to the horizontal and marked this angle on the rear of the hub.
Next I measured the distance from the shaft to the edge of the switch bracket and marked the boss and leave enough of a gap between for the switch to engage.
Drilled and tapped 2 6mm holes and cut the heads off after measuring how deep they need to be.Looking more like a car every day.To do list is getting shorter too :D

Rear over riders

2010-05-27T21:40:00.003+01:00

Needed to make some angled spacers as the threads are at an angle to the body and the nuts don't sit flat.
With a marker running along the edge of the "stand off's" giving me the desired angle, I cut 2 pairs out. Made some rubber washers to fit between the stand off's and the body.

Head rests

2010-05-26T21:20:00.004+01:00

As I mentioned earlier. My fixed seats will need headrests making up. The standard GD ones are not as big as the IVA regulations need. They need to be 150mm from the top of the seat and a certain width apart. Wont go into it cos its rather boring. IVA Manual.

So I made up some templates out of some scrap mdf (Mk1) Didn't realise about the minimum 150mm from seat top.
These ones are a bit on the small side. So I cut out some others that follow the body curve closely (Mk2), covered with foam then covered with vinyl. I decided for them to fit through the eyebolts as GD's stainless headrest T's have edges that Mr IVA tester may not like. So playing safe.

Didn't take many pics as my wife was helping and after realising the first ones were a bit small we cracked on with the Mk 2's I hope they are good enough to pass.

Couldn't resist fitting harnesses too. :P

Seats Fitted

2010-05-25T20:34:00.004+01:00

The seat runners fit perfectly to the holes in the seats and the ones pre marked for drilling in the floor.
Now, all adjustable seats must have headrests fitted for the IVA.
To use roll bar headrests the seats have to be fixed and not adjustable.
I will post up how I did this if it works and is sufficient to their requirements.

Next was to knock up some spacers, 25mm for the front and 5mm for the rear. These are recommended by GD to give best support and comfort. I had some odds n ends of material that I cut to size. Tried them with the seat in place but found them personally too much. My knees felt too high for the full range of the clutch. Maybe I have short legs.
So after some faffing about with different size ones I decided to go with 15mm at the front. (used 8mm washers wrapped in tape for the spacers). This gives me the support needed under the legs while still feeling comfortable. I may swap back to 25mm once the seats have bedded in.
It is a little fiddly getting the bolts through the runners, spacers and lined up with the floor holes.
Tightening the bolts is a bit tricky as a spanner wont fit in the runner even if you push the seat back or forward to expose the heads. I used a flat blade screw driver between the head of the bolt and the side of the runner. this stopped it from rotating while I tightened the nuts up. Nice little trick and worked well.

Dash Refitted & Ally under trays

2010-05-23T22:55:00.003+01:00

Having reinstalled the wiper system and before fitting the dash for the last time, I fitted the middle tray as its very tight when the dash is in.
I reinstalled the dash, fitted the steering column and set it to its furthest out position on the mounting bracket. Connected up the stalks to the loom and installed the relay that came yesterday and that worked fine. (Fixed the bad relay with a large hammer, Felt good :P)
The footwell vents are normally fitted near the tunnel. I had to do this in the passenger side as the glove box took up the rest of that side. But on my side, I decided to fit the vent to the Right of the steering column, as this is more direct to the feet. Probably never use it or make any difference, but what the hell.

Tank straps fitted

2010-05-23T20:28:00.000+01:00

Pretty straight forward.

Tank in.

2010-05-22T21:24:00.003+01:00

Placed the Tank in the boot and plumbed it all up.
Have fitted some sound sheets for the hell of it as I had some left over from another project. Used to use them at work for deadening hollow echo's/noise. The idea was that you apply it in patches. Stops the panel resonating and saves the weight of complete covering. Not that I have heard of this happening with any GD's but as I said, for the hell of it.

Also ran an earth as advised for the IVA from the Filler cap, to the tank as the filler is isolated in the fibreglass body. I then linked it from the tank to the earth in the sender.Will fit the tank straps tomorrow.

Swapping the wiper park.

2010-05-22T21:06:00.005+01:00

Wasn't to pleased having to rip all this out as everything was in place to take the dash. Heater hoses, loom all had to be moved to get it out.
Removed the circlip for the gear shaft.Opened it up, took the gear outand swaped the park tag.
When I was testing the wipers I did notice they were rather noisy, sounded like sawing through wood. So I had a look and noticed that I had put a few sharp bends in the Bundy tube.
(Shocking! Can't blame that one on the glue fumes!))
Took it all off and straightened them a bit by inserting a screw driver into the tube and gave it a shallower bend following the scuttle curve more.
Reassembled and re tested. Parks correctly and is a lot quieter. No surprise.

Ignition Barrel

2010-05-22T20:52:00.005+01:00

On closer inspection, it didn't seem too hard to get into to clean it up as it's a little intermittent and temperamental, only a refurbed Vectra column I guess its just dirty.

Removed the Key barrel and undone the special little grub screw holding the switch in place. Don't loose this as it has a locating shank on the end of it.
Delicately and slowly unclipped the 3 clips holding it together, hoping its guts wouldn't open like a grenade.
The contacts were pretty black and sticky, so a bit of Brasso on a pipe cleaner did the trick nicely. (forgot to take a pic before I cleaned it.Putting it back together was tricky. The little clear plastic spacer has a tag on it and fits in the black part rotating 270 Degrees. The wrong way it will only move 90.
I think this is right, as the wrong way it jammed up. lol.

Dash Done

2010-05-21T20:23:00.003+01:00

Wiring the instruments was fairly straight forward.
Some may have noticed I have not cut out the glove box yet as I'm going to see weather I want it or not. Fitted a blanking plate for now, made from ally that I would use as a door if and when I decide to do it. The glove box was then fitted over the plate and the dash installed.
With the Leather piping now on, I had to elongate the mounting hole downwards to accommodate the larger curve caused by the piping.

Everything was plugged up one by one and tested. First thing I noticed was the Ignition was intermittent when in position. Got it to work for the test though. Next I noticed the main beams need to be looped from the stalk to the dash switch for the dipped lights to work. The washer motor needs to be a switched earth and some wires needed to be bridged.
Next on the test, was the wipers. (Don't fit the actual wipers yet till you know all is working in the right direction! Don't want them wiping the wrong way across your bonnet.) Seeing the spindles turning is good enough.

I must have the wrong 3 wipe intermittent relay or its buggered cos as soon as the ignition went on, the wipers started and wouldn't turn off. So I bypassed the relay and took it out. Need to find the right one.
With it being wired up as per GD's wiring instructions (GD don't use the intermittent relay mod) it worked fine and parked when stopped. Only thing is, it stopped in the opposite position. Should park facing right. Job for tomorrow.

Everything else worked fine.

Dash Leather, Part 2

2010-05-13T18:56:00.008+01:00

Did a lot of homework last night, reading blogs, looking at other builds and how best to make the holes in the leather. One job you really don't want to screw up or rush. (This is how I did it, no idea if it's the right way though.)

I decided to start cutting about 3-4mm in from the hole edge, sliced in 4 then 8th then 16th's.
This gave me plenty of tags to pull back without showing noticeable tug lines next to the dials. I tried 12th's on the smaller one of the holes but they didn't look as neat, so divided those up too.
I would highly recommend Evositck Timebond over contact adhesive for the reason that its not stringy and gives you a bit of room for adjustment. However, I should have glued each dial one by one as by the time I got to the 3rd hole it had dried. Not to worry, a bit of fresh stuff softened the dried bit up.

Next was to glue them back. I didn't want to pull one side more than the other and risk creating creases, so I used a dial to send the tags equally through.
Kept checking the front as it needed a bit more tension in some areas. All depends on the look you want.
The piping was then glued along the top. The glue didn't like adjustment as it peeled off the vinyl piping when partially set. Should be fine once in position and fully cured. Trimed "V"s into it round curves.

The lamp and switch holes I cut out from behind and trimmed up with the lamp end pushing through from the back. Kept the hole snug.Added some piping to the steering hole.Rather pleased how it came out. Not bad for a first timer. Took all day though. :P

IVA paperwork

2010-05-13T18:33:00.002+01:00

I went through Paul Jepson in the kit cars mags to do all the paperwork.
Once I had gone through all the questions, I realised it wasn't that involved and GD could have helped me the same without the £45 he now charges.

Didn't really think. Never mind.
Everyone else, GD will guide you through the forms.

So that's me applied for the test. Fingers crossed it wont be too long till test date.

Dash Leather Part 1

2010-05-12T17:55:00.005+01:00

Time to move onto the dash. Not being sure how much to open the holes up by, I warped a dial with leather and then measured it. Worked out 2mm bigger than the dial.
I checked the marked holes and a couple were marked a little bit bigger than I worked out, so I remarked them. Checked they were all central to the body and each other by offering the dash up in the cockpit and all was spot on.
Next was to cut out the holes, I would have used a hole saw but have suffered with it wondering in the past on various things, so opted for the trusty dremel and a tile cutting bit. easy to use and with a hoover next to it you can get real close and detailed.

The small lamp holes were cut out with a step drill to 12mm then opened to 12.5 with a normal drill bit on reverse so as not to dig in or chip the edges.
Same process with the start button and switches.

The switches, if using Lucas type, need recessing on the back so enough thread can poke through for the retaining nut.
Now for the foam. Sprayed adhesive onto the dash face and the foam with the fabric face taking the glue. Laid the dash on top and cut out the holes.Took the foam round the bottom edges.
While I was in this far, I attempted some leather work. Another first.
As my dash curves down in the centre, the bit of leather supplied follows this line quite nicely. But is a little tricky getting it wrinkle free around that bit. Thinking of it as 3 sections made it easier to approach
It seemed to work best by gluing the bottom middle bit first with the seam lined up and then glue the top of the middle.
I didn't pull it too tight but enough to take any wrinkles out. Then work the tops L/H and R/H, pulling the sides if needed to remove any wrinkles.
Lastly the bottom sides were pulled and glued, snipping the curved edge as you would when folding the dial holes in.

That's enough for today.

Steering Column Housing

2010-05-11T22:22:00.007+01:00

I had marked and cut out for the stalks and ignition barrel in the ally cowling earlier.
Leather strip was fitted.Stalks cut out, then when fitted and lined up, the ignition hole was cut out.
Stalks were fitted with rubber gaiters snug, then came refitting the ignition barrel. You need to push the little latch back down to allow the barrel back in.
The barrel needs 2 clicks to lock in, first click is that latch popping back into place and the second one is the barrel wedge latch that locks when its deep enough

Problem was that now the leather is on, I couldn't get it deep enough to lock in.
After much re trying and filing the housing face, it clicked home. phew.
The barrel pops out by inserting a small Allen key from the front with the ignition at 12 o'clock.
Will leave these stalks on for the test as they need identifying.

Footwell Carpets

2010-05-10T19:06:00.003+01:00

The main footwell carpets are nice and thick with foam and rubber foot mat.

These are fixed with 2 pop studs near the seat and the rest fits snugly at the front.
Pop stud spikes, or as I called them "Oouch........F**ing Bo**ox" (as I kneeled on one I unknowingly dropped on the carpet). Fitting is straight forward once you figure it out, The "OFB" protrudes through from the top and fixes the female pop stud underneath.
The trick is to pull the spikes through enough to hide the ring from the top side. pressing onto something hard like a stack of repair washers helps push them through.

Now the stud part. Place the male part under to locate it (Dont pop it in yet) lift up the carpet and mark where it located, drill and secure with a self tapper.
Did the same the other side.Refitted the heater hoses and made up some packing for under the dash support bars.

More Carpets

2010-05-10T17:54:00.005+01:00

Next was the rear bulkhead carpet. This I found to be the hardest as its one big peice to line up with the top edge, side edges and centre on the tunnel. Got there eventually.
Now you can lay the floor carpets. I didn't glue them as they will be held in place by the harness bolts and the seat runners. Also should it get soaked they can be removed so they don't rot.

I fitted the seat runners to the seats. These needed a bit of clearance but the runner holes are moulded into the seats, just heed to find them and cut through to reveal them.Once fitted I measured the hole centres and checked against the holes pre marked in the floor as the body is a few years old. But no, they are spot on. Cracking consistency on GD's part!
So I drilled out the holes in the floor and with a white marker I marked the carpets up through the holes in the floor and punched the holes out.

Carpets Part 3

2010-05-08T18:14:00.007+01:00

With my head now clear, it was time to tackle the sides.
These have a vinyl strip that overlaps and is held by the sill. Lined it up with the carpet edge about 20mm away from the door lip and marked the body with a white crayon and then applied some spray glue as its a flat area it should work fine.

Did the same the other side, then started on the door cards.
I fitted the studs and lined them up and pressed to mark the tape, then drilled them about 7mm

For the pedals footwell, I marked the holes on the back of the carpet from inside the wheel arch then made a cardboard template of the pedal box,lines the 2 up, marked it and and cut out the carpet.
Using the template I marked the bulkhead so as to know where the carpet needs to fit.

So far I have used 2 cans of spray adhesive and a 1L tin of evostick. 1more tin should do. Got some Time bond stuff this time.... less fumes, lol.

Carpets Part 2

2010-05-07T20:21:00.008+01:00

Firstly I'n off my nut from evostick fumes. Hope I make some sense.

The spray adhesive wasn't great for the tunnel as it lifted away along the seamed edge, So I wasn't happy and easily pulled the lot off. Opened a tin of "Car Builders Solution Carpet Adhesive" AKA Evostick and carefully realigned the carpet. This was hard now cos of the old glue.
Next was the foot-well bit. Got some advice off Simon and GD like to do it so there is no cut edge where your foot will rub causing it to fray and have lined it with ally before. So while fumed up, I took this approach.
Marked the edge with some chalk, pressed the carpet to get a mark, measured it and trimmed to fit.Marked the inside lip and used the offcut to cover the face towards you.
This is by no means the proper way to do it, Just the way I worked it out. The top edge is a little bare and the bottom part will have an edge showing. But who's going to see it in there?

Right off to get some fresh air.

Carpets Part 1

2010-05-06T22:39:00.007+01:00

Time for the next big step.

Before I got them out of the box, I gave the back end a quick polish with some Farecla G10. I spotted some marks around the roll hoop holes and don't want white spray on my new rugs.

Also took the dash support bars out so I could lay the carpet up to the bulkhead.

Now is a good time to take some reference pics of how the loom is run and fixed in the cockpit before you hide it with carpet should the IVA inspector want to know how its been secured

After having a little read of a couple of blogs and a quick look at the GD video on how to tackle it, I got the centre section lined up, checked along the edges and marked for the first hole.
Smack Bang in the middle. No pressure then.Cut it out small just in case I messed up the marking.

Used some spray on goo, and laid the top bit.
No pic yet, batteries ran out on my camera. lol

I need to work out how best to do the footwell extension. Thanks to Simon I have a plan.

Pedal Box

2010-05-05T22:20:00.005+01:00

Getting ready for the carpets, I removed the pedals and after Chatting with GD, it was explained to me how to adjust the pedals.
Before I removed it, I marked where the accelerator was at rest and fitted the cylinders with spacers the same as the bulkhead they bolt through, to show how the pedals sit and then adjust.

both the clutch and brake have threaded push rods, The clutch I wound all the way in towards the pedal and the brake far enough out to be just above the clutch but also making sure there was enough thread still in the pedal and locked with the nuts. I also bent the pedals apart a little as they were too close for my feet so they are now about 5cm apart.

Im not sure if I got the heights right but its better than what it was. May add some washers to the clutch if its still to high as there is no more thread left.

Next is to make a pedal stop for the accelerator by bending some 10mm studding and using it to mount the pedal box, in place of one bolt.

Tank Sender

2010-05-04T21:54:00.002+01:00

I had already bent and soldered the sender arm, tested the full range inside the tank with a multimeter and rotating the tank.
Its not 100% accurate, more of a guide as on empty there will still be some left in the tank

Now don't you hate it when you buy something off ebay and it isn't what it should be or what you think it is?

Well I went a bought some "Hylomar Blue" gasket as its supposed to be fuel safe to seal the sender. It sat on the shelf for a couple of months. I went to use it yesterday and when I opened the seal I realised it wasn't the Blue stuff just clear silicone gasket stuff. Dam I'd been Evilbayed again! So I went hunting again and found the right stuff.

Top one is the right one.
Bottom one is just clear silicone, not great for fuel.

Applied to the surface of the sender, tank and cork seal. Fingers crossed no fuel vapours in the boot.

Air filter, Scoop

2010-05-03T21:32:00.000+01:00

One of the things I loved when I first saw a real one was the oval Ford air filter. I found one at a good price on the club and bought it not knowing if it would fit under the bonnet. So I thought what the hell, lets see.
Enough room under the scoop for the wing nut without needing to file anything.

Well happy!
Now to post a pic on the Cobra club and wind up all the anti Chevy, Ford Purists. hehehe

Rad fan

2010-05-03T21:14:00.004+01:00

One of the things I collected at the show was a replacement rad fan as one of the original ones was noisy and lumpy as if the bearing was mullered. Andy kindly replaced it and I went about fitting it.
I had noticed initially when I fitted them was that the fans are set as "pullers" not "Pushers".
Reversing the polarity wont be enough as the fans are shaped for max air flow in one direction
so it needs to be flipped.
The blades are held on the rotor as a push fit and retained with a circlip. One needed prying off.

It was then a case of flipping the blade round and refitting.

Stoneleigh 2010

2010-05-02T19:47:00.005+01:00

Went up to Stoneleigh with a big shopping list, got 90% of what I wanted and spent 130% of what I had intended! Gotta love car shows.
Anyway, I picked up a load of bits from GD and saw something unexpected.

GD with a LeMan Hardtop. hmm :P
Not the best pics but you get the idea.
The owner who I have met a few times before, Charlie, had adapted the hood himself from another kit company and it looks very nice indeed. Not currently an option at GD but the more people that poke Andy about it the sooner I can get one if its a reasonable price. Andy did mention that the screen would have to be raked back as it looks better that way. Gotta agree.

It was nice to met up with some fellow builders, Simon R, Martin, Andy and Alan. (not all in the pic) Had a nice chat and then went off to carry on with my shopping list. Down side apart from and empty wallet was that I didn't get to spend much time looking at the club stand or the rest of the show.

Next year I will drive mine there.

Roll bars Pt 3

2010-05-01T19:34:00.004+01:00

Next was to tackle the holes in the boot. This involved cutting some rubber with the trusty circle blade.
GD did supply some rubber bits with the body grommets.
Then siliconed in place.Return and main fuel lines fitted along with pump loom.

I'm waiting for the trimmers to make the large boot carpet as they have run out due to various dificaulties due to it having been taken over after it went bust a while ago, so I'll hold off fitting the body grommets till its here and then final fit the hoops.

Roll bars, Part 2

2010-04-27T17:51:00.008+01:00

Time to tackle the rear leg. I made a template with some mdf with the leg holes sawed out and the rear marked and drilled 6mm for the hole saw pilot hole. Placed in the boot , marked and sawed out the hole.
I made another template the same but with the 3rd leg hole sawed also. The rear leg is smaller than the 2 main legs! Good to remember before attacking these This acted as a jig for the rear leg hole. But only for the pilot hole as I needed one hole size up from the template for clearance like with the main legs.
Also put some gaffer tape round the edge of the hole saw just in case it catches the body as it cuts through. Lucky I did cos exactly that happened as I did this hole.

Hmm....How did that happen?
I worked out that I had flipped the template thinking I had to, cos the roll bar was reversed. Silly mistake but not a biggie. Its about 6mm off. As I have to leave 5mm gap all the way round with the aid of scribing with a 10mm washer, this little error wont show luckily.
Did the repeated the procedure for the other roll bar, less the flipping of the template, but the other rear leg was out slightly too . Never mind, Its not an easy job, but they are all ok now and look great.I will give it one more final full polish before I fit them for good and before I fit the interior. Shame as I got to work the next 3 days but I need to. :P

Roll Bars. Part 1

2010-04-26T20:48:00.011+01:00

Well its time to bite the bullet! But I plan to do it over a couple of days.

Before the body went on, I trial fitted the roll bars and found the rear legs needed slightly pulling into align with the holes. This saved me lots of hassle for when the body went on as I will be making templates for the holes from the legs.

Did a bit of reading up how others tackled them as there are no real surfaces to use as a reference for drilling the holes in the top of the body.
So easy to mess up and hard to hide any cockups.

So I opted to go for the studding route.
Some use a plum bob but my garage floor isn't level lengthways so neither is the car on axle stands. But it is level sideways.

I got some 12mm studding, measured and cut it to have enough for a nut top and bottom of the chassis mounts and to reach the top of the boot and drilled a 6mm hole saw guide for the 2 mail legs.
Small pilot holes drilled/dremeled from below the body, the inside most leg was done with the angle drill and a 12mm bit of scrap with a 6mm hole in it for a 6mm drill through the chassis rail. Then hole sawed out to 61mm. The 2 main bars are 50.5mm or 2" so the bottom holes wont catch the bars.

The outer holes were hole sawed with a bit of studding that I drilled a 6mm guide hole into and bolted into position.
The rear support is different on the Euro to the Jag chassis as it fits in under the body with plenty of room.
With the studding close to the top and the nuts tight, I measured the centres all the way up.
I then did the same the other side to make sure it looks the same and that I didn't do anything silly.

Triple checked everything,
No going back now!

(Latex gloves on, itchy hands from fibreglass dust drive me mad.)
Moved the studding back and tightened them back up again to see how they lined up through the top. I noticed that the hole moved a bit if the stud was rotated. hmmmmm.....
I wasn't happy with it and it felt like one of them was slightly off vertical as the centres were a little off as I measured up.
So I decided to make an extra spacer/centre jig. I measured the roll bar centres and drilled them level into a bit of plank and they were snug over the studs. Looked better and measured up bang on.

Here we go....

Slid them in back-to-front to check the main legs for now. All pretty much bang on!
Well chuffed. Will leave it there for tonight.

Exhaust fitted

2010-04-24T21:49:00.005+01:00

This was fairly easy, just meant me getting covered in Silicone again. How do I do it?
Temp fitted the cherry bombs, and marked the slot for the bobbins, drilled and nylocked in the boot.
One side seemed to be a little lower, but this was easily fixed with a large washer under one of the bobbins.

ECU and dash bits

2010-04-24T21:13:00.007+01:00

One of my big worries was how and were to fit the ECU and excess loom.

Now the body is on, I can see how much there was and it curled up nicely with the ECU fitting flush against the bulkhead. (old photo)Now I had to work out fixing it. The ECU has 2 holes for bolting. However, this would mean trying to drill holes behind the distributor and have screw heads or nuts in plain sight. So I opted to use some stuff I have used at work that is stronger than Velcro and works really well. "3M Dual lock".
Also as I can't fit the washer bottle in the normal place, I ran some hose into the dash area and the other end to the Expansion tank as that's where the new one is going to be.
I then fitted the pump, wrapped in sound proofing sheet inside next to the ECU and stuck it with the same Dual Lock.

Battery Installed

2010-04-23T22:24:00.005+01:00

Got my Optima Red Top 3.7 Battery a couple of months ago, at 730 cold crank amps, it should be good enough and it fits in the GD tray perfectly.

Having seen Simon R fitting something called a "Battery Brain" I looked a bit deeper into it. Most people fit a battery cut out of some type for safety/security. Mostly the red key type.
But I was intrigued that it cuts off battery supply if there is a drain before the point you can no longer start up. So if you parked up and left the lights on, it would still start after a week. Not that I plan to do that, but say over winter there is a small drain.... No dead battery. Also acts like an immobiliser, and full battery isolator.It comes with everything you need to mount it in any configuration and position and 2 key fobs (Arm (Immobilise), disarm, fully isolate and buzzer test).

I opted for the extra one with the vibration sensor (Platinum), just in case there was a problem with the alternator on a trip as its EFI it needs a constant live, I don't want the risk of it isolating on a roundabout or somewhere inappropriate. Cost a little more but I don't mind this once. :P
A bit fiddly working in the wheel arch but got there eventually.The only permanent live is fused and fed into the dash area and will be for a charge socket I plan to fit. Will also fit a direct Cig lighter feed after the isolator, but not wired it in yet.

Engine Bay

2010-04-22T20:50:00.000+01:00

While I was at the front, I got to work connecting up the cooling, heater hoses, brake & clutch lines and sorted out some wiring as I had this week to play about.

Firstly The battery cable. The one to the starter was 4" short of the terminal in the side of the body. I had loomed it up in the heat shielding with too much of a loop by the starter. (Bo**ox) This took me a day to rectify as now there is sod all room to get hands in to sort out.
I eventually pulled my scratched and cut hands away from the stainless cable ties having jiggled enough cable through without snagging anything else.
Most of the time was spent trying to cut the cable ties and re fit fresh ones. All part of the fun though.
I placed the reservoir bottles here as the smaller one looked odd next to the distributor where they are normally placed.
Ignition Amplifier placed where the washer bottle would have been. I will make up a little cover plate to go next to the fuse box to keep things looking tidy. Seen a few cars with these. Nice touch

Fed the EFI loom through the hole I remembered to make the night before we fitted the body.

Oh and fixed the gear stick hole by drawing round a roll of tape and using the dremel I also added some room for all the gears.

Rad & Ally tray

2010-04-19T20:58:00.006+01:00

While refitting the rad, I decided to do the ally under tray. This was easy jacked the front up high, sat it on the highest point on the axle stands and gave me enough room to get in and mark up and drill.
Not fitted the oil cooler yet, need to get a small oil filter before I fit it properly.

I was going to post up how I worked out the hole for the gear stick in the tunnel, but I think I'll let someone else explain how to do it correctly!
Lets just say, I wont use the same method for the roll hoops! :D
Luckily it needed opening out a bit to clear the range of gears.

BODY ON!

2010-04-18T20:44:00.011+01:00

Today was a perfect day for it.Some local chaps from the cobra club and some friends kindly came to come help.
With the chassis mounts lubed up with Vaseline we got the body off the stand, turned it round and slowly lowered it. As it snuggled down, it appeared the holes were out. It needed to come forward about 10mm. We tried to tug it and lift it about 4 times but just kept settling backwards. (Andy at GD had emailed me the night before kindly giving me some tips, one of those was not to be shy to give it a good tug forward.)
So we lifted up and tugged forwards and we tried to get the engine bay bolts in to keep it forward but no joy as it started to pull the mounts away off the chassis.
It felt like something was pulling the body backwards. So how about bolting the boot in as there were holes pre drilled there, that may keep it forward. But those holes were out, both holes were further in towards the middle than the mounts. This gave some people the feeling that the other holes were out too. But I wasn't having it. :) The boot holes, maybe but not the side ones.
(After speaking with Andy today(Mon) these boot hole aren't normally drilled and as my body is an early Mk4 these mounts have been moved a little since)
After a few goes of on and off we rested it on trestles to check there was nothing snagging or fouling and put it on axle stands so we could remove the wheels.
Trying again lifting and tugging it forward, some of the chaps were urging me to open up the holes, but I stuck to my guns as even though the body had been sat on trestles for nearly 4 years there was the fear it may have sagged a tiny bit but it hadnt! It was just a need to get it forwards enough as the side bolt holes were all out by the same amount. The front of the tunnel is tapered and it felt that this was forcing it back and just needed to be persuaded enough forward.
We finally decided to try and get some other holes in the tunnel at the rear lined up where the seats would go. Both holes either side were close and on the third jiggle and hold, we got both rear bolts in, then the rest went in with ease! Only the boot holes to re drill and a couple by the front bulkheads need tweaking. the rest lined up perfectly lol. So don't get the drill out! Keep trying.

Was a bit of a mission as the body went on and off about 4 times, only one chap had done it before (Trevor) and some had some doubt it would line up.
I'm sure that once you have done it once, you know what to look for and what technique to use for it go on easier the next time. GD can do it in about 20 mins. I have seen it and they made it look easy.
Now to get the rad back in.

A little taster.

2010-03-26T20:39:00.004Z

Today I had a day off so decided to thank my mate for all his help by inviting him over for its first hot run. Cooling filled up and all systems checked.

Engine Started.

2010-03-21T20:20:00.002Z

Been busy with work so its time for an update! The new Ignition amplifier came last week. With all the spark plugs taken out and touching the block, I got a spark on all of the plugs!

Fitted them all back in and tried to start it. It fired up but only briefly. sounded like one turn or while starting. Tried again, it cought with the starter engaged but died instantly when let go of starter. The next thing this could be is the injectors as the have been sitting around for ages and could be bunged up. Found a place close by that would do a check and service for £200.

Before I pulled them out, I managed to get one of the local club members who is hot on wiring to have a look, as there were a few other issues I needed to get my head round.
Graham had a quick listen and said "That sounds electrical not fuel" Turned out, I had wired the Distributor + from the starter button and not and ignition live. DOH!!!

With this little error fixed, we gave it another go..... RRRROAR....
OH MY GOD! WHAT A SOUND!!!!!

Only ran for a few seconds as I had no cooling cos I wasn't expecting it to work. But wow, what a feeling.

So grateful for his help.

Thanks to Chedz.

Engine start?

2010-03-12T17:03:00.002Z

Well I thought I'd brave it today. Bought some fuel, primed the pump as per the instructions.... cranked it over a few times, but nothing.
Smell of fuel from exhaust, plugs are wet, but no spark from ignition.

Checked all the plugs n wiring, all looks ok.

I remember the first Dyno attempt I went to, we had the same thing, and I remembered how Ken and Robert went about hunting for the problem. I checked continuity on connectors and went to check the hall effect sensor wiring in the distributor cap and then saw this.

This probably happened while it was being stored as it isn't new, so I re soldered them and put it all back together.
Tried to start it up again but still nothing.

Something I did notice when I first saw the broken wires was that the S was touching the + wire and now fear this could have damaged the Ignition Module.
One of the issues at the 1st dyno was the Ignition Amplifier Module, like now, no spark.
I went onto the Edelbrock forum and had a little read.....
Found some posts about checking pins and voltages.

The output voltage needs to be over 10.5V during turnover or there will be no spark.

Fingers crossed that's the problem. New bit ordered from the states.

Engine start wiring.

2010-03-08T22:53:00.003Z

Many thanks to Denis for sending me a helpful & easy to follow wiring diagram for my temp dash. With his permission I have posted it up.All I needed was a relay and a battery. Went and ordered one of these and a CTEK charger. Not cheap but should do the job :P

Got most of the wiring done, just need to figure out the rev counter and a couple of non essential bits.
Starter works!

Could we see it roar into life this week?

More fuel lines

2010-03-06T16:41:00.006Z

Finally got a right angle 1/4npt to Jic -6 adaptor.
Bought a meter of -6 hose.
Cutting this hose isn't easy and as they say, there is more than one way to skin a cat. My method was to use insulation tape and a cutting wheel. Tape stops a lot of fraying while cutting and it wont end up looking like Boris Johnson's hair do.
Linked up the return feed.With the front section of fuel lines linked up I temp fitted a link from the pump to the main line.

Fuel filter.

2010-03-05T14:05:00.001Z

As I'm looking at fitting the pump and filter to the Euro mounting points,
I immediately spotted a problem with the bits I had. The body would foul the filter as its 3" diameter. After hours of trying to find a suitable pre pump filter and many visits to places that ask what vehicle is it for, lol.
GD gave me some opinters on what to try and find and I found a place local to me that is a supplier of FSE Motorsport filters and gave them a call. They are only a warehouse but were willing to see me with some notice in advance.

The chap there was really helpful. Handed over some cash and got one of these. Nice quality feel to it.
Sticking with paper filters as the tank is new and will have some bits that it should stop.

Just need to make a heat shield from the exhaust

Solved.

Temp Dash

2010-03-01T17:53:00.003Z

Decided to start mocking up a dash to get ready for the first start.

I drilled and fitted the tunnel plate,

attacked a bit of MDF with a few dials, fuse box and the basics.
Just need to work out what and how to wire it up correctly. May need to add bits as I figure it out.

Front exhaust fitted

2010-03-01T17:38:00.003Z

Now I got the elbow back with the O2 sensor nut welded in, I went ahead and fitted the front half. Wont do the back till the body is on as the boot supports the rest of it.

All sealed with silicon gasket stuff.

One step closer to starting her up

odds n sodds

2010-02-23T19:45:00.004Z

Spent today trying to tidy up the looms and tie up some loose ends.
Made a bracket to hold the fuel lines a little tighter by the compressions.
Heat wrapped the starter and loom, Just need the exhaust elbow so I can run the o2 sensor and heat shield that loom too.
Trimmed off the upper middle body mounts. These ones aren't bolted but act as support and locators. You could bolt them but then you'd see the bolt in the cockpit.

Clutch slave

2010-02-21T20:39:00.001Z

As room is tight in there and having a setup that isn't common, I had to get a special mounting plate made up. GD were incredibly helpful and remembered roughly what was needed. So I took some measurements they wanted, trial fitted a plate they roughly made (to my rough measurements). I offered things up, and sent it back for finalising which meant they made some spacers and bent the plate so that the slave part leans onto the block to eliminate any flex.

Painted and fitted.
Just need another pushrod. The one GD gave me originally, was spot on. Thinking it needed to be a different length I went about cutting it 10mm shorter, only then to realise that it is at its correct length when pushed all the way in.
Made Andy chuckle.

Prop shaft bolts.

2010-02-20T20:20:00.001Z

In my haste, I bolted in the wrong bolts. They were the right size but too short as the thread wasn't through the nylock part of the nut (possible IVA Fail) and I then noticed the shank wasn't deep enough on longer ones that I bought, so changed them for longer shanked ones.Then for some reason I realised I better keep them the same length for balance purposes seeing as the prop shaft is balanced too.
So I took one out that was shorter than the rest.
Glad I spotted it now before the body goes on.
Maybe a bit too picky, but I don't want to risk driving about wandering what that shudder is.

Prop shaft shoehorned in.

2010-02-12T17:43:00.003Z

With the help of my pal Kev, we got the engine linked to the back wheels.
But before we did I luckily remembered to check the gearbox ratio. (good to know when calibrating the speedo)
This meant going from 1st gear through to 5th and counting the turns of the engine to one revolution of the output shaft.
The spark plugs out, and the crank pulley marked, I marked the output shaft and counted as I cranked it over carefully with a socket ratchet.

Now came the fun part, the prop shaft slides in about 5 inches into the gearbox (Prop shaft is 5" longer than the gap it fills). but getting the best angle even with the UJ's we found couldn't be achieved from the sides, top or bottom.
The only way I could see was to get the whole lot in the tunnel and over the diff, then feed it forwards into the gearbox.

The brake union had to come off and the bake pipes carefully moved. The flat side of the UJ had to step over the diff to get enough clearance.
Once we got this far the rest was easy and it slotted in prefectly with 6mm tolerance on the shaft.
Another concern was the fuel lines. Before I had the gearbox mounting plate, the bolts were really close as I was resting the box on a wedge to have the rubber mount in the right place flush with the bottom. GD told me I needed 5mm clearance round the gearbox to allow for movement when under torque. Tried to dremel some of the bolt head to give a bit more room. Luckily the gearbox droped a little when the wedge was removed as it sat on the rubber mount. Phew. Sure is tight in there!

Hoses Fitted

2010-02-12T17:39:00.001Z

With the new dogleg hose, it all links up nicely.

Cooling Fans.

2010-02-12T17:17:00.006Z

Fitting the fans with the mounting plates means drilling into the rad housing. Did check that there were no cooling cores behind cos it just didn't look right but all was clear. Not distrusting GD but the thought of drilling into a rad with a 5mm bit was a little worrying.

The fan plates have a thread welded in and they are a good fit. The fans have a little lip on the edges that I cut off to get them closer to each other. May cut off the outer edge ones too as they touch the side edge of the housing.
Also drilled and tapped the holes for the header thank into the top brace. There isn't much to tap into but the fixings only stop it from rattling about as the hoses hold it in place so a bit of thread lock it should hold fine.Next thing I have to work out is the wiring, as the feed in the loom is enough for one fan and two fans on a hot day could pop the fuse. So a separate feed and switched relay thingy will be needed for one fan.

More bits arrived.

2010-02-11T17:01:00.004Z

A few bits that weren't ready when I collected, came in the post along with some extra bits I needed.
Twin Fans, New Header tank with side elbow, gearbox mounting plate, Prop shaft and the dogleg Link pipe for the bottom hoses.When I spoke to Andy about the extra bits I also asked how they mount the fans? He said they can make some mounting plates slightly different to Simon R but the same idea and out of stainless. :P All extra bits you don't budget for but don't have the time to source material & make.

Fitting the gearbox mount was the next thing to do so I could fit the prop shaft. This needed measuring from the holes in the chassis to drill the holes for the mount. Measure 3 time and drill once. All lined up perfectly.

And relax.

2010-02-05T20:29:00.003Z

Got a few things to do away from the garage this weekend. All in all great progress this week. Next week, Fans, New header, Gearbox Mounting plate, O2 sensor nut and a few other bits to come so a drink this weekend me thinks. :P

Engine bay loom + EFI loom

2010-02-05T20:02:00.006Z

Wiring isn't a weak spot, not knowing what does what and goes where....., is.
Dont get me wrong, the engine loom comes with instructions. Remembering how the EFI is plumbed was the tricky bit.
The engine bay loom is pretty simple. As the EFI loom was already used with the engine, I thought it would be straight forward to make it fit.Yesterday and today was spent figuring out how to get the two plumbed in and neat. Ended up ordering some new conduit and of course some wrong bits I'll never use.
Hard to plan till you start looming things up. Figuring out what was used where and how it was run, took time.
Then I spoke to Andy again to give him some measurements and also asked about some of the wires. One needs to be a switched live to the alternator as he said some alternators are open live when the engine is off and can drain the battery over time, and there is also the issue of fire. As one poor chap found out when he saw smoke coming from his garage even though he hadn't driven it for a few days. So getting my head round what needs to come from where to feed one of 2 terminals amongst other things.I have no idea which one is which.
The rest is all becoming clearer. Need time out to have a think and unplug, excuse the pun. ;)

Adaptors fitted

2010-02-04T19:29:00.003Z

Popped out again today, got the adaptors, enabling me to fit the speedflow fittings.
Also got some expanding foam. This is advised as the roll hoops are mounted direct to the chassis, they could transmit noise to round your head. Foam should cut this noise down. Personally I can't see how I'll hear anything over a roaring V8 and wind in your hair, but it looks like fun.
Says on the tin surface must be moist, could use a spray. Hmm to get inside the roll hoops? I dug out a small hand held steam cleaner that I bought one night very drunk off QVC. Knew there was a use for it one day. hehe.
After steam came out the other hole I injected the foam. As the harness anchor points are welded in, these seem to cause a block towards the top of the hoop so I "gave it some" in the other hole too. You can imagine the potential mess.
The rear leg was just filled till it was coming out the hole. 2 tins was enough, with some left over. May save it for the trick or treaters in October. :P

Fitted the started motor, this involved opening a bag with some wires in. More like opening a can for worms. I hate worms....

Note*
Now the body is on, this is too much of a loop as the red cable wont reach the + terminal!

Fuel lines

2010-02-03T19:00:00.005Z

Spoke to Andy again as I need to fit Speedflow fittings as the system will be pressurised, and I had no idea how to link from copper line to JIC. He told me to track down a hydraulics suppliers and ask for a 10mm compression fitting and then an adaptor to JIC dash number (-6 and -8) He would have given me some but hasn't got any in stock.

The fittings are 10mm L - 1/4 BSP female stud :GAV10LR.
They didnt have the adaptors to -8 so had to get them ordered in. Lots of driving about today to find bits and go back out to buy other things I forgot. Who needs a shopping list. :P
Cut the crimps off the ends, plunged the pipes so no swarf got in the fuel line, and then fitted the Compression fittings. Good fun blasting them out with the air line. Think I managed to waste 10 min's seeing how far I could shoot the rear ones. :P
Also need to convert the fuel return to a JIC connector.Out I popped again, got this but it makes it too long and fouls on the engine. Looks like it'll be a speedflow adaptor. Another Kerching bit.

Getting the horn

2010-02-02T18:11:00.002Z

Also fitted the horn. This comes with a relay, but isn't needed as there is one in the GD loom relay block. Replaced nuts with nylocks.
Yes, I did put the air line up to them..... Nearly shat miself. hahahah, idiot.

Temp fitted the Rad

2010-02-02T17:06:00.000Z

Fitted it temporally to see how to go about with plumbing in the cooling. I have a load of hoses, link pipes and an old header tank.

The old style radiators have a straight bottom outlet, the new ones are 90 deg up and towards the middle so a bit of re routing is needed. Also the header tank doesn't quite line up either.
I have asked Andy to make up a new style header with the outlet bend. and also a dogleg to link the bottom hoses.

Exhaust system

2010-02-01T20:12:00.003Z

May as well post pics of the whole system.
2.5" pipes with 3" cherry bombs at the end! :P

Headers

2010-02-01T17:10:00.003Z

Thought I'd get cracking. Why not start by fitting the headers. At first I thought the rocker covers need to come off as its a tight squeeze, but then found that with the plugs out, they slip in nicely from below.
Tried to use hex head bolts but couldnt get a spanner in there and the heads fouled. So popped out and got some stainless socket head screws and butchered an ball end allen key. Also got some clear RTV silicone gasket and some Chevy gaskets from Real Steel.This worked really well and managed to torque them all up nicely.Just got to wait for the gearbox mounting plate to be made to my measurements and then fit the rest of the exhaust. Also need to fit an O2 sensor to one of the exhaust bends for the EFI system which needs a nut welding in.

It's HERE!!

2010-01-27T23:25:00.003Z

Well I finally got it.
Took a bit longer than the 8-10 weeks I was told, but they had a lot on and delays from suppliers knocked on.
Anyway, I was lucky enough the borrow a 7.5T truck from a firm I work for. It has a nice tail lift and I modified some scaff boards to clip on so I can roll the chassis on.
Didn't take any pictures as it was a rush to load up and drive 3 hours home to beat the rush hour. Didnt get pics unloading either as we were a bit busy holding it. lol
Can't get over how light it is. 1 person can lift the front while 2 can lift the back with all the running gear, less the engine of course. :P

The build wheels I took up with me were not in the best condition, I didn't realise this could be an issue as one had been attacked by the kerb monster and it made Andy and Paul's job very hard to set up the suspension geometry & tracking before I took it home.
GD kindly updated my Fuel tank to include some gates to prevent fuel starvation when cornering on a track. They also modified my filler pipe that was slightly out as it was one of the first batch with the Mk4.
Picked up loads of other bits, Exhaust system with the sexiest manifolds, oil cooler, hoses, roll bars, radiator & cooling bits.

Got 2 friends over to help unload, and we also shoe horned the engine in while we were there. Kind of had to so I could fit the chassis in and shut the garage door. lol
Happy days.

Gerabox fitted

2009-12-07T13:33:00.008Z

Managed with the help of my good mate Kev, to get the gearbox fitted.

To fit the twin clutch, I had to line up both clutch plates with the pilot bearing.
Easier said than done.
As I found out, there is a clutch alignment tool you can buy with splines. But not one that fits Chevy clutch to a ford pilot bearing. So I tried to make up my own. I found a bit of ally that was close in size, applied tape till it fit and lined up the splines by eye.Once aligned, the bell housing needs to be fitted and torqued up the same way it was when that was dialled in. Then slide the gearbox in.
We tried to fit the bearbox, all went in ok till it got to the pilot bearing. The clutch plates were a fraction out and you can't move them once the clutch is fitted as it is rated to 600bhp and must be partly disassembled to release the friction plates. This means taking the bell housing off again.

So plan b was to use the gearbox shaft for alignment. I had to make sure it was level and then lift the engine to the same height, make sure the engine was level too, and slide the gearbox in, mark and tighten the clutch, remove the gearbox and hope it didn't go off level.
(Can see the 2 offset dowels I was on about previously)We then refitted the bellhousing and tried again to fit the box, and it slid home with ease.
I then fitted a ratchet strap from the fork to the rear of the gearbox to disengage the clutch so it finds it own happy position as it could still be out slightly before turning over the engine.

One tip I would give, make sure you fit the clutch fork and throw out bearing inside the bell housing before fitting the gearbox and jumping about with joy that it finally fits, only to hear your mate say "what's this bit for?" LOL

Dials follow up

2009-11-23T14:28:00.001Z

Just to follow up from the smudged dials I sent back.
When I was visiting the factory I mentioned them to GD and they were shocked that I hadn't had them back yet. They were sent off to the company that made them and were forgotten about.
GD got straight on the phone, gave a bit of verbal and were told they were being worked on. GD didn't forget as they instructed the company to fix them and send them to my address so they thought it was all sorted.
Anyway 10 days later they arrive. And a lot better finish.

The whole lot of 9 dials were re-done.
I'm sure it would have been done quicker had they been on my to need to fit list as I would have chased them sooner

Bell housing dialed in.

2009-11-20T19:12:00.014Z

What a laborious job!
The process: Fit flywheel & bell housing, Torque up all the bolts, measure with dial gauge. Disassemble and adjust offset dowel pins, reassemble and re-torque. repeat till offset is less than 0.005" or 0.127mm tolerance.

I started off by checking the bell housing face was the same plane as the flywheel.

After my first attempt last week went ok till I took the bell housing off and refitted it as I wanted to see how much the bolts could effect it once re fitted as I wont be able to double check it once the clutch is on. Glad I did cos it went back on and was way out. This got me for a while as how to make sure it stays set cos you need to remove it to fit the clutch. After a closer look, I found the culprit. Old offset dowels, I remember Ken at EDA mentioning new ones to me now.
Went and got some new ones, about £15 for 7 thou offset. Checked where the high spot is and marked them as the slots are not to be used as a reference. These were a tighter better fit than the old ones, but this meant complete bell housing removal to move the offset as they now need to be punched out rotated then hammered back home.

So set about repeating the process all over again. Removing 2 flywheel bolts enables you to get the dial onto the inner edge I tried to mark the housing but soon lost track, so made notes on paper.
I tried different methods, the arrow refers to where the high point of the dowel is in relation to the housing, I messed about with zeroing on 12 o'clock or zeroing on the high spot. I took about 6 attempts to get to number 3 when I noticed that I wasn't setting the dowels at exactly the same angles. 4 was looking better, then 5 came up trumps. The measurements are in 0.01mm so 0.12 would have been a safe tolerance, got it down to 0.05mm. I then had to test that it stayed the same when reassembled so I took it apart and back together, rechecked and all was as near enough spot on the same.
I Was well happy. A good day today!

Thankfully for those reading I wont go into working it all out as looking at the paper I have no idea how I did it, lol.
Andy's blog explains it better and shorted than I could ever hope to.

Visit to the factory.

2009-11-12T20:05:00.001Z

I arranged a day with Andy for me to pop up as I wanted to see my chassis being fabricated and discuss some other things.
Was pleased to see it in the jig being welded.

Hard to see what is what.
This is the front

And the back.
There was a full Euro rolling kit order being preped for Spain.
Interesting where the pump and filter are mounted. hmm...

I also got to see how easy it was to mount the body.

So if all goes to plan, 4 weeks I'll be collecting it. :P

Now to get cracking and get the bell housing dialled in properly. It's been a bit tricky, setting it. You have to torque up the bolts, check with a gauge, remove it, adjust the offset dowels , refit it, re torque.... and keep repeating the lengthy process till its within 5 thou!
Back out there this week.

Bits I didnt know about.

2009-10-26T19:32:00.006Z

As you may have read, I was trying to find what slave cylinder I needed.
Finding out that a chap close to me, Nick with a Dax, has a very similar setup. So i got in contact and popped over to stick my head in his bonnet for a good nose. He was hugely helpful and has even found a template he made for the slave bracket. I borrowed his engine lifting plate again, and also his modified stand to allow the fitting of the gearbox safely.... well.... you'll see.

I then found out what else I would need. I have spent the last few weeks finding out exactly what bits to get and where from. A pilot bearing is needed to fit the gearbox as this locates the gearbox shaft central to the engine crank, but as I have a Chevy Engine The standard pilot bearings take Chevy gearboxes. Mine is a ford gearbox, Tremec TKO600.
Speaking to a few companies here in the UK, not many were able to help as it wasn't the "norm".
Was getting rather fed up with the attitude that unless it was bought from them or I wanted to buy new, there was little they could help. The club was really helpful, I managed to speak to someone who asked me to take some measurements and then told me a part number that I'd need. For those in the same boat, Chevy to Ford Pilot Bearing = Lakewood 15975.

Edit: Here it is.
Now I needed to get bits together to make the clutch work. This needs a Clutch release bearing and one to fit my fork. As I have a McLeod Bell housing with a ford gear box, no one was able to give me any precise advice again...... yawn.... so it was a phone call to McLeod in the US. Once I had explained what I needed they gave me some item numbers. Woohoo. It turned out that a standard Ford TKO or T5 release bearing would work. As for the clutch fork, I ordered a new one as the one I have is a little damaged.

Edit: New ones arrived.

I will speak to GD when I pop up, as they might have something for the clutch slave issue.

Next I will need to find/borrow a Dial Gauge (DTI) to check the bell housing is 100% central to the crank shaft and in line with the flywheel.

Good job, I'm not waiting on fitting the engine.
Will put up some pics when the parts get here.

Twin clutch

2009-10-22T15:13:00.007+01:00

Now that I have had it set up and shimmed by Real Steel I can get it ready to fit. When I picked it up, I was advised to give it a bit of a clean to clean off some of the rust. Taking note of where and how it had been shimmed, it was disassembled, cleaned and ready to fit.

The waiting game

2009-10-12T19:15:00.004+01:00

Not much to report. Its been rather uneventful yet stressful at the same time. I managed to find a set of wheels off a Mercedes that I hope will fit while I'm still building. Cheap off ebay.
I couldn't find Ford Granada/Scorpio wheels anywhere and ideally they needed to be 16".
Also cleaned the garage floor that was coated in white rubbing compound and polish spray.

Next bit of fun is finding what kind of clutch slave cylinder I need to enable me to fit the gearbox to the engine ready to slip into the chassis. I have a rather unique set-up apparently, (McLeod Bellhousing, street twin clutch, Tremec TKO600 Gear box all fitted to a Chevy)
There isnt a slave designed to fit my bell housing that I could find apart from an internal one that's got a reputation for leaking. I have spent the last 4 weeks searching google, McLeod forums, speaking to UK V8 engine suppliers and posted loads on the cobra club. Lots of help from the club, but unfortunately the slave I was advised to use (Wilwood) is a pull type, opposite to what I need (Push type). This would mean a new clutch fork but these don't fit my bell housing meaning a new bellhousing and they aren't cheap..... So a bit of hair pulling. I had the twin clutch shimmed and checked by Realsteel as it was in a box with bits all mixed up.

I have just spoken to Andy at GD, and he informed me that my build is a bit behind due to steel supplier problems. I did tell them when I ordered that it was no real rush, so this little delay isn't a problem. I have waited 3 years so a few weeks aint gonna kill me. I'm going to pop up to see them next week and Andy said that I should bring my bellhousing with me. Hope he can help. I'm going to take a wheel as well just to check it'll fit ok.

Should really start to make room in the garage.

GULP!.... Gone n done it. Euro Chassis Ordered!

2009-08-20T19:15:00.005+01:00

Couldnt hold off any longer. Emailed Andy at GD an order form for the Euro Chassis with cooling bits and exhaust. Basically I ordered all I need to get the engine in, running and the body on!
He kindly phoned me to discuss the new list that includes the wide exit exhaust system that I liked but wasn't on the list I had.
A good natter later the wheels are in motion now, 8-10 weeks..... Eeek :)

Need to source 4 ford scorpio wheels to roll it about on as I don't have enough for the Halibrands yet.
Only down side is that as I can't afford the AP brakes yet, I'll have to set up the geometry when I get them as this is normaly done by GD with the euro.

God I hope work doesn't dry up too much....Bit of a gamble as lots of jobs in my line of work are coming to an end...oh well. :P

Light at the end of the tunnel.

2009-08-19T19:39:00.001+01:00

Finaly clawing my way back to being in a position of the next big order soon! :D

On hold.

2009-05-28T17:15:00.002+01:00

I now have to put it on hold till my funds start flowing the right way again. I was holding out hope for July... but that don't look likely.
So for now, not much more can happen till I re-save what I nearly had in January.
Down 8k :( Tough times but must keep positive.

Hay ho.

Fuel pump & filter.

2009-05-21T18:36:00.001+01:00

Little update snippet.
Just been mucking about last week working out the fitting and location of the pump and filter.
I made a bracket up and am just awaiting some fixings to come in the post before I assemble it.

Following the right angle fitting to the tank problem, I found a local Racing supply store. Great place with plenty of bits n bobs, and things hard to find even online. http://www.autocrossltd.com/
I took my hose and fitting into them, explained the problem and they found me a fitting. It was less than the speedflow site were asking! I will certainly be going back there!..... oh dear, lol
With the fitting solved I carried on with the pump and filter fitting. I had some sound proofing sheets from a previous project that I clad the ally bracket with to reduce any noise from the pump.Managed to hunt down some 60mm p-clips and a meter of 25mm fixing band that I cut to length and drilled to fix the filter. from CBS

Fuel system planing

2009-05-09T20:05:00.005+01:00

As I have the pump and filter sitting in a box and the tank on the floor, I thought I'd make a start on planing out how to plumb it all in.

Nearly straight away, I ground to a halt.The tank needs to fit further in but the hose fitting is sticking out too far so I need to find an alternative. One of these should do. Ker-ching!

I need to speak to GD as I think I may also have a little issue with the filler angle.

GD at Stoneleigh & Headrest solution (2009)

2009-05-04T11:30:00.015+01:00

Having spoken to Andy about the new exhaust setup over the phone, I was very intrigued.
(The original GD underslungs. At the GD track day)

So here we have it. (sorry about photo quality.)

It's the same setup to the centre balance box then splits off to the sides. They have to fit a main silencer widthways after the split to bring the noise down, but the cherry bombs also look great.
Interesting how the IVA rules contradict themselves! The exhaust mustn't protrude more than 60mm past the body, yet side pipes are OK!?!?! Go figure..

I rather like the look, Mind you the factory built car did look absolutely stunning in a Ferrari Met silver!
Now the IVA headrest issue.
Personally I'm not keen on the look of the seat mounted head rests. but there is a legal IVA solution.
GD have had a new seat made that is a bit higher on the back (they call it the MK4 seat), Which fits just under the rear edge return. To be able to use the roll bar head rests, they must be no more than 50mm (not 100% sure) above the seat back. and the correct Diameter. (120mm I believe, but could be wrong there also). The headrests could be droped to the lowest hole in the bracket to achive this.

GD standard seatsNew Mk4 seats

This will only pass if the seat is not adjustable and fixed in a set position.

One little issue, Andy has planted the idea of Heated seats into my brain! hehe. Like the idea, but for aprox £90 per seat... hmmm....food for thought, and plenty of time to think as they will probably be the last thing to order.

Stoneleigh kit car show

2009-05-04T10:57:00.004+01:00

I managed to get there for 11am and it was already heaving with more people coming.
Met up with Cobracol, a chap from the club who was selling some bits, so I bought a pair of reflectors off him.
Met a couple more people at the club stand and it was a good turn out with about 200 cob's.Polished Ali Krikham...... now that's just pornography!Had a great day. Managed to meet up with Robert, and bend his ear a bit more about engine setup and bits in general. Big help.
Bought a few more bits n bobs that I can work with right now.

Bell housing

2009-04-28T16:19:00.010+01:00

Yet a bit more cleaning.

As part of my engine purchase package was a steel shatter proof bell housing. With the flywheel spinning next to my legs, I was happy to take it. Not something that usually goes wrong but good to know you have it just in case.
I found a local metal platers to re plate my bell housing. 4 days later and only a tenner.

Not the best of before pics, but I keep forgetting sometimes to take a before photo. I took it to the platers to quote on it and then left it there for that price.

Dials & GD customer service

2009-04-27T16:37:00.006+01:00

The problem is that the print on the dials look smudged / over spray from a stencil or the ink was too wet. I have seen other cars where this isn;t the case and the lettering looks crisp.
This was something I kept meaning to bring up with GD, but kept forgetting until the weekend when I thought I'll make a start and trial fit the dials. I then remembered!
I know, I should have checked when I collected... hay ho...

I had some other things to discuss with Andy first, in regards to my next order and the new 99dB exhaust system. (Interestingly, the new exhaust system will exit at the rear further apart (More period look) to accommodate a bigger silencer mounted widthways. There should be a car like this at the show. Will get some pics.)
I bought this up and did say that I got them a while ago but haven't fitted or used them yet. Andy was very understanding, incredibly helpful and offered to send them back to the manufacturer.
To save me shipping them to him, I will give them to him at the Stoneliegh show next weekend.
Maybe I'm being a little picky, but in my eyes its all down to the detail. And they aint cheap.

Engine spring clean.

2009-04-25T16:44:00.008+01:00

As I had great success with the alternator, I thought I'd spend a few days having a little tidy up of the engine.
The EFI rails were a little dull and there were a few spots of corrosion on the inlet manifold.
EFI system was all added after Ken at EDA had rebuilt and Dynoed the engine on carb set up, so the EFI part was a little dirtier than the new clean block.

First to get some TLC was the Throttle body. This was to come off and the first to balls up.I thought it would be easier to clean if I removed the butterfly flaps. The first screw started to undo then near the end it seized and sheared off. BUGGER. I only then realised that the threads must be modified so they can't fall out and get into the engine. I managed to drill out the remains of the thread and find out what size screw it is from the Cobra club forums. 6/32 UNC thread. Lucky I have a great bolts store close by.
That replaced and the screwdrivers put away, I continued to clean it up.There was some corrosion that I couldn't get off as it was in small gaps, wire brush couldnt get to.
I had also failed on the inlet manifold with the brushes. So I started searching for tips online.
I tried Wonder Wheels but wasn't much use on corrosion, then few days later I found a company that sell Alu-Bright. Its designed for cleaning corroded cast ali. (Just what I needed) Its strong acid and pretty nasty, but it did the trick. A final wire brush brought it up to a shine.
The injector holes were bunged up with rag and then siliconed over.

The EFI fuel rail was polished up with some Autosol and re fitted. Now the rocker covers looked tired. (love the Ali roller rockers)
So off with them and out with the Hammerite spray.
The Lettering was sprayed over and then the paint sanded off with 15oo and a flat block in one direction.
Clear lacquer was applied with a cotton bud to the bare metal to seal it. Clear lacquer reacts with Hammerite, don't ask me how I know!!! lol.
Shame it has to go back under the bench for now. Oh well , not for long hopefully!

Detling Kit Car Show 2009

2009-04-13T21:31:00.007+01:00

Had a lovely day out. Managed to grab a lift down to Detling in Kent with Chedz. His Rover powered Sumo had a wonderful growl to it.
It was comfy and warm! I will deffo be sticking my nose in under his dash to see his electric engine bay vent mod opperated by a cheeky little window switch!
We had a nice run down, 2 cars set off, Pete (sidecarbod) and Graham (Chedz), we then hooked up with a 3rd chap, Seb in his Sumo on the A3 in Guildford and picked up our 4th car, Jeff at clacket lane services. 4 cars thundering along was a great feeling. The skies tried to scare us away but we pushed on through and WON! Just makes me want to get mine on the road so badly.

Pete- Blue / Graham-black / Seb-stripes
Seb
Jeff

Couldn't get a shot of Pete cos he was too busy speeding off trying to clock up some points. :)

4 Pilgrim Sumo's

The show was good but not heaving, so I had a chance to get a few bits to muck about with. Good place to buy stuff as most stuff is a lot cheaper than normal. Still spent more than enough though. :)

Alternator Refurb

2009-03-26T16:59:00.008Z

Keeping busy.The alternator had seen better days, so I decided to strip it down and clean it up.
Lucky I realised that the coil is fixed/screwed to the back casting and the rotor slides out from the bearing housing by holding the rotor shaft and tapping the coil edge down with a rubber mallet.

Spent a couple of hours with a Dremel and wire wheels. Unfortunately the wires on my wheel were more at home flying off into my jumper and itching/prickling me. lol
Shame, as it didn't make much of an improvement on the castings, only took off some of the surface corrosion but left some areas needing shot blasting. As it is cast Ally I decided against that route.
So I cleaned them up as best I could with break cleaner and sprayed them sliver.

The centre coil was cleaned up with a flap wheel, masked and painted black.
Looks a lot better.
When re assembling there is a small hole to insert a small allen key to hold back the brushes when re fitting the rotor into its bearing housing.
Now I just need to find where to get a new pulley.

Side Vents

2009-03-10T23:29:00.005Z

To do list is running out. I decided to temp fit the side vents. The vents needed a little fine adjustments on the grinder to a couple of corners to allow them to sit inside the space.
For those who are wondering, they are vent holes for the heater.

M3 button heads were used with nuts on the inside. I had previously made some spacers out of black plastic. (Pics to follow)Same on other side.They are only temp fitted but look gooooooood!

Filler cap & breather pipe

2009-03-07T22:41:00.007Z

Circle cutter. £3.50 eBay purchase, very useful tool to the collection.
Rubber gasket made to fit perfectly.
The tap eventually arrived, eBay pot luck with sellers dispatch time.
As I had set the position of the filler with the lid, I roughly marked where the breather would go.
Taking note where the locking cap fits and how much clearance is needed, you cant afford to allow the fitting to enter too far into the filler opening.

Breather fitting Supplied by GD. Tapered thread taped out with a 1/8 NPTF tap and Q size drill. I worked this out to be 8.6mm drill.
I remember Andy suggesting fitting a grub screw to stop anyone just undoing the filler lid and preventing it undoing during travel. Doubt it would but wont hurt. 3mm Grub.
Got 25' of 3/16" copper brake pipe from....... yes you guessed it, for £8 opposed to £18 from my local motor spares shop. For some reason I remember someone advising me to add a loop/trap to help stop fumes or spillage but will let it breathe. Plenty of room so why not. Someone can add a comment if there is any advantage to doing this as I can't quite remember.
I exited it out on the inside of the wheel arch as I would imagine if it went out behind the wheel (straight down), spray could find its way into the tank possibly.