Donor Parts Re-furb

All the donor parts will need a good refurb, their are many different finishes available, such as powder coat, hammerite, or Por-15 chassis paint. I have basically striped all my running gear down and given a good wire brush, then a quick coat of hammerite to stop any damage/rot. I intend prior to the chassis to strip all the hammerite off again and get the bits powder coated, however I’ll probably be waiting till I pick up the chassis, as the back wishbone's and drive shafts have to be shorted. Below is some of the front suspension set-up, stripped down to component form. It is important to remember the amount of shims removed from the upper ball joints, this is essential to set up the suspension correctly to eliminate bump steer.



The driveshafts (below) i'll just leave like i got them as they will be exchanged with AK for some shorter one's along with the rear wish bone's.

In order to strip the donor parts down to component form, you will need to remove the universal joints.... some of them are easy, some i found a total arse! the UJ's are held in place by circlips, i did have some circlip pliers however they were gash, so with the help of some little screwdrivers and my trusty hammer the UJ's were soon knocked out, ready for replacement.

Donor Parts

Donor parts are very easy to pick up, and are fairly cheap if looking in the correct places. The AK 427 uses mostly Jaguar XJS/6 running gear, however AK now also offer a generation 2 chassis using XJ40. I'm using the standerd chassis as i have XJS running gear.

Parts required to start building.

• Jaguar front axle
• Jaguar rear axle (compleat on subframe)
• Jaguar diff. (i have a 3.54 powerlock)
• Jaguar XJS handbrake assembly
• BMW E30 steering coloumn (including steering wheel and ignition key for IVA)
• Rover 25 brake servo and master cylinder
• VW Polo mk2 heater

Early Stages

When I first 100% decided that i would be building a Cobra rep, i needed to decide which kit to go with. Their are lots of kits on the market ranging from GD, AK, Pilgrim, Dax etc... all of which vary in terms of quality, and cost. Pilgrim are the only kit that offer a Ford running gear option, this put me off slightly as i wouldn’t feel happy putting so much power through a knackered old Granada/Sierra diff and i feel that a Jaguar based kit is going to be allot stronger. Also in this day and age everything is done on the internet, and i felt that Pilgrim's web site was poor, relatively no information, with zero information on cost's of kits etc..

Dax i felt were a good contender, however with me being in Newcastle and Dax in Essex that was one hell of a hike to see the factory and collect parts. So for me Dax were put on the backburner. I had narrowed my decision down to AK and GD. Both of these kits are outstanding quality and GD located in Newark which is fairly close and AK are found in Peterborough (this was handy as my parents live in the midlands, so is a good stopover point)

With still no firm decision made me and my dad took a trip to the national kit car show, this was a superb eye opener. All the manufacturers of the kits in one place, lots of enthusiasts on site with their cars for biased opinions, in a nutshell a superb day out (even my dad agreed it was a good show) So my main reasons for the show was to have a chat with AK and GD, firstly remember this is my opinion, but all GD wanted to do was sell me a factory car (pre-built) this i found a little irritating, we told the guys that i intended to build it and again kept pushing the factory car, rather than the kit.

So over to AK and spent a good while speaking to Ross, who talked me round their chassie they had on stand, also covered power plants, and running gear etc... I had decided not to place an order at the show, until i had slept on my opinions and drawn up a pro's and con's list (this is something i now wish i had done)

Couple of weeks after the show i took a trip down to AK to have a look round their factory. Before i was out the car i had a cup of coffee in my hand and Ken was showing me chassies, tub's, welding area's etc... I was in heaven. So before leaving i was happy to leave an order for my kit. If i had placed an order at the show in Stoneleigh my delivery would have been around Sep/Oct, now because of a flood of orders at the show AK's delivery had been pushed back to Feb.... yes Feb 2010. This was a little disappointing, as Dax quote 12 weeks from point of order as do GD. However it could be a blessing in disguise, as i only have a single garage, and I’m trying to buy my neighbours attached garage of him, so i can knock them into one.

First Post

Firstly welcome to my Blog, as you have hopefully gathered by the title this blog will observe the progress of my AK427 build. I have adored these cars (Cobra's in general) since I can first remember, and I’m now in the lucky position of being able to build one myself, and I hope you will follow my progress along the way. Over the next few days I will update this showing you all my progress so far with my donor parts and preparation for the chassis delivery.

Little bit about me and my car history

I swear that if you cut me open, you will find petrol in my veins not blood. I have loved anything automotive since I can first remember, and one of my earliest memories is being sat on my granddads knees steering his Austin Metro along the drive. I soon progressed from that to building my own go-cart (soap box racer), from bits of scaffold planks, and pram wheels. This was extremely helpful to help deliver my weekly paper round, and was technically my first set of wheels. After many years of delivering papers for £3.75 a week I purchased my first car when I was 14, it was an 1982 Austin Mini City e (Y) and was my project car. I purchased it for the grand total of £200 and was a smart looking machine. Drum brake's all round and the grunt of a 998cc A-Series which would easily see a staggering speed of 50mph. This was a car that eventually died and went to the mini graveyard in the sky, cost of restoration was staggeringly stupid. Instantly replaced with another Mini (89 City) this time I had a driving license in my wallet, so the open road was calling and off I went. This was pride and joy and my mates local taxi, we would take the daily trip to school, and lunch time trips to the chip shop with the sweet sounds of "Gun's N Roses" blasting out of the stereo, worth twice as much as the actual car.
As with most young male drivers, fresh from a driving test, my first legal car didn’t last to long. After a brief downpour and a sharp bend on my way home from my part time job, I did a sterling job of planting the front end straight through a big black and white chevron sign, and killing the car instantly, I was perfectly fine (dented pride) and the fear of having to call my parents who turned up on scene at the same time as PC plod, who came to poke his nose in and be a nuisance.
Replacement car wasn’t too far away, and along came mini #3, this time with a 1.3 block (998cc on V5) so more power and cheaper insurance. Unfortunately due to gearbox issues the diff kept blowing out and after a fried gearbox a new block was needed also... not a problem as another 1.3 was dropped in and off we went again.
After some long shifts at work (3 weeks of 75+ hours) this little mini nearly sent me to see my maker... I fell asleep at the wheel and went straight on at a T junction (at a fair speed) hit a dry stone wall, flipped the car up forwards and caved the roof in around me on a tree. So a trip to hospital to put my skull back together and sew my ears back on, but my good looks were lost forever....
Mini #4 (still have this one today) back to a 998cc as I couldn’t find a 1.3 but this one was a little blinder. Again playing taxi driver for my mates this is the car they will all remember a twin DTM exhaust made such a beautiful sound, and after some investment on body kits, alloys, re-spray, bucket seats etc... I made a proper little head turner (for all the wrong reasons according to PC plod)