Back in Black

Well I'd been putting it off for a long time as it was not going to be an enjoyable task, and if you are reading this and building an AK yourself, then take this as warning!! Before the fitting of the body (whilst it sat in my garden for a year or so) would have been a perfect time to sit in the engine bay and paint all the inside of the fibreglass tub. However it didn't get done and i was left with the fiddly task of making it all look better than just a glass resin finish. What makes this worse is that i have the stainless steel cladding so this in turn reflects the underside of the wings, and looks horrible if not painted.

This task is made allot harder in my case as i had fitted the side pipes, brake servo, clutch master etc... and all the brake/clutch lines. I had to remove the exhausts and cover as much of the blingy bits as possible as so they didn't get speckles of paint on them. Then on with the laborious task of painting the inside. I used what i had left of the donor parts Por-15 chassis black paint, and it went on fairly well. I started of with a paint brush (stolen from the bairns painting kit) then for the larger areas i used a small roller that is designed for painting behind your radiators in the house.


As you can see on the picture the stainless cladding makes the underside look nasty and if you can picture a dark body colour on the outside, if i had left this as is it would have look terrible. It was one of those jobs that i hated doing, but was just a case of start at the start and crack on. Now its all done I'm much happier and it looks instantly better IMO when you open the bonnet. One issue i did have whilst doing this task was the amount of swarf i had on the floor. This got stuck in my head and as i stood up went down my neck, and then down into my arse crack basically.... iv never had swarf in my bum before, and i hope never to have it again. Lesson learnt, tidy up after myself.

Ignoring the dust all over the cladding you can see what a difference it makes to get it done. The paint finish isn't perfect, but when the final body colour goes on top, this will also help block the sun light penetrating through the thin bits and not be so eye catching.

Next on the list was heat protection. Whilst at Stoneleigh show i was keen to see what heat protection people had chosen to protect the brake servo, brake lines and clutch. Some had fitted a plate between the bulkhead and the back of the inner arch but the distance between the slip fit of the exhaust and brake servo is only about 1" so space was tight.

One solution that did stand out to me and looked cosmetically appealing also, was a bonded woven reflective tape. Similar to your standard exhaust wrapping but with a reflective side. I didn't want to wrap the exhausts as i have seen the damage done to the exhausts when this stuff is left on for long periods of time, and so that was not an option for me. But this reflective protection is bonded onto the brake servo and whatever else you want to protect. MattS who lives near my parents in Stratford upon Avon had done a lovely job with his heat protection and it was from this that i took my inspiration. More importantly he had just got his Cobra legal and on the road, so this form of heat protection was IVA friendly. Matt acquired his reflective tape from his employer (Jaguar) and so i was on the look out for a similar product.

I soon found some stuff that was very similar, it was a woven ceramic with one reflective side and adhesive bond on the other. With the exhaust side pipe still removed to ease access it was cut into strips and applied to all the areas needed. Another key area to protect is the brake light switch (pictured top right of the photo) these have a habit of failing early if not protected from excessive heat. It all went on very nicely and looks neat when looking from through the open bonnet. I wrapped the short run of brake lines also that run beside the back of the inner arch, and i had enough excess left over to protect the starter motor also.

Whilst i was on a productive roll i decided to re-route my clutch line and some of the loom also. I was never happy with how i had the clutch line coming in from right beside the fuel pump, so i manged to get a better route (haven't pictured) where it comes directly up from the offside cross member and along the top of the inner wing (behind the bonnet water channel) and then into the master cylinder. This looked so much better instantly and keep the engine bay looking tidy and less messy.

So next progress will be same as last time, just saving for big expensive bits. But these little odd jobs are good to be getting ticked off the list and getting finished off.