Body-Rocking!!!!

  Hello again Cobra fans, so more progress to report on my build, getting exciting as i have officially booked my body shop, more on that later. Firstly a big and very jealous congratulations to my friend who passed his IVA few weeks back, he hasn't broadcast it yet publicly so i will not name names, but huge congratulations for a first time IVA pass.
  I myself am making progress and aiming to pass IVA first time (well that's the plan) and in part of the process i have had to make some revisions to my filler cap. The hinge edge needs to be below the body recess in order to pass the IVA radius test. This is easily solved by rotating the filler cap so that the hinge points to the third leg of the roll bar. For some reason this created further problems for me. After speaking to AK a few times on this, checking that it wasn't me being a complete thick head, i concluded that i would have to solve the problem via a different solution. As mentioned previously i have booked the body shop for the paint job, so I'm in a mad rush prepping all the little bits now to save me crying later on. One problem with moving the petrol cap is that i couldn't stop the cap from hitting the body when open, and thus damaging the paint when done.

The fitting procedure should be fit the filler flange and cap and rotate anti clockwise until the cap has just enough room to miss the body. However for me to achieve this clearance ment my cap would fall foul of the IVA test with the sharp edge of the hinge point. So my solution was to stop the cap fully opening with a simple tie. I didn't have any ring terminals to hand so made do with some flat washers and some lockwire. I will replace this with a bit of bath chain and ring terminals soon to give a higher profile finish, but works perfect in practise. A large flat washer on the top of the cap with some lock wire running down to a small flat washer held in place with a torque bolt. The bolt has the second use of fixing the cap to the flange so it cant be removed (unscrewed) without taking this out. Its shocking to say but some Cobra owners have returned to their cars to find a filthy scumbag has removed the lovely filler cap as they are fairly costly..... so this should surly help deter anyone brave enough to try and take mine.

Next up was to tidy under the offside rear arch. I have a few wires running along here that are very exposed to the elements and potential of hit by anything coming off the tyre so it was time to "belts and braces" this area. Firstly the main battery cable was covered in a length of spare heater hose, this was an idea given to me to my mate who has just passed IVA. I spoke with him on the phone and was congratulating him and picking his brain regarding the IVA inspectors test and how in depth he went into things like this, but the solution with a length of heater hose split along to slide over is a perfect solution.... double whammy as it acts as a grommet as it passes through the body where it could potentially rub and split. I followed this up with a smaller section of heater hose around the main loom feed through then body also.... again belts and braces. I riveted a small length of aluminium to also hold the wires up back out of the arch and even further away from the wheel, just to be safe.

So with the petrol cap final position sorted and the underside of the arch also fettled i moved onto the roll bar escutcheons plates that i got for £10 from (shall we say) another kit car manufacture...... sorry AK i can feel the shame now, i feel so dirty. ha ha
  These did need opening up slightly with a file but with a little bit of adjustment they fit perfectly and will do a grand job of looking "bling" after the paint job. I will get some dome head polished stainless self tappers to fit them down, and seal with a little silicon to stop the water running down the roll bar also.

The offside escutcheon plate has to be moulded slightly to fit the contour of the body tub, but this is only thin gauge stainless steel, so not hard to achieve this taking your time and looks good.... all for £10 also, happy days!!

So with a few bits ticked off the list and the collection date looming for the paint shop there was lots of other bits to be doing ....basically stripping off everything that had been fitted. Window, exhausts, quick jacks, lights, reflectors, windscreen, bonnet locks etc.... loads and loads to do.

In fact all the bright work comes off fairly swiftly considering all the time it took to fit it all in the first place. But that's the reason its done like this so that re-fitting after paint should be just as easy, without the need to cut or adjust anything on the body anywhere.

Its like taking a huge step backwards removing all my lovely shiny stuff. And this in itself creates further problems. My youngest has now moved in to her nursery which leaves a vacant area in the bedroom for the storage of windscreens and side pipes. Its like a dream for me to share my bedroom with such exotic and glamorous parts, my better half doesn't agree..... well tough!!!

Stay tuned for an update soon.... it might even be some paint work pictures ;-)