I get by with a little help from my friends

Well the time had come to fit the body to the chassis permanently. This involved removing the body again and completing some snags that had been left to the last second, such as handbrake return springs, top up the gearbox oil and other odd jobs. With this being a body lifting task i called up some mates to aid with the removal and refitting.... bacon butty's and tea/coffee was sufficient to persuade most people to attend, so we were ready to go.

The plan was to quickly lift the body tub off, which would allow me access to do the jobs i needed to do, the main job was to seal the body to the chassis using standard bathroom silicon. This is to stop any water ingress into the chassis floor pans, where the water could sit and cause rusting issues in the long term future.

With the body lifted off i was shocked to see that a fair amount of dirt and garden snails had made home between the fibreglass body tub floor and the chassis steel floor. I can only assume that because i stored the body in the garden for over 12 months that a snail brood had made home and then when the tub was put on the chassi 6 months ago they were on route to a nicer home. All cleaned up now and the snail graveyard was removed.

With access now to the stainless steel engine bay cladding time had come to remove all the protective film...... what a ballache. Thankfully Ian was happy to jump into the engine bay and start peeling away whilst i finished jobs on the chassis like coating the floor pans with stone chip and topping up the gearbox oil, amongst other tasks. This was such a help as its probs one of the most tedious jobs ever, and the fact my body was stored outside for a year with harsh winter temperatures affecting the protective film cant have helped the removal.

So with most of the little jobs getting done and a bacon butties getting devoured what better time for a quick visit form a couple of Jehovah's witness.... "What would you say if i said Armageddon??" the only response i could think of was Bruce Willis!! and then a polite "Sod off" to send them onto the next house.
As you can see by the picture which looks like Ian has been eaten by my car, that anybody wanting to enlighten us all into the kingdom of God could have picked a better time....... back end of never sounds good to me.



A sterling job done by Ian, This will look very nice when the paint is done and the engine reflects all round the engine bay. However it also means any tatty areas will also be highly visible, so attention when fitting all engine bay hoses and wires must be paid. I think this panelling will also reflect a serious amount of heat of the engine and keep it in the engine bay, so a close eye on the temp gauges during the first few journeys to make sure i don't cook anything.

Now to go crazy with the silicon, basically a nice continuous thick bead all round the chassis rails to stop any water getting caught between the tub floor and chassis floor, i have given the chassis floor a nice thick coat of stone chip waxoil so this again will help stop any moister eating away at the floor pan along with some drain holes towards the front to play safe.

The body was quickly lifted back on and aligned with all the fixing points then bolted onto the chassis. It was one of those tasks that although a lot of work was done, the car would still look exactly like it did when it was pushed out the garage in the morning so to the passer buy and neighbours nothing had changed since last time they saw it.

All the lifting and shifting was done and the hired help sharply dispatched, which was lucky as I'd ran out of bacon and the coffee was running low. This left me the rest of the day to re-do all the engine bay cables that had been disconnected to remove the body. I was also able to fully connect up my brake lines and clutch line to see if all my hard work was to a standard that it would work correctly.... the short answer to that was no!! no sooner had the brake fluid entered the reservoir and a couple of presses on the pedal saw it empty out through the bulk head unions... very very annoyed. The two brake flares that i did with a cheap tool had failed and were pissing fluid faster than tickling an old person. So the decision to hang fire with the brakes and pressure up the clutch line. Again bleeding the system, suddenly the clutch felt more like a brake pedal and the force required to press was so excessive that you could see the bulkhead wall flexing from the pedal box. By this time i was pissed off clutch wasn't working brakes not sealed and the body fixed to the chassis so removal was a bigger ballache than before to access anything to fix... or worse still remove the engine and gearbox.

I went to bed on the Saturday very very disheartened and annoyed with myself as i had check and double checked everything, twice. I even spent an evening watching the TV practising the brake flares with the tool i had, so that i was confident they would work. Obviously a waste of my time.... or so i thought.

Sunday morning and after a few coffee's i was determined to sort these new problems. Building this car is very much a case of " two steps forward, one step back" My plan of action was to remove the bulkhead brake unions and redo the flares with an anal amount of measuring and checking before the tool was used. This resulted in the brake pipe flares looking the same as they did before, but this time i tightened all the unions with the most amount of force that was possible (access wasn't easy because of the manifold and steering linkage) however this time they did seal and i started to get pressure on the brake pedal. HOORAY!!!!!!

However i soon got shot down again.... this time from the rear callipers. They have a bridge pipe that goes to each side of the calliper and fluid was streaming out of the nearside calliper and weeping out of the offside. Now anyone that has build this car before will know what access is like to these rear callipers and access to the bridge pipes in question. Tight does not begin to describe it. After a while i had managed to tighten the bridge pipe unions, i found that lots of swearing and cussing made the job allot easier, and my neighbour remarked that if he had a swear jar for when i started this project he could have paid his mortgage off by now. oops!!!

Regardless of the language used the brakes were working and holding pressure. This is something i will be testing by holding full pressure on the pedal overnight as when it comes to the brakes i wont take any risks and i don't want issues when driving on the road.

So now time to tackle the clutch. I had put allot of thought into why it was a firm as it was, and concluded that the connections i was using from Speedflow were creating a bottle neck for the fluid at the master and the slave, thus making the pedal rock solid, but allowing some movement of the clutch arm, as it was doing. I thought the best thing to do was to start the engine and try gear selection (the car lifted at the back end obviously) With the engine running i could select first gear and drive was put to the wheels, however i could not change gear and the idle speed was dipping when the handbrake was applied. So the clutch must be engaging but not allowing enough travel to change gear. So various adjustment was made to the clutch pin in the slave to the clutch arm. Then suddenly pop everything was working. The clutch freed up nicely and the pressure behind the pedal was just right. The difference was night and day I'm still not 100% sure exactly how i sorted it, but might have possibly been a sticking slave cylinder and when i adjusted the clutch pin it freed off and started to behave correctly. I'll be going through everything to check that all the lines/connections are holding pressure and if they are all good, then that's a big tick off the list!!.

More importantly with working clutch, brakes and running engine allowed me to do this for the first time ever!!!

Next on the list is to prep for the windscreen arrival and make a start on the dashboard finish.

Little but not very often

Well i might not have updated this blog for a bit... but i have made some progress. 


Beginning of November i went to the Classic Car show at the NEC Birmingham, second year I've been and it is a cracking show, all indoors so sod the weather and a huge venue for massive amounts of cars and trade. When i was at the show i managed to get some of my lighting which was a nice surprise. So after returning home a nice little job of a quick trial fit of the headlights and indicators.




They certainly make the car look another step closer to getting finished, however they will all be taken off again as the body still needs to be removed for permanent fixing to the chassis.

The back end sees the rear lights fitted and the numberplate light housing. I still need to hinge the boot lid, but this is being done via some customised hinges. AK and a few other kits use standard external hinges that just mount through the body tub and bolt from underneath. I personal don't like them and feel the ruin the look of the back end and look a little cheep. So in the next few posts i will be showing you my progress on my internal boot hinge idea along with a custom boot lock that has never been done before (that i know of) and its little bits like this that will make the car truly mine and unique to me as these are all my one ideas adapted to fit the AK Cobra. watch this space!!!

After some much needed funds as a Christmas present i have also now got my prop shaft, this is 100% new and the only bit off the Jaguar is the end yoke to fit the oil seal and output shaft of the gearbox. This was a bit of a chore to fit as its been bloody cold lately but i wanted to get it done... it would have been a 3 min job if I'd have waited till the body was off again.... but i didn't!!!

Another little job done was fitting the choke cable. Again this has been slightly modified, as i didn't want to be able to see the adjuster on the dash so this has been hidden under the steering column (i still need to get a picture of that bit) then just a simple solder less nipple onto the carb and jobs a good un.

Along with the choke cable i fitted the throttle cable, this was a little more delicate as attention needs to be paid so that the pedal doest stop on the carb but on the body floor. Fitting the return springs so that they didn't fowl any thing was the biggest issue as you can see from the picture the double spring return pulls the cab shut to the back of the engine..i have been told that this can create allot of wear on the butterfly needle and that the springs are best mounted above the pivot point and pulling the carb closed to the front of the engine. This is something that i can change when i have the car finished, as it wont do any damage soon as it would be years of driving that causes the issue.

Last little bit for this post is the steering column. I never want to have to go through the ball ache of finding one of these again. Prior to ordering the kit form AK i stocked up on donor parts, and i got hold of a BMW E30
steering wheel and column... this is totally wrong and will not fit the AK setup. The column needs to be from a pre airbag BMW E34 with the telescopic spline shaft to fit the AK supplied lower link. This is basically not an easy task, as so many of the cars are no more and parts and getting harder to find.

 I eventually managed to get hold of one through an eBay "E34 breaking" advert and after agreeing a total of £40 + £10 p&p flipping bargain. I did find one in the highlands of Scotland, but the crazy Scotsman wanted £300 for it....bless him for trying. More importantly i did'nt want to swallow my pride and admit defeat and have to buy that one off him. So a massive tank you to Andy Roberts as you are a real life saver.

Unfortunately when Andy was removing the lower column he cut the shaft from the bottom UJ wich was just a little to short for me to use. So the hunt began again to find a lower spline shaft for an E34... blimey what a chew on just for the steering.

To cut a long story short i found one and in total the whole steering column has cost me £80 all in, so still very cheep. The steering wheel is so important as it is needed to allow the car to pass the IVA test, so i can tick that off the list. So now i have steering and throttle cable i can sit in the car and actually rev the engine and steer the wheels.... next steps clutch and brakes!!!! yippee!

Lots of Little Things

Well now the body is temporally fitted its time to start doing lots of little jobs that all add up, such as the handbrake fitting with the cable. I made this harder for myself as when i fitted the body i didn't pay attention to where i had laid the handbrake cable and consequently jammed it between the body and the chassis (right under the floor pan) so this was a bit of a sod to free as i had to lift the body again and pull the cable out the offside rear wheel arch.

However with that done i was able to locate the handbrake bracket and secure into place, this uses one of the body tub securing bolts (back) and a new hole drilled for the front bolt through into the chassis leg. With all that done all seems to be working and doing what it should do. I'm still awaiting a delivery of springs which attach to the handbrake calipers and chassis to aid the release of the handbrake and stop it sticking.

 After a visit to a fellow Cobra builder/enthusiast (Ian Cogdon) i saw he had printed out faces of his gauges to allow some idea of layout on the dash. This idea has been quickly stolen and i am now doing the same. This is raising some concerns over on the Cobraclub forum, as some people feel so emotional to the dash layout and despise anything that vary from the build manual or the thousands of other replica cobras. One member said it will affect the resale value of my car.... but considering I'm building this for me and not for anyone else, and that if i ever do have/need to sell i sure as hell don't give a shit if someone is bothered about the dash layout. Personally i quite like this layout so far, and when i trial fitted the dash i still like it. Maby I'll change the spacing a little to allow for further switches

and warning lights. But overall I'm pleased with how it looks..... I'm not pleased with the £700 odd pounds i have to find to order the bloody gauges, but this is what is required so "needs must"

You will also notice in the picture the lack of steering column and wheel, this is because i went and got the incorrect donor parts way back before the chassis order was placed and so has left me up poo creek as trying to now find a BMW E34 column, lower column, steering wheel, ignition key without an airbag is like trying to find rocking horse poo. However i think i have got one (I'm just awaiting confirmation of the extraction and that its correct)

So progress is being made little by little, however now the body and exhausts are on space is very very tight in the garage. I find myself going to bed in the evening and dreaming of double garages with electric roller doors and inspection pits, roofs that don't leak and smooth plastered walls which you cant see daylight through. But balls to it, got to make the best of what i have, and its certainly isn't taking any of the fun away from the build.

Body Fitting

  Well now that i know that the engine is sorted and running nicely, i can make some progress on fitting the body. Since i took delivery of the chassis and tub, the tub has been sat in my front garden with a tarp over it and the weeds and grass growing up around it. So I'm extremal pleased to get to this point so the body is sheltered from the elements in the garage.

So with the help of a couple of my neighbours we uncovered the tub and started to lift it to the other side of the street where my garage is. It was surprising how heavy the tub actually was, i know many hands make light work... but i didn't have many hands only two other people, so many many thanks to Tony and Eric.

 So we lifted the body round and placed it beside the chassis, i had previously cut holes in the tub for the gear stick and the fuel filler and fuel sender, so this gave the clearance for us to basically lift the tub high and lower onto the chassis, aligning up as best we could.
The body fitted nicely in place and most of the attachment points aligned with only a couple that will need opening up to get the bolt through. So were starting to look like a car now. Hopefully this will help the passing traffic that stops and says "what are you building?"

The body will be removed again just prior to permanent fixing, as the tub is also bonded on to the chassis. I will also be removing all the protective plastic off the stainless steel engine bay cladding, and cutting all access holes/panels that i will need.

So now the tub is on, i can start cutting more holes for the sidepipe headers to fit to the manifolds. This was a scary thing to do. But the basic rule of cut little at a time and open up slowly. I started off with using a straight edge to follow the length of the manifolds to touch the inside of the body tub. I then drilled a 2mm hole in each corner to give me a rough guide on the outside of the body. I then simply drilled a bigger hole in the middle and started to open up the hole with a jigsaw. The initial length and width was about 4inch square to allow me to slide the headers in and slip on to the manifold, then just a mark and cut procedure (about 5mm each time) until i had the exhaust fitted, with a good enough clearance around the headers as so they wont melt the tub when they a hot.

I tidied all the edges using a flap wheel and low drill speed, making the cuts look straight and even. Now the exhausts were back on i could do another engine run. I did have to space the fuel filter out from the chassis a little, as the fuel feed in was catching on the body tub, so better safe than sorry. Apart from that just a few things on my snagging list to sort and were getting somewhere.

I also received a visit from a fellow builder Ian Cogdon this week. He is on the correct side of the Tyne and is building a Pilgrim Sumo. He mainly came to see the engine running but i had only just fitted the body and had not cut the holes for the exhausts, so i couldn't run with just the manifolds, as they would have melted the body... so sorry Ian, next time for sure!!!!

Here we have another video of the engine rumbling away to itself when the tub is on. This now looks and sounds amazing, and is a massive milestone in the build process for me.

First start and Fire Up

Well after a holiday in Greece i was keen to return and make some progress on the build. Basically because after i returned of Holiday the tarp had blown off the body again (about the 5th time) and ripped to shreds. So after getting another one from DIY store, i have decided to give a good progress push, so i can get the body trial fitted before the crap weather arrives and I'm stuck with 4ft of snow again for 2 months like last year. To get the body fitted i need to get a few things ticked off the list,

1. Engine Run
2. Pressure up brake lines
3. Fit prop shaft
4. Fit remote rear bleed nipples

I want to pressure up the brake lines to check all the joins for weeping/leaks, as when the body is fitted visibility and access are next to none. Also i need to have the confidence that my brakes are the best they can possibly be, in case they are needed for an emergency!!

So i also needed to fire the engine.... the fun bit!! after making a small investment in a good quality battery and a few battery cables i took the plunge and fired her up.

The test fire was a massive success, however like any kit car build it just proved that nothing can be fitted once and left. Obviously to run the engine the cooling system needed to be set up. I wasn't bothering with the cooling fan as the engine wouldn't be run long enough to get that hot. However a little bit of a hole in the stainless steel of the header tank where it was made was a bit of a bummer, as i was constantly pouring water into the cap to stop it draining away and running dry. This however has been rectified by AK and I'm just waiting for it to be sent back.

Second issues is that i ran the engine with no prop shaft, so with the yoke not being on the output shaft of the gearbox there was no oil seal and threw oil all over the flood.... messy but smells lovely.

Thirdly my fuel pump is basically fooked. There is a crack in the casting where the output union is screwd in... this pissed me off no end. I had waited months for this to be delivered, and i knew i would have a battle on my hands to prove it wasn't me over tightening the union and splitting the casting. However a replacement has been fitted now and the knacked one can be returned to Edelbrock for inspection.. but after postage to the retailer, and then postage again back to America, its pointless throwing good money after bad. This has however annoyed me big time, as it was not me over tightening the union that split it and i cant afford to loose money like this.

So As soon as the return of my header tank, i will fit the yoke to the gearbox to make the oil seal, top up the gearbox oil, and run the engine again... then i can tick that of my list and make some progress on the brake system testing.

Loud Pipes and Fuel pump

Yes another lengthy wait since my last update, all i can say in my defence is that i never really set a time scale for this project... which is lucky! Also funds are a little tight at the moment so i haven't had as much spare at the end of each month as i wanted.



However the illusive Edelbrock fuel pump arrived (took easily 2 months from order) This is now in suite to replace the blanking plate that was fitted from the engine supplier. It is mounted to an thin adapter plate which is bolted directly to the block. There is a long metal rod that slides up into the depth of the engine which operates the pump via a cam shaft lobe.

As you can see from the picture that i will be removing the pump again as i will need to rotate the "line in" and "line out" feeds as so they don't/wont foul the inside of the wheel on full lock. I'm also replacing the "line out" with a 90° union to help re-rout the line from pump to carb.

 I have also picked up my side pipes and manifolds from AK, these are the latest 5" pipes that are absolutely mega. they look (IMO) seriously cool and ironically they can be fairly cool to touch after a hard drive..... seriously i went out for a blast about in the AK demo car with these pipes fitted and when we returned i could easily touch the pipe without burning myself. The headers and tail piece will still get stupid hot so i will have to watch that.

The exhausts are fitted via two brackets bolted to the underside of the chassis to support each sidepipe with a cotton bobbin (engine mount) between pipe and bracket.

The manifolds are slightly harder to fit as they are specific to each side of the engine, and take some fetteling to align the fixing bolts to the heads.

As with a fair few jobs on the AK kit, there are not many jobs that you can do once and be happy with. When fitting my manifolds the HT lead from one of the spark plugs is in contact with the manifold down pipe. This will cause problems, as the manifold will get fricken hot and basically melt the lead and in turn create all sorts of nasty running issues.

As you can see in the picture this is way to close for comfort. It also will not allow me to remove the leads when the manifold is fitted... so that would involve removing the sidepipe and manifold just to service the car and change the plugs.... need a solution!!!

After speaking with AK, Jon said its not uncommon for this to happen, just means i have to remove the manifold and heat up the pipe causing the obstruction (red heat) then flatten out a little. So this is something I'll have to do once my neighbour has got some more oxy gas. I will also be fitting a protective sleeve over the rubber boot, which "according to the manufacturers" can be touching the pipe and it will not transmit the heat to the lead or create firing issues? I'm only fitting them as a safety precaution as even after i have flattened the pipe a little it will still be close!

As you can see the headers of the pipes fit to the manifolds using a slip fit. There has been a thread on the Cobra forum lately about these slip joins leaking, this will obviously be IVA/MOT fails. But considering i still haven't had my engine running yet, its not an issue....yet!

I have also placed an order for some gauge senders and all the relevant adapters with pressure switch. So technical once these are fitted i can do a test fire of the engine!!! that is something to look forward to. I could test fire now without the oil pressure switch, and gauges however this is stupid risk with such an expensive engine. I need to be able to see whats going on as its running so that i can shut down if any problems occur, and potentially risk destroying my engine.

So come back in the next 6 months and I'll have fitted the new fuel union. LOL seriously i must warn you that i have been robbed of a wad of cash for a bloody holiday for 2 weeks in September, so this will slow progress down even more!! LOL

Messing with my body

Well with progress being made on the chassis, and with a few jobs left to do like prop shaft and clutch line, it was time to start paying some attention to the body. With the way things are going i think I'll be trial fitting the body along with exhausts before i test fire the engine. not a perfect situation, but it also means i can pressure test my brakes and clutch with the pedal box being in suite.

First job was the heater box. This is from a mk2 VW Polo. I am doing things differently to the AK build manual here as it will make things easier... i think. Current IVA regulation states that air drawn in through the heater must not come from within the engine bay. So this will involve fitting some ducting to the intake of the heater back through into the cockpit of the car. As you can see in the picture above the heater is mounted, i had to cut a hole in the bulkhead to allow the air through the matrix and into the car.

The AK build manual advises to fit the heater opposite to how i have done it. (picture above the heater motor on the other side flipped over 180) This is because the heater is made with a angled lip which allows easy mounting to the angle of the bulk head. I took advice on clearance to the bell housing and have removed this lip  with my dremel (see picture left) for a few reasons. Main one being that the heater hoses are now on the same side as they are on the engine, so it will make for easier routing of the heater hoses when i get to that. And also because its advised to have the intake ducting fitted to the motor side, as so that the air is drawn past the motor and will help keep it cool. I may also take an air intake from the heater hose side also, most people just blank this off, but it is the bigger intake so will aid airflow if i use it.

On the cockpit side of the car you can now see the heater matrix. This is where the air is blown through and as the air passes through the fins it is heated by the hot engine water in the matrix and hey presto hot air blowing onto the screen to de-mist... should i ever need it?? On this side is fitted a fiberglass box section to seal the unit and rout the air flow to the relevant place. I intend to just lock the temp control valve to open (Hot) as it will very rarely be used as the car will be a spring/summer drive only. However if i change my mind i can easily sort out a control gauge wire.. this will clutter up the dashboard more so not interested at the moment.

I have also trial fitted the pedal box, checking for a good fit with no clearance issues. All seems to be ok, but i will need to get longer bolts for the clutch master cylinder, as the bulk head is fairly thick.

And on the engine side of the body the brake servo and clutch master cylinder are mounted neatly. All will need to be removed again to make hose connections and to peel off the protective film of the stainless steel engine bay cladding, but they fit as they should do and can now stay until a trial fit of the body which i hope to be fairly soon!!!