Fan - Tastic!!!

 Hello again Cobra blog readers. Firstly thanks for you for your patience for what seems like a huge gap since the last update, to quote my mate Ian Cogden "life has got in the way" i have took on another day job which sees me working even  further hours and along with my little mates 3rd birthday, spare time and energy has been very very thin on the ground.
  So to kick of this update I'll summarise my twin cooling fans install. I have always loved the look of the front twin fans, and followers of my progress will recall i have a thermostat controlled puller fan behind the radiator. So this is the "belts and braces" part of my cooling system. I'm putting two classic style fans in the front nose that will be switch controlled, so if I'm stuck in traffic or start running hot, then i have some additional cooling available at the flick of a switch..... i so i hope!!

So firstly i needed the motors. Many options are available (mostly cheep Chinese motors) but the big beefy ones off an MGB were what i opted for. These are actually fairly hard to get hold off new, but i dropped on with eBay and managed to pick up two for a total of £60. Most MG suppliers list the motors in their parts, but the availability was poor through all the suppliers i contacted.

I had picked up a couple of 30 year old fan motors from a MG breakers yard but they were past their best and the bearings were shot (however the mounting brackets came in use) The motors i got had an 8mm spindle shaft for attaching the hub/fan, i believe the original MG motors also have a 8mm hub, with grub screw thread. They are 12v DC with just over 3000 rpm. 

Next on the list was the fans themselves. These are just of an industrial fridge/freezer. I picked up a couple of 250mm fans for less than £10 including postage from an fridge repair website. The fans i got were just pressed alloy with no hubs or fixings attached. This did become a little obstacle to overcome, as i found getting a suitable hub a little bit of a challenge.And after a couple of experiments with odds and sods i had lying around it ended in failure. I then, after google searching everything i could think of, came across a robotics website that listed a robotic wheel hub for a 8mm motor shaft and at £3 each they were hardly expensive. I had just been speaking to Lee that day (the original inspiration for these fans, off the Cobra forum) who informed me that you could get the fans with the hubs already fitted, but with these in the post i thought i would give them a bash. When they arrived i was very pleased with the quality of them and the engineering in them for the price. They have a perfect 8mm centre, secured with a nice allen bolt, and 6 equidistant holes for the fitting of a wheel.... or fan in my case. These were just simply drilled through into the fan and held in place with some little M4 nuts and bolts (all with a little locktight for extra security)

 As you can see in the picture, it all went together fairly nicely and more importantly well balanced. you cant have these spinning round at over 3000rpm an inch away from your radiator without them being balanced, they would just shake themselves apart otherwise. Once the two motors and fans were fitted the obligatory "bench test" was carried out and the torque from the motors was very very impressive, along with the amount of air they were pushing, more than sufficient for additional cooling. In fact i believe Lee was using his as his primary cooling system controlled through a thermostat but again that would be more than sufficient.

So with the motors and fans ticked off the list, next up was the fixing bracket. This is simply just a length of box section, with angle brackets either end, and with the original MG style motor clamps bolted on. I say "simply" but all this takes time of measuring and cutting, measuring again, trail fit and then spacing of the brackets with the motors and fans fitted. The whole bracket is then fitted into the nose at the desired angle and height and secured with some bolts through the inner wing which is 5mm thick fibreglass with the stainless steel cladding, so certainly strong enough.

So now a trial fit of everything, and when i stood back to have a look i was very very pleased with how they looked. And with it all in place another quick test run with a battery back to see how they worked... again very very pleased. So stripped it all back out again, so i could give the bracket a good coat of chassis black Por15 (which is the same tin i purchased back when i did the Jag parts refurb.....cripes that was a long time ago)

Once everything was back together and installed on the car, it was time to route the wires and fit the dash switch. If you have followed my blog you may recall that i fitted an additional fuse box specifically for bits like this which were planned at some point during the build, and I'm glad i did. So not too challenging to feed some 27amp wire along from the motors to a 24amp toggle switch hidden behind the wiper control stalk (within the IVA dash exempt area) then with a 20amp fuse it was ready to test. Fitting of all these wires and the routing all takes its time and in fact i spent more time doing bits like that then on the initial install of the bracket with motors. But if a jobs worth doing, its worth doing well.




So i suppose you would like to see how they work??? well watch this video and you will see. The frame rate of the video gives the appearance the fans spin in opposite directions, but in reality they spin allot faster than it looks and both anti-clockwise.

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.

Quick Jacks.

Well another job ticked off the list with the fitting of the quick jacks. These are cosmetic only and will be fitted post IVA as i don't want to take the risk of them failing the radius or sphere test. Lots of Cobras have them fitted for a period look to the cars and they really finish the front and back end nicely in my opinion. They replace the nudge bars and overiders and just generally look nicer keeping the car looking smooth and less cluttered.

Quick Jacks are basically two brackets fitted front and back and back in the vintage racing days they would be used to jack the car up for service or tyre change. They are purely cosmetic in my case as they are only bracket mounted onto the body (which is fibreglass) so they would never have the strength to support the car.  

I purchased mine from Chris at Brasscraft and lets say i didn't see much change from £250 for a set of 4 brackets, 2 x 10mm bar, 2 x stainless steel tubing and 8 x dome nuts. However  like everything i have had from Chris so far they do have a quality feel to them. They are made from 8mm stainless steel with a high polish finish.... naturally.





So pictured above you can see one jack with a section of 10mm studding and stainless steel tubing. These need to be cut to your required length and fitted to the car via its bracket. AK supply with the chassis two front mounting brackets, simply just a section of right angle steel and in my fitting (front first) i just cut some studding to a rough length so that i could make a final fitting component (pictured right) then i could provisionally start making some holes in the body for fitting. I deviated from suggested fitting slightly by putting a M10 nut either side of the cover tubing as so the mounting bracket and quick jack would then be torqued up to them rather than the tubing itself.

So with a one fitting made up i started to make some holes in the body tub. The front jacks are fitted to the inner wing via the AK supplied bracket. The inner wing is just roughly 6-8mm of fibreglass with a 1-2mm stainless steel sheet cladding, so you can see why these would not be structurally sound for lifting the car. AK did provisionally make some markings for the holes but mine were long gone so it was down to careful measurement and cutting slowly then opening each hole with a file for a better fit. The trick i found was to remove the lower studding and tubing of the bracket and just concentrate on the top one. Then when this was done i could adjust the rotation of the jack so that it sat vertical and true to eye and not cock-eyed. Although the body tub looks all symmetrical you will find that nothing is 100% accurate and that a large tolerance can be needed if measuring direct off the centre line.

 So with one provisional fitted i took it all out again and cut more 10mm stud and tubing to match for the other side. Fitting the other side again is the same as the first but lots of attention to making the first cut into the body as they need to sit level either side and look good. Some adjustment can be had from drilling the hole's in the bracket oversize 12mm for 10mm studding that then gives a little adjustment all round for a perfect fit (Another reason to add the additional M10 nut as so you can secure the studding in the correct position) 

 To finish the fitting and to save the body from damage after painting, you need to fit some rubber grommets onto the body to surround the stainless tubing. These can be tricky to find and i was advised of some available from America for a pricey sum. But with my brain in overdrive and a quick rummage around and i found a number of 25mm grommets for electrical cable boxes (pictured below) these cost just penny's from DIY stores and fit perfectly. They can be cut and shortened to fit the diameter of the tubing perfectly and then give a superb neat finish to the jacks without any stress to the body.





Better still for me is you can these grommets with a blanking cover (semi blind cable grommets) and these will be spot on for IVA as they will fit the body perfectly and leave a smooth finish thus be IVA friendly.

 Moving onto the back brackets and fitting is exactly the same as the front, with one difference. The mounting bracket is bonded into the body tub so this just needs to be drilled through for the studding. On the off side this provides a good place for the earth point for the battery also.

The rear jacks need much shorter studding. However how far proud of the body they sit is personal preference when fitting, along with if they are fitted left hand or right hand offset. I just goggle image some pictures and went with what i though looked best.

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As you can see the rubber grommets fit the holes lovely, all i did was thin out the fibreglass slightly to create a lip for them to sit in and job done. 

So the back end looks almost finished now with the exception of paint and numberplate. I'm revising my boot lock idea again, and hopefully will have some updates on that within the next month or so. So still saving for wheels and tyres, paint and interior... donations welcome!!

Flash lines....... not Gorden. (but he is alive)

  Started tackling some long overdue bodywork prep. I'm just making a start on it really, i intend to leave most of the fine tuning for the body shop, such as door/boot/bonnet gaps. However removing the flash lines from the mold is a simple task so long as you don't take too much off and then leave a flat spot. So just long a tedious work with fine abrasive paper to take the bulk of them down. Another good reason to be fitting the interior and carpet after paint is because of the dust, fibreglass and gel coat creates an epic amount of dust and mess, so if this is all completed prior to interior fit it will save work later on i hope. After all logic says black carpet and lots of white dust isn't a good combination regardless of how care full you are.

  Another little job was to fit the battery tray and cut-off switch. I ordered the tray from AK which is a nice well thought out bit of kit, worth the £40 it cost. Its clamps the battery nicely and fits the area perfectly. I'm fitting it in the standard position in the rear offside of the boot. It will all be trimmed and boxed out neatly but again after the paint has been done.

The battery all fitted nicely in the corner and final adjustment for the battery clamps. I have fitted a battery cut off switch which will help eliminate battery drain over the winter period along with it being a safety feature if i need to kill the power quickly. I need to create a better earth point for the battery, as its currently on one of the body securing bolts, but i will change this to one of the quick jack positions next month (when i fit the quick jacks)

I have also fitted a full alarm and immobiliser which is IVA compliant. I'm obviously not going to go into to much detail regarding this, as its the main form of security for the car, but its remote fob activated so no touching of decoders to dash mounted switches prior to engine start. Nothing wrong with that style, but i just don't like them and look unsightly on the dashboard. The advantage to mine being remote operated is that it offers a boot release signal for boot solenoid, and security for the doors and bonnet. I have had to fit the door switches that run to the earth and the bonnet switch also. This will double up as the foot well lights switch when i fit them (probs after the car is legal and on the road)

As many builders will agree, if you start making changes, you make further work for yourself as you have to start thinking one step ahead for the final product. No big issue in this case, but where i have fitted the door switches they would rub on the inner face of the door when in operation. If this was just left as paint finish it would be rubbed off within no time. So the solution is just a couple of little protective alloy strips that can be held in place with a rivet. They have been added to the "fitted after paint" bag, as i don't want to drill the rivet out and have it rattling inside the void of the door. I have pre drilled the holes mind so its a simple 2 second job to finally fit. 

Also little jobs like painting the door hinges have been done. Can't have these as raw metal once the body's painted, would look terrible. This did involve removing the door, but the advantage of that being that i can check when refitting that the alignment is ok for the door catches and panel gaps. I was pleasantly surprised that all was fine so long as attention was paid to the fixing point when removing then re-fitting.

When i ordered the battery tray from AK i also asked about the door hinge escutcheon plates. These will fit around the hole in the body for the hinge and finish of that area nicely. Polished stainless steel naturally, but after a quick trial fit there is some adjustment needed to the bottom plate.

 As you can see the top will be fine, it will just be held in place with a rivet either side (again fitted after paint) and the excess area within the plate, just trimmed back. However the bottom plate looks too big. I have emailed AK regarding this and awaiting a response. Its either a case of trim the plate to fit, but this will make it into two pieces and might look daft? or another slightly shorter plate to be made. It could be that i have just been sent four top plates as opposed to two top and two bottom. As it is currently it sits far to proud of the door gap and would void with the door when open and closed. However no major issue to sort it, I'll keep you all posted as i get closer to fitting them.

Next month sees the first show of the season for me, Stoneleigh kit car show. I have ordered some quick jacks from Chris @ Brasscraft and when i fit them that should be the final cutting of the body prior to paint.... So another update mid next month hopefully.

I still need vasts amounts of cash for wheels/tyres and paint, so donations welcome!!!!

Spring into action.

   Well another productive day today in the garage. First on the list was to finish of the bonnet locks. I've been meaning to do this for a while, but with the onslaught of more snow and negative temperatures still in mid march, i had not been keen to get back in the garage. However this required a couple of brackets to be made up to give the cams something to hold on to rather than just the fibreglass of the rain channel. These were easily made out of an off cut of strip alloy i had lying around. A simple 90 degree bend and a couple of mounting holes for some rivet's and job was done... now onto the cams and locks.

  If you have been following my progress you might remember the initial fitting of the bonnet locks was too far back so that when in the open position the back of the cams caught the rubber bonnet seal when the bonnet was open. I did initially remove them fill the holes, re-position and fit which was fine up until the fitting of the gas rams. They pushed the bonnet a little with the pressure from them and made them catch again (but only by 2mm or so)
 This time rather than fill the hole and move the handles again (weakening the fibreglass further) it made better sense to grind the backs of the cams down a little and shorten the then protruding grub screw to sit flush with the back of the cams. This has given me more than enough clearance and the bonnet opening is as it should be, silky smooth and proper job. With the cams fixed i could cut short the bar and give a neat finish. I'll look into making some finishing plates to fit around the bonnet rib to hide the tops of the cams/bottom of the lock. That will look very smart, and give a better look to the finish when the bonnet is open.

On to the feature presentation of this update. I have since day one, had an idea in my head regarding the boot lock of the car. With the AK kit the space between the bottom of the number plate light housing and the lower lip of the boot is marginal. And when the rear number plate is fitted you (on most AK's that i had seen) had to cut into the bottom of the number plate to allow the boot handle to be mounted to the boot lid.
  I was more than happy to do away with the boot handle altogether, but this left me with a problem of how to lock/unlock the boot. The first plan was a electric solenoid to pop a catch from inside. This would have been fine, but security was an issue. I don't have a glove box so i had no secure place to have the switch. It cant be in plane view as the car is then not secure in the slightest. Also with the car potential hibernating through the winter (all 364 days of it) their is a risk that the battery could go flat and then i wouldn't be able to open the boot. I could have concealed some croc clips in the wheel arch to stick a battery on if this happened and pop the boot that way, but again security issue and not very practical. The battery going flat is probably not going to happen.... but if it did = Mr Cockup paying a visit.

 The best solution for me was to fit a small bear claw lock to the inner skin of the boot that latches down to keep the boot closed. And opening is provided by a small glove box lock and key which is just wired to the claw latch on the inside. The picture above shows how it will work. I need to remove the boot and tidy up all the filler and smooth off some edges, but overall functionality is perfect and is now secure with a key.
 With the lock fitted it leaves me with a situation of how to mount the numberplate and leave access to the lock. I thought a couple of small spring hinges allowing the plate to hinge down from the bottom, but finding a suitable spring hinge was quite a challenge. Plenty of hinges about but they were all so bloody big and would have looked ridiculous.

I started a thread on the CobraClub forum regarding my lack of progress finding a suitable hinge, and was advised of a company in Holland that make spring return numberplate houses for fitting LPG conversions. It allowed an LPG filler to be mounted on the car and concealed with the numberplate. I ordered the said bracket which was a bit expensive at 50euros, but was essential to the build and offered a solution to the problem. When it arrived it looked perfect and was basic to fit. However upon a trial fit it stood far to proud of the back of the boot and looked a little weird, but the functionality was there and that was one good point. (the video below shows the initial fitting and you can see how weird it looks)

Some fetteling was required to allow the plate to sit flush with the boot skin, this was firstly achieved by removing two great rubber bump stops they were a good 8mm deep so that made a huge difference to start with. I have also bent the bracket slightly to follow the curve of the boot and this again looks 100 times better.

I still need to adjust the bracket on the pivot point just slightly to allow the bottom half of the plate to go further back but overall its starting to look acceptable and less of a bodge job.

I haven't had time today to do the bottom of the bracket, but its added to the list of little jobs to finish off. It shouldn't be to hard to do, just drill a couple of holes further back in the pivot lugs to bring the plate back a touch. Just 3-4mm would make a massive distance. Although the two rubber stop mounts have been removed i can just stick some thin protective pads to the bracket to stop any paint damage when finished..... if i ever get finished (fingers crossed for a lottery win)

The picture here shows how much better its fitting now than the initial fit in the video below. The numberplate was the only one i had to hand for a trail fit, I'm aiming to get a pre72 reg number that would be silver letters on black backing (i have to check legality's) this can then be printed on to the old fashioned tin plate and will be simple to mount on the bracket, once registered. The bracket itself is just held on with a couple of short bolts into rivnuts, so can be removed for IVA test which the bracket itself would fail due to radius edge, but ironically not when a numberplate is fitted.

Fog on the Tyne!!!!

This update is dedicated to Mr Richard Dixon, who has been bitching my arse on facebook because my updates are few and far between... this one is for you Dicko you fuckwit!! ha ha

Before i start on the fog and reverse light, i though i would show you my knob, its very pleasing to hold in the hand, but my shaft is a little bent as you can see (so many puns available, but I'll leave it at that)  This was the style of gear knob i wanted from the start and this one was a eBay steal, and allot cheaper than retail cost. Wasn't an easy job to fit to be fair, firstly cut straight across the old gear selector then i had to grind down the diameter of the stub i had left to fit the internal diameter of the new gear selector. This is then held tight by 3/4 grub screws that hold it nice and tight. They also make removal fairly quick and easy as this gear selector is not IVA compliant.... bugger!! time to make another one for the test then!! I will hopefully find the correct rubber gear gator and chrome surround whilst hunting the internet for more parts.

So onto the fog light and reverse light. On my finished car i don't want the horizontal nudge bar that most people fit on their cars and they then fit the reverse and fog within that. I'm considering some nice quick quick jacks but again not IVA compliant so maby afterwards. This left me with a decision of how to mount the two lights, i certainly didn't want any brackets coming from under the rear valance and i didn't want to have to make bloody great swan neck brackets to fit them. I decided the best way was to have them surface mounted just off the centre line. This left me with another problem as the rear valance is contoured and curved so surface mounting isn't just a simple bolt on job. My first few attempts ended in failure, but you need to fail first in order to succeed (or so I'm told) I thought i could create a contoured flange the same diameter as the light unit, i had some bits of off cut drainpipe that was the correct thickness and diameter but i found it very tricky to get it cut to fit... so tricky that i said a few bad words and gave up on that one.

Idea 2 was to make a wedge of fibreglass body filler and sand and shape that to fit.This ended up the same fashion as idea 1.... lots of bad words and fingers covered in fibreglass bodge, so scrap that.

Idea 3 was the winner for me. I started by extending the length of the mounting threads on each light unit, simply knocked the old ones through opened the hole a little and in with a M6 x 100 bolt, you can also see two little brass nipples that take the lens holding screws. These i needed to bond into place from the back to stop them falling off when fitting the light, so a little epoxy glue and job done. I also bonded the rubber backing to the back of the light to stop that from looking unsightly from a side angle when fitted.

Now to measure and cut the rear skirt. Normal rules apply "measure twice... cut once" or measure ten times in my case. First is to cut the larger hole for the rear of the light unit to fit in. The light can then be offered up to mark the fixing bolt holes, i opened these a little to give some adjustment as they will be secured with a penny washer and nyloc nut from the other side. The reverse side is not integral to the boot, and sits just under the boot floor skin. This is good as it helps keep the lights high enough to be IVA happy as the bottom of the lens cannot be lower than 250mm from ground level.

Now i needed to make a spacer to stop the light from just falling down or just point to the floor. I used some alloy tube that was very easy to cut and shape with a file. This then just sleeves over the fixing bolts as the come out the back of each light and stops the light from pointing down to the ground. And yes the pictures here do show sunshine!!! it was almost an alien concept to be outside and not be balls deep in snow, or flood water. And the temperature was a tropical 8 degrees so i didn't take any risks and whacked on a load of suncream!!! ha ha






Once i had the little spacer sleeves done it was just a trial a error process on getting the correct angle to get the lights to sight right. The advantage to me with fitting the lights like this is their will be no damage to paint work when that's done, but the light will sit as far back to the body as possible, so the top of the light will be touching the body (12o'clock position) and the two bolts sleeved with the spacers and look nice and tidy.

The fog light in this picture is not an IVA happy one...something to do with parabolic reflectors or the like.... parabollox in my opinion. However these are the rules i must follow, so i will...... currently. LOL

The fog in this side picture does look to be pointing down, but its just the angle i took the photo and the uneven ground surface.

 I'm thinking that i don't like the way the centerline of sight is thrown off with having one clear lens and one red, so i might look into getting another clear lens and a coloured bulb, that way everything is kept uniform and pleasing to the eye. I could even just re wire the fog to be a second reverse light (with clear lens) then just fit the red fog for MOT time and switch the wires back over?? not sure yet.

So all sorted and happy with the work today. Another step closer and another job ticked off the list i have a few snag's i need to sort out but nothing worthy of a blog update. So keep your eyes peeled for more updates soon. (probs battery tray and kill switch next)









All tested and working fine. Good

 

Fuel Filler Cap

I decided to treat myself to the Aston filler cap from Chris at Brasscraft along with the filler hose and clips etc from CBS. The filler flange that the Aston cap attaches to i had already got from Brasscraft last year. Allot of people do say that Chris's products are expensive (and i agree they are) but they certainly have a top class quality to them, and you would be hard pushed to find a better quality item, so worth the money in my opinion.

I intended to initially bond the filler flange to the body as so that no fixings were visible and kept with my "clean lines" theory that i was wanting to achieve. This plan sharp went out the window when the filler hose arrived. I ordered the heavy duty filler hose rather than the super flex stuff as i was trying to avoid fuel vapour smell in the boot once completed. However the heavy duty hose is so rigid that the amount of pressure it would put on the filler flange meant that it would never have bonded in a million years, so drill the flange and countersink the heads.

First job was to cut the access hole in the inner wing so the hose can pass from the cap to the tank. Not an enjoyable task to be honest, as the hose is very rigid so not easy to flex through the gap, and when cutting the hole i wanted it to fit nicely, rather than to big. Once the hole was cut it needs to be edged with some off cut of rubber bonnet seal. After paint and IVA i will seal round the gap with some silicon to stop the weather invading the boot area. I have also cut the hole big enough for the filler breather pipe which is just a length of 10mm fuel hose.

 

With the hose roughly cut to length its just a case of trial and error, until the correct length is achieved. You need to take care that you cover the filler of the tank as so to stop any crap or crud falling in as your working. I found it best to secure the top flange with the locking insert as so that end was sealed and then offer it down through the wing onto the tank. 

With the length pretty much done, now was time to drill and fit the top flange. Chris machines in the fixing positions equally around edge so its just a simple case of drilling through and then counter sinking the heads of the screws. When you get the filler cap you will also get some paper washer/gaskets that fit into the cap and will adjust the lock down position. So if you need to rotate the cap a bit you can just insert x amount of washers and it will reduce the amount of rotation before locking out. After checking with AK regarding this i was advised not to use any of the washers/gaskets so that the cap screws all the way down onto the flange. This is to do with the final height and orientation of the filler for IVA requirements. 

When it comes to the screw/bolt heads i ordered stainless steel socket heads so that they fit the recess nicely and fixing using an allen key. The only way i was able to cut the countersunk recess was with a larger drill bit then  to slowly open up with the dremmel. I do have a bit to do it but with the threads for the filler cap it would have made a terrible mess of the polished finish. Overall it looks ok, not perfect, but not noticeable unless you really look, and half the heads are covered when the cap is screwed down. So move on to fitting the flange to the body.

Before any cutting and drilling the cap needs to be screwed down and roughly put into position. You need to make sure that when the cap is open that it doesn't flip back and touch the bodywork, same with the release clip. This is something i hadn't even considered until i checked with Wendi at AK. Imagine getting the car all painted and then when you open the cap you chip the paint i would have been gutted!!

The cap needs to be rotated clockwise as much as possible before it touches the body on the hinge and release clip. Again this is to comply with the IVA regulations on radius i believe. I was speaking to a mate Paul the other day regarding this and i fear i will have to rotate mine more (i had already drilled and fixed) as he was saying that the cap hinge needs to be pointing towards the passenger side windscreen post in order to achieve the required angle for IVA compliance. Mine is more towards where the passenger side roll bar leg would be (if i had one) So something i will have to possible adjust prior to IVA. I'll keep you posted.

Fitting the flange is just a simple task of drilling through the body to fit. This is why it is important to finalise the position of the filler cap first with regards to it touching the body, as the fixing holes will obviously be in a required position. Also i was sure to cover the filler hose prior to drilling through the body as you don't want fibreglass dust down in the tank!! Also another tip i thought of when fitting, don't let your neighbour stand watching you next to an open fuel tank with his lit cigarette in hand!!! haha fuel vapour is allot more volatile than the liquid itself!! Just ask "Tony M" of the Cobraclub forum.... he has a great knowledge of fuel tank vapour and explosions!!!

So all fitted and complete you will see that the cap also has a locking insert which i have been told is not actually required for IVA as the Aston cap itself has a seal. I personal will just leave it in i think, its no hardship to undo when filling up, and will mean i have to remove the key from the ignition in order to fill up. I have also got a unleaded fuel restrictor in the cap, as so that if the diesel pump is picked up by mistake it will not fit the filler. I have never in my life miss fuel but i sure as hell don't want my Cobra to be the first time and my daily drive is diesel so "belts and braces" technique again. 

I'm happy with this overall and all that is left to do is to fit a one way valve to the breather hose to allow the tank to breath in the hot summer. This will just be running up the filler hose and secured above the fill level under the flange. I will also be running an earth cable from the filler cap down to the chassis, as so to reduce the risk of static spark when filling up, this will simply be a ring terminal off one of the fixing bolts down to chassis... job done!!!                                                                                                                             Next on the list.... save shed loads of money for wheels and tyres!!!! so expect an update in 2015!!