Something to stop the fly's hitting my face.

Been on the cards a while now and with some funds still left over from Birthday and Christmas i placed the order with Chris at Brasscraft for the windscreen. Chris supplies 95% of windscreens to the Cobra kit car industry and they are built of the same frames as the original AC cars so altought a fair whack of cash you are guaranteed a superb product and quality craftsmanship.

So two weeks after officially placing the order i received my screen. Speeded up significantly because Chris had a screen all ready to go that was for AK and after a quick phone call it had the shipping address changed to mine...... hahaha cheers Jon & Wendi!! 

 Fitting the screen was a fairly pleasant and simple job to do with a big overall effect to the appearance when finished. When the screen was delivered it was a simple job of fitting the side legs with the screws supplied then offering into place via the pre drilled slots from AK. As the frame legs slide into the tub you can see that they then offer up against the interior scuttle box section. The legs need to be clamped ether side to hold into place temporally whilst the pitch of the screen is adjusted to the correct angle.

In order to get the screen sat at the correct angle you need to get a distance of 36" from the top centre of the screen to the lip in the centre of the back of the cockpit. I simple did what AK recommend and cut a length of wood to exactly 36" and used that as my guide. Once all was secure and in the rough position i took measurements in various places to check the screen was sat level and even. Some small adjustment was needed then all secured into place.

I secured the screen using 4 x M10 bolts with nylock nuts straight into the box section of the inner tub chassis. These i believe can be just tapped to thread the bolt in, but i feel my way is more secure and its all held into position nicely. Attention must also be paid to the position of the front water seal, when the screen is first offered up its best to have the seal reversed back onto itself (its natural position) then when the screen is fixed it can be easily pushed forward to create a nice tight seal against the body.

Now i had to mark and fix the positions for the centre support bar and the frame escutcheon plate. I just unscrewed the screen from the frame legs and removed out of harms way. This then gave me access to slide on the escutcheon plates and fix down (i will use a dab of silicon when finally fitted also) I also fitted the bracket for the centre support. I did have to change the angle for this a little which was easy to do with just a big set of clamps, but covered in a cloth first as its polished stainless. All fitted back together and looking absolutely stunning. The screen is a true work of art with its finish and construction and future business to Brasscraft is a definite from me for the  screen demisters, fuel cap, overiders etc... anything brightwork basically.

Dash it all!!!!

  Still hasn't warmed up outside yet to get really stuck in, so time to make a start on the dashboard and the final finish. Iv been having some ideas knocking around my brain on final finish and what i wanted as an end result and after having a play around with layout using printed gauges and switches i started putting my ideas into practise.

First thing i wanted to do was to blank off the glove box, i don't really see the point of it on a car with no roof as it will never be secure and anything that get put in would just rattle about and piss me off. So firstly removed the glove box molding off the back and set about filling it in. I did this by simply using some ridged card bonded to create a back then some skims of fibreglass bodge, not a professional way of doing things but its going to be covered so just has to give a little strength as opposed to a big void in the dash.

I also had to fix the dash into the tub, so that i can get some accurate width measurements. As the dash comes from AK it was short ether end by an inch or so and so i needed to make up some width so that the door cards line up nicely when they are fitted. AK probably make them a tad shorter to allow for padding and leather finish. I also needed to fine tune the fit around the steering column cowling. This is one of my little gripes with Cobra reps... poorly fitting round the column really gets me annoyed. So time was spent again firstly creating a paper template and then building up layers of fibreglass and cutting to shape.



All this fitting to shape is fairly tedious as its constantly trial fitting then adjusting to suit. But after getting a good all round fit it was time to start flattening down and making everything blend in nicely. This whole process takes hours but is very worthwhile as the final finish is only as good as the prep work. I found it very useful to spray the whole dash in black with a bit of left over rattle can to act as a guide coat this then showed me any high / low spots to concentrate on.

Once i was happy with all the prep work i did another quick guide coat, simply to act as a consistent colour to the dash in case i bodged any of my carbon fibre cloth i didn't want it too obvious when it was all finished. This now was not needed as i did the layering well and its a good finish, but certainly good practise for inexperienced fibreglass users.

So onto the start of the finish. I wanted a real carbon fibre finish as opposed to the vinyl affect carbon. Absolutely nothing wrong with some of the vinyl but i have never seen realistic carbon fibre with a gloss finish (which is what i wanted)

I found a local company "north east fibreglass" http://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/ who stocked everything i needed and also offer a course on skinning and fibreglass layering a tad expensive i think so declined that. I took a trip over with the dash in the boot to get my stuff and ask for any advice they could offer. I'm very confident working with the material as i have done many many fibreglass projects before ranging from full ICE boot build to small Sub woofer enclosures (in my younger days)

So after setting up in the conservatory as my work area i started preparing the cloth for fitting, this involves roughly cutting to shape and making sure enough cloth is available to take all the contours of the dash. The cobra dash is originally a flat panel and the AK dash is very similar, but with a radius curved bottom edge and curved return where it meets with the transmission tunnel.

The process is to then start building up layers of epoxy resin, this is mixed with a hardener and rolled onto the cloth with a which then cures to form the cloth to the given shape of the mold or part you are covering in the cloth. This is a slow process as to get best result you need to allow the epoxy to cure short pile mini paint roller, before building up another layer, this takes 12 hours (overnight) and with a 3 coat finish this dominated a fair amount of space for a week and smells IMO great, but not to everyone taste in my house.. ops!!

Once i had built up about 3 coats of the resin and allowed all to cure it was time to start flattening down and then a gloss finish could be achieved. Its good practise to flatten down each cured coat of resin to eliminate air bubbles in the resin starting with a medium grade to a fine grade. You have to be careful after the first coat as so that you don't penetrate the resin and ruin the weave of the cloth.

The picture here shows the dash hanging from my garage after getting hours of sanding from various grades of wet n dry. After i got to this stage it was time to start getting a gloss finish, This can be achieved by ether using a cutting compound straight with the epoxy resin or in my case i used a rattle can of clear lacquer. This can be put on fairly think and when dried, a nice cutting compound to shine it all up.

arghhhh!!!

So happy for the time being with the overall finish of the dash. I like the contrast of modern alloy switches blended with sporty carbon fibre and will eventually have my classic style Smiths gauges fitted also.

What i intended to do was to get the carbon fibre finished dash and in the future if i change my mind it can always be covered in whatever fabric i decide. however i cant see that happening as although I'm not 100% happy with the finish i think it look ace!!!

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.