Cobra

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Jon has wanted one of these cars for 20 years or more, ever since he first saw one. It came close in the UK but following a lead from a colleague of Cathy's it is coming alive. 

  This is what I had in mind all along.

  This is what I produced. 

For the car geeks amongst you here are few specs on the finished article.

Delivery

Here are some shots of the car being delivered. If any of you have visited us you will appreciate just how small our road is and just how big the truck was. Truck drivers have a whole new level of respect in my book now. 

A proud owner. 

The Body Buck

Whilst I am working on the frame the body needs to sit somewhere. Here is a picture of what is called a Body Buck and one with the body on it.

Frame

The frame has now come back from being powder coated. The colour looks great.

The First Part

The true build has now begun. Up until now I was just preparing parts, but from this point on I am actually doing the build work, and to prove it here is first part, the F panel and a few others that went on just after.

The Rear End

Before the kit arrived I spent quite a bit of time cleaning and updating the rear axle. I changed the ratio of the the gears from 2.73:1 to 3.73:1 This will have a dramatic effect on the performance off the line, but shouldn't detract too much from the top end due to the gearbox ratios I have selected.  I'm quite pleased with the end result.

The Front End

The lower control arms finally arrived today and the front end assembled quite easily.

The Pedals

The Shelby Cobra 427 is based on the AC Ace which Shelby had shipped in from the UK without an engine or gearbox, and then he "breathed" on it, and of course shoehorned a monstrous 427cu engine into it. It seemed fitting to recall some of the heritage in my build.

The Foot boxes

These are the bits you stick your feet into when you're sitting in the car.

Spent a little time making the engine bay look good by polishing the panels. Looks good even if I say so myself. You can also see the heater motor I fitted and some of the electrics.

The Steering

I installed the steering rack quite early on, but now I have installed the steering shaft, so that I can turn the wheels from inside the car. Jolly useful.

The Brakes

I spent a few days deciding how I wanted to run the brake lines. I wanted to make sure that they were neat and tidy and as far away from exhaust headers and other stuff as possible. After bending the lines and forming the "double flares" at the ends and fitting then I am really happy with the results. 

The electrics are currently going into the car. Whilst there is a lot of work doing these there is not really much to show for it. Pictures of a bunch of wire aren't that inspiring, but I will post a few pictures when things start to come together.

Engine/Transmission

I was at the Engine builders yesterday (April 14th) and the engine was on the Dynamometer. I will post graphs of the torque and horsepower but the peak numbers obtained after the jetting and a few tweaks are 398.6 hp and 425 ft.lb. and I'm going to drive this, holy s**t!!!

Here are a couple of shots of the engine on the dyno and a graph of the results.

And waiting for fitting into the car with the gearbox attached.

Engine Installation

The guy who built the engine for me came round to help me with the installation. To make life easier the engine and gearbox were installed as one unit.  Here are a series of shots of the whole assembly going in. It only took about 10mins to get it in place, but will take me a while to hook everything up. I think it looks really quite good.

Engine Hook Up

I have been hooking things up to the engine for a while now. Stuff like the heater lines, fuel lines, exhausts, etc. Here are a few pictures of what it currently looks like including one of the side exhaust. Pretty sweet huh?

Dashboard

For some time I have been trying to figure out how I want the dashboard to look. I think I have finally come up with the final design. Here is layout without the clocks in place. To see the finished dash look further down the page.

Cockpit Aluminium

All the aluminium panels (or aluminum as they spell it over here) need to "breathed on" to make them fit nicely. I spent quite some time making sure that they were all straight and neat and I am very pleased with the way they came out.

She Lives, She Lives

Graham & Dawn came to visit in the Summer, and as both Graham and I are petrol heads and raced the 2CV in Ireland together so it seemed only seemed right that the maiden firing was with Graham assistance.  We spent a afternoon hooking up all the cooling lines, adding coolant, etc, etc. Then in the evening we had the big bang. I had a smile so big after she burst into life. It's quite hard to show a running engine in a still picture but here are few shots of the plumbing. Looks pretty racy even if I say so myself.  In case any of you are wondering the little gauge in the second picture is a fuel pressure gauge.

Cockpit and Boot Aluminum

I have now finished the installation of the Aluminum work. I have fitted everything to make sure that it went together OK, but now I have actually riveted it all on.  I am very pleased with the result. Seems a shame that that at some point I am going to cover it all up with carpet.  You can also see the seat mounting in the first couple of picture.

I also took the opportunity to make the boot (trunk over here) a little bigger. Space will always be at a premium so anything I can do to get a little extra luggage room has got to be a benefit.  In this picture the extra bit is the on the left where it drops down.  In the end it added quite a bit and I am pleased with the way it came out.

Steering Again

As with quite a few things on the car I wasn't that happy with the initial steering setup so I replaced the rack & pinion with a true manual version rather than the un-powered "power steering" one I was using and replaced the linkage that connects it to the steering wheel. Lets face it steering is quite useful

Heat Shields

After burning myself a few times on the exhaust it became obvious that a little extra protection was needed. Any passengers wouldn't be too happy if they touched a hot exhaust with a bare leg.  There are lots of companies that do extra bits and one such company makes these really nice heat shields.  No more burnt legs I hope.

Finished Go Kart

The "Go Kart" stage is when you are finished with the basic build but have not yet put the body on the car. This is a quite exciting stage as I can see the end.  Here are a couple of shots of the finished go kart. Don't tell Boise PD but I have been doing little test runs around the turning circle. Great fun, but the desire to take her for more of spin is very high.

Mounting the Body

The body comes as a single large piece. It is way to big to handle by myself so I invited a few friends round on the promise of free beer and food if they helped me get the body onto the car.   Here is the sequence when my little project really started to look like a car.

Since the Body was Mounted.

After the body mounting party I spent a lot of time fitting the separate panels. The bonnet, (hood for the US folks) took ages as it was very time consuming getting the hinge to work correctly. The boot, (trunk for US folks) was a lot easier.  The doors were also quite easy. Along with all the panels I have been fitting the smaller stuff that really makes it a complete car. Stuff like the fuel cap, side vents, rear lights, headlights. All in all I have spent quite a lot of time getting to look like a car. The windscreen is also fitted, but the just not on the car in the following picture. All in all as I write this I feel that the body is ready to go to the paint shop to get it's British Racing Green colour scheme. There are a series of pictures below that show some of the stuff I have been doing.

Tonneau Cover

As well as all the body panels I have also fitted a Tonneau Cover. This for when we park the car whilst we are out. It will help to keep honest people honest.  You can also see the defroster vents that I have fitted. Not that I think I will ever need them, but just in case.

Interior

After the tonneau cover was fitted the whole car was just about complete except for the fact that it had no paint and the interior carpet wasn't installed.  Due to the amount of dust and debris that would be generated during the bodywork I decided that the best option was to take the body off and have it painted separately, and whilst the body was off I could finish off the interior.  Before I could put the carpet in I needed to add some sound deadening material to all the interior. This will keep the noise down (a bit) as it will stop the panels from drumming to much. Makes the whole car "feel" a lot more solid. The stuff I used also is a heat barrier to stop my feet getting too hot.  Here are a few shots showing the nearly finished carpet. In the shot showing the passenger side you can also see the sound deadening material as well as the carpet pad I placed in a few selected places. This gives the car a much more plush feel.

Dash Part 2

I have now fully installed the dash including the covering. I am very happy with the results and here are a few pictures of the finished article.

Body

The body is currently being worked on. I found a local guy that is very good with fiberglass and he is doing a great job. The advantage is that he has already done a Factory Five body shell but that one was a Mark 1 whereas mine is a Mark 2. The following pictures show some of the progress that he is making. I am really looking forward to getting the body shell with a nice coat of paint.

Here are some of the defects in the body shell that need to be worked through. They are called pinholes although most of them are a lot bigger than pins.

Body Update

The body continues to be worked on. Progress has been steady and the results are really starting to take shape.  Here are some shots showing you the progress from the shots above right through to me getting the painted body back.

New Brakes

Whilst the body was being done I had time to do some upgrades. Sounds funny doing upgrades before the car is even finished but I needed something to keep me occupied. I converted the rear brakes to disc's and had all the caliper's powder coated red.  I also upgraded the pads to a more aggressive one for better feel.

Remounting the Body

Once I had the body back and all in color we had another little get together to put the body back on to the car. This time I hope for the final time.

Finishing her off

Once the painted body was back on it was a case of getting everything bolted back on. This was due to the deadline of the 2006 Boise Roadster Show.   You can check out previous shows here and hopefully this site will also be updated with the 2006 show pictures when it's over.  Well here she is after 2 1/2 years of work and lots of blood, sweat and some tears.

Same pictures just a little smaller

Boise Roadster Show

So I finished building the car and it just so happened that the Boise Roadster show was about 2 weeks later. I had it in my mind for a while to enter the car in the show and put the entry form in mid Feb on the hope/belief that I would get her finished. Well I did finish the build and took her down to show her off. I came away with the fist in my class (Hand built sports car) and got a best of the show award for the Custom/sports car class. All in all a great few days.