Stoneleigh Car show

What a great show t was this year again, We had the ferry booked for the Friday night from Belfast to Liverpool and all went well with a rather nice sailing.
Saturday morning and off the boat at 6.30 am which was a chilly start to the day but the excitement overruled the cold morning air. We made one stop on the way to Coventry for a cup of coffee and we were sitting outside the hotel shortly after 10am which is normally way to early to check in but the reception at the Hotel said the room was free and already set up for us coming so gave us the swipe cards so we could get our bits and bobs into the room.
Right then of to Stoneleigh it was and after we drove around the park  few times we parked up and went for a walk. Not much was happening on the Saturday afternoon bar vendors setting up and the stands getting setup inside the halls.
The sun was shinning and we just chilled after walking about. After meeting up with Andy and the GD crew for a chat I was asked if I would put the car on the Total Kit Car stand. Was a tad worried at this point as it wasnt show clean and the tires still had some mud on them from a few donuts that was done earlier lol.

With the Cobra given a quick dust down we got a taxi back to the hotel to get ready for the evening gathering with Andy,Meena, Iyshea and all the club GD members that cars on the stand. What a fantastic night we all had and it was a real pleasure to be part of it.

Up bright and early on the Sunday for a full packed day going around the show and as normal the GD stand looked really well.

It was great going around the show looking at all the Cobra marques and all the other makers of kit cars, come 6pm we were pretty knackered so it was back to the hotel for a shower and another GD evening.
On the Monday I picked up a few bits and bobs I needed before we headed off around 2pm, we had to get back to Liverpool for the overnight ferry. Weather had been great all weekend so we were hoping that we would get back to the ferry before the rain that was forecast come in. In the end we got loaded onto the ferry with not a drop of rain............ result.
Already looking forward to next years show :)

On the road and a few wee jobs done.

Over this past couple of weeks after passing the IVA quite a few small jobs have been done, Steering wheel changed, Side vents fitted and all the other wee jobs we tend to tackle once the car is on the road.
I fitted the Carbon fibre stone guards today then just ordered some clear protective film of the net tonight. Hopefully it will keep the guards in good shape and I can change the film on a regular basis as it gets marked.

The other new addition Ive been working on was adding the switches for the drivers and passengers heated seats, with another switch for a cooling fan override. Installed the MIL light on the panel as well. The OB2 data plug is wired and installed as well and out of sight.

IVA Test

Arrived at the local test center at 8.45am on Friday morning for my first attempt at the Iva test at 9am, First time they had done a GD so it took the full 6 hours to go through every thing on the list, seemed to take ages to do all the brake testing. Anyways I walked away at 2.50 pm with my MAC cert. Didnt sleep last night but I sure will after a few drinks tonight. One happy bunny 
Now back to the finishing of the Cobra, hope to get a load of wee jobs done over this next month and the car on the road.

Waxoyl leaking

Took the Cobra out to check brakes etc and noticed when I got back some steam/smoke from underneath, thought it was enamel hardening on manifolds but noticed a dark coloured drip from one cat :OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Almost a heart attack later when under the pit at a fast pace,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, the exhausts where they ran under the chassis were heating the chassis up and guess who had the bright idea of putting loads of waxoyl down the chassis legs  .Bottom line waxoyl dripping from a few unused rivnuts either side onto cat then with the heat turning black and dripping onto the ground. Phewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww not oil in the exhaust then as that was first flash that crossed my mind.
I guess I might of pumped way to much waxoyl into the chassis, Firstly tomorrow I will block the spare rivnuts with some bolts so no more waxoyl can flow through them when heated up, then I will on the next few occasions the car is out watch for further points where the waxoyl may find an exit point. 

All in all its a good idea to put waxoyl into the chassis but don't go to daft with it like I did 

  

Pre Iva

Got a wee while at the car today and a small drive to see if there are any rattles, knocks etc and also to let the suspension settle so I can get the Indicator height set.
With the brakes starting to bed in and the handbrake getting a little work I noticed it needed some adjustment. I had been talking to Andy about the right bolts for the anti roll bar and mentioned that I needed to adjust the handbrake as well. He suggested checking and adjusting at the handbrake calliper.
Took the split pin out and turned the adjusted with a large screwdriver until the brake applied then wound it back a  1/2 turn and replaced the pin, same with the other side. Job done and ready for another bit of bedding in to see how it settles.

Another IVA job that was done last week was the dash radius, The carbon dash has to sharp a radius for the IVA so I took a large radius piece of ducting, cut about 90 deg out of it and covered it with foam and some black vinyl. Note also the not so sweet IVA steering wheel :(

I noticed when having a test drive the Anti Roll bar arm bolt was catching the inner wing even though I had trimmed part of the lip previously, I trimmed the lip a bit more and took 5mm of the bolts either side and that's another job ready for testing again.

The GD IVA kit is on its way so hopefully that will be here in the next few days and I can get the headrests, silencers, boot handle etc fitted. Must go find another few jobs to do tmw :)

IVA more information required.

Not posted much this past few weeks but the roof is sorted on the and the next step is the side windows. Been doing other small jobs like calibrating the speedo, making a IVA lip for the bottom of the dash and a few other IVA requirements.
On the IVA status, 2 weeks ago I sent away the IVA form only to have a nice chap ring me up and say that he also needed a declaration of self build. Form was sent out, filled in and returned. How ever today the main office at Swansea sent me a letter looking copies the main build receipts and photos of the build.

At least I have a reference number now 75734....  so its in progress. Hopefully I can get the data stick with a few pics loaded onto it and printed in the next few days.

Hoping to get a few hours at the car tmw and a bit more done :)

Boot work

Tackled a few bits that needed done to completely finish of the boot of the Cobra. The first job was to paint the upper part of the boot roof and out to the sides. Makes a big difference and looks good.

Next I noticed a few bits around the boot lip that I had missed when compounding the body, easy to do with the boot closed. A bit of elbow grease and the job was soon done.

I had previously used some reinforced U channel to finish of the inner edge of the boot but the rubber that runs around the boot lid itself to help seal it needed done so that was another job that took a while to sort out.

A bit of a hoover out and everything is finished for the IVA in that area I even polished the inside of the boot lid :). Hoping now the only job that will need sorted around there will be after the test and that will be to change the rear fog light :)

VIN plate

Woo Hoo the vin plate arrived from GD  costs £42.00 but it is a good quality item. There is something about th arrival of the vin plate and the task of mounting the plate that is rather special. It's like the moment you take delivery of the chassis, or the body or fire up the engine.................. well no , firing up the engine is like that one night stand you will never forget lol.
Right,, hmm its another land mark saying , Hey the Cobra is near ready for the big IVA test which is one step or two from being road legal.
I had took way to many hours working out what went where in my engine bay as to me its an area which is more important than the interior, must look clean and simple, extremely hard task with modern wiring and ecu modules.
The Vin plate in pride of place :)

Bonnet finishing

I had been waiting on a few packets arriving in the post, one of those was M4 nut caps to cover the nuts on the underside of the bonnet. The stainless nuts looked ok but just were not doing it for me and I wanted that area to loo a tad tidier.
The double skin on the GD bonnet was of good quality and looking at it in the daylight it was now spot on but hard to show in a picture. The M4 nut caps still needed a slight bit of silicone on each one t prevent them coming off on the road.

Caps on and a rubber lip across the joint where the mesh is bonded on helps the finish of this area.

Boot and Alarm

I had thought the boot was finished but its interesting no matter how often we visit an area of the build that we see something else we could do or improve on existing work that we have completed.
As mentioned in the last post I have been installing a Cat1 Alarm system in the Cobra and part of the inputs had an option for a boot trigger.
There was no boot ground switch installed so this had to be looked into and the best place for a switch sorted. The up side of installing a boot switch meant that it would make sense to install a light in the boot as well that would operate when the boot lid was opened.
After some head scratching it was decided that the boot ground trigger switch would be activated by one of the boot hinges, the reason for this was that mounting the switch anywhere else would look agricultural  and not ascetically pleasing.
In order to shape the bracket and  find the exact striking point from the boot hinge to the switch you need to get into the boot and close it behind you, ps bring a torch :D
The rest is common sense in sorting out where bracket goes and the length of it, my bracket was less than 90 degrees in order to allow the hinge to strike the switch at approx 90 degrees. The ground trigger acted as 2 functions, the first was to operate the interior boot light and the second was to trigger the alarm.

Only took 1 picture and most of the bracket is hidden but you will get the general idea. The bracket is bonded on with sikaflex or any other polyurethane sealant.  If it bond body panels then a small bracket isnt going to move. the light is attached to one of the screw fixings for the hood however sealant would bond the led light in place as well.
One other job I noticed in the boot was the large grommets for the roll bars. If the rain or water was driven in either via wind while driving or just a windy day water would drip into what ever luggage was in the boot. I decided to seal the outer rims of the grommets to help prevent this possible occurrence.

On my list to do when nout else to do is smooth rite the top of the boot, hind sight a great thing..................... do this before installing the carpets as after the carpets are installed you start to notice it looks iffy and you will want to paint it :) I painted the back of the boot previous but never thought of doing the roof part.

Speedo and Alarm

Not a lot done over this past week as the car is near finished for IVA and I am waiting on parts coming from GD to finish off a few jobs, had hoped they would of been here last week but hoping they will be here for the coming weekend.
One thing I had not checked was the Speedo reading and upon testing it was not registering at all. I ended up taking the steering controls off and the dash out again to get at the wiring to test, turned out that one of the Speedo wires was not connected as per the diagram I had. Speedo is now reading but needs calibrated later.

I have a Cat 1 alarm system to get wired into the car and now is as good a time as any to get it installed as I wont be applying for the IVA test to the new year.

A lot of the wiring wont be needed for the Cobra so will go though most of it before installing in the Cobra, once Installed and pictures taken of the hidden wiring and mountings I'll get the local center to issue a cert for the insurance. I bought the unit from them and they are happy for me to install the unit myself knowing the cars wiring.

Boot pistons

The boot pistons which was ordered a few days ago arrived in prompt time and it was time to get stuck in and get them fitted.
The first thing was to mark out and make brackets for the bottom of the pistons, these were a bit odd in shape but strong and didnt flex under pressure from the piston.

The picture above shows the bracket flowing the contour of the boot lip

Straight on

The bracket fitted now and as the picture shows the majority of the bracket is hidden.

For the upper bracket 2 alloy rivnuts were installed in the boot lid

Upper bracket made and the upper part of the piston attached, 

First side completed and the same was carried out on the other side. The piston pressure was set so that both were equal pressure and held the boot open but not with to much pressure as to exert to much stress on the mounting points.

Hood part 2

I got a couple of packets in the post which I had been waiting for. M5 thumb screws and some 19mm wardrobe pole brackets.

Next the hood brackets were sika flexed into the Wardrobe brackets before mounting them to the GRP frames which have been painted. 

Before mounting back on the car  masking tape was put on the bottom of the GRP to avoid scratching.

Hooks added to the screen pillar.

Metal frame attached into the angle brackets.

Masking tape around front screen before adding the front hood frame, also from the bottom of the frame on each side marked in 10mm increments to help with getting the hood spread evenly over both sides. That is everything ready to start fitting the hood but it will keep for another day :)

Lazy build day but what a buzz

Our electric was to be off around here most of the day and things had to be done in the AM. After waiting 4 days the local autoparts got in the Miller ATF dexron III for the Tremec 6 speed gearbox. The gearbox oil was the last item that needed sorted before firing the car up, putting it in gear and hoping all went according to plan.
That said and done, the magic moment arrived and with baited breath the Cobra was fired up, clutch in and select gear,.................................. With a knot in the tummy the clutch was let out slowly and forward momentum was achieved, with each rotation the cheesy grin got bigger and bigger.
With the Cobra out of the workshop each trip up and down the driveway got better and better. Very few revs got the rear end twitching, NOTE to myself............. drive easy or the Snake will teach me manners.

A few pics of the new snake seeing daylight for the first time.

Loads still to do on the Cobra but today was well worth waiting for, now its back to the workshop to get a few more jobs completed and the ever impending IVA test............

Hood part 1

Decided to start the roof as the rear fixings are fine for the IVA and it will be a bit less to do after the car passes the test.
On the back of the GRP moldings there is marks for the mounting holes that sit proud, these need sanded and a 4 off 6mm holes drilled through them for the M5 retaining screws.
Next present the moldings to the body of the car AFTER covering the base in masking tape to avoid scratching.

When the lip at the front of the mold is sitting correct and the two halves meet central across the rear tape them into place so they do not move.

Once you happy take the 6mm drill and start to drill the body one at a time with the 6mm bit. TIP...... as each hole is drilled pop a 6mm bolt through the hole before drilling the next one this makes sure nothing can move.

2 of the holes each side are in the wheel arch so you will need to remove the wheels on each side. The next step is to remove the grp moldings then drill the body to M8 which allows the GD supplied retainers to be fitted.

Brings a tear to your eyes drilling into the body :)

With the fixings in the body, its back to the GRP moldings, first is to take 25mm of each molding where they meet in the center of the and make the cut at 45 degrees. This allows the hood when completed to be folded for storage.

The last job on the grp moldings before priming and painting them is to cut them flush with the door shut which is a simple job to mark once they are fitted to the body. After that prime the inside and paint them as this part can be seen from the inside when the hood is finished.