Roll Hoop Start

Not much done over this past few days with one thing or another and we had no water today eeeeeeeeekkkkk main pipe on the road froze and its buried down 4'6" . Thank goodness the water service got it sorted :)

Anyways Cobra wise I changed the side indicators, wasn't happy with the Black and Chrome theme on my car having orange indicators on the side so I changed them for clear lens and orange bulbs.

Took into the Roll hoops as well but slow going loads and loads of measuring as the holes have to be made from the chassis up. More on this later but suffice to say they are started, still the 3rd hole to do on the first hoop.

At the back of the boot there ain't much space to drill and I don't have an angle drill of all things so it took a while but I got it sussed.

 After all the marking and got the pilot hole in the top body a 52mm hole saw done the job and then tried the Roll bar back to front, Yeaaaaa I got the measurements spot on, I hope the rest work out the same :)

 

Me and Mini Me

Well work was dead quiet today and that was enough of an excuse for me to get stuck into the car.
Well there was only me about oooooooooo and mini me, here's mini me lol

I made this up a long time back from steel I had here, the winch was only £50 on offer.
I hooked the winch up via a strong ratchet strap across the 2 outer eye bolts for the harness mounting points and another forward one to the steering column bar.

So here's some pictures of one chappie putting A body on a GD Cobra  :)

Once it was high enough, I rolled the chassis underneath. As it winched up I had to stop a few times to raise the front as it was a bit nose heavy but easy enough to lift and put supports underneath.

On its way down

Nearly there

Once it was down and lightly held, it needed to go forward about 10mm on the rubber mounts so a good plank against the harness plate and the tyre jigged it forward. Fiddled about then and got some bolts in to hold it temporary, It will be coming of again once I get some measurements around the engine bay and a few other things done like the Roll bar holes cut out :shock: 
Then back on for a long time I hope :)

Pretty handy job in the end thanks to the fantastic GD chassis and body design.

Brightwork

Wooooooooooooosssssssssshhhhh and another weekend is away.

Time seems to be flying by Cobra wise and this was one of those weekends where wee jobs took 5 times the amount of time to do as anticipated or should have, putting things in marking, taking out , drilling etc. O yea marked the flaming car as well, Nout a wee sand some gel and more sanding and buffing wont magic out, just more time

Had hoped to of got the body on before Xmas, maybe fingers crossed it may be on for the new year.

Anyways I got the screen out and back into the car now and the centre stay bracket sorted, mirrors on now as well so it actually starting to look in some small way like a car.

Took ages to mark out the positions of the rear overriders, one of the
jobs meaure loads and drill once.

Rear lights , mirrors etc

Got some more work done on the Cobra.

I sanded round the rear of the car and done it with some G6 for now, not worried about the finished polish for now as every time I drill a hole it pops fiberglass dust around the place and the wee particles of glass when very lightly dusting down the car do tend to scratch it. Apart from that I leave the odd wee mark :(

Anyways apart from that I took apart the side mirrors and removed the brackets they come with to fit the GD made ones,

The GD bracket just screws to the black plastic ball which pulls out of the old bracket once the screw is undone.

With the GD brackets mounted on the mirrors, The screen was put back in the car to mark out a few jobs, from the screen escutcheon to the bottom hole of the mirror is 160mm. Once the screen is of the car again I'll drill and tap them.

Next I marked the screw holes for the escutcheons, then onto the centre stay bar. One of the brackets that come with this is not right for the GD see bracket in pic left. Its to small so I had to take some stainless and make another bracket up (right pic) then polish it. Bit more work to do to this and then mark holes to be drilled in the dash for mounting screws.

What else ....... I drilled the holes and mounted the rear fog and reversing light, They are mounted 7" either side of the boot centre. Number plate light also fitted now and connections made.

Hope to get the various holes sorted around the screen sorted next and then buff the screen dash area before putting the screen back in. Hopefully it wont be out again after that but I aint holding my breath on that one lol.

Wiring

Some progress pics, I stripped the GD loom back and added extra fan control wires as I wanted 2 stage switching on them. Also I didn't want the main body loom running into the engine bay and back out again where it could be seen so some mods were done

Loom now runs straight through the heater box/ battery compartment and down the inner wing.

From there it feeds the NS lights and indicators and goes into the engine bay area up above where it cant been seen and a drop down to the fans.

Cable then runs out to the OS and feeds the lights etc , runs backwards and a drop to the horn before going to the side indicator.

Took me ages to do this and still waiting on some waterproof connectors arriving for the lights and indicators.

I started the boot wiring as well, running the wires through the boot skin is a royal pain in the butt more on that later   don't understand why when bonding the inner and outer skin together at the factory they don't pop in the 2 cables a 5 min job rather than drilling fish holes that have to be covered up later.

Some of the loom now clipped and the number plate light connection is ran through the boot bracket ready to be hooked into the wires I ran through the boot skin.

When i had the boot off I decided to sand it to a final finish using 2000 grit and have started to buff it, better to do the sanding and buffing a bit at a time as it can get boring.

last one for now I have got the hoist setup ready to put the body on when i get to that stage so that no one will be under pressure holding the body

Wiring and odds and sods

I got the rest of the p clips , jubilee clips and stainless self tappers I needed to get a few jobs done. All the cooling hoses are finished and tightened up, overflow pipe now clipped ( out with rivnut tool again)

I nearly forgot to do up the brake and clutch unions at the back of the engine, I had them in temporary but forgot to go back and finish the job. that would of been some handling if i had the body on i recon i would of had to take it of again

Started the main wiring loom, I cut out the fuse box hole in the bulkhead and then mounted the relays putting these in u get in some rare positions. Made sure to do the vectra steering column mod before i mounted the relays.
I took apart some of the GD loom as I didn't like the way the cables ran into the engine bay and then back out to the inner arches to supply lights and indicators etc. Still working on this, waiting on some conduit coming at the moment.
Also been working on the main engine loom as i want all the cables to enter the bulkhead in one position.

I got some sound deadening for the petrol tank and fitted that so the tanks ready to go in when i get to that stage........ along way of yet

Thats about it for now not sure what I'm for doing next, have a few jobs on that i need simple bit for but as usual it does not take much to stop progress.

Cold

Got up this morning and its kinda chilly, straight out to workshop and burner lit, lets be honest we have to get the priorities right :) ooo and the kettle on.

Just heard on the radio last night was the coldest night in November EVER for N,Ireland eeeek. -8.6 so wonder whats in store for us as the winter really sets in.

Got some work done on the car this past week but not loads as we were busy with our new waste oil burners. more info on them www.wasteoilburners.co.uk

Not a lot more done I'm loaded with the cold grrrrrrrrrrr
I have the steering column support bar in temp at the moment so i could fit the steering column and mark out the hole where it goes through the Bulkhead into the engine bay. one more hole less to do. The rubber grommet is the ones GD use for the roll hoops.

Blog

Took a wee bit of time today and sorted my blog and went back and added labels to all the posts hopefully any useless information Ive posted or ramblings can be easier found now rather than having to page back through all the posts :)

chassis foam

Stuck the foam on the chassis as its getting near the stage for the body to go on :)

Wiper spindles

Once the screen is fitted I could mark out where the wiper spindles go, they start 5mm out from the edge of the screen rubber and 415mm from the adge of the screen post. Its the same for both sides. these holes are at an angle hence not round. I found the best way to get the shape was using the washer from the spindle kit and to get the angle i used the plastic sleeve that goes over the spindle. Also with the screen in its a good time to mark out the heater slots.
Then its screen out and start cutting :)

Bonnet Locks

I had previously spent ages marking out exactly where the locks go in the bonnet and it was now time to install them, the holes isnt round so takes a wee bit of filing but an easy enough job. The most important thing about this job is to do it before the boday goes on the car as you need to get into the engine bay area to mark the bulkhead where the catch goes into. Mr Dremel out once again :)
I also got all the nuts and bolts tightened up on the bonnet scoop, just need to paint inside it now, should of actually done it before fitting. I need some stainless mesh as well for the front opening on the scoop.

Windscreen

Doing it this way is very accurate and no need to elongate holes etc. GD have a measurement for the posts 35mm from the bottom of the post and 175mm for the 2 holes but due to each screen being hand made I think this is the best way to install the screen. Also doing it this way makes the job easy for one person to do on their own as the steel bars help hold the screen in place :)

Windscreen

Got a bit more done this past while
The GD body has threaded inserts moulded into the body and the centres of these inserts need to be transferred onto the legs so some reading done and some lengths of steel flat - drilling them for the screen fixing bolts, screwing them to some blocks of wood and bonding the blocks of wood to the inside of the body also made up some spacers that were the same diameter as the post legs from the carbon cut from building the dash. Thanks STR for the tip :)
The screen needs to be 6mm of the bulkhead at the posts on either side and also 930mm from the curve on the rear bulkhead to the top of the screen (inside measurement at top of screen)
Pictures speak 1000 words at times so some pics.