Interior leather

Needed to make up a few stainless brackets to bolt the tunnel leather top on, I measured quite a few times before cutting the 100mm hole for the gear lever. The gaitor i spent a bit of time on, firstly getting it so the eschusion screws went through the leather as well and I also added some contact adhesive between the eschusion and leather then used a few bolts to secure it to the tunnel top until it set.  The stainless tabs are ready to be bent around the tunnel and screwed on.
Working on the interior carpet tmw and trim, I'm hoping to have all the carpet fitted by Sunday. Pedal box is removed ready for the bulkhead piece on the drivers side next.

Door cards etc

Got both the door cards fitted, they were simple enough to do just needing 7mm holes marked out and drilled for the door card clips and a nick in the leather for the handle to be fitted.

Made a start on the interior carpet doing a dry run, more on this on the next update, I made up some temp head rest brackets as I,m getting some different one made up by GD that connect to the rear leg of the roll bar.

Another job that need done was to make up some rubber seals where the roll bar legs go through the floor of the boot to stop any ingress of water, I can't final fit the hoops yet until I mark out then drill and tap the holes in the rear leg where the final rest rest brackets will be fixed. Once they are done thats the hoops hopefully ready to be properly fitted.

Got some rubber U channel and fitted it to the inner lip of the boot, makes a nice tidy finish to the area, I still need to get some rubber seal and fit it around the boot as well to stop any water getting in.

Tackling a few other bits on the interior at the moment will post more on the next update, thats all for now, theres work to be done :)

polishing

Not a lot to say on todays exploits apart from sanding and loads of buffing to get the back of the Cobra polished up. There were a few places that had chips/scratches so i had them filled before. I wanted to more or less get the final polish done before the Roll hoops went on again and I had one repair behind one of the over riders to sort. There were a few other chips etc to be sorted up front so they were tackeled but a few need done again due to air bubbles etc. Anyways looking a lot better now after quite a few hours.
Couple of hours yet before bed time so maybe time to get one of the door cards fitted :)

Interior

I started of the day by making a small list of some bits I needed and then finished in the boot for now. I need to sand and buff the back of the car again as there is a few wee scrapes and much easier before I fit the roll hoops again.
Anyways the inside of the car had been neglected so far with pretty much nothing done, first the floor got painted just to tidy it up, I know its covered with carpet but it looks better for now.

With that done one of the door cards was tackled next it wasnt that hard with the clips in the door cards to transpose the marks onto the door for drilling the 7mm locator holes.

Looks pretty good and makes the car look a little further on.
Next I started to look at the side carpets etc then realised the ridge around the door needed trimmed back to 12mm ,grrrrrrrrrrrrr I thought I had all the dusty fiberglass cutting jobs done, anyways I marked a line right around both doors with the scriber and cut and sanded the lip to 12mm.
Onto the Centre carpet I got it out to see what way it fitted and tried to figure out what way to put it down and also mark where to cut it for the gear lever.
I ordered eschusions from GD as well to tidy up the opening in the body for the door hindges, these come flat and laser cut, part of them needs bent 90 deg before fitting.

 

 Once the 4 eschusons were bent the tape was peeled of them and give them a quick polish before fitting to the passenger side. Drivers side will get done at a later date.

Boot carpet

I got stuck into the boot carpet, I was really surprised just how much carpet it takes to cover inside it boot area, seems more than there is inside the car. I got my carpet set from GD, its most likely cheaper to go and buy carpet and do your own but by the time you would pay someone to edge all the carpet I recon its better to buy the GD set as they use the best quality carpet :)
It took me a lot longer to fit and glue in the carpet than i first though, maybe cause I got a tad high on the contact adhesive a few times, very easy when ur head is inside the boot :))))))))
I still need to glue the bit that covers the back of the lights but the rest is done and dusted, will glue the last bit when all is sorted. I painted the very back of the boot just to tidy it up. Ooooo i cut the holes for the Roll hoops as well, but they may need made bigger when i go to fit them
While I was working at the rear of the car I fabricated up a couple of stainless steel brackets to fit the reflectors onto. I secured the brackets onto the overrider brackets.
Not sure what I'm doing next, there are that many jobs to choose from but i,m sure something will attract me in the morning :)

Boot area

The boot is coming along nicely now, The fuel tank is now installed and strapped into place with a couple of stainless steel straps I had made up.I used rubber under the straps so they did not rub on the tank. Fuel sender is wired up as well, I ran an earth to the tank and well and up to the filler cap, not sure if its needed for IVA but it done now anyways.

Filler pipe and connections done to the Cap and a beather pipe put in.

shinny bling cap :)

While I was in working arond the boot I fitted the tail pipes on the exhaust system, I think the look well and the GD exhaust is very tasty done in 316 stainless and all tig welded.

I took out the big box of carpet I got from GD, there is some load of carpet to be fitted in the boot. looks like more for the boot than inside the car. I have a few more jobs to do in the boot before I start putting the carpet in like a cover for the fuel pump/filter.

body mounting

A few hours today spent getting the rest of the bolts lined up and the body mounted to the chassis. Apart from doing this I side tracked  and sorted out the tubing for the air horns and also the wiring.
I put some foam above and below the bolts in the boot so the petrol tank would not touch them when fitted .

As The bolts were being put in place they were coated with waxoyl.

Time goes by

Been ages from I got any work done to the Cobra project, over this past 2 weeks I did get back into the swing of things having some extra time. The first few nights got taken up on where on earth was I on the build and trying to figure out where to start etc.
Well the first job was to get the body of :( The rubber mounts that attach the body to the chassis have rivnuts in 10 of them and 2 without, hmmm I only found this out after the body was on hence I could not get the bolts into 2 of them. Anyways there were a few we other things I could tackle with the body off again. I suppose its the beauty of the GD Cobra that the chassis and body can be seperated quite quickly though it does take a while to put it back on again on your own but I,ve done this twice now and I'm happy enough doing it myself.
The fuel system in the boot had some work done as well, I made up a stainless steel bracket for the fuel filter and fuel pump, insulated with rubber and also used 6mm rubber to mount it to the body, this should keep any vibration down. I mounted the pressure regulator above them and connected the lot up using fuel safe braided hoses and using the GD connection kit. need to run the hose out to the solid fuel line yet after that I will look at getting the tank strapped down.

 Body being lifted on on the winch.

I had to add more numbers to the chassis number for the IVA .

One of the rubber mounts I had to change round.

Fuel system.

Roll Bars

Worked on at the roll bars but as usual getting time is my biggest problem.
To mark out the holes for the Bars I made a sleeve to fit the dremel bit that was the size of the holes on the chassis. Once i got the holes done I drilled out the lower body holes with the hole saw bigger than the bars.
Then a length of 12mm threaded bar was bolted to the holes and i put the level on them making 2 marks at right angles to the roof of the boot.

Once i marked the where the top holes were to be I drilled a 3mm hole through, then dropped a plum line down from the top to check the holes were accurate.

Here's a pic from under the car as well with the plumb line down through the chassis hole.

Once I was happy with the alignment i then drilled the top holes in the shell but drilled them just the size of the bars. Once that was done i fettled the holes to get the 2 front bars to fit. Once I was happy with them I done the 3rd leg.
When the bars were all fitted and tightened up I used a washer to mark a 5mm gap around the bars to fit the rubber grommets.
One of those jobs that just takes loads and loads of time but one you don't want to get wrong :)

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.