Roll Bars part 5

Once we had a tap and cleaned the holes out we were good to go to bolt down the bars.
This is no where as easy as it sounds as they want to spring all over ,Found the best way was to fit the inside long bolt first and then using ratchet straps and skill got the other bolts in .
Once fitted there needs to be a clearance hole for the grommet and the posh stainless plate which according to other blogs is 5mm .
Using a 5mm allen key to draw round the bars they were removed again and out came the dremmel to make the holes bigger .


holes now 5mm bigger and bars dropped in

A good day now waiting to fill with foam or something else (not sure yet ) and then grommets and plates .
At least the car can come off the axle stands finally .










Roll bars Part 4

After repeating the process for the other three holes we were ready for a trial fit and shock horror they didn't fit ,

last of the big hole before the trail fit

After 5 mins of panic it transpired that the roll bars were not parallel .Panic over and we needed a way of stretching the bars apart , settled on a trolley  jack which worked quite well

using a trolley jack to make the bars parallel again

after this bit of fettling the bars go in very nicely .

roll bars fitted the wrong way round

Now comes the hardest part ,Drilling the 3rd hole, First issue is that the third leg bolts on to a bracket which can be moved so the stud idea would not work ,next we measured the leg of the roll bar and discovered that it wasn't in the middle  so using triangle theory wont work either  After discussions with Steve as to the best way we settled on placing the roll bar the right way round and balancing it on the top of the body using a sprit level to make sure it was upright in both planes .At this point we would draw round the roll bar to give us an approx  place and then drill a 2mm hole and again used the plumb bob to see were this was in relation to the hole .
Amazingly we were less than 2 mm out ! result so out with the hole saw .


roll bars dropped in the holes

Next came to trying to bolt them down , tried the bolts in the holes (1/2 unf)  and they wouldn't  start , all stop until a tap is sourced .

Fuel tank

While I was climbing in and out of the boot cursing once Steve had finished taking the p+ss and stopped laughing he volunteered to fit the fuel tank sender to the tank .


getting out is twice as hard as getting in

This again is not as easy as it looks because the sender is too long and needs bending and then the float moving so it will sweep without hitting the baffle .

Best engineering drawing I've seen

once the sweep is sorted the tank then needs drilling out to accept 4mm rivnuts

camera shy 

 then the sender fits a treat job done .

excellent job

Roll bars part 3

Another day and on to the bottom nipping bit ,drilling the back of the body . Looked at other blogs and idea is to climb in the bloody boot again and use the plumb bob to guess were the hole should be ,wasn't looking forward to this at all ,
Steve the genius came up with a plan and that was to sit some 12mm stud bar with a nunt on the roll bar fitting and providing it was level we should be close .

Steve's copyrighted tool

Drilled the hole were the stud touched the roof and moment of truth checked with a plumb bob though the hole .

impressive Steve

as you can see bloody close !! this idea was then passed on to the remaining front holes .
flushed with success we decided to drill the body with the hole saw .
after first checking that all four holes were in line with a piece of string and they wre the same distance rom the cabin
went for a 50mm hole saw and drilled it backwards to stop the gell coat chipping .

first hole

   Enough for today wine o clock.

Roll bars part 2

After the 2 front hole had been drilled it was time to open them out to accept the roll hoops
The hoops are 51 mm Diameter and reading blogs the ideal bottom hole to allow for movement is 55mm

Started by drilling with a hole saw to 50 mm, however I didn't want to drill with a standard hole saw for 2 reasons first is its a 6mm drill going in a 10mm hole so ahs the potential to go out of line and second didn't want the drill to take any of the powder coating off the chassis as its was going though .
Hit on the idea of putting some 6mm stud bar instead of the drill and wrapping it with adhesive tape to make it appear 10mm.
Worked like a treat .

hole saw with the modified centre ( after drilling 4 holes )

 Happily drilled the 4 holes to 50 mm which gave me the opportunity to dremmel the holes out to 55 mm and correct any errors .

first hole done

looking down the hole I could see that I was a little bit off centre but can be corrected

second hole note slightly out

Then came the fun bit how to dremel them out to 55mm and make the hole central, hard enough but even worse when there is no room , getting in the boot was fun but getting out another matter entirely .
again came up with an idea got a 12mm bolt and wedged it in some adhesive which had a diameter of 55mm ( eventually ) .

home made tool (note the back hole is smaller 44mm)

this seemed to work and filed the holes until the tool dropped in the hole result .

tool in action  

all four holes now 55mm . time for a glass or three

Brakes

While the wheels were off I looked at front brakes  and they look the dogs... but the back brakes are plain by comparison ,as they are new thought it would be a good time to srray them as they can be seen though the wheel .

front brakes looking good

disappointing back brake

so I removed the callipers and sprayed them with a gloss black brake calliper spray from Ebay (£4) remembering to use masking tape on the rubber bits and block the brake fluid hole up .

sat on the trailer after being sprayed

 then it was just a case of refitting and happy with the difference .

looks as good as the front



Carpets

A pile of carpet pieces arrived, ages ago with the leather seats and other stuff and I thought that I would know were everything went but when it came to it I didn't. When I looked at other blogs, I found that they assumed we all knew where to put the bits too. I have copied Dales Blog here as he has fitted his !!!

Boot carpet

So here is his  take on where all the pieces go, starting with the boot:

Side panels near lights in boot

Side panels above rear axle area in boot

Main floor piece above rear axle, fuel tank and vertical surfaces of wheel arches in boot

Rear floor area and up under boot lock striker plate

Main boot floor area

Found in the kit 2 pieces of carpet that go in the footwells each side ,before I fitted these I wanted to know if I was happy with the pedals .
I had adjustment on the pedals if needed as I had 2 x 5mm plates on the back side of the pedal box so in theory could move the whole thing 10- mm closer if needed .

So a seat try was in order .I already had the seat runner holes drilled for by GD , so simple job of fitting ?? no the seat was too close to the centre and there was no carpet on yet .Had to move the holes 10 mm outwards .

Seat in and the fit is right with the Pedals

Fog light

The fog and reversing light need to be on the centreline of the body or off set, but the fog light needs to be more than 100 mm from the stop light which is only 4 inches

The lights are mounted on shiny GD stand-offs. The positions were marked out on the body using masking tape - minimum height is 250 mm from the ground, maximum for the fog is 1000 mm and 1200 for the reversing light. The IVA is quite specific . However, as my car body is now on axle stands  I looked at other blogs for the position. I reckoned that mounting them 15 mm down from the boot opening would be okay.
My lights are the other way round to most people as I opted for the screws to be up and down this posed a bit of an issue with the stand offs

Stand off filed out to accept the earth clamp

so I used M5 joining nuts and M5 stainless stud to lengthen the bolts .

joining nuts and studs ready to fit

measured and drilled (needs a bigger hole than I thought to let the body of the lamp though)

all done and on to the reverse light next .

all done

 

Roll bars part 1

Been putting off this job but can't any more so ,
First job is to level  up the chassis .
This is important as once the bottom holes are drilled the only to transpose the measurement to the top bit is with a plumb bob .
Reading other blogs they say the chassis is what is needed to be level not the body ( which I am not sure about but hey ho )  The rear half of the chassis was the most important as this is where the bars are mounted. Finding flat areas of the chassis to check the level,was a challenge! Finally done and doubly happy as the body is showing level as well.



Chassis sat level eventually  

The roll over bars are the two stainless steel hoops, the saddles/brackets and the fixings.

Roll over bars, saddles and bolts

The saddles/brackets are made of steel and needed to be painted before fitting however I sent them away when the frame was powder coated so done job.

 An 8mm hole was drilled up through the inner front two mounting holes mounting  of the chassis into the boot floor. I used a 90 degree chuck adapter for the drill on each side.

one of the holes viewed from the boot

front hole drilled up

Happy with that so far next job is to open the hole out but another day .

Bonnet on

Thought it was time for the bonnet to show itself while there was enough room to get underneath before the radiator or air filter got fitted .
Again one of Steve's better ideas was that we had already pre fitted the bonnet while it was still on the frame and because I had opted for the CNC aluminium hinges it was just a simple job ( if there is one on a cobra ) to just bolt it back on .


Another piece fitted back edge masked up ready for the locks

marked up ready to drill

Air filter

Once the front was in the air decided to look at the air filter as I have been told it just wedges in ??
Found that when in place it is held by the air intake pipe, the radiator top bracket and the body . Not sure about this as think it is going to rattle but hats for another day .First job is to fit the sponge and the 2 meshes together with the filter oil ( wondered what the aluminium container was for !
cut both the meshes and the foam so it fits the filter and decided so use self tappers to hold it in .

What a messy job this is ( and it stains everything it touches )

first attempt was to pour the fluid as above but soon decided that was too messy and not going to cover well enough .
Plan 2 was to use the sprayer and tube from a bottle insert it into the aluminium container ,works a treat .

finished filter screwed together  

Body on part 2

After all the help with the body now needed to bolt it down .Quick call to Andy at GD as couldn't get the 2 important holes to line up ( the ones just underneath the dash )
Andy said the chassis measurement is important  so that the body sits level with it .with both the bolts in I was 1/8 inch (old school measuring ) low on the drivers side .


measuring from the chassis to a straight edge across the body  

I was not happy with this so removed the bolts and jacked up the drivers side 1/8 inch until it was level and then filed the holes to suit .
to make sure that no fibre glass remained the holes I blew them out with a compressed air line .
Next I measured the depth of the hole with a vernier as the bolt has to stop short of hitting the steel chassis to prevent noise transmission .
once the correct length   was established the 2 important bolts were put in.

bolt in place with penny and spring washer

Then continued to fit all the rest moving backwards using the same idea, I found the easiest way was to insert a small drill to find out which way the body hole needed elongating then used the hole cutting bit from the dremmel .
The last 2 required the front to be jacked up and the wheels off and again the hole needed a bit of work .

The last hole before fettling  

Body on and level well happy .

Are you ready to build a GD Cobra

If you are reading this and thinking of starting your own project as I now have my body on I have a stand that comes to pieces ready to accept you body al ready built with lockable wheels
any sensible offer accepted 


SOLD

good all round access

Body On Day !!!

All set for the body on and a BBQ to encourage enough blokes to turn up

Last pictures of the chassis  note the radiator and bracket have been removed

Body waiting  patiently

All the blokes arrived including technical support in the form of Dale ( on day release from Skipton)

Oh god will it fit (that will be no then )

Then it was just  a simple case of lifting it over and lowering it down squarely ,the important lining up points are the 2 bolts near the dash board and in order for these to fit the body has to be manhandled forward once on .
Mine didn't fit no matter how hard we tried ! It would fit at the front fine but as soon as the back sat down the whole body moved back .After loads of swearing(mainly me) the body had to come off again for investigation .the reason was that some goon ( again me) had under sealed the transmission tunnel were it has to fit and the back of the seats making the body just to wide at that point .
bit of sanding then fits just nice one hours job taking 2 hours and  voila it on

body on and the 4 key bolts  in

All done  Huge thank you to all the Guys

A super big thank you to all my helpers Joe, Dave, Steve, Adam, Bob and Connor   not getting stressed when I was !!

Forced to get in the picture

better with just the car in the picture