Heater

Realised that after I had installed the heater there is another wire to go though the bulkhead to fasten on the battery It is the feed wire foe the ECU and fuel pump .
I was never totally happy with the heater pipe anyway as it seemed a bit tight in the hole and had the potential to wear though and empty the coolant so out it came to make the holes bigger .

Heater removed and holes made bigger

At the same time I noticed that the positive cable was not long enough to fit on the terminal and still look neat ,this was because I had routed it clear of the exhaust  .My solution was to fit a Battery isolating switch this comes with a removable key should I feel the need .


Battery switch fitted  and cable looks better

At the same time I thought it would be a good idea to have isolating valves on the heater circuit in case of a leak and also if I ever wanted the heater to blow cool air ( unlikely I know ) so ordered to valves from car builder solutions and happy with the fit.

the valves  have a flow arrow on so one is the wrong way round
which I will turn when I figure out which is the return pipe



Dash board part 2

after cutting 2 holes out for the heated seat switches thought better start with the Dash board .
Haven't been looking forward to this but cant put it off any more . .First I mounted the dash with the 5mm screws to make sure it still fits and then removed the screw one at a time to epoxy them in place .Once this had dried removed the dash and laid it next to the foam .Reading other blogs they glued the netting side of the foam to the dash so I copied that and seemed to work fine .
I made sure that the foam doesn't come round at the bottom but overlaps at the top as other builders.
Happy with the result so far will let it dry now before cutting out the holes .

Spray glue applied and lined p with the bottom captive bolts can be seen

This bits gone well

NumberPlate bar

Was told it would be easier to fit this bar before the body went on and then promptly forgot .
Again very difficult to try and get a measurement so opted for  the string between the 2 indicators .

string as a level

and then it was just a case of making it the same distance from the front .

Happy

Bonnet Gas struts

Fitted the bottom bracket in line with the cross member underneath the car as it was an easy way to get them the same distance from the front as finding a place to measure anything is a challenge in itself

Bottom bracket bolted in place

 then I marked were the gas strut would come to on the bonnet in its retracted position added 10mm and that is were I will but the top bracket .

All the marks made sense at the time

 then it was just a simple transfer to drill the top bracket

Fitted

I was told by Andy at GD to put one ram on ad let the gas out until the bonnet just wont stay up and that should be right when I do the same to the other one , but tats for another day

Horn

I was always going to fit air horns like most other cobra builders but also wanted to be able to use the horn at times with people dying of shock .Guessing that there will be a delay before the air horn starts hit upon the idea of having a smaller horn as well so just a blip would only sound the little one . only time will tell if this works .

Stobel Air horn ready to be fitted

Little horn fitted under the header tank

Plan to put the Air horn relay on one of the 2 spare rivnuts  in the picture

Radiator and Airbox

the Air box just jams in above the radiator and s held in place with the radiator bracket.
First fitted the air box and secured it in place with the top radiator bracket and found that it rattles which is no good took it down and placed draught excluding foam on the top ( sorry no picture ) and then refitted it with no rattle ..
when I came to fit the radiator I found that the fan housing was catching the air box and wouldn't fit .
solution was to move the air box towards the back of the car as there is a cut out that has to line up with the fan .
At the bottom of the rad I inserted some rubber sheet to make sure that didn't rattle either .

Air box fitted with foam rubber just visible
 

Once the radiator was fasten down could fit the pipework .

rad fan now clears the air box pipework

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.