Undertray

On a recent visit to GD I noticed that one of the cars had a radiator protector fitted .
I thought it was a good idea so came home with one and the aluminium under tray. 

Ally under tray

the tray  fastens on the same bolts as the radiator so to save taking those out again I slotted the holes    when I came to try it in place it didn't fit (surprise) but because it fits in a tapper it was I case of take a bit off try it take a bit off try it etc .
the radiator protector was a similar story as in the laser cutting it warped and made marking it on to the top radiator bracket a challenge to say the least.

laser cut protector

Once in however it looks well worth the work .

The bottom is secured with 5mm bolts with washers to make up the difference but after twisting my sons arm he applied his lathe skills and made me some spacers !

Ah La Connor (thanks Son )

Dashboard Part 3

Next stage was to cut out the foam where the gauges need to be ,read other blogs and coped the idea of using a craft knife .This worked for the gauges but did not work for the switches or lights.
Came up with the idea of heating up a screwdriver and using it as a hot knife worked a treat .

dash hole cut including the additional hole for the heated seat 

Next thought I ought to look at the dash loom expecting it to have little labels on like the engine but no such luck .
Found myself looking at the build manual technical files and found the layout schematic and had to go though each plug and group of wires to identify them separately what a pain .

spaghetti with my masking tape idents  

This raised 2 issues  the first is there was no connection for the courtesy lights on the loom ( the wires just stopped at the plug ) .
the second was that there was a sender wire for the oil pressure  gauge but my gauge is pressure driven with an oil pipe .
Following the wire back though the looms it went to the unused wire at the back of the engine .

unused white oil pressure switch wire at top of picture

    I understand why there isn't an oil light as I have a gauge but .... if its there --  bought an adapter ring from ebay (£1.00) and then pestered my local motor dealers for an oil pressure switch to fit it ,result eventually and a huge thank you to Parkers (the parts people) ,switch that fitted  was from a Chevrolet Matiz( part number SOB807).

oil pressure take off with adaptor and pressure switch

   My idea now is to wire this in on the dash to the illumination on the start button ,my thinking behind this is when the ignition is on the start button will light up and go off when the engine starts .

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 .