Fuel sender fitted

I received the flange fitting-kit for the fuel sender the other day, and found a few minutes today to get the sender fitted to the tank. I've had a couple of people ask me how a flange with bolts would be fitted and bolted in when there are no bolt holes in the tank. The answer lies in the flange design, which has a notch out of one section and one bolt which is longer than the others. With the long bolt just started in the thread, and the hole in the tank being the exact right size, you can slip the flange into the hole as can be seen in the pics. Once the flange is "in" the other bolts can be started and it's all done up tight with the supplied bolts and rubber washer.

Second roll hoop is in

I have marked and drilled out the holes for the second rool hoop. Like the first one I used a rubber matt to mark out straight lines on the body that follow the curves in the body. Marking out a circle on the underside of the body, I then drilled a small hole from underneath on the edge of the diameter. Then measured out the centre of the large hole, fairly accurately guesstimated, checked its position with a satay stick, and made millimeter adjustments by eye when starting the hole saw, got it pretty spot on too.

The height of the hoops cannot be set yet, as that requires seat height to be determined, which requires seat positioning, which requires seats, which require steering column positioning, which requires steering rack.....get the picture?

Fuel-level Sender

The fuel tank I am using in my Cobra is built by the kit manufacturer especially to fit within the chassis of the kit. It comes with a hole pre-drilled for a VDO fuel-level sender. Most people use the height adjustable float/arm style sender, however the tank is quite shallow, and some people have reported issues of fuel-level-reading stability and fluctuations due to the fuel sloshing around in such a shallow tank. To combat this I am using a marine style tubular sender. This should provide a much more stable fuel level reading. The VDO tube type sender has the same fitting diameter as the arm type. In terms of electronic signal output the tubular sender operates the same as a float style sender, but they are made for boats which rock and roll across the water, so I'm banking on a very stable reading.

These tubular senders are not available in a height adjustable version, so you need one the correct length for your tank depth. They come in many different lengths. I am using the 170mm version of the sender, which will put the bottom of the sender about 3mm off the bottom of the tank - pretty much perfect.

Depending on your tank configuration you may need a fitting kit for the sender. Some fuel tanks have a welded in flange, and some have threaded holes for the sender to attach to. My tank has neither, so I need this flange fitting kit - note this does not come with the sender, and needs to be purchased as a seperate part. This flange is part number N05801432.

Live(ish) Camera Feed

In the right hand nav-bar, you will see a new feature to my blog, a semi-live feed of my Cobra! While many details will obviously not be visible, you can now see the car take shape (well, the major additions anyway).

The picture is auto-snapped from a DVR, and updates every 60 mins. Most of the time the lights in my garage are off, so the image will be black and white whilst it is lit by infra-red.

You can click the image on the right anytime for a larger view

Gestating Cobra

A friend of mine, Dave, who is also building a Classic Revival Cobra replica, recently sent me this photo. Dave picked up his chassis/body combo from Classic Revival a short while before mine was shipped out, and while he was at the manufacturing facility he snapped this photo. The chassis pictured was destined to become CR3516 which became mine, and is seen here in final stages of welding before being sent off for blasting and paint. A virtual blast from the past....

Drivers side roll-bar is in

After a lot of measuring, stressing, and finally pulling the trigger to cut a couple of 60mm holes in the body, one of the roll bars is in. I'm putting in the "third-leg" classic style roll bar, but I am putting one on each side of the car - I like symmetry :)

Positioning the holes was tricky. First I traced on the underside of the body around the hoop mouting bracket underneath, then "estimated" by drilling a small 3mm hole, then offset by 25mm (half the hoop thickness) and drilled another 3mm hole hopefully exactly in the middle. I was off by about 3mm, so I adjusted for that when drilling the 60mm hole and we're all good!

Drilling the second hole I marked out lines, using the rubber door mat you can see as a ruler - I just dropped the mat on the body and it follows the contour of the curved body perfectly. After marking parallel lines with the fist hole, a small pilot sanity-check hole, check it with a satay stick :-P and were off and running with another 60mm hole.

Sounds simple. It wasn't.

The final height of the hoop is not set, nor is the third leg in, as I need seats first before I can determine how high I want the hoops - for now the hoop is just sitting there.

 

A Cobra

This was posted recently at a Cobra website, I think it says it all;

The Cobra is a perfect storm of classically beautiful lines and proportions enhanced by functional modifications that really delivers on the visual promise of formidable performance. Starting with the timelessly pleasing shape of John Tojeiro's barchetta body, the Cobra sort of accidentally evolved into an automotive icon that manages to be both obscenely voluptuous and menacingly aggressive in appearance.

Nothing in that shape is a styling exercise - it's all functional and it elicits a strong reaction from everyone who sees it - from toddlers to the elderly. The reaction varies from person to person as the look of the car stirs a different part of different people's souls, but there's always a reaction. Unlike the vast majority of other automobiles you cannot remain indifferent when you see, hear, smell or feel a Cobra.

Then of course, there's the performance. Both small and big block Cobras deliver the goods to driver and passenger in a direct, unfiltered manner that goes straight to the seat of the pants. You receive powerful inputs of sound, smells, g-forces and a view across the most curvaceous hood and fenders you've ever seen.

At least four of your senses are bombarded with a staggering shot of direct inputs that are normally softened, dampened, insulated and otherwise censored in ordinary cars. You never walk away from a fast drive in a Cobra without feeling the familiar effects of adrenaline overload - not unlike the vibrating rush you feel after surviving a near death experience.

Cobras are simply about visceral extremes. Extreme beauty, extreme sound and extreme performance. Its the unfiltered, adult, alcoholic, XXX version of the automobile - not for the faint of heart and: THE SURGEON GENERAL WARNS THAT THIS PRODUCT CAN BE ADDICTIVE AND HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH!

Starting to cut holes

After spending a lot of time staring, I started to measure up for the windscreen mountings. This of course requires cutting holes in the body to suit the windscreen frame legs - a bit of a nervous moment cutting into the expensive body! Of course it can be repaired if a mistake is made, but its still nerve wracking.

Here is the windscreen, it is an exact reproduction of the original AC windcsreen, and comes from Surry in the UK. In this photo I have already attached the legs with the supplied screws. The windscreen was expensive, but it is fantastic quality.

The holes were measured and marked out, then cut out with a jig-saw

And that's where I basically ran out of time over the weekend. I did place the windscreen in the car for mockup, but will take further photos after its actually bolted in place. There are small aluminium sideplates plates which go over the legs where they go through the holes in the body, this covers up the edges of the holes and gives a clean and tidy finish;

Build Has Started

This weekend, among many other things which I had to get done, I actually managed to do something on the car, hooray! The radiator is now mounted in the chassis, and there was of course plenty of staring-time over the past two weeks.

Today was the Bathurst 1000 in case you live under a rock, so it was a prime day for working on the car with V8's in the background :)

Complete with helper;

The helper sometimes slacked off;

And by lap 158 of 161 she had really had enough for the day;

Radiator installed;

We have a COBRA

On Saturday my Classic Revival, chassis #CR3516, made it home safe and sound. Thanks hugely to my mate Alby who provided his F-250 as the tow-car, and his trailer, along with some more mates who helped man-handle the thing off the trailer in the new garage.

This post marks the beginning of the Cobra blog. This blog started 16 months ago, and only now has it's real purpose actually begun. It's time to get into the build!

Two sleeps to go......

Everything up until now has been prep for the project, Saturday will mark the beginning......

More Shed Progress

The rest of the Gladiator cabinets went in this weekend, and it's all starting to come together! Just as well......the Cobra (oh yeah, that's what this blog is for!) is only days away.......

Progress

This weekend I started to put up the various Gladiator wall track and channel, which takes the Gladiator hooks (of various shapes and sizes), so things are starting to get organised!

Sparky is done

On the 173rd day, the sparky said Let There Be Light, and Power!

Floor and Cabinets in

The RaceDeck is now down and I'm very happy with it, both in terms of how it looks, how it went together and the quality of the product. The same can be said about the Gladiator powder-coated steel cabinets - most excellent quality that went together perfectly. More Galdiator benchs etc are on back order

It's starting to look like a man-room now!

My daughter and my brothers kids loved helping us put down the floor;

Et Voila!

I highly recommend the Gladiator products, top quality stuff.

Not cheap but you get what you pay for

Racedeck drain-tiles

Ready and waiting for plasma