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;