Sunday, November 27, 2011

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?

Saturday, November 19, 2011

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.

Monday, November 7, 2011

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

Saturday, November 5, 2011

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....