Body Mounting 2

Today is a big big day in the life of my Cobra

Today the body and the chassis will be mated and two will become one!!

I have spoken to Andy at length about this and read every blog over and over and I must admit I'm a tad worried. There seems to be one school of thought that it is a complete and utter balls ache and takes hours to an alternative view point that it takes a lunch break.

A number of lads from work have volunteered to stay back and help me and Ali lift the body on and my grateful thanks to... Ian Clarke, Jon Hughes, Jason Atkin, Will Dowling, Bob Hunter, Wayne Hodgson and Mark Stevens (guys your on the tin ter net!!)

Not many photos of this part of the build but I do have a video which I will upload as soon as I can edit it down from the full 12 minutes it took to get the body in place. Yes 12 minutes!!! However this was merely to get the body on top of the car - the mounting holes were no where near where they needed to be and they weren't sorted for another 3 1/2 hours.

Down a bit...

Body on... Sort of on

We're not just posing we are trying to get the body to sit a bit lower so the mouting holes line up!!

One problem we encountered was the stainless steel header tank I had had made fouled on the inner wing of the car. Fortunately we spotted this before it becasme too much of a problem and it was removed. Once the body was on, the wing was marked and then cut with the Dremel to allow the tank to fit.

Inner wing marked

Header tank fitted

Body Mounting

A date has now been set to fit the body to the chassis (27th Feb) and no matter what it is happening. This means some preparation is required and a quick run through the checklist of things that can be done after fitting the body. Lets hope I don't forget anything important or the body will be coming back off!!!

List of jobs still outstanding but happy to leave til body is on...

1. Cut bonnet and fit scoop - this needs to be left until the  body is on as I am planning on using a the traditional oval 'Ford Cobra' style air filter and there is some doubt as to whether this will actually fit.

2. Windscreen and Dash Supports - decided I would prefer to do this after fitting body. Two reasons, (a) the body will weigh less and (b) I am worried it might shatter if we have to do much jiggery pokery to get the body aligned correctly.

3. Fit bonnet latches and escutcheons

4. Fit brake and clutch fluid reservoirs to bulkhead


Jobs still to be done before the body goes on...

1. Mark rear mounting holes - the holes that are already there (that have been filled in) are not in the correct position for the the Mk4 Euro chassis. Andy gave some advice on the positions for the new holes but said they dont have to be too precise as they can be adjusted afterwards. I measured the distance between centres on the rear mountings fixed to the chassis then transferred these to the body, starting by marking a centreline the measuring the correct distance out.

Centreline marked

Estimated mounting hole positon marked (note the filled hole - not for use on Mk4 Euro)

2. Add chamfer/leading edge to transmission tunnel body mounts - Andy advised its best to apply a chamfer to these mounts to allow the body to slide over them more easily.

Using grinder to apply chamfer to top edge of body mount

This should make fitting the body that little bit easier

3. Cant think of a number 3 but I bet I will when its too late...

Seat Runners

Received the next consignment of parts from GD today.

Sorting through the fixings for the seats, I couldn't quite believe how many bits and pieces there were. Think I will be waiting for the seats to arrive before attempting to do anything with them.

Side Louvres

The front wings have a recessed area where side louvres are fitted. ON the offside this is purely for show on the GD but on the nearside there are holes drilled for ventilation purposes for the heater matrix.

There are nice polished covers to be fitted here but with the car being white in colour I though it would look a bit artificaial if they were just fixed in place. I had also seen some other Cobras where the owners had painted the recess matt black to make it look like the louvres actually led through to the engine bay and I decided to copy this approach.

I contemplated whether or not to spray the rebate or just the flat section and decided on the latter. My logic being that if the vents were 'real' then the aluminium wing would be rolled into this shape and would therefore be in body colour.

The side of the car was fully masked and then several coats of matt black paint were applied. I had a slight problem wiht blistering on the off side but i overcame this by rubbing down, filling and respraying.

And here is the finished result. I wont be fitting the grills until after IVA as this is anohter of the strict requirements and a simple blanking plate will be fitted (no sharp edges). Bit of a strange one for IVA in my opinion given BMW 'M' cars and Aston's have side vents amongst others. 

Oil Cooler

Not sure how necessary an oil cooler really is for my car but they just have that 'cool' look when you see the big gaping mouth on a Cobra and it kind of looks incomplete without one so this was something else on the options list I decided to tick.

So today, I made a start on fitting it...

First things first, I laid out all the components in the kit to see what went where and it all looks quite simple.

Oil filter has to come off to allow an adaptor to fit between the mounting point on the block and the oil filter. Two braided hoses then run to/from a thermostat and then two more hoses run to/from the thermostat to the oil cooler itself (which is in effect a small radiator).

Sounds simple enough but, and there always seems to be a but with every task on this build there are a number of things that aren't that straightforward. First off, the oil filter needs to be changed for a shorter one as the one supplied with the engine wont fit once the adaptor, which is about 35mm thick is fitted, as it fouls on the lower chassis rail. Next off the hoses runnign to/from the thermostat leave it needing to be mounted in thin air, so a bracket has to be made to locate this. Then there is no clear way of fixing the oil cooler in place in the nose of the car.

So, a new shorter filter was ordered and fitted and the hoses connected

Shows adaptor, one hose and shorter filter fitted

Adaptor and hoses fitted

As I mentioned earlier the thermostat ends up resting in mid air somewhere between the two wishbone uprights (see pic below). I havent ordered a braket for this yet as I want to see where the return hoses from the oil cooler end up once that is fitted as I may end up having the hoses shortened or replaced wiht longer ones as required. More on this to follow.

Oil Cooler Thermostat - requires mounting