Progress still terriby slow

I did not work much this week on the car. I spent some effort trying to acquire the transmission, and did a little bit of unrewarding polishing of the aluminum panels for the firewall. And that is about it.

PS pump part

Jerry got the part done for the power steering pump bracket that we ended up needing to fabricate. It turned out great, though we did have to file off a little on one corner. Here is a picure of the part before putting it on the engine...


I still need to get a different bolt to get it mounted, and Fastenal seems to be the only place that carries such an unusual size. Sadly, they are not open on weekends, so it will have to wait til Monday. Then it will be on to making the engine fit perfectly in the engine compartment, test fit the exhaust headers, and continue the search for a transmission.

Nothing done

I did absolutely nothing on the car this week. I made turkey soup and did all kinds of preparation work for several days of work at Wash U for an offering of Tycoon. I should be getting back to wrenching by late this week.

Nothing new

Still too much other stuff going on to get anything done on the cobra. Jerry said they are close to making my PS pump bracket. I have done nothing on the tranny, the paperwork, or the aluminum panels. This week may not be good either with preparation for a couple of days of TYCOON the following week. Sorry to be so dull.

Slowing down

For lots of reasons, the build has slowed down. Colder weather, approaching holidays, upcoming work assignment, other personal stuff. Anyway, my brother-in-law, Jerry, came out and helped me work through the PS pump bracketry troubles. I hope to have that solved very soon. We were able to test fit the engine in place and it will fit, but will take a tiny bit more coercing.

A potential problem has come up with my paperwork. I visited the Highway Patrol office trying to make sure I was okay to proceed and it is not completely clear. I may have to rethink some of my assumptions about what way to go on the transmission, and even possibly the engine.

Herculiner

I have just finished applying Herculiner (a pickup truck bed liner) to the underside of my fiberglass cockpit tub and trunk. This stuff is like a polyurethane paint with rubber granules in it that sticks to the fiberglass and provides some surface and noise protection from little rocks and things hitting the underside of the car. Here are some pics...

Trunk before...


First step was to scuff sand and clean with acetone. That was some potent stuff. You are only really supposed to do about 10 sq ft at a time, but I did about 100. Mistake! Despite being well ventilated in the garage, I did end up with a nasty headache from the fumes for a couple of days.


Here are a couple of pics after applying the Herculiner...



Here is a link to a cool video (over 9 minutes) of a similar product called Rhinoliner. They blow up 2 pickup trucks from below, one with and one without the bedliner. Amazing results. Makes me glad I went ahead and applied this stuff. Now I should be safe to join the Leisure crime family.

Next up is returning to the power steering pump bracket problem. I have decided to make my own bracket now. I bought a raw steel plate and will fabricate something on my own that will give me exactly what I need. And I will also get back to polishing aluminum at some point.

Promised pictures and midweek update

Here is a nice picture of my engine (dangling from my engine hoist) as it was when I tried to install it.

Pay particular attention to the problem item, the power steering pump on the far right. It is the part blocking out the creeper seat in the background. You can see how far out it is hanging, due to the bracketry involved in attaching it to the water pump.

Here is a closeup of the power steering pump after I took it off of the engine. It is actually a pump from a Ford pickup, but should work if I can get it to mount up and inboard.

The pump is belt driven by the pulley located on the front and eventually, I will plumb some hoses from the pump to the steering rack.

I have ordered a special bracket from my local Ford dealer that should allow me to move it in and up. It actually relocates the PS pump to where the air conditioner pump normally is on this engine. It should get here Friday. Hopefully that will work. My engine builder has even offered to share this cost.

I've been tidying up a few minor things and will start polishing some of the aluminum firewall next. Also, I hope to get working on undercoating the fiberglass tub soon too, but first I need to get it out of my living room.

Engine disappointment

Well, like I said last time, it was about time to test-fit the engine into the frame. It did not fit; not even close. The power steering pump interfered with the front suspension and the steering shaft. I simply could not get it lowered into place as it was configured.

So, I had to pull the engine back out and I decided to buy an engine stand since I was not going to have to do more work to it. I got a medium priced one at the old Cummins Tool store on Watson, but it turned out to be junky. It did not go together as it should and left the engine pointing up at a 13 degree angle. Plus the legs did not clear the legs of my engine lift. So back it went for a smaller, cheaper model. That one has the legs clearing, but does not swivel as well as it should and points down about 5 degrees. Good enough I guess.

From there, I removed the power steering pump, its mounting bracket and belt. Easy enough. I will have to get a different bracket to move the pump up and in, but it is not completely clear what will work. It did give me easy access to mount the fuel pump that I had gotten a little while ago. That went okay, save for not having the right bolts to mount it to the block and not having enough room to get my torque wrench in there to make sure I had them properly tightened. If anything, I may have overtorqued them, I think. We will just have to check later to see if motor oil leaks around its seal to the block. I also drilled the last hole for the brake line that runs under the engine since I did see enough to be confident of where it needed to go.

For the upcoming week, I hope to get the PS pump bracketry issue resolved by talking to Keith Craft Racing who built my engine. Ideally, I will also try to get out to Troop C and get them to okay the Bill of Sale I drafted for the engine. I also will probably try to terminate my hard fuel line near the engine mount and the eventual location of the fuel pump. Oh, and I will try to take some pictures. Sorry.

Behind the scenes

Lately I have been doing things for the Cobra apart from building. I researched and found a blank Bill Of Sale form that I need to use for the engine and transmission. I then edited in my info for the engine and will try next week to go out and show it to the guys at Troop C (in their new offices in St. Charles, not off of Mason Rd.) to get their pre-approval. Once they okay the engine, I will order the tranny, hopefully next week.

I have bought or ordered several items needed to finish off the engine build and install. This week, I ordered the ignition control box (with a selectable rev limiter) and coil, the MSD6AL and Master Blaster.

Locally, I picked up the 2 motor mounts that attach the engine to the frame.

I also ordered a high-torque mini starter.

I still need to get a pair of exhaust gaskets and lots of little pieces of hardware for mounting/plumbing all of this stuff. But soon, I will be dropping the engine in place, if not permanently, at least to check out how well things will fit. The lift plate I ordered earlier should be coming in soon for that task.

A bonus midweek posting

I have gotten enough done this week for a mid-week post. Primarily, I got some new batteries for my camera, so we have pictures again.

I made several purchases. I got a new high-capacity fuel pump to replace the stock one I got last week. I got a box of lug nuts and some miscellaneous tools for mounting the wheels. Wheel chocks, deep socket, socket extensions and adapters. Here is the result. She is on the ground.




I am not sure what I will do next. I may work on the fuel line--flaring the ends of the solid line that I ran earlier, installing the fuel filter, and connecting the line to the tank and pump which also needs to be installed. Or I may move on to working on the aluminum panels that make up the footbox and worry about the engine stuff later. I also need to order some more things like the ignition control box, coil, and starter. And the transmission. I also want to work on some paperwork for the eventual registration process.

Slow week

This was kind of a slow week. Lots of non-car stuff that needed to but did not get done. I did manage to take my rear tires and get them mounted onto the rims, this time with the lettering on the outside. They look very nice. (Pictures to come once I get them mounted on the frame).

I also bought a few items. A fuel filter and a fuel pump (which may have to go back if it is not strong enough to keep my engine from getting too thirsty). I also bought a lug nut to double check that I had the right size. I wanted to get a box of 20 or 25, but I will have to order them special. Most local auto parts only have a small number in stock for single sales, but they can get them the next day.

Instead, I think I am going to mail order them. I also need to buy a starter, an ignition control box with rev limiter, and a coil. MSD is the big vendor there and sells more of them than everybody else combined.

Engine

I finally have an engine! Nathan and I picked it up on Friday. This time, I borrowed my mom's RAV4 and Bill Smith's smaller trailer. The RAV had a tow package on it, but it was small and had no ballmount, so I had to buy a few things to make it work. Keith Craft was kind enough to bring it up with him in his truck when they came to Run N Gun over at Gateway International Raceway.





And here are a few pics of the engine. Sorry for the quality, but my camera's batteries were about dead. Front view...


Side view...


Rear view...


Valve cover closeup...

Engine should be here this week

I talked with Lance at Keith Craft Racing. He said my engine is done and will be coming to STL with Keith for Run N Gun. It turned out great--so good that they will be using photos of it on their website. It reached 378 horsepower and 369 foot pounds of torque when they put it on their dynamometer.

I also finished up the brake and battery lines during this past week. Not too much involved there. A few clamps, some routing, and wrapping some potential rub spots in rubber hose.


In addition to getting the engine, I will probably get the rear tires mounted and maybe get all 4 wheels put on the chassis. I have to buy lugnuts. Then it will be on to polishing the aluminum firewall pieces before starting to put them together. That is a fairly time-consuming step.

A productive week

I got several things done this week. Crucial to the progress was giving up on the new Hurricane ownership being responsive to my missing parts problems that they promised to honor over 3 weeks ago. Multiple emails and phone messages going unanswered helped me see where this was going.

Nathan came over on Friday to help me with a two person job--installing the fuel tank onto the frame. It has to be raised into place from below and some metal straps get bent to hold it up. It went pretty smoothly. Here is Nathan drilling on of the holes for the straps and the finished product.



Next up was routing the fuel lines, brake lines, and emergency brake lines. I had been holding off on this for some missing clamps, but I ended up buying them at a cool Hot Rod shop that Paul told me about, Old Dog Street Rods. This took lots of drilling into the steel frame, including some from below that enticed Nathan and me to buy a right-angle drill attachment at Harbor Freight. It only cost 9.99 and is probably not worth that, but Nathan was able to get one hole drilled. I am still missing one part on the brake line, so another trip up north seems likely.

I was particularly proud of the job I did fabricating a missing bracket. A little piece of metal, sort of shaped like a Z, is needed to hold the brake line above the differential so that when it moves up and down, from hitting bumps in the road, the brake line moves with it. I was able to re-use a couple of extra brackets from my e-brake kit and a screw that acts as a spacer/stud to take its place. Here is a blurry pic...


I also got a message from my engine builder. They are done with their machine work and are set to assemble it now. They anticipate being done in another week or so, in time hopefully for them to bring it up here to STL when they come for the Run N Gun event at Gateway International Raceway. I am hoping to save some transportation costs that way.

Next up for me is to finish the brake lines after getting one more part, then running the battery cables. And yes, I am missing the connectors for them too, but it won't slow me down just yet. Then I will be about ready for engine installation. I still need to figure out the placement of the fuel pump and filter and buy them. Oh, and I will probably mount the rear tires on the wheels this week so I can put them on the frame too.

Catching up

Here are some pics from the installation of the emergency brake cables. First the pics of the cables themselves with the hardware to connect them to the brakes themselves, and then the handle.


And here is a blurry one of the end of the cable that pinches the caliper onto the rotor when the emergency brake handle is pulled. I will add another showing the linkage of the cable to the handle once the lines are run after I get the missing clamps to hold the cable in place on the frame.


The big thing I have been able to work on is the fuel tank. There is quite a bit of bench work that has to be done to re-work the universal tank that comes with the kit to make it fit into this car. I had to move the filler neck and vent holes to the other side of the tank to align with the intake neck and body. I also had to block off the old holes, and modify/shorten the arm and float that goes inside the tank to measure how much gas it contains.

Here are the before pics...



It took me 11 hours of work to get this right. The hardest part of the job was getting the screws to mate with the backing plate that had to go inside the tank. It was extremely difficult to get the screws to align perfectly, and it had to be absolutely perfect, with the plate on the inside. What made it so hard was that holding or adjusting the inside plate was very difficult. It had to be done with wire pipe cleaners inserted through the holes. Here are some finished pics, first of the blocked off orginal holes, then the new filler neck and vent tube, and last the installed fuel sender/float arm...




Many builders who went before me ran into leaking troubles with the supplied gaskets and recommended sealer. I used a sheet of cork to make my own gaskets as cork is better for fuel applications than the supplied rubber ones. And I used a product called Seal-All to surround and seal everything that might actually leak. This stuff has the consistency of airplane glue, and is not weakened by gasoline. I eventually filled the entire tank with water to completely test for leaks and it passed flawlessly.

Here is a pic of that process...

If you look carefully at the hole where the fuel sender eventually was installed, you can see that water goes all the way to the top. There was a small drip at the bottom of the hose on the filler tube neck, but it was not clamped in place yet as this was just a test and with the slightest of pressure with one finger on the rubber hose, the leak stopped, so I am completely confident that it will be fine once finished.

In the end, I did take a shortcut on the float arm. The manual says it should point one direction, but it seemed to fit fine in the direction I chose that was about 90 degrees different. The float arm points toward the front of the car instead of the driver side. But I think the clearances were fine given how much I had to shorten the float arm. If my tank eventually does not read properly how close to empty or full I am, this is going to be why.

Color scheme

I have found a picture (actually a magazine cover) online of a Cobra replica in the colors that I want for my car...



These colors are called the Gulf Oil livery. They were made famous on a different car made by Carroll Shelby that won the 24 hrs of LeMans in the late 60s. The car actually won 4 times in a row, but only twice in this color scheme. Later, Porsche raced with the same color scheme.

I do not think I will have the white circles (called meatballs) on the car. If one were to take it to the track, you could put decals on with any number you are given. That is not of primary interest for me. I just love the way it looks, and think it will be interesting to put a famous paint scheme on a car that was around then, winning races, but not like this.

On the building front, I have still been waiting for parts from Hurricane and also doing bench assembly of the fuel tank. I am just about finished with that and will be installing it soon with Nathan's help. And another post, with pictures, will be coming soon on that.

Progress

I am making some progress again, despite having to wait on a bunch of very small parts that my kit from Hurricane was lacking. I sent an email to the new owner, Chris White a week ago, and I am hopeful of seeing a package from them soon.

Meanwhile, Paul Proefrock came by my house a week ago. He needed to verify some dimensions for his build. He is trying to do a special perfect alignment job on his car and wanted to check some measurements on mine for comparison. So after he did that, I had him check several things for me. It was extremely useful and just about everything was fine.

We did both agree that the steering rack needed to be redone. This was because he bushings that hold it in the proper place were not fully inserted into the frame because Hurricane sent me one with holes drilled for a manual steering rack instead of my power rack. I had opened the holes most of the extra half inch needed, and ground back the frame for the larger steering shaft housing, but just not quite enough. The Ackermann effect would have been wrong. So I ended up partially uninstalling the steering rack, enough to have clearance to fix the frame to properly accomodate the rack. Hard work, but now it is beautiful.

Next, I ran connected the emergency brake cables to the brake housing. I ran the cables and temporarily installed the handle, but until I get the missing clamps from Hurricane, I had to let that sit for now.

Finally, I tackled the most infamous part of the Hurricane kit, the fuel tank. It is affectionately known as Frankentank by other builders. Basically, the kit comes with a polyurethane tank that requires relocating the fuel filler neck and the vent tube to the other side. This means you have to seal off the existing holes and drill a new one on a bad surface on the other side. The worst part is blocking off the old holes. The tank comes with rubber gaskets that tend to leak, so I made my own cork ones and it require special fuel-safe sealant that is very messy. What makes it very difficult to work with is that there is a backing plate that you have to insert inside the tank and bolt the block off plate onto it. Holding that plate in place inside of the tank requires some real trickery, and in my case a good pipe cleaner. I just finished sealing it tonight and will have to wait and see in a day or two if it holds by filling the tank with water and seeing if it leaks. God, I hope it holds. That was not a fun job.

Color Question

I have 2 options for the color to have my engine block painted. Ford Blue, or Black. I also can choose black powdercoated valve covers or polished aluminum ones. In either case, they will be etched with the Keith Craft logo. The tentative plan is for the car to be a lightish blue with orange stripes. Please leave a comment with how you think I should go on the colors.

Budget be damned!!!

Today, I celebrated Sue's return home from the hospital by buying a brand new crate engine. My builder is Keith Craft, from Arkadelphia, AR. These guys build superb engines and have an impeccible reputation for quality and service.

My engine will be configured something like this. Mine will also have an alternator and a power steering pump and related bracketry. It should take from 4 to 6 weeks for them to build it.

I have been trying for over a year to find the perfect combination of good, low mileage, titled, used engine. While there were many available, none was perfect. In the end, it seemed better to spend the extra 5 grand up front and get a perfect, new engine rather than one that needed to be pulled from an existing car or modified significantly to perform the way I want. In a way, it is admitting defeat: that I could not find the right machine, or space and time to do the work on something old like my original plan called for. But what the hell, it is only money!

Not working right now

I am still not working on the car right now. Sue is still in the hospital trying to recover from her pancreatic tumor surgery. Everything went well enough, but the recovery is difficult.

Medic time, not mechanic time

Most of you probably know what sadness has been going on with my family. If not, look at my nephew's blog at Smackie the Frog since about July 27 and follow the posts.

On top of that, my girlfriend Sue has been and is still in the hospital. She was insulinoma (a small tumor on the pancreas, believed to be non-cancerous) and has also developed a bad gall bladder. Hopefully, the surgeons at Barnes will be able to take care of both problems in one fell swoop.

Anyway, not much is happening on the car front. I did acquire 2 brand new tires this weekend for the rear end. They are the same brand as the previous 4 I bought, Cooper Cobra GTs, except wider and brand new. Still have the stickers on them. I am not sure if I will put them on now, or wait until after I am legal and can really tear them up properly on some asphalt. I am also still running down leads on both crate and used engines/transmissions.

Maybe I should have gone for the soft top

Sue and I drove up to Madison, WI last weekend for a wedding. We took her Toyota Solara convertible up late Friday night and came back home Sunday. The weather was poor on Friday but gorgeous on Sunday. The result was that my face got completely sunburned, save for the outline of my sunglasses. The picture does not do it justice but I look totally raccoon-like.
Perhaps I should get a soft top afterall. Or a tight hat that won't blow off when driving the Cobra.

This week, I am still chasing down engine quotes and such. I did end up buying a used engine hoist and leveler from a local guy who advertised a garage sale last weekend on craigslist. They did not sell, so I gave him $80 for the hoist and another $10 for the leveler. And I managed to get it home by myself in Baba's RAV.
Here are some pics...





The DVD that I ordered last week came in, so I will be watching that on Thursday and then it will be up to Quincy again this weekend. I hope to order the tranny and engine next week when one of the bidding vendors gets back from vacation.

Brake lines

This week I did manage to squeeze in a couple of hours to actually work on the car. I roughed in the brake lines. They are a combination of 7 hard metal lines and about 5 flexible braided ones. All sorts of connectors are used to join them and connect them to the calipers. Since I am not finished, I do not have any pictures. Sorry. I still need 2 missing parts to complete the job.

Most of the time is still being devoted to engine and transmission research. I did find and order a cool looking DVD. Three hours worth of "Basic Engine Building". Sounds like just what I need.

Sorry - just researching now

I am working the phones a bit right now on the car. I am trying to get closure on the engine. I am starting to seriously consider nuking the budget and buying a brand new crate engine. But I am still considering other strategies: buying a used car and cannibalizing, buying remanufactured parts, buying an unfinished kit and building myself, etc.

Tires acquired

I did get the tires I was pursuing last post. Nice guy I bought them from. This week, I was able to get two of them mounted on my front rims. I took them to NTB. They were very cheap, just $26 for mounting the pair. The only problem was that I misunderstood the guy when he asked me something about the lettering, and they ended up with the raised letter sides facing in. No problem really...some people like it better that way. I may later go back and get a white marker and color in the lettering on the side that is now facing out. I also found a small nail in one as I was messing around with putting it on the front spindle. Here are a couple of pictures...


Right now, the two wheels are sitting in my parts room. I still need to mount the cosmetic fiberglass wheel inserts and spinners that will make them look like Halibrands, the famous wheels that were on the original Cobras. And for the rear wheels, I am still undecided whether or not to mount the other two tires I bought last week, or to wait and see if I can't find a couple of bigger ones that most people put on the rear. There is no great rush.

On the rest of the build, I am kind of stalling. I need to make a final decision about getting the engine and transmission. The next step is to run the fuel lines, and for that you need to decide some engine issues, especially related to the fuel pump. There are so many different strategies on the engine, ranging from brand new $10,000 crate engines, to high mileage used ones needing some TLC that are almost free. It is really worth its own post, once I get my thinking organized.

No work being done, just research

I am not working on the car right now. I've been in Quincy a lot, and just doing some research on future steps.

In particular, I tried to buy some used tires from a guy who was advertising on craigslist. The tires are perfect, at least for the front. They are 235/60R15, which is what most people use, and increasingly difficult to find as most manufacturers don't make many of this particular size. At least one guy uses them on all 4 wheels. These in particular are Coopers and even say "Cobra" on the sidewall. He wants $75 for the set. New, each tire would be more than that. They have about 50 percent of the tread left. At a minimum, I could just use them for the time being while I am doing the build. Anyway, I am waiting to hear back from the guy. Hope I get them.

I HATE grease !!!

I mean I REALLY HATE grease. Today, I decided to install the front rotors and wheel hubs. Here are the parts being used...




The first thing, you do is to install the wheel bearings after packing them with grease. I also had put off actually filling the tie rods and ball joints with grease, so that got added to the list too. I bought some new grease at AutoZone today, because the last stuff I got was not premium stuff, and I had spilled most of it anyway trying to get it loaded into the gun. Well, today I spilled the rest of that as I was taking out the old cannister to replace it with the new. For a while I tried wearing gloves, but that stuff just manages to get everywhere. Mostly on my clothes. (Tomorrow I am going to buy some new shorts that I can wear in public). Eventually, I got the bearings greased, and I think I got enough into the suspension parts previously installed.

Here is a finished picture...


And my reward for a job well done, a Jolly Rancher bombpop from the treat wagon that drove through the neighborhood.


Fortified with frozen goodness, I decided to press on and install the front brakes. It was pretty easy, but kind of surprisingly loose fitting. The brake pads are installed in the calipers and just "float" there. They cannot come off, as the bolts that hold them to the caliper mounting brackets which I installed first are in the way. I checked it online a couple of places and am assured that it is right.

Here is the passenger side (PS) brake on the rotor...


And the driver side (DS)...


Finally, a decent picture showing the DS hub, rotor, and brake...


This finishes Chapter 6. Next up, theoretically, is to run the brake and fuel lines. To do this, however, requires me to make a decision about my engine. The fuel system is different if I choose to use fuel injection (EFI) versus a carburetor--the fuel pump has to be located differently, and there needs to be a special return line from the engine for EFI. Instead, I may work on my wheels, and buy some tires to make what I have a "rolling chasis". We shall see.

Steering rack done

I finished the steering rack today. This turned out to be harder than it should have been. First off, I ordered my kit with Hurricane's power steering option. This is not very popular, but I wanted this car to be easy for anyone to drive. Hurricane, however, drilled the mounting holes in my frame that were 16 inches apart, the right distance for the standard steering rack, but mine needed to be 15 1/2 inches instead. So I had to spend a lot of time using my die grinder to elongate the holes to accomodate my rack. After that, I had to open up the cutaway in the frame for access to the bolt that gets tightened to keep the rack in place. That was a problem because my power rack has a bigger housing to allow for the power steering fluid, piston, etc. I ended up having to cram a file into that hole to be able to tighten it, and even then it broke, just as I was getting it tightened as much as I needed.


The next step was to connect the steering rack to the spindles. This is done with tie rods. As with most builders, I found that my rack was too long, so I had to use my angle grinder and cutoff wheel to lop off about an inch off of each end. Here is one picture showing the tie rods before shortening

Another picture after shortening...

And one with it completely installed...


Next up will be the front rotors and brakes.

Working again

This past weekend, I participated in my first car cruise. It was not Cobras, it was a Model A car club near Champaign, IL. Unfortunately, the weather was awful; so much rain that we could not take the Model A out and many of the roads were closed due to flooding. It was still great fun, as there were 2 owners whose cars were more suited to the bad weather, and 2 others who drove different classic cars from the 40s, one a Ford, the other a DeSoto. I even saw a Cobra driving by us on the way home near Champaign, a beautiful burgundy car with white stripes. Sadly though, the pictures I took with my cell phone cannot easily be moved to my computer thanks to Verizon Wireless' decision to disable the ability of Motorola phones to use the USB port when the phones are part of their network. Bad Verizon!

I came back from my weekend with Sue to find that the socket I was waiting for has come in and I was very anxious to get back to my build. I put the ball joints in my freezer for an hour to get them to shrink up enough to go into the receptacles. Needless to say, that is a tight fit. I ended up not really having to use my torch to heat up the receptacles. And the socket worked great to get them tightened all the way. Here are a couple of pictures showing the upper and lower control arms with the ball joints installed.




Next, I started to install the front spindles where the brakes and wheels will be installed and where the steering system will be connected.


I still need to completely tighten these nuts, as it is pretty difficult to tighten without moving the spindle out of position. Then the final step of this chapter will be to install the front shocks that my mom put together a couple of weeks ago. Then it will be on to the steering system.