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.