Wiper infrastructure done

This week saw me complete the windshield wiper setup, but not complete the final installation which occurs later. To do this required mounting the body and for that I recruited the most wonderful family members for some badly needed help.

On Saturday, Elaine, Abby and Neo came by to help move the body off of the buck and onto the frame. Here is Abby.

It was light and went fairly smoothly, although the instructions in the manual were pretty sparse. Eventually we got it into place. Then we tried to re-install the windshield that was assembled 3 years ago with very little luck. Eventually, I determined that Phil, Nathan and I had made something of a mistake back when we drilled the holes into the frame to hold the windshield legs.

In looking back over some old pictures and my work spreadsheet, I figured that we started out drilling the holes right, but had so much trouble with my underpowered drill that we switched to drilling the holes with the body off. We must have miscalculated where the legs of the windshield would go. We got them at the proper angle and basic location, but there was just no way to get them to go through the slots cut in the body.

On Sunday, Nathan came over and I jogged his memory from when we originally did the windshield support holes and how to best fix everything. We decided that only 2 things could possibly have been done wrong--either the body/cockpit mounting was wrong, or the original hole drilling was wrong. We decided to completely fit the body with all mounting points in place to make 100% certain that we would be good to proceed safe in the knowledge that the body was right. So we installed a rollbar, the front body mount pieces and the front and rear quick jacks. The bottom line, was that the body/cockpit were fine. (The sidepipe cutouts may be an issue later, but that is pretty common on these cars). Here are some pics...

Rollbar...



Rear quick jacks...


Front body mounts...


Confident that the body/cockpit was fine, Nathan and I next had to decide what to do about the windshield not being mountable as the holes did not line up. We could have re-drilled new holes, but that is very tough at this stage and the sweep angle of the windshield would only have been about 29 or 30 degrees instead of the desired 37. We could have modified the frame and winshield legs to make it work, but that could have slightly reduced their holding strength and that seemed like a bad idea. So we decided to elongate the slots that were cut in the fiberglass where the legs go through the body to tie into the frame. We filed out about 3/8 of an inch or so. Some previous builders had to do this too. If you look at the first picture in this post with Abby, you can see the windshield leg going through the slot at the wrong angle and not lining up with our holes. Now the old pre-drilled holes are very close to lining up perfectly and we have an exact 37 degree sweep. A little more embiggening (Nate said he learned that word in Engineering School) of the holes will make things fit very well.

So at this point, we knew the windshield was very very close to its proper permanent location and we could proceed to drill the 2 holes in the body to accomodate the wiper arm mounts that I assembled last week. The holes had to be 20 inches apart at a 45 degree angle, and according to many previous builders, the manual is wrong about how close to drill the holes to the windshield. The instructions said 3 inches from the engine bay opening, but everybody agrees that they need to be much closes to the windshield itself. After measuring twice we drilled the 2 holes. You can see one in this picture...


Here are a couple of pics showing the body in place, the windshield at the right angle and the wiper arm holes drilled. We test-fit the wiper assembly and it seems fine.



All of this was painfully done knowing that the wipers are unlikely ever to be used! It is an open car not meant to ever be driven in the rain! But the state of Missouri requires them on all cars, so on they go. And from reading the other builders' posts about these wipers, there may be future troubles with the motor sort of shaking the arms too much and not working well. I doubt that the state inspector will even test them, frankly. Anyway, now the body can come off again and I can start the wiring.

Wipers assembled

This week had me working at the workbench, assembling the windshield wiper kit. It was particularly fun. It was pleasant to work inside the warmth of my laundry room, and sitting on a stool, instead of lying on the cold garage floor. The tasks were well defined in the manual--basically lots of measuring and cutting the aluminum tube that holds the cable that drives the wiper arms, flaring the ends so that they won't move when connected to the motor and arm mounts, and then putting it all together. In the end, I did a pretty good job, I think, on this part. Here are some pictures...






Next comes mounting that into the car, and the first thing to do there is cutting a couple of holes at a 45 degree angle into the fiberglass body. To get that right, I have to temporarily install the body onto the frame and the windshield as well. Unfortunately, the manual it is now decided amongst the other builders on the Hurricane forum, is wrong about the best place to locate the holes. Not the sort of thing that makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Anyway, I am stuck for now until I get a few people over to help lift the body off the buck and put it in place. I had hoped to do that this weekend, but a family friend suddenly passed away and made for some changing plans.

Exactly as expected

I got no work done this week on the car. I did manage to open the box with the parts for the next step, the windshield wipers. Here is a picture I took to keep you all rewarded for checking back weekly.

Inner fenders finished

I was able to spend a good amount of time working on the cobra this week. I managed to finish the installation of the aluminum inner fender panels.

The first step was to tape the panels in place.


Next, I drilled some holes and riveted the top of the panel to the frame.


Then came drilling a couple of holes through the front for later attaching the panels to the radiator. Sorry, but I did not get any good pictures of that.

Next came drilling some holes through the bottom of the panel, bolting the panel to the brackets that hold the bottom of the panel against the frame, and finally screwing the brackets into the holes in the frame. Here are some completed pics of the bottom.



The passenger side went quite easily (except for breaking my 11/64" drill bit and having to run to Sears and get another). I did the driver side second, and luckily, it seems that I just barely had the power steering pump clear the panel. Here is a picture of that and another showing the driver side from the outside.



The next step has to be to install the windshield wiper motors under the dash. Unfortunately, I will need help with this as the body has to be installed to drill the holes through which the wipers will eventually get mounted. I had hoped to be able to wait on this step until later, but everybody tells me that they really have to go in now as later there will be too much wiring in place to get the wiper motors in their right place.

These wipers are a notoriously weak part of these cars. They are a fairly complicated install and really aren't that necessary since a topless car shouldn't be driven much in the rain anyway. But Missouri requires them, so on they will go. Given the difficulty of this step, and my upcoming fantasy baseball draft, I don't think I will get much done on them for the next week or two.

Brake lines finished

I finished the brake lines this week. The final step had been to secure the lines running from the master cylinders to the couplers on the frame that got run a long time ago.




I ended up doing it twice because I was not happy with the way it all came out the first time. Mainly, I did not like that the manual called for the use of #10 screws going into the footbox. I did it the way the manual said at first, but then removed the screws and replaced them with 5/16" rivits. Now there is nothing pointy poking through the footbox around my feet.

I also ended up slightly rerouting the lines to get a little more clearance around the big fuel line. I am still not overjoyed with the way the three lines (front and rear brakes, and fuel) run, but it will do, I guess.



A more troubling clearance matter is that there is only about 1/4" between the brake lines on the footbox and the headers coming out of the engine. The headers get extremely hot, and can do bad things like overheat the brake fluid effecting their performance. Here is a blurry picture of just how little room there is. (The header exhaust holes are covered in green tape and eventually connect to the sidepipes).



I have no idea if there are leaks in the system or not. I suppose I could fill the system with brake fluid to test, but it seems less likely to be depressing to just assume it is okay. And I still need at some point to hook up the brake fluid reservoirs, but that comes much later in the build.

Next up is to attach the inner fender liners. Boy, it is really unclear to me how to make the pieces I have work. Everything is so tight and the clearances around the suspension pieces and power steering pump look almost impossible. Better do the passenger side first.

I'm baaaaack

Not working on the car just yet, but felt like at least blogging.

This week marked the third anniversary of picking up my kit. It has been a lot of fun so far, though the problems I've run into sometimes get a little depressing. In about 3 months, I will become eligible for the senior tour (turning 50) and it would be kind of nice to make some serious progress on the car before then. My schedule does not look too bad, knock on wood.

First, let's summarize where I am. The car is getting close to being a go-kart. The only system that has not had substantial work is the electrical. Frame, fueling, suspension, brakes, engine, transmission, exhaust, steering are pretty far along. Cooling needs pretty much work. Going by the manual, I have completed about 102 pages out of 200 or so. That is 17 out of 37 chapters.

So I think it is probably reasonable at this point to set a goal of starting the engine and actually riding it as a go-kart at least down the street by the end of May. I have always refrained from setting any kind of timetables or goals because I never wanted to turn this project into work instead of just a hobby. But it seems now that a significant milepost is attainable with some consistent efforts. So pray for decent weather and keep checking back here now. Weekly posts should be reliable again.

Next up...affixing the inner fender liners to the frame. After that, according to the manual at least, is the windshield wiper assembly.

Car Work halt

With my mom's skull injury, I doubt I will be getting back to the Cobra very much. I am way behind on real life stuff and don't like working on the car much when it gets down into the 30s.