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.