Stoneleigh National Kit Car Show 2016

I am planning to go to Stoneleigh in Warwickshire on Sunday.

Sounds like there will be plenty of Cobras there, new and on the road, plus there should be loads of other cars to oggle at. A good opportunity to get some ideas and pick up some parts too. Gardner Douglas will have their stand in hall 1, so chance to crawl over their cars!

The show is open on Sunday 1 May and Monday 2 May and can be found at postcode CV8 2LZ.

Roll over hoops - part 5 - The Final Fix!

I have not done anything for the past couple of weeks. The last job I did was to drill the roll over hoop holes in the body and loosely fit the bars. So now I needed to check the fit to the chassis, then fill the hoops with expanding foam, before the final panel body trim, the fitting of the grommets and the escutcheons.

The hoops were removed and the studs (I think that bolts are used on the GDJAG) fitted to the outer legs, after applying some grease (note that the shorter thread went into the roll over bar).

The hoops were fed through the holes in the body and the boot floor. Next the nuts were loosely fitted to the outer bar studs, before the other bolts were put in place by hand. A ratchet strap was used to help get the studs/bolts and the bars aligned.

Hoops bolted in to place.

Ratchet strap helped pull the legs in to position.

Once I was happy with the fit, the holes were finally marked up to allow 5mm gap for the grommets to fit into the body top holes and a 3mm gap around the legs in the boot floor to allow some clearance for body to chassis movement. The hoops were taken out and bolts and studs were removed, before the body holes were finished off with the Dremel.

Then it was on to the messy job of filling the hoops with expanding foam. GD recommend this to reduce the noise transmission from the chassis. I used Polyfiller Expanding Foam, but as they say other brands are available! Do use disposable gloves (supplied) as this stuff is not easy to get off your hands if you get it on them.

Each of the escutcheons were drilled in the three places marked for 4mm stainless button head bolts. First I drilled the holes for the 4mm button head bolts in the escutcheons, the grommets and the body. I then put the escutcheons and grommets onto the appropriate legs. The fitting of the grommets onto the legs is not easy! I used Vaseline to help them slide into place on each leg (it is amazing what this stuff can do!). Next I masked around the bottom of each hoop's legs, then I sprayed water into the legs to help cure the foam. I then squirted foam into each leg of the hoops (after putting on the gloves!) and quickly inserted the bolts/studs into the holes to avoid the threads being clogged up. This also makes sure that the foam does not leak out.

Chalk was then rubbed around the six holes in the boot floor. The boot carpet was laid in place and pressed around the holes to leave a chalk imprint on the underside. The carpet was removed and cut in a star pattern within the chalk marked holes. The inner area of the carpet hole was removed to aid fitting.

After the foam was cured, I left it overnight, I finally tightened the studs into the outer legs, using mole grips. Once this was done, the hoop was again put through the holes, then through the carpet into the boot floor holes. The bolts and studs were tightened in place from underneath the car.

Bolts/stud tightened in place

GD say that silicone is not needed as water does not get in through these holes, so I didn't apply any.

The grommets were manoeuvred into place, through the holes in the top of the body. Again a fiddly job. Then the escutcheons were lowered into place and were fixed in place with the 4mm button head bolts and nyloc nuts. 17 of the 18 bolts went through okay, the 18th 'disappeared', probably into a cavity between the matting layers. This hole will need filling and tapping to get the bolt to bite.

Just need to fix the escutcheons.

Inside the boot

Second hoop done and escutcheons fixed in place

The loom was re-clipped into place and the carpet re-fitted to the sides. Then the eye bolts for the harnesses were fitted. To get them in the vertical position, I needed to file a small amount off the hoop mounting points. Grease was applied to the eye bolts to help them go into place.

Eye bolt in hoop

Job done!

Roll over hoops - part 4

A glass of wine and a good night's sleep sorted out the measurement discrepancy. It was simply that I had measured the body surface and this was curved. So it was similar to having a triangle and the sloping side was longer! Once I put a level and measure on I saw that the holes were in the right place. Phew!

So I was raring to go. I cut out the remaining big hole (50 mm to start with), then made sure that the hoops fitted. They did.

Bars fitted back to front to check hole spacing

Using the plumb line, I marked the underside of the deck and drilled a pilot hole upwards. I then cut out the smaller hole (40mm to start with) for the third leg from the top of the deck. I tried to open up thehoop legs so that the holes were 304mm apart using a hydraulic jack , but that did not work. They sprung back.

Trying to spread the bar legs

After opening up the holes a little, I fed the roll over hoop into the holes, then removed it and adjusted the holes again with the Dremel. This was a bit like doing the hokey cokey, in out, in out .... until it was right, opening up the hole by a small amount each time until the legs of the hoop seated on the mounting points of the chassis.

One bar done

Then it was on to the next one. A repeat of the first hoop.

Both bars/hoops fitted

The rear legs needed a bit of springing to get them in the holes, but an easy job. So the main holes were cut and the bars fitted. Done!

Now the hole needed opening up to allow a 5mm gap around each leg of the bar for the grommets. To make sure this was a perfectly round hole I marked it using a pencil and the inside of a washer.

Hole marked up to allow 5mm gap around hoop leg

One very happy Cobra builder. Next I will aim to fit hoops with the grommets and escutcheons.

Roll over hoops - part 3

It was time to drill the hole for the third leg of each hoop in the boot floor and start to drill the holes in the deck on the body!

First I applied masking tape to the area behind the seats (the deck), to avoid any drill marks, should I slip. The saddles were then fixed with the loosely fitted nuts and bolts, where the wishbones are fixed to the chassis rear most mounting point. Once in place the holes were marked from underneath. I marked the outer edges of the saddles and the hole centre lines. After moving the saddles, I then then marked the hole centres and drilled a pilot hole. Not a lot of space to do this! Once the holes were drilled, the saddles were moved out of the way - they can be rotated on the bolts. Each hole was then opened out with a hole saw from within the boot making sure that the mounting hole was central.

Third hole drilled in boot floor. Bolt helps see if it is centred.

Next a plumb line was used to mark the point to drill under the deck. The plumb line gave a vertical reference to the hole centre. To do this I had to climb into the boot, so that I could see the lower hole and mark the underside of the deck, to get a centre to drill a pilot hole. Using the 90deg attachment for my drill I made a small hole upwards. This was then checked with the plumb line to make sure it was were I thought! Slight adjustments were made to the holes.

Plumb line through top hole

Checked holes were in line

Final check that mounting point lined up. You can see that the hole centre is slightly off

Next, out came the bigger hole cutter. I used a spirit level on the drill to make sure that I drilled straight down. Using the pilot hole I drilled from the outside of the rear deck into the boot. This was repeated at the other side. One leg of the roll over hoop was then offered through the hole to make sure it fit.

First leg in place

Both outer holes drilled and roll over bars inserted back to front

At this point I wanted to check that I could secure the legs in place. However, the bolts supplied would not go in through the outside holes due to the shock absorber mounting points. A quick call to the factory and I was advised that a stud was used to secure it to the chassis. The wrong bolts had been packed by a former employee and not checked before they went out. The threaded section of the bolts are not long enough to cut down, so studs and nuts will be sent from the factory!

So not to be beaten, I marked and drilled a second hole for the nearside bar (the bars are supposed to be 304mm centres - they were not - one was 306mm and the other 300mm). These can be sprung apart with a wooden block/jack or pulled together with ratchet straps. With a small amount of trimming the two legs of the nearside roll over hoop went through to the chassis and on to its mounting points.

Nearside bar in its reversed position. Just the third hole to drill here.

The two legs within the boot

Then I marked and drilled the pilot hole for the off side hoop's second leg. Curiously this was 10mm wider than the roll over hoop fitting centres (the centres were 300mm wide), so at this point I went inside and got a glass of wine and tried to work out why! Tomorrow may bring a solution!

Dashboard - part 5

So the gauges were in place. Just a case of wiring up these gauges and the switches!

I had not considered that there was a standard layout for the gauges and that the dasboard loom was made for this. Because I had come up with my own layout, this meant that I had to chop quite a few tie wraps and extend some of the cables. Also the billet switches for the start and hazard lights had smaller terminals, so I had to source these connectors and replace the existing ones.

I am not installing a clock, so the wires provided in the loom for this were not needed. As the ETB gauges do not need a voltage stabiliser, there were a further three wires that were not used in the loom. I connected the light green wires designed for the stabilizer to the darker green wire, so that the 'stabilised' gauges had a normal ignition 12v power supply.

Next I puzzled the Lucas type switches for the lights and heater. Six terminals, but only five wires - so what goes where? Each of the terminals on the switches were marked with a number from 1 to 8 (3 and 5 were not used, hence six terminals). Here Noel Hirst and Keith Akerman helped clear up my confusion with some photos.

I had realised that in the loom there is a red/white wire for each switch which is the illumination and a black wire for each which is the ground for the illumination. As there is no illumination on these switches, these wires can be ignored/not used (needed to make sure that there was no risk of shorting). So each switch just had three wires connected in reality. The light switch was wired as follows: brown/blue to terminal 1, red terminal 4 and blue terminal 8. For the heater it was: green to terminal 4, green/slate terminal 6 and green/yellow terminal 8.

Oh, and the Canems immobiliser! This is fitted to the rear of the dashboard, close to the steering column on the right side when seen from the driver's seat so that the fob can de-activate it. The unit is about 50mm square and needs mounting with the plastic surround against the dash (flat on, not on it's edge). I had not allowed for this and it was very tight up against the hazard switch, so if you are doing this be aware! Plan ahe.. I had to trim away some of the dash around the steering column to allow it to fit.

Immobiliser unit against steering column hole

I have decided to mount the remote trip/function push switch on the centre under dash cover. There is enough room to get your hand in between the lower part of the dash and the transmission tunnel to activate this. The remote switch comes with the ETB speedo and is part of the 'speedo loom'. This location saves having an additional item on the dashboard, which in my opinion, just clutters the thing. Some other makes of gauges have the trip switch on the face.

Apart from these issues, the wiring was fairly straight forward. I used the GD Dash Loom wiring diagram and the diagrams from ETB. Some of the wires were not used, so these were taped back on themselves, making sure that the conductors were not exposed. Others wires needed connecting to the GD loom, such as the speedo and tacho 'looms'. I have not given the full wiring, as this may differ depending on the gauges and switches used.

Spaghetti!

The column stalks have their own mini looms, which are not terminated at one of the ends. These mini looms connect into the relevant multiplug on the dashboard loom, but needed terminals adding to those wires that are used.

Terminals added to column connection multi-plugs