Bonnet and first gel coat

Today I fixed the bonnet. Sounds easy. Just two hinges fixed by four bolts. 

Bonnet hinge from inside engine bay

However, it took a lot of fiddling to get the shut lines the same all round. The hinges needed bending and I enlarged the holes on the hinges by 2mm to allow for minor adjustment. But it was well worth the time.

Consistent shut lines

There were a lot of small indentations, pin holes and marks on the body after rubbing down. So I tackled the gel coat for the first time. First I identified every mark with tape, where some gel coat was needed. This was to make sure that I touched up all the areas required. I had been told that the mix was 3% of the activator to 97% of the gel coat. Then I mixed the gel coat and activator, using a syringe from childrens Calpol to measure out the small quantity of activator.

Difficult to see the imperfections from the photo, but they are there - honest.

Areas that were relatively flat were rubbed down with P400 wet or dry paper. I covered some with cling film and left some others exposed to test if it made a difference. I have heard stories of the gel not setting, however the weather in these cases was cold. It is over 20 deg C today, so we will find out if the mix is ok and whether cling film makes a difference.

Brake and oil cooler vents

More cutting out today.

I taped and marked up the brake and oil cooler vent areas to cut out at the front of the body.

The brake vent masked up and marked

The masking was not strictly required, but a double thickness of masking tape offered some protection to the gel coat when cutting with the Dremel. Even so, I still managed to mark one of the brake vent cut outs! So another gel coat repair to do.

The brake vent cut out

I kept the pieces of GRP that I remove, so that they could be used as formers for the black mesh that I was fixing. The holes were rubbed down with P800, then P1200 wet and dry, before gel coating, rubbing down and polishing. The mesh was cut about 10 to 20mm bigger than the piece cut out. The excess mesh was bent around the piece and then finally offered up to the hole. They will be attached to the body using Car Builder Solutions polyurethane adhesive/sealant. The mesh which is against the body and the adhesive will be covered with underseal later.

The other two holes were cut and the mesh added. The finished body looks like this.

The three vents cut and mesh fitted

It's starting to look like a Cobra now!

Lights fitted

If I wasn't sure that I needed a Dremel to help build my Cobra, then this really convinced me! Well worth the investment. Someone said that you can't build a Cobra without one!

I started by cutting out the headlights. A 170mm hole is needed for each light. Measure twice cut once! It is quite scary cutting such a big hole in a new body. I found the centre of the cut out area for each light and drilled a small hole for the Dremel guide to fit and one for the cutting bit. GD had marked the area to cut out and had already drilled the fixing holes for the light units. There is a special Dremel bit to cut the circles, which took a little finding. By holding the Dremel guide in place I could cut the big circular hole. 

Hole being cut. Note test cut!

I found that the chuck on the Dremel needed to be really tight to stop the bit working loose. I was too scared to cut the full hole, so I cut the last half inch by hand, using a hack saw blade! I had to drill two other holes with the step drill for the adjusters on each light (again positions marked by GD). One at twelve o'clock and one at 9 o'clock.

Headlight cut out

With the holes cut I could offer up the P700 headlights and fix them in place with the self tappers provided. Then the chrome trims were added to each light.

P700 headlight in place

Next it was the indicators. A 30mm hole was cut for each indicator using the Dremel. Location holes were drilled to secure the indicators the same size as the light studs.

Front indicator cut out and drilled

So that was the front done. I am really pleased with the result.

The position of the rear lights (side/brake and indicator) was established by holding the rubber rings from the lights in the desired position and marking them with a pencil. Fixing was a repeat of the front indicators - drill the location holes, mark out the holes to cut for the light unit, cut and secure in place - don't assume GD's markings are correct (mine weren't as you can see). Also I made sure that the location holes were in line.

Mounting holes for back lights

Once the lights were installed here is what it looked like.

Rear view with brake and indicators in place

Next it was the side repeater lights. These were marked up using tape and one of the chrome rings from the lights. I set the bottom of the lights 15mm above the side air intake vent and the side touching a line from the air intake vent.

Markings for side repeater

I didn't have a 20mm hole cutter, so resorted to using a small drill bit and a multitude of holes to cut out the GRP. The final cut was made using the trusty Dremel! A file was then carefully used to shape and extend the hole. Some builders have had to thin down the wing around the light to fit these, but mine only needed minimal fettling.


Side repeater in place

So that is it for now on the lights. An easy days work, with a lot to show for it.


Doors fitted. Finally!

The gel and adhesive overrun was carefully removed from the bonded hinge fixing posts. The hinges were then fitted - two to each side. I filed the edges all around each door. I'll come back to the awful line along the door inner top edge and the gel coating later (you can see the grey line if you look carefully at the next photo).

The doors were offered up to the hinges and the slots marked in pencil. On a soft surface, I then marked up the hole positions using the correct handed anti-intrusion bar as a template. 14mm holes were then drilled using a step drill bit (you can drill up to 20mm holes if you have a big enough step drill). This gives a nice clean hole cut, but care is needed not to go through to the outer door skin (a block of wood would be prudent!). A section of the inner door was cut away (see photo below) for the remote opening mechanism to bolt in to place on the welded and tapped tags.

The hinges were fitted to the hinge mounting plate. The door was then bolted to the metal work (hinges and anti-intrusion bars). I thought that one of the holes was not fully tapped and then realised that the anti-intrusion bar was not fully extended, so it had blocked the tapped hole :) The hinges and anti-intrusion bar sandwich the inner door skin.

The hinges and anti-intrusion bar (sorry about the bike helmet which appears to be on the door!)

The door was adjusted by the bolts that fix the hinge to the anti-intrusion bar and by moving the hinge mounting plate. I had to remove some GRP from the holes in the door and a small amount from the scuttle area where the top of the door closes to allow for adjustment and closure. As both the hinge mounting and the hinges can be adjusted, there is no need for packing out.

Once the doors were fitted and roughly aligned, I had to fit the latches. Neither the leaflet in the latch pack or the build notes were a lot of help here and there were no holes or cut out markings on the doors. Keith Akerman kindly sent me some photos of the latch fitted to his car, along with measurements, so this made the job much easier/possible.

Mine doors had no markings.

Holes were marked using the opposite side latch, then drilled and an 'L' shaped slot was cut out and filed for the remote mechanism.

Holes and slot cut in door.

I fed the long arm of the remote opening mechanism between the inner and outer skin of the door. This allows the remote arm to be attached to the latch. The latch is bolted through the door skin to the end of the anti-intrusion bar. Then I fitted the triangular part to the pre-tapped lugs on the anti-intrusion bar and fitted the door handle. At this point the latch mechanism should work.

Latch fitted

The first door (passenger) took some 15 hours to fit. The second door less than 1 hour! The passenger door latch would not return to the closed position. I removed it countless times to enlarge the holes so that there was no fouling. It still did not work properly. After a lot of head scratching I noticed that some of the pink adhesive had formed inside the top of the door (concealed) and was rubbing against the remote door opening bar. After some careful tapping with the blunt end of a file the offending adhesive was removed. The assembly was put together yet again and it worked!

Although I was only trial fitting, this was quite time consuming. However, I took the view that if I couldn't get the gaps and mechanism working right now I would struggle later.

Door fitted with consistent gap and the latch works!

Before I put the parts away for painting, I marked up the metal work with file marks, so that once painted they would all go back in the same place. I used one file mark for all left hand parts and two for all right hand. The lower hinges were marked on their lower side and the upper hinges on, errrr the upper side! I also marked the position of the hinge mounting plate on the bonded hinge fixing post with a pencil so that I knew exactly where it fit.

The whole job took me around 16 hours in total! Normally it should take a lot less. But as it is something everyone could see or use when the car is complete, I thought that it was important to get it right.

White stripes! Flash lines and doors

Well I was warned by Keith Townsend's Cobra build blog (see link on right). Using a polishing machine, Farecla and a fine spray of water, I managed to create a white stripe down my blue overalls and along the garage floor. Oh well, it's all part of life's rich tapestry as they say! 

White stripe from waste to shoe!

As you can see I was impatient and wanted to see if I had fully removed the flash lines. I had! Below is the off side front wing, with a nice deep shine after only using G6 Farecla.

No sign of the flash line thank goodness.

Next I turned to the door fitting. The holes were pre-marked by GD, so were cut out with the Dremel and electric drill.

The holes cut for the hinges. Once the GRP was removed, the hole was filed out.

The video GD Cars provided shows the hinges being fed in from the inside of the car. I didn't do this, instead I fitted the hinge mounting plate first on to the bonded-in post, then fed the hinges through the holes from the outside.

The hinge mounting plate from the inside

Next I assembled the door metal work. This includes the hinges, intrusion bar, the remote opening mechanism and the lock. I will either paint or have the parts powder coated once I know that they fit. A bag of assorted nuts, bolts and washers was supplied by GD Cars. Whether I have used the correct ones, only time will tell.

Door metal work trial fitted

So the next job is trial fitting the doors and getting them aligned.

Flash lines

Well all the body flash lines are sorted (at least in theory!). It has taken about 20 hours of work, but it is quite satisfying, if physical work. Although it is not difficult if care is taken.

There are some bits of gel coating to do, where I have exposed the grey GRP below the white top coat. The main areas are the joints on the wheel arches and boot. See below. These will need taking back a little with the Dremel, before gel coating.

Exposed grey GRP

Some small brush hairs from the laying up process have been exposed in the gel coat too. These have been rubbed out, but over the near side rear wheel arch this has allowed the grey GRP to show through. According to Andy at GD Cars I can apply a couple of coats of gel directly to the area, as long as the surface is adequately keyed (ideally with P800 wet or dry).

If you look carefully you can see the grey through the gel coat at the top of the arch

I intend to try some gel coating to cover up the imperfections next. The doors, bonnet and boot are still to rub down, but these will be prepared after I have trial fitted the items.

Cobra body preparation - flash lines

Now this was a job that I was not looking forward to having read a number of blogs. However, it has turned out better and easier than expected. First I tackled the rear off-side. Why? Because others had done that! Saves making a decision .....

Having talked to Andy at GD Sports Cars, I was armed with a number of tips. So here's what I did.

I masked off the flash line leaving about half an inch either side. I then used masking tape to cover up most of the hand file, leaving only half an inch or so exposed. The flash line was then filed down very carefully in the direction of the flash line (horizontally). The masking tape thickness made sure that I didn't mark the body.


Panel masked off - area to rub down is between to tape lines

I then made a small block from wood and using P400 wet or dry paper, I gently rubbed down the line using plenty of soapy water, again going in the direction of the flash line only (horizontally). I used 3M wet or dry as recommended by Ryan (see his blog linked on the right), as it is more consistent and less likely to create deep scratches, although it is more expensive and harder to get hold of.

The masking tape was removed and some new tape applied half an inch further out. A new sanding 'block' was then made of high density foam (GD recommend a piece of rubber belt).


The wooden block on the right and the high density foam on the left

The area was then rubbed down at 45 degrees to the flash line using P800 wet or dry using plenty of soapy water. The process was repeated going at 45 degrees to the flash line the other way. Then I rubbed down horizontally.

Finally the masking tape was removed and the area was blended in using P1200 wet or dry, plenty of soapy water and a cork sanding block. I rubbed down at 45 degrees to the flash line, then 90 degrees (vertically) and finally horizontally. I was reminded by Andy that the body was very curvy, so I should not create any flat areas.

The finished panel prior to polishing

The whole thing took just 45 minutes. Very satisfying! Now the area just needs buffing with the polishing machine and Farecla. So if this is a good example, then the job may not be too difficult.