A little more progress!

I only managed a couple of hours in the garage this afternoon, but nevertheless a small amount of progress.

Speed sensor

Tightened the bolt that I forgot yesterday! I had only put it in finger tight, whilst I sorted out the wires. An important, but small job, to avoid the sensor falling out!

Handbrake

I finished off the handbrake too. Tied in the cable to the chassis.

Tie wrapped handbrake cable

Then siliconed around the grommet to avoid water ingress.

Under boot supports

On the Euro there are two plates that are fitted under the rear of the chassis. These help to take the extra weight that you may put in the boot. There are three rivnuts on each side for this purpose.

Three rivnuts on rear underside of chassis

First two pieces of self adhesive sponge rubber are fitted to each of the plates. The plates are then bolted in place and tightened, squashing the rubber.

Boot support plate

I managed to cross thread one of the rivnuts on the nearside, so now the it turns in the chassis rail. I will need to work out how to get the bolt out! But that is for another day.

Fuel tank

Sponge rubber was stuck to the fuel tank - two strips along the back and one underneath. I also added sound deadening sheets to reduce the chance of hearing fuel sloshing around.

Fuel tank with sponge rubber and sound deadening panels

Engine loom part 2

Final bit of engine loom sorted today. If you are building a GD427, then do connect up the loom before you put the body on. Or at least connect up the loom to the gearbox and starter motor. It is so much easier to do it at that stage.

Reverse lights

The reverse light switch on the gearbox had two wires. These were now tucked away alongside the gearbox and within the chassis. So after jacking the car well up at the front and crawling under it, hands shredded, I finally managed to connect the bullet connectors together. Not the easiest or most pleasant of jobs.

Lacerations

Speed sensor

The speed sensor was in theory simple too. The car was jacked up well at the side. After crawling under the car, I managed to get my hand into the transmission tunnel at the back of the gearbox and remove the sensor, which was held in by one bolt and a locating plate.

The two wires were attached to the sensor using two thin connectors out of a waterproof Delphi double connector! The waterproof seals and some silicone were used to make sure that the connectors stayed in place and kept dry.

Speed sensor with wires siliconed in place

The installation was a reverse of the previous process. Don't lower the car until you have tightened the bolt :) Just don't expect this to be easy to get at!

Starter motor

Another nightmare to get at! The starter motor is tucked up behind the exhaust headers, with the solenoid on top.

Starter motor wires in place

The thick red wire from the battery and the red wire from the loom marked 'starter' are connected to the lower thick terminal. The other wire, slate and red, is connected to the thinner stud on the solenoid. The small wire terminal will not go on the wrong stud.

Bulkhead 'grommet'

A very rewarding job. Nice finisher!

An aluminium two piece bulkhead grommet had been machined by Keith Akerman for his car and I managed to get one from him, a real work of art!

Components of bulkhead grommet

GD don't do a part for this. It was easily fitted around the loom and pushed through the bulkhead. The bulkhead hole needed a bit of filing to open it out, before fixing the 'grommet' with four buttonhead bolts. A very neat solution and much better than having to fabricate one myself.

Neat!

Fuel pump

The short wire on the loom marked 'Pump' was connected to the white/purple wire of the body loom. This went to the fuse box, so needed cutting from the fuse box. The body loom is designed for a non-LS engine car, which has a different pump arrangement. A male connector was added to the cut wire and then connected to the wire on the relay block. See photo below where the cut wire can just be seen coming out of the fuse box and is taped up in black.

Fuel pump wires sorted

The relay block will be attached to one of the underdash trays later.

So now I just have the sensors to connect up on the engine - oil pressure, oil temperature and water temperature for the gauge, when I get them. All easy to get at. Well relatively .....

Thermostat

Luckily I realised that there was no thermostat in the housing, thanks for telling me Kyle, so I bought one from Monkfish. Great service and very prompt delivery. Whilst I was at it, I replaced the seal.

New thermostat and seal

It was simply a case of undoing two bolts on the housing, replacing the seal and inserting the thermostat, then putting the bolts back in place.

Where the thermostat goes

Header tank hose

A new piece of hose was attached between the block and the header tank (because I had originally used vacuum tube - not a good idea!).

Correct hose!

Handbrake

The handbrake was attached to the bracket to allow me to locate the position of the fixing holes. The end of the handbrake (the end with the button) was positioned in line with the front of the door opening. The holes in the mounting plate were marked through onto the floor and drilled. Bolts went through the bracket and through the holes in the floor. The bolts were secured with nuts and shakeproof washers on the underside of the car, using large washers to spread the load.

Handbrake in place

At this stage the handbrake could not be adjusted as it is a hydraulic/mechanical handbrake, so the brake fluid needs adding and bleeding first. However, the handbrake cable could be secured to the chassis with tie wraps, to keep it away from moving parts.

The carpet will be cut later, once the gaiter is received and fitted.

Gear lever

This was simply a case of attaching the lever with two bolts into the threaded gear lever stub on the 'box and then securing with nylocs. Once in place, I opened out the transmission tunnel hole slightly with the Dremel so that it would not foul against the GRP. Now I can select gears!!

Gear lever. Escutcheon is only laid in place.

Visit to the factory

Went to GD on Tuesday.

Parked car at Keith Akerman's house. Collected some bits for GD made by Keith's company first. Also got a few bits that he had surplus from his build that I was after.

Met up with Mark Turnbull and friend John, who collected me from Keith's on their way to GD. Good old chat whilst going down and back.

Mark has just ordered a 427, so is at a very early stage. I meant to give him some magazines about car building, that I had been given by Simon Smith early in my build, to keep him occupied while he waits for his car, but forgot!

John will help Mark build the car. He has a garage and is competant with the mechanics. Mark is in engineering, so it should all go well.

The purpose of my visit was to collect a few parts (important bits) including the fuel tank, the roll over bars, escutcheons, seat runners (seats and other leather parts have been ordered via GD from the trimmers), battery and tray, door mirrors, side vents, gear shifter, undertray etc. Also I wanted to ask Andy some build related questions.

Mark wanted to clarify some elements of his project.

On arrival we were greeted by Andy and Meena. They were just back from the London Classic Car Show. One of the show cars, a Mk 4, was at the factory, a metalic maroon with grey trim. The car was built in Australia and is now for sale. Lovely car!

Questions answered and bits stowed in Mark's car, we headed home.

All safely home now. Just need to fix the parts in the car!

Engine loom part 1

Engine loom

The loom can either be fed from the cockpit through to the engine bay or the other way round. I chose the latter because it was easier, even though it required the bulkhead hole to be opened up a little by filing sufficient GRP to allow the ECU connector to be passed through. The bulkhead hole will be covered by a grommet at a later date.

With hindsight the loom could have been connected before the body was put on. This would have made access much easier.

First, the relay and electrical block were taken off the loom, before the big ECU connector, pedal connector and the wires for the relay were fed through the bulkhead hole.

Engine loom bulkhead hole from engine bay

Engine loom from cockpit side

The loom was connected to the injectors (odd numbers to nearside) and main connection blocks in between the injectors first. This got 10 of the connections out of the way!

Injectors, main connector between cylinder 4 & 6 and throttle pot connected

Next I connected the engine loom to the front body loom. This was simply pushing the two round connectors together.

Connection to main body loom

The throttle connectors were connected to the throttle body, then the alternator was connected (I added a boot to the live connection post), then the cam and the earth wires were connected, which were followed by the MAP and knock sensors.

Water temperature and cam sensor connected. Alternator to do

Connections from nearside

The air intake sensor wires were too short so had to be extended.

I had to jack up the car and remove the two front wheels to get at the other sensors, such as the crank, lambda and starter. The crank sensor is virtually inaccessible, so I managed to connect this by reaching through the extended foot well!

Crank sensor almost hidden by starter motor!

The gearbox connections are still to make, but most are now done. The full wiring connection is detailed in one of my other posts.

Next I refit the fuses and realised that I needed two others. The fuse ratings of the ones supplied were incorrect for my car. The missing two will be 10 amp and then a 20 amp in the bottom slot. The fuse ratings and position are shown in the GD wiring manual.

Fusebox with two missing fuses.

I then refitted the relay block in the cockpit area.

Under dash trays

There are three panels that go under the dash. One in the centre and one either side.

First I fixed the centre "tray" to the brackets on the two cross braces. Many builders fix these under the brackets and between the braces. I fixed mine above to avoid having to make alterations to the panel and having to elongate the holes. Also it seemed more logical, having tried to do it the other way. The central tray was fixed with button head bolts and nylocs.

Centre tray fitted

The outer trays will have to wait until another day.

Carpets, handbrake cable and belt mounts

Carpets

The transmission tunnel was cleaned with acetone, then the loom was taped over using racing tape. The carpet was then fed under the cross brace and the screws inserted through the feet on the cross brace to screw into the rivnuts that I had fitted earlier. At this stage I did not tighten down or fit the packing washers. A small cut was then made to allow the gear selector stub to poke through.

Andy at GD had advised me to use spray adhesive, as it would be easier to remove the carpets if they became wet. I did not tell him that Cobra owners did not take their cars out in the rain! However, noting his advice I sprayed the section of the tunnel top from the cross brace to the gear lever and the corresponding part of the carpet with adhesive. Then after a few minutes I carefully brought the two together, making sure they were lined up. The rest of the tunnel top and carpet were then sprayed and after a while, brought together. The carpet below the dash was not glued.

Next the carpet at the sides of the tunnel and the sides of the tunnel itself were sprayed with the adhesive in sections and brought together, smoothing down as I went. The body bolts were not glued over, so that I had access if I need it at a later date (hopefully I won't need this!). The excess carpet down the sides of the transmission tunnel near the rear bulkhead was trimmed off. At this stage, the drivers footwell area was not stuck down (I need to trim around the footwell extension). The gear lever hole was cut out of the carpet using the edge of the gear shift hole as a guide.

Carpet glued to transmission tunnel

The floor carpets were loose laid and the vertical carpet (side and rear bulkhead) was trimmed (ran onto the floor of the car).

Handbrake (park brake)

A 20 mm hole was drilled behind the drivers seat in the rear bulkhead, near to the wheel arch at floor level for the handbrake cable. The hole was slightly larger than really required for the cable, but was made to take the grommet that I used. The GRP around the hole required thinning a little to allow the grommet to be fitted.

Brake cable fed through grommet

The grommet was pushed over the cable, then the cable was fed through the hole in to the cockpit area. The grommet will be sealed in place with silicone at a later date.

More carpet

Now the rear bulkhead carpet was ready to fix. The same technique was used to stick this carpet down. I laid out the carpet and applied adhesive to the centre area of the bulkhead and to one of the outer sides only and to the same area of the carpet. After allowing it to go tacky, this was fixed in place, making sure that the outer pieces lay in the correct places.

Finally the other outer part of the bulkhead carpet was glued in place after it was cut around the handbrake cable.

Rear bulkhead carpet

Lower seatbelt fasteners

I am fitting 4 point harnesses to the car, so 50 mm eye bolts were fitted through 11 mm holes in the floor, but these had to be ground down by 15 mm in length (leave two threads showing for the IVA). The top seat belt mounts will be on the roll over hoops. The holes in the carpets were created by running the drill in the reverse direction to avoid twisting the carpet. The bolts, with washers, were fed through the carpet and retained under the car by stress plates with the nuts welded in place. The plates were located with self tapping screws. This type of fixing are ok for the IVA, but if you are using separate nuts fit spring washers to avoid the risk of working loose.

Seat belt eye bolts, with handbrake cable over the carpet

Stress plates for seat belts under the car

Preparing for the carpet

Sound proofing

Before I fix the carpets in place, I thought that I would apply some "sound proofing" to reduce the chance of resonance from the body. It sounds crazy putting in sound proofing in an open top sports car, but .... These panels were self-adhesive and of a rubber type material, so easy to apply and cut. The panels were applied around the transmission tunnel. Carpet will go over them.

"Sound proofing" material

More under seal

Whilst strictly not necessary, I applied under seal to the sills. This makes the body look, well slimmer!

Sill under sealed

Whilst I was at it, I did the back of the boot bulkhead, as this is not carpeted. My logic is that it is white, whilst the carpet is black and it is better to do it now, rather than after the roll over bars are fitted.

Boot back under sealed

Door seal finishers

Without finishers, the door seal looks, ....... well unfinished! Not a cheap solution, but it does look so much better. The top of the lip was cut off and will be gel coated later. About 30 mm of the curved lip is removed using the Dremel.

Door seal finisher

Are you building a GD427 Cobra?

Are you building or planning to build a GD427? Then you will need a bodywork frame to prepare your Cobra body on.

Well my body frame is now surplus to requirements and for sale, as I have put the body onto the chassis. To see the frame in detail, please look at my post of 20 February 2015, under the "Body" label (select Body on the right of this blog).

The completed body frame

The frame is suitable for a GD427 Cobra type car. As the GD is a semi-monocoque body, the front and rear end do not need supporting, unlike some other makes that may sag a little if not supported. Out of interest, the blog post has been one of the most popular for page views.

The body frame has been really useful for preparing and storing the body shell. It is sturdy and the castors allow it to be moved about or even locked in position.

Save yourself the time, effort and some cost. The frame cost around £100 in materials alone, never mind the hours getting the bits and putting it together.

Make me a sensible offer!

Wow! Over 10,000 page views already!

When I started this blog, just over a year ago, I had no idea that there would be so much interest in my Cobra build. The current page views are shown on the right here if you are interested.

Thank you to all who have looked at my blog. Visitors are from all over the world. The top number of visitors come from (in alpha order):

Australia, Belgium, Channel Islands, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Spain, UK, Ukraine and USA.

So thank you everyone and apologies if I have missed your country.

Engine compartment

Engine compartment

Today I completed the heater hoses, with the exception of two jubilee clips that I need to get. The hoses were not long enough, so I had to add short lengths into the hose runs.

Heater hoses in place, less two jubilee clips

Next the air temperature sensor was fitted to the air intake duct (the stainless steel tube). This required a grommet that would take a 12 mm sensor. I found that warming the grommet up in hot water helped with this.

Sensor fitted through grommet

Then the brake and clutch lines were coupled up to the junction point on the bulkhead. The male parts of the hose were coated with a small amount of Loctite 572. The hoses will need securing with a tie wrap or similar at a later date. The Loctite was also applied to the connections on the inner wing.

Brake and clutch hoses connected

Gear lever

The gear lever hole was enlarged a little to make sure that all gears could be selected. The escutcheon was used to mark out where the gear lever gator would go. I needed to keep well within this area.

I also taped up the loom run with racing tape in the passenger compartment. Not sure that I needed to do this, but it looked tidier prior to doing the carpets.

Gear lever hole enlarged and loom taped

Body Finally secure!

I had two bolts that had not been secured when I fixed the body.

With one, the bolt would not go in. With the other the insert turned in the mounting. NOTE: Put the bolts in fully finger tight only. If a bolt bottoms out on the chassis shorten it and try again. Do not use a spanner or socket until the bolt is fully home or you risk turning the rivnut in the rubber mount. The aim is to tighten the body against the mounting. If you don't do this, it could be a body up or out job!

Luckily the first one that would not go in was resolved with a tap to clean out the thread. The tap was lined up and carefully turned in the mounting. The bolt then went in with my fingers. This mounting was by the nearside bulkhead under the wheel arch. If this hadn't worked then it would have been a body off job!

The second mounting that had the turning insert was at the rear offside of the transmission tunnel. Here I removed all the other bolts on the body and the air filter. I then jacked up the back of the car under the boot. The mounting was removed and a nut and bolt inserted and tightened (a bit like a rivnut tool) to squash the insert. Once I was happy that it would not turn, I re-fixed the mounting to the chassis. As a precaution I did the same at the other side too.

The body was then lowered back over the mountings. The bolts were re-fitted by lifting or lowering the body to align the holes. Each bolt was cleaned and re-greased before it was re-fitted into the holes.

Job done! One very pleased Cobra builder.

Fixing the body

Air filter and radiator frame

Before the body was bolted up, the air filter and radiator frame had to be secured in place. Getting the bits in place was a challenge. Ideally you should do this whilst you have help. I didn't!

The body needed lifting up a bit at the front to create some space. Blocks of wood, some cloth to pad it out and a trolley jack came in handy. Once I had lifted the body about a couple of inches, the radiator frame was fed in through the radiator opening and secured in place with the four bolts.

I fed the filter in through the radiator aperture, then attached the stainless steel tube from the engine compartment. To get the filter fitted I slid the large hoses back onto the stainless steel tube, then moved them forward onto the filter and throttle. This allowed the tube to be connected between the filter and the throttle easily.

Air filter tube attached to throttle and filter

The air filter is simply held in place with the silicone tubes, clips and the body!

Fixing the body

Starting with the fixings nearest to the engine and front bulkhead, the body was jiggled to pull them together so that there was no gap between the bulkhead and the mounting. Initially this was a 5+ mm gap.

Gap between mounting and bulkhead

To achieve this a sturdy piece of wood was used as a lever between the rear wheel arch (inside) and the tyre. I had Matthew at the front to pull the shell forward at the same time. The body shell was jacked up to help align the holes.

Gap between mounting and bulkhead closed

Whilst keeping pressure on the wooden lever, the greased bolt, spring and penny washer was inserted into the hole and tightened. Not a one person job and a lot easier to write about than do! This was repeated at the other side.

Body bolted to chassis at bulkhead

The bolts must not go through the mount to touch the chassis, otherwise you may get squeaking when it is driven. Not something a GD should do! Here I shortened the bolts by a millimeter or two. An alternative is to add another washer.

Other holes required a little easing/elongating with the Dremel to allow the bolts to fit easily. I had to stand in the body to seat the shell on the mountings in some cases. In others, I had to jack up the body a little.

Two bolts shown in place

Six bolts were fixed through the body holes into the mountings on the chassis around the transmission tunnel (one turned the insert on the mounting). A further four secured the inner wings to the chassis (one I couldn't get to bite at all). Care was taken not to get any debris into the threaded part of the mounting where these had to be enlarged. Here a vacuum cleaner was used at the same time to clear any debris. If any GRP dust had been allowed to get in the threads, then the bolt may have seized and caused the centre insert to turn in the mounting (off side transmission tunnel bolt?) and would have stopped the bolt being tightened.

The last two bolts were in the boot and fitted into the mountings on the rear of the chassis. Here holes were not pre-drilled, so had to be located and then drilled. This is where the measurements marked in the boot, prior to lifting on the body, came into their own. The mounting holes were located by drilling small pilot holes 25 mm up from the boot floor on the pre-marked lines. Once I knew that  these were at the correct location, they were opened out to 8 mm and penny washers added to pack out the small gap (1 on the offside and 2 on the nearside).

The two mounting bolts in the boot

When all the remaining bolts were inserted and fitted freely, then they were tightened up.

I now have 10 out of the 12 bolts in place, however I need to sort out the other two. Hopefully it is not a body off job to sort out!