News: Body on test drive! Check the video on
youtube!
Roll Bars (Summer 2010)
After putting the
body in place, the holes for the roll bars had to be modified a bit in order for
the roll bars to fit correctly. I had initially ordered some large
grommets to fit around the holes and give it a "trimmed" look, but they really
didn't work well, especially in the oval hole for the diagonal support bar.
I then found a vendor who would powder coat a set black for me rather than the
typical chrome (the stripes and accessories will be black, so chrome would've
looked odd). Here they are all installed and I think they look very nice.
(I've since replaced the nickel screws with black plated ones and they look much
better). Hopefully they all fit the same after the body is on after paint.
Carpet (Fall 2010 - Spring 2011)
The project for
this winter was to install the carpet and as much of the interior as possible.
I first had to remove the seats and belts so I snapped some photos of the
"before" look of the cockpit so I could remember what it looked like in "race
car" form.
This prep was done
during Thanksgiving week, but then it was just too cold to do any more work.
The insulation needed the garage to be above 55 degrees in order to be flexible
enough to bend correctly and for the adhesive to work properly. Much of
the winter was similarly cold so most of the work happened in the late winter
and early spring. The next step was to install the insulation (sound
deadening and heat shield). The heat protection probably would work better
on the engine side of the panels, but I wanted the engine compartment to have
the cleanest look possible so I installed it on the inside of the cockpit where
it would be covered by the carpet.
After the
insulation was in place cam the most difficult piece, the carpet. The
insulation didn't have to look perfect because it would be covered by the
carpet. But the carpet is a very visible item and any gap shows silver
through the black. The carpet pieces from the kit came precut assuming
you'd install it with a lot of overlap, but that leaves large bumps and exposed
edges. So I chose to go with the more difficult plan of having the edges
fit perfectly together. A further complication is the extended passenger
footbox that I installed so that the provided carpet pieces wouldn't cover all
the panels in that area. I foresaw this problem years ago and managed to
buy (for a great deal) a second carpet set from another kit owner who chose to
install completely different carpet. With the extra carpet I was able to
cut pieces that would fit the larger footbox. It also came out extra handy
to have the second carpet set when I trimmed the first piece too much and had to
try again. Here are some pics of the finished carpet. I think it
turned out very well.
News: Evie Drives the Cobra! Check the video on
youtube!
For Evie's birthday
I moved the seat forward so she could drive the cobra. She loved driving
it and had a great time taking it for a spin.
Wipers & Trunk kit (Summer 2011)
The next project
before paint was to install the wipers. But I also wanted to be able to
drive the cobra on longer drives and feel confident I could handle any roadside
problems. I had created a dropped box in the trunk (check Page 7) to hold my
roadside emergency tools and things but with knock-off wheels I needed a lead
hammer which I didn't want to bang around when driving. So with a block of
1" foam from a hardware store I cut out places for the hammer, safety wire, can
of fix-a-flat, and a host of other emergency tools. I think it turned out
quite well and with the dropped trunk box it leaves the regular trunk space for
luggage or whatever I need to carry.
I had done a
bunch of work on the wipers before installing the body because I wanted the
wipers to be as invisible as possible from the engine compartment. At that time
I found I could mount the motor over the passenger's footbox and created an
aluminum cover panel to hide the motor and main gearbox (3rd picture below).
So with the body in place I started by fabricating some pvc spacers to hold the
gearboxes firmly in place (the rubber ones provided didn't work so well).
I then bent, cut and flared an aluminum tube in pieces to fit between the motor
and gearboxes as a guide for the main drive cable. Installing the cover
plate gives it a finished look and the whole system is completely invisible from
the engine compartment unless one looks way up under the cowl area (which is
hard to do as evidenced by the mediocre pictures).
Trunk Struts and Paint Color (Summer/Fall 2011)
The last project
before paint is fabricating and installing the trunk struts that hold the trunk
opened without resting it on your head (the current method, which isn't very
comfortable). I bought the struts, but needed to fabricate the bracket
pieces to attach it to the trunk lid and the frame. I also need to install
the "new" (Mark III) trunk lid. I have a Mark II kit and one of a batch
where the trunk lids were too flat to fit the curve of the body, so Factory Five
sent me a replacement that is from Mark III body (black instead of gray).
It should fit fine, but I didn't receive it until I'd already installed the
current one (with the fitment problem, so it doesn't look so good).
Paint color is always a difficult choice. I've known I
wanted it "screaming bright yellow" with black stripes ever since I saw the
first add in that color scheme, but exactly which yellow. I like the looks
of some yellows I've seen online, but you can never trust a color seen in a
picture or on a computer screen. The best way is to find a car in that
color, but with custom car colors from House of Kolors for example, that isn't
easy (or even possible). But finally I ran across a car that was the
perfect color when a coworker purchased a 2008 Lotus Elise in "Metallic Solar
Yellow". It's the perfect sports car extra bright yellow (trending toward
the orange side, but still very yellow). As I said previously you
can't trust the color on a computer screen, but here are a couple pictures of
the car color anyway.
Trunk Struts (Fall 2011)
I used
some angle aluminum to make brackets for the trunk struts and they now
function perfectly. After this I replaced the original trunk with
the Mark III trunk lid and it fits quite nicely. You can see in
teh pictures how I ran the wirint for the license plate light and 3rd
brake light up through the trunk panel. I was quite pleased with
the way it all turned out.
