Washer Bottle, Gas Rams and Bonnet Locks

Windscreen Washer: I've fitted the washer bottle that I bought a while back. I managed to get an aluminium bottle that, with some grinding and polishing, looks quite good. It's simple enough to fit, I've mounted mine on the front of the passenger foot-well bulkhead. The washer pipe is routed along with the wiring loom through the bulkhead and behind the dashboard. A three way splitter is used to take the feed to each jet, with the pipe passing through the bulkhead just below each of the jets. I've used a couple of IVA friendly jets from CBS, placed equidistant from the centre line marked earlier

Washer Bottle in place

Washer Pipe to Jet

Washer Jets

Lower Gas Ram Bracket

Gas Rams: A job I've wanted to do for a while is to fit the gas rams, these are what will prevent the bonnet from falling when it's open and will allow me to do away with the broom handle prop I've been using up to now. First job is to fit a couple mounting brackets to the front of the engine bay (the exact location is detailed in the build manual). The angled brackets bolt through the inside of the wheel arches and are further supported by a bolt that goes through the inside rim of the water gulley around the engine bay, these are countersunk and will be filled and invisible once painted.

Upper Gas Ram Bracket

 The upper bracket is located on the inside of the bonnet. The exact location is found by marking 11 inches up the engine bay from the lower bracket and transferring the measure to the inside of the bonnet. The factory supplies a set of 4 brackets (for bonnet & boot) at first glance these seem to be all the same, but actually the bonnet brackets are a couple of mm wider. I fixed these with rivnuts and and a couple of M5 screws. With all the brackets fitted the gas rams themselves can be installed.

Fitting the gas rams first means allowing some of the gas to escape, they are delivered fully pressurised  and rock solid. The gas is released by means of a small valve at the top, there is no science to this, first stage is to let enough gas out that you can compress the ram by hand - just. You are also advised to do the bonnet first so if you let too much gas out you can use the ram in the boot (and this is advice worth following!). Fit each ram individually and allow more gas out until a single ram just fails to hold the bonnet open. This was my mistake, I left the bonnet fully open and the ram at maximum extension it seems this will hold the bonnet open whatever the pressure, it dawned on me that I needed to close the bonnet a little. At this point I had let too much gas out! fortunately not so much that I couldn't use it on the boot. Below is the finished job, the bonnet opens smoothly and doesn't foul anywhere. NOTE - fitting the rams causes the bonnet to move toward the rear of the car, so don't fit the bonnet locks until the rams are on.

Bonnet and Gas Rams

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Boot and Gas Rams

The boot rams are pretty much a repeat of the bonnet however the lower brackets are bonded to the inside of the boot, I've added a couple of M4 screws through the gulley around the boot to help support them.

Bonnet Locks: As mentioned above the gas rams cause the bonnet to move so I left the fitting of the bonnet locks until I'd finished that job. There are two bonnet locks each with a handle and a spindle that passes through the rim of the bonnet, this turns a locking plate that locates underneath the edge of the engine bay. The location of the locks is determined by the position of the rim of the bonnet, equidistant from the centre line and close enough bulkhead to allow the locking plate to engage, but not so close that it catches the rim when opening. Usual story, start with a small hole and open up until you can fit the lock through, this is secured with a couple of self tap screws. I made up a couple of stainless steel brackets that fix to the bulkhead and take the load from the locking plate (rather than the fiberglass body). Then just slide the locking plate onto the spindle, adjust as required to get a firm fit and tighten with the grub screw. Finally the excess length on the spindle can be removed.

Holes Marked and Cut

Lock Fitted

With the lock plate fitted

From the Inside

Boot Hinges, Locks etc

Next set of work has all been around the back of the car, so I decided to turn it round and reverse into the garage so the boot is near the work bench. This was my next big milestone, the car made it's first move under its own power. Once the engine was up to temperature I made some gentle little rolls back and forward, the clutch seemed fine and the power steering was working OK.With no nasty noises or oil dripping anywhere, I made my first, tentative, 3 point turn - it's surprising how nerve racking this was, heart rate hasn't been this high since I explained to my wife that the £5000 for the kit might not be the only cost..

Over the last few weekends I've tackled fitting the boot, hinges & lock. Another job that took much longer than I expected.The first task is to get the boot lid fitting properly into the body. This means a fair bit of filing of the lip around the edge of the boot as it's too high. Most of the area that I needed to reduce was along the back edge. You also need to take account of the rubber seal that will be used. All in all it's a lot of fitting, filing, checking, removing and do it all again until there's a nice even fit across the body and boot lid. Then you need a centre line to work from. To do this I ran a strip of masking tape roughly down the middle of the car from front to back. Using some thread I ran a line from the front nudge bar to the rear valence, centering the thread on: The midpoint between the headlights, the middle nose vent (I have triple nose vents at the front), the centre of the screen and a midpoint between the rear fog & reverse lights - these were already centered around the midpoint between the rear lights. With the center line marked the two hinges can be measured up and placed around 230mm either side. Fitting the hinges is simply 4 holes for each and a large penny washer behind. Note - the hinges are handed but it's obvious which way round they go as they only fit the body shape one way

Boot hinges

Boot Handle Hole

The boot lock was a little more troublesome. Using the same centre line, find the position for the middle of the handle aligning it with the recess inside the boot lid that will house the mechanism. Usual story, drill the hole, slowly opening it up to take the handle and the locking tabs. I drilled all the way through to allow the bar from the handle to pass all the way through the latch and inside the boot lid, this is handy while you're adjusting it up.

Cut a slot in the recess inside the boot just large enough to take the lock mechanism. I ended up with the mechanism slightly out of place leaving me with a larger slot inside the boot than I had planned ( I might slim this down with some filler later). There is very little space inside the boot for the mechanism and the latch to make contact, this means the lock mechanism needs to be as far forward in the recess as it will allow and the latch as far back as possible. I filed back some of the inside of the boot lip to get a smooth fit. I then adjusted the height of the latch to ensure when in the lock position it gives a slight pull down on the boot. Oh and don't forget some grease on the moving parts.

Lock installed as close to the front as possible

Latch Set as far to the rear as possible

With the lock operating smoothly, I put a couple of rivnuts into the boot to fix the handle, these are small enough to be covered by the plate on the handle and I think will be more secure than the suggested self tappers. The final piece of this job was to fix the rear number plate light, there is a recess in the outside of the boot lid for this. I needed to file a little out of this to allow the light to sit centrally and square on the body.

While working on the boot I also got around fitting the fuel filler pipe. I used the standard method of a single piece of rubber fuel hose from the tank, through the wheel arch and up to the filler cap. The breather pipe follows the same path. I need to edge the hole in the wheel arch to complete this.

New Year Update

Happy New Year All! Christmas saw little action on the Cobra, but the new year has brought a few days in the garage. And finally a weekend when the sun was shining and I could work on the drive again. Here's a few pictures of progress to date.

As you can see I still had not got round to fitting the O/S exhaust but I'm pleased to say that job's now been finished. I thought it was hard first time round but having the body on makes it that bit harder and quite a fight to remove as you have no clearance to help knock the pipes off.

Back in the garage I tackled a few of those little jobs that eat into the time and don't look like you've made much progress. I've decided that I'm not going to use the steering column lock so I removed the barrel, wiring and the steering lock parts.Removing the barrel is fiddly but if ever I have to do it again I reckon it would take less than half the time. The lock barrel has a small hole on the face of the lock, you need to rotate the lock with the key until you can slide a thin, slightly bent, piece of metal into the hole (I used an old Allen Key). The correct position is roughly in line with the casting mark on the case. Turning the Allen key eventually releases the latch that holds the lock barrel in place. I've blanked off the old hole with a blanking grommet.

Allen Key inserted and latch in the release position

Lock Barrel with Hole in removal position

Another job was to fit the throttle cable with a bracket and return spring. I need to do more work on this as I'm not sure I'm getting full throttle. I know the throttle pedal needs to find a hard stop on bulkhead and not the carburetor but I think the pedal is stopping too early - needs more work (and a sunny day again - so I can get more space along side the car)

Throttle Cable, Bracket & Return Spring

Wipers & Front Nudge bar

Measuring the Locations

Starting to feel like some real progress being made now as it begins to look like a car. One of this week's jobs was to fit the windscreen wipers. I've stuck with the factory recommendation of having 3 wiper arms, this should meet the IVA requirement and I think the 3 wipers, whilst not authentic, does give a good look. The first task is to fit the 3 wheel boxes, positioning of these is critical as it will determine the location of the wiper arms. AK do provide some guide marks on the body and suggested measurements in the manual which were my starting point. I found the offside marks and measures were a reasonable starting point as was the central one, however the near side was out by around 30mm, After much playing with positions and measuring for accuracy as well as the aesthetics I settled on the final locations. The holes for the wheel box spindles are made at roughly 45 degrees to the bodywork, the usual process of start small and open up applies until the spindle will pass through the body and sit at the correct angle on the spacer (provided by the factory). Once all the spindles were fitted and the wipers arms & blades attached I made some test 'sweeps' there is a small amount of adjustment needed to align the wipers and I found the middle one is just catching the top of the screen surround, there is scope for adjustment in the arm, but I'll leave the final tweaks until I can run the system and let it find its natural resting place.

Fitting Spindles

Wipers Fitted

With the wheel boxes in place the next step is to get the mechanism sorted. The motor is mounted onto a factory fitted plate on the drivers side of the scuttle, there's a large rubber pad that sits behind the motor to reduce any noise. A long, flexible, rack is provided to link the wheel boxes to the motor. With the wipers removed (as the spindles need to rotate 360 deg) I fed the rack through the wheel boxes and fitted the motor into its natural resting point, taking care to ensure the motor was clear of the surrounding body & metal work. The rack can be trimmed to length as there is plenty of excess, leaving a few cm of excess at the end. Once happy with the position of rack there are tubes supplied that will protect & support the rack the rack, 4 sections are needed, each needs to be cut to the exact length and flared at the end. I cut each each length just too long to allow for a very slight curve to follow the arch of the scuttle, this is how the rack sites naturally. It does mean cutting few times to get the right length and ensure that the wheel boxes sit at the correct angle. With the rack removed I fitted the tubing between the wheel boxes, motor and on the end, then feed the rack through with plenty of grease going onto the rack and the tubes - messy!

Cutting the Tube

Flaring the Tube

Wiper Motor, Rack & Tube Installed

It's pretty much ready to test, but I'm waiting for a find day as I've not yet connected the battery to the loom and I want to do this outside - just in case!

Align the Over-Rider

Onto the front Nudge bar. I've chosen the the full bar and over-riders from Brasscraft. I like their quality and the sound advice I got from Chris when I visited the workshop. The first step is to connect the over-riders to the bar. Threaded holes are already in the ends of the bar, marking is not so easy as there are no square edges to measure from - care was needed.

Mark & Punch the Centres

Drill

 I marked up the position on the over-rider with making tape and set the centre with a punch, then removed the masking tape before drilling. This was advice from Chris, apparently leaving the making tape on can pull the chrome finish if you drill into it.  I supported the over-rider with a wooden block inside while drilling, the metal is quite thick (around 6 mm). I made sure to use new drill bits to get a clean cut and avoid any accidental slip.All fixed together with some M8 bolts, lock washers and threadlock.

Working out the best fit

Next step is to align with the body and drill holes to take the 4 studs that fix the bar. As with may things on this car it's not easy with all the curves. The factory have marked some approximate positions, but you do need to test and make sure. A great idea to judge the best position and line it all up is to use a camera tripod, you can easily adjust the height and angle. As with many of my best ideas, I stole this from someone else (thank you JPB). Because of the angle of the body work the holes are larger than you would think.

Completed

Once the holes are cut the studs line up with two angle brackets, supplied by the factory. Fit the brackets onto the studs and mark the position on the inner wing. Drill out the holes in the wing and secure the brackets. There is still some adjustment of the position of the angle of bar and the depth from the body by moving the position of the locking nuts on the bracket. The installation is finished with some chrome tube that slides over the studs and into the body.

The quality of the parts from Brasscraft is very good, they look great. But I think the overall look is let down when you look at the back of the over-rider. I expected this to be hidden behind the bodywork but the curve at the front of the car leads your eye to the rough finished inside of the metalwork. It seems this is authentic to the original but I'll make up some stainless covers at some point and tidy this up.

Electrics, Fuel Filler, Windscreen

Not much to update over the last few weeks, most of my activity on the car has been around the electrics, making up all the connectors, routing and securing the wires. Most items are now complete and wired up, there's a handful of jobs to do but I'll have to wait until I have instruments & switches. I've now re-wired the steering column, pictured below, I've cut down and insulated all the unused wires, including those from the ignition switch, they're not needed but I thought I'd leave in place just in case I plan something in the future.

Re-Wired Steering Column

Some of the electrical work has to be done from underneath the car and while it was up on the stands I double checked to make sure all the brake pipes and cables were secured at a minimum of 300 mm as per the IVA regs. I had done this when I installed it, but you start to get paranoid about these things. I'd used rubber fuel hose appropriately marked for IVA but panicked when I couldn't see the marking. When I fitted the pipe it was fitted from above as there was no body on the car. Stupidly I had put all the pipe with the marking facing upward to make it easy to see, not so easy when the body is on and you are looking from underneath. A happy couple of hours on my back in a cold garage refitting all the fuel pipe.

Centre Marked

The downside of doing the electrical work is that it looks like you haven't made any progress, several hours in the garage and the car looks the same as when you started. There's more of a buzz when you fit something tangible, especially when it's shiny! I set about fitting the fuel filler cap. I bought one of the Aston style caps from Brasscraft. First locate the centre of the recess in the body and then follow the usual rule of cutting a hole too small and slowly expanding it. I used M5 countersunk slotted screws to secure the flange to the body, with large diameter washers underneath. Once the flange was fitted I found you cannot screw the cap on without releasing the catch but not allowing the flap to open fully. With the cap fitted I wanted to install the filler hose. I had bought a 500 mm length, my initial measurements suggested this would be enough, the reality of the curve required means it's not! It was under too much tension on the unions to be safe, nothing for it but to by a longer length ( at about 3x the price).

With a spare couple of hours I wanted to trail fit the dashboard. Installation is straight forward, there are screws glassed into the back of the dashboard, you need to drill holes into the lip under the scuttle. Lining up is not easy as the dashboard is relatively flat whereas the scuttle is curved. I started at the outside edges working into the centre. I've found that the dashboard seems not to be made correctly in that it is biased by about 10 mm to the nearside. If I try and centre it against the scuttle it does not centre over the transmission tunnel, centred on the tunnel it's about 10 mm over on the nearside and too short on the off side. After half an hour of pushing and pulling I decided that it must be the dash that's wrong. I have installed centred on the tunnel and will glass up the off side to add a little extension.

Masking Tape Template

Next was to cut out the whole for the steering column. I started by making a template out of masking tape around the column. I transferred the template to the dash using the fixing screws as locating points. Marking up the dash and cutting about 5 mm inside the marking gave me a good starting point. I put the column back in using some lengths of M8 threaded bar allowing me to move the column up and down while slowly enlarging the hole but without having to keep taking the column out.

Initial Cut

Final Location

Latest job is to fit the windscreen. I bought the screen and surrounds from Brasscraft and am very impressed with the finish. Fitting the screen was, considering the significance of piece, much easier than I expected, certainly quicker than fitting the steering column to the dashboard. The legs of the screen pillars slot into holes cut in the body at the factory. The legs then bolt to the steel framework below the scuttle that carry the door hinges. The rake angle is achieved using a piece of wood 36 in long from the back of cockpit to the top of the screen. The screen takes a little gentle encouragement to sit on the scuttle properly, mainly because the rubber seal was cold. I used a fan heater to warm up the area and soften the seal which made the job much easier. Once I was happy it was level and centred I drilled holes (2 each side) through the pillar and into the steelwork. The holes were tapped out and fitted with M8 bolts. I also fitted the escutcheon plates at the foot of the pillars.

Screen Fitting

  

Lights, Camera and Shiny Bits

Lights

Front Lights

Rear Lights

First job in the latest round was to start fitting the lights. I bought a complete set from S&J Motors and opted for white indicators that, I think, will look better on the darker final colour. Positions of the headlights and front indicators are obvious and can't be altered so these were straight forward. The oval areas at the back of the body work for the brake/rear and the indicators are not a regular shape and it wasn't simple to work out the centre line. I took the lenses off and played around with the position using some bluetak before I was happy. I've yet to decide on the position of the repeaters, different builders have gone for different options, I think I favour having them above and forward of the side vents but will stick some lenses on to see how I feel. The reverse and fog light positions are marked on the rear valence. I'd like to recess these into the body as others have done but the position means that they'll intrude into the boot. Also, to get these lined up properly I want to fit the rear nudge bar (more of that later). I chose Superseal connectors for all the fittings, my local auto electrical supplier reckons these are best to avoid water ingress, important for the front lights where they are connected in the front wheel arches.

Superseal Connectors

Shiny Stuff

I ordered the majority of the bright-work from Brasscraft having heard good reports about them and had a useful exchange of e-mails with Chris, the proprietor. I ordered the screen (tinted), front and rear nudge bars with over-riders and the Aston filler cap. The parts were ready sooner than I had expected and I decided to go down to collect them. Chris is a very helpful guy with a wealth of knowledge and some good tips. I've put most of the bits in the loft for now while I finish off the electrics, tempting though it is to get it fitted and and one more step towards it being a real car. As mentioned above, I wanted to fit the rear nudge bar to check the position of the reverse & fog lights. There are positions marked in the body for the bars but I needed to double check, I rigged the nudge bar up on a jack so I could adjust the position and make sure it both looked and measured right, I also checked there were no other snags like it catching on the boot etc. The holes marked on the body were very close to accurate and it all lined up with the support brackets built into the body. The usual process of a pilot hole and slowly opening it out to accept the bars and bolt it up with the half nuts that Brasscraft supplied.

Rear Nudge Bar

Ventilation & Loom

Ventilation - Other jobs included the fitting of the ventilation system. The factory provide a fiberglass box to collect the hot air from the heater this is fixed under the scuttle. From the top of this I drilled 4 holes and fitted outlet pipes, 2 are for the windscreen demisters and 2 are there in case I want some sort of heating into the cabin (they're taped up for now). I cut two vent slots in the top of the body, underneath these are a couple of plenum units that I've bonded to the body, these are connected to the heater distribution box via a couple of flexible pipes. It's not the prettiest of installations and still needs some cleaning up, but it seems to do the job.

Wiring Harness - I've also made a start on fitting the wiring harness. I bought the complete loom from the factory. It seems pretty well made and instructions were good, identifying each of the legs and individual wires. To start the fitting you need to make a panel that will carry the fuses / relays, there are three blocks to be fitted and these don't quite fit side by side above the passenger footwell location, so I opted to fit the block associated with the windscreen on the rear, you can still get to it from underneath and it is held with a couple of screws so if you need better access it can be dropped down.

Rear of Fuse Panel with Wiper Relays

Fuse Panel from the Front & Installed

There are 4 main legs to the harness, front N/S, Engine bay, Front O/S and rear and the some connectors for the dashboard and other ancillaries, such as the handbrake switch.  The suggested routing for the front legs and engine bay is clear but I'm a bit unsure about the rear section where it routes under the wheel arch and into the boot. This will need some more thought.