Cobra 427 Build

[KugaWestie]

With a second coat of filler applied I was kicking my heels looking for something to do, so I dug out a rear light for a look. I made a cardboard template.

 

 

 

Then I took a brave pill and fitted the light. It’s amazing how something like this can transform how the car looks. I am very pleased with how it has come out.

 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Isn’t it amazing the transformation lights (and bright work) can make to the body in white.

[KugaWestie]

2 minutes ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary said:

Isn’t it amazing the transformation lights (and bright work) can make to the body in white.

I could not stop grinning for a while, hard to believe the difference

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

Well earned Gary, well earned!

[KugaWestie]

So I have continued with trying to achieve a nice fit on the passenger door. I am getting there slowly.

 

 

 

 

 

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

It’s looking miles better than it did!

[KugaWestie]

With the door sitting quite nicely it became obvious that the inner lip on the aperture needed some work to get it running inline with the door so the seal would work nicely without applying too much pressure to the door.

 

Out came the angle grinder and dremel again. The front and rear bottom corners were the problem.

 

 

 

This still needs tidying up, smoothing and filling but the door seal works lovely now.

 

 

[KugaWestie]

I decided it was time to tackle a job that I have been dreading for a while now as I know it is notoriously tricky. Time to try and fit the door catch. No instructions or help with this, so it was a work it out myself job.

 

I decided on my position, marked up and drilled and tapped the fixing holes.

 

 

 

The latch fitted on the door.
Once I had got to this stage it became obvious that the latch needed packing off the door. I worked this out by trial and error and ended up with a piece of 18mm thick ply sandwiched between the latch and the door to get it in the right position. I am hoping I can cover the ply with a piece of vinyl to match in with the door cards when I get round to making those.

 

 

 

Then I needed to fabricate a mounting bracket for the wedge shaped catch part of the latch. This took hours to get spot on, but I got there eventually 

 

 

 

The operational result after a good 8 hours work over two days.

 

 

The next job is to improve the fit of the body/door at the rear edge of the door. So some rough filler coats applied to start me off.

 

[KugaWestie]

32 minutes ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary said:

It’s looking miles better than it did!

Considering this door didn’t really fit at all to start with it’s come a long way!

 

Another day tomorrow filling and sanding should see it spot on hopefully 

[Robin Parker (Red Spider) - Yorkshire AO]

As regards the colour, how about Alfa Romeo Etna Black. It's got a Red metallic flec in, looks great in the sunshine, with a dark grey stripe with a similar metallic in it. 

I'm a bit biased. 

[KugaWestie]

@Robin (Red Spider) - Yorkshire AO

 

The Alfa looks lovely, but the colour is not for me 😉

 

I have already chosen the colour for the Cobra

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

2 hours ago, KugaWestie said:

Considering this door didn’t really fit at all to start with it’s come a long way!

 

Another day tomorrow filling and sanding should see it spot on hopefully 

Wow, that’s way worse than I remember the pictures looking. 

[KugaWestie]

52 minutes ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary said:

Wow, that’s way worse than I remember the pictures looking. 

Yep, the difference is night and day and I am very pleased with what has been achieved

[Gary Taylor]

39 minutes ago, KugaWestie said:

Yep, the difference is night and day and I am very pleased with what has been achieved

So you should be , it’s an extraordinary amount of work you’ve undertaken and many a mortal would have walked away from it.

its really good to follow your progress even when you have to revisit a certain area, and to see your attention to detail even in areas that won’t be seen.

so you should be justifiably proud of your work

 

[KugaWestie]

19 minutes ago, Gary Taylor - Scotland AO said:

So you should be , it’s an extraordinary amount of work you’ve undertaken and many a mortal would have walked away from it.

its really good to follow your progress even when you have to revisit a certain area, and to see your attention to detail even in areas that won’t be seen.

so you should be justifiably proud of your work

 

Thanks Gary, kind words