Cobra 427 Build

[KugaWestie]

Just now, corsechris said:

Brasscraft Gary? 

 

Yes Chris

[corsechris]

Nice to see they are still in business. Had one of their screens on the Cobra I built back in 1991. It was the nicest part on the car.

[KugaWestie]

1 minute ago, corsechris said:

Nice to see they are still in business. Had one of their screens on the Cobra I built back in 1991. It was the nicest part on the car.

Yes it really is a nicely made screen, you can see the quality running though it.

 

Chris Glover owns the business. I collected my screen in September from him (it has been under a bed since then). A real one man industry. He took the time to show me around his workshop and was a pleasure to deal with. Not many left like that anymore.

[KugaWestie]

I completed the fitting of the screen today by adding the escutcheon plates and also the central stay.

 

 

 

 

I also had a look at how to fix the side vent louvres. I decided to make up some GRP to use as brackets and then bonded them to the inside of the front wing. I have still got to do the other side.

 

 

[Alan Cutler (Adge) - Dorset AO]

Lights and screen make the car “come to life” IMHO. Most impressive. Keep up the good work.

[KugaWestie]

3 minutes ago, Adge Cutler- Dorset AO said:

Lights and screen make the car “come to life” IMHO. Most impressive. Keep up the good work.

Thanks

[Nick Mace]

When you started this, I've got to say that I couldn't see how a decent outcome would be possible.

 

Now that I've seen how much effort you're prepared to put into it and the skills you've got in your arsenal, I now can't see any outcome other than an absolutely awesome Cobra!  I'm genuinely flabbergasted.

[KugaWestie]

6 minutes ago, Nick Mace said:

When you started this, I've got to say that I couldn't see how a decent outcome would be possible.

 

Now that I've seen how much effort you're prepared to put into it and the skills you've got in your arsenal, I now can't see any outcome other than an absolutely awesome Cobra!  I'm genuinely flabbergasted.

Thanks, very kind words!

 

I can say this project has certainly developed (grp work, filler/sander work) and rekindled (welding and fabricating) some skills for me, and I have learnt a lot along the way. There is still plenty more to do and no doubt some more learning to be done!

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

The staggering thing, is that once upon a time, this is what the whole mid tier of kit car quality was like. 

 

And it really showed, at the shows. Sometimes, when you saw a car built by someone of Gary's caliber on a stand, you'd find it impossible to believe the example next to it, that had just been put together with the minimum of bodged up fabrication could even come from the same manufacturer.

 

Back in the days of any build manual being a proud boast of the manufacturer, and most being barely more than a page or two at best. Equally, the chassis would probably come with suspension mounts on, but pretty much no other bracketry, that all had to be fabricated by the builder.

 

As we've seen in this brilliant thread about the "golden days" of kits, even bodywork was frequently just a basic collection of main panels, that may or may not fit together. But much of the secondary paneling, to close gaps out and so on, had to be made by the builder!

 

Some of the replicas that jumped on the big three supercar band bandwagon of the day, were the worst for this, (Countach, Cobra & Daytona), with the much more complex bodywork and chassis of some of those early Countach replicas were renowned for being all but un-buildable. 

 

Its fantastic to see this progressing the way it is, can't wait to see it in-paint!

[KugaWestie]

6 hours ago, Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Secretary said:

The staggering thing, is that once upon a time, this is what the whole mid tier of kit car quality was like. 

 

And it really showed, at the shows. Sometimes, when you saw a car built by someone of Gary's caliber on a stand, you'd find it impossible to believe the example next to it, that had just been put together with the minimum of bodged up fabrication could even come from the same manufacturer.

 

Back in the days of any build manual being a proud boast of the manufacturer, and most being barely more than a page or two at best. Equally, the chassis would probably come with suspension mounts on, but pretty much no other bracketry, that all had to be fabricated by the builder.

 

As we've seen in this brilliant thread about the "golden days" of kits, even bodywork was frequently just a basic collection of main panels, that may or may not fit together. But much of the secondary paneling, to close gaps out and so on, had to be made by the builder!

 

The timing of your post is ironic Dave!

 

Today I have been making up a wheel arch liner panel for the passenger front wheel!

 

 

 

The red panel on the right hand side of the above photo was preformed and needed trimming and fitting. This one closes off the rear of the arch. The clear panels (with a bit of reused red) were all just pieces that needed trimming and shaping. A work it out yourself job.

 

Anyway once happy with the shape I glassed it all together on both sides.

 

 

 

Once this had gone off I trimmed off the glass overspill and applied a coat of under seal to the engine bay side of the panel.

 

 

Final job for the day was to fit the passenger side front wing vent louvre.

 

 

 

Next will be to glass the panel into position and then under seal the complete wheel arch from the outside.

[corsechris]

I have to confess, when I built my fake snake back in ‘90-‘91 I was less than polite about the body mouldings at times. Compared to what you’ve had to deal with, they were perfect. The fit & finish was plenty good enough for a polished gelcoat finish.

 

The mechanicals though, they really were ****e!!

[KugaWestie]

I went to work today for the first time in nearly 5 weeks, most inconvenient!!! On the way home I called by Dad’s grave and spent a little while there.

 

I wasn’t there all day though so managed a couple of jobs later this afternoon.

 

Firstly I glassed in the front wheel arch liner. The whole wheel arch now needs to be under sealed.

 

 

 

Then I decided to try and uncover the passenger top harness mounting boss that I welded onto the chassis many months ago. I missed first time (little bit to far inboard) but got it on the second go.

 

 

I popped an eye bolt in for a look and need some slightly longer ones to satisfy my OCD

 

 

 

[KugaWestie]

Passenger front wheel arch undersealed

 

 

Front indicators fitted but not wired

 

 

[KugaWestie]

I turned the car around again this morning so I can work on the drivers side.

 

First up was to find the drivers top harness mount. With the benefit of already having the passenger side exposed I could take some measurements. This got me a bulls eye first time.

 

 

 

Next job was to bond the grp angle brackets to the body for the front wing louvred vent. I offered up the louvres to work out bracket positions which showed me a problem. The preformed hole in the body is bigger than the vent!

 

So I needed to make the hole slightly smaller in the body. I shaped up an off cut of grp and then glassed it to the body from behind.

 

 

 

Once this had gone off I trimmed it back.

 

 

 

Then applied some filler.

 

 

 

I sanded this back, then applied a fine coat, sanded that back and primed it in with the rest of the body.

 

 

 

With that sorted then I bonded my brackets to the wing

 

 

My MGB Roadster mirror arrived this morning, so I made up an IVA friendly rubber trim surround for it and then mounted it onto the windscreen stay.

 

[Jim RS]

I like the tools in the background -  serious stuff for bodywork resin work. I thought I was unusual with this sort of equipment working in concrete repair for many years and using multi-pack systems💪