MY SHELBY COBRA PROJECT
CHAPTER 2, THE BODY AND FITTING TO THE CHASSIS
Today is June 2, 2001. The body is back from the body shop in primer. We have drilled holes for the turn signal lights, headlights, tail lights, license plate bracket and light, and the latches for the hood and trunk lid. Also, the oil cooler with shroud is fitted and bolted in place with a home made oil cooler shroud. The body will be fitted to the chassis after cutting access panels for the shifter linkage and installing the dropped floor pan on the driver's side. The dropped floor will make my sitting position more comfortable and prevent my knees from jamming into the underside of the dash panel when operating the clutch. The floor will be dropped 3 inches so the pedal housing will be redesigned to lower the pedal pivots by the same amount. Since all the pedal shafts, pivots, and housings are hand fabricated it shouldn't be a major problem. If the pedal arms had merely been lengthened the pedal throw would have been excessively long. Therefore the pivot points will be lowered to maintain proper pedal travel. The dash panel is being covered in naughahyde to match the seats. Since I have had bilateral total hip replacement he door hinges have been redesigned to allow wider opening of the doors making for easier entry and exit of the vehicle. Here again, all hinges are hand fabricated making it easy to play around with the final design.
Today is June 21, 2001. The body has been bolted to the chassis, oil cooler plumbed, pedals hung, shifter and gas filler holes cut, steering mechanism installed, and we are now ready to begin wiring and plumbing the engine and chassis. I couldn't resist installing a seat temporarily so I could finally sit in the car and imagine zipping along a country road. Yesterday I made the trip to Trenton, NJ to the Special Plates Division of DMV to apply for historic vanity plates. I am now the proud owner of NJ historic plates bearing the logo BAD ASP. Way too cool.
Today is July 8, 2001. Wires, wires everywhere and what a nightmare. The coolant hoses have been plumbed in using 5/8" braided hose by Spectre along with their MagnaClamps, the accelerator linkage fabricated using stainless steel rod and Heim joints, and the stainless steel overriders and nudge bars attached. I decided to use a coolant overflow tank from an early MG mounted on the right front fender well. Don't worry, the wiring only looks like a mess at this point. The Painless fuse box and harness plus the detailed instructions make everything go rather smoothly. WAIT!!!!!!! That dark green wire, is that for the horn or the turn signal? The tail lights maybe? NAH, it's the heater motor. WHEW!!!!!
Today is July 26. The wiring is still in progress but the exhaust components have been returned from being ceramic coated. This service was provided by Chris Johnson Coatings in Lumberton, NJ. Chris does both powder coating and ceramic coating. He did a really nice job on the headers and side pipes, coating both inside and outside surfaces. Supposedly, ceramic coated headers and pipes run nearly 150* cooler than chromed or painted surfaces. The units are now installed on the car and rear supports for the back of the side pipes are fashioned from stainless steel with rubber bushings. A pair of heat shields will be added later to avoid the dreaded "snake bite". The slight "discoloration" in the first photo is only photographic artifact. The pipes look like polished stainless steel. In the fifth photo you can see the flange joining the header to the side pipe using home made flanges, gaskets, and stainless hardware. Whenever the wiring genius gets around to finishing his wizardry it will be time to fire up the beast for the first time. The anticipation is killing me.
Well, it is August 2 and finally we started the car. IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The preluber worked flawlessly, although it is quite noisy. It built up 50 lbs. of oil pressure in less than 5 seconds with absolutely NO leaks anywhere. The system took 8 quarts of 10-40 to fill it up. Kicked right over and ran like a kitten at 2000 RPM and 55 lbs. of oil pressure for 15 minutes to break in the cam and lifters, never getting above 180* even without the fans. Only problem seems to be a faulty fuel level gauge or sending unit. The gauge reads totally full on an empty tank and never budges even with the ignition turned off. Replacing the sending unit in the tank solved the problem. Now begins the task of stripping everything off the outside of the car in preparation for the paint shop. The painters begin final prep and paint on August 14. That step should take approximately 7-10 days. Then the car will go to the upholsterer for the interior.
Today is September 7. Note in the paragraph above that the car went to the paint shop on or about August 14 and was supposed to take 10 days to be finished. I believe it has taken a bit longer than 10 days but the results were well worth the wait. The R&M Diamont paint looks GREAT. Below are the photos taken when the car came out of the drying room. It will be flatbedded back to the shop tomorrow and hopefully be reassembled and on the road within a week. Then all that remains will be the interior. I wonder if the interior shop will keep to schedule when they promised a finished product in 5 days work. I really can't wait to screw on the BAD ASP license plates and finally get her on the road.:
Finally on October 28, 2001, after nearly 11 months of planning, toil, sweat, and tears the car is on the road and runs like a scared rabbit. I finally bolted on the vanity plates, fired up the motor, and screamed into the wild blue yonder to break in the motor. 178 miles later I brought the car home for the first time to sleep in it's new home. What a wonderful feeling. Everywhere I drove, comments, thumbs up, looks, smiles. All the headaches and heartaches suddenly vanished into thin air. The car performed flawlessly. Only one glitch arose when I tried to apply the emergency brake and there was none. It seems that the actuating arm I welded on the brake handle was too short and didn't allow enough pull on the brake cables. I have since replaced the arm with a longer one and the brake works well now. I plan to drive the car until the weather gets cooler and then take it in for the carpeting and door panels. Finally I want to find a shop with a chassis dyno and have a real good tune placed on this motor even though it runs well already. I have only taken one new photo thus far but more will follow after the interior is completed and the paint buffed out.
Well, now it is the middle of December, 2001 and after a long and anxious time I can finally say that the car is finished. I guess six months past due ain't too bad considering all the delays. This car was still well worth the wait.
Thanks to Jim at Klassic Upholstery in Burlington, NJ the interior looks great. He did a fantastic job with the carpeting, door panels, and trim. He fabricated removable panels for the trunk to hide the battery, roll bar, and other unsightly things. There had been an unforeseen delay caused by a strange vibration in the motor whenever it was revved above 2500 RPM. The clue came when attempting to time the engine the timing mark could not be read in the appropriate location for a 1969 351W motor. My mistake was in trusting that the rebuildable engine, when purchased, came with all the correct parts. When the harmonic damper was pulled off the motor and checked, it turned out to be for a 1969 302 motor, not a 351W. Even though both dampers are 28 oz. imbalance, the timing marks are in different locations and, I am told, the location of the counterweight is different. I literally searched for three weeks to find a correct damper to solve the vibration and timing problems.
Of course, now the weather has become quite nippy but I don't care. I now take the car out for a drive as long as the sun shines. Thank God the heater works well. I can't wait for the first warm day in 2002. YEEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
Finally, here is my baby's new home:
Cobra Page 4, 2003 Big Modifications
Cobra Page 5, 2005-2006 Modifications