DRB rebuild blog

[Toecutter]

Hi guys. Unfortunately, I'm having to put pressure on my mechanic to finish the drivetrain on the cobra and I wanted to ask your opinions as to how long it would take to do the following:

Run loom in engine bay, drop in motor ( has been in prior to painting the engine bay) fit surge tank in boot, wire existing dash to new senders, install components such as radiator, alternator and pully kit and install the headers. Start and dial in. Please bare in mind that the only component he doesn't have is the surge tank.

I would really appreciate any input as I have now waited 13 months since I dropped the car off and I feel that I have been very patient... If I now have to put the pressure on I should need to reinforce how long it should take.

It is an uncomfortable situation as I like the bloke, and I know that his work is very good. But I think it should have been done by now.

Thanks

[750hp]

If you left the car at the shop saying "no rush, give me a good price and just do it as you get spare time", you're probably half way there.

If you left it there as a full price job without any deals or conditions, you should have received the car back about this time last year...

[Toecutter]

Originally Posted by 750hp

If you left the car at the shop saying "no rush, give me a good price and just do it as you get spare time", you're probably half way there.

If you left it there as a full price job without any deals or conditions, you should have received the car back about this time last year...

That is precisely what I was thinking, thank you.

To answer your question, it was the latter situation. I wanted a quality job but at no time did I say "don't rush", nor have I asked for a special price. I was expecting professional progression, unfortunately that seems to have been taken as complacency.

So the question now is how long should I give him to have it done or should I take it elsewhere?

[boxhead]

I would think you have listed 30 - 40 hours work.

2 - 3 weeks to allow for parts to arrive.

Tell him you want it done now, o car is going elsewhere.
I hope you have not paid up front.
Nothing worse than paying for a job before its done, never gets finished.

[Toecutter]

He has all of the components he needs apart from the surge tank and perhaps some small bits and bobs that can be bought easily.

I am a little bit in credit but nothing too concerning in that regard. I would however like to give him an opportunity to finish the job within a reasonable timeframe without having to ride him all the way.

If 30-40 hours is reasonable for the tasks listed then insisting on having it back on the road in less than 3 weeks shouldn't be any trouble at all?

If that can't be done, then perhaps I'll need to find someone else that can...

Again, thanks for your input.

[sambo]

Tom, has he completed any of the work at all? Perhaps get him to fit the engine and loom as a priority - that'll make it easier to transport to another mechanic if you decide to go down that path?

[Toecutter]

That's pretty much all that needs doing. To run the loom, fit the engine, exhaust and bolt on bits. Then just the fuel supply system ( surge tank etc ) for the efi. It's the full "easy efi system" with throttle body, computer, dizzy, rails, injectors, inlet manifold, loom to suit etc, so once the specs of the setup are coded in it should start .
Then it should be a matter of starting it up and sending it to the dyno to be dialed in.

Perhaps I'll give him the next few days ( he said that he would have it on the hoist today ) and then pay him a surprise visit on Friday to see what progress ( if any ) has been made. I would prefer to look the man in the eye if I'm being serious. It's just a shame that it should have to come down to that.

[Gav]

I would really try to work things through with him.
If he takes forever and his work is crap, then load it up ASAP.
If not, it will be easier and cheaper to just have a bit of a heart to heart and let him know your expectations in regards to a time frame.

[Toecutter]

Originally Posted by Gav

I would really try to work things through with him.
If he takes forever and his work is crap, then load it up ASAP.
If not, it will be easier and cheaper to just have a bit of a heart to heart and let him know your expectations in regards to a time frame.

That would be my preference, but I need him to take the timeframe seriously and treat my car as a priority now. He knows my expectations, we have had many discussions in relation to this but unfortunately my "softly softly" approach has left me in the current situation.

I have already been very patient, and I've had enough of being the nice guy. We all know what happens to them. The result of the conversation today will be entirely based on his willingness to acknowledge the excessive time it has taken to get to this point and his genuine commitment to getting my car back on the road as an absolute priority.

[BITTEN]

Nice job on the floor Toecutter. Looks like its coming along nicely. We did similar but but dropped the floor even lower (we too had a small fire).
In regards to your electrician/mechanic issues you can also expect any quote or estimate provided to double as well, as that seems to be standard practice.
Our auto electrician took 6mths vs the quoted 1 mth, doubled the quote and I ended up fixing all of his unsoldered joints that were taped instead of heat shrinked and the 14 areas of bared wiring where his soldering iron randomly burnt through the insulation. And stupid me had given him a $50 bottle of Makers Mark to speed him up.

More recently, we just spent 6 months trying to have A Arms made. From the start and all the way through we encouraged the engineer to just make one arm and only spot weld it to save his time but no, he made both arms fully finished and powder coated four times because they didn't fit each time and then doubled the price because of his time spent! Now we are back to square one.

[sideshow]

yes u have to watch out for us dodgey auto electricians
like all mechanical workshops the longer a car stays there the price goes up abit even
when nothing gets done to the car hehehehe

bottle of makers mark fk me id wire up a car for a bottle of that hehehehe
good work is hard to find these days not matter if u pay a little or pay alot
its just if you pay alittle you have no one to blame
if you pay a ****load and you get a monkey standard job then you get the ****s
and pay someone else to do it right heheheh

thats y i tell everyone no matter where u r going ask a milion questions before u leave the car with them
or your hard earned cash
if they dont have to time to go thru those questions then go elsewhere

[Toecutter]

The old mantra "never tell a mechanic that your not in a rush" certainly rings true

So I turn up (unannounced) at the workshop yesterday and my car was on the hoist as promised. Unfortunately it hadn't been touched. I also asked him how many hours he has spent on the cobra since it arrived.. The answer .... wait for it... 16 hours!! at least the bill for labour is small.

So, we sat down in the office and had a civil conversation in regards to my expectations and his ability to realistically deliver my car in 3 weeks. To cut a long story short he has agreed that he will now treat it as his main priority although I understand that he can't use all of his time on my car. I calmly gave him the option of installing the loom and dropping the engine in and then I would pick it up and finish it myself but he has assured me that he can do it. He wants to be at the dyno to ensure that the setup is correct and to dial it in properly and be able to deliver a finished product. Which sounds pretty good to me.

The agreement is that I leave him to his work for 2 weeks, but I have told him that I expect it to be pretty much ready for the dyno at that stage.

We will see, but atleast there will be some progress now.

[Gav]

If he is a good bloke, that should be all the time he needs.

[Toecutter]

Progress is what I asked for and my mechanic has certainly delivered. The car is back together apart from the bonnet.




The donk is running and is due to go to the dyno on Tuesday for a 3 day full tune. I'm really looking forward to hearing the machine roar into life

We have had to address the problem of clearance for the bonnet scoop. Well basically, it doesn't fit. The problem is that the throttle body is the same height as the bonnet. Also the dizzy is a little tall and the trottle arm rotates up and back towards the fire-wall making the air cleaner assembly selection very difficult. This pic gives you an idea of our clearance issues:


As it stands now, once the car returns from the dyno we will have a hole cut in the bonnet so that the air cleaner (not the paper one pictured) can protrude. I figure that we will need the hole in the bonnet anyway so at least this will make it driveable for the time being and allow some thought to go into how we can acomodate that engine without having a massive scoop.

Again, any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

All in all, a good result. Looking forward to the next few weeks

[Toecutter]

Dyno work done without any leaks, breaks or overheating..

277kw at the wheels = 371.18 rear wheel horsepower. And this was with the the milder cams than we were originally going to use.

I haven't seen the curve yet but I'm very happy with these numbers for a driveable street car without a supercharger or turbo.

What I am thinking is that I'm going to have to invest in some larger rims so that I can have a better selection of tyres to match the performance. 17's perhaps? It will also be interesting to see how the brakes and suspension hold up..

If everything goes well then I should be picking it up next Saturday.

[Toecutter]

The cobra is back and the process of running in the donk has begun.



I've since put 350klms on the clock and it hasn’t put a foot wrong. Yesterday I took a few hours to weld, paint and fit a bracket to mount the stebel air horns in front of the main chassis rail (I didn't want to have it in the engine bay or near the intake for the radiator). It was really great to have some time just to poke around and play with the car after such a long distance relationship .

We replaced the front tyres (goodyear 215,60,r15) with Bridgestone Potenzas REoo1 in a 225,60,r15 and increased the camber on the front quite a bit. In hindsight, the alignment was way out and it now handles on rails. Well at least the fronts do. The rears (BF Goodrich 295,50,r15) are simply not up to the job. Any mildly spirited throttle movement results in a squirming rear and some quick corrections. It could also be that the tyres that were on the car are just old and hard?

So can anyone recommend a good rear in a 275/285, 50/55/60, r15?

Other than that, I just need to find the time to drive the monster

[Gav]

The Khumo KU36's are a great option if you are going to go 17's.

[Paintwerks]

Originally Posted by Gav

The Khumo KU36's are a great option if you are going to go 17's.

I can second that.....I have these on my car that makes 300kw @ all fours and they're very sticky and progressive. The only issue is that they're a very noisy tyre (road noise).