A miracle....Slowy's cobra update

[stephen low]

Thanks lads for the kind words.

Certainly proves my perseverance though it would have been nice to be on the road years earlier. However good things are always worth the wait.

Am planning to drive down to the mates place that I would have taken the car on that fateful day 9 years tomorrow. Fortunately the mates place is in the opposite direction and that roundabout has since been turned into a traffic light intersection - ha

Plus I'm still running in the new motor so no silliness for me!

On that, I'm very close to having to change out the "running in" oil. What oil do you folk recommended I use in the Windsor?

[gjkrv8]

Well done Slowy. Enjoy.

[leroy17]

Well done and great to see.

May have taken 9 years, but you will feel 20 years younger when you start driving it.

Enjoy, looks great and will be a blast to drive.

[Hoity]

Well done slowly, great effort!

[boxhead]

Regarding oil in the Windsor.
I can only advise what I use in the 318 in my Valiant (older V8 design engine) they like a high zinc content, I run the Penrite HPR 50

[LoBelly]

Originally Posted by boxhead

Regarding oil in the Windsor.
I can only advise what I use in the 318 in my Valiant (older V8 design engine) they like a high zinc content, I run the Penrite HPR 50

I agree

Penrite Oil

there is lotso info on the website as well as a product selection tool

went to one of the info nights they put on and was impressed with the products and the consideration of older engines of various performance levels within the product line up - as boxhead suggests - they're aware of the zinc thing.

LB

[stephen low]

Thanks guys.

Quizzed Don as the engine builder and guess what Penrite W15 - 50 so that is what I am about to change over too right now!

Old school mineral oil for an old school motor - makes sense.

[SVO 050]

Mineral oil for early Windsor and 15-40 semi synth. for roller cam later Windsor,
I run my 350 chevs on Penrite 20-50 and use the Penrite 15-40 semi synth for the SVO 5L engine in the Cobra.

Cheers
SVO

[stephen low]

I've a range of outstanding items to add to the car and managed to fit up a few pieces in advance of tomorrows club cruise down to Geelong and districts.

Notably missing have been the bits to fill the holes in the front guards as both the vents and side pipes.....



I'd also discovered the parts and reminded myself of past purchase of wind wings and sun visors. The wind wings fitted straight up but I ended up buying Snaketail visors as the two pair of visors I had originally acquired wouldn't fit.

Anyone need a nice pair of visors for their car? PM me on this.

Anyway I had all the fittings and just needed the right fixings to make them happen as shown below.



The modern wide rear view mirror causes some grief on the visors but it all works for now.

So really looking forward to a good outing tomorrow and a chance to plan for the next stages of the re-build!

For example I have ordered adjustable top arms out of Summit and which are in shipment. Marty will need to do some engineering to get them to fit up to the current standard Jag connections but once fitted I'll have so much more front end adjustability.

Am also notionally booked in to revamp the exhaust to get some better engine output and improve the clearance under the car.

Cheers

[sinkers46]

Looks great Slowy. Now you just need to drive and enjoy. I'm very jealous.
Sinkers

[stephen low]

So a great day on the road with the club heading down to the Bellarine Peninsula.

Added bonus were the many hot rods and muscle cars associated with a large hot rod event in Queenscliff.

We returned home via the Queenscliff ferry, Arthurs seat and the literal beach road.

Even did a resonator test in the Mt Martha cove tunnel - what a blast of a noise that made!!

I put well over 300kms onto the speedo through the trip and even bagged my first gorilla!



Looking forward to many more events and driving!

[stephen low]

The car went to Rowville exhaust about a week and half ago knowing there'd be some time delay due to at least one incoming job the owner knew he had to get done then and there ie a vintage Ferrari.

But a call last Thursday discovered that he had completed building the system and had just sent off the remodelled secondaries to HPC for ceramic coating. That was good news. The expectation is that the secondaries are likely to appear Thursday for a Friday refit.

I am sitting in my hotel room avoiding the Wangaratta current temp of about 38C drinking a beer but the issue might be when I can escape the week long client audit. If I can forestall and depart Thursday night I might have half a chance of collecting the cobra.

Otherwise it will have to be after the long weekend as I also need to drive to Paynesville to race in my State titles.

Either way good news and I hope the new system sounds half as good as I am hoping.

Marty has also hopefully engineered up the replacement top arm mounts for my summit sourced adjustable top arms. This would let me get a proper alignment arranged.

[stephen low]

With the long weekend sailing shenanigans out of the way I was able to collect the cobra with the exhaust finished and very pleased.

All his hoists were filled so haven't been able to do an up-close look but what can been seen looks smick!

So it all starts with remodelled and HPC coated secondaries positioning smaller round cats partly into the tunnel as seen from above here.



System runs reasonably central with an x pipe leading to two central hot dogs located in front of the diff.



Then some nice work avoiding the fuel tank and suspension.





All finally leading to a pair of smaller mufflers in the rear quarters with mandrel tips to finish off.



So the two target issues were clearance which is as good as it can get seen here.



And sound - Enjoy!

Cobra exhaust_zpsamdfl55e.mp4 Video by slowy59 | Photobucket

All the bits are high flow fittings that creates a bassier noise at idle and is louder somewhat on the fly but very pleased with the outcome.

Cheers

[snakesaway]

Wow that is some really nice work who did your exhaust? Can't wait to see the car at meeting/event soon.

Cheers

Andrew

[stephen low]

Andrew

The fellow is Richard who owns Rowville exhausts.

Knew of him through a hot rod mate who had his system built by Richard many years ago and sounds trick.

The variety of HiPo cars and hot rods I've seen in his workshop is also some form of testament to his work and was up close to several in build and it all looked great.

[stephen low]

So a good but a tad damp morning out sorting out my next steps for trimming the soft top and tonneau.

Left Blackwoods and went on to Marty's factory to discover the top arm modifications are almost complete.

Need to have Marty also modify the driver's side window frame and a bit of work of my own to get other fabricated bits to fit now that I've installed the wind wings and sun visors.

But with this all done I can get the car back to Blackmans for the weather proofing phase.

A minor sprinkle on the way home started to show me the inherent leaks the car has and which I've have to improve on but it is all WIP.

Just about to do a search again for suggested alignment shops but aside from Advantage Suspension in Moorabbin someone did also signal another mob in that area that were apparently good.

Any suggestions?

[gjkrv8]

So Slowy, does this great progress mean LoBelly will have another yellow Cobra buddy at ShelbyFest? cheers Gregg

[stephen low]

Greg gg if I can get the new arms in place and an alignment sorted, yes I'd be planning to get up to Winton.

Unfortunately I'd have to do an early morning launch Saturday as I've got a commitment Friday arvo that won't let me get away.

I'll need to get some advice on what to bring along - duct tape as a starter I'm guessing - lol!

[gjkrv8]

Whatever fits in the Cobra will do. and spare jocks for the race track :-)

[stephen low]

So as part of the smarten up I've fitted adjustable top arms into the front. I also fitted up 15mm spacers into the suspension set up to drop the front and loose some of the 4WD look.

The 15mm spacers achieved almost a 50mm drop and the car looks much better, though in the pic it doesn't look much, the car is visibly more level.




Fitting up the new top arms I had to open up the skirts somewhat but this all worked well with a die grinder.



So moved from S2 Jag top arms...



To mustang adjustable arms as....



With a fair bit of Marty's intervention to build new top mount arms and manufacture tapers to suit the Mustang ball joints.



So the car is bound for Rob Tucker in Hastings next Friday and with luck the car will be nicely aligned and good to go for the Fest.

Here's hoping for some nice weather.