A miracle....Slowy's cobra update

[stephen low]

Hey guys a long time moving forward but here's a small update from my rusting relic.

I have now been able to start getting to Marty's shed on Saturday mornings and first job was to eliminate the rust off the roll bars in advance of chroming.

That led to Marty making up the final third leg connections. With a final bit of spot welding and repolish needed to clean up the look the bars will then be off to the chromer shortly.

Wasn't able to access the shed over the past couple of weekends but arrived last Thursday to see the following work in the engine bay -

Knowing I want to eventually visit the race track Marty made up a coolant catch can along with the upper and lower coolant pipework.



Also needed to have the air intake system remade to get rid of the cone filter I went through engineering with and to allow for use of Marty's bling air box and piping system. Will use nice black silicon hose connectors to colour match.

Also behind the last pipe bend into the plenum you can just see the nice stainless wiper water box I wanted to replace the daggy plastic version.



And Marty's bling air box. I'll need to go and get myself the right K&N high flow filter but at least this will knock out the induction noise I had with the old cone job. That was as loud as the rest of the engine noise!



Marty's also made up the soft top bows and the outline looks really good. I'll have to get a picture of this later.

But this led to a good session sorting out seating which sadly sees those skinny tan MX5 seats of mine becoming redundant (anyone want a pair of seats??) and we'll have to use other seating, most likely Marty's seats to best suit the vaguries of the G-Force cockpit and get us sitting lower.

So some major forward progress considering how idle the car has been for the last two plus years.

Once the major mechanical links are done I'll need to revisit the wiring to cleanse that look too.

This certainly advances the likelyhood of getting the car back onto the streets in 2013.

Enjoy

Slo

[sambo]

Lookin good Slowy. How about 2013 - that's doable!

[stephen low]

Ha thanks Paul yes meant to say and have now corrected the date in my thread to 2013 but then again.......

But at this rate of advancement I might only be restricted by my rate of cash flow.

But then that's why I have a house loan I can drawn down against - lol!

[stephen low]

Further progress photos as of 15 January 2013.

With the Christmas madness and sailing Nationals now having been dealt with, it is time to get back to the car again. Hopefully a first revisit being this Saturday morning coming.

As somewhat of a repeat but with better photos, Marty has now finished off the work shown in the previous posts above, as follows below -

The radiator cooling system is all completed including catch can.



The air intake system is also finalised, comprising Marty's proprietary SS air box and assorted shiny pipework to connect from the air box through the MAF up to the manifold.



Just need to go get the right K&N high flow filter now to fit the air box as shown below.




And a stainless wiper water bottle for good measure and looks (and to hide an unfilled hole in the end of the passenger footwell).



I will be getting Marty to blank off and re-route some of the under plenum piping and when this is all done I'll then be able to finally bolt the plenum back on after a polish and fully connect the bits above.

And I am trying to keep the part colour variations limited and simple on the engine. I'm using black silicon hose connectors for the air intake parts that will be clamped using polished SS bands.

Wished now that I had seen the post earlier where one of you guys used the black annodised fittings over the red-blue combo, however I may deal with this later on anyway.

I've also had those rusty roll bars chromed and they have come up a treat. No photos yet and the bars wont get re-fitted now until after painting is done. Do need however to polish up the SS rings Marty has made to suit the rollbars though.

A last job before Christmas too was the need to relocate the charcoal cannister. Found a good spot just behind the cabin and now need to modify the plumbing to suit.

I am also looking relocate my remote oil filter in the engine bay and I'll need to fit up the oil cooler in the nose area some time in the future.

Enjoy till the next progress pics.

Slo

[stephen low]

So it seems progress on the cobra hasn't been as rapid as hoped but there has been progress.

Work has mainly been around plumbing in the engine bay associated with running fuel and vapour management lines to the engine and making a start on the engine oil feed lines I need.

I've made the connections from the fuel supply and fuel and vapour return hard lines to the engine in braid including a braid line from the PCV fitting into the plenum as per the photos below.




The curved line is the vapour return via the solenoid from under the plenum and the PCV connection line is that line at the bottom and awaiting attachment to the PCV valve once the plenum is bolted down.

Made up a neat adapter to be able to attach a threaded fitting to the PCV valve instead of rubber hose to make this braided connection.




Braid lines to the fuel inlet and outlet but on the right side of the photo you can see the remote oil fitting under the washer bottle and intake tubing.

Also took the opportunity to get the plenum repolished as it was looking pretty sad from three years sitting around.



And finally a nice braid link from coolant outlet to the catch can.




I am now setting up for the engine oil filter and cooling supply system and will be mounting the oil cooler in the lower nose and then the braid line links between the various fittings.

With that work done all the engine bay fluid management systems will be finished.

Hopefully I'll have a new job after the end of this month to then be able to afford doing further work.

Enjoy

Steve

[BMK]

Making great progress

[Rog246]

Ditto

[stephen low]

Thanks guys - in reality very tiny steps forward but at least heading in the right direction.

Saturday coming is looking like another good shed day - it'll be raining!! That will keep me off the bike at least.

[Aussie Mike]

Good to see you making progress Slowy.

I know what you mean about tiny steps. I've been working on mine bit it doesn't look like a lot of progress. Got to break it up into little jobs and tackle one at a time.

Cheers

[stephen low]

Mike

Thanks and I'm with you.

I like to keep a to-do list and I try to step out all the steps in a job.

That way I'm crossing out heaps as I move forward and it's a mental prod and boost that I am making progress.

Otherwise as you say you can do heaps of apparent work for no real visual clue of progress.

So where's your car at? You better post an update to your car update thread.

Cheers

Slo

[Aussie Mike]

I dug my old white board out on the weekend. Got to hang it up somwhere and start using it. It certainly helps keep you focused.

Cheers

[cameron02]

Hey Slowy,

Keep going mate. That's the thing with these cars. Sometimes the list gets longer instead of shorter. It looks like nothings happening. But keep going...keep going....all of a sudden...its finished.

[stephen low]

Thanks Cameron

Yes I still remember this effect from the first build up.

Sadly as this is essentially a new build and I'm not simply jigsawing parts back to old locations its a slow progress again.

On the bright side though the car will be finished to a far better state and layout than on the first rushed occassion.

I hit the shed again tomorrow for another installment.

Cheers

Slo

[albanycobra]

Looking good Mate keep the pics coming....

[stephen low]

Thanks for the continued encouragement guys, it does help.

Another Saturday and a bit more done. Sadly always seem to come out of the shed with another list of bits to get. Fortunately only a small set of annodised fittings but I had to get lines installed to be able to figure angles for various -10 hose ends I need.

Hopefully these parts will now see the engine bay oil system all completed on my next shed installment. Marty made up some simple mounts for my oil cooler and I at least got it partially positioned at end of day too.

Finally got around to cutting out my side pipe exit holes and a chance comment by one of the guys looking to also buy pipes led to a bit of an impromptu trial fit per below.





These are the side pipes I bought from Vintage Wheels and for the price are not bad. A tad short and as that centre section is based around a hot dog a touch heavy but they suit the purpose for now. Might do some thing silly down the track and get them connected just for fun but that's another story.

Was also trying to final fit the roll bar attachment fittings but I realised that the fitting order is the bars first so as they have to come off anyway for paint I've just packed away this for now.

So it was another trial fit for now but the bars are now shiny instead of rusty.






The doors are off the car too as they are at home whilst I glass in the ferrule locations for the side windows as part of the soft top. You can see the side windows in the cockpit in the first photo above, so various bits are coming together.

Enjoy

Slo

[AdamF]

Hi Slowy,

Where did you source your radiator? I'm looking at getting one for my GForce at the moment but not sure of size and such.

Adam.

[sambo]

Adam, I'm in front of Slowy's car now and it's from Race Radiators here in Melbourne - with a custom bracket to mount to the chassis. My radiator's from the same place and they're very effective.

[stephen low]

sorry guys

Struggling up here on my last night on Magnetic Island and have borrowed a friend's internet. Think Paul is right but marty supplied the radiator.

But will be working on the car this Saturday!!

[sambo]

Oil cooler plumbing looks good too Slowy. I'll be at Kenmer in the morning before I head into the G to watch the Tigers smash the Crows.

[stephen low]

Yes Paul with a bit of final plumbing tomorrow I hope to post the next series of pics showing further transition forward which includes the oil cooler installation.

What a shock though just getting back here with 11 C in Melbourne and we left 28 C and swimming in the ocean behind. But then I can't handle the humidity up there so that's the trade off I guess.

And yes just back in time to watch the Y&B do the business - go Tiges!!