Looking to gain wisdom from your experiences.

[Cobra Hawk]

All,
A few questions for all that have been through this already.

1. I am looking for a full set of gauges (with a vintage look to them).
What gauges work best with the CR wiring system. Since I haven't purchased
anything yet, I want to make sure whatever I do buy won't make me jump
through hoops.

2. The only weather stripping I could find is a 1" by 5/8" vinly foam
stuff used to go between truck topper and truck bed. Will this work for
radiator as well as fire-wall to frame mounting?

3. When grounding your wires, did you grind off the paint from the frame
to ensure good ground? My frame and cowl hoop were all pre-painted by CR.

4. Does anyone know a good supplied of braided stainless steel lines that
will adapt to ford 8.8" disc rear-end calipers? I might replace the all
calipers and hoses if I can find a set-up to fit the 1987 Thunderbird Super
coupe disc brake rear-end.

5. Has anyone had problems with the stock 9.5" Mustang II front calipers
being enough to stop there Cobra? I can't imagine such a light car would
be too much for these, but before I buy anymore components specifically for
these spindles, I want to make sure I'm not wasting my money.

6. For engine dress-up, is it OK to paint the following components? Or
will it causes some unforseen problems later?
a. Harmonic Balancer?
b. The balancer on the crank sticking out the back of engine.
c. The flex plate.

[petek]

1. I've got autometer gauges and about the only thing I would change is to get the ones with the chrome ring around them rather than the solid black that I have. A nice thin chrome ring gives a definate "vintage" appearance.

2. Don or DV could tell ya!

3. What I did at a great number of spots (i.e. where ever I needed a ground) was to drill and tap a #10 hole into the frame (or larger, up to 1/4" for the headlights). Use a Dremel motor tool to scrape/grind away the paint from the hole. Solder a ring lug on the end of the ground wire, cover the solder joint with heat shrink tubing. Screw (#10) or bolt (1/4") the ground lead to the frame. Cover with a thin layer of dielectric grease. (Come to think of it I've probably got a good 10 feet of heat shrink tubing in my Cobra ... heat shrink cut to 1/2" lengths and used on the end of wires!)

4. I prefer the rubber hoses simply because they are cheap and I know they will work well (some engineer and some lawyer at Ford made sure the hoses are good enough for street use)!

5. I haven't had a problem with the stock brakes yet. The only problem I could imagine is overheating the brakes during autocross. Larger discs will give you more leverage (the calipers are mounted further away from the center point of rotation so the lever arm is longer). My wife would like a stronger booster in the brakes but then again she's half my size!

6. I don't know. Flex plate? Whatzat and how does it work when there is a flywheel in the way!

[Excaliber]

If you road race with those brakes, fuh get about dit.......

5 laps and you won't have any brakes! For the street? Their great!

Ernie

Flex plate? Uh oh,,,do I smell an automatic here......

[petek]

"They're" great not "Their" great! Jeeze, some people never learn!



Is it the calipers or the brake "system" itself that gives out? I would guess that the calipers hold the heat in fairly well and start to boil the fluid (they are cast iron calipers, right?)

(Note that no matter the disk size the same amount of heat will be generated. The larger disk would give a greater surface area to dissapate the heat.)

[trularin]

Paint it! Paint it all! And if your doors are red, pain them black!

LOL

[Jack21]

1) Gauges. Priority 1. Gotta be able to read them with peripheral vision without taking my eyes off the road, even at night. Priority 2. They have to work, be reliable, look good, and make sense. Originality is not a priority. That leaves out Smiths gauges, and the original instrumentation layout.

Used Autometer 5" Sport-Comp 0 - 160 speedo, 5" Monster Sport-Comp 0 - 8000 Tach, and "Z" Series Oil, Water, Volts, and Fuel level. No hassle install.

2) Ask Don or DV.

3) Grounding. Don't rely on the frame working as a good ground. I used a Ron Francis (Street Rod electrics shop. Ads in all Street Rodder Mag, & website) grounding bar, one on the firewall where the factory breakers were, and one directly behind it behind the dash. All ground wires terminated on these grounding bars, and bar wired directly to battery ground. Frame not used for grounding at all. And like Petek, all connections crimped, soldered, greased (wheel bearing grease & WD40 mix), and shrink wrapped. (Tower Hobbies Monokote gun best shrink wrap shrinker of all times, but a hair drier will work)

4) Brakes. OEM parts store brake hoses will work just fine. My rear brake hoses came in the SVO disk brake conversion kit and are stock T-Bird hoses.

That being said, the brake setup you want to use (Front) is based on the '75 - '80 Ford Grenada 11" front rotor. Caliper option 1 is based on the '79 - '83 mid sized GM single piston caliper. This is the absolute minimum you want to put on a Cobra! Not the 9 1/2" MII rotor setup. The next step up is the Stainless Steel Brakes "Force 10" caliper setup. These are 4 piston calipers, and combined with rear T-Bird disks, about as good as it gets for a 15" wheel car. If you do get the front setup from SSB, get a set of rear semi-metallic pads for your rear disks from SSB while you're at it.

Using 17" wheels opens up an entirely new window for brake options including late Mustang Cobra R, Cobra GT, and Baer 13" front, 12" rear rotors.

5) Paint: The SFI balancer doesn't need paint. If you're using the stock balancer, toss it, and use an SFI balancer. Back of crank. If it is immersed in oil, it doesn't need paint. Flex plate: Should be cadmium plated and not need paint. Flywheel: never paint.

Hope this helps.

[Cobra Hawk]

Gentlemen,
I am very impressed. Thank You all for the info.
Excalibur, you guessed correctly about the flex plate. I am running a 4 speed automatic.

Jack21. I purchased a brand new harmonic balancer from speedway automotive in Lincoln Nebraska. It is plain steel. Do you think I should have gone SFI instead? I don't anticipate much activity over 6,000 RPM. If I made a mistake, I would like to correct it now before problems start. Also the Flex Plate isn't plated, it is plain steel. (And started to turn rust colored.) Should I get it coated? Or should I have purchased a different flex plate? Seems like I purchase everything twice. I still am not sure if I should paint the external balancer on the back of the crank. It is definitely not in the pan. It is starting to develope a rust color as well. What the Hell, If I ruin the crank, I'll make the next one a stroker.

Petek.
I appreciate the info on wiring. I will follow your advice. Where do I purchase the fittings, heat shrink and dielectric grease? Maybe I'll try the Street rod electric shop that Jack21 mentioned.

[Double Venom]

Man,
I LOVE YOU GUYS! Especially this time of year. A new guy comes in, welcome by the way, and all of you give him straight up information and help him on his way to be a full "Family Member"!

This IS good! You have learned your lessons well grasshoppers D

#2: The foam lining you are talking about is way to thin and soft to make a good "bed" for the body and certainly not the radiator! Give me another day and I will get you a part number and a phone number to call.

DV...Going in search of a BIG band-aid now and some chocolate chip cookies! Are you ready? I mean ARE YOU READY?

[petek]

For heat shrink, etc., check your local hardware store's electrical parts ... or order up from Ron Francis.

[Jack21]

Man...I know how you feel about buying parts over again! I have enough leftover parts for 2 or 3 more cars.

If you already have a decent aftermarket balancer, might as well use it. Clean it well, mask it well and paint it. Same with the flex plate.

But the paint you want to use is rattlecan RustOleum Epoxy Appliance Enamel. Color choice is extremely limited, but gloss black is good for parts like this. You want to let this stuff bake in the sun for a weekend (or in the oven at around 250deg for 4 hours). Then let the parts sit for a week. This stuff is hard!

Electrical parts, connecters, shrink wrap. RADIO SHACK. Cheap, and there's always one nearby. True Value hardware stores are a good second. Home Depot or Lowes are good too if you don't have to stand in line at the checkout for half hour for $5 worth of parts. All auto parts stores have dielectric grease. Same stuff you use on Spark plug boots. Plain non-moly wheel bearing grease and a spritz of WD40, mixed in a small pill container, and applied with a Q-tip works for me.

Lucas parking and tail lights. You want to re-do the grounds on these to crimp, solder, and grease. As supplied, they will eventually corrode.

Another tip. Ron Francis sells turn, park, and taillight bulbs called "Bright Lites". They are substantially brighter than OEM bulbs, and make your Cobra (through its' dinky Lucas taillights)more visible at night. Order spares because, unfortunately, they don't last as long as OEM bulbs.

Last time I looked, the Monokote heat gun was about 20 bucks. If you do a lot of electrical work and shrink wrap soldered connections (and if you're building a Cobra, you qualify) this is the best tool for electrical shrink wrap. (towerhobbies.com)

[petek]

Jack,

VERY good point about the Lucas tail lights!