Owner built on a budget;

[*13*]

Look at that street style fender look! Saweet!

[MaSnaka]

Your bar looks stout. Nice job Ray.

John

[rustyBob]

Ray you and the "crew" should give yourselves a hardy pat on the back for all the fine work you are doing........can't waite to see the finished product.....

[James Stern]

RustyBob, Because of Ray's great pictoral documentation I'm enjoying the journey. The end will be a great day for Ray and his crew but a little sad for those of us who are enjoying the journey.

PS: The roll bar looks great Ray.

[rustyBob]

james, that OK because i think dlampe will start a build thread on his new Hurricane...
Ray and his "crew" have another Cobra to build when he's done with this one anyway.

[James Stern]

You are 100% correct. But sure do enjoy the CR builds because that's what I drive. Regardless, Merry Christmas to all.

Jim

[Hray]

Hey Everyone; thanks for the compliments, it serves as a good encouragement.


Update: Craig 5 hours, Ray 7 hours;

259 into build, 33 days down, 57 to done;

I trial fit the wipers, polished the wiper arms for 2 hours, drilled and fit all the badges, emblems, and dual bullet mirrors. removed the roll bar for prep and paint. polished the windshield frame some.

Craig fixed my screw up, I drilled the gas filler too close to trunk and had to move it more outward toward wheel, ) Craig is the fiberglass fix-it man and got it corrected. he then cut up the dash and began to rework it for the new steering column. we removed the flat areas in the corners that were intended for vents and are making them flat.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2641/...a5f3c7c9ab.jpg

[rustyBob]

Merry Christmas Ray,you and the "crew"are awesome, I will check in over the weekend to see the progress but for now i'm going to spend time with wife,son,and daughter-in-law who is 2 mounth pregnant(our first grandchild) may peace be with you........

[Hray]

Dec 24, 2009 update

Ray 5 hours, Craig 3 hours;

267 hours, 34 days down, 56 to go.

Mostly cleaned out the workshop space. I organized work space behind body shop area so i could finish cleaning and painting motor and accessories and to allow more room in body shop area for a cleaner work area.
Removed body from chassis hopefully for last time. cleaned chassis real good and moved it into the corner and covered it over to protect from overspray and sanding dust.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4062/...63094b46_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4041/...16228091_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4046/...f2e30706_b.jpg

Chassis will remain covered over until the body is ready for its last blocking out. While Craig is working on body I will be getting the motor and all accessories ready for reinstall. We plan on making it a driveable chassis again and then installing body for last time, do last blocking out and then paint it on the chassis. The doors, hood, trunk lid will be off the car for painting.

PS: Rusty Bob you are gonna love those grandkids, i have 4 of them, once they arrive life as you now know it will cease to exist.

Happy Holidays to all. Ray

[Krewton]

Merry Christmas Ray. Looking good.

Kenton

[Hray]

Dec 26, 2009; Update

265 hours, 35 days, 55 days to go.
Worked yesterday with Tyler (11 year old grandson), he was about the only family member that wasn't sick so we spent a few hours in the shop.

Tyler spent just over an hour with the sand blasting cabinet, he got the four roll bar brackets blasted, and painted, he also blasted the bell housing, and he painted the brackets and spent about an hour on the polishing machine.

I spent most of my time creating a make shift spray cabinet and keeping a good fire going in the stove, and presanding the bumper bracket tubes.

Today Saturday Dec 26, we had all the family over for christmas eats, games, and gifts. I managed to get some seat time in with my new present, the Wii Indy 500 race car game.

Here is tyler using the sandblasting cabinet, this is normally the welding shop, but since we were forced out of the front shop we are doing our prep work here to keep front area cleaner to anticipate primer and paint. the fuzz and oils from the polishing are not good to get on the body of the car. They could cause problems.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4032/...ca80cb33_b.jpg

Tyler is the first one to try out the new paint cabinet for brackets and small stuff. We have a swivel J bolt in the top so you can turn the items around to paint all sides.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2535/...9807f593_b.jpg

one of the advantages of being small is seen here. you can see our home made J bolt at top holding the roll bar brackets. Notice the extreme high tech sides of the cabinet to keep dust from entering the cabinet and to contain overspray getting out too far. (if this ain't a redneck shop I would really like to see one) no offence to rednecks intended.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2735/...e82b45cd_b.jpg


Here is a before and after photo of the aluminum bumper bracket tube. This if the first cut, we will do two more finer compounds and then final polish before done.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4042/...3928bceb_b.jpg

Tomorrow should be close to another full day on the build.

Ray

[rustyBob]

HI RAY.....looks like you may have another CAR GUY on your hands there........
he does good work on the polishing and paint.......
keep it up....

[Hray]

278 hours, 36 days down, 54 to go;


got headers painted with cilgen temp coating, cleaned up the new door hinges for paint, craig got the body primed, used half gallon of poly primer for this go round. cleaned a few other parts,

later............

[treblig]

I have a new roll bar, 2" and chrome, 275 or OBO

[Hray]

292 hours, 37 days down, 53 to show time.


Craig worked on blocking out body some more, I spent several hours chasing parts, and then got 3 of the four trims rings roughed out for the roll bars. I also installed a few more lights in shop and put together the fan vent system for the paint booth.

Here is picture of the front end getting some block sanding done. also see my home made fan vent system. I will place house hold furnace filter in front of the fans to catch most of the overspray from getting on the blades, this also prevents bugs from flying into the shop when we are not running the fans. I will open the back door of the shop which goes into the area where the sand blaster and wood stove is at. I will build big fire in wood stove to heat the air which the exhaust fan will pull into the paint area. The back door will also get furnace filters placed in it to prevent dust and bugs from getting into the paint room. The three fans allow for lot of volumne but do not create turbulence.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2685/...31087016_b.jpg


Here are a couple pictures of the roll bar trim rings. I got the insides roughed out fine, now to shape the outsides and then drill and tap them. we want studs in the so no screws show from the top side.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2620/...3325892c_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2632/...0f86bc5b_b.jpg

Craig discovered the PCL poly primer that I use is much better than the evercoat polyprimer that he uses. I had a quart of left over pcl from ramble last year and sprayed it on the car and we then sprayed on a quart of the evercoat. today he started block sanding and fell in love with the pcl and I had to go buy a gallon more so we could abandon the evercoat. It is about 20% more expensive but worth every penny of it.

No word yet on being accepted in the autorama. Surely our past history will assist them in deciding to accept our application.

later Ray

[Hray]

Tue and wed update;

314 hours, 39 days down, 51 remaining

yesterday I went shopping for grommets or similar to trim out the roll bar trim rings, found a o ring the perfect size at the fluid tech business. found a u shaped rubber trim at capitol rubber. Still not sure exactly what I was wanting to use, Stopped by home depot, visited the section of the store that sells door sill plates and weather stripping stuff. Found this T shaped rubber on this door weather proofing trim. pulled the rubber out of its slot to check the shapt. it is about one inch tall with a slanted t at the top. got a piece of it and took it home. We decided it fit so well that we are scrapping the trim rings and going to use this all by itself. i think I will use it also for the bumper supports where then meet the body. So the half day of making trim rings is gone by the way side. If the new rubber moulding works as good as we think it could be something others would like to use. I will photoghraph tomorrow.

Craig is still working the body and doors etc. we put on second round of primer today. I worked mostly deburring the motor, getting it ready to reinstall.

A couple of gearhead friends stopped by today to make fun of us. No problem I am used to that.

Later Ray

[Don]

Ray......really nice stack arrangement for the individual fans, I've got my next project, home ingenuity at it's best.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2685/...31087016_b.jpg

Enjoyed the build......

Don

Edit....looks like my copy of the link does not work........

[capteddie]

Originally Posted by Don

Ray......really nice stack arrangement for the individual fans, I've got my next project, home ingenuity at it's best.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2685/...31087016_b.jpg

Enjoyed the build......

Don

Edit....looks like my copy of the link does not work........

Fixed it for you... try the link above

[Hray]

New Years Eve: Update;


Don: Glad you liked the fan system, make it 6'8" tall and you then can fill in the top of door way with cardboard and tape hinge side and it is bug free. Once filters are in place and door secured I will take another pix.

DV: Thanks for tech help there:

325 Hours, 40 days down, 50 to go;

All pieces to body have been primed and ready for final blocking, the complete underside has been undercoated. Motor has been painted, and a few other details as follows:

Remember the door hinges we made, well all the welds have been ground smooth and then worked with body filler and primed. With the door open a person will not see any welds at all.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2689/...ae1ac593_b.jpg


Below is a picture of the roll bar with rubber seal around it. the seal is half inch and the top T is 3/16 inch with the moulded slant on the top t. sorry the picture is fuzzy, tried to get as close as possible for detail.


http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2780/...6c688599ae.jpg

here is the body with the last full coat of primer, there may be a few places for spot primer if we discover low spots in the final blocking out phase.
the front inner fenders are ready for paint.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4029/...f1036b24_b.jpg

Now for the motor, first time i ever polished freeze plugs, but prior to and after painting I polished the freeze plugs. now wanna hear something insane, all the freeze plugs were indexed. Until a couple years ago I would not have know what indexing freeze plugs or indexing tires and rims would mean. I am sure some of you know this but for others here goes. Once one of craigs car entries missed first place because the tires and rims were not indexed. meaning the tires were all mounted identical on the rims, with the center caps, with the valve stems and all four tires were sitting exactly the same on the ground so you could read the center caps and read the lettering on the tires. While polishing the freeze plugs I noticed the lettering was all the same on the one side. At first thought I figured a freak thing, then other side was same, then the front ones on the head were also identical to be able to read them without twisting the head. That is not just happen stance, whoever built the motor specifically indexed these plugs. I can only hope he was as precise with all the rest of the build. However, I am not too sure judges will be able to see the freeze plugs indexed unless we place mirrors and spot lights, but at least you can see they have not been painted.

This picture also shows me a couple light spots and I can see some blue coming thru, tomorrow that will get fixed. You can also see the indexing on the freeze plugs. Now I can only hope they indexed the rims and tires for me, if not they will get broke down and indexed prior to install.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2523/...d29b20b8_b.jpg

And wishing everyone a very great 2010. Ray

[rustyBob]

looking good Ray...........
can't waite to see it finished............