Owner built on a budget;

[*13*]

Damn! Lookin' Good!

[rustyBob]

looking good Ray........you and the "crew" are doing a fine job there.......
looks like first place to me.....

[eddytheb]

Very cool well done so far




We finish unfinished Cobras Stop by and see what we are working on @ www.eddytheb.com

[MaSnaka]

Looks like your turning that rough cut diamond into a pearl. I'm not real sure what that means but from where you started, I can see signs of a real nice car starting to appear. Keep up the good work.

John

[James Stern]

Ray, You and your crew are almost home. I can hear the rubber burning.

[Hray]

Hey Guys; Thanks for all the positive comments,

511 hours, 55 days down, 35 to

But after dinner I will go back and get some more done, so today ain't over yet.

The body is almost entirely secured to the frame, tonite I will cut out the cowl plates for the doors. I am pretty much following the manual on securing the body to frame but I have changed things just a little.

The doors fit the body perfect as the car sits now, but I have not cut out the door inserts from the body yet. I am thinking that if the body is 100 percent secured to frame that it will not move any when we cut out the door opening. then with DV's method of placing the door on the car, getting the proper spacing, then welding in the plate to cowl bar that it should be nearly perfect and done. if things are off just a little we will modify the door to fit the set body. We will know by noon tomorrow if it is just that simple.

Rear bumper spacers will be fine with just a little enlarging of the holes, previous owner cut out the front holes for bumper spacers and looks like we are going to have to use some fiberglass a little on one to them, he cut it too high. That will not be major.

So as long as the little sweetheart does not decide to do the two step on me again we should be ok with all the final stuff.

One of our car buddies came by to check it out, he was not sure about the silver frame, until he saw it and then he seemed to think it worked just fine and looked real good.

[rustyBob]

Ray

I think with your color combo the silver frame will compilment it.......

[Hray]

Bob: I think you are right, and so far I am totally happy with the color, We are having discussions now on the color of the roll bar. I want silver to match the side pipes. Craig thinks roll bar might look good the stripe color.

Anybody wanna chime in on your thoughts on color of roll bar.

Now I need some help. does anyone have a good picture of a CR with a cutom dash. I need to see how it is finished off at the very ends. I am not too sure how much to take off from the body where it meets the dash.

I am wanting to cover my dash in vinyl so i would need to finish it off around these ends. I guess I could sew up a black windlace and have it run from top to bottom and let it end under the carpet. then the dash would fit next up to the windlace. The other option is to fiberglass it all together, but I am thinking that some day the dash may need to come out so fiberglassing in is not a good option.

I also am not sure how much of the body to take off around the rest of the door openings. I am thinking of taking it off until it meets the inner body piece and then fill with fiberglass and smoothing it out. This way it looks like one complete smooth piece. I would also think the carpet might come high enough to roll onto the sill plate and get glued down reall good there. A picture of the body door sill plate area would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for assistance.

[rustyBob]

Silver on the roll bar, the stripe color is already in the engine bay.thats my 2 cents.
what color are you useing on the interior??????????not black i hope.....

[tcrist]

Ray,
Come on down to my house and take any measurments you need. You could also look at my stripes and measure them. Mine are straight instead of tapered so you can see how that looks.

[MaSnaka]

Ray,
My dash is a solid piece of cherry wood. You can see a picture in my gallery although it doesn't show any end detail. You mentioned going with vinyl so I don't know how much help it would be. If you want more detailed info just let me know, I'll do my best to help you out.

John

[sunman]

Ray
Rbob is right, silver on the rollbar. Looking great.

Sman

[Hray]

The interior will be black to begin with, unless I have time to sew up a new set to match the paint, but not too likely to have that much time before autorama.

Terry I will call you and come down to see what you got. I need to make it sooner than later.

UPDATE: 517 hours, 57 days down, 33 to go.

Doors are on, had to do some modifications to the hinges we made, but got them on and doors are lined up nearly perfect, will only need some minor glassing work for all the reveal lines to match.

installed the transmission tunnel cover in cockpit, got all the holes made large enough for the bumper spacers and rubber seal around them. got the brackets for roll bar bolted on frame, set the roll bar and down tubes. have to do some grinding out on body and then just a little filling to make nice holes with rubber trim.

Now I have to figure out what I am going to do for the door latches. I liked OFM's, he had a little knob to pull up on. It will most likely be just what ever i can engineer from stuff laying around the place.

that 33 days is looking scary since we are still most likely a week away from painting the body. If we can have it all painted within the next 13 days, that will leave 20 for assembly and to build the displays.

[Hray]

Update: 530 hours, 58 days down, 32 to go;

Terry sent me a photo of his dash, that told me what I needed to do. thanks much Terry.

The dash end near the top of the door as well as the door body pillar are a continuation of the body coming around into the car. This means they needed to be glassed in and treated for paint. it appears the door sill and back pillar of the door get carpet rolled up and over into the door way. so to prepare for that I also treated the first few inches on the inside of the cockpit as part of the body coming into the car. it got glassed and will be treated and painted body color.

The wings on the end of the dash will fit into the body near the top of the doors. Since the body will get primed and painted and clear coated in this area and since the dash will get vinyl wrapped around it I will need some clearance. So just before painting the body I will trial fit the dash again, I will want just a small amount of clearance where the dash wings meet the body. Then when painted and clearcoated, and dash covered it should be just a snug fit for the dash to slide into place. It appears there is just about a half inch of body color showing inside the car.

I made my door release handle and installed the one on passenger side. Took two quarter inch long bolts, bent them on the end, welded a long nut on the side of one so I could adjust the tension on the mechanism and then cut a slot in the upper part of the body for the knob to be screwed on.

Here is the door release mechanism rod lever or what ever you call it.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4058/...bf314e4d_b.jpg


Here are a few pictures of our bumper spacer hole rubber trim. We used this instead of cut in half grommets. Main reason is that we went with this trim instead of the grommets is that I just could not count on the front grommets even if larger staying in place. Plus this trim will be forced in between the spacer and body, this should absorb shock very well. The trim came from vintage ford, it is the bottom rubber for a model A windshield where it meets the body.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4031/...dbdb8325_b.jpg

I am not totally happy with the top spacer now, might reglass it and get the rubber closer, the bottom one is great.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/...d9ddb799_b.jpg

Here is a picture of rear bumper spacer.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2772/...f8b4509d_b.jpg

Here is the front door pillar, you can see the work on the dash and the fiberglass panel that covers the cowl bar. I put glass behind and on top if the cover.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4022/...8fefebe3_b.jpg


I don't guess I realized how much work there was in finishing the cockpit area, I think another day will pretty much have it ready for primer. Still have to drill and set the windshield. Craig is about ready to glass in the lower nose piece.

[tcrist]

Ray,
Can you post a picture of the door open from the outside so we can see how the door opens away from the body?

[rustyBob]

Ray
i wish i was there to lend a hand......
keep at it, before you know...it will be done.

[Hray]

Update:

550 hours, 60 down, 30 to go

Tuesday, update, Craig go some time in on glassing in the front nose pieces, I glassed in the dash area, and also got the other door latch finished.

Wednesday: terrible storms in the neighborhood, electricity went out early in the day. I still managed to get the gas tank filler neck modified. I drilled out another hole for air to escape and then got two 3/8 pipe to barbed fittings and installed two hoses to allow the air to escape during fill ups. I also did some measuring of the stripes for layout. Yesterday I also got the windshield bolted in, and also mounted the hood release pull cable on the kick panel.

For the next two days I have to head out to Monterey for some meetings so i will not get any time in on car. Craig may get some progress.

More pictures will get posted most likely at end of saturdays work completed.

[Hray]

Sunday jan 24, update

575 hours; 64 days down, 26 days to go.

We lost some momentum over the past few days, but life does require we do things besides just working on cars.

We hope to paint underside of hood and trunk lid tomorrow.

Here are some progress pictures from past few days;
Here is body where it meets the curved dash hopefully ready for paint.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2684/...ded4499d_b.jpg

Here is the nose section, note we filled in totally around the sway bar as it comes thru the inserts, connected them with kitty hair, then bondo to smooth and fill prior to paint. I like the way the mustang II bar dips in the middle it is nearly hidden behind the lower lip of the nose.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2704/...4e11b779_b.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2797/...b141275f_b.jpg
Here is the birds eye view of the door swinging away from the body
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4065/...1e105455_b.jpg

Here is front shot of door opening away from body
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2741/...06cfd0c8_b.jpg

Thanks to other threads here I learned that these gas tank filler necks seem to get air locked, I used the return connection on tank as well as the air vent connection to have two air vents, this might assist in air escape during fill up.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4051/...89b9ecd1_b.jpg

We thought all those pop rivets coming thru bottom of car were going to be ugly, so we did two things, one we turned the angle iron to the inside of the car and used self taping quarter inch bolts, and we also used same bolts on the angle into the frame rail.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2759/...92c73d3d_b.jpg

If you look closely you can see some arrows and marks on this tape on the back shelf, I marked the cent of car and the outside marks for the stripes on the body, I will use a square to bring these marks up the the body then use these marks to layout the stripes. I have never painted stripes like these so not sure how anyone else does it but I did it this way.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4027/...aa40bbd3_b.jpg

here is pic of car waiting for last sanding and paint, today during all the commercials on the two football games I spent most of the time cleaning, removing spider webs, blowing dust from all the crannies, and washing down walls and floor, in anticipation of some paint tomorrow and then complete body by thursday we hope. we will clean shop with air and water at least three times before final paint goes on,

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/...e2c78cd8_b.jpg

[*13*]

Looking good! Can't wait to see paint on it finally!

[rustyBob]

the finish line is getting closer Ray........cant wait to see some color on it...