Owner built on a budget;

[Hray]

Jan 1, update;

338 hours. 41 days down, 49 to go;

upon sitting the black valve covers on the engine it was quickly apparent the colors did not work together. went and bought some light gray, and also new ford gray, the ford gray might have worked but not what I wanted. Craig has some other brand cast gray, tried it and it worked, repainted the entire motor and bell housing again, got a few accessories bolted back on the motor. Criag spent 4 hours working on the roll bar, grinding welds and using body filler to smooth it out, he got another hour in on block sanding the underneath side of hood and trunk.

PS: Bob i think we are much more ready to see it done that you are.

I went back to check on first phase hours, that was 175 for preassembly and trial drives. We are now at 513 hours in the total build and a good ways from being done. We will go over the 500 estimate. But, at the onset I was really only planning on building 'just a nice driver'. The Autorama entry was going to be just for fun and not really expecting to be competitive, just a good reason to get it finished by a specific date. I really had no idea that Craig was going to come get this involved and take the build up a couple notches higher. I also did not anticipate building new hinges, and I did not figure on doing a roll bar at all. The car should still be done by the autorama date however, it will be between 700 and 800 hours for the total build. When you really get serious about detail of every last little detail the time goes straight out the window. Until a person has built a quality show car, and not even a custom, you better look at a thousand hours invested from out of the gate. if you start fabricatiing stuff, and modifying roofs, and body lines look at two thousand hours real quick.

If you ask me this car hobby stuff has gotten way out of hand, maybe this is why rat rods, and retro rods are becoming so popular again, they are much more reasonable to build.


Even with all this attention I do not expect to trophy at autorama, we are not spending enough money on bling and fatman suspensions, and all those other name brand bolt on items. But that will be fine I will have a very very nice car to drive around. it will do ok in competition at smaller local shows.

Ray

[rustyBob]

I never got the impression you were doing this for a trophy anyway............
there is nothing wrong with setting goals for a build....especially the finish date.
step back drink a cold beer (or3) take a deep breath and enjoy the time you are spending with friends and family and when the car is done just think how proud those who helped are going to be when it is finished.
those 2 boys are going to be able to say WE helped grandpa build a Cobra.

[Hray]

JAN 2, update

346 hours, 42 days down, 48 to go.
Craig took day off,

I managed to get the intake manifold blasted and treated with cilgen high temp coating, painted a few more accessories, then painted the inner fenders and got them clear coated.

Ray

[Hray]

Jan 4, a two day update:

371 hours, 44 days down, 46 to go.

Yesterday I polished the rest of the bumper spacers and drilled holes in the door to get ready to install door panels after paint, installed intake manifold and couple of accessories. Craig finalized the powder coating cabinet to get ready to powder coat tomorrow.

Today Craig got the dash modified, made the opening for the steering column smaller and filled the cut out holes on corners. I installed motor and drive tran back in the chassis and begain to to hook a few things up.

Here are some pics of the last few days.

A few days ago i painted the motor a cast iron grey, but when I put the black valve covers on the head the colors clashed, it had a green tint to it. here is a picture of a more pure grey, it fits in fine with the black and aluminum colors.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2799/...5bca5ce4_b.jpg

Here is the motor and trans staged for install on the morning of Jan 4th.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2778/...4634a9dd_b.jpg

Here is the motor back in the chassis,

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4068/...2d26a1af_b.jpg

I was concerned about the air cleaner clearing the hood, looks like the air cleaner is below the top of the cowl, therefore it should not be close to the hood.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2654/...4bb6e5a7_b.jpg


Here is the dash sitting back on cowl after the smoothing, it will require one more small coat of filler and some light sanding before being painted, we will paint it so the glues will hold better for the covered dash.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2739/...91d17226_b.jpg

Here is the picture of the painted inner fender, I got a little heavy in one place and put a run in the clear coat, but that should sand out just fine. main thing is the color went down about as perfect as I could expect. This is the stripe color. maybe before end of week we will see the underside of the hood painted with both the canyon red and the heather stripe. We will paint underside of hood and trunk but rest of car will be painted at one time. We figured that if there is a slight color change it wont matter on under side.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4011/...9e7ed31c_b.jpg

Tomorrow we think we will be powder coating the engine accessories so I can reinstall them while we get the body ready for paint.

Nite all, Ray

[*13*]

The Grey motor looks nice! Keep up the good work!

[Hray]

384 hours, 45 days down, 45 days to go.


Got the seven pieces powder coated today, came out real good for first attempt.

I then got most of the seven pieces installed on motor.

Looks like today is half way thru the final cosmetic stage of the build. I certainly do hope we are more than half way there. Even if mostly done before the 45 days I am sure we will find some little improvements to continue on until the final setup day. As has been said 'these cars are never really done, at some point we just decide to stop working on them'.

Will get pictures of the new powder coated objects and tomorrows progress tomorrow nite.

Ray

[*13*]

You've got the motor in the car & the body in primer. The bodywork for Paint took me longer than anything else. Partly cause' I'm a novice bodyman, the rest cause' it's just a tedious job. If you are close with the bodywork I'd say you're not far off at all.

[Hray]

Mr. 13

We would like to think we are not way far off, the body is nearly perfect. While craig was spraying the last coat of primer I was looking in every direction possible while the primer was still wet looking for lows and highs. We think we are dialed in.

What to me is an unknown is doing the securing of the body to the frame and aligning the doors. However, with DV's method of cutting the cowl plates out and then aligning door that task may not be that difficult. So as long as the door fits the body good on all sides without doing major sanding and filling we are ok there.

The good thing is Craig is an expert on corvettes and working with fiberglass, and together we have done plenty of body and panel fitting.

I think the body should be going back on next week at the latest.

As for now gonna research steele rubber to find a little larger seal for around the roll bars.

Thanks for your comments and support. Ray

[*13*]

As experience usually proves, fitting of the body will probably more of a worry than a challenge. Things like that always work out that way, for me, anyways. Looks like you are capable & the correct solution will present itself, It usually does!

[Hray]

Jan 6, 2010 update

397 hours, 46 days down, 44 to go

Here is a picture of the motor as it is going together, note the silver on the intake and exhaust is the cilgen satin aluminum high temp coating. I love the way it sprayed on, does not have to be cooked to cure. also you can see the new black oven cured powder coating we did. note the extra long plug wires, we think we can route them as shown, nearly totally hidden.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2791/...6df0b674_b.jpg

hood and trunk got the last coat of primer.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4066/...003cf02d_b.jpg

here we are reinstalling dash again to finish up all the wiring, and to see how it fit around 67 mustang column.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4034/...1dc89e99_b.jpg

[onetrackrider]

Ray
What did you decide on for a heater? I finally got to the point of charging
the coolant system on my build (after a couple of hiccups) & the Vintage Air heater works great.
Matt

[Hray]

Matt:

For now we are going to route plenty of heater hose into the cockpit under the dash and then just loop it back. Later I will purchase a vintage heater unit and install it. Or if we do have plenty of extra time before autorama we may do it now. Will know in a few weeks.

Ray

[Hray]

Jan 7, update

410 hours, 47 down. 43 to go

I worked on wiring all day, and went to get a few more items to finalize some things under the hood.

Craig worked mainly in motor area to get things finalized more.

[rustyBob]

paint time must be getting close..........

[Hray]

Update for jan 8, 9, 10

434 hours, 50 days down, 40 to go;

Had birthday parties and wedding to attend so not much time on build for last couple of days. At least wasn't any funerals.


Still working mainly on chassis, got a new vintage air heater system installed today. got the wiring to elect fan done, got the wiring of steering column done. I think all that is left of wiring is the courtesy lights. The gas lines are all run to the carb. New horns are installed and working.

we should fire the engine again tomorrow and set timing and dial in carb and make sure charging system and the electric fan control is all working appropriately. Wednesday or thursday the body should go back on and get secured. With a little luck paint will be on by end of next week.

[Hray]

447 hours, 51 down, 39 to go;

Today we spent most of the day cleaning up again, but did get the front shocks painted and reinstalled, tightened all the front suspension stuff, got the sway bar hooked up. Once motor was in and with some weight on he arms the sway bar was a direct hook up. Nothing offset as was thought to be the case several weeks back.

craig soldered on the last of the wires on the steering column, we took off that riser tube on the cobra valve covers to insert a pcv valve.

did not get it fired today but hopefully tomorrow we will tune it up and make sure electric fan is operating properly.

we make a list of to do items, get them done and we then have another list of to do items, wonder if it ever will stop. At this point of doing very detailed finish work it sure takes extra time. We are touching up the frame, and other items on car that have gotten a little abused in the build.

[rustyBob]

are you still going to make the Autorama ????????

[Hray]

Bob; We will make the autorama, even if it takes the last two weeks of 15 hour days.

pictures coming soon.

[Hray]

461 hours, 52 days down, 38 to go.


Went to junk yard and got new power steering pulley, discovered ours was bent. also got some heater hose wire type clamps, and got a remote radiator resevour that feeds water thru the heater hoses.

went to vintage ford and picked up a distributor vacum line.

put on new painted oil filter that matches the engine color.


we aligned all the cotter pin holes in suspension to run parrellel to the chassis, and made sure each cotter pin was facing the same direction and bent exactly the same on both sides.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2796/...47699f04_b.jpg


we installed a wire loom clamp to hold the spark plug wires on the motor mount,
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4004/...303116ee_b.jpg

here is passenger side of plug wires with motor mount clamps, and the ground strap from bell housing to frame.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2782/...6157ea25_b.jpg

here is a picture of the coil mounted on the bell housing next to the starter solenoid. also note the shining spark plug wire, we painted clear coat on them just before reattaching the exhaust

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2735/...ec1d4134_b.jpg

here is a picture of the sway bar connections. I had to cut threads on a longer bolt to hold the upper cushions tight. see the shining rubber components, also clear coated.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2715/...c686e06b_b.jpg

here is a picture of the new little horns. horns came from american pastimes for 45$.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2757/...b7cd7cf1_b.jpg

Here is a distance shot on passenger side, we put the exhaust back on so we can set timing and other stuff with it running, maybe tomorrow will be fire it up day.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4024/...76626749_b.jpg

Here is the drivers side at the end of today, did not get side pipe on yet,

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2751/...1c04217d_b.jpg


We did have one minor setback today, I went to put on side pipe and it was too short to reach the rear bolt bracket hole, then discovered we enterchanged the headers, switched them around and all was good again.

[Hray]

update jan 15, 2010

501 hours, 55 days down, 35 to go.

I am not real sure I can say exactly what we have done over the past forty hours of work on the car. seems like just lots of redoing, what we have redone again.

At last the body is on the chassis, we did refire the motor and set timing, installed new points and condenser, custom fit the plug wires, bleed the brakes, last minute touches to wiring, installed heater control, installed manual choke, touched up paint most everywhere.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2788/...2ac15fab_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2686/...3dc0a67e_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4019/...188c4ffd_b.jpg

I think we are a little behind our intended schedule, but still possible to be done in the remaining time.

Ray