Progress on #782

[lippy]

Originally Posted by DanEC

I saw your thread on registration - did you get your engine installed?

Thanks

Dan

Nope. Should have the engine arrive in January. But I needed to begin the CA process in late Dec so I could be sure to get one of the 500 yearly SB100 numbers on Jan 2nd.

[lippy]

Originally Posted by DanEC

I saw your thread on registration - did you get your engine installed?

Thanks

Dan

Nope. Should have the engine arrive in January. But I needed to begin the CA process in late Dec so I could be sure to get one of the 500 yearly SB100 numbers on Jan 2nd.

[tboneheller]

After a few years, the vinyl on my rear panels shrank & turned stiff. The carpeted parts still look new.

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by tboneheller

After a few years, the vinyl on my rear panels shrank & turned stiff. The carpeted parts still look new.

That's pretty surprising. High grade automotive vinyl shouldn't do that after a few years - especially in something that isn't outside 24-7.

[KevinW]

Originally Posted by DanEC

Kevin - that door skin and the shot of the rear bulkhead look great. Probably smoother than the originals ever were. So you molded a cover to fit there and then covered the mold with vinyl. What did you mold the covers from?

Hi Dan - thanks. and basically, 'yes' - I made a mould from parts on the car, but then I laminated on the inside of the mould to make a 'grp skin', so that I had a nice smooth exposed surface for gluing the vynil.

Heres some description of my laminating and trimming exploits. Rather verbose, but hopefully some readers might find it interesting:

The rear flat panel over the back of the cockpit is a sheet of 3mm ali cut after drawing a cardboard template. I then drilled holes along the top and bottom, drilling through into the rear cockpit wall as well to get the alignment right. The bottom holes were countersunk, and then c/s screws superglued in place and locknut-ed on the other side. Then I covered the panel in vynil covering the bottom c/s screws and wrapping the vynil edge behind the panel. Once the panel was offered up in place, I pushed the bottom row of screws through the holes and used plan nuts to nip these up, not too tight. I then pushed button head screws through the top of the panel - these are hidden up under the cockpit surround, and again nipped these up, initially with wing nuts, as it was a real pain doing all of this single handed - i needed arms like that guy from Fantastic 4. I then took some thin plastic/vynil? piping trim and pushed this under the gap between the panel and the carpet and continued all the way round to produced a piped edge between the vynil and the carpet - ofcourse no original cars had this, but your ERA is a more authentic design at the rear cockpit than on my car, so i think your carpet wont come up so high.

The rear wheel inner wing covers and the skins for the doors were all made the same way. These were early learning exercises for when I made the grp footboxes you can also see in my gallery - learning to laminate was one of my plans for this project- really is very easy on small pieces. The inner wings were painted in-situ in liquid pva (blue stuff, not the white glue stuff). I then mixed up some gelcoat and when this had gone tacky applied 2 layers of medium thickness matting and laminated in place. 1 hour later I took a screwdriver and levered off, what was now, the mould. I then tidied the mould up with a Dremel removing the sharp grp edges, washed it out and let it set for a few days. Then I repeated the above process to make a 'skin' for trimming using this new mould. Using only 1-2 layers of grp allows the resulting 'skin' to flex a bit and fit nicely over the original surface on the car. The door skins were made exactly the same way after removing the doors on the car and making a mould in my kitchen (stank out the house):

Making the mould:
http://www.cobraclub.com/gallery/sho...lay-up/cat/500
Resulting 'skin' taken from the mould:
http://www.cobraclub.com/gallery/sho...r-skin/cat/500

Both door skins and the inner wings required a fair bit of hair-dryer heat to make the vynil 'give' enough to cover the compound curves without wrinkles. My long suffering G/F provided an extra pair of hands for gently tugging and stretching the vynil, although the really tough part was the concave curve at the very upper from part of the door skin. There are a few pics of all of this in my gallery, but the uk cobraclub hosting site has jumbled them up, so they arent in the right order.

[DanEC]

KevinW - that's an impressive effort you put together on those molds and vinyl covering. I'm not sure I'm prepared to go quite that far for now but I appreciate the info. I can tell you are putting a lot of work into that car.

Thanks

Dan

[DanEC]

Well, it may not be running and driving yet but with the windshield finally in, at least it's finally starting to look almost complete.

[JBCOBRA]

Looks Great!

[lippy]

Looks excellent. Is the ride height as adjusted from ERA, or did you lower it further. Seems just right.

[ERA Chas]

Shaping up Dan-but you can go lower without harm if you choose.
No dead-cat space:

[DanEC]

Lippy - right now it's as ERA adjusted the shocks. If I remember correctly the front is very slightly below the ERA spec of 5-1/4 inch and the rear is about 5-1/2. I think the front is probably a little low per ERA because of my iron heads - versus the more common aluminum head engines that most now use.

ERAChas - I like that photo - is that your car? I think it must be from the color. I think mine needs to go a little lower in the rear and I will probably drop it a little. I'm a little hesitant to drop the front yet until I get a few miles on it. I think I remember you said you had yours set at 4-7/8 inch front and rear.

Thanks

[lippy]

Chas, how low did you set that ride height, and how long did you wait to do it? Looks great.

[ERA Chas]

Originally Posted by lippy

Chas, how low did you set that ride height, and how long did you wait to do it? Looks great.

I think my numbers are a page or 2 back in this thread. This was done in '92 after the second make over. Original front Konis and (then) new Aldan rears. When originally completed in '85, a short series of drives to settle them. Hard braking and acceleration to shift weight is beneficial as are uneven surfaces.
Don't go by a number so much, my numbers may be different than yours, Dan's or the milkman's. Just gradually sneak-up on the look and function. If / when you get rubbing, go back up a tad.
Hitting the brakes hard at a hundred can cause rubbing if you overdo it. Full lock turning seldom happens and always at walking pace.
I wanted the car as low as possible to get the CG down-beneficial dynamically for cornering and braking. Don't just do it for 'the look'.
And never get the nose higher than the rear-level at the worst or a tiny rake. The larger rear tires alone will rake it.
Edit: I may have put my specs in the 'Ride Height' thread...

[TopNeoprene]

looks cool

[racco]

Congrats looks great, street version looks best in my opinion

[DanEC]

Thanks - now for my one step back. Unfortunately my transmission tail housing leak is from the gasket and my initial euphoria after sealing the tail housing bolts with sealer has turned out to be unwarranted. So, I'm working on draining the transmission (again) and pulling the tail housing to address the gasket. Oh well.

[KevinW]

Bummer - good luck with the seal.
Love the look of your car. Those latest pics are great.

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by DanEC

Thanks - now for my one step back. Unfortunately my transmission tail housing leak is from the gasket and my initial euphoria after sealing the tail housing bolts with sealer has turned out to be unwarranted. So, I'm working on draining the transmission (again) and pulling the tail housing to address the gasket. Oh well.

It never ends. In the meantime, I'm going to get you a belated Christmas present.

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by patrickt

It never ends. In the meantime, I'm going to get you a belated Christmas present.

How thoughtfull - I may need to actually look that up at my nearest Barnes and Nobel store. Unfortunately my voltage regulator fuse did test OK for continuity so I guess I'm on to the parallel resistor circuit. Strange though - the manual shows a 10 amp fuse there and ERA sent mine with a 15 amp fuse in place. I'm afraid to ask - probably will be over my head. First the transmission.

Dan

[DanEC]

Anyone notice our windshield wipers park to the opposite side of the originals? I guess due to mounting the motor on the right side versus the left side.