New owner of Classic Roadsters

[Double Venom]

DV..I need a really, really big cookie!

[Doug I]

I heard the chocolate ones are good. :-)

[milner351]

WAY TO GO GUYS!
YOU ROCK!
Congratulations!!

I know it's been a long time since you've heard from me, but I'm keeping busy up here in the motor city, trying to work some of that integrity you'll work into CRII into Ford Motor Company!

You'll be happy to know I'm still in the game and finally got my shop! Lots of work to do to transform a bare metal 30x50x12 building into my dream shop, but the plans are in motion, spray in insulation followed by steel paneled inner walls, the big compressor, 2 post lift, and a BIG sand blasting cabinet... it's all on the way! Any good ideas for shop design are welcome.
Sorry I missed SF3, my bad.

Rock on fella's reach me any time at milner351@peoplepc.com
(soon to change to comcast hi speed) or
jcerone@ford.com - but don't use that one too much, boss is watching!

ENJOY!!

[dscott]

milner, thanks, we appreciate all the kind words everyone is giving. I'm feeling really stupid right now so you have to tell me who you are. I don't recognize either name on the e-mail addresses. Sorry!
Don

[milner351]

Don
You have no reason to feel stupid at all.
You don't know me.
Jay and Ed know me from my Honda days and are probably both saying to themselves "sure you're gonna buy a cobra John, you've been telling us that since '99" well, so be it. It's still on my wish list and in another several months I may actually have a shop worthy of constructing such a beast. And for that matter, working on other folks cars too!
I'm sure I'll meet you some day, I missed sf3, but I'm sure gonna try to make sf4!!
ENJOY

[Double Venom]

John, that is so awesome. It's your turn fella--congratulations!

You, Jay and I WILL talk

Now lets talk shop--hang the compressor over head on a special built loft. Saves a lot of floor space. In one of our new buildings it will be built over head, right next to the lift for easy servicing!


Build your work table(s) with the lower legs attached to the wall at the floor, then angle them up and out to the width of your table. Plenty of strength and now you can sweep up easy. Of course you can't hide all that junk anymore, but that's the point.

3/4" airlines through out the building with at least one "drop" to the out side by the main drive.

If you can afford it, get rid of the flurescent lights, especially for the ceiling! Use the new halites (?). Cost a lot more initially, but four in your size buidling will make it daylight 24 hours a day. They also work great on those cold Michigan nights! And, they use about 1/3 the juice that large flourescents use!

Now stay in touch and send pictures!

DV

[milner351]

Now you're going to wish you never got me started!

I'm thinking of paying the $$ once and for all to have icynene brand expanding foam insulation sprayed in directly on the back side of the steel siding. It fills all the cracks, seals things up tight as a drum and gives a great R value by doing so. AND - no critters, mold, etc, can get into this stuff, AND it has a fire rating, so you don't have to cover it if you don't wish to - like in my case against the roof - that open truss area leaves room for a 13ft high rise two post lift!

Air lines:
some say pvc is a no go
why?
burst pressure on sch80 (gray) is over 350psi
Even my big new IR 7.5hp 80gal 2 stage knocks off at 175psi
AND
there's no rust getting into your air?
what's your take on it?
I was thinking 1" line with as many drops as I have patience to run.
Like the compressor idea, I think I'll hide mine under the stairs to the loft, where I'll hide the furnace and hot water heater, (I hope to put in a bathroom with a shower) and the parts I just can't bear to get rid of.

Do you know where I can find out more about those lights?

I call the previous owner of this place "sparky" I've already rewired the entire house sytsem and run 200amp underground service with a 100amp feed to the barn, now it's time to rewire that.

Well, I could go on forever, keep in touch and let me know if you know anyone interested in the drag car!

[4RE KLR]

Congrats Don and DV & Jay

This is the best thing for this company. Now a good car will be built safe and correctly and the back order problem will soon be a thing of the past.

This is a good day for Classic Roadsters

[dscott]

Milner, I just built my shop 2 years ago. I used plain old fiberglass bats for insulation. I don't have any windows to save on heat costs. The shop is 4000 sq ft and it costs me about $100 a month in the cold Minnesota winters. That's less than it costs to heat my house. I wanted air for the nice hot Minnesota summers so I bought a 22,000 BTU window unit and stuck it in the wall. The dealers all said there is no way it will cool the building but it does. On 100 degree days we're working in cool 70 degrees. I went with the new style electronic 8 ft flourecent lights that use the small diameter 4 ft bulbs. They are very energy efficient. I have 30 of them and the shop is very bright with no shadow areas. I ran PVC pipe for my air and water lines and they work great. I haven't had any problem. I bought 3/4 pipe with a 600psi rating. I had an upright compressor so I built a small closet for it and left a 4" gap at the bottom of the door for air. It's quiet, doesn't run hot, and is easy to check and drain as needed.

Now I don't feel so stupid since I've never met you. Good luck on the building!
Don

[milner351]

EXCELLENT!
All I needed was a little convincing on the pvc sch 80 air line to help me make the decision, sounds like my brain was failing me on the 300psi rating, I bet that's for the white sch40 pipe, gray sch80 has a thicker side wall and the 600psi rating you speak of.
COMPRESSOR:
YES! build a closet around it and insulate it with some room for it to breath, I hope to do so under my stairway leading to my loft storage area.
I'm VERY impressed with your numbers for heat / ac cost, again you build my confidence THANK YOU.
I will likely go with the spray in insulation because of the way my building was built. It's a wickes steel structure with the purlins on the outside of the posts and the steel directly on the outside of the purlins. So, any air gaps at the seams of the steel panels, holes in the siding from mis aimed neighbors pellet guns, etc, and i've got air and water leakage against whatever insulation I use. The spray in stuff will keep all this sealed up, and remains somewhat flexible to allow the steel to expand and contract with temperature changes. I will put 4x8x2" foam board on the inside of the purlins, and interior liner steel panels on the inside of that. The walls will end up with about 3" of insulation, and will be about 3" thick, with steel inside and outside. No taping, mudding, caulking, painting. Put it up and be done with it. Not the cheapest way to go, but I'm 32 and hope to be working in this building till I'm at least 62, so I am hoping I'll get my use out of doing it right the first time.

STEEL ROOF:
anybody got any ideas how to remove the fiberglass "skylights" I have now and replace them with steel panels to stop the leaks?
I've heard horror stories about walking on steel roofs and popping nails and causing all kinds of leaks, that is NOT what I want to do right before spraying $2000 worth of insulation on the underside of the roof !!

See
I told you you'd be sorry you got me going, I tend to ramble at the keyboard.

Thanks again and best of luck with everything.
When I get my shop set up as I'd like it, I hope to offer some repair / tuning / engine building / engine design (desktop dyno) and sandblasting / paint services to the cobra club community around Detroit.

[BrianR]

A Huge Congratulations to you gentlemen! This is definitely "History in the making". I would like to also extend a sincere THANK YOU for all your technical assistance over the last several years during the build of my car. I must say, it turned out even better than my expectations with your help! I would also like to thank Chris in the engine department, you guys definitely know how to build an engine! We cruised out the "Fling" this year 2150 miles flawlessly with 460 h.p.,500 ft. lbs of torque and 19 miles per gallon! It absolutely purrs like a kitten.
Best of Luck to you and please feel free to call on me if there is any thing I could do to help or support you.
Brian

[dscott]

Thanks Brian, I appreciate the kind words. Chris is very anal about his engines and I think he loses at least 1 night of sleep for every engine that leaves the shop. He goes over every detail in his head and probably rebuilds the engine 10 times in his brain. But after all that he gets kind of cocky because he knows the engine is built right. 19 miles to the gallon for a 460hp engine is excellent. We should talk to Detroit about the poor mileage on the SUV's.

Your car is absolutely beautiful, and your beautiful wife really enhances the beauty of the car. I had a great time at the fling with you guys and look forward to getting together soon.
Don

[milner351]

EASY ON THE DETROIT BOYS!!

I'm a firm believer of good ol carbureted power and efficiency, but we have to keep in mind that these cars don't go through emisions tests, don't have to keep catalytic converters alive and working properly for 100k and those types of concerns that are very real in the minds of us "detroit guys".
In the after market we have lots of luxuries that the EPA doesn't let the OEMs get away with.
Keep in mind also the weight differences you are trying to compare, a fully loaded full size SUV weighs TWO TIMES what a typical cobra kit weighs, and with heated and air conditioned seats starting to be the normal option content they are only getting heavier...

Sorry to go off a little here, but the life of the detroit engineer aint as easy as we all think it is. I'd hate to subject you guys to some of the product development meetings Jay and I have been through in the past, painful is an understatement!

Sounds like I need to talk to this Chris about his engine building techniques, we sound allot alike, I've lost plenty of sleep thinking over such things!

This is a great site!
Thanks again Don for turning around CR2, I look forward to buying a kit from you someday, once I get all these other projects finished!

Here's the eBay item number to my drag car for sale if you know anyone that may be interested:
2425517144

[dscott]

milner, it was my attempt at a joke but I understand the problems that you guys have. I installed an LT1 Corvette engine in a Cobra a few years ago with the 700R4 trans. Believe it or not the guy got 42mpg on the hwy. All you need to do is take about 2000lbs off those SUV's and you have the problem licked!! Maybe a new plastic frame .
Don

[milner351]

42MPG??????????????????????????????
HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess I should continue plans for my twisted wedge EFI combo into my car! It does pretty well in my '90 mustang right now with 3.55 gears, but not sure of an exact fuel economy number, as most of the miles on that car have been at, or to and from Milan dragway!

I knew you were kidding, or atleast hoped you were, weight is indeed the bane of the existence of all automotive engineers, everything gets better with lighter weight, except of course NVH.... but that's a whole other story.

Keep up the great work, I still can't beleive 42, MY GOD.
I only get about 31 best on the highway with my comuter focus!!

[Excaliber]

I've been hearing for years that a larger engine turning low rpm is more efficient than a smaller engine turning higher rpm.

I've never been able to validate this theory because low rpm just isn't any fun!

Ernie

[milner351]

Well Ernie I'm always careful about blanket statements.
Very rarely does always apply to anything.
The biggest problem with a big engine at low rpm and low load is throttling losses (your foot isn't very far into it, the throttle is almost closed so the engine really has to PULL that air and fuel in)
this is a big advantage of the diesel, no throttle.

It is true however that in many cases, a little engine spinning fast uses more fuel than a big engine spinning slow. Like it or not, highway fuel economy is more linked to aerodynamics than anything, another thing that kills SUV, it's like pushing a brick!

[dalola]

Geeze, you're never going to get that shop done if you're posting all the time! It's all my fault, I told him to get over here. Now I've created a monster!

42 mpg is nothing. Heck, I once got 60 mpg with my 460 CR. I went 180 miles before filling my 3 gal. tank. Not to be arguementative, but no Cobra, regardless of powertrain, will EVER get 42 mpg. Ok, maybe he was coasting down hill for 200 miles...

Anyway, welcome aboard Captain 5.0. Keep the boots handy, I may get you in deep!
~Dave

[super_kit_car]

Congratulations Don, may blessings be upon you in your new endeavor. I will throw my $00.02 in on the building. what happened to the solar, and photovoltiac panels that you would make you a few dollars on the extra energy that would be produced by your system. and how about a 427/450Hp 100 miles on a charge electric cobra. you could drive the car for free. ya just charge the batteries with the free the electricity produced from your $18,000. photovoltiac system, it's that easy, a piece of cake. the only thing I'd miss, is the scream at 7500. LOL best of luck. Al

[milner351]

Hey now dalola, UR the one with over 350 posts!
I finished the 32 chevy roadster model for Dad tonight, so I can cross one thing off the list.
Great to be back in touch with the cobra crowd.
Any chance I could take a few weeks off to get things done without Ford noticing?
Perhaps the proper procedure for determining fuel economy needs to be explained, along with using a gps to make sure your speedo / odo are accurate, I got great mpg once too, when I forgot it was a canadian build and the odo was in kilometers!
It's always something.
captain 5.0 over and out