Sealed and ready for paint!

Its been a while since Ive made an update, but Brad has carefully got the body ready for paint. He made sure theres no pinholes and that everything's smooth. I stopped by last night and the primer was so smooth youd think the car was already painted when you touched it. Anyway, he put the sealer on and in a few hours the car will have the white layed down. After that Brad will mask off the stripes and put the blue on top tomorrow.


After numerous coats of blue goes on he'll do the clear coat, followed by wet-sanding and buffing. Keep up the good work Brad!

Roll bar, e-brake, trunk inner panel, misc.

Tonight I installed the hoop. It must be fitted before the body goes on because its nearly impossible after that point.



After removing it I installed the last inner trunk piece by riveting it in.



Next I got the e-brake functioning properly.



Earlier today Scott and I took the car out a few times. We noticed the rear passenger wheel would rub under acceleration or around a curve. So later, I removed the rear wheels and massaged the aluminum in a bit to prevent that from happening again. I also adjusted the rear springs a little to bring the rear of the car a bit higher. I did this because there was more wheel gap between the fender and front wheels than the rear fender and wheels. So this should equal things out as well as give the rear wheels a little more room so they don't rub.

We also received the Excalibrator. I had American Muscle add a custom tune specifically for the car. It eliminates the engines need for the EGR (our check engine light is no longer on) and maximizes the parameters to premium fuel and the upgrades our car has. It even took into account the rear end ratio and tire/wheel size. The nice thing is Ludi can just plug it in and adjust a lot of the parameters like spark, air/fuel ratios, rev limit, and top speed to name a few. Additionally, if the cars check engine light ever comes on he can plug the device in and see exactly why and diagnose the problem without bringing it somewhere as well as reset it. The stock tune is also on the programmer so you can simply plug it in and choose to switch it back to stock if you really want.

Primed

The car is almost completely primed and ready to paint!

Car back from Performance Wheel

John called around and got a variety of different inner and outer tie rod ends until he came up with the best possible match. Unfortunately, the wheel is not adjustable and it isn't right in the center (it's too far away to just adjust the tie rods further as well). The car drives perfectly straight and John was very impressed with how it went down the road. To get the wheel perfectly centered I may bring the steering shaft to a machine shop, have them cut and then re-weld it at the right spot. Hopefully we'll have the body back very soon so the car can get finished up.

Alignment

Today I brought the car to Performance Wheel Alignment in Bloomington. John, the owner, has owned the shop since 1990 and has been performing this work for over 20 years. He does everything from special interest vehicles like the Cobra, all the way up to large commercial trucks. A lot can be learned from talking with him about suspension geometry and handling and he was definitely the right guy to go to for an alignment. Id recommend him to anyone in the area. We put the caster and camber angles close to the Factory Five specs (caster about 3.5 degrees and camber -.5 degree.).



John at work:


He mentioned the car was so low you can tell if a penny is heads or tails when you go over it.


We're having one small difficulty with the toe-in. We can get the spec where we want, but not with the steering wheel at center position. And the wheel cannot be simply adjusted. John ordered some different inner tie rods and that should do the trick. He'll have them in the next couple of days. We took the car around the block and it drives nice and straight with no abnormalities.

Wiring and Misc.

Today I torqued down the motor mount bolts and then Scott and I cleaned up the wiring in the interior. We mounted the ECU and tucked all the wires away so the dash is ready to go in (as soon as the body is on). We also took care of the wiring in the driver footwell.

Chassis Back..

I got the chassis back while Brad paints the car. Once he has the body painted Ill bring the chassis to him and we'll mount the body, hood, trunk and doors on the car and make sure everything goes together smoothly.

Today I started by laying dynamat in the footwells and on the outside of the footwells where the exhaust is closest. Once I have the body back I can finish the other areas with dynamat.






Then I painted the upper radiator panel, hood hinges and door hinges.



We also got brake fluid through the Cobra's system and bled the air out over the weekend.

Almost Painting..

Everything is now straight and all the hinges, locks/latches have been mounted. All the seams are sanded down and Sunday is the final prep. I should have the chassis back mid-week!

Trunk fitted!

Brad managed to get all the lines/curves on the trunk where they need to be and fitting/operational. He had to take off some material in certain areas and pull the bottom together with the latch bracket.




He also put the latches on the doors making them operational and fitted.



Tomorrow he will be doing the latches for the hood and license plate fitment. Then its just mudding/sanding and paint!

Body Work Almost Complete

Our new trunk fitment was the same as the old, but Brad made some adjustments and is almost ready getting it to work with the rest of the car. Otherwise he just has to round the edges and finish the prep work with all the fine detailed parts. I should get the chassis back this week while he finishes the last body work and paint.