trunk fitment

Brad's been getting the body work done but the trunk fitment was just way too far off to work on without wasting a lot of time/money. Some guys on the boards had chopped theres in half and done all sorts of crazy things with it. But another guy on the boards called FFR and they just sent another lid which fit near perfect. So I talked to Bob at factory five and he was nice enough to just send another one out.

The Cobra Runs! And off to the painter..

Keep in mind the car was cold and hasn't been ran in months. Once its run for more than 5 seconds it will sound cleaner/smoother. And also the engine mounts are still a little loose to give us the play we need for some final fitting (why the motor moves around a little).

Then we took the car to Brad so he can properly fit the doors, trunk and hood while on the chassis. After he does this prep work, we can take the car back while he paints.

When we got to Brad's, we put the body on the chassis. Now it really looks like a car..

Its a bit hard to see, but Brad turned his garage into a big paint booth. After some fitting of body finishing components and lining up doors, the trunk and hood, Brad will be able to paint the car. Later this week I'll have some paint samples as well of the blue.

Crank Position Sensor..

After trying numerous things and not getting ignition we were baffled. We ran through all the wiring several times and finally Scott read something about the Crank Position Sensor. I remembered hearing how this would cause the car not to fire and sure enough, we found the connection was not in. The car runs great and sounds amazing! Unfortunately we didn't have the digital camera to record but I'll post video sometime this week.

So close..

We tried to start the car for the first time and had the digital camcorder ready. Unfortunately we couldn't get it going yet. The first problem we had was with the PAT system (security system, could be better described as PITA system) but we figured that out by adjusting where the key was in relation to the receiver. After that we weren't getting fuel still. After searching through the wiring we found a couple grounds that weren't connected. This solved the problem and we now have fuel to the motor. We purged the lines as well. I see no leaks anywhere either which is good. After hooking up some more misc. items and troubleshooting through basics like fuses we still haven't got it to fire. We may not be getting spark, so Scott's going to post some specific questions on the ffr forums tomorrow and hopefully we'll have some video up tomorrow night! This DOHC motor gets spark from coil packs instead of a big distributor like the older domestic V8's. The BMW I owned for a few years had essentially the same setup with its DOHC V8 as well. We think its either computer related or something with the coils not getting the right signal. That or maybe theres a ground or wire not connected somewhere of importance. We have scoured the car for something of this sort though. If anyone has any ideas let me know. Considering we ran the engine before pulling it from the donor, its probably something fairly simple.

Some examples of Brad's work..

Here are two recent cars he did. They really have an incredible shine and attention to detail. He did all the prep and paint work and buffs it to a mirror shine when done.

Off to Paint..

Today my brother and I brought the car to our painter. His name is Brad "Dirt" Galvin, and he owns Dirt Designs Graphic in Richfield, MN. I was able to see some of his work and he's an extremely talented painter. Brad can be reached at dirt1973@comcast.net. Some of his past work can be viewed on his site at www.dirtdesignsgraphic.com/ He recently did a few new Dodge Chargers and I couldn't believe the work. Hopefully I can get a picture of those cars to post.

Trunk Panels

Today I riveted the trunk panels in place on the sides and rear. I mounted the inertia switch and final tank strap mount.



I didn't put the middle trunk panel on yet because we're waiting on a couple parts to start the car for the first time. Once we've started it and made sure all the fuel lines and electrical in the rear look good, I'll put that last piece on.