HG's Dream Car Build - Shelby Cobra Kit

[hgs_notes]

I finished the brake lines yesterday and started bleeding them. SO MUCH AIR! I just let gravity do most of the work filling the system. And then started bleeding them with my vacuum pump and/or traditional method pushing the brake pedal. It's getting there.

[hgs_notes]

Floor pans are in!

[hgs_notes]

Not a lot done today but that's okay. It's a Monday. I got one panel installed, mostly. I'm letting silicone set before I hammer down the flange where it meets the floor. It wasn't a great fit. The driver side was worse. So bad in fact I brought it to a guys shop here to see if he could rebend the flange. It was off by 1/2" on the door post end.

Best news of the day was that my son, who recently finished machinist school, was able to make my adapters for the rack extensions at work. His boss was involved so he wouldn't get in trouble. I'll finally be able to finish the steering!

[Nut Case]

hg

I just finished reading your thread Holly Cow..... You're on fire like a shooting star. No grass growing under your feet, and that's fer sure and fer certain.

A cobra has always been one car that I have wanted. My son bought a Kirkham stainless steel bodied cobra, it was scary fast hard to control. His wife made him sell it within the month that he got it.

keep on keepin on

nutz

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by Nut Case

hg

I just finished reading your thread Holly Cow..... You're on fire like a shooting star. No grass growing under your feet, and that's fer sure and fer certain.

A cobra has always been one car that I have wanted. My son bought a Kirkham stainless steel bodied cobra, it was scary fast hard to control. His wife made him sell it within the month that he got it.

keep on keepin on

nutz

There's always some of these for sale. I think some people get their dream car and then find out it's actually a street legal race car and it's not what they expected. I know this will be a monster compared to my 17 Camaro but I'm perfectly fine with it being totally unrefined. Most of my vehicles are pre-80s. The Kirkham cars are nice. Wish I had that budget.

Today I put most of the cockpit sheet metal in. I stopped at the rear wall because I want to modify it for a cubby hole. There's a kit to do it but it's basically a piece of metal to separate the cubby from the rest of the trunk. I can make my own. And the kit doesn't have a door. I'm going to make a couple sliders and possibly make it lockable.

[hgs_notes]

Finally got the steering together. Not quite how I planned it but that's okay. The threaded bushing my son made worked great but I had to remove it from the rack extensions. Not the easiest task when I used thread locker in it. I tried doing it like the instruction manual said but it wasn't really possible or safe to go that way. So I removed the extensions, put the threaded bushings in the inner tie rods, shortened the inner tie rods about an inch and also shortened the outer tie rods about 3/4". They may need to get a little more trimmed but I won't know until the alignment is done.

I wasn't able to steer it lock to lock because it binds up with the lower control arms because the suspension is hanging. I didn't want to put it on the ground just to do that. I need to lube it and put the boots back in place.

Next week I have to replace the roof on my barn. It's not really a barn, just looks like one. It's the last building I have to do.

[hgs_notes]

Barn roof is going well. Worked on it for 2 days and almost half way done. Then my body said, nope big fella, time to rest. I might not finish it this weekend but it'll be done before winter hits.

Today I made the hole for the cubby behind the seats and made the sliding doors. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I need a latch for it, preferably lockable.

[hgs_notes]

Painted the doors and installed the rear wall. 77 rivets holding that panel.

[FleetsidePaul]

You are a braver man than I am to take on that roof. I'm getting dizzy just looking at it.
The Cobra is coming along nicely.

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by FleetsidePaul

You are a braver man than I am to take on that roof. I'm getting dizzy just looking at it.
The Cobra is coming along nicely.

The sides of the roof were done using ladders or scaffolding. The pitch of the top section isn't very steep. I'm putting the steel over the shingles so I have traction. The last pieces on top are the hazardous ones because I have to be on the steel while screwing it down. I did a little walking on it just to see and it was alright but while putting the screws in I'll probably be kneeling. The last time I did it I had knee pads and used the screw heads to keep from sliding. The more I'm up there the easier it gets. I've got a day or two of work left to finish it.

The only thing done on the cobra was cleaning the gas tank and painting it. Looks like new! And I pulled out the parts they provided for the coyote install. Looks like they gave me what I need for the fuel system except the pump and regulator. After I bought my kit they changed that option and give you those also. $600 for that kit option now which is very high for what you get. I think I have a good pump here and the Corvette regulator filter is not very expensive. I'll be re-reading the manual on the fuel section and hopefully get that wrapped up next.

I have the optional Ron Francis wire harness (rather than using the mustang harnesses, yuck) but no instructions for that in the manual. Maybe it's in the harness package.

[hgs_notes]

After getting side tracked by other projects I was able to get something done on the cobra. The new fuel pump/sending unit thingy was delivered today so I installed the new higher flow pump on it (anyone need a brand new stock fuel pump for a 98 mustang?). Wasn't as easy as you would think. The stock pump is connected to the hard lines on the lid with flexible tubing. I first tried using regular fuel hose but it was pinching too much as I squeezed the lid down. Just not much room between the top of the pump and the lid. So I figured out a way to reuse the flexible hose, modified the bottom of the plastic housing so the pump would sit a bit lower.

The pump itself is pretty much the exact same size as the stocker but the pickup on the bottom is a little taller and not interchangeable. Nothing a Dremel tool can't fix.

I'm still waiting for delivery of the Corvette filter/regulator. Once I get that I just need to route the hoses and the fuel system is about done. I'll probably have to buy some hose rated for fuel injection though. Most of what FFR supplied was just low pressure hose, and brake lines to use as fuel line.

[hgs_notes]

Got a start on the wiring, routed the main harnesses.

Then I tried out the canned truck bed liner on one of the trunk outer panels. I like that a lot more than the undercoating stuff. Seems to dry faster and is actually black. About the same price too

[hgs_notes]

Been gone a lot lately for work and had problems with my crewcab not running good so not much progress on this. I expect to get the fuel line and fittings soon but until then there's sheet metal. I got the left side of the trunk on today and started the trunk floor and. Sort of. Supposed to put the whole rear lower section in as one piece. But I'm going to try to modify a large section of it.

I started by cutting off the rear vertical piece and got that installed. Next I'm going to modify the very front section right behind the seats. Then I'll have to start forming the middle and rear lower to fit my plan.

[hgs_notes]

Got the upper front trunk floor in. I made the cuts for dropping a section behind the axle.

[hgs_notes]

Fuel system is finally together. Only took minutes once I had all the fittings.

I made a thingy to help support the drop trunk I'm building. I'm not sure how I'm going to design the floor. Most people cut a hole for access to the fuel pump, etc but I might just make the bottom in two pieces where the center area is removable.

This area really isn't a priority though and I think I'm going to start getting things ready to drop the engine and transmission in soon.

[72 tigger]

You’re a good fabricator!

[hgs_notes]

Originally Posted by 72 tigger

You’re a good fabricator!

Thanks! I haven't done sheet metal work since middle school so we'll see how the trunk goes.

I got my brace cleaned up and painted and installed. Looks decent, almost fac-tree!

I decided to push forward with the engine install. I have a few things to do to get ready for it. First is to get the engine to the other side of the garage. Just barely enough room between the workbench and the Jimmy. My garage is a mess with clutter. Too many projects, parts, tools, junk, etc. And I need room for the hoist and to manipulate it. I pulled the cobra out of the garage and had the wife pull me around the driveway a couple times. Lol first drive! It actually was pretty cool but it'll be better under it's own power.

I put it back in nose first and it looks like I have plenty of room to work. So this week I need to make sure I have all the stuff done that I can't do once the engine and transmission are in. I've gone through the manuals and I have to check a few things, and put the driver side inner footbox panel in, find the ground strap, see if I put the FFR bracket on with the transmission mount, find the bellhousing bolts, make the engine lift bracket to fit, and probably other stuff I haven't thought of yet. Got a friend coming Saturday to help out and I want to get as much ready before then as I can. I don't know if I'll get it running before Thanksgiving but I'm going to keep plugging away at it.

BTW, quit my job Thursday (have notice), start a new job in early November! Better pay, more local work and less overnight trips! More work overall but I think it will be worth it to not spend as many nights in hotels. Like tonight for the third time this week.

[hgs_notes]

So many little bits to build a car. Trying to get the clutch and transmission put together with the engine. Can't use the flex plate bolts I have because they are also torque to yield type and they are too short for a flywheel. Should be at the local Ford dealer tomorrow. Don't have the transmission mount, that should be at O'Reilly's tomorrow. Don't have a transmission mount offset bracket that should have been in my kit but FFR replied to my email and told me how far the offset is so I can make it myself.

So the only garage progress is getting the engine off the stand and I installed the pilot bearing.

[hgs_notes]

I pick up the new flywheel bolts and get that on. Then my pressure plate bolts don't fit. Well sort of. After another try with different bolts I found that two of the six holes had messed up threads. I was able to get a tap through one and it was okay. The other one had to be drilled out and a helicoil installed. Another stop by the store.

[hgs_notes]

Got the pressure plate on. I got the throw out bearing on the clutch fork and was looking everything over and found that the bolts for the pressure plate extended too far in and rubbed on the separator plate behind the flywheel.

I love doing things 2 or 3 times. Especially with torque to yield bolts! While pulling out each bolt to grind the tip off one of them came out galled. So chased another thread. Glad I had a couple extra bolts.

Finishing up the foot boxes tonight.

[hgs_notes]

Just about ready for an engine.

[72 tigger]

Originally Posted by hgs_notes

Just about ready for an engine.

That’s exciting! Looking forward to seeing it come together

[hgs_notes]

It's in!

Not much clearance on the foot boxes.

[hgs_notes]

It went in relatively easy. The biggest problem was the mess I made dumping all the ATF out of the tail housing when I tilted it. I don't have the right yoke for the transmission output and the rubber glove I snapped around the end filled and overflowed quickly.

Pro tip, add transmission fluid after it's in. I thought doing it before was better because of access to fill it in the transmission tunnel. And maybe if I had the yoke installed it would have been fine.

Other problems, bellhousing bolts only worked for 3 of the 5 holes due to the shape of the bellhousing. I'll have to get a couple cap screws for the other holes. Next step is getting the transmission crossmember and mount put in. I might have to make a bracket to offset the mount.

[62c30]

On the t5 and tremec transmissions I've put in mustangs I always fill afterwards by pulling the shifter. Makes it easy