Prepping the body

Lots of small jobs getting done. Not lots of visible things though.

Connected to up the sound system. I installed a new model of a very small Alpine amp that fits behind the dash, along with a Parrot MKi9200 that allows me to connect iPods, USB sticks, etc. It also allows direct play via Bluetooth. 

Took all the suspension apart again and adjusted the tracking out front and rear to a) give me adequate clearance at full lock on the front from the inside chassis panels, and b) move the rear tyres out a bit to better fill the wheel arch.

This pic shows one of the a-arms out for adjustment. Just needed to screw out the rod ends and rose joints a little bit.

The upholstery is already being done in Eltham. Getting the doors trimmed, dashboard, and seats for now. Will worry about the carpet a bit later once I've sorted everything else.

Interim dash progress in this pic. (The crease is not permanent - it was resting on something just before I got there, but it went after a minute).

In the meantime I've been pretending I know something about bodywork. I've been sanding the mould seams down using 1200 then 2000 wet and dry, then buffing with my new friend the sander/polisher. Decided to get a decent size unit with variable speed after advice from my various car painter expert friends.

The result is certainly not show quality, and the gelcoat unfortunately wasn't thick enough in some areas, but it looks ok from a short distance I think. Ideally you really need to block the whole body and buff it. Eventually I will probably paint it anyway.

Seams before.

Blocking the seams away.

Part way through the process.

After the cutting using compound and wool buff pad on the rotary polisher. (The white spots are just drips, not damage.)

Body Back On

So yesterday I got a little help from some friends - thanks Sime, Cameron, Josh, Darryl, Peter, Ben, and Travis.

We fitted the body! Yay! I was waiting to get the headers so I could do the exhaust first but I'm not sure when that will be so I've decided to work on the body bits now. It might mean I'll need to remove it again which is inefficient, but hopefully not. We'll see.

Before.

After.

Some action shots.

Cobra Nationals 2015

More motivation. Made the trip up to Goulburn NSW for the annual Cobra National weekend hosted by the Cobra Car Club of NSW. We got the Friday off this year for the first time to coincide with our national Australian Rules Football Grand Final. More holidays for sporting events (we also get Melbourne Cup Day every year for a horse race!).

I also took Monday off (which is actually a holiday in NSW too) and made a four day weekend out of it. Given it is a seven hour drive each way, you really have to take the four days anyway.

A new friend (and soon-to-be cobra builder) Cameron and I shared the driving, and joined a convoy of two other club members from Melbourne, JB and Rob. These two both drove their Cobras. And cameron and I both got a stint in them too which was awesome. (JBs red Cobra is the car at the top of this blog.)

Top weekend, lots of cars, taking about cars, looking at cars, and dinners, presentations, etc. Lots of ladies attend this event too which quite impressed me. The NSW crew have got the weekend well organised and run.

Electricals

So the wiring of a car is a complex thing. I thought I'd bitten off too much for a while, but eventually I sorted it out. This realistically took me weeks or even a couple of months to get through. Things were busy at work at the same time, so it probably wasn't as long as it feels.

I had the loom from the donor vehicle that matched the driveline. I had to unwrap most of that, remove any redundant wires, extend some of the wires and shorten others so I could relocate the ECU from the front right corner of the engine bay (normal position in the donor car), to behind the dash.

I also had the donor ECU to match, and I had to workout all the pinouts and wires from that. Not everything is needed, and some things are needed that weren't there. As I was not using the body control module (BCM) that normally pairs with the ECU and runs many things in the donor, I had to work out how to get around that. Things like the tacho feed, speedo feed, reverse lockout wires, etc.

Then I had to install additional sensors around the engine to provide information for all the gauges, as they too would normally be fed by computers, etc, in the donor. This naturally required additional wiring.

Finally, there was all the body loom wiring to do. The kit was supplied with an EZ kit loom, which was pretty good actually. All the wires are actually colour coded and printed on them is their purpose which makes it easy to track a wire. But it is still complex and t consuming, because it is a generic loom and I needed to modify it, and integrate it with the gauges, dash, steering column stalk and ECU feeds as required.

I installed two OBD2 ports also. This is because I am considering installing cruise control, and due to the drive-by-wire setup the only alternative I've found is an aftermarket unit that plugs into the obd2 port to read the speed, and plugs into the dbw connectors to control the accelerator. 

Using the obd2 port I connected a code scanner, powered up the ECU, and to my absolute surprise - it worked! I got read outs that told me the dbw pedal was wired incorrectly! And it was right! I was wrong! Retired it and voila - I can move the gauge by pressing the pedal! No engine start yet though cause no exhaust and other things aren't ready.

Cobra Club Shed Run

Last weekend my local club staged a regular day out where we take in a few sheds, car-related business or factories, usually including a lunch outing. This run started with a visit to my shed to check on my project. I live in a small court so I warned all my neighbours, and most of them either kept their cars off the street and/or moved them so we could use their driveways for parking! Naturally we had a few of them come for a sticky beak!

Radiator

Installed the radiator, header and overflow bottles, along with all pipes. Used stainless flexible pipes that compliment the general polished appearance of the engine bay nicely. These are all standard equipment with this kit, by the way. Pretty nice!

More Inspiration

I had a month off building for some R&R, and was lucky enough on my travels to experience three great car-related things.

ONE

A visit to Shelby American in Las Vegas, seeing all those mean modern day Shelby's being built, as well as a guided tour of their little museuam, including seeing the original Ace that Carroll Shelby squished that 260ci Ford V8 into back in 1962. Allegedly, they refused a bonafide offer of USD$26million in 2014. So, worth a bit then...
















TWO
Got to test drive the soon-to-be-relesed in Australia Mustang (2015) - both the Eccoboost and the GT (5 litre V8). Extremely nice. We also rented a couple of the last model Mustangs and drove them from Miami down the Florida Keys to Key West, which was awesome.

THREE
Traveled to Cuba and saw all those pre-revolution pre-1959 American cars still roaming the streets. Now that was amazing!

Engine Installed

Massive milestone!

This weekend I installed the engine and gearbox. I managed to do the bulk of this on my own - with the help of good tools of course! The final stages I did need help (thanks Simon) in order to lower and caress the engine into position while manhandling the rear of the gearbox into the trans tunnel rear. The gearbox and engine are bolted together prior to installation, hence making it a little more tricky than usual.

I encountered a few obstacles that had to be overcome. First was the VF L77 engine comes complete with a clutch pulley setup on the alternator, which is very nice, but unfortunately about 10mm too long to fit due to a chassis strut. I managed to obtain a replacement standard pulley wheel from my local autoelec that solved hat problem.

Before (with engine raised so I could trial fit the alternator - I can't lower it 'cause it would foul on that chassis member).

After (with smaller pulley, albeit not a clutch pulley).

The second problem was the gearbox mount required me to modify the trans tunnel floor and remove about 50mm of material so the steel mount bracket could be installed.

I previously acquired and installed a shifter adapter so I could relocate the gear lever to the forward mount position on the TR6060 gearbox. This Core Hurst shifter offers a fantastic short throw, positive feel with good centering that compliments the already decent performance of the Tremec.

Finally I installed the tailshaft that has a flange mount both ends to an aluminium billet adapter. Now that was fun, as access was extremely tight!

All done!

Wooden Wheels

One of my Cobra Club buddies (thanks Rob!) recommended making some wooden wheels to help me do a rough adjustment of the track, caster, camber and toe. I thought this was an excellent idea given the infintely adjustable setup I have on the Pace design. So I've made two disks the same diameter as the wheels and tyres I am running, and the same bolt patter as the hub.

I know the ride height I'm after, so I just need to remove the suspension pushrods and support the wooden wheels at this height, and then I can measure and set all the above.

Of course, the real wheels and tyres probably look a little nicer!

Fuel System

Stainless hard lines run front to rear for the fuel. Being an LS engine, I don't need a breather line so a single hardline run from the rear to the engine.

The rest of the lines are all stainless braided lines. I have a rock filter (reusable, cleanable) for larger rubbish in the lines fitted beside the diff cage, and then a fine filter and high pressure in-line pump fitted into the trans tunnel. The regulator and fuel pressure gauge is fitted above the diff.

The aluminium fuel tank is baffled and has a low central collection point to reduce supply starvation.

Rear end and more odd jobs

Wow, it's been over a month since my last update! Time flies when you're having fun :-)

First, I've stripped the engine of accessories, loom, puleys, etc. this is partly to make it possible to install the engine into the car, partly because I don't some of the accessories (aircon and heater are gone), partly because I wanted to clean it up (not that is was very dirty, as it is so new anyway), and finally because it was scaring me! I thought, what have I taken on! There is so much cabling, pipes, etc. nothing like the VW beetle engines we used to play with when I was a young bloke.

So, taking it mostly apart has given back my confidence. It's not so scary once you tame it a bit.

I took a tip from an LS forum and bought a small $10 hand pump pressure pack to squirt water to remove the degreaser. It is not as clumsy as a high pressure washer or hose, so less risk of getting water where you don't want it.

With the diff, I cleaned it the same way. Then I filed of the rough casting burrs to make it look neater. Finally, I gave it a coat or three of silver engine enamel so it looks brand new now.

I've been looking at ways to reroute the loom, or cover the coil packs, and think I might leave them and just look for a nice cover. Something different though. Not your typical HSV cover or those fibreglass spray paint units. Mmmm.

Received all my parts so I could install the diff and finish the rear suspensions and axles. So that's basically done now too.

Installed the pedal box assembly, and also ordered a nice billet brake/clutch reservoir from the U.S. And fabricated some panels so I could mount that.

The kit uses the donor GM fly-by-wire unit with a bell crank and pushrod assembly to leverage the new Tilton pedals.