4/7/13 Its Done! (for the most part)

I drove up to Metal-Morphous today and picked her up. She started right up.   Had a greatride home….I have to get some “Real” pics of the car when I have time and a nice day.  In the meanwhile I plan to get the final gremlins out..and also put in the Alex’s Roadster’s wheel well liners.  I have to put some trim on the carpeting near the doors. I need to check that all of the body parts they put on were put on correctly (I found a few loose things – parking light, license plate holder, side mirror and still looking for more).  I need to make some faux-screw heads to cover up some holes in the dash where there used to be screws holding the dash to the hoop…I also need to do an oil change/analysis and tune the engine (runs rough when cold).  I also plan to bring the car to Mark Dougherty in PA to get the suspension perfect.

I  have to clean the interior and engine compartments a bit…lots of dust from the paint process….it was my choice to finish the car and have it painted as a finished car…most do the interior after for just this reason.  But I decided to drive the car for a bit to shake it out a bit before I had it painted.  I wanted to minimize the chance that I might have to pull the body off ever again to fix something.

So this is it….the journey is basically complete.  Just fun from now on.   I plan to get some real pictures and ill post them when I get them.  Maybe every year I’ll do a total maintenance look-over and possibly pick a project now and then to improve/upgrade/restore things as they get used.  Maybe Hawk XP pads are my next project 🙂

First pic with paint…

Driving her home

George washington bridge

parked…aint she a beaut?

good pic of the stripe and interior

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2/5/2013 Trip up to MetalMorphous in Wallingford Ct

I went up to see the car mainly to 1) take advantage of the body being off to trouble shoot an electrical issue with the heater (I found nothing wrong) and 2) in light of #1 I wanted a reasonably simple way of removing the dash without removing the whole body.

In order to accomplish #2 I removed the screws that hold the dash in place along the dash   hoop…it is held in very well with the under-dash panel.  Up above I attached some aluminum angle and put velcro on the angle to hold onto the dash hoop…this along with the body lip pressing against the dash will hold it perfectly fine (I hope)

Here are some body work/paint pics so far

More details

More details

Body work mostly done ready for first gelcoat

Lambo Silver Stripe

Hood/trunk/scoop painted

Body off for paint

Stripe Color is Lambo Silver…and here the stripe is blocked off

Hurricane Sandy….Off for Paint Nov 2012

So I drove the Cobra for the majority of the summer…I put about 400 uneventful miles on the car.  I am very happy with the way it drives.   I did spin it once.  I have a healthy respect for the power of the car now.  I plan to take a driving course asap once its back on the road.

Cobra bundled up in a municpal garage for the Hurricane….Note Mclaren next to it…Great minds think alike!!!

 

My neighbors house…this hurricane was awful.

Driving up to Wallingford CT to Metal Morphous for pain.  Ron was a saint helping me out after the storm.

Driving up the Merit Parkway…great driving road!!!

The sign at Wallingford

Ron has had the car for a few weeks now…here are the first pics.  Weird seeing it like this…ugh…but I know she will look amazing in no time!!!

Another view

Rons first pictures

I’ll update more as they come available!!

8/2/2012 Legal in NJ!

Today I passed my inspection.  Joe B at the Asbury Park specialty inspection station was very nice and reasonable.    I passed with no deficiencies.  Next step I just wait for my title to come in the mail and go to the DMV for plates and registration.

Inspection took 90 minutes and the best information I can give anyone in NJ is go over the regulations in the “specialty car” packet you get from Trenton one by one and make sure you have fulfilled them.  Also, they don’t have it in the regs, but its common knowlege you need a brake fail light.  There are a number of clever ways to fulfill this reg (that isn’t even a reg, but they look for it).  I plumbed in a pressure sensor into the brake lines and put a light on the dash for low pressure.  Others put a float into the brake fluid reservior.

Next I get to drive around until the winter and it goes off for paint!  Wooo Hooo!!!

6/25-7/15 Final Assembly!!!! Awaiting Inspection 8/2/2012

The last three weeks have consisted of putting the body on, putting on the bumperettes, putting back on the doors, trunk, hood, windshield etc.  I had a few stray areas of carpet to do still and then it was the wind-wings, Sun visors, mirrors and a few test drives.  Its AWESOME.  I have finally gotten my go-ahead for inspection from Trenton and my inspection is on 8/2/2012.  The inspector was very nice and spent time on the phone getting me prepared for the inspection.  He told me the things that are most likely to fail me so that I can avoid those issues.  (stuff too low under frame rails, Non-conforming lights or windows, tires rubbing on frame, no brake fail light etc).  He seems very reasonable by the way.  Joe B is his name and he seems like he wants to pass you and you you have to not listen to him to fail.  Here are the pics of the car in its final, but pre-paint form.

6/10-6/25 DMV Submission, Fire Suppression System install, Put car back together (beginning)

So in the last two weeks I have submitted my paperwork to DMV  For anyone doing this in NJ this is the deal:  1) Get paperwork packet from the Special Title Unit at DMV in Trenton.  Fill out the two forms (the rest is info about what makes your car legal or not legal…read that to be sure you didn’t screw up).  Send in the forms along with 1) every receipt you got 2) proof that nothing was stolen (i.e. receipts or a notarized affidavit from someone like an engine builder that states that the engine was build by them and sold to you rather than stolen) 3)   7% sales tax on anything not already taxed 4) A description of how you built the car (I submitted my instruction manual and my build log from this site)

I put it all in  a very organized, large binder to make is as simple/easy as possible.  I sent it overnight, trackable mail.  I called a few days later and they confirmed they got it.  I called another week later to get a status and they thought is was funny I was calling so soon (silly me to think they might start to look at it 10 days after they got it)  They told me to wait another week or so.  I will call them before this week is over.

After they review everything they “allow” you to get an inspection.  The only station really to do this is Asbury Park, fortunately fairly close by.  As of last week Asbury had no “permission” to inspect my car.

If Asbury signs off on the car, then I get to pick up my tags!  Only thing after that is my emissions inspection which is all but waived because of my block-year.

But in order to do all this, I need to put the car back together.

After carpet I put in the speaker grilles:

Rear Grille

Front Grille

I need to get some more pics but I put the seats and belts in on both sides and put the Console in and the Tranny tunnel cover back on. Here is a pic of that (Ebrake boot also went on after this pic)

Seats and belts are on now too…will post a pic of that soon.  The S.S. Ebrake handle looks good though, especially with the boot on.

Pull Handle for Fire Suppression system in rear of tranny tunnel

I am almost done with my ESS fire Suppressionsystem install.  You don’t order from the company but their website lists dealers.  Easy install, just takes time. As of this writing I am waiting for more tubing to run one more line to the engine compartment.

ESS bottle in place, activator Cable installed and one of the pipes routed along trunk floor and into cockpit.

After I get the final tube installed, and the bottle filled, the next step is to test the electrical one last time before I put the body on, then its body on, mild body work, Roll bars on, Doors on, Hood On, Trunk on, windshield on and then off to inspection!!! hopefully within the next few weeks.

5/23-6/9 Carpet, Heat Protection, Welding Tranny Tunnel Crossmember, Defroster, Brake Bias Adjuster

In the last few weeks I have done the following:

Finished up my sound and heat protection, and installed the trunk Carpet.  Trunk carpet is not furnished with the kit, so you have to purchase more (I got mine from FFR) and custom, design and cut and paste in the carpet.  Its a pain , but here is the result…

Finished Trunk Carpet. I attached the access panels on top bare..I like the look!

Side view of the trunk carpet on the sidewalls.

Next, in light of Jon’s fire, I did a few things: 1) I tightened all fuel line connections.  Actually one on the distal end of the fuel filter was a little less snug than I would have liked.  It never leaked, but I tightened it up. 2) I bought some heat-shield products to shield various pipes/hoses and areas from heat.

Note heat shielding along where sidepipe will be next to car

Here is the stuff that velcro’s around hoses and pipes. I put it around the fuel lines near the engine/headers

Heat wrap around fuel lines

Someone on the forums pointed out that the PS defroster vent is hard to fit and he suggested making an end-to-side connection to the vent.   I crimped off the end and “gooped” it closed

clamps on end of hose while it dries

Vent modification

Side view showing how the vent is now hooked up to tube…again I used “goop”. Great stuff

Here is Lumen of the vent….very ample!

Someone modeled the car with and without the crossmember on the tranny tunnel that I removed to get the TKO 500 to fit….He said it lost some torsional rigidity with it cut…So I got some guys from the local marine repair shop to come by and weld in a new tube I bought.

Before

After

Finally, today I installed the brake bias remote adjuster.  Very simple.  Just took some thinking.

Remote cable arcing along inner wall of DS footbox…It works great

Here is the Handle

Riveted it in. Really cool addition.

And this week I sent in my DMV Paperwork.  Hopefully I’ll hear back soon and my only remaining things are:

 

Install last bits of carpet once back from Binder

Install fire supression system (ordered)

Paint crossmember welds

Do some body work, (minor adjustments)

Mount body and other parts

GET LEGAL!!!!