The
next job is to fit a hood, but I will take a break for a while
and just enjoy the Cobra.
07/03/04
The
DVLA came up trumps and my Reg number and Tax arrived Fri Morning,
C739 JYC hits the road !.
Having
clocked up a couple of hundred miles now I can report very
few teething problems. The fan belt kept coming loose, but
a bit
of brut force whilst the belt was warm, seemed to have solved
the problem. The only other problem was small but annoying,
I keep hearing what I though was a noisy tappet under load.
I was about to replace the rocker arms and shaft when I noticed
I had put one of the exhaust manifold gaskets on the wrong
way round !, plonker, this allowed a small amount of blow past,
just enough to sound like a tappet, I wondered why you only
heard it under load.
I
have been adjusting the damping on the Spax shocks, the best
setting for me seems to be 5 clicks. I originally set the shocks
to 10 clicks, nearly shook my teeth loose!.
I
am quite happy with the performance, and what a lovely sound,
burbling through the town, then that lovely sound when you
hit the rev'... now I know why you must have a V8.
I
am now going to change the oil, (just used some cheap Halfords
stuff initially), a local stockist holds Valvoline 20/50 racing
oil. I have been told this is the oil to use for constant oil
pressure and durability, bit expensive at £16 for 5 litres,
but no one said building and running a Cobra was going to be
cheap.
14/03/04
Changed
the oil, bit worried in case I got any 'drain back' and had
to re-prime the pump. I drained the old oil first, then filled
with new Valvoline 20/50, then changed the filter ensuring
the filter was full of oil. Fired her up again and after about
10 sec's the oil pressure returned, so no priming needed. The
Valvoline certainly does give higher oil pressure when hot
and remains constant.
Having
tried to make some stones guards myself and given up, I ordered
some from Pilgrim, they arrived next day and took about 5 min's
to fit. I have used three small rivets to hold them on rather
than stick with adhesive as some people have done.It will be
easier to remove them for painting.
Fitted another pair of speakers under the dash today, the rear
speakers work fine except that as soon as you move off the sound
gets carried away behind you !.
25/03/04
I was always
in two minds about the front grill on the Sumo, other Cobra’s don’t
seem to have a grill and , in my opinion the nose looks better.
The original Cobra had a single bar across the nose, so I decided
to copy this but also still provide protection for the radiator.
I removed
the grill and then set about cutting out a grill from 1cm square
galvanised mesh, (B&Q). Then I fitted 1” x
2” wooden battens around the edge of the rad. That done
I sprayed the wood matt black. Then I fitted the mess grill onto
the battens with self tappers and washers, folding the edges
of the mesh over the battens. The mesh was then also sprayed
matt black.
Next I used
a length of stainless tube, (or you could you chrome towel
rail from B&Q), and the end fittings for bathroom towel
rail. The end fittings were fitted to a bracket fixed to the
inside lip of the nose.
The whole job only took about an hour, and the result is a much
better looking nose area.
16/04/04
Well
my Hood arrived from Pilgrim, so let's get stuck in and get
the hood ready to fit.
First
of all you have to make up the single tube frame that forms
the middle bow support. The frame is in two pieces , you
have to fit a short piece of stepped ally bar, one step of the
ally bar is a push fit into one part of the frame, the other
step is a nice slide fit into the other half of the frame. The
same goes for the bottom supports of the frame, two short lengths
of ally bar are a push fit into the frame then located into two
female tubes you fit into the body.
First
off I drilled the holes into the body to accept the locating
sleeves for the frame. I had previously glassed in a piece of
wood under the body to provide extra support. The ally sleeves
were then simply 'persuaded' into place. Next I fitted the ally
bars into the frame ends, and hey presto it fitted.
Next job is to fit all the 'lift a dot' fasteners into the hood,
(all 14!), if you look carefully there are small marks on the
hood material showing you where to fit the fasteners. I first
made the hole then four small cuts to push the legs through and
folded them over with pliers. It took a while and my fingers
were sore by the end. The windows use Tenix fitting which require
a larger hole and I found a pair of circlip pliers ideal for
doing up the backplate. Next I placed the hood into position
and marked the holes for the two fittings by the door, drilled
the body and fitted the stud. Now I fitted the screen frame into
place and pulled the hood tight over the frame and held in place
with tape. Next I went round to the back and started from the
centre , working my way
round
to
the
sides. All the time re-tentioning the hood via the tape on the
screen.
Now
I marked the inside of the hood to give me a 'glue' line the
rolled the hood back and glued both the leading edge of the
frame and the back of the hood material, then tensioned the hood
again and stuck the two together, as soon as they stuck I removed
the hood and allowed the glue to fully set. Once dry the material
is then folded around inside the screen frame an glued again,
once dry I also glued in the supplied foam to help with the seal.
I
had already fitted the hooks for the over centre catches, (4ba),
so just a simple case of fitting the over centre catches to the
screen frame. Re-fitted the the hood and pulled up the over centre
catches, and the hood is fitted.
Last job is to fit the zip in windows, no fuss a simple job.
I
was quite surprised the first drive I took with the hood on,
it is much more enclosed than I imagined and you have a certain
'snug' feel inside especially with the heater on. The buffeting
is not as bad as expected well up to 70 mph at anyway. Getting
in and out is a simple case of unzipping the window and folding
it outwards.