Welcome

Welcome to my Cobra Replica build blog.
Please contact me if you would like to know more detail as i progress."CR3514@live.com.au"
Regards
Dave

Saturday, December 16, 2017

Aerial View, Wiring up the Body Loom



Started wiring up the Body Loom in the engine bay through to the boot.

Lights, Indicators, Brake, Tail & Reversing Lights, Brake Warning, Hand Brake Warning, Radio/Music player, some auxiliary Power takeoff points under bonnet and boot area.

This pic shows the body colour a bit more true to the actual paint colour.

Saturday, December 2, 2017

A Lick of Paint

Over the last year, the body has been upside down on a pallet.


Sitting on some foam blocks on a pallet with wheels while I jigged up a frame to support the body.









There was several gaps between the body & the passenger, boot compartments, particularly between the engine bay and under dash area where the jointing filler was poorly applied or not applied at all.


Before;
Cleaned up all the excess filler, dug out all the loose bits and sanded back,
















After;
Fibre reinforced filler wiped in and left to cure.
Once cured, sanded it up and blended with a disk sander.









Spent a fair time also putting in wiring holes for the body looms, cleaning up all the holes for other mounting points etc.


Before;
This is the Quick Jack Mount in the boot, drew some lines around the cutout  for a neater finish while it was on the chassis.

Once finished. I'll seal it up with an alloy plate and rubber gasket.






Before;
Underside of the above pic;










After;
Same hole, A bit of an improvement.











After;
A bit of a cleanup to finish it and other similar holes.











Before;
Cleaned up some of the cut lines on the wheel inner guards to follow the chassis lines a bit neater.









Blended in the footwell steering column shaft exit area.













The lower oil cooler inlet bottom panel had a large bow in it, and it inhibits putting the body on without removing all the cooler assembly.
I also wanted to remove the cooler easily in the event it needed replacing, and to install scuff panel in case of a scrape with a steeper driveway or speed hump..... so i cut it out.







Put in some mounting points for the side vents.
These are Foam or Fiberboard insulation installation discs.
Drilled through the centre, installed a Rivnut, and glued in place with Sikabond.

In this pic, I've wiped Automotive body joint sealer over them.





All the joints between panels have been whipped with the joint sealer to smooth and seal from any leaks to the compartments and finish off the underside a bit better.

In this pic, I've also masked up ready to paint on stone guard on the wheel arch inners.







The wheel arches sprayed with several coats of  Motorspray Stone Guard.
This stuff doesn't go far and I used a can for each guard, about 3 coats each.
Sprays on well with the optional gun fitting and 40psi air pressure.







So after all that, it was loaded up and off to Paintwerks in Moorabin, Melbourne.

It rained all the way and arrived at Sime's paintshop with an extra 20 litres of water on board in the nicely sealed wheel wells :)








Sime doing what he does best.
















The colour is PPG Fiat Azzurro Blue base coat, with PPG's LVC104 Enviroflow UHS Clearcoat.

This colour I matched to a photo I like of the original Brittany Blue, or Viking Blue as used on some cobras and mustangs of the same era.

Looks much darker in this pic, its actally quite silvery in the sunlight, and a slight green tinge under Fluro lights.







Here she is back home again hanging on the hoist.

You can also see in this pic where Sime straightened the sill panel area under the drivers side door.
This had quite a bow and ripple in it and was much easier to fix it while upside down and accessible.




Wheel inner guards have been over coated with U-Pol Raptor 2 Pak Urethane Ute Bed Liner.

I will probably use this in the cockpit under dash areas and boot compartment as well.
Having the car on the hoist upside down makes it so easy to work on in the engine bay, cockpit and boot compartment, so i'm doing the body loom and heat shields before i flip it back over and sit her on the chassis.