Moving Right Along

One of the things that this build has taught me is patience, no not true, I have learned that over my almost 65 years but this time I find that I do not get flustered if things do not work out as I expect. Previous cars that I have built I find that I would get impatient and take short cuts that ended in disaster but this time it's slow and easy and quality all the way. I would like to think that this is a training ground for things to come like a GT40, my ultimate car.

Anyway, back to the Cobra build...

Since getting my car back home I have been able to get into the build with gusto and have all the suspension components assembled and it looks a treat

Removing the body has made the assembly so much easier and I am not banging my head every time I try to do something. I must say that buying a mobile seat from Super Cheap has been the smart thing to do so now I rip around my workshop at high speed without shifting my butt.

Anyway, on with the build. I have assembled the front suspension and steering along with the rotors and calipers.

The beauty about this build is that I seem to be making great progress with the big items, like suspension, brake components and other items but it includes a lot of mucking around getting things to work such as the steering which really took a lot of thought.

When it came to the rear axle, it was all very strait forward apart from the omission of the crush tubes that hold the diff shear plates to the chassis rails. With a little bit of thought and some help from Pace we were able to come up with a solution that allowed the installation of these tubes so we got the job done. I finally got the rear suspension together including the axles and brakes.
Hope you are enjoying my build of a Pace427 Build No.31

Cheers

Russell

Assembly Starts

I now have my Cobra home and sitting on the trestles I made for it.

The big issue was sorting out all the components and where they go so the logical thing to do was to reduce the amount of components into sub assemblies such as all the suspension components an put all the fasteners with the corresponding bits which made the search for parts much easier.


I decided that as the bell cranks form part of the asthetics of the engine bay, I would give them a brushed appearance. I made a jig to hold the bell cranks then taped a variety of abrasive grits to a flat marble cutting board and rubbed them to a beautiful brushed look


Once I had the sub assemblies together it was time to assemble to the chassis, this took no time at all. As the nuts are all Nyloc type, a 1/2" ratchet was a great investment cutting the time down no end.
As I started to assemble the Front suspension I came to realise that the body had to be removed from the chassis so I made a movable trolley to sit it on and this has made life so much easier.


Lifting the body of was easy, I just rounded up the guys next door and the job was done, them we had a party

I will leave it here for tonight as there is lots more to come

See you next time

Now in my possesion

Having completed our road trip to collect the Cobra from Absolute Pace and getting it settled into it's home, I was faced with the drama of working out where all the bit go.
And just when you think you have it all, more parts turn up.
When you see all the parts laid out on the bench, it becomes quite a daunting task to identify them. There are 13 compartment boxes with all sorts of nuts, bolts and different fittings and all quite clearly labelled once you can find what you are looking for..
I purchased this Cobra as a package that included everything I need so I am not running around looking for bits and pieces. Not only do you have all the parts but it is a very cost effective way of building a Cobra.
In my next post, we start the assembly of the components.
See you next time.

Cheers

Russell

Body and Chassis Meet for the First Time

The chassis has been completed with all the hinging points mounted and the body has been trimmed and cleaned up and is now ready to be fitted to the chassis.
The body is lifted on to the chassis and an alignment jig is attached to ensure that the profile of the body maintains it's correct shape.
With the body correctly aligned to the chassis, pre made fibreglass mounting profiles are firstly fitted to the chassis with screws then bonded to the body. These mounting profiles run under the front fenders, under the dash area, around the rear bulkhead and rear boot area and along both sides of the exhaust tunnel.
Once the alignment is confirmed, the body is removed and final bonding of the mounting profiles is carried out
Tabs have been incorporated into the body mould for the fitment of a piece of timber to maintain the cockpit gap when removing and installing the body.
At this stage the cut outs such as head lights, tail lights, bonnet scoop, vents, side pipe and roll bar holes are done. The body is then refitted to the chassis and doors, bonnet and boot are fitted and aligned. It is at this stage of construction that I take over.

Until next instalment.

Cheers

Russell

Body Construction

The Pace 427 body consists of full gloss, perfectly straight body panels constructed using high carbon content composites which are very light weight (around 46kg) and a lot stronger than fibre glass. The doors are constructed from a carbon/kevlar combination which gives additional protection for the occupants from side impact



A wide choice of high gloss gel coats are available and the finish straight from the mould is exceptional to the point that unless you require a show quality finish, paint is not required.
I have chosen to go with the black with either a wide silver or satin black strip with narrow 1/2" stripes on either side of the wide stripe

The body, once removed from the mould is sat in a rack that holds the form of the body until it is ready for trimming. In the photo you can see the rack that holds one body upright and another on top upside down.

The body goes through a trimming process where all the rough edges are removed and a general clean up takes place. The body is placed aside for general curing ready to meet up and be matched with it's chassis. More on this next post.

Cheers

Russell

Back Tracking...

While I was waiting for my body and chassis to be built there was a lot going on in the back ground and I would like to bring readers up to date on the process.

Once I had figured out the way I wanted to go I ordered a Cobra with finishing kit (this kit contains all component to finish the car including wheels and tyres, no donor parts except drivetrain) from Absolute Pace in Queensland. I decided early on in the process to keep the asthetics as near to original as possible and very old school while the suspension and drive train would come into current times.

The pics above are of the all aluminium monocoque chassis construction process through various stages.

Next post I will go through the body construction from laying up the high carbon content body to completion.

Cheers

Russell

It's been a long time coming

I finally picked up my Cobra from Absolute Pace on 29th August. A friend of mine and I did a road trip from Geelong to the Gold Coast with our trailer to pick up the car which I thought was the better thing to do as I do not completely trust the freight companies with so many boxes of bits and a perfect outline of a Cobra to be seen by all. At least if it was in my possession and things went wrong, well, that is my fault but after 3800klm we got back in perfect condition.

The trip went very smoothly and my co driver was good company as he is a car nut as well so he has taken a lot of interest in what I am doing. Probably the only issue we had was the cladding of the trailer was popping rivets to the point we had to pull over and tie the sides of the trailer together

Having got the car back home, we just rounded up the neighbours and lifted the body and chassis onto a trolley that I made
Then started to sort out where all the bits go.

I am a long way down the track now but I will post more pics in the next few days.