Hurricane Motorsports
Public Area => Build Pictures => Topic started by: Jerry Koepke on May 20, 2020, 03:35:51 PM
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Hey everyone, wanted to introduce myself. My name is Jerry Koepke and I inherited my dad's (Jim Koepke) Cobra project HM1085 after he died back at the end of February this year. He bought the kit back in 2007 and enjoyed working on it for many years. We both enjoy building things even more than using, so his real joy was in working on the car he ultimately never got a chance to finish. He spent long hours working and re-working things on this car for years. Wish he could have completed it, but I'll do my best to honor his memory and do a good job finishing it off for him. Can't wait to take my mom for a ride in it some day in the not too distant future.
My dad started out working on this project at their home in Brownsville, MN back in 2007, but ended up taking it to their winter home down in Lake Havasu City, AZ some years ago. After his death, my brother and I drove out there in March where I bought an enclosed trailer and brought the car back home to Milton, WI where I live with my wife and two daughters. Since getting the car home, I've spent most of my time getting rid of other projects and making room in my small two car garage for this project. Wish I didn't have it for obvious reasons, but I'm loving working on it so far. My wife hasn't seen me very much since I got the car in the garage. My dad had probably around 90% of the mechanicals done and was just starting to work on the body. Unfortunately, his health was not good for the last several years, so there hasn't been a lot of progress for a while.
After getting it home, I decided to take the body off so I could complete all the mechanical work and get it driving, then I'll start on completing the body. So far I've been working on the exhaust, got the brakes all cleaned up, bled and working, got the dash installed again and am currently working on finishing out the wiring.
One question I have for you guys is what was the process like for you to get the car titled and insured? I'm having some issues because my insurance company needs a 17 digit VIN number, but the car doesn't currently have one. My dad had registered it and even has plates in Minnesota for it, but the registration sheet just says the manufacturer is HURR and the VIN is 085. Both my parents and I have American Family Insurance, but theirs is on a older system that doesn't care about the length of the VIN and mine is on a newer system that requires a 17 digit VIN. Unfortunately, we're having trouble locating all the paper work my dad says he kept for the car, so we don't even know where the current Minnesota title is for it and will probably have to request a duplicate. I'll have to get a Wisconsin one and I assume do something to get a valid 17 digit VIN here, but wondered if anyone else has had to deal with this or knows what the process is?
I'll have a lot more questions for everyone as I go, but for now, here are some pictures of the car as it is right now.
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Jerry
Sorry to hear about your Dad, I'm certain he's looking over your shoulder as you complete the build.
Every state is different in its requirements for licensing. If the car has already been licensed in Minnesota, much of the battle is done. You will now be transferring a legal title/license from one state to another. Wisconsin will have a process for that and also a process for assigning the 17 digit VIN.
Maybe there is a Wisconsin forum member who will speak up. Another idea is to look on the FFCars.com forum for another cobra owner in Wisconsin near you. They may be able to share information on transferring/licensing.
If all else fails, a call to the State DMV number and ask them - be prepared for a long answer as this isn't done daily and the person you're talking to may not truly know the correct answer.
Welcome to the Hurricane family
Paul
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Welcome Jerry.
Sorry to hear about you Dad.
Keep us up to date on finishing the car and registration. My insurance company and Texas registration was OK with the HMxxxx VIN.
Russ
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Jerry, welcome. Sorry to hear about your Dad. I think Paul is on the right track. Try the transfer of title from Minnesota to Wisc. route. Wisc. may assign a new VIN number that will satisfy the insurance Co. Also, for insurance you can try one of the insurance companies that specialize in classic and replica cars such as Midwest Insurance, Haggerty, and there are others. As Paul suggested search other Cobra forums for insurance suggestions. Some times the specialty insurance companies are the best for rates as many of the traditional insurance companies don't know how to handle classic and replica cars.
Sam
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Jerry,
Sorry to hear about your father. I'm sure that he would be pleased that you are finishing up the car. You will have fond memories of him while completing the project, and you will experience his thrill when you fire it up and drive it for the first time.
I have not registered my car in Iowa yet, but I have insured it. There are a lot of good insurers, but I settled on Heacock Classics insurance, which I found to have good coverage options at a reasonable price.
Welcome to the Hurricane family,
Bob
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More progress made on the Cobra.
Got the wiring for the dash completely done and all lights and controls tested and working. Got the exhaust headers on, spark plus in and wires all connected. Got the battery tray installed and put a new battery in and all the cables for it run and connected. Just need an oil filter and I believe it's ready to start up for the fist time!
I do have a filter relocation kit that I need to install since the stock filter for the 351w block is huge and will just about touch the inner fender liner once I have the brackets installed for that. Where are people mounting these? I've seen some mounted right on the front of the engine, but the mount I have isn't going to fit there very well unless I make a separate bracket for it (which is fine). Any suggestions? I'm going to need some right angle hose connections for the kit I have since they come straight out both the end for the block and the filter end and I know that won't work for this application.
Anyway, a few more picture of where things are at. For now I'm just going to stick with the factory slip on exhaust for the side pipes, but may fit it with flanges at a later date. It's been 13 years this kit has been worked on and the engine hasn't been started yet and I want to hear this thing run! I think my dad may have started it for a few seconds years ago after getting things mounted, but never even warmed up.
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You're making good progress, look forward to your updates.
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Tried to start it up last night for the first time. Unfortunately, no spark.
After some testing and researching online, have determined the MSD Digital 6 Plus module is completely dead. I hear you can send them in to be repaired, but sounds like it's around $100 with shipping. Decided to get a new one instead and went with the MSD Street Fire. Still keeping it MSD for now, but since the car will be used mostly for cruising, I didn't feel I needed all the features the Digital 6 Plus had to offer and was only $171 for the Street Fire compared to $400 for a new Digital 6 Plus.
Should have the new module here Tuesday and hopefully I'll hear this beauty fire up for the fist time. Apparently my dad started it three times in the past, but I was never there to hear it. Really looking forward to it.
If anyone has any experience with the Street Fire or getting a MSD Digital 6 Plus repaired, I'd love to hear about it. Still keeping that option open just in case.
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Got the new MSD Street Fire ignition module today and installed it. Engine fired right up! So pumped to have heard this thing for the first time. Just headers on it right now, so it was a bit loud to say the least, but I loved it! My wife wasn't as excited and thought things were going to start falling off shelves in the house, but well worth it.
Still have a ton to do, but definitely a huge milestone for me.
Not sure if there is a way to post a video on here, so here's a link to my Facebook video if anyone is interested.
https://www.facebook.com/JerryKoepke/videos/10222897540411430/ (https://www.facebook.com/JerryKoepke/videos/10222897540411430/)
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Nice!!! Sounds really good. Keep up the good work.
Russ
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I do have a filter relocation kit that I need to install since the stock filter for the 351w block is huge and will just about touch the inner fender liner once I have the brackets installed for that. Where are people mounting these? I've seen some mounted right on the front of the engine, but the mount I have isn't going to fit there very well unless I make a separate bracket for it (which is fine). Any suggestions? I'm going to need some right angle hose connections for the kit I have since they come straight out both the end for the block and the filter end and I know that won't work for this application.
I fabricated a remote oil filter bracket like the original 427FE brackets, for my 351W, which mounts to the water pump. You can see some pics in this post:
http://forum.hurricane-motorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=2352.msg25003#msg25003
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I also had to fab a bracket to mount to the water pump.
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Bob...or anyone else,
Do you have a drawing or dimensions in any way for that bracket you made up for the oil filter? I'm very comfortable fabricating parts and can just make something, but if I had the info, I'd prefer to make something that looks like it belongs on the car.
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You can also obtain this bracket from Shelby https://www.shelbyengines.com/products/remote-oil-filter-bracket
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Jerry, sorry no drawing. I just took some measurements and fabbed my own bracket from a 1/4" piece of aluminum plate I had on hand.
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You can also obtain this bracket from Shelby https://www.shelbyengines.com/products/remote-oil-filter-bracket
That bracket is for FE and will not fit a small block.
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Ahhh, missed that mentioned earlier.
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I wish I had a drawing. I had a posterboard template I cut up to test fit, and once I made my bracket I tossed it. Should have saved it into my build book. Wait, i may have ... let me look for it tonight
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Hit another milestone today on my build. Got to drive the car on the road in go cart mode for the first time! Can't wait to go for a real ride, but this will do for today. The thing is incredible, I'm so excited to get working on the body now and get this thing out on the open road. Not sure how to post a video here, if it's possible at all, so I'll post a link to the video I put on my Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/1365130141/videos/pcb.10223618049183699/10223618043903567/
https://www.facebook.com/1365130141/videos/pcb.10223618049183699/10223618046143623
Video quality isn't great on there because of Facebook, but still fun to see.
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Hit another milestone today on my build. Got to drive the car on the road in go cart mode for the first time! Can't wait to go for a real ride, but this will do for today. The thing is incredible, I'm so excited to get working on the body now and get this thing out on the open road. Not sure how to post a video here, if it's possible at all, so I'll post a link to the video I put on my Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/1365130141/videos/pcb.10223618049183699/10223618043903567/
https://www.facebook.com/1365130141/videos/pcb.10223618049183699/10223618046143623
Video quality isn't great on there because of Facebook, but still fun to see.
Thats awesome! I remember my momentous first go-cart drive a few years back. Was a long time coming. I was a lot more cautious on my round-the-block trip because I was constantly thinking about the doof that actually assembled all the brakes on that thing - ME!
...and a slight suggestion: ask your videographer to turn the camera phone horizontal when recording so we can see the whole car!
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I ordered the FE bracket and with a little modification was able to make it fit my engine. However I am out in left field with a Cleveland. All I did was nipped the end and flipped it over and rewelded in order to fit. Some where on the old computer I have a more detailed drawing I think, or in my pile of templates. Then again it might have been a on the fly design and build. See attachment to help explain what I did by nipping the end and flipping over. By doing that moved the hole over enough to attach.
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Yeah, that was my 14 year old daughter recording. I was hoping for a little better, but it will do for now.
Next I'm planning to put the body back on and get everything sitting right and get the hood, trunk and doors aligned. Then I'm planning to get all the holes drilled/cut for all the latches and everything. I'll get some more pics/video up when I have it all together, then it's coming apart again so I can do all the body work.
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I got to take my car for a little ride today with the body on. Still need to adjust the hood, so that wasn't on since I have the hinges off at the moment. Also took the seats out to keep them safe while I work on stuff.
Here is a link to some videos on my Facebook page if anyone is interested.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10223729935580789&id=1365130141
Also, I feel like I'm an official Cobra owner now that I've got my first snake bite. Couldn't get a great picture of it, but I managed to do it twice today . One made a nice big red mark, second one made a big blister on the red mark. The wife is probably going to insist on some heat shields when it's ready for passengers.
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Be sure and get it taken care of asap. I did the same thing several years ago and it tuned into a nasty situation and took two trips to the Dr., two shots, and two weeks to heal. Still have the scar.
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I got to take my car for a little ride today with the body on. Still need to adjust the hood, so that wasn't on since I have the hinges off at the moment. Also took the seats out to keep them safe while I work on stuff.
Here is a link to some videos on my Facebook page if anyone is interested.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10223729935580789&id=1365130141
Also, I feel like I'm an official Cobra owner now that I've got my first snake bite. Couldn't get a great picture of it, but I managed to do it twice today . One made a nice big red mark, second one made a big blister on the red mark. The wife is probably going to insist on some heat shields when it's ready for passengers.
Ain't it great?! (the ride, not the burn -- sorry bout that )
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Been a while since I posted anything on my build, but I've been working on it slowly as the and money allow. I'm pretty much compete mechanically now. Just got the seats and harnesses installed and went for my first real ride around town in it yesterday! Wow, what a feeling! Like driving the most insane go cart ever. No refinement, no power steering or breaks, but just pure power and nothing but fun! Went to the gas station first to fill up, then just drove around a bit.
Can't drive it too much until I get it aligned, but it actually tracks well as far as I've seen in the little bit I drove it. Never got much above 30mph in town, but soon! Unfortunately the hot rod shop in town here can't get it in for a couple weeks, but they do a really thorough job on a new build like this and go through every part of the suspension and make sure everything is square, so I figure it's good to have that done once professionaly, then I know I have a good safe starting point to tweak from if necessary.
I was surprised I had no issues at all on my first drive and I can't wait to get out again! I will post a couple pictures of where I'm at right now in my build. Really just starting body work.
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Here are a few pictures of the current state of my build.
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Congrats. All smiles for you here! :D
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Aint it GREAT ?!?
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Looking good.
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Oh my gosh! Got my car back from the shop today after getting the first alignment done and having the carb tuned. Even though my car is technically 14 years old at this point, it's still a new build and only just recently on the road for the first time. After getting it back I think I'm in trouble. I intended to go for a 15 minute ride to see how the suspension felt and the carb tune was. 85 MILES LATER... I came home to a wife that was a little confused why I was gone so long! This thing is amazing to drive. Still some tweaks to do, but I can't believe how fun and awesome this car is!
I have a long way to go, but I'm so pumped to have been able to get out on the highway and stretch her legs a little. The on ramp to the highway that only took seconds to hit 90mph was fun and this thing just loves to eat up the miles. Can't wait to get out in her again...probably tomorrow. I was expecting the suspension to be a lot rougher, but I have to say, it's probably smoother than my Jeep Wrangler and way more fun to drive, obviously.
After driving most of the afternoon with a few stops at friends houses, I got the car home and put it up on my lift to make sure everything was still tight and everything looked great. Couldn't be happier with this beast. I tried to take some video of my first real drive in this thing, but my cheap GoPro knock off didn't handle vibrations well and was nauseating to watch, so I'm going to have to figure out another mount before I can share any videos.
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Well, it’s been almost two years since I last shared any build progress, sorry about that. I’ve been working on my car a lot and have got a long way in my build. Last summer I finished my first round of body work setting all my gaps and leveling everything out, then primed it and put it all together. Since I knew I was going to be driving the car a bit before I took it apart again, I went over the primer with 1000 grit sand paper and sanded the entire thing in one direction from front to back and it left the surface looking like brushed metal finish. I managed to get the interior in before entering in my first car show at a local swap meet last fall. Had a lot of fun there and the car, even though it was only in primer, still attracted a lot of attention.
I’m now in the final stages of my body work and am getting ready to paint everything. My final coat of primer is going on in a couple days, and depending on how that goes, the paint will be going on in the next few days/weeks after. I have another car show I’m hoping to be in at the end of April, so that’s pushing me to get the paint finished up. I’ll be going with a deep red metallic for the paint and I’m planning on doing matte black vinyl stripes and planning to black out most of the other chrome on the car.
I’m currently at about 1,700 miles on the car and I’m loving driving it, so much fun!
I'll make a few posts with pictures of what I've done over the last couple years.
These images take off from my last post with pictures a while back. These are from when I did my last coat of high build 2K primer.
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Here is the next dump of photos of my progress, mostly enjoying the car, then onto the next round of body work starting with the interior installation.
I did take inspiration from someone's post on here for making interior door panels and I really like how they turned out!
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Here is my final dump of photos for now, this is the recent work on getting ready to paint and my exhaust finally being ceramic coated. That exhaust had to be redone three times for one reason or another, but they look good now. Hopefully the finish on the exhaust holds up.
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I like that scissor lift -- what is it?
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Looks like a Bendpak https://www.bendpak.com/car-lifts/mid-rise-scissor-lifts/md-6xp/
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Bob,
The lift is a BendPak like Greg said. It's been amazing for working on the car and I occasionally put other vehicles on it when the need arises. Only issue is the center isn't open, so if you needed to drop the trans or something like that, it would be in the way.
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Cool progress and pretty nice that you've been able to enjoy the car some and drive it. Interior turned out really nice. Pretty cool way of making the primer look good while you were waiting to get into the final body work.
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Awesome, bet your pretty stoked getting closer to the final stretch. Tried looking through your build log for information on the seats your using. Where those included from your late dad’s purchase of the original kit or did you get them separately? Just wondering due to the amount of room between the front edge of the seat and the dropped foot box and the steering wheel.
Michael
(Dawger-HM2013)
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Michael,
These are the original seats that came with the kit when my dad originally purchased it back in 2007. Possibly what you're seeing is one of the differences between the gen1 cars and the gen2, but I don't know since I haven't seen a gen2 in person. The seats are surprisingly comfortable considering how simple they really are, but maybe I'm just too happy driving the car to notice. Haven't been on any long trips with it yet, so I don't have a great feel for comfort on long trips. The longest straight I've had was a couple hours when I went on a run with a bunch of other Cobra owners in Wisconsin.
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Well, once again it's been a while since my last update. At least this time it hasn't been years, just a little over half a year!
Anyway, I'm going to dump a bunch of photos again of the work I've done over the last months. I did manage to finally get my car primed again and painted, assembled and driving! That's quite the milestone and I'm so happy with how it's turned out so far. I'm not done yet, but here are the pictures of what I've been working one...
First dump contains the priming of the doors, hood and trunk. After doing those, I decided I need more of a real paint booth and decided to completely take up my entire garage with a DIY paint booth. The booth is a cross-flow that has a series of filters on the top of one end for air to come into the booth and a large drum fan on the other end of the booth at the flow in an attempt to be able to get rid of overspray while spraying. The booth worked well and has now been disassembled and I'm glad to have my garage back!
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Not sure why some of those images in my last post got flipped on their sides since the pictures were not like that, oh well.
Next dump or two or however many is the painting of the car...
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Imediately after painting and starting the first of many rounds of wet sanding and buffing...
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Reassembly...
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Why would it this site completely flip an image upside down? Anyway, here are some more pictures now that the car is all assembled and I'm able to drive and enjoy it. Been to a couple car shows/cruise nights since painting and my car is always one of the favorites like I'm sure you guys with completed cars are used to.
Also, a shot of the garage now the the paint booth is all out and the garage is usable again.
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A few updates I've made since getting the car all assembled again a few weeks ago.
First image is new LED lights for the guages. The GPS speedometer I have has a blue LED backlight which cannot be change (to my knowledge), so I didn't have any choice but make the rest match that as close as I could. Prior to changing out the bulbs, I had three separate colors among all the guages and that was bugging me. I initially wasn't wild about the blue, but now that I've driven it a few times at night, it's actually really nice to drive with.
The last thing I did, which I'm still finishing up is installed an oil cooler. I really like how it turned out. I suspect I didn't do much like others have since I didn't have the sheetmetal that came with the car for the bottom plate in the nose area. I welded up a bracket to hold everything and then bolted that to the cross piece that supports the radiator. Seems very secure and I'm happy that I didn't actually have to drill any holes in the body to mount any of it.
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Did you notice any difference in oil temp after you installed the cooler?
Also, I may have asked before but what is the lift you're using and do you like it?
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I don't know about the oil temp yet, still waiting on the last of the fitting to be delivered to actually hook it up on the engine side. Should be here tomorrow, then I have a club ride on Saturday, should be able to report back after that.
As for the lift, it's a 6000lb Bendpak sissor lift. I love the lift. Only issue with it is I can only back over it because the nose of the car is too low to clear it, but that's not much of an issue. I think it's the perfect lift for doing the body work/ painting because you can raise and lower the car and there are absolutely zero obstructions all the way around the car.
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Forgot to include the picture of a cruise night I went to a couple weeks ago. Took a friend of mine who is a really talented artist and he took this picture of a beautiful sunset, the 50s themed drive-in the cruise night was at and my car. Thinking about asking him to paint this picture he took at some point.
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Forgot to include the picture of a cruise night I went to a couple weeks ago. Took a friend of mine who is a really talented artist and he took this picture of a beautiful sunset, the 50s themed drive-in the cruise night was at and my car. Thinking about asking him to paint this picture he took at some point.
WOW nice! Is that paint or gelcoat?
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That's paint. I did a paint kit from Eastwood called Ruby Red Metallic which is a mixing of their Fireball Red Pearl and Molten Red Metallic. It's a single stage paint, but I did get clear to put on as well, though I haven't done it yet. I'm not 100% sure I'm going to do the clear at this point, but we'll see. This is actually the first time I've painted a car and while I'm happy with how it turned out, it's certainly far from perfect. It looks really nice, but it's a long way from what a pro would have laid down. I was able to sand and buff it and make it look good, but I still have some corrections to make over this coming winter. Once those are done, I have matte black vinyl strips I'm putting on.
Overall I love the paint color, it's very dark and when it's not in the sun it almost looks a totally different color than when the sun shines on it. As you can see from the photo, it almost looks black or just a really dark maroon if there is enough indirect light on it. When the sun shines on it it absoluetly bursts with metallic shine, so it's really interesting and a little different than I expected.
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Oil cooler is all installed and had a local Cobra club ride this last weekend. My oil temp prior to putting the cooler in was right about 230 all the time. It was rather cool (about 45 degrees outside) on Saturday morning when I left for my group ride anhour and a half away and my oil temp on that ride barely got above 150. I was a little worried that may be a bit low, but once I got running around on our ride including some in town driving my temp sat right around 190 which I felt was a good temp. Overall I'm really happy with the cooler, both in how it performs and how it looks. My only issue right now is I went cheap on the AN fittings and I'm now regretting it since I appear to have some very small leaks in a couple spots. Luckily not on the cooler itself, but under the hood on the remote oil unit and down by the engine. Not a big issue, but something to take care of over the winter.
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Pretty cool that it worked that well and dropped the temp that much. Got any pics of the tie in at the engine?
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Here are a couple pictures of the engine side tie in. My remote oil filter is right there, so that was fairly simple. Not sure if I had pictures of it or not, but the hoses are clamped in place on the front of the radiator side so they can't move, thn they are clamped in th engine side, so they are more secure than they may look in the picture. They are fairly rigid and there is no place for them to go. I was debating runing them through the aluminum on the side in the wheel well, then back in, but then I saw a someone's picture on here they they just went up and over the radiator and that worked really well for me. I purposely put some extra bend in the hoses when they were tied together so they sit closer to the radiator so I have more room to change out the oil filter when needed.
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Thanks for sharing the pics. Nice clean install.
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Just finished putting the stiped on my car! Went with matte black vinyl and I'm really happy with how they turned out. I wouldn't say anything on this car is absoultely perfect, but I'm really please with how it looks and take a lot of satisfaction in knowing I did it all myself...well, and my dad with the parts he did before I got the car. Now the long wait to drive it till next spring. Maybe there will be some warm winter days I can get out a bit.
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Very nice!! There will be some semi warm days, but even if it is cold and not snowing...go for a drive!!
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The stripes look really nice on the car, it finished it out perfectly.
I would imagine being in Wisconsin you get hindered by the salt on the roads moreso than the cold. That's how it is for me at least.
Would help if I looked closer to what color they were :-\ ::)