Hurricane Motorsports
Public Area => Build Pictures => Topic started by: Jeff K on February 04, 2022, 01:26:12 PM
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I decided it’s time to stop procrastinating and start a build log for HM2017. I have learned so much from this forum during my build and I want to document some of my build in the hope it might help someone else.
I bought HM2017 from the original owner, who lived near me in the northern California bay area, in March of 2021. I saw it advertised on this forum. He bought the kit in 2016 as a father-son project. After receiving the kit in 2017 and starting work on it, it turned out his son wasn’t interested in the build. The kit then sat until he decided to sell it in 2020.
Before I brought the car home, I made a body buck to store the body. This was much needed due to my limited garage space. The cobra must share the garage with my 1932 Ford. I found the body buck design on this forum. It’s working great.
After getting the car home I ordered a 408 ci small block Ford engine from Craft Performance Engines and one of the new Tremec TKX transmissions with the 0.71 OD. Almost a year later and I’m still waiting for both with no delivery in sight. Supply chain issues.
That’s enough for my first post. I’ll start posting about what I’ve been doing on the car during the last year. Now I need to get back to work on my car.
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Excellent! Looking forward to following your build.
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Welcome to the forum, Jeff. I look forward to following your progress!
Jim
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Welcome Jeff. Always like the new build threads. Good luck. Can't wait for the next update.
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Awesome! I was getting a bit lonely on here :( I love to follow others and see what they are doing, get new ideas, but has been a bit slow here lately. Looking forward to seeing what you are doing.
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Welcome to the forum Jeff. Looks like the previous owner made some decent progress on the build. Looking forward to see your thread progress.
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Welcome and wondered when you might jump in... ;)
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Hi Jeff. Glad to see you post a build thread. Congrats and hope things go well.
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Thanks for the replies. Like I said, I should have started this log awhile ago. I’ll see if I can make up for that.
The previous owner bought the kit from Hurricane as a roller with the suspension installed. All he really did on the car was start running the fuel line and brake lines before giving up.
One of my first modifications was to raise the position of the gas tank in the frame. I didn’t care for the way the tank hung down low, so visible from the rear. I followed what others had done on the forum and cut off the side brackets and had them welded on 1” lower and 1.3” further back. This raised the tank and moved it forward. This doesn’t completely hide the tank but it’s better. I may end up painting the exposed tank areas black to hide it more, and I haven’t ruled out the idea of reshaping the tank, creating a wedge shape in the back. Not sure I want to give up the fuel capacity though.
I’m going with an Edelbrock Pro-Flo 4 fuel injection setup so I installed a Aeromotive Phantom 200 electric in-tank fuel pump.
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Thanks for the replies. Like I said, I should have started this log awhile ago. I’ll see if I can make up for that.
The previous owner bought the kit from Hurricane as a roller with the suspension installed. All he really did on the car was start running the fuel line and brake lines before giving up.
One of my first modifications was to raise the position of the gas tank in the frame. I didn’t care for the way the tank hung down low, so visible from the rear. I followed what others had done on the forum and cut off the side brackets and had them welded on 1” lower and 1.3” further back. This raised the tank and moved it forward. This doesn’t completely hide the tank but it’s better. I may end up painting the exposed tank areas black to hide it more, and I haven’t ruled out the idea of reshaping the tank, creating a wedge shape in the back. Not sure I want to give up the fuel capacity though.
I’m going with an Edelbrock Pro-Flo 4 fuel injection setup so I installed a Aeromotive Phantom 200 electric in-tank fuel pump.
Hey Jeff. One thing you might want to check. A few of us have actually had to lower the tank a little to get clearance for the trunk pan. I went a little further and raised my pan by using rubber bushings. I did like you and put in tank pump for my Snipper EFI, and ended up cutting access whole in the pan and making removable cover. But the added height of the in tank pump and the fuel lines on top also added some challenges. But in the end. Where your body sits on the chassis will dictate how high you can raise the trunk pan for clearance. Or.....can always hack stuff up and modify to make it fit!
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Thanks for the concern, Bruce. I had the trunk liner installed when I determined how high to raise the tank. I also cut out an opening in the trunk floor for servicing the fuel pump and sender unit. I then fabricated a cover for it out of some aluminum I had laying around.
Speaking of the trunk liner, while trial fitting my roll bar, I found out that the trunk liner interfered with the angled bar. I had read on the forum someone else had the same problem. I ended up cutting a relief in the corner of the trunk liner and epoxied a section of black PVC pipe in the cutout. Someday when carpet is installed, it wouldn’t even be noticeable.
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Thanks for the concern, Bruce. I had the trunk liner installed when I determined how high to raise the tank. I also cut out an opening in the trunk floor for servicing the fuel pump and sender unit. I then fabricated a cover for it out of some aluminum I had laying around.
Speaking of the trunk liner, while trial fitting my roll bar, I found out that the trunk liner interfered with the angled bar. I had read on the forum someone else had the same problem. I ended up cutting a relief in the corner of the trunk liner and epoxied a section of black PVC pipe in the cutout. Someday when carpet is installed, it wouldn’t even be noticeable.
Very good. Its surprising how different a fit they are from one to another. No way I could raise mine 1" and not have problems.
PS: your cover looks much nicer than mine :(
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Bruce, it sounds like you have one of the newer tanks with the angled bottom panel. Mine is the previous, smaller, rectangular shaped tank which can be moved up.
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Ahhhh. Yes it is. Made it a real pain to fit the in tank pump reservoir tray. Only one place you can fit the pump due to the tank baffles. I actually had to modify it to get the pick up at bottom of tank :(
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On my car, the IRS was installed by the factory. The installation of the upper A-arms left a lot to be desired to say the least. Turns out the factory had installed undersized control arm bushings and to compensate, overtightened the mounting bolts, bending the frame tabs, to close the gap. As a result, the bushings bond up and the suspension wouldn’t even move. Very shoddy work. Since correct size bushing are not available (probably why the undersized bushings were installed), I ended up having to buy oversized bushing and trimmed them down to fit. This was a lot of work. With the new bushings installed and lubed, the suspension now pivots as intended.
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I had read in the forum about someone noticing that the center section of their IRS was not installed square to the frame. As it turned out I had the same problem on my car. Since I can’t leave well enough alone, I straightened it out and installed aluminum bushings while I was at it as some have suggested. On the driver’s side I was able to move the hole over in the frame but on the passenger side I couldn’t and ended up having to slot the bushings some. I’m happy with the way it turned out. Very solid now.
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I had read Paul’s posts on the forum about the IRS coil over shock upper mounts being installed too low on the frame of his first car, causing the rear of the car to either sit too high or run out of shock travel. After studying the suspension on my car awhile, I concluded my car had the same issue. To remedy it, I cut off the existing mounts and welded on new mounts higher up on the frame. I also welded on suspension stops as Paul had done. I wouldn’t know exactly how it works out until I get some weight on the frame and install the coil overs, but it should solve the problem. It appears this issue has been fixed by the factory on later cars.
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I had read on the forum and seen pictures of how the mounting points for the shoulder harnesses were not centered with the seats and steering wheel. I wanted to line up the attachment points as much as possible and determined that if I moved the mounting points out to the ends of the 2”x2” tube, they would line up well enough. Since it couldn’t be a through hole, I instead welded in threaded sleeves. It’s a little tight threading in the mounting bolts with the body installed but doable.
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Another minor problem with the shoulder harnesses is that they are too short when attached at the 2”x2” tube. Some on the forum have had the harnesses lengthened but I followed what someone else did and fabricated an extension which bolts to the 2”x2” tube. This moved the harness attach point several inches forward. This seemed like a cheap solution and is hidden under the body anyways.
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Anxious to see some pictures showing what you mentioned in the second post about the harnesses.
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i'm not a tall person, 5 foot 7 in, and my shoulder belts are barely long enough. I know Russ Rittimann, who was over 6 foot, ordered longer shoulder straps directly from RJS.
thats one thing I wish I had done was re-align the attachment points to be in the center of the seat.
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Here are some pictures of the harness extension I mentioned earlier. Obviously the body is not installed in the pictures but I made sure the harness bracket did not protrude beyond the lip of the body. Wouldn't want the metal hitting me in the back if I was ever rear ended.
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Good pictures Jeff. That makes more sense now. Looks like it is pretty far off to begin with.
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After having my wife and son help me install and remove the body to and from the body buck, and struggling each time, I decided I needed to figure out a way to do it myself. This is probably not a new idea but what I ended up doing was screwing eye bolts into the garage ceiling and using 4 tiedown straps to hang the body from. Now I hook the straps to the body and walk around to each strap, raising or lower it a small amount each time. This worked out better than expected and now I don’t have to ask for help.
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Looks like it works pretty good. That's actually what I did this weekend, installed eye hooks in my ceiling to prepare for my body removal. I'm planning only two straps, one front and one rear running clear through the wheels wells. We'll see how it works.
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I spent a lot of time positioning the body on the cockpit tub and frame making sure the distance from the top of the wheel opening to the ground was the same from side to side and the amount the fender overhung the tire was the same side to side. I even sectioned the cockpit tub on the passenger side to move the body over enough. Once I had the body in the desired position, I realized I needed to raise up the rear cockpit body support, especially on the driver’s side, to meet the body. To do this I cut the rear panel and raised it until it contacted the underside of the body, holding it in place with temporary extensions. I then added fiberglass to the gap in the panel to make it permanent. I covered the backside with spray can bedliner. This was a lot of work but it worked out well and now the body is fully supported. I read that the factory fixed this cockpit tub issue on cars after mine.
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Nice work Jeff! Yes, luckily my tub rim fitment was pretty good without modifications :)
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I performed the same modification on my e-brake handle that many others have done and changed the angle of the handle by adding a spacer between the forward mounting points. I welded together an extension link to connect the brake cables to the handle. I even fabricated an equalizer bar so even pressure is applied to each caliper when the handle is pulled.
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I originally thought I’d have to go with a minimum of 17” diameter wheels on my car because of the Wilwood 12” diameter rotors and calipers that came installed on my car. But I found out from the forum that 15” wheels will fit with these brakes. So, I ordered a set of HA02 wheels from Vintage Wheels with pin drives. They’re a tight fit but they work, and I really like the original look. I did have to rework the e-brake caliper brackets to lower the calipers as much as possible and sand off the e-brake caliper high spots to make everything fit. I had Cooper Cobra tires installed on the wheels, 245/60-15 in the front and 295/50-15 in the rear.
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Wow that is tight but looks like you got it. Moving along.
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The IRS on my car uses an e-brake caliper that mounts on a thin bracket. This thin bracket allows the caliper to rattle on the brake rotor when not engaged, which is most of the time. Although I haven’t driven the car yet to see how it works, this seemed like a less than ideal design. To improve the design, I changed the way the caliper mounts to the bracket. Now the caliper is supported across the width of the caliper. Hopefully this makes for a better e-brake.
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It seemed to me that the long, curved piece of metal on the upper frame which the dash screws to was too flimsy. I hadn’t read of any complaints on the forum, but I decided to beef it up regardless. A friend owned a NAF cobra for a time, and he said he could see the dash shaking when he drove. I didn’t want any chance of that happening on my car, so I welded on a piece of ½” wide steel perpendicular. This really made it solid. I also welded up the cutouts on the lower angled piece of the frame as much as possible to strengthen that piece. Then I took it a step further and added pieces tying the top curved piece to the lower angled piece. The one on the driver’s side is removable so it wouldn’t be in the way when I install the dash. I figured there’d be a lot of stress in this area from steering the car without power steering. This is probably overkill but it can’t hurt.
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It seemed to me that the long, curved piece of metal on the upper frame which the dash screws to was too flimsy. I hadn’t read of any complaints on the forum, but I decided to beef it up regardless. A friend owned a NAF cobra for a time, and he said he could see the dash shaking when he drove. I didn’t want any chance of that happening on my car, so I welded on a piece of ½” wide steel perpendicular. This really made it solid. I also welded up the cutouts on the lower angled piece of the frame as much as possible to strengthen that piece. Then I took it a step further and added pieces tying the top curved piece to the lower angled piece. The one on the driver’s side is removable so it wouldn’t be in the way when I install the dash. I figured there’d be a lot of stress in this area from steering the car without power steering. This is probably overkill but it can’t hurt.
I like it :)
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The original owner had already drilled the mounting holes for the windshield frame when I bought the kit from him. But after I was done repositioning the body on the frame, the slots in the body no longer lined up with mounting points on the upper frame. In addition, I wanted the windshield angle and position on the car to mimic original cobras more. This required welding in new mounting points on the upper frame. This allowed me to angle the windshield back to 45 degrees and move it forward some.
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The frames of newer kits have horizontal flanges on the outer edges of the foot boxes that the cockpit tub sits on. My frame did not have these flanges, but I had seen pictures on the forum that showed frames with flanges welded on. I thought it was a good idea and did the same on my frame. Now there’s a good surface the cockpit tub can seal to.
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When I test-fit the steering shaft, it contacted the front brake line. This was caused by a brake fitting tab that was welded on in the wrong place. I subsequently read on the forum that someone else had the same issue. I cut off the tab and welded it back on lower. This required re-bending the brake line. The fix was straight forward but this shouldn’t have ever been a problem.
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Jeff,
Just noticed that you have the older style lower control arms that doesn’t have the extra webbing on the curved portion to reduce flexing. May want to check with Hurricane about switching then out for the newer style. There was also an issue with the welds on the nut portion of the control arm where the heim joint was connected due to cracking, may want to check into those issues.
Michael
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Michael,
Thanks for the tip. I’ll check with Hurricane about this.
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This is what he was referring to on the LCA. See pic.
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373 days after placing the order, I received my new Tremec TKX transmission today. Now if I only had an engine. It's still on order.
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After I got done trimming the top of the dash that protruded beyond the upper frame to clear the underside of the body, I felt the gauge holes were now too high on the dash. To fix this I sectioned the dash, lowering the gauge section by a half inch. Looks better now, I think.
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Good idea for fixing that problem.
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I filled in the factory cut side vent openings on the body. I plan on reposition them a little lower. I’ll finalize the position later after I have an engine and side pipes installed.
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I took a different approach than Bruce did to moving the door latch closer to the frame mounted striker. Mostly because I couldn't figure out how he separated the bonded panels. My method probably created more bodywork for myself, but the results were the same. While I was at it, I also moved the door latch higher up on the door.
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That does look much better. What did you use for the threaded holes, for the screws through the latch to attach to?
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More than one way to skin a cat! Looks great.
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I used keensert type inserts. I built up the backside of the panel with a 1/4” or more of fiberglass so there was material to drill and screw into. I drilled an access hole under the latch to get to the backside of the panel to add the fiberglass. I’ll glue the insert into the panel during final assembly. It was a lot of work but I like how it turned out and I’m in no rush. Still waiting on an engine.
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Like Bruce, I wanted to eliminate the extra space between the front of the rear tires and fenders. To fix this I made some cuts in the fender and reshaped it to my liking. The frame limits how far the fender can be altered. I temporarily held it together with screws and patches and then started adding fiberglass. I know I created extra bodywork for myself but I’m pleased with the results.
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Looks great Jeff! Its amazing what a deference just that little bit makes in the overall appearance. Well worth the time spent :)
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Like just about everyone else, the hood, doors and trunk panels on my kit were trimmed a little short in a few places by the factory. After looking at what others were doing on the internet, I decided to use epoxy resin mixed with ground up fiberglass to extend the edges. This probably isn’t as strong as grinding back the edge and adding resin and fiberglass mat but I’m sure it’s strong enough and a lot easier to apply.
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It took me 2 tries to get the hood scoop mounted. I first used the factory-drilled starter holes in the hood to position the scoop, but after drilling the holes and installing the scoop, I didn’t like the position. I ended up moving the scoop forward an inch and redrilling the holes. Much better. I’m using stainless steel 8-32 button head cap screws to attach the scoop.
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I ended up having to re-bend the hood prop rod to clear the body on my car. While I was at it, I added some weld to the end of the rod and fabricated a plate that attaches to the hood to prevent the rod from slipping out of the hood accidently. Now I need a retainer to hold the rod when the hood is closed. Haven’t found anything I like yet.
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Pretty cool idea with the plate.
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The driver side hood latch handle did not fit on my car. The spacing of the bonded-in inserts in the hood was too wide. I had read of another owner having the same problem. To fix it I removed the installed insert and bonded in a new one that I had fabricated. Fixed the problem.
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Yep, I had the same problem on one side. Mine was all wonky. Same fix.
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When I temporarily installed the trunk lid support in the location most people use, on the driver’s side attached to the body, there was more body flex than I liked. Maybe I was doing it wrong. Regardless, I ended up moving the support to the passenger side and attaching the lower mounting point to the trunk liner. Nice and solid now.
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After trial fitting the trunk latch in the normal location, I decided to recess the latch inside the trunk lid as other’s have done. This turned out to be quite a bit of work and definitely not required. As a result, it moves the latch towards the rear of the car which will make installing the corresponding catch more difficult.
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Next, I decided to eliminate the notch in the trunk lid seal edge, needed to clear the trunk lid latch mount. I thought eliminating the notch would look better. I built up the lip with fiberglass, but this meant I’d have to alter the latch mount to make room for the added lip. This was definitely a questionable modification and has created more bodywork for myself. Hopefully it looks OK when I’m done.
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I like it! Think you'll find the extra work well worth it......after its done and you look back on it.
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I got the holes for the roll bar cut out and roll bar installed. Instead of using through bolts to secure the roll bar to the frame, I welded nuts to the inside of the mounting tubes and used button head cap screws.
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Enjoying these builds. Many innovative approaches being incorporated.
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Roll bar looks like it came out good.
What are all the holes drilled at the back of the cockpit tub for?
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The holes are for attaching the trunk liner shelf to the cockpit. You can see the inserts in the trunk liner shelf in one of the pictures from my previous post. This makes for a solid shelf to install the battery on.
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Being 6’ 3” I need all the leg room I can get in my car. Also, I want to sit as low as possible, so my head doesn’t stick over the windshield much. While I could probably gain more room by installing an aluminum racing seat, I don’t want to spend the money and I like the look of the provided seats. To create head room, I plan on mounting the seats directly to the floor eliminating the seat sliders. I’m not worried about anyone else driving my car. Also, I shaved off some of the foam from the bottom cushion. For some added leg room, I disassembled the seats and reconfigured the frames and back boards under the foam to allow the occupants to sit further back, gaining an extra inch of leg room. I forgot to take pictures of this.
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To achieve a more traditional look for the seats, I disassembled the seats again and cut the seat frames down to create low-back seats. I ended up removing 2-1/2” of frame. That was the easy part it turned out. I thought I could then take the seats to an upholstery shop and they could easily modify the seat covers to fit the new shape. Boy was I wrong. For the price they were talking about, I could have bought new seats. With no alternative I bought some upholstery thread and modified the covers myself, hand sewing them back together. Each seat took over 8 hours to reconfigure and sew the cover. Not something I want to do again. All things considered, I think they came out pretty good, at least the parts you can see.
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Wow. That's a pretty cool modification. Very nice job. Nice sewing skills too!
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Lot of work, but looks great!
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To create additional leg room for myself, I increased the depth of the seat depressions in the rear wheel tubs allowing the seats to be positioned further back. This added over an inch of leg room and still left plenty of room for the tires. Between my previous seat modifications and now this wheel tub modification, I now have enough leg room. In fact if the seat went back any further, the steering wheel would be too far away.
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I ended up filling in the factory-cut front quick jack holes in the body. I cut new holes to position the quick jacks higher on the body. The previous holes were a little too low I felt.
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I ended up filling in the factory-cut front quick jack holes in the body. I cut new holes to position the quick jacks higher on the body. The previous holes were a little too low I felt.
Jeff, I had to do the exact same thing....
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Since I have time on my hands while still waiting for an engine, I decided to do some rough body work. I recontoured the body around the tail lights to better fit their rectangle shape as others have done. I had earlier added some fiberglass on the inside in this area. While I was at it, I also recontoured the front fenders around the headlights so the body better matched the chrome rings. Still have some work to do in this area but I’ll save that for later.
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How crucial was it to add material inside in the rear tail light area? Thanks for showing these two details.
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Greg, I'm not sure if I actually sanded thru the fiberglass body into the added material. Hard to tell. If I didn't, what's left is very thin and needs the strength from the added material. If you go easy on the corner rounding, you're probably ok not adding material. Easy to add fiberglass though. I didn't add any material around the headlights.
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After installing the front turn signal lights in the factory-cut holes, their position on the body didn’t seem right. After looking at pictures of original cobras and others, most of them have the turn signal lights lined up with the head lights and higher up. So I cut out new holes and filled in the old ones. Much better.
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Looking for another project, I decided to mock up the radiator in the car. It took some work but I’m happy with the finished product. As with most things on this car, some tweaking is required to get the parts to fit just right. I ended up replacing the heavy bracket that fits on top of the radiator. I wanted the upper shroud to sit lower to better clear the hood hinges when the hood is closed. This required a shorter bracket which I made from some scrap steel I had lying around. A side benefit of the new bracket is that it weighs 2 lbs. less than the original.
I also decided to add a fan shroud. These help so much keeping the engine cool. I bought the same shroud others have done from Summit. The fit on the radiator is almost perfect. The opening in the shroud is sized for a 14” diameter fan. Since the supplied fan with my car is 16” diameter, I enlarged the opening to fit.
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Jeff,
You sure are handy around the shop. I get a kick out of following your build and "tweaks". I might want to add the fan shroud later after I see if I have a problem. It sure looks nice. I am 6'4" and never thought of hacking into the wheel well. I did buy some room by moving my seat mounting 2" toward the tunnel to allow for some additional rear adjustment.
If you get bored, I might suggest that you pressure test your fuel tank. Mine had some bad welds that I had repaired and tested - then leaked again after installation....NOT fun!
Keep up the good work,
Jim
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Jeff,
Can you identify the Summit part number or other identifying details. There are about 200 shrouds on the Summit site
Paul
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Here is the Summit shroud I used and is the same as Jeff used.
https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-381203
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Yes, that is the one I used.
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I saw that summit has this shroud https://www.summitracing.com/parts/sum-381201?rrec=true which is 19.5 x 26 with a hole for a 16 inch fan that is the same depth. Wouldn’t have to trim the 14 inch hole to 16 inches or is that one too big, length wise?
Dawger
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That one is too wide. I did not enlarge the hole on mine and has little to no impact on the fan's performance. Fan blade is less than 15" diameter. Once my temp rose to the setpoint on my fan controller to turn off, it brought my temp back down nicely to the off setpoint.
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Yeah my bad, after going out and looking I realized error of my ways. Was remembering the size was roughly 26 inches wide BUT that was from the front where there isn’t any upper and lower hose obstacles. The fin section is approximately the 22 inches wide so the smaller one would be a better fit. Got mine on order, every little bit to keep these things cool helps.
Dawger
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Jim, thanks for the tip on the gas tank. Hopefully I don't have that problem with my tank.
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I worked on the headlight area of the body some more. I had noticed that the headlight mounting surfaces weren’t parallel to each other. The driver side pointed down and to the left and the passenger side pointed to the right. I realize the headlights are adjustable and this doesn’t make a practical difference but I wanted to fix it. So, I sanded down the high areas, adding fiberglass to the backside as required, while building up the low areas with fiberglass. I realize nobody will notice this but me.
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Jeff,
Before I forget, over the weekend I was installing the shroud kinda following your idea as a reference. I came across something you may want to think about before you go to far. As I was putting the hardware together to mount the fan similar to your nut and bolt idea and I thought what if the fan needs replaced at some time, how is one to get to the nuts on the back of the shroud between the radiator and the shroud without taking the entire thing out. Unless you have a secret flexible rubber wrench in order to get to those, I used nut-zerts in the shroud to run the bolts into instead of nuts. Just something to consider. Once completed you wouldn’t have to take 10 things apart just to get to the four bolts that hold the radiator in that are also used to attach the shroud. Don’t ask me how I know this to be true at least it was in my case.
Michael
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Michael, that's a good point. I hadn't thought about how I would replace the fan. Adding rivet nuts would greatly simplify the process. I think I'll take your suggestion and do that. Thanks.
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On my car I wanted the gas cap to sit higher in the fender opening. To make this happen I built up the recessed area of the body with fiberglass about 3/8" thick. But then when I fit the gas cap, I realized the body opening was now too wide, as the cap was sitting higher up in the funnel and didn’t look right. To fix this, I build up the sides to make the funnel smaller. I used resin and ground up fiberglass mixed together. I made a mold and poured/pushed the resin into the gap. It took a couple applications to build up the area but it came out better than I expected. Again, probably no will notice but me.
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More pictures.
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Does anyone else have an engine on order with Craft Performance Engines? I received some parts back from them yesterday that I originally sent to them to install on my engine. No explanation provided. Now they aren't answering their phone. Makes me think something is going on. Plus they're still holding my deposit. Just wondering if anyone has heard anything. Thanks.
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I know Lance Smith is the new owner once Keith retired. Have not heard much about them. He was on a few FB engine groups.
Google has some fairly current BBB reviews. Not great. Hope you can get some answers!
https://www.bbb.org/us/ar/arkadelphia/profile/rebuilt-engines/craft-performance-engines-llc-0935-4001344/customer-reviews#1323318154
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I was just about the to post the same thing...sounds like you're not the only one having issues.
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It seems to be a 50/50 mix good/bad. I know a few other builders who are in the same boat. Lance is no longer on FB not it seems. Build related issues. This is where honesty and communication prevail. That said I do hope things work out for the best! And please keep us updated.
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Does anyone else have an engine on order with Craft Performance Engines? I received some parts back from them yesterday that I originally sent to them to install on my engine. No explanation provided. Now they aren't answering their phone. Makes me think something is going on. Plus they're still holding my deposit. Just wondering if anyone has heard anything. Thanks.
Lance got off FB and all social last summer. Too much political bs, he said. And they were having major supply chain challenges during the pandy, like everyone else. He is usually at the Texas Cobra Club spring meet. I just sent him a personal text msg checking in, havent heard back yet.
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Craft Performance Engines has closed up shop and filing bankruptcy.
https://craftperformanceengines.com/
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Bob, thanks for the post and thanks everyone for your comments.
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After looking at my options, I ended up placing an order for a 425 hp, 408 ci Blueprint crate engine. I should receive it in about 6 weeks. I think I’ll be more than happy with this engine. I guess I should have done this 16 months ago and saved myself a lot of grief. Live and learn.
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After looking at my options, I ended up placing an order for a 425 hp, 408 ci Blueprint crate engine. I should receive it in about 6 weeks. I think I’ll be more than happy with this engine. I guess I should have done this 16 months ago and saved myself a lot of grief. Live and learn.
Think you'll be happy. I've bought 5 engines from them now. No problems with any of them except one blew a compression ring. Which I think was my fault for not having the timing right while setting up a sniper for the first time. They bent over backwards to take care of getting it fixed. Set up all shipping for pick up and ended up getting a 540hp 427 in place of a 430hp 383. And it actually dyno'd at 576hp! I wont buy from anyone else now. Cant beat their warranty or their service :)
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I was running out of projects while I waited for an engine so I decided to cover my dash and install the gauges. I used the 3M 90 hi-strength spray adhesive others have used on the forum. I’m happy with how it turned out. I made the dash removable, again as others have done. I do have to remove the speedometer and lower switches first though because the cutouts in the lower bar aren’t very deep.
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I wasn’t thrilled with the two-piece gas filler and gas cap arrangement supplied with our cars. So, I splurged and bought a one-piece gas cap/filler. While I haven’t heard of any complaints with the supplied setup, I think this new gas cap will make fill ups less dramatic.
After temporarily installing the gas cap, I test fit the filler pipe. It fit better than I expected considering I changed the position of the tank some and altered the gas cap height.
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Jeff
Curious where you found the one-piece unit?
Paul
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I bought it from Speedway. It was about $150 with tax although I see the price is higher now. Here’s a link.
https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speedway-Large-Cobra-Style-Fuel-Filler-Neck-Gas-Cap,53672.html
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I also picked up the same filler cap from Speedway last year for mine as well.
I did consider this part that Vintage wheels had that would work with the top provided with kit but was sold out.
(https://vintagewheelsus.com/images/VW909FNB.JPG)
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The dash looks like it turned out nice. Did you run into any unexpected hurdles?
Did you cut the lip off the top all the way across? The way the body cuts back to roll into the doors it looks like only a foot or so from the center each way would be right against the dash.
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Ben, considering I had never done anything like that, I'm pleased with the results. The cover installation actually worked out better than I thought it would. I'm not sure if the cover is leather or faux leather but it's easier to work with than vinyl. I glued down half at a time and stretched the material a little when gluing down to make sure there were no wrinkles. I'm curious to see if the glue holds after the car has been sitting in the sun a while.
I cut the top off the dash the whole length except the end ~6" on each side. I wanted to make sure I could take the dash out after the body was installed. Like you said, you probably don't have to remove that much material to make the dash removable but on my car the body was contacting the top of the dash on the passenger side. I ended up cutting the dash down to the top of the curved metal upper frame piece. I suspect the body on my car sits lower than others. Because I removed that much material, the gauge positions didn't look right anymore so I sectioned my dash to lower the gauges.
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Good info Jeff, thanks for the feedback. I may have to hold off on at least gluing the top to the back of the dash until I can skip my body back on and see if it hits the top as yours did.
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I didn’t find a hood prop rod holder in the parts of my kit so I created one myself. I used some stainless steel I had and bent it into a shape that would work. To keep the rod end stop from contacting the body, I put a jog in the rod. I could see that hitting the painted body someday. Seems to works well.
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I took Michael’s advice and installed nut inserts on my fan shroud for attaching the fan. Good catch.
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I decided to ditch the provided heavy steel hood latch brackets and made some from some aluminum angle I had around. As a bonus this saved over a pound. I also made some backing plates which will allow bracket adjustment without reaching behind the firewall with a wrench.
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When I installed the driver’s seat, I wanted the seat to line up with the steering wheel obviously. But the frame seat bars don’t line up with the steering wheel. They’re off by about 1-1/2”. Frustrating. So, when I drilled the seat mounting holes in the cockpit tub centered with the steering wheel, they missed the bars. I’m installing my seats straight to the floor, without slides, to keep them as low as possible. One of the seat bolts actually goes through the 2” x 2” frame tube. While not ideal, my plan is to just install washes and nuts to secure them to the fiberglass floor. That should be strong enough. The white dots on the cockpit floor in the second picture are where the holes in the frame seat bars are.
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Just wondering what or how you plan to anchor your lap belts to? Bolting the belt brackets flat to the floor is wrong too according to every harness manuf. If you have a pull down style lap belt, the right side will be very difficult to adjust.
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When these cars (originals) were built, they were put together to work, making compromises as needed. The seats will not line up with the steering column, nor will they line up with the centerlines, they are twisted and off-center.
It may look different in photo's but it works quite well when driving, you don't even notice it. If you do try to 'line things up', you'll find they don't fit or drive so well.
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If you only bolt your seat, and lap belts to the fiberglas with washers, in the unlikely unfortunate event of a collision, it could rip through. Also, as paul mentioned, your seat is never going to line up with the steering wheel and pedals. Look how far your pedals are to the left now. I've driven mine 10k miles+ and dont even notice the steering wheel is off.
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A lot of good points being made.
Being an engineer, I like things to line up. So, when I installed the seat, I naturally wanted it to be aligned with the steering wheel. An added benefit to moving the seat towards the center was it allowed me to move the seat back further due to the curved wheel well cutout. Granted it does increase the pedals offset. Hard to eliminate all the compromises.
I’m not worried about bolting the seat to the fiberglass floor. The force on the seat during a collision would not be enough to dislodge it.
The seat belt anchor points on the other hand did make me think. Currently the left end of the lap belt will be bolted to the frame. The right side would be attached to the fiberglass floor which I know is not ideal. So, Bob’s comment got me thinking about this again and after looking at pictures I believe I can tie the seat belt right side to the transmission support bracket. That would provide a strong anchor point. I’ll investigate this further.
I’m curious how others attach their seat belts to the floor. I have seen where the seat belt end is sandwiched between the seat and floor using the seat anchor bolts. Is that what most people are doing?
Thanks for your comments.
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Nick Acton sells a driveshaft loop assy for a Contemporary Cobra. He states it's also a good anchor point for the inboard seat belt. Not sure how that mess would apply to our Hurricanes.
https://www.actoncustom.com/products/p/driveshaft-safety-loop-and-belt-mount-1
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I’m curious how others attach their seat belts to the floor. I have seen where the seat belt end is sandwiched between the seat and floor using the seat anchor bolts. Is that what most people are doing?
Thanks for your comments.
I planned to use a clip in style lap belt with pull up adjustment and eyebolts, so I had Hurricane add and weld on additional brackets for the belts.
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Greg, thanks for the pictures. That’s a good idea. I think I’ll do something similar.
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You're welcome, glad it got you thinking.
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I mocked up the foot box fresh air fans and hoses. I’m using the front brake air intakes for the inlets. I’m wondering if I’ll need to insulate the hoses where they pass over the headers. I also mocked up the wiper assembly.
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Jeff,
I mounted mine to the factory seat mounts much like yours, just drilled different holes to relocate the position. Couple things I see, with the seats being centered as you have the driver's side then do the same to the passenger side will be really close to the tunnel on the inside and create an issue with the emergency brake lever and being able to use it. The slight offset alignment really isn't noticed when driving, the offset might be more noticeable if you center the seat rather than offset the seat. To be honest I don't think the slight offset is as noticeable as one thinks when all done, but may be more noticeable if one centers the seats, The other thing I noticed is that Alec and Jason mentioned to me one time in London Ohio cobra show was they were going to change the way the down leg was made into the cock pit, they found the strap type mount caused a little too much flex and was cracking the factory car windshield. They suggested adding a brace of some sort. This is what I did welding to the leg, see photo attached. Sorry for the dowels in the photo but this is all I have looking over the back into the cockpit and the seat offset alignment. Only noticeable if one knows...
Michael-
HM-2013
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Michael, thanks for the tip on the upper frame legs. Really good information. I had wondered why the factory went back to rectangle tubing for the legs on later cars. I’m going to copy you and weld on some metal to strengthen the area.
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Looking for projects while I wait for my engine, I decided to wired up the gauges in the dash.
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Looks good Jeff, I'm kind of in the same boat while I wait on my cam.
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This may sound funny but I’m jealous if you guys working on your builds. I’m “stuck” in Mexico on a preplanned vacation. After a lot of little part delays, I feel like I’m ready to make rapid progress as soon as I can get back into the garage.
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I temporarily installed the wiring harness to see what was in store for me. The manual was actually very helpful with the wiring. A pleasant surprise. I decided to deviate a little on the routing of the wires running to the headlights. I added an auxiliary fuse box to power the foot box fans and USB port and any future needs. I also added switches under the dash for turning the foot box fans on and off. I added a switch even further under the dash as a cutoff. The wiring was intimidating at first but as I worked through all the wires and connections, I became more comfortable with it. And of course this forum helped a lot.
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Not a lot of progress lately. Still waiting on the engine. Should be here in February. I did box the upper frame vertical legs as suggested. That should prevent any flex. Thanks for the tip. Also I added a bracket for the trunk latch catch and I relocated the seat brackets on the frame to match my seat locations.
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interesting. You have a car waiting on an engine. I have an engine waiting on a car. The world we live in.
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I ended up replacing the hard aluminum fuel lines I had already installed. The fittings were the compression type that used the brass compression sleeves. I had read recently that they weren’t recommended for the higher pressures of fuel injection systems. I went with the push-lock type hose and fittings. Sure was a lot easier to run the flexible hoses than the hard lines. Should have done that in the first place. Live and learn.
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Those lines look good.
Are there screws on the bottom of the fuel filter clamps? If they're only on top, it might be tough to get to them to change the filter once the cockpit tub is on.
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Good point. The clamp screws are only on the top. I’m pretty sure they’ll be accessible but I’ll double check access next time I have the cockpit tub on. Thanks.
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I’ve been doing some bodywork on my cobra lately while I continue to wait on an engine. April is the latest ECD for the engine. I discovered the outer door skins on my car are concaved about 0.1”. My initial thought was to add a couple layers of fiberglass mat and resin on the door to fill the depression. Another option would be to use a fiber reinforced body filler. The final option is to use normal body filler. Although the depression isn’t that deep, it is a wide area. Does anyone have any thoughts? Thanks.
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Before you flatten the door, it is wise to fill them with foam. Make them much more sturdy, ridgid and don't sound hollow when you shut them. Don't use normal spray foam, use the Door and Window type. The regular foam expands too much and will blow the doors apart.
I drilled holes on the inside and countersunk sunk the edges generously. Stick the straw of the foam in the hole and add foam. Let it solidify, then remove the overflow from the countersink and fill with fiberglass.
This may expand the outside just slightly - not sure. But then you can flatten away.
Paul
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Paul, thanks for the tip. I had already copied what Mike did on HM1024 and injected construction adhesive between the panels. Definitely makes it more solid. I added it from the outside since I knew I was going to be adding filler to the outer surface. Foam would have work also.
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I haven't done much on my car lately but I did travel to Utah last week to help a friend swap out a Boss 302 for a real 427 in his Contemporary Cobra. Good experience.
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Pretty cool to be involved with that swap. Did your friend get it back up and running? Big difference in the way it runs and drives?
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The Contemporary are very nice cars. You could buy them complete or as a kit. Many type of engines. GM and Ford. Saw them new in the late 70's at the NYC Auto show. Honestly I was looking for one of those before I went with Hurricane. Just could not find the price and engine I wanted. True story....in the late 90's I heard a rumor that Factory Five ended up with the body and molds and whatever was left. This was when FFR had 2 buildings. Saw some white fiberglass bodies outside with what seemed to be the body molds. I was picking up my new FFR kit so didn't think much of it. But possible those were what was left. Too bad.
This one looks very nice. High up on the Cobra food chain too.
From a 2009 article on Club Cobra. Peter Bayer, original owner of Contemporary until it sold to Burtis. Backs up my FFR comment.
• What happened to Contemporary's Body molds and frame jigs – Factory Five bought all the molds, jigs, fixture,,, etc. when Burtis went “down the tubes”.
• Do you know what happened to frame tooling – See above
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It'll take awhile for my friend to get his cobra running again. He's tackling several other upgrades while he has it apart.
I wasn’t thrilled with the fit of the license plate holder supplied with the kit so I decided to try something different. I installed threaded inserts into the trunk lid so I can attach the license plate directly to the lid. I’ll use some spacers behind the plate.
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I wasn’t thrilled with the fit of the license plate holder supplied with the kit so I decided to try something different. I installed threaded inserts into the trunk lid so I can attach the license plate directly to the lid. I’ll use some spacers behind the plate.
Ooooh, I like that idea! I may do that since I'm still in gelcoat ;)
I actually lost my license plate because I trimmed my first license plate bracket, and it weaked it and gave it a start to crack and break off. I had to go back down the highway and find it.
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25 months after I first ordered an engine, I received my engine today. It’s a 408 ci small block from BluePrint Engines. Now I can switch from body work to engine installation. The first engine builder I ordered from, Craft Performance, is going through bankruptcy court right now. I’m curious to see if I ever get any of my deposit back from them. I should be able to make some good progress now.
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Congrats! So exciting. Let me know if you need help. In case you don't, I have an engine hoist.
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I got the engine installed last weekend. Had to modify the motor mounts some to get it to drop in. I determined I’m going to need to fabricate a spacer for under the transmission mount to get the engine/transmission to an acceptable angle relative to the IRS differential. With a 1.5” spacer I’ll have a 3.4 degree operating angle for the engine/transmission, and a 3.5 degree operating angle for differential. That angle’s a little larger than recommended but if I raised the engine/transmission at the motor mounts and transmission mount a 1/4”, the angle would drop to less than 2.5 degrees. I might do that.
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The first modification I made after installing the engine was to widen the foot box. Others on the forum have made the same modification. I definitely needed more room for my feet. With the small block, there’s plenty of room for widening. With this modification I was able to offset the gas pedal 2” and now I’ll be able to shift the clutch and brake pedals an inch to the right also. I’ve driven a couple of cobras before and had to take my shoes off for my feet to fit the pedals. This will be a huge improvement.
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Once I moved the gas pedal to the right, that allowed me to opportunity to shift the clutch and brake pedals to the right also. I ended up moving them 1”. This provided the best spacing for my feet.
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Finished enlarging of the foot box and moving the pedals to the right. A lot of work but very happy with the way it turned out. Should really help my feet.
I mocked up the throttle linkage next. Needed to mount the linkage on the firewall to clear the fuel injection fuel rail. Pretty straightforward.
Tried to install the steering shafts but the lower shaft contacts the header and wouldn’t allow it to rotate. I ordered a longer mid-shaft which will move the universal joint towards the front of the car which will provide more clearance.
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Jeff, in case you didn't read my thread, make sure you mock the shafts up with everything installed, including the VW turn signal switch if you're using it. I didn't have the switch on the first time and I didn't realize it would effect the layout of it all.
Looks like you've got your collapsible shaft pulled out pretty far putting your u-joint close to the bearing carrier. My u-joint ended up much further forward thus causing the set screws to hit the header pipe.
Looks like you're moving right along. Things really start going fast once the engine and trans are in.
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Ben, thanks for the reminder. I bought a longer middle steering shaft and got it measured and installed. It’s about 4” longer than first one. Lots of room now for the header.
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Glad you got it to work out. Looks very similar to how mine ended up.
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Jet,
Looks great. I envy your fiberglass working skills, and will be picking your brain soon on some work I need to do on my car.
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Been making a little progress lately. Fiddled with the throttle linkage some to get the 2”-2.5” throttle pedal travel I was looking for. I had overlooked that earlier and had way too much throttle pedal travel. Had to add another hole in the throttle body bracket and added an extension to the bracket that bolts to the throttle pedal shaft. Happy with it now.
Finished running the hydraulic clutch line, tightened all the clutch and brake line fittings, added brake fluid and bled the systems. Had a few leaks, but tightening the fittings fixed most of them. I did have to buy new crush washers for the banjo fittings/bolts at the front calipers to stop those leaks. Still fighting one very small leak. I’m running Dot 3 brake fluid in the clutch since the hydraulic throw out bearing manufacturer required it. I’m running Dot 5 fluid in the brakes.
Installed all the bolts for the headers. Had to grind down the heads of some of the bolts for clearance. I need to verify I can still remove the headers after the cockpit tub is installed. I drilled out the header/side pipe bolt holes and installed 5/16” bolts. It seemed like the ¼” bolts were undersized.
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Curious why you chose DOT 5 silicone based brake fluid when Wilwood does not recommend for racing and performance driving.
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Greg, I read the same advice from Wilwood but I like Dot 5 fluid for the obvious reason that it doesn’t dissolve paint plus I’ve used it in my other project cars and never had any braking problems during spirited driving.
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Today I installed heat barrier and the aluminum on the firewall. That took some work. The heat barrier is adhesive backed Thermo-Tec brand I bought on Amazon. For the aluminum, I sanded it to remove scratches and sprayed it with Sharkhide metal protectant. Hopefully the finish holds up.
A couple of the bolts for the throttle pedal corner bracket interfere with each other and one interferes with the throttle pedal. To get around this, I countersunk the front holes and installed flat head bolts from the inside. That should fix the interference.
I was hoping to permanently install the cockpit tub this weekend but I discovered a small brake fluid leak towards the rear and it will be easier to troubleshoot from above than from below. Getting close though.
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Nice idea on the flat head bolts to address that issue. The aluminum looks nice. I've used the shark Hyde on all my aluminum and really like it. So easy to apply, dries really fast and gives a nice even shine.
I did drip some gas on a piece and if you look in the light the right way you can see where it lifted the finish, but it's tough to tell.
If you're going to hear shield the inside of your footbox you might want to do that while it's off too. Also, check your throttle pedal in the bracket. Some of us have had to radius the top of the flat bar because it rubs on the footbox. Great progress.
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Thanks. I’ve already radiused the throttle pedal. I was planning on installing Kilmat sound deadening mat inside the cockpit tub. You’re right, I should install it when the tub is easily accessible.
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I mentioned before that I was having brake fluid leaks at the front caliper hose fittings. It turns out that my calipers should have had 1/8” NPT threads instead of the 3/8-24 threads it had according to the spec sheet. I talked with Wilwood tech support and they said the caliper never came with a thread for a banjo bolt which makes sense but doesn’t explain why mine did. I wasn’t able to get the banjo bolt to stop leaking so I retapped the hole for 1/8” NPT. That solved the leaking problem.
I decided to go with an Optima battery. I installed it using some brackets I bought from optimatrays.com.
Also got the fuel tank vent installed.
Getting close to permanently installing the cockpit tub.
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I finally installed the trunk liner and cockpit tub for the last time. I used 10-32 screws to secure them to the frame. I figured with screws I could remove the pieces if I ever needed to plus I liked that I could control the clamping force with the screws. The front horizontal panel of the trunk liner also got screwed to the cockpit tub which created a strong shelf for the battery.
I installed Kilmat sound deadener to the firewall area of the cockpit tub before installing the upper frame. This stuff should cut down a little on the sound and heat getting into the cockpit. It takes some effort to press the Kilmat onto the surface so I’ll do more later when I have the energy.
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Things will start moving pretty quickly now.
Could you post some measurements of where you put the holes for the dash support tubes?
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Ben, I’ll take some measurements and pictures tomorrow.
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Here's the dimensions for the holes in the tunnel for the support tubes. Hopefully you can make sense of them. I tried to make the support tubes mimic the originals the best I could.
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Let me try that again.
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Word to the wise, make the crossbar two pieces with a nut welded onto one of them, putting the bolt up thru the flat bar that forms the cowl support so you can put the bolt in from the bottom, capture one of the tube bars then into the bar with the nut welded on the upper edge. (Clear as mud?)
There are times you need to remove the crosstubes and with them bolted in as a whole piece, you can't get them out.
Please don't ask how I know this
I ran some wiring thru one of the tubes and put the speedometer cable thru the other. Depending on the size of the tubing you used, you may have to separate the head of the speedo cable to get it thru the tube.
Paul
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Thanks for measurements Jeff, I should be able to work with it. Could you add how far apart the tubes are at the top where they bolt to the dash?
Paul, good advice, I remember reading about this in another place. I thought of running some things down through the tubes but like you said you have to take the speedo cable apart or use a big tube and it didn't really gain me anything for the neutral safety so I just took it out the firewall. It was difficult to drill with the engine and trans in and upper frame in.
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Ben, the center to center distance of the tubes at the top is 5”.
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It has been quiet on the forum lately. I’ve been installing the wiring harness in my car for the last week. There’s a lot of wires for a simple car. The EFI adds another harness and another layer of complexity. I was able to route all the wires and harnesses through one hole in the transmission tunnel at the back of the engine. I spent some time trying to hide the EFI wires on the engine. I don’t think it’ll look too cluttered when I get done. Slowly making progress.
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Looking nice Jeff. Very clean job. If you have questions on the wiring let me know.
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I’m finally done with the initial wiring less a couple items. I’m pretty confident I got it right but I haven’t hooked up the battery yet. I’ll save that for later. When I started the wiring I envisioned the wires being neat and tidy behind the dash. Far from it. There’s a lot of wire back there. I’m glad I made the dash removable because trying to do any troubleshooting later from under the dash would be impossible. I followed the example of some others and put a couple small welds between the upper frame and frame. This will ensure good grounding between the two. I got the spark plug wires fabricated and installed. The EFI needs an O2 sensor so I got that installed also. I also added a USB port under the dash. Might need that someday. After I get back from vacation I can move on to the radiator and the remaining items required to get it running. Getting closer.
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More pictures.
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Jeff,
You might want to revisit your O2 sensor installation. They recommend they be installed between 10 and 90 degrees, yours looks to be about -20 which will make it prone to early failure due to moisture accumulation. Most all manufacturers are now using the Bosch 4.9 sensor which is prone to this issue.
When the engine first starts and before it is up to temperature, it makes a fair amount of moisture/condensate. This will accumulate on an O2 sensor and cause it to crack. This is a good article on the failure:
https://www.nzefi.com/bosch-lsu-wide-band-airfuel-ratio-lambda-sensors-fail-often-aftermarket-performance-applications/ (https://www.nzefi.com/bosch-lsu-wide-band-airfuel-ratio-lambda-sensors-fail-often-aftermarket-performance-applications/)
Looks like it is on the passenger side. You can put a bung tangent to the collector and angled up a few degrees which would make it a lot better. I was able to get mine to where the wire output points to the bottom of the footbox.
This is a sketch of how mine was installed - it's still in the exhaust stream yet angles up under the body. Mine system uses two sensors, the drivers side is a little more difficult because of the extra drop in the footbox:
Paul
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Paul,
Thanks for your reply. I do realize my sensor is at the wrong angle. The side pipe came with the sensor bung already installed and I was hoping I could getaway with it as is. I realize now I'll need to revisit the installation. Can you post a picture of your actual sensor installation? I'd like to see exactly how you handled the bung installation considering the angles involved.
Thanks, Jeff
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Jeff,
Pictures are hard to come by that actually show what's going on. The bung needs to be in the lower quadrant of the collector and ponting up. Sounds complicated but it can be done
The attached picture shows the passenger side, comng out of the collector and how the wire side almost touches the bottom of the dropbox area. The second shows a similar view except from the top
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Thanks Paul. That’s exactly what I was looking for.
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I got kind of lucky changing the angle of the O2 sensor. I was able to weld the new bung on top of the original one, after a lot of grinding. I’ll hit it with some high temp paint eventually. The cable is just resting against the bottom of the foot box but I may still dimple the foot box there to provide a little more room. And of course the body will need a cutout to accommodate the sensor also.
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You need to give it some clearance, the pipes do move some.
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I had not been looking forward to figuring out the radiator hoses, especially the lower. The upper hose turned out to be straight forward. The Gates 21941 hose that others have used worked perfectly with a little trimming. The lower hose was more work. Everyone knows that the radiator lower outlet is close and in line with the steering rack making finding a hose that fits difficult. I spent a lot of time looking through the forum trying to find the best solution. I ended up starting with a Gates 20357 hose attached to the water pump. Then I went to the local Napa auto parts store and looked through their stock until I found a hose (7947) I thought would attach to the radiator and clear the steering rack. After a lot of measuring and some cutting, it fit perfectly. Next I bought a stainless steel exhaust tube with 90 degree bend on Amazon. I cut the tube to length and added a lip on the ends to keep the radiator hoses from sliding off. Works great. Really happy with the results. It’s hard to see in the picture but there’s clearance between the radiator hose and steering rack bellow.
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Looks awesome Jeff! Lots of satisfaction in a job well done. I will likely use your idea, as mine is binding up a good bit.
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Clearance for the O2 sensor.
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Made some progress in the engine compartment. Installed the inner panels and radiator for the final time. When I installed the inner panels I decided to trim them a little to add clearance for the upper A-arms. I notice some people do this but most don’t. I didn’t like the idea of the panels pressed up against the A-arms. Got the fan and horns wired up also. I worked up the nerve and hooked up the battery to test the horns. They worked and there was no smoke coming from the behind the dash so that’s a good sign. Getting close to starting the engine, hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks. I’m retiring next week so I should have more time to work on the car after that.
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Looking really nice. I made brackets and pulled the bottoms of my inner panels in some toward the center to pull them away from the a arms. Before doing that I noticed a lot of vibration transmitter to the fluid reservoirs when the engine was running. The brackets def. Helped lessen that.
Might also notched the hood hinge openings in the top radiator panel. Most of us seem to be hitting them when the hood gets closed.
Congrats on the retirement.
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Thanks Ben. I do plan on installing brackets at the bottom of the inner panels, but I didn’t know what the distance should be between the panels and frame. I suspect there is no one answer and probably isn’t critical as long as there are proper clearances. When I initially mocked up the radiator pieces, I did have contact between the hood hinges and top radiator panel. So, I re-created the piece that sits on top of the radiator but shorter to help provide some clearance. No contact anymore.
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I wanted the oil temperature gauge to be functional so I installed the gauge sensor in the oil pan. I removed the oil pan and welded on a threaded bung. Hopefully I reinstalled the oil pan correctly and don’t have any leaks. Getting oil pan gaskets sealed can be tricky sometimes. One more step closer to getting it started.
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I wanted the oil temperature gauge to be functional so I installed the gauge sensor in the oil pan. I removed the oil pan and welded on a threaded bung. Hopefully I reinstalled the oil pan correctly and don’t have any leaks. Getting oil pan gaskets sealed can be tricky sometimes. One more step closer to getting it started.
My engine came with Moroso 8 qt pan, and already had the bung for oil temp sensor.
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I’ve made some good progress lately. Got the engine started for the first time last week and drove the car around the block this week. No big surprises but lots of little details to work out now. The car is difficult to drive right now due to the EFI self-learning, at least that’s what I hope it is. I only have a few miles on it. I did have one concerning event. On my last lap around the block, I noticed the rear wheel was wobbling. After I removed the wheel I noticed the wheel drive pin studs were loose. I know I tightened them before. I retightened them on all four corners. I’ll have to keep an eye on them going forward.
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Big congrats, that's a huge achievement and milestone.
The thing is a beast and unlike anything else isn't it.
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Ain't it great?! The big grin says it all... congrats!
What branch tires are those? the look great.
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Thanks. Cooper Cobras
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Spent some time sealing up the openings in the trunk liner. I borrowed Greg K’s design for the roll bar opening.
I figured out the problem with the loose wheel drive pins. I didn’t read the directions. The directions said to use Loctite on the threads and I used anti-seize compound. Enough said.
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Good to see some work being done, all I've been doing is driving...
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I had to replace the clutch and front brake master cylinders due to seal leaks. New ones seem to be working so far. I took the opportunity to reduce the diameter of the clutch master cylinder from 7/8” to 3/4” to match the throw-out bearing requirement.
Finished securing the remote reservoir hoses. Also fabricated brackets to secure the inner engine compartment panels to the frame. Brackets provided with kit didn’t fit.
Made a heat shield for the master cylinders. While driving in my neighborhood I noticed the master cylinders were getting warm and the remote reservoir hoses were getting very hot from the header heat. Next time I drive the car I’ll verify it works as intended. I’ll probably put some adhesive backed heat barrier material on the top surface to further reduce the heat transfer.
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I like the heat shield idea. I never checked how hot my master cylinders were getting but this is something I've planned to do at some point. Figured it'll at least help the rubber lines from the reservoirs to last a little longer.
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I had to replace the clutch and front brake master cylinders due to seal leaks. New ones seem to be working so far. I took the opportunity to reduce the diameter of the clutch master cylinder from 7/8” to 3/4” to match the throw-out bearing requirement.
Does reducing the clutch MC from 7/8 to 3/4 reduce or increase the fluid/pressure to the throw-out bearing?
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Does reducing the clutch MC from 7/8 to 3/4 reduce or increase the fluid/pressure to the throw-out bearing?
It'll reduce the amount of fluid and distance it'll move the the throw out bearing, not so much a pressure thing.
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The pressure applied against the throw out bearing is the same. But the pedal pressure was reduced when I switched to the 3/4” diameter master cylinder but the stroke increases to achieve the same fluid volume movement. Hope that makes sense.
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Considering how much heat the headers put off, I thought it would be worthwhile adding insulation to the vent tubes right above the headers. I have seen others do the same thing. After I insulated the first side, I thought I’d test how effective the insulation was. With the car fully warmed up and idling, the air coming out of the non-insulated side was about 70 degrees while the air from the insulated side was about 62 degrees, which was close to the outside air temperature. I suspect the difference might be greater once the body is installed and more heat is trapped in the area. Turned out to be a worthwhile.
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Jeff,
What did you use for insulation? i had tried stickyback aluminum foil on my first build and it didn't hold up. Looking for a good solution
Paul
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Hi Paul, Here’s the stuff I used. It wasn’t as sticky as I would have liked but I overlapped it as I wrapped it and then made sure the end was tucked under the hose clamp. I’m hoping that keeps it in place. We'll see how it holds up after some heat cycles. I used almost a roll on each side.
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Not much activity on the forum lately including from myself.
Here’s what I’ve been doing lately.
I sent some time doing more bodywork. Not much fun and I’m not great at it. Getting the sides straight took a lot of effort. I’m not sure why some of the bodies require more bodywork than others.
I ended up moving the cockpit vent hose inlets to the radiator area. I figured it would simplify the hose routing. I originally planned to attach the hoses to the brake vent openings at the front of the body. I bought some vent openings on Amazon which worked well enough.
I was a little greedy when I originally enlarged the rear wheel well seat cutouts. The driver side tire rubbed some. I ended up adding more fiberglass on the inside which allowed me to grind away some on the outside for tire clearance. This wouldn’t affect the seat placement.
Lately I’d been thinking of just priming the body for now and then assembling the car, getting it registered and then getting it on the road. That would allow me to work out any bugs and have some fun driving it this summer before worrying about paint. Also the registration process in California is very involved which will take some time.
To that end, I ended up priming the body using Eastwood’s roll on epoxy primer. My wife, and probably the neighbors, really dislikes when I spray primer in the driveway so I decided to try the roll on primer. A local body shop wanted $900 to spray the primer. The roll on method worked pretty well especially if you’re just using it for bodywork. If it’s going to use it as a temporary finish like I am, it’s not great. I’ll probably end up giving it a light sanding with some 240 grit sandpaper to even out the texture.
When Kamal gave me a ride in his cobra, HM-2040, I burnt my ankle pretty good on the side pipes getting out of the car. I didn’t want that to happen with my car to myself, my wife or anyone one else so I bought some side pipe heat shields from Iconic Parts. They’re the ones used on Backdraft cobras. I’ll likely paint them black to match the side pipes.
Hopefully in a couple weeks I’ll have it assembled and have started the registration process.
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More pictures.
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Jeff, glad to see you're making progress. Yes it's been pretty quiet on here. I haven't had much motivation to do much, mainly because I'm at the body work phase and hate the thoughts of starting it and the mess.
I don't know if I'd recommend putting the body together and driving it or finishing the body work. Driving it is great, however once it drive it, that's prob what you'll want to do and not want to do body work haha.
Have you fit body panels yet? Wait until you get to the trunk lid, probably will take a good bit of work to get molded in.
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Ben, yes all the panels have been fitted.
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Temporary assembly of the car is pretty much done. I still need to install the front frame extensions and related pieces but need to modify them a little first. I'm happy with the way the car turned out. I have my first DMV appointment for registration this Wednesday.
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Panels and gaps turned out really nice Jeff.
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Finding an air cleaner that fit was difficult. Between the engine sitting high in the engine compartment and my intake manifold being somewhat tall, there wasn’t much room. Plus I wanted as much filter area as possible. I see pictures of big engines with small round air cleaners and I know they’re losing HP. I ended up buying a 15” long oval air cleaner. I had to modify its base so it would sit as low as possible on the throttle body. I also had to lengthen the cutout in the hood for clearance. I had earlier modified the hood scoop to increase the height of the front opening and profile. Turned out I needed every millimeter of the added room.
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Here’s some pictures of the hood scoop modification I had earlier made.
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That definitely is tight. To me it seemed like wanting black really limited my selection.
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Looks great Jeff! And I'm glad to hear your DMV registration is coming along.
Even though I have few miles on my car still, I have managed to remember to tell everyone to watch their leg as they step out of the car!
I plan to get the Shell Valley heat shields, as they come in Ceramic and will match my header finish.
https://www.shellvalley.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=140/mode=prod/prd140.htm
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Installed the aluminum panels in the radiator opening recently. There weren’t any instructions so I looked how others had done their cars and did something similar. I don’t plan on installing an oil cooler, at least for now.
I also installed panels to close the gap in the rear wheel well between the body and cockpit tub. Again I looked at what others had done and came up with what I thought would work. I’ll seal the edges with seam sealer when I install the panels for the last time.
While I was at it, I added aluminum extension panels to the back of the rear wheel wells also. I think it gives it a more finished look.
Still trying to dial in the EFI. It’s been a challenge. I think there’s a sensor or something that’s not right. I’ll keep working on it.
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I like the rear fender panels. I need to do the same soon.
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Looks like you did your front panels similar to mine. Pretty straight forward. I added some bulb seal at the top to help seal it off a little.
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Here’s an update of what’s been going on with my car lately.
Finally got my car registered. Took about 4 months. California DMV makes you jump through a lot of hoops to register specialty cars.
I still haven’t resolved my issue with the EFI. After a lot of troubleshooting and no success I’ve decided to switch to a Holley HP EFI based system. I’ll need to replace the ECU, distributer, wiring harness and O2 sensor but I can use the rest of the Edelbrock system components. The HP ECU is more capable and most importantly I’ll have dedicated support for the Holley system which I didn’t have for the Edelbrock system. I really wish I could have figure out the problem. I should get the engine running with the new system next week.
Installed rear wheel well closeouts I made out of aluminum. I’ll seal them with seal sealer once I install them for the last time. The forum shows lots of ways to closeout these gaps but this method made sense to me.
I made some covers for the tail lights in the trunk. I got the pattern from the ERA website. I haven’t polished the inside so they aren’t increasing the brightness but they do add protection inside the trunk.
When Kamal (HM-2040) wrote about his need to replace his supplied steering rack with a quick-ratio rack, I was worried I would need to do the same thing. But I actually have the opposite reaction. My rack is 4.1 turns lock to lock and I like the feel when driving even windy roads and its relative easy to turn the steering wheel at slow speeds. No change required for me.
I used Bob Worley’s method to tighten up the bottom seat cushions. Worked great. Thanks for the tip Bob.
This winter I plan on removing the IRS and having it rebuilt. Besides excessive gear whine, there’s a clunking noise coming from the differential or passenger half-shaft. It makes me nervous.
That’s about it for now.
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Nice update Jeff. California sounds rough for registration, I think it took Kamal a while too.
I really like the wheel well close outs. Did you have to use a dolly or some type of metal working tool to get the nice roll that it has?
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Ben, no special tools for the metal work. Just some 2x4's, a hammer, my workbench and a vise.
I’m pleased to report that I got my engine running with the new Holley EFI system installed and it solved my problem. After some tuning, it’s running great. All it took was more money.
I decided to go ahead and remove the differential and have it rebuilt. I was becoming increasingly worried it might fail. It wasn’t as difficult to remove as I thought it might be. The shop will let me know next week the extent of the damage but they believe there’s definitely something wrong inside and will probably need new gears. The half shafts have seen better days as well. Considering the money Hurricane charged for the IRS option, you’d think they would have put in a rebuilt differential. I’ve been looking for replacement half shafts but can’t find any the same length. I’m thinking they might be custom units since they’re 3” shorter than the Thunderbird half shafts the differential came from. I’m wondering if anyone out there know about replacement units or if mine can be rebuilt? I’m at a loss right now. Thanks.
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The half shafts came from The Driveshaft Shop.
Many guys buy aftermarket T-Bird half shafts, disassemble them and then re-assemble using the shorter inner shaft. But you have to know how to rebuild half shafts to be successful. There are some tricks to taking them apart.
Paul
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Thanks Paul, that’s good information.
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Paul, the half shafts on your car came from The Driveshaft Shop but the ones on my car, which are based on the Thunderbird differential, did not according to them.
The Driveshaft Shop wanted $1300 for a pair of custom axles. I found a shop in Salt Lake City that works exclusively on CV joints that said they could rebuild them. After inspecting mine, they said they were in good shape but needed more grease. They repacked them, put new boots on and sent them back. I had a local shop rebuild my center section. It required new bearings and a new gear set. They said whoever setup the differential originally didn’t know what they were doing. I had to replace the axle nuts also since they weren’t the correct ones. Too bad I had to spend over $2K to fix something I shouldn’t have had to fix. It’s maybe best that the previous iteration of Hurricane went out of business. They were cutting too many corners.
Just went for a long drive and the rear end is working as it should. Just about time for the 500 mile oil change. My plan for now is to put some miles on the car and continue to tinker with it. I’ll worry about paint in a year or two. That’s it for now.
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It’s been a while since I’ve posted any updates, mostly because not much has happened regarding the build. I drove the car over the summer and worked out some bugs. I now have over 1200 miles on the car and overall, I’m really happy with how the car is turning out.
In December I took the body off for the last time. I tidied up some wiring, applied bed liner to the underside of the body and did some other final teaks while the body was off. My plan from early on was to bond the body on permanently. I had read forum posts from people who had done the same thing saying it really made the car feel solid. So, after triple checking the body fit, I glued the body down onto the firewall, the rear cockpit tub and to brackets I installed on the upper frame. You can see one of the brackets in a picture below. There are 3 brackets per side. I kept track and this was the 20th time I had removed and installed the body. Glad to be done with that part and be done with the body buck.
Next, I fiberglassed the body to the trunk liner in the back and to the cockpit tub sides. I reassembled the car still with the primered body. I plan on driving it this way again this summer and next winter, think about having it painted. I took the car out today for the first drive since gluing the body down and I can really tell the difference. I wasn’t expecting that much improvement in the stiffness of the car. It feels very solid now. So glad I decide to go that route. It was a lot of extra work but I think worth it.
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Nice work Jeff. When I fit and fastened my filler panels to the trunk and body, makes a big difference oand more solid feel overall. I filled and bonded the foot boxes with EPDM backer rod and seam sealer up top and around. I thought about doing glass but went the route I did. Enjoy.
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Early on in my build, I could see that there was going to be an issue with my IRS setup. The frame rails above the suspension are close to the upper A-arms while the car is at rest. This would limit the upper travel of the suspension. The shocks have about 4” of total travel. Right now, I have the rear ride height set so the half shafts are about level. At this height, I have ~2” of downward travel and ~1” of upward travel at the shock before the A-arm contacts the frame. The distance from the ground to the top of the wheel opening is 26-3/4” and I don’t want to go any higher due to ascetics.
Last summer as I was putting miles on the car, I noticed the rear suspension would bottom out when carving corners on windy roads and on some higher speed bumps. Earlier I had added rubber bump stops to prevent hard contact of the A-arms which helps.
After studying the layout, I determined I could modify the upper control arms to add more clearance to the frame. This should solve the problem I figured. Now I came to the next design error.
I removed the upper bolt from the upper A-arm and axle housing so I could cycle the suspension higher to determine how much to modify the A-arm. As I lifted the suspension, it started to bind, preventing it from going up. I eventually determined that the half shaft was at full compression and was bottoming out internally. Turns out the half shafts are at least a ½” too long to allow additional upward travel. There’s no issue with the suspension going down due to the suspension geometry. Now my only option would be to buy new shorter half shafts for $1300 which in turn would allow me to modify the upper A-arms. That’s not going to happen right now so I’ll live with it the way it is.
I’m curious if any other owners with the earlier Ford Thunderbird type IRS have had the same limited travel issue. I don’t believe too many were installed. It looks like the later model IRS units installed don’t have the same issue.
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Jeff,
What track dimension did you set your suspension to? Try screwing the rod ends out to increase the effective length of the control arm. Also check your axle nut ends, where they go into the hub. Make sure there isn't an extra spacer in there.
There was an issue years ago, with the axles being made too short and they were pulling apart on Factory Five installs. DriveShaft Shop lengthened all of them and then got into issues on other suspensions that used the same axle (Hurricane did). There is a fix to this by re-assembling the axles to shorten them effectively. Take a read of this thread on the issue
https://forum.hurricane-motorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=2301.msg22524#msg22524 (https://forum.hurricane-motorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=2301.msg22524#msg22524)
Paul
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Paul,
That is great information. I’m glad to hear it isn’t just a problem on my car.
Regarding lengthening the control arms, I would only be able to extend the lower control arm rod ends since there is no adjustment on the upper control arms and this would seriously affect the camber.
My best option is to do what you did and move the trilobe down the shaft. That seems like a fairly painless modification and a ¼” shorter is better than nothing.
Thanks very much for the reply and information.
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I wanted the look of the oil cooler in the radiator opening but given that my car is only street driven, I didn’t need a functioning oil cooler. So, I opted to do a faux oil cooler, which gets me the look without the hassle of running hoses.
I found a 13-row cooler, hose and fittings online for $100. I went with the 13-row cooler to fully fill up the opening in the body. Using the cooler as a guide, I created a cardboard template that I then used to transfer the port and mounting screw locations to the front radiator aluminum panel in the car. I measure many times to hopefully get the holes in the correct location. Once marked, I used a step drill bit to create the port openings in the panel. I then mounted the cooler to the panel. To secure the bottom of the cooler, I decided to attach it to the fiberglass as opposed to securing it to the radiator support with bars. I made some spacers to fill the gap between the bottom of the cooler and body. The cooler is very solidly mounted.
I made the AN hoses to the desired length with 90-degree fittings on both ends. I then used the step bit to create holes in the side panels to the right and left of the radiator. I installed the hoses to the cooler ports and then secured the upper 90-degree fittings to the side panels using block-off caps on the opposite side of the panels which sandwiched the panels between the fittings. I’m pleased with the results even if it is non-functioning.
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For tightening and loosening the knockoffs on my car, I’ve always used a 2x4 and small sledge hammer because first, I don’t have a lead hammer and second, I’d be afraid of swinging a hammer that close to my rims in case I missed. My friend who has a cobra said that he has hit the rim on his car with his lead hammer without damage but I’m still leery.
My method works but I really wanted a tool that could be used with a breaker bar or torque wrench for a more controlled method of tightening and loosening the knockoffs. I see there are various tools available for purchase but I thought why not fabricate my own.
I came up with a design, bought some metal and even used part of an engine stand I had around to make the tool. It turned out to be a lot of work since I don’t have some of the proper tools. I made some leather covers to protect the knockoff wings from where the tool contacts.
I initially thought I should be able to tighten the knockoff further with the new tool. That was not the case. I marked the knockoff current location, loosened it and then tightened it with the tool to over 300 ft-lbs of torque but I was short of the original mark. I had to add my floor jack handle to the breaker bar to get the leverage needed for this torque. I got very nervous applying that much torque to an unproven tool. And then my friend asked if I really planned on carrying all that stuff in my trunk in case I needed it on the road. Good point.
So, after all that fabrication work, I’ll probably just stick with my current method for tightening and loosening the knockoffs. I'm not sure how much torque my 2x4 and hammer applies but it’s obviously enough.
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Looks like I solved my rear suspension travel problem. I had two problems; one being that the half shafts were too long and binding during upward suspension travel and the other being that there was limited upward suspension travel due to the upper A-arm contacting the frame.
To solve the A-arm contacting problem, I modified the upper A-arms to allow for more clearance with the frame. I accomplished this by basically reshaping the A-arms. I made sure the hole-to-hole length of the A-arm didn’t change to maintain correct suspension geometry. I realize this modification changes the strength of the A-arm but I suspect it’s a minimal difference.
For the half-shaft problem, my plan was to incorporate the fix that Paul had suggested earlier. But after I took the half-shaft apart, I realized I didn’t have that option with my half-shaft design. The trilobe was already at the end of the splines. One of the attached pictures shows where the trilobe was contacting inside the axle housing. What I decided to do was to carefully grind back some of the shaft to create clearance for the trilobe to slide further down the splines. I realize I wouldn’t have as much spline engagement but that was a compromise I was willing to make. I was able to grind a new slot for the C-clip to lock the trilobe in place. I gained almost a ¼” with this modification which was the best I could do. Hopefully it would be enough.
As I was installing the A-arm on the passenger side, I determined that I did not have the same half-shaft binding problem as I did on the driver side. With no spring installed, I was able to raise the suspension all the way up with no binding. After making measurements, I determine that the center differential was not equally centered between the hubs, being a ¼” closer on the driver side. Then I remembered that early on in my build, I had corrected a clocking issue with the differential. In making that correction, the differential moved towards the driver side probably about a ¼”. Fixing one problem had created another. Having said that, the half-shafts are still a ½” too long. There’s no reason that there should be only a ¼” of margin.
After reassembling the suspension, I took the car out on a driver over the same roads I had had issues with before and there was no binding and the suspension never bottomed out. Overall, I’m happy with the results.
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Half-shaft pictures.
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More half-shaft pictures.
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It was mentioned to me before in the forum that the front lower A-arms on my car did not have the welded in reinforcing gussets on the curved rear legs. Later cars already had these gussets installed from the factory. So just to be on the safe side, I decided to install them. One less thing to worry about.
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I wanted a tonneau cover for my car to cover the interior when it’s parked, both to protect it from the sun and to keep prying eyes out. At first, I thought about a traditional tonneau cover, the type held in place by lift-a-dot fasteners but then I watched Pete Howland’s excellent YouTube video of the tonneau cover he purchased for his car (HM2029) and thought it would work for me also. Pete was nice enough to included the contact information for the manufacturer in his video. His cover was made by Phillip and Kay Deal, a husband-and-wife team in South Carolina. They are retired and this is a side business for them.
I contacted them and started the process to have a cover fabricated. Each cover is made to order. A fabric template was mailed to me and I marked features on the template such as the roll bar location, rear view mirror location, tie-down grommet location, etc. I then mailed the template to them and then several weeks later they mailed me the completed cover.
When I installed the cover for the first time, it fit perfect. It took only a few seconds to install. It’s held in place by a couple of bungee cords. It’s not designed to be installed when the car is moving or being towed. But it’ll work perfect for when the car is parked. The cover cost $275 and $20 for a storage bag plus shipping.
Here’s their contact information in case anyone else is interested:
Phillip and Kay Deal
wpdeal@gmail.com
864-895-5034
Here’s a link to Pete Howland’s YouTube video where he discusses his tonneau cover:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAHleF-xRRE
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I used them as well for my cover. Good people.
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Jeff, looks pretty nice and good price.
Is there anything the holds it kinda tight to the body on the back edge? Magnet, weight, etc?
Just wondering if it were parked outside and somewhat windy if that edge would lift up.
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Ben, the bungee cords on either side do a good job of holding the cover down. It's not going anywhere. Sorry for the delayed reply.
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I had been planning on having my car painted this winter and after seeing others on the forum get their car’s painted, it further encouraged me to move forward. So once the days started getting colder, I started the process.
First, I stripped the car of parts and then performed the final round of bodywork. I wanted to do as much of this as I could myself. Getting the sides flat was especially challenging. Since I had time, I also enclosed the exhaust opening to mimic original cars.
I next primed the car with 3 coats of urethane high build primer using roll-on primer from Eastwood. It actually turned out pretty good. It didn’t have the same smooth texture you get with a spray gun but its more than adequate. My plan was to block sand the primer to 120 or 180 grit paper and then turn the car over to the painter to finish up. Turns out there were a couple problems with my plan. An injury to my shoulder would prevent me from doing much sanding and it turns out I applied the wrong primer. When I informed the painter what I had done, he said he intended to prime the body using polyester high build primer and that it shouldn’t be sprayed over urethane primer. That means the urethane primer would need to be sander off. Since I wouldn’t be able to do that, I’m now going to pay him to do it. Live and learn.
I found the painter I plan on using, Ken’s Custom Autobody in Marysville, CA, after seeing an example of his work at a car show several years ago. In talking with the car’s owner, he told me about the painter and turns out he’s less than 3 hours from my house. His shop specializes in painting cobras, have painted over 1100 of them over the years.
After finishing the body work I could, I loaded up the car and dropped it off at the painters. The price I was quoted for the remaining bodywork and paint, while giving me a minor heart attack, was actually in line with prices these days and I have no doubt the end result will be excellent.
As for the paint color I chose, that was a very difficult choice. Over the 4-1/2 years I’ve been building the car, I’ve considered many colors; reds, blues, silvers, strips, no strips. I’ll hold off on revealing the final choice until I have some pictures of the car with paint on it.
It should take about 3 months to complete. I’ll post updates as I receive them.
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You're in good hands...seen some nice paint jobs out of there.
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I agree. Here’s a Factory 5 that had just been painted when I was there. Very nice work.