Well one loose wire later and a better earth connection and the indicators and hazard lights are working. My friend Rob popped round with a spanner that allowed me to adjust the front suspension so as to increase the height of the front of the car. This now means that the front indicators meet the SVA height requirements. The past few days have seen the front drop a little further, so some more adjustment will be needed before the actual SVA - just to make sure.
I've taken the flash lines away on the rear of the car now with just the line around the rear of the car left to do. Once that is done it's out with the wet and dry to smooth off the edges. The one line that was most difficult to remove was the one that travelled over the width of the car, just behind the wipers. I'm hoping that the windscreen will hide most of that when it arrives.
Speaking of new goodies I ordered the seatbelts and they arrived last weekend. I have since removed the petrol tank and drilled the holes that I had forgotten about before I fitted the body. I fitted some bolts through and held them in place with a small nut, but looking at this makes me think that the seatbelt unit itleslf will not fit on with another (locking) nut on top. Should have fitted the longer bolts. Oh well, not to worry. The fuel tank is simple to remove and as I'm almost ready to fit the belts permanently, I'll just have to remove the tank again.
I trimmed the door sills on Tuesday this week and the dust it made! Sooner than use a hacksaw (lots of manual effort) I used the grinder to cut away and smooth the edges off. Much simpler but it does tend to make a mess. Still, now the inner wings of the cab are ready to be fitted, but not until the windscreen has been bolted in place as it looks like you need access to the side of the chassis to bolt the thing into place.
Wednesday seen me fit a rubber seal around the bonnet opening. I tried using some Copydex glue initially (thinking rubber to plastic, it would be ideal) but it just would not grip, so I resulted to using some contact glue to get the job done. I hung the seal from a nail in the garage wall and applied it to most of the seal. After about 10 minutes it was touch dry and with the help of my neighbour Steve we laid the seal in place, feeding it carefully around the bonnect opening. With the bonnect closed we could see that the seal needed to be moved in at certain areas and fortunately the glue handn't completely stuck down and gave us enough time to adjust it. Once this was in place it made the whole bonnet are look much neater and also made a nice sound when the bonnet was closed 8^).
Today I fitted a door lock and locking pin. The drivers door now locks shut!! Cutting the hole was a little tricky and it has not turned out as well as I would have wished, but then trying to locate where the holes to fix the lock to the door should be fited was even more fun. This takes a lot of measuring to make sure that you get the first hole correct. Having done this I then made a template out of card, marking out the holes in the lock. I placed this up against the door to work out where the other holes should be drilled. Worked a treat.
Fitting the striking plate was easier than I thought. The one thing that you must take care with when locating its position is to ensure that the lock moves through its two locking positions. SVA will catch some people out on this as they only ever lock in the first position. Ever closed a car door and not have it shut properly but then can't push it open? This is catching on the first position. The one ugly thing having fitted the striking pin is that it needs to sit away from the body about 10mm due to the gap between the door and the body. I will probably ask my father in law to make up some better striking pins when I see him next as I don't like the way they currently sit. I'll get some photos of this stuff later when I locate the camera.
Oh, and well done England for stuffing the Argies!
Ireland are through to the final 16 of the World Cup finals. Let's hope England can follow them there tomorrow by beating Nigeria! Sorry for all the football references, this is just for my father-in-law, John, who hates football! John - enjoy!!
On to more Cobra related topics.
At the weekend I managed to get out and get some lock nuts for the seatbelts. The fuel tank will need to come off again so that I can fit the seatbelts into position. In order to get ready for this I cleaned out the cabin and even attacked it with the vaccum cleaner. I have a couple more pop rivets to fit into the rear bulkhead and then the belts will be fitted.
I trial fitted the inner wings of the cab today to check if there would be access to fix the windscreen. There is enough room as the inner wings actually sit lower that the fixing positions so I shall see about fitting them this week. Before they can be fitted there is a small section that needs cutting out where the seatbelt strap is fitted. The panel also needs trimming so that it fits around the door opening. This will then allow for the door seal to be fitted. I measured up and trimmed both the drivers and passengers panel. The two are now ready to be fitted. I'll probably use some contact glue to stick these in place. On the passenger side the panel leaves a small gap below the top of the body shell. I have a small fibreglass kit and so will attempt to patch that up. As it all gets covered with carpet no-one will know.
Well the World Cup is finally over (for England at least). I have pulled Brazil in the local sweep at work so there is still a small chance that I may win something, so come on Brazil!
While all the football has been going on I haven't done a great deal on the car. My wife has also been in hospital recently which has meant even less time with Cobra's and more time playing Doctor. Kathy is making a good recovery though and the next few weeks should see some good progress on the car.
What's new since last time? The inner wings for the cab have been trimmed to fit round the seatbelt mount and also to fit around the door opening. They just need to be stuck in now. Before I do that I decided that I would fit some courtesy lights into the footwells. You never know when the car will be out in the evening, and any help getting in and out will be of help. These lights will allow driver and passenger to see whereabouts they are putting their feet. Closer inspection of how the windscreen fits into place isn't affected by the inner wings. I may even trim them back a little further so that they give complete access to the chassis mount where the door hinge is mounted, just in case the winscreen proves a little tricky.
The flash lines have been completely removed from the car, the wet and dry has smoothed off the rubbing, and they gel coat has been polished up so that it matches all over. It is clear to see that there are a number of chips out out the gel coat that will need to be tidied up but at this point I am thinking of getting the body sprayed and letting the body shop smooth and fill all the chips. The only holes I have left to cut out are the windscreen wipers and demister vents, the windscreenslots and the boot handle. Once they are done I'll inquire about a spray job.
The other door lock and striking pin has been fitted. It seems that the interior door handles are rather rare to come by, certainly down my neck of the woods. This in mind I thought about having some sort of electrical device that, on press of a button, would open the doors in a similar fashion to that found on TVR's. I then spoke to a friend whose Dad used to own a Chimera. He said that the number of times he got locked out (and in) was so high that it completely put me off the idea. I have since found some old Ford Capri handles, less the trims, that seem to be the ones required for the Sumo. I now need to make up some plates so that I can fix these to the doors and make/bend/adjust the rods from lock to handle.
As this will be the final piece for the doors then I may even the make up the door panels myself. As Kathy is a bit of a dab hand with the sewing machine I'll see if she'll help me with the trimming of the car. This way I may even get away with not needing the horrible plastic trims. If I can work out how much leather is required for the dash, door panels and gearstick/handbrake gaiters, I may get some from the next kit car show I go to. I can then make up the dash and the Cobra should start looking the car that it should.
The final piece of work these past few weeks was to source a new wiper motor from a Mini. Found a good shop in Swindon that sells second hand Mini spares and picked up a working motor for just £15.00. They also sell complete headlight units, bowls and all, for just £10.00 each. Can anyone reading this tell me if the headlights from a Mini would be suitable for my Cobra. This could save me a few bob.
I took the wiper motor home and plugged it into the loom switch and hey presto, it worked first time! A bit of a gamble just plugging it in, but I had checked the loom time and again when the first motor blew up on me and I convinced myself then that the wires on the motor itself were plugged on incorrectly.
I have since cut down the wiper rail so that the wipers will fit into the Cobra moulds. I just need to cut the holes so that I can fit it. Only thing is I do not have the mounting bracket for the motor, but I can make one of those up easily enough.