Fitting the Body - Day 4 - 6 out of 12

After a four hour session of tweaking and jacking I managed to get the four transmission tunnel bolts in:

All four holes needed "adjusting" 1-2mm - easy enough with the trusty dremel. What took the time was ensuring that the body was level transversely with respect to the chassis. Not easy when my garage floor slopes all over and the jag tyres are different sizes as they are so badly worn!

Looks good outside in daylight!

In the next two pictures notice how the matt black painted lower sills are invisible!!

Next session will be the four engine bay inner wing mountings.

Fitting the Body - Day 3 - Let Battle Commence!

First off I fitted the replacement body mount - this was easier said than done in the limited space available - but eventually it was done.

After plenty of mucking about I found I couldn't get the engine bay mounts to butt up against the body - being about 2mm off. Jacking the body up - moving it forward - mounts up tight. Lower the body - 2mm gap??

After a quick call to Craig at GD we tracked this down to the boot having sagged slightly. Due to the slope of the back of the boot, as the body was lowered the boot back hits the body mounts and pulls the whole lot back!

So, after a bit of trial and error I found that jacking up under the boot floor by 2 inches gave enough leeway to get the mounts up tight. Jacking and packing under the front of the main floor enabled me to get the engine bay mounts lined up.

First the offside one went in (remember to check the length of the bolts so they don't foul the chassis):

Then the nearside one - I needed to open the whole out laterally by 1mm:

2 down..... 10 to go!!

I then let the boot down but the holes in the transmission tunnel were about 5mm out vertically. With a bit of levering of the boot back against the chassis and a neighbour sitting in the boot it came down to about 2-3mm.

I think the rest will come out so I have left it for tonight with about 150kg of ballast at the back of the passenger compartment - we'll see how far this gets me tomorrow.

It is starting to look like a car now:

Not much room left in the engine bay!I was thinking the other day that the holes were going to be a long way out and would need elongating a fair bit...... but with a bit of persistance you can get them pretty close. Definitely one job not to rush into!

Fitting the Body - Day 2 - Not Quite!

Having thought overnight about things I set about with a new plan. I found that by jacking and inserting packing under the body the holes could be lined up pretty accurately. Applying Vaseline between the top two packs allowed the body to be moved around a bit:I started with the critical front bulkhead mounts, The nearside one went in very easily but there was small gap between the body and the mount on the offside. This was remedied by levering between the tyre and the wheelarch base (note the ratchet strap as I was doing this single handedly):The offisde was lined up and the bolt inserted. The bolt went in about half the depth reasonably easily and then just turned and turned with little resistance! For some reason it seemed that the threaded insert in the mount had become detached!

DISASTER!!

It looked like I was going to have to take the body off. After throwing some tools round the garage I sat down and had a think. I jacked and packed the body up about 9 inches at the front and 12 inches at the back:

This gave enough clearance to roll the body forwards a inch or so which was a enough room to undo the body mount fixing bolt with a spanner and withdraw the mount:I had a look at the insert (a rivnut type affair) and it could be seen that it was slightly distorted and therefore not gripping the body of the mount properly. A phone call to Andy at GD and I've asked him to send me another one.

Bugger!

So having taken the day off to get the body fixed into position it looks like I'll be tidying the garage for the rest of the day!

Fitting the Body - Day 1

As the radiator could not be moved any further back I decided to take the radiator support frame off and strap the radiator directly - this gives another 1.5 inches clearance. I also dropped the oil cooler down out of the way:

Next the whole lot was moved outside ready for the arrival of the troops:
Placing the body over the chassis went fairly easilly - apart from the radiator frame that I had laid loose on top of the chassis getting in the way. Here's a short video to show how it's done:

Once in place and after a bit of jiggling around it was clear that the mounting holes in the body did not quite line up with the chassis mounts (only a few mm)?? One problem was that if you moved the body to line up one hole... some of the others would move out of alignment.

After re-fitting the radiator and frame I decided that was enough for one evening and I needed to think how best to move the body around with a bit more control.

Preparing for Body Fitting - 4... and Final!

Last few jobs completed today. Had a bit of a problem with the radiator though. I undid the top frame bolts, loosened the lower fixings but found I could only pull it forward about 1.5 inches as the radiator is a couple of mm wider than the gap between the front chassis rails!

I know you can remove and refit the rad from below (if you can jack the car up high enough!) but that seems like an awful lot of hassle. This will mean that my "helpers" will have to lift the back of the body a bit higher.

I also fitted the battery tray as this is much easier to do with the body off.

So all that remains is to round up some volunteers...... body should be on within the next couple of days!

Stoneleigh 2008

No work on the car this weekend so far as I've spent the day at the National Kit Car Show at Stoneleigh. Fist time I've been and I was pretty impressed.

Lee Topham's superb car was on the GD stand and it really is a credit to all the hard work he has put into it over the last seven years:

Also there was the Peter Booker GD Euro - A much more modern interpretation:

There was also a factory built customer car just through SVA:

The interesting thing about this car is that it is red and has the lower sills painted black.... and it looks just fine!... So I'm happy with the way I've painted my sills:

There were plenty of Cobra's on the Cobra Club stand and I've come away with plenty of inspiration but also knowing that I've still got a lot to do!

And finally here's a short video of some Cobra's, GT40's and Ultima's leaving the show:

Now then.... must get back in the garage!

The list gets smaller:

Fettle the Accusump valve connection (easier access with the body off).

Sort out the alignment of and fix the exhaust back boxes.

Check the clearances of the body mounting holes.

Clean / Vacuum Chassis.

Clean / Polish Engine.

Remove temporary gearstick.

Remove temporary fuel supply.

Drain cooling system - remove top hose - move top of radiator back 4".

Check bolt torques of transmission / driveline components.

Preparing for Body Fitting - 3

Sorted out the nearside wheelarch compartment panel as per the offside. I then set about modifying the transmission tunnel top mounts. These mounts don't have a fixing for the body but are used to space the body properly off the transmission tunnel. The problem is that they can foul the inside radius of the tunnel. The solution therefore is to take a grinder to them:
I removed material in stages and checked by holding the mounts up against the inside of the tunnel until they were OK. I erred on the side of caution and took off slightly more than needed.

If you are going to do this and use a grinder then make sure you wear a respirator - if the rubber gets too hot it will produce fumes which are certainly not good for you!!

I now have a small list of things to do before fitting the body:

• Fettle the Accusump valve connection (easier access with the body off).
• Sort out the alignment of and fix the exhaust back boxes.
• Check the clearances of the body mounting holes.
• Clean / Vacuum Chassis.
• Clean / Polish Engine.
• Remove temporary gearstick.
• Remove temporary fuel supply.
• Drain cooling system - remove top hose - move top of radiator back 4".
• Check bolt torques of transmission / driveline components.

Preparing for Body Fitting - 2

Found some time to prep and paint the other lower sill - that's both of 'em done now: Having received a consignment of jack-nuts the other day it was time to turn my attention to fixing the wheelarch compartment panels. The jack-nuts were fitted into a rebated hole: Six jack-nuts were fitted - 3 per side:
Whilst I was at it I also fitted jack-nuts to the footwell extension panel:
4mm thick closed cell neoprene rubber was then fixed to the extension panel with impact adhesive:
I then trial fitted the extension panel to check it was sealed (high powered torch in the footwell - turn out the garage lights - and look for light coming through from the engine bay side):

I then removed the extension panel as it will foul the chassis when fitting the body. You can only fit it once the body has been fitted.

The same 4mm neoprene foam was stuck to the inside of the wheelarch panel:That's the offside panel done - just the nearside one left to do.

I now need to think about mustering the troops to get the body on. There are few small jobs left to do over the next few days but essentially I am more or less ready for the body to be fitted.

Oh..... nearly forgot.... I painted the battery tray as well!

Preparing for Body Fitting - 1

Time to cut a big hole in the body!! This one is for the gearshift. If you are going to buy only one new tool for the body - make sure it is a dremel with all the attachments. The radius gauge and a saw bit made short work of this job..... very neat edges too.

The next job was to sand down and paint the lower sills matt black to disguise them - one of the downfalls of deviating from the common colour choice of black!

In between coats I fixed the various strips of chassis foam:

Contrary to popular belief you do not need any on the diff carrier as it is further away from the body than the tunnel top sheet. But you do need to remember to stick two strips on the boot support bracket:With one lower sill painted I was quite pleased with the results - although it might look a bit odd at the minute is should look OK once the body is 4 inches of the ground and not 4 feet!

Just need to do the other one now.

Main Body Loom - 4

Time to finish off fitting the main body loom. I tidied up the section where it emerges into the engine bay with a couple of p-clips a la GD. I then spent the best part of an hour getting the large grommet to fit!. I had made things worse for myself as my additions to the engine loom meant that there were more wires passing through the grommet and therefore less flexibility in the grommet:

A single p-clip tidied things up a bit in the boot although there are still a lot of wires to run yet. I'm going to leave these until I fit the lights, fuel pump etc.

I wired up the horn to include connectors easily accessible at the top rather than fishing around underneath once the body is on:

The twin fans have a connector each, but there is only one connector on the supply from the loom so two had to become one:

Not much left to do now before the body is fitted!! So the next batch of parts has been ordered for collection mid may and will include: fuel tank, steering column, lights, dashboard loom, dashboard and roll bars.

Main Body Loom - 3

Time for some more wiring. First off was to fit the rear section of the main body loom. This connects to the front section of loom in the passenger footwell and is p-clipped to the bulkhead: The loom is then p-clipped to the floor adjacent to the tunnel: Before disappearing through the rear bulkhead into the boot: Next came the slightly confusing bit. The front part of the loom runs forward for the lights / fans / horn. It exits from the n/s engine bay and runs under the inner bonnet lip: Looks obvious in the photo - but as you can see in the previous photo it is not visible normally. The main part of loom then runs across the front of the body p-clipped to the bonnet hinge pin moulding:The plug in the foreground is the connection for the fans. Inside both the weelarches the wires for the lights pass through grommets but the wires for the repeaters have to run to back up inside the wheelarches???:I would have thought it simpler for these wires to run from the dash, through the bulkhead into the wheelarch compartments - but hey ho - that's the loom I've got and I'm not going to pull it apart! Having run up the inside of the wheelarch the wires finally run though a grommet into the wheelarch compartments: Just need to sort out the bit of loom around the heater pipes.

Leaking Brakes & Clutch ???

Despite my best efforts to induce a leak in the hydraulic systems over the last week by repeatedly applying excessive pressure to the clutch and brake pedal..... none was forthcoming!

So with that done the temporary hydraulic connections were disconnected and the pedal box pressure hoses re-fitted to the bulkhead fittings in the correct location:

Seeing I was now not planning on removing the body to sort leaks I fitted the tunnel top sheet after cutting a hole for gear stick:

Lastly, looking for something to do I fitted some stainless steel studding for the engine bat battery studs:The time for fitting the body to the chassis is getting nearer..... just need to fit the remainder of the main body loom (still waiting for some grommets) and paint the sill returns matt black.