Collection

So, I've cheated a little bit.........

I've gone for a rolling chassis as a starting point. The stripping down and refurbishing on the two previous projects have reduced my appetite for doing all that stuff again

And I've compounded my cheating by having the engine and gearbox shipped to AK and bolted into the chassis so that the exhaust side pipes could be mated to the exhaust headers in the factory, avoiding me having to take it back there later. 

So the rolling chassis and body were collected from AK on 21st August 2018. Unfortunately, the planned five weeks of work in the house to fit a new kitchen and enlarge the garage lasted 15 weeks so there was no where to put the rolling chassis back in August. Fortunately a friend had room to store it so it was mid November before the Cobra turned up here in my garage in the back of a race trailer.

I knew that the first thing to be done was to separate the body from the chassis. When I visited Jon and Wendi in Peterborough, I measured up the body stands that AK had made and so prior to arrival I built something similar out of 2 x 2 with a set of 5" casters. I thought about hoisting the body above the chassis in the garage but decided that given I had a rolling chassis, the body and chassis would not be separated for too long so the body would happily sit on its stand on the driveway under a good quality car cover for a couple of months. (My plan is to refit the body in early April)

So the body now sits on the driveway and the chassis sits on stands in the garage and I'm sorting out what needs to be done before they are reunited. As far as I can see so far that includes:

• Fit heater
• Fit pedal box, brake servo, master cylinder and clutch master cylinder and connect clutch slave cylinder
• Fit fuel filter and pump
• Fit propshaft
• Check tighten all rolling chassis nuts, bolts and fixings.
• Fit exhaust headers
• Cut remaining openings in the bodyshell.
• Fill gearbox and diff with fluids (easier with body off)
• Paint inside of engine bay
• Refit and connect radiator
• Check for anything else...............!!

So its now time to start and the first job to tackle is the heater.