Cooling system

4 months since last post! Will try and get on top of this blog and keep more up to date.

So last post saw the engine going in. Once the engine was in I tackled the cooling system. Header tank from AK was fixed to the chassis - simple case of drilling and taping the chassis. I also installed the rad following AK's build manual. I purchased some rubber mountings from Rimmerbros - same ones as Tommy recommended for the bottom rad mounts. Even with these on I found I had a 1/4 inch gap at the top so I bought some additional mounts from Rimmerbros to plug the gap. Part number for these was 500447.

With rad and header tank in place I then connected all the hoses. I found that a few of the hoses didn't fit very well on the rad - so I bought a couple of samco reducers from merlin motorsport. In the end I replaced all the coolant hoses with Samco hoses which look really good. I also replaced all the jubilee clips with stainless steel Mikalor hose clamps.

I was going to install the thermostat probe that comes with the AK supplied fan - but I wasn't happy with the way you had to install this and expected it to leak. So I followed what a number of other builders have done and used an inline hose adapter with an M14 threaded hole to insert a temp sender.

Top tip - when cutting the hose don't use a saw - you'll frey the hose badly. Instead, fix a hose clamp or jubilee clip around the hose and use a sharp stanley blade to cut the hose - you'll end up with a very neat and straight cut.

Engine in

Now that I had the wheels on it was time to install the engine. I was really looking forward to seeing the engine in and getting some space back in my garage.

I bought some wheel dollies from SGS engineering which made it really easy to push the car out of the garage and position it exactly where I needed it. I then raised the back end as much as I could using the axle stands.

Once we had the correct height the engine was installed from the side - same was as Tommyboy did I think. The main reason for doing this was that my engine crane wouldn't go far enough in from the front.

One thing to watch out for is clearance around the bellhousing. I'm using a scattershield bellhousing - I'm not sure if these are slightly bigger but I ended up having to cut half an inch off the flange on the side and underneath. Looking on the web, this seems to be something that a lot of people end up having to do.

I also found that the gearbox support bracket didn't fit. This was down to me having a different rubber mount on the gearbox. If you get your gearbox from Roadcraft then the bracket will fit - I got mine from a different supplier and hence the bracket was different. We ended up getting a 6mm thick plate of mild steel and making our own. This was then drilled and fixed to the chassis with 4 M10 bolts.

I'm always a bit concerned about the fixing this way - and if it will hold. When you think you only have a few mm of steel and a couple of threads at most. Anyway, will be something I will keep an eye on and may change later.

Suspension Build up - Rear

You've probably noticed that my blog is not in sequence to the build - sorry about that.
So the rear suspension went together pretty well. The Gen 2 build manual is really easy to follow.

Connecting the handbrake cable was a bit of a pain as I had to dismantle the handbrake assembly to connect the cable. When reassembling everything I found that one of the spring pins wouldn't hold in properly. These are the pins that turn and lock into the hub plate. The hole was too big so I had to send back one of the hubs to Wards to get it fixed.

I used the original drive shaft spacers and bought some shims from John Gordon Jaguar. On the passenger side I used 3 shims plus the spacer. On the drivers side I found the spacer was too big as it was giving me a 1 degree angle the wrong way. My spacers were 5.5mm wide so I bought a 4.5mm spacer and that worked fine. One thing to remember, when you tighten everything up recheck the angle as it will have changed.

I'm still a bit surprised to find that there is no lock pin holding on the drive shaft nut. As recommended in the build manual I bought new ones of these (£14 each!). They seem to have a thread which is separate to the nut and they have to be torqued up to 300nm. 

Anyway, all pretty straight forward and no major dramas.

Brake lines

The brake lines were one part of the build I initially felt a bit wary about. I invested in a Sykes Pickavant Flaremaster 2 flaring tool (part number 02729600). This is one of the more expensive tools but I have to say it works brilliantly and I'm really glad I bought it. It comes with SAE and DIN flares, de-burring tools, pipe cutting tool and pipe bending tool. It's also the hand held version so if I ever need to make flares again on the car I've got the right tool for the job.
The picture below shows the flares that the tool can make:

I used the SAE flares. A single flare for the male connectors and double flare for female connectors.

I used 3/16inch pipe and M10 brake unions. I opted for cunifer pipe as opposed to normal copper pipe as apparently this is harder and less likely to work harden. It's also a lot harder to work with compared to copper pipe but with a bit of patience I managed to get the pipe run and looking reasonably tidy.

To fix the pipe I used 5mm stainless P-clips from carbuilder solutions. I drilled and tapped the chassis and used M6 set bolts to fix, with an M6 rubber washer in-between the clip and chassis to help avoid water ingress.

Having never run brake lines or used a flare tool before I tested the lines by rigging up the pedal box, master cylinder and servo. All lines and connections tested fine with no leaks. However, when I came and checked the next day I could see that the drivers side rear banjo fitting had leaked slightly - looks like the face of the caliper needs machining flat. Job for another day!

Suspension build up - Front

Progress hasn't been as quick as I anticipated - hence the delay in writing this latest post.
I started by trying to level the chassis. It seemed that one bit would level, and then another bit would be out. I posted a question on the cobra forum and was told not to worry - you'd never get it laser level. I then read a bit further into the build manual and could see once the front wishbones are on you then level across the top wishbone. So on to the next stage - fitting the front wishbones.

I had quite a struggle to fit these. First off my fulcrum bolt wouldn't fit through the chassis tube on one side (on the other it was very tight but went in). I also couldn't see how you could fit 2 spacer washers each side of the chassis tube. I called a fellow builder (Chemicaltrucker) who is slightly ahead of me in the build. He had the same challenge and told me that a bit of emery on the bolts would help, and as for getting the washers in, it is going to be tight and you just have to use a screwdriver to help them in. With this info in hand I had another go and managed to get he bolts and washers in.

The front lower wishbones threw up some different challenges. I managed to fit the right hand side one fairly easily. Bolt went in no problems and this had a 3 and 1 washer combination. However, the lefthand side bolt took 2 hours to get in. Although the bolt fitted in fine, this side needed 4 washers at the front. As the thread of the bolt is narrower than the bolt shaft, this makes it difficult to get the washers onto the bolt. I tried taping up the bolts but this didn't work. To cut a long story short, I got the washers on by initially fitting 3 washers which were easy to move around, and then holding on to the washers, I got a friend to pull the bolt back so I could get the 4th washer in. All looking good, bit of a boost to the build confidence, feeling quite pleased about things. This build is going to be okay I thought......Until I overtightened one of the bolts holding the lower ball joint into the vertical link and snapped it off. I couldn't believe it. The service manual says to torque these to 62NM which I did, and it snapped (On rereading the service manual, I realised that I'd got the wrong torque setting). 

To remove the sheared bolt, I drilled a hole into the bolt and then inserted a screw in bolt extractor. These have a reverse thread and should free the stuck bolt. In my case, the bolt extractor snapped in the bolt. So I now had a stuck bolt with a hardened steel bolt extractor stuck in it - no way this was going to get drilled out. I called Jon at AK as I was thinking I'd need to buy a new vertical. Jon suggested welding a nut to the top of the stuck bolt and then using this to free the bolt. Not having a welder I took it down to my local garage and they were able to free the bolt - result!

Now that I had the wishbones and uprights on I could set the caster angle. I followed the AK manual using the m6 set screw and washer technique. On the passenger side I initially got a caster angle of 9 degrees (see picture with cat in it). I then moved the washers around on the lower wishbone so that there were 3 washers at the front and 1 at the back. This reduce the angle to 7.5 degrees.

On the drivers side I had 7 degrees so didn't need to move any washers. I spoke to Jon and asked if it was okay to have 0.5 degree difference between sides and he said it was okay and you wouldn't notice.

UPDATE: I went back to this a few weeks later and by moving the top washers managed to get 6.9 degrees on the passenger side.

Next I installed the front coil over shocks and power steering assembly - all of which was pretty straight forward. I then installed the front hubs and brake callipers which I'd recently had back from Ed Ward. He did a fantastic job on reconditioning the rusty parts I sent him

It was starting to look more like a car now. You can also see I've started to run the brake lines. I'll cover this in more detail in my next post.

Diff installed

I collected the refurbished diff from Russell Ram a few weeks ago. Here are some before and after pictures:

Before installing the diff I tapped out the 4 holes at the front of the diff and made sure that the M10 bolts would fit in.

The diff is very heavy and takes two people to install it. I used my engine crane to lift the diff into place and had some rope around the front of the diff to lift and guide this into place. This system worked pretty well and I reckon it took about 30 minutes to get the diff installed. 

Donor Parts - Refurb

So I've spent the last few weeks getting all the donor parts refurbished ready for the build.
I decided to go for por-15 again - despite not being overly impressed by their engine enamel. I was thinking that maybe the rust preventative paint would be better. So I bought a tin of rust preventative por15 and top coat - both in black.

I first left the parts in a bath of deox-c for a few days to remove the rust. I have since found out that por15 rust paint bonds better to rust so I should have left them as they were.
I then used the por15 marine clean followed by the metal prep. The pics below show the parts covered in the metal prep.

I then did 2 coats of rust preventative paint - leaving a couple of hours between each coat. This was followed by 2 coats for top coat. Before applying the top coat I roughed up the service with some fine sand paper.

Over all, the parts look pretty good and I'm quite pleased with the finish.

I also took a drive down to Redditch to pick up my diff from Russell Ram. Russ has done a fantastic job and the diff looks as good as new. Money well spent.

 I decided to have a go at zinc plating the fulcrum bolts. These also turned out pretty well. I used a home plating kit from Gateros Plating. The kit uses a battery charger to power it. The set up looks a bit basic but the results are okay. This will give a bit extra corrosion protection.