Progress!!

I know, it's been a long time since I posted.  Well, here's the story of what's been going on since last time.  Brad, Christina and family came over Thanksgiving break.  The goal was to start the car for the first time.  Long story short....that didn't happen.  Then our slightly modified goal was to complete the wiring behind the dash so we could at least see the gauges light up.  Long story short....that didn't happen either.  Somebody (me) didn't realize that there are about 500 miles of wiring behind the dash!  Brad and I worked like crazy and worked late into the night.  On the last night we worked until about 3 in the morning...turned the key...nothing happened with the gauges except the volt gauge moved into position before we heard three of the fuses pop.  We went to bed very tired and very dissapointed.

Now flash forward almost a month.  It's been difficult getting back into the garage.  My REAL job has been crazy gearing up for the end of the year, everybody in the family has been sick at least once, and we've had a crazy cold front in Georgia for the past several weeks.  It hasn't been time wasted, though.  Since our late night failure, i've been double checking the wiring diagrams and doing tons of reading on the builder forums.

Over the past few days the weather has finally warmed up enough to work in the garage and still feel my fingers.  After reviewing all the wiring behind the dash, what I learned was that in our eagerness to see something light up we rushed toward the end and hooked up about four wires incorrectly and didn't ground everything.  Well, Colleen helped me move things around, create some more gounds, hook up the last few wires and.....lights!!

Brad hard at work.

Brad and Christina during a brief break.  Only 300 miles of wire to go.

Back to work.

Dash wiring.

Colleen helped to wrap it up.

Before, and........

After!

Heater Plumbing, Dash and Body Trial Fit

The kids have Friday off for some sort of teachers work day, so I went ahead and took Thursday and Friday off so I could have a long weekend to get in some family time AND car time.

So far, here's what I've been able to complete.....

First, I mounted the bracket for the optional passenger side roll bar to the chassis.  Easy to do and not much to see, but it gets rid of another box in the garage.

Second,  a few more parts came in from Summit Racing so I was able to complete the plumbing for the heater/defroster.  Again, not too hard but it does look organized and shiny.  And shiny is always good.  The final step will be to connect the dash heater control to the valve on the hose, but that will have to wait until the final dash install.

Third,  I completed the final layout of the dash gauges, switches and other controls.  The only indicators left are three small lights above the steering wheel for high beam and turn indicators.  You can see my initial marks for location, but I wanted to check body fit before drilling the holes.

And finally,  I had a friend come over last night to help me get the body on the chassis.  I went out this morning and temporarily secured the body into place.  The primary purpose of this initial body fit is to check the dash location and clearance of all the aluminum and gauges before any final mounting holes are drilled and the wood veneer is installed.  The dash will need to move to the left about 1/8" and up about 1/8".  That's why we test everything first before drilling holes.

Next up, installing veneer to the dash.

Passenger Roll Bar Bracket

  

Heater Plumbing

Heater Control Valve

 Dash Layout

 Overall Dash View

Body Fit Trial 



Progress

Ok, it's been a while since my last post.  I've finally made some visible progress, so here goes.....

First, Mike came over last night and welded the tabs onto my fabricated parking brake bracket to hold it into place.  If you're not familiar with my parking brake saga, go back and read past posts.    Of everything i've done so far, the parking brake has been by far was the biggest pain in the ass.....so far.  It shouldn't have been hard, but it was just a long drawn out comedy of errors.  Mike also brought over another person he just met who's building a '65 coupe here in Peachtree City.  We're turning into quite a little community of builders right here in PTC.

With the parking brake finally finished, I was able to begin attaching more aluminum in the cockpit, starting with the back wall.  I also fabricated and secured a small patch panel to cover the old parking brake location in the passenger side of the transmission tunnel.  Next up, side panels below the doors.  And with the additional aluminum in place, I have now started installing some of the weatherstripping that will help form the seal between the aluminum panels and body when it's in place.

The wiper motor was the next piece to be installed on the firewall.  The firewall is starting to get crowded, but so far everything's fitting with only a couple of small pieces remaining.  The rest of the wiper assembly is installed with the body, so of course the rest will come later.

On to the engine compartment.  I've begun organizing the all the wires in there, starting with the spark plugs.  I installed a pair of chrome spark plug wire loams.  They're hard to see, but they sure do organize the wires and make 'em look great.  Next up, installing the ignition computer on top of the passenger footbox and completing the heater plumbing.

Next I did the initial install of the sidepipes.  It will require slight adjustments to get them perfectly aligned with the body, so I figured I might as well start now.

And finally, I've started laying out the dash.  I went over all the nessecary switches with Mike, then came up with this initial layout.  The only switches not located yet are the fans to bring fresh air into the driver and passenger side footboxes.  I talked with Brad, and we think they may be buttons located either under the dash on their respective sides or on the transmission tunnel.  In case you wonder why fans are nessecary, the footboxes in Cobras are notoriously hot, and bringing in fresh cool air helps a bit I'm told.  I also prepared several mockups of a wood dash, and I've included a picture of the winner.

Now that I've finally cleared the parking brake log jam, hopefully progress (and posts) will be more steady.  A trial fit of the body will probably be next so I can get the dash aligned just right before I start drilling holes and determing exactly where it will be secured.  Pictures of that soon.....

Parking brake bracket.  Doesn't look like much, huh?

Rear cockpit aluminum panel in place.

Help with weatherstripping.  Notice the JEGS hat,

next up..... gray work shirts with our names

above the pocket.

Weatherstripping around trunk.  No covers for access holes yet.

Wiper motor is on the far left of the firewall just sneaking past the heater fan.

Spark plug wire organization.

Detail of the chrome spark plug wire loams.

Sidepipes.

Dash roughed out in pen.  All those clamp have nothing to do with

the dash assembly, this is just a convenient place to store 'em

where I can get to them quickly.

Bolivian Rosewood dash mockup.

Trunk aluminum, continuing to wire and starting the dash

The weather has been great, in the mid 80s, so i've been tackling lots of odds and ends over the past several days.

I finished all the attachments to the fuel tank with the installation of the pressure release valve, so I was able to finally install the aluminum sheets that form the trunk.  I included access hatches in these panels to that any parts in the tank that may break down the road can be accessed from the trunk without dropping the fuel tank out of the bottom of the car.  The hatches will be covered with removable aluminum panels and covered with the trunk carpet, which will be secured with velcro.

I also completed the initial wiring of the harness to the front of the car.  Not a whole lot to see here, but everythng is secured into place and ready for final attachment to the headlights, cooling fan and the other components on the front of the car.

I also completed fabricating small metal tabs that will hold my modified parking break bracket in place.  If you remember from a few posts ago, my custom bracket bent out of shape after the  first use.  Oops.  Anyway, Mike will come over when he gets a chance to weld them into place.  A little touch up paint, and the problem will be solved.  Once this is done, I'll be able to install some more cockpit aluminim.

And finally, I started mocking up the dashboard.  Not much done with this yet, but it's pretty cool looking.  We're going for a wood dashboard, so the next challenge will be to figure out how to secure the dash from behind so no rivets are visible from the front.  What fun would this be if there weren't challenges?

Fuel tank pressure release valve.

Release valve hose (will be secured near fill cap once body is installed).

Trunk aluminum with access hatches.

Front harness wiring secured to chassis tubing.

Trial fitting of dashboard.

Dashboard with bottom filler panel.

Finished Fuel Lines....again

Well, it's been a while since I posted because I had to go back one step and improve upon something I thought I had already completed.  Two different visitors suggested that the installed fuel lines "may" be too small for the engine we're using.  I say "may", becaue in their opinion the current size was right on the edge of being appropriate and may or may not provide enough fuel during all driving conditions.  The only way to know for sure was to drive the car and see.  Well, replacing fuel lines at that time if it didn't work would involve ripping lots of things out so I decided to play it safe and replace the lines now that it was easy to get to everything.  Long story short, we now have shiny new 3/8" supply and return hard fuel lines, -06 AN stainless braided flexible lines, and color coded alunimum -06 AN fittings.  Now we know the engine will get enough fuel when it needs it.....and it looks great too.  Next up, installing aluminum panels in the trunk.

Fuel Pressure Regulator

Supply and return lines at passenger's footbox.

Supply and return under the car.

Heading up to connect with the flexible lines.

Flexible supply and return lines to tank.

Engine Compartment.....so far.

Beginning Electrical Layout

Well, it's still incredibly hot around here so I try to work a little early in the morning at late in the evening.  While I wait for some help completing a couple of loose ends, I figured I would go ahead and start the initial layout of the electrical systems.  Man, there are a LOT of wires!  I've been told that if you take it step by step it's fairly straight forward.  Jacob and I started by securing the fuse box inside the top of the drivers side footbox.  After that, we roughly routed the various wiring runs in the appropriate directions.  I pretty quickly discovered that the hole in the footbox where I had previously run the brake reservoir hoses was really intended for the wiring bundle headed to the front of the car.  Oops.  Oh well,  a couple of hours later (6 actually) and I had rerouted the hoses out of the side of the box.  In addition to the rough layout of the wiring, I have also begun mounting the various electrical components to the frame.  The first piece to be mounted was the starting solenoid.  The solenoid is the part that keeps blowing out on my golf cart and setting it on fire, so i was keenly interested in getting it mounted and grounded correctly.

Radiator and Coolant Reservoir

Mom is in town helping to watch the kids while Leslie is out of town.  In between swimming, board games and roller skating, we managed to install and plumb the radiator and coolant reservoir.  It wasn't too difficult, but we did have to scratch our heads a bit to figure out to isolate the radiator metal from the frame.  Apparently, the radiator needs to be isolated to eliminate premature failure due to some chemical or electrical process.  I'm sure Brad can weigh in on this.  The isolation with rubber grommets also gives the radiator a little cushion from the frame to buffer against excessive vibration.