Jesse builds another Cobra #11,061 - First body work shots

[Blitzboy54]

Looks awesome. I just noticed the side pipes were off. Do you need to take them off to fit the body?

Definitely. The cutouts are not big enough as is. Even when they are the correct size I’m pretty sure the pipes have to come off.

Also while you’re doing things like doors, windshield and wipers it’s a lot easier to move around the car with the exhaust out of the way.

[cv2065]

Also while you’re doing things like doors, windshield and wipers it’s a lot easier to move around the car with the exhaust out of the way.

Wipers? Who’s got wipers?

[Jeff Kleiner]

Looks awesome. I just noticed the side pipes were off. Do you need to take them off to fit the body?

Yes. Pipes must be off to R&R the body.

Jeff

[Blitzboy54]

Wipers? Who’s got wipers?

That’s crazy coming from a Florida guy. You get mini monsoons out of nowhere . Sunny, 10 minutes later it’s rained like an inch.

[cv2065]

That’s crazy coming from a Florida guy. You get mini monsoons out of nowhere . Sunny, 10 minutes later it’s rained like an inch.

That's true. You have to have a magic ball when driving in this place. However, I think I may have used my wipers once on the last car. The reality is that the showers are so short, Rain X suffices in most cases. If it's too heavy, then wipers wouldn't really help much over the Rain X anyway as the windshield fogs up. Here's to the meteorological crystal ball!

[Blitzboy54]

Wipers

I used the FFR wiper kit on my last build and did again for this one. I know there are better reviewed options but the way my firewall laid out the FFR motor was a better fit. Just like the heater I found them to be entirely useful on more than one occasion out in the wild on my first build. They are loud but that really doesn't matter in an open air car with side pipes. My only real complaint was the Lukas style blades don't work that well. They are streaky (at least mine were).

As a result I wanted 2 things. Something a little different looking and ideally I would like to use a modern blade. Something I can buy over the counter and replace. I found these from Specialty Power Windows. They are meant for a flat windshield as the blades don't flex but I like the meatyness of the arms and I thought they might look cool powder coated black. They bend at a different angle than the Lukas arms but the connection point and the end are in the same location. They are the same length.

https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Speci..._2B3suPgT5JWRv

I used generic 10" J hook blades and found these adapters that were easy to modify.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZKL8LHP...fed_asin_title

Still working out the kinks but I simply removed the aluminum blade, modified the J hook and used the existing screw to hold it into place. After powder coat I will use a little JB weld to permanently hold that hook into place. With a single screw holding it it will eventually rotate but with a little epoxy it will never move again.







Mounted up side by side with the Lukas



To give me a VERY rough idea of what the arm would look like black I put some electrical tape on it. lol





So yes, they look different but there isn't any point to going further if they don't work. My initial test seems to indicate they do, actually pretty well. No streaking that I can see.







So far so good. I like them enough to keep going. I can always install the Lukas arm/blades but I like where this is headed.

[cv2065]

Looks good to me Jessie. I like your version better than the stock. The arms look robust. Nice work!

[gbranham]

Not nearly as nice as mine, and I have a rain sensor (me), and intermittent (me). Lol

Greg

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[danmas]

Not nearly as nice as mine, and I have a rain sensor (me), and intermittent (me). Lol

Greg

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How do you adjust the intervals on those?

[gbranham]

How do you adjust the intervals on those?

You rotate the handle faster, or slower. Hah!

[Blitzboy54]

Side pipes and louvers


I test fit the louvers with the body on. I had to trim two of the posts on the drivers side so I could clear the footbox. I also opened up the exhaust ports. This is where it gets a little jenky. My drivers pipe is more forward than the passenger. Instead of trying to figure it all out I opted to make the openings as small as I could get away with until we get to body and paint. Once mock up is complete I will take the photos necessary to start the DMV process and submit the application. I will break down all the bare and shiny parts at that time and complete the powder coating.

For now though I think she is starting to look mean. I was able to get a couple laps around the neighborhood. The engine runs beautifully. I hear a lot of squeaking and bumping from the body. I assume it will settle as I drive it more. Definitely body on bulb seal.










I moved up to the radiator. i tried to test fit the shroud and and found it to be tight. I need to trim a 1/4" but it started to scar up the fins. This got me thinking a shield wouldn't be the worst idea. I found some plastic coated steal mesh and cut with metal sheers. Wrapped it in some rubber edge trim and used the existing radiator mount screws to secure it.

[gbranham]

Yeah, Everson's shroud beat up my radiator fins, too, so I gave up for now. Thinking Kleiner could install it for me when he removes the body for paint.

[danmas]

Side pipes and louvers


I test fit the louvers with the body on. I had to trim two of the posts on the drivers side so I could clear the footbox. I also opened up the exhaust ports. This is where it gets a little jenky. My drivers pipe is more forward than the passenger. Instead of trying to figure it all out I opted to make the openings as small as I could get away with until we get to body and paint. Once mock up is complete I will take the photos necessary to start the DMV process and submit the application. I will break down all the bare and shiny parts at that time and complete the powder coating.

For now though I think she is starting to look mean. I was able to get a couple laps around the neighborhood. The engine runs beautifully. I hear a lot of squeaking and bumping from the body. I assume it will settle as I drive it more. Definitely body on bulb seal.










I moved up to the radiator. i tried to test fit the shroud and and found it to be tight. I need to trim a 1/4" but it started to scar up the fins. This got me thinking a shield wouldn't be the worst idea. I found some plastic coated steal mesh and cut with metal sheers. Wrapped it in some rubber edge trim and used the existing radiator mount screws to secure it.

Looks sick!

[Blitzboy54]

Radiator Shroud

Moving on to the nose aluminum. I used the FFR panels on the last build. I probably got a little lucky with fitment because it all lined up first try. This time not so much. Also hard to manipulate the radiator after the hoses are routed and secured. So I move to to Mr. Everson's masterpiece. I made the initial mistake of trying to direct fit it into the nose as as bare aluminum. Don't do this, it is likely a little big and it mushes up the fins. I did however learn how to best do this with the body on so I will share what I did.

I installed the rear bulb seal. I then trimmed a 1/4" off the front. I already knew it was too tight so I was good to trim it down. Honestly you can also just measure from the base of the radiator to the inner fold of the nose and figure out how close you are. I folded it gently over itself and put it back in.



You can see it was still too tight. I did scrap up some of the bed liner and will need to re apply. Ultimately I took 3/4" off the front and re test fit.



It looked right so I took another 1/4" to account for the front bulb seal.



I put her back in. I set and drilled the upper aluminum piece from Breeze. This piece comes a pre drilled aluminum panel but I prefer to put bulb seal on the end. No chance it vibrates against the body and makes and noise.



All in all it makes and real nice looking tunnel. I will leave it without rivets until after body and paint. I will however powder coat it black when I do the rest of the remaining pieces. I used tin snips to trim it and this worked well.





It was hot and sweaty in the garage and I installed and removed this 7 or 8 times. I gave up on keeping the aluminum shiny and clean. I think if I was to keep it bare aluminum I would consider wearing latex gloves. I personally don't care because it will be coated but it does require a lot of manipulation to get it in there just right.

[TrackDay17]

Looking good Jesse ! It's a hot one here in KC today too.

[Blitzboy54]

One step forward......

Moving down my punch list I moved on to the hood. Simple enough. I attached the hardware using the pre drilled mounting locations.



I adjusted the hinges as far to the left as they would go and this is how the hood fit.



I obviously have a problem. I opened up a help thread in the general forum and found out that I did not have the front of the body centered. I used the quick jack holes as my reference and that is not correct. As what seems obvious to me now you need to measure from shock mount to the edge of the wheel well. My last body just naturally fit out of the gate so I just didn't learn anything last time.

I got to work by removing the quick jacks, the screws under the body and the windshield. I also loosened up the wiper bracket. I was then able to re center the body. The drivers side out rigger was now poking out into the brake duct. I used a 2x4 and was able to re position it toward the passenger side. I tweeked the other out rigger as well but that one wasn't as far off.

Once I got the body re positioned I checked the hood..... much better.



I then re attached the windshield, quick jacks and wiper brackets. I loosened the hood hinges, set the hood and jacked up the car.



Tightened down the hinge, lowered the car and re checked, all is good. The only real casualty to all this besides my ego is I had to re adjust the drivers side door and I will have to remove the passenger door and trim a little off the front edge as the door doesn't quite fit right anymore



I have a little bit of a wow in hood. The installation manual says to put something heavy on it so that's what I will do. We will see if that helps. The latch will hold it down as well. Nothing quite like a self inflicted wound on a 90 degree day in the garage to close out the weekend



All is well that ends well

[cv2065]

Glad you got that worked out. My last build the hood just fit into place as well. And the heat has been simply unbearable at times. I probably say that every summer.

[Jeff Kleiner]

There ya' go Jesse! Aren't you glad that you didn't try to relocate those hood brackets

You can put that weight away---it ain't going to help. Set the latches 14" from center rather than what the manual says and in the end that will help to pull the hood corners to body flush.

Jeff

[Blitzboy54]

There ya' go Jesse! Aren't you glad that you didn't try to relocate those hood brackets

You can put that weight away---it ain't going to help. Set the latches 14" from center rather than what the manual says and in the end that will help to pull the hood corners to body flush.

Jeff

Thank you Jeff!

Yes I am and will do

[Blitzboy54]

Headlight fix

I was taking some measurements in the engine bay for some reason or another and failed to notice my knee was pushing into the passenger headlight. What ended up happening is the upper adjustment screw caved in. It is plastic with fine threads that are cut in by the screw itself. Once you push it in it doesn't really work anymore.





A local builder saw my post and reached out. He had a spare and shipped it up from down state for me. Craig, thank you again. I really appreciate it. I swapped it out and I am back in business.



With that out of the way I can re focus on my hood. I am flirting pretty hard with going with something like this. I am well past traditional at this point. These are quick release hood pin style latches from a company called Quik-Latch

https://www.quik-latch.com/?srsltid=...OjeQXzrc6CjGN7



I think it might be a cool look for what I am going for. They come in 3 sizes and different finishes. The biggest challenge will be to mount the pins in a way where they both line up and are rigid enough to hold the hood down. Here is a video showing their operation with some pretty dramatic music. lol



I think for now I am going to mount the FFR latches while I work out if this solution works for me. The good news is if I install them I only have to make the holes bigger. They would be located in the same place.

[Blitzboy54]

Hood latch installation

As mentioned earlier I have what I call a Wow in my hood. As Jeff said I have "one of those" body's.



Per his suggestion I am mounting my latches at 14" vs 12" in the manual. This will help hold the corners down. Way more important that the hood sit right.

One of the things Paul did on one of his builds is index the bracket so the latch naturally stops in the center. I really like the idea so I copied it.



This works well. The latch sort of clicks into place.



I used rivets for now to hold the brackets and installed a few bumpers. I will go with the D Seal after paint but this works for now.





The latches are in and the hood works. The last thing in this phase to do is temp mount the side mirror, rear mirror and visors. I will then take pictures to start the NY DMV process.

For all intents and purposes I am kind of done with all the big chunky stuff for now. My goal is to finish the powder coating (there is a lot to do) and get the car registered to drive legally by Sept. Then it's time to hunker down and wait for a call from Jeff.

I have also decided on a paint scheme. I think I'm 99.5% sure of it. I few minor details here or there but I am ready.

[JayOH]

I’ve been thinking about how to make those same latches work too.

There’s a YouTube channel where someone installs the large version:
https://youtu.be/u2952zBmhyw?si=WCk2dPNgzEYYCsfi

I also found some guys that installed the small version, the small size you can buy cups to help locate the pin:
https://gatewaycobraclub.com/forum/t...-latches.4884/

Quik-Latch doesn’t offer the locking feature on the smallest size which is a bummer since those seem like they would be the easiest solution to install.

Interested to see any solutions you come up with.

[Mike.Bray]

Those latches are slick. Here's some others if you ever need some a little more robust. https://aerocatch.com/

[Namrups]

I installed one on the rear glass in my coupe.

[Blitzboy54]

End Game

I am on NY registrations door step. I have filled out the initial application. When you send this into the state you send copy's of all your major components receipts. For me this is kit, engine, transmission, wheels and tires. You include 4 pictures (one from each side) and a weight certificate. I have Friday off from work and plan to trailer it to get it weighed in the morning. Hoping the have the application in the mail this weekend. From there once approved I can then make an appointment with the State police for a salvage inspection where they will assign me a VIN. I can then register it like any other car. In between the two inspections I will pull all the bare metal and shiny bits off the car and have them powder coated the Prismatic Powder stone black.

So this week is all about getting ready for those pics while knocking out a few practical odds and ends. I did a batch of powder coating myself. Among that batch was the rear splash guards. When installing them I forgot about the gap in the front of the wheel well. I decided to trim up some covers using spare aluminum. I added bulb seal and put them in with 3 rivets. I plan to drive the car over the fall so I need them in. I will drill all this back out before taking it for paint.







While powder coating I took the opportunity to finish up the wiper arms. Coated them black and used a little JB Weld to make the J hook permanent.



Another NY requirement is "padded" visors. I will tape some foam on these for the pictures so I left the paper on for now. It all seams a little silly but these boxes need to be checked in order to get the VIN. Once approved nobody looks at this stuff again so you can do what you want but not until then.

Last is I got my rear view mirror mounted. I was planning on using a 3D printed bracket but didn't like how it turned out so I purchased this bracket from an Etsy vendor. It's a nice aluminum piece that came with all the required hardware. I will also powder coat this.

[cv2065]

Cross the finish line Jessie! Looks great man. Nice work!

[TXeverydayDad]

Man, you’ve been flying through this build! I appreciate the details you’ve shared and hope the registration process will be a smooth one.

[Waterman]

Jessie, I just went thru this NY fun as you know and in the end some of the NY requirements will stay longer term. The wipers I have used a couple times already. As far at the padded visors I had my daughter help me and we covered in some left over vinyl from the trans tunnel cover. Overlap the ends and seal with contact cement left over from carpet. Easy peasy AND they Work to stop sun glare as well as the wind turbulence. Several have said they look good so they will stay.
IMG_2755.jpg

[Jeff Kleiner]

Regarding the visors; when I did Chuck Krueger's car he said that he just cut the toes out of a pair of tall sweat socks and slid them over the acrylic visors. Passed!

Jeff

[jengum]

It looks awesome! Thanks for letting me see your 2nd build and the roadmap on the NYS registration process. I took careful notes on your rough body alignment process.

[Blitzboy54]

Chin Spoiler PSA

Friday morning I borrowed my neighbors Tahoe and rented a car hauler. I loaded her up to get her weighed when I ran into an unexpected hiccup.



The chin spoiler doesn't clear the end of the trailer. At the last minute I had my wife come out and eyeball it as I got near the end. She gave me a pretty confident "it won't clear."



It's fine for now, it comes off but after paint it might not. The other option is to put some sort of wheel block to raise the front end. For now I will just leave it off until I am done towing it all over town. The Toy hauler is new, hard to find and about double the rental price, but definitely an option.

I got to the scales. Where I live the closest one is a recycling center in Schenectady. Funny thing was 3 people asked me why I was throwing it away, one of them offered to buy it.



Just like last time they all came out and gave me a thumbs up when I rolled on to it. Also didn't charge me anything. She came in a full 120 lbs heavier than my last one. I am the proud parent of a 2340 lb baby girl.



I then finished my car prep, thanks to my friend Joel, I borrowed his padded visor covers he used on his build. You can see that my "defroster" vents are in and I used a little double sided tape to mount the side mirror. I have completed the initial application paper work and will send it off to Albany first thing Monday morning.

[Mike.Bray]

Chin Spoiler PSAI got to the scales. Where I live the closest one is a recycling center in Schenectady. Funny thing was 3 people asked me why I was throwing it away, one of them offered to buy it.

I laughed out loud at that one! That's funny

[Jeff Kleiner]

I'm actually surprised that you got all the way to the front before realizing that it wouldn't clear---most times when using the U-Haul trailers the oil cooler scoop will contact or very nearly contact the rearmost crossmember between the ramps unless you raise the tongue of the trailer several inches. Good to hear that the inspection went well!

Jeff

[Blitzboy54]

I'm actually surprised that you got all the way to the front before realizing that it wouldn't clear---most times when using the U-Haul trailers the oil cooler scoop will contact or very nearly contact the rearmost crossmember between the ramps unless you raise the tongue of the trailer several inches. Good to hear that the inspection went well!

Jeff

That's interesting. I don't know this for a fact but it looks like the trailer naturally sits higher on a Tahoe vs a pickup. I wonder if I just got lucky by accidentally sitting high enough. I also have the ride height set pretty high at the moment, right about 5" in the front.

[Blitzboy54]

Breaking it back down

I submitted my application for a VIN to NY late last week. I did not hear anything so that is generally a good sign. If they need something clarified they will call. So far so good. I started to pull all the parts off my car that I need powder coated. First is the gas cap. I know a lot of people do this but after searching the forum I could not find a ton of information on how to break it down. So here it is.

After removing the screws underneath to take the upper and lower halves apart. I removed the center plate by removing the screw holding the plate to the main spring. Then I started to look at the hinges. I think what was hanging me up was the copper pins. There are 3 of them. They come out pretty easy. They are all pressed in but require little force to remove them. There is one that is split that houses the spring. I can see that when I put it back together it will require a wind first. Here are all the parts that make up the FFR Lemans cap.



I then broke down the rest of the parts and laid them all out on the table to keep track



Loaded everything in the car and drove it out to my guy. I am trying someone new. He has a great reputation and I have seen his work. It's a bit more expensive than the other people I have been using BUT, he turns things around in a timely manner and will tell you the cost up front. The other place was a little loosey goosey.



The only downside is he is a 45 min drive from my house. So I get all the way out there and I don't know if you noticed from the picture but I forgot to bring these guys



So my 1 1/2 hour round trip turned into a 3 hour odyssey. Not even the dumbest thing I did that day but I digress.

Anyhow, now that it's stripped down I will take the opportunity to make a few small adjustments and touch up the undercoating where I scratched it up under the nose.

[cv2065]

Looks great Jessie. Well done!

[Blitzboy54]

Received approval from the DMV to proceed with the inspection stage of the registration. What happens now is I send off a request to the State Troopers to do a salvage inspection. This is a layup as what they look for the serial number on the frame, engine and transmission. All were purchased brand new and I have receipts. This step can get dicey if you say used a junk yard engine that had a VIN stamp of a vehicle listed as stolen for example. In my case this is a formality.

They will assign me a VIN and attach it to the frame. I will send that application off tonight.

[TXeverydayDad]

Congrats on the progress! Hope it will come through quickly!

[Namrups]

Your almost there!

[Blitzboy54]

I got my powder coat back (under a week!). The bad news is I never told him not to coat the inside of the windshield frame. I now remember other people posting to watch out for that, but I forgot. The frame doesn't fit correctly and it creates a gap on the bottom corners. He's going to strip them down and re shoot them leaving the inside bare. He's only charging me materials. Really nice gesture considering it's 100% my fault.

This is a new shop for me, a younger guy starting a business. He's got some real nice show pieces, kind of an artist vibe. I definitely recommend if your in the Capitol region. Work was excellent.

I had the sides louvers done in gloss black. I'm not sure what specific powder he used but its silky. The rest is Prismatic Powder stone black. I put a little splash of orange inside the cap.












I had him re do the quick jacks.