The Blaney family Roadster Mk 5 Build - What have we got ourselves into!

[benblaney]

Hi all,


There are four total novices working on this build me, the wife, and 14 year old twin boys. We all did the Build School last August. Our deal with ourselves was that if we went through the build school and we felt confident, we'd order a kit and commit to it. Well, here we are!

We visited the factory at Thanksgiving, to get a feel and ask some key questions (mainly about option compatibility), and we placed an order there and then (26 November 2025). Our completion date was 10 January 2026 and delivery was 6 February 2026.

Our specs:
Mk 5 Complete Kit
351 engine mounts
TKX
Hydraulic clutch kit
Stainless steel side pipes
IRS rear suspension
Manual steering rack
Brake booster
Vinyl dash
Vintage gauges
Lowback race seats
Driver's side chrome roll bar
11.65" brake kit
17" Halibrands
Leather steering wheel
2" harness
Diamond stitch door panels

[benblaney]

I've been fortunate enough to have met some of the members of a local Cobra owners club, and three of them generously made themselves available on delivery day. What a day! It was very cold and snowy here in Upstate New York.


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[benblaney]

We did the inventory, mostly by carrying the boxes into the house because it was too cold to be out in the garage. I have a garage heater, but if I run it to take the temperature from 10F to 50F, it'll end up costing more than the car!

I bought some particle board from Home Depot and put it on the dining table as a temporary workbench until the weather warm up.

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[benblaney]

We got the body off the chassis, and we are calling that a big win!

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[benblaney]

We put the coilovers together on the dining room table, and we're very happy with that.

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[benblaney]

We got the steering rack bolted in.
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[benblaney]

But then we hit our first snag yesterday. We couldn't get the lower control arm in.
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So - following some advice from my local Cobra pals on a whatsapp chat, this morning I made a run to Ace Hardware to buy a threaded rod and washers and nuts to try to gently separate those brackets. That's today's job.

[TrackDay17]

I attended the build school in August too, I was wondering if any other class members had decided to order a car.
That was a great class with the kids and watching them all get hands on experience.
I received my car in November and have been working on it slow but steady.

Good luck on your build, I used the threaded rod trick on one of my mounts too, works great.

[benblaney]

I attended the build school in August too, I was wondering if any other class members had decided to order a car.
That was a great class with the kids and watching them all get hands on experience.
I received my car in November and have been working on it slow but steady.

Good luck on your build, I used the threaded rod trick on one of my mounts too, works great.

Hey there! I saw your build thread last night, which prompted me to make sure I started one. I'll be following yours carefully! Cheers.

[Mike.Bray]

Welcome to the fun and congratulations! I'll be following along.

Really don't think you're going to be happy with that manual steering setup. I started down that road and the forum quickly convinced me otherwise. Seriously one of the best decisions I made, the car is such a joy to drive and is soooo stable.

[Jeff Kleiner]

Congrats on getting started! But yeah, do power steering now while it’s easy.

Jeff

[PMD24]

Hi Ben, welcome to the forum and congrats on your build. Will be following your progress.

Starting with post 5, your attachments come through as invalid. May be due to size or possible too many at once. If you open your photos in whatever default software your computer or phone uses and resize them so that the largest dimension is less than 2000 pixels, they will post fine individually. Then click on the blue icon to the far left above the post, and your photo will appear. If you choose, you can also double click on the photo and select a larger size so readers don't have to open it separately to see it.

Pat

[TrackDay17]

Hey there! I saw your build thread last night, which prompted me to make sure I started one. I'll be following yours carefully! Cheers.

FYI, on your lower control arms consider replacing your grease zerks with 90 degree fittings so you can service the car easily in the future.
Easier to reach once the car is built.
I think it was Edwardb's thread where I picked up that piece of advice, lots of good build tips there.

I'd definitely consider adding power steering to your engine now and a rack.

[Cobra roadster]

Ben congrats on the build. I just bought a Mark 5. I am located in Dutchess County New York. Where are you located.
Paul

[PNWTim]

We did the inventory, mostly by carrying the boxes into the house because it was too cold to be out in the garage. I have a garage heater, but if I run it to take the temperature from 10F to 50F, it'll end up costing more than the car!

I bought some particle board from Home Depot and put it on the dining table as a temporary workbench until the weather warm up.

IMG_9161.jpg

Congratulations on your kit purchase. And now, two words for you - Mini Split. You'll wonder why you waited so long.

[benblaney]

Ben congrats on the build. I just bought a Mark 5. I am located in Dutchess County New York. Where are you located.
Paul

We're in Victor, NY - just outside Rochester. I tried to edit my profile but it said I didn't have permission!

[benblaney]

We got the lower control arms in and torqued. Feel good about that!
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[benblaney]

Well, a little progress here, and we're pretty happy all in all.

We were worried about cutting the rear spindle, but thanks to magnanimous members of the Cobra Club of the Greater Fingerlakes, and @waterman specifically - we got that done a couple of weeks ago. Happy about that.

And we continued on the front suspension. We're getting close, and we feel a sense of accomplishment (we are novices, remember). It does feel like everything we do requires a trip to Harbor Freight or Ace Hardware, but that's okay.

We thought about putting the fuel tank pieces together, remembering that getting that done was an early step at the Build School. But then I remembered that I haven't yet bought a Fuel Pump...because we haven't made a final decision about the motor! Long story. We know it's going to be a 347, but we haven't determined the fine details yet. I've been corresponding with Mike Forte, and I think we're going to go with him. Need to call him tomorrow.


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[benblaney]

One question for you all...how will I torque this? I can't get a socket in there...

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[Highplainsdakota]

Check out the Sunex torque adapter set. They are short wrenches that offset your torque wrench. Just have to calculate new torque. I needed them for my headers anyway.

[gbranham]

TTYF...torque till you fart with a wrench, then throw a cotter pin in it.

Greg

[cv2065]

Crows foot. Just keep at 90 degree angle for proper torque

[benblaney]

Hello all. We have a week off school/work and we're hoping to make a little progress. Weather is slightly warmer here in Upstate NY, at about 50 degrees F. Tolerable.
We tried assembling the front brake calipers on the dining room table. They look right, but when we try to insert the rotor, it's either (a) too tight and will not move, or (b) the rotor moves the pad out of alignment so it's at an angle. Are we doing something wrong? Is this a moment for brute force, or canny precision?

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[Jeff Kleiner]

Make sure that the caliper pistons are fully retracted.

Jeff

[PMD24]

Hey Ben, if you haven't gotten this sorted out, I'd be happy to come over and try to help. My first reaction was the same as Jeff's. Use a big c-clamp and squeeze that caliper piston into the casting. A tiny gain will make all the difference.

Pat

[benblaney]

Well, we didn't get much progress here. We went up to the Adirondacks for a few days, as the kids were off school. So we haven't even got to the brake caliper situation I posted about above (Pat - I'll let you know; thanks for the offer).


Before we went away, we decided to reconfigure the garage. We have a three car, but the one bay part is offset from the two bay. We had the chassis on the far side of the two bay, but we felt like it should be in the one bay - which is lightly longer, and gets less foot traffic. So we pulled everything out (except the other Triumph and the Jaguar in storage, and the Kawasaki having open-heart surgery), and put it all back differently. This of course meant cleaning up the mess of leaked oil and coolant which you'll always get under a 64 year old British car.

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Our next job was to torque the hub bolts. But. In doing that, we noticed that a piece of the inboard side of the hub is coming away.

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Well, maybe no problem, because surely the pressure of the hub being pushed inwards will close that up... except that when we do that, the center doesn't sit evenly and has play.

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I thought about putting on the hub nut and tightening...but it's definitely not a 13/16th socket as stated on p66 of the build manual, so I have another trip to Harbor or Ace for the 36mm that I apparently need.

Any thoughts from the braintrust?

[RobHartley]

Once you seated the hub did it get get stuck and then forced off the hub?? It's strange that its separating especially when you were torquing the hub bolt, if anything that should have forced it further onto the hub. Hopefully some of the more experienced builders will chime int. This is a close up of mine.
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[cv2065]

Well, we didn't get much progress here. We went up to the Adirondacks for a few days, as the kids were off school. So we haven't even got to the brake caliper situation I posted about above (Pat - I'll let you know; thanks for the offer).


Before we went away, we decided to reconfigure the garage. We have a three car, but the one bay part is offset from the two bay. We had the chassis on the far side of the two bay, but we felt like it should be in the one bay - which is lightly longer, and gets less foot traffic. So we pulled everything out (except the other Triumph and the Jaguar in storage, and the Kawasaki having open-heart surgery), and put it all back differently. This of course meant cleaning up the mess of leaked oil and coolant which you'll always get under a 64 year old British car.

IMG_9388.jpeg

Our next job was to torque the hub bolts. But. In doing that, we noticed that a piece of the inboard side of the hub is coming away.

IMG_9474.jpeg

Well, maybe no problem, because surely the pressure of the hub being pushed inwards will close that up... except that when we do that, the center doesn't sit evenly and has play.

IMG_9475.jpeg

IMG_9476.jpeg

I thought about putting on the hub nut and tightening...but it's definitely not a 13/16th socket as stated on p66 of the build manual, so I have another trip to Harbor or Ace for the 36mm that I apparently need.

Any thoughts from the braintrust?

You can buy a 5 piece axle nut impact set with the 36 in it from Autozone for about $50. They will always come in handy.

[TrackDay17]

It is a 36 mm, I luckily already had one that big because it happened to be the same size as the rear axle nut on my race bike.
I think I got it at Harbor Freight but it's been a few years.

[PMD24]

I'd send that hub photo to FFR tech support to get their input. They may want to replace it.

Pat