8/5/2009 Cobra Update - What I Did This Summer
During our last update in April my dad & I just put on the body and got the car operational. Then he left. A lot has happened since then...First, I went up to Doug's house in North Bend, WA to meet up with a bunch of other car-guys for a little gathering:
That's my car on the other side of Doug's #65, next to one of the two (!) GT40's that showed up. Over to the left, and out of this picture is another 4 Cobra's. Not a bad way to spend a few hours on a Sunday afternoon! Driving up to North Bend was the longest trip-to-date at 30+ miles each way. The car continued to run poorly, stumbling under acceleration and running noticeably rich.
At some point during this time I installed a new EEC IV computer and started to pull meaningful codes. It was during the week after Doug's where I was able to run a key-on-engine-running (KOER) test, which indicated the mass-air meter wasn't working. Turns out the connector had a pin pushed back that wasn't making proper contact with it's mate, causing the EEC IV to operate in "limp home" mode.
I was cleaned & repaired the connector and it started running much, much better. Karen's mom & dad were here during this time and Ron & I had a good test ride, confirming everything was working right. That pretty much took up May & June.
Time to start working on the body!
Step 1, fit, trim & fill (and sand. And fill, and sand...) the doors, hood & trunk:
Step 2, pull the body, flip it over and paint the inside with truck bedliner:
Step 3, protect the garage, start sanding...and pick up my dad at the airport (it's now June if you're keeping track):
We then shot 3 coats of Evercoat's FeatherFill G2 high-build polyester spray-on filler. This stuff isn't a primer, but really more of an all-over spray on filler that you sand down the high-spots, and fill the low spots. We alternated color, laying down a light gray over the black gelcoat, then black over that, and finishing up with another coat of gray - makes it easier to see when you sand through a layer. Each coat & sand cycle gets it closer to perfection - that is if you can ignore the old-man sitting in the garage complaining that he STILL want's to go for a ride, and that you're just being anal about sanding stuff that no one will ever notice...
Here's what it looked like during one of these cycles:
After the FeatherFill was done, it was time to hit it w/DP 90L epoxy primer (I think it's July now...):
Within a day we dropped the body on the chassis (having friends at this point helps a lot):
It was a simple matter of putting it all back together (notice that old-man lurking in the background, still wondering why he isn't going for ride):
Looking good in Edmonds:
Last weekend Ron & Kathy were back visiting (this time in their 5th-wheel RV) and on Sunday, Ron & I joined some other local Cobra owners for a 65 mile cruise. What a blast! Carman lead us on a great route and everyone made it back safely.
Today I took the car in to Group 2 Motorsports for an alignment - highly recommended!
--Joe
Let me know if you'd prefer not to get these emails...
Here's link to a thread on the FFR forums where I get into more detail about the body work:
http://www.ffcobra.com/forums/showthread.php?t=222892
All Photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/caropepe/tags/mybuild
This Page:
http://garage.caropepe.com/home/ffr_cobra_project/FFR_Build_Diary/2009-08-05_cobra_update-what_i_did_this_summer.html
