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Journal:
November 1999
Monday 11/2/99, I took advantage of a couple of
beautiful warm Fall days this weekend to paint my frame. I decided to
go with Plasti-kote's Rebuilders Cast Finish Gray No.285. It's a spray
on lacquer that dries to a rugged silver/gray finish. I'm very pleased
with the way it turned out and happy I got it done before the weather
turned. The temperature dropped 40 degrees today and it's Snowing!
The original factory finish left a lot to be desired in that it was very
thin in some places and it was applied over surface rust on several 2"x2"
frame members. I smoothed out the finish with 240 grit abrasive paper
and primed any bare metal with Plasti-kote's black primer. The finish
went on nicely,but did require some additional sanding due to overspray
settling on unpainted frame members. I know that most of the frame wont
be visible once the body is on, but I'll know what's under there and I
want it to look nice.
A WORD ABOUT THE FRAME: This thing is beautiful! It's well designed and
cleanly fabricated with very high quality welds. I can't imagine anyone
being disappointed with this quality of work. On the other hand, my only
complaint on the entire kit has been the rust that was painted over on
the 2x2 frame members. Without additional paint, this would have turned
ugly very quickly. Not a show stopper, but kind of tacky on someone's
part.
Painting the frame gave me a nice break from refinishing my wheels, but
I'll have to get back to them soon so I can get my tires mounted. The
plan for this week calls for finishing the wheels and buying new tires
this weekend. I also ordered motor mounts and a
Helms wiring diagram
today. If you plan on doing your own wiring, the Helms manual is a "must
have"
Sunday 11/7/99, Nothing to report this weekend.
There is more to life than Cobra's and unfortunately some of it involves
raking tons of leaves and trimming hedges. Didn't get the wheels done,
so no tires yet. I did get the wiring diagram from Helms this week and
it is as promised a work of art. Get one if you're building a FFR kit!
Sunday 11/14/99, I've been stripping the finish off
my wheels AGAIN. This time around I'm removing all the clear coating,
not just the stuff on the outer rim. I have to admit that this part of
the project has not been much fun, but once they're done it should be
worth it. For a break from the wheels, I cleaned up my steering rack and
I might start working on my front control arms and spindles today. The
aluminum on the rack cleaned up real nice. When I get the control arms
done, I'll be ready to assemble the front end of the Cobra!
Sunday 11/21/99, I haven't had much time to work
on the beast this week, but what time I have had has been spent cleaning
and painting donor parts. I've been degreasing and wire brushing the front
spindle and control arm assemblies as well as the rear end. The spindles
are heavily rusted and aren't cleaning up as well as I'd like. I'm going
to try and find someone to sandblast all of the donor suspension parts
this week so I can get on with the build.
My son Cody (web boy ) has been working on the Cobra color picker this
weekend. It's looking great but has required lots of brain churning to
get it to work. He's doing it with Javascript and Flash for those who
care. He is still trying to find the perfect picture to use, so if anyone
has a high resolution cobra picture with lots of detail, e-mail
it to him. You could see your cobra in 1000 different colors!
Sunday 11/28/99, OK, we're moving now. Well sort
of. I cut out of work early on Wednesday to get the front control arms,
rearend, wheels and other miscellaneous parts sand blasted. Unfortunately
the two sand blasting shops I went to both closed early for the Thanksgiving
holiday. So I've been driving around with all this stuff clinking around in
the back of my van until I can drop it off. Since the sandblasters were
closed, I made a trip to the junkyard and picked up an upper steering
column from an 87 Mustang with a non-tilting steering wheel.
As for work on the car, I installed the battery and steering rack this
weekend. This is not the recommended assembly order for the steering rack,
but hopefully I'll be able to install the rest of the front end components
with the rack in place. The rack is a very tight fit, but with some help
from my son we were able to get the mounting bolts aligned.
I also prepared some more donor parts this weekend. These included the
new steering shaft and gas tank. The gas tank has been a real disappointment.
I spent about three hours cleaning it and the plastic tank cover and they
look beautiful. Unfortunately when I tipped the tank up on its edge I
noticed some gas oozing through what looks like a minor rust spot. ARGHH!!
When I removed the fuel pump and fuel level float, I noticed that a baffle
inside the tank is also loose. So, unless the welder has some ideas, I
may be getting a new tank. That's all for now. Hope all of you US visitors
had a great Thanksgiving.
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