Journal: March 2001

	Choose Your Month Pick a Month June, 99 July, 99 August, 99 September, 99 October, 99 November, 99 December, 99 January, 00 February, 00 March, 00 April, 00 May, 00 June, 00 July, 00 August 00 September 00 October 00 November 00 December 00 January 01 February 01 March 01 April 01 May 01 June 01 July 01 August 01 December 01 February 02 May 02 August 02 January 03 Final Entry

  Saturday 3/31/2001, It seems like the updates are fewer and farther between as this project goes on. I've seen this happen on other build sites and I swore I wouldn't do it but..... Well it has gotten to the point where I'd rather just build the damn thing. Anyhow I'll still cover what I've been up to, but finishing the car before summer is my priority not web site updates.

So what have I been up to? First, you may have noticed that I moved the web site to a new server. My ISP Wilkshire.net sent me a couple of e-mails saying that I was over my free 10 Meg limit on my web site and would I fix it. I hadn't heard anything for quite a while until they sent me a rather nasty e-mail saying they were going to delete the site if I didn't reduce the size. I moved it to my sons domain on a HostRocket server. It seems a little faster and should have enough space for the completed site.

It's been over a month and still no seats from Factory Five. I called them a week ago after I found that they had been charged on my credit card. At that time I was told they would be shipped by Friday 3/23/01. Apparently that didn't happen since it's the thirty first and they still haven't shown up. Customer service with Factory Five seems to be pretty much hit or miss. I'd rather have them say it will be month and a half up front than have to keep calling and bitching and calling and bitching. I have no doubt that I will get my seats but unfortunately this seems to happen occasional.

So that's the bad news. The good news is that I got the windshield mounted and it looks pretty good. To correct the gap under the passenger side of the windshield I took the frame apart and bent the bottom piece to conform to the shape of the body. This is easier said than done and in hind site is probably not the best way to cope with the problem but it worked for me. I also ground the bottom corner of the frame on the passenger side to keep it from digging in to the body. As for the problem with the windshield not being centered on the body, well it's not perfect but if I don't tell people about it they will never notice. So that's all I'm saying about that.....

Since my last journal entry I wire brushed the surface rust off of my side pipes and J pipes then painted them with flat black heat resistant paint.(2nd time for the J Pipes) The paint I used the first time around must have been bad since it took days to dry then bubbled up the first time I heated them up. This stuff dried in a few minutes and is holding up great. I honestly like the painted look better than chrome pipes. Ceramic coating is another nice option but it's expensive and can easily be done later. Paint will work for now. The pipes fit in the body cut outs and line up with body nicely. They'll need some tweaking at final fitting but should be fine. I also mounted the dash board and hooked up the instruments and most of the switches. Mounting the dash and windshield required some tweaking of the dash hoop with a big hammer (BFH). Kind of makes your skin crawl but I found if I didn't think about it and just beat the hell out of it, that it wasn't to hard to adjust.

With everything hooked up again it was time to fire up the engine. It fired on the first crank and still sounds nice. The donor instruments work great and the adjustable radiator fan switch works just like the ones on "real cars". After it warmed up I set the timing again but this time I removed the advance jumper as is recommended by Ford . It was surging a little with the jumper removed but I'm hoping this is normal since it runs great with the timing set and the jumper in place.

Today I mounted the gas tank filler tube and gas cap. To adapt the Mustang part to the Cobra, the filler tube is cut in half and a section of rubber hose is used to extend the length. I was surprised to find a metal divider in the tube. I guess it allows air to escape when the tank is filled. Since it's only welded in place on the ends, the lower piece seemed like it would buzz and rattle with vibration. I cut the piece and riveted it to the side of the tube. It's not too pretty but it should help keep things quiet. That's all for now. I have to get to bed since yesterdays time change is going to put a crimp on my beauty sleep. I'll get some pictures posted soon.