April 2000

2nd April 2000

My speedo cable broke today after just 700 miles. On closer inspection I found that it had snapped where it had a tight bend into the back of the instrument. So I've sent off for a new cable and will have to re-route it when the new one comes.

4th April 2000

I ordered the items for the hood today. This included the frames, ferrules and lift the dots. I'm going to mark out and install the lift the dots and then take the car to a trimmer to have the hood fitted.

8th April 2000

Today I removed the windscreen so I could install the 'lift the dots' on the dashboard area. I was planning to install all the 'lift the dots' but I got sidetracked. Whilst I had the dashboard and windscreen off. I tidied up the wiring behind the dashboard as I had a couple of squeaks developing. Plus I removed the heater to remove the redundant flaps inside the heater. Normally these flaps can be opened or closed to regulate the flow of hot air. When I installed the heater I fabricated some metal hinged flaps on the outside of the heater that could be opened or closed to do the same job as the internal flaps. So I decided to remove the inner flaps and their associated linkages as I believed they were rattling about at bit.

22nd April 2000

The replacement speed cable arrived and I installed it and made sure this time that the run was smoother with wider arcs in it. It worked when I took the car around the block, so everything should be OK this time.

24th April 2000

877 miles on the car now. Jill and I went out in the car today. It was a typical April day. Not too sure whether to rain, cloud over or sunshine. But we still managed to put some miles on the car. One unfortunate incident was that we picked up a stone chip on the windscreen. We are covered for this under our insurance, but I going to visit one of the windscreen places as they can usually repair these.

29th April 2000

Today the weather was absolutely gorgeous, so Jill and I decided to go for a little ride out. With no particular destination in mind we set our towards High Wycombe sticking to the A roads rather than taking the motorways. When we reached High Wycombe we headed towards Henley on Thames and had a lovely drive along the river front. We then decided to pop and visit some friends in Crawley, so we made our way towards them. Neil and Veena, our friends, used to have a Magnum Cobra replica and really miss it. They have been following our build and were very keen to see the car but the weather so far had not been good enough to allow us to take it down to show them. When we arrived we spent a lot of time looking over the car and asking questions and I took Neil out of a drive and he loved it. Sadly all to soon it was time to leave and we made our way back through Ascot and Windsor and back home to Luton. All in all we covered just over 200 miles and the car never missed a beat. I was really pleased with the car and we now had just over 1000 miles on the clock.

30th April 2000

Today and tomorrow were the days for the Stoneleigh National Kit Car Show. This event is the biggest Kit Car event in the UK and attracts thousands of visitors over the two days. The majority of the owner's clubs are there showing off their cars and providing a focal point of members and would be members to meet and renew old acquaintances and make new friends. Jill and I went up in the Cobra and stayed for the majority of the day. Now that I'm the Treasurer of the UK Cobra Replica Club I wanted to meet and talk to as many of our members as I could. And I was very busy there talking and discussing cobras with like minded people. One our club stand we must have had close to 200 cobras, I didn't stop to count them all but it was a sight for sore eyes. I don't know if it was true but our stand did seem to be the busiest all day. As I type this at 23.23pm I'm hoping for good weather tomorrow so I can again take the car and do the same thing all over again.