September 1999

T

hings are coming along nicely at the moment. The end of the tunnel is in view and there are only a few small items to fit and buy before the car is finished.

1st September

I collected the prop shaft and fitted it this afternoon. I bought some original prop shaft bolts from a Jaguar dealer to make sure they would handle the horsepower. I also fitted one side of the exhaust system which went in with no problems at all.

2nd September

Fitted the exhaust system on the other side today. Again no problems at all. The only thing I had to keep an eye on was to make sure that the two tail pipes were symmetrical where they exited from the rear of the car. I also fitted the remote clutch mechanism. I'd ordered an allen cap head bolt, because they are very high grade and immensely strong, to fix this but it was too long. So I ordered a shorter one and this arrived and now the clutch mechanism is fitted to the car.

I also phone up about the SVA test, the London depot have a 4 week waiting list, so I'm sending off my application hoping that the car is finished in time - it should be.

23rd September

Just got back from 2 weeks holiday in Florida. Whilst I was there I had time to visit Finish Line Inc a supplier of Cobra Accessories. They are based on Miramar, Miami which was on the other coast from where we were staying. So a 3 hour drive found us at Enzo Alibrandi's house/workshop - the owner of Finish Line. I purchased quite a few items whilst I was there and had a look at his car. It's an absolute stunner, if you get a minute pop over to his web site and have a look. http://www.cobraaccessories.com

24th September

I spent today fitting the speedo cable and routing that through the scuttle frame. I also wanted to send off the Smith Speedo for calibration. Speedy cables can do this but they need to know how many revolutions the speedo cable turns for 6 revolutions of the road wheel. So I jacked up the rear end and while I rotate the rear wheel Jill counted how many times the cable turned. It turned out to be 3.9 almost four revolutions. So to make it a bit more accurate we did it again this time I turned the wheel 12 times and this came out at 7 3/4 turns.

25th September

I routed the mechanical capillaries for the water and oil temperature gauges. I'd purposely left these until the very end as the thin tubes can easily become damaged. So I figured that I'd done most the the messing around so they could finally be fitted in place. This was a fiddly job trying to do up the retaining nuts of the instruments in the confined space behind the dashboard, but I eventually got it done after dropping the washers and nuts a little over a thousand times.

I also fitted in the oil pressure gauge hose and tightened up the union on the back of the instrument and at the engine end. I fitted a little switch to the handbrake mechanism that will allow me to test the bulb for the brake fluid level warning light. This is a SVA requirement. I used one of those plunger switches that are usually used on car alarms. They are a plunger type switch that fits to the bonnet of door and is triggered once the door is opened.

26th September

I tried to make up a throttle cable today without too much success. I successfully fabricated a bracket to secure the throttle cable at the carb end of the business. The pedal assembly already had a hole drilled through it to accept a cable. I bought a pushbike brake cable inner and outer with the intention of using these as the throttle cable. All went well until I tested the thing. I made up a small clamp to secure the end of the cable against the carb lever. When the pedal was pressed down the cable was pulled and because I didn't have anything that would swivel/pivot through the arc it did not travel far enough to get from no throttle to full throttle. What I need is a mechanism that swivels through the arc of the lever travel where that cable attaches to the carb. The carb came supplied a throttle ball end stud which with the correct end fitment on the end of the cable will allow the cable to swivel through the complete arc. So a bit more work required there. I left this for the time being.
I wanted to adapt the steering wheel switchgear lever supplied with the kit. It works the indicators and high beam and is from an early Vauxhall Cavalier. Whilst functional it does not look too good, being of black plastic it looks too modern for the style of the car. So I kept the column switch and cut off the lever within about an inch of the switch. My intentions were to make my own lever. This was very easy to do, using some 8mm and 15mm copper tubing. I sweated a small section of 15mm tubing onto the 8mm section. This larger section will fit over the stub of the original lever and the smaller section tubing forms the main stem of the lever. Using body filler I filled and shaped the lever and fixed it to the original switch. All I now need to do it to spray the lever black. I also covered the binnacle supplied by Crendon. It's aluminium and I covered it with some black leatherette. It will match in nicely with the dashboard and the Moto-lita black boss.

29th September
Changed the brake and clutch pedals supplied by Crendon to alloy pedals with rubber inserts and the AC logo on them. I ordered some 38mm i/d bore hose for the cooling system and picked up some tubing from Crendon with the necessary bends in them. So I can now plumb in the cooling system.
I also ordered some SVA compliant wing mirrors from Hawk Cars in the UK, plus I chased up the stoneguards for the rear wheel arches which I ordered on the 17th July and have still not received. I put a phone call into Brian at Repower, the engine supplier, to check on some wiring for the MSD unit (electronic ignition) and he said he would get back to me.

30th September

Installed the header tank and the top hose from the radiator to the header tank and from the header tank to the thermostat housing. I also installed one of the heater hoses and the vacuum tube from the intake manifold to the brake servo unit. I positioned and fixed the thermostat for the Kenlowe fans and installed the sensor in the top hose in the radiator.

Swapped the alloy foot pedals back to the original Crendon ones. The originals AC alloy pedal plates pivoted to allow easier movement through the pedal travel. I cannot get my alloy one's to do this and the Crendon ones are much more confortable than the alloy ones i'd replaced them with.

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