update 3

Started to re-build the front hubs, re-bush wishbones and fit the new ball joints ( pivot joints ) . I have to say that i thought i had taken plenty of photos for info and reference but i should have doubled what i did take as I'm still getting caught out! So remember if anyone is following this blog, take tons of photos even if you think it's not significant , it probably is! Because I'm replacing the old jag bushes with poly bushes i don't know if the washers on the upper wishbone are supposed to be there. I will call Ward's again , ( poor bloke ), who have been a massive help and never once complained with all my questions .

pics to follow and a more detailed write up on the hubs and wishbone saga!

update 2

Finnished sanding the engine bay section of the chassis. Once it had been de-greased we painted it like the rest of the chassis 2 coats of hammerite smooth. I removed pretty much all of the powder coating as i have realised you get a much better finnish on clean metal as opposed to sanded paint. All thats left to do is the underside of the chassis which will take about 1 day for the 2 coats ( allowing the paint to dry ).

update 1

it's been a long time since i updated so i thought i would put a couple more entries in. The rear assembly has now been put back on the chassis. The 2 bolt that fix the lower part of the diff assembly to the chassis needed fixing. One of the bolts was cone shaped , the reason for this was the holes didnt line up quite right and can only guess that it was bodged. Luckily only the bolt was knackered and we managed to repair the thread on the chassis.

rear end done except shocks

well it's been a while but finally manged to get a day in the garage !

Got some bits from Ward Engineering ( many thanks ), and like usual forgot to order new nyloc nuts for the drive shaft output flanges and inner pivot pins for the wishbones! D'oh!

After a quick scout round and having no joy managed to get some on flea-bay! phew!

I decided to change the discs and keep the old ones as spares, ( gonna get them refaced to take of the slight pitting ). I have to say at this point that if i had to do more work on the rear diff and suspension i would advise a recon replacement on an exchange basis. The boys on the cobra club forums advised this when i told them my intentions but as usual i had to do it my way! he he. It is a real pain to get the lower wishbones in with the oil seals and thrust washers ( the air turned blue for a couple of hours! ). Once those are in it is then a fight to get the discs in as the lower wishbone gets in the way, all the methods that i could find didn't seem to help much either but got there in the end. Once they were on and torqued up it was the calipers turn. I followed my brief instructions from Ward's and they went together quite well, the only problem being i shouldn't have separated the two sides of the caliper as there are no torque setting for these 4 bolts anywhere, even Ward's couldn't help me as they don't go that far. I tightened them up as tight as i could to ensure they were at least the same as when i removed them. Fitting them to the bracket on the diff was another time consuming and frustrating event as there was virtually no room to get to the bolts, but it is possible and manged it just about. new pads fitted after that and then i cleaned and fitted the handbrake calipers complete with new pads also. All that is left is to re-fit the rear end back onto the chassis with the assistance of my good friend the neighbour.

I will fit the coil-over shocks later as i want to double check these, when i removed the coil on the first shock i lost fluid out of the shock and therefore decided it wasn't worth the risk of doing any others until i get that one checked. I'll keep you posted on what happens.

progress update

not much to report - rear half of chassis stripped, cleaned and painted. Half way through stripping cleaning and painting rear end, one wishbone down one to go! Will post more pics when rear end finnished before re-fit.

Removed the rear end

Well after admiring our handiwork the previous day , looking at the chassis i decided that the rear end would have to come out, after all if i do it right now then there would be less to worry about later ;) . So , with some head scratching , i sussed out how i was gonna take out the rear end and did so on my own ( would be much easier with two people ). It came out without incident and i moved it out of the way so i could start on the chassis.

After a couple of hours cleaning, wire brushing and some more cleaning i applied the first coat of paint to the rear section of the chassis. It will need one more coat which i will hopefully do today, ( if the wife allows ;) )

The paint was taking a while to dry so i thought i would have a go at the rear calipers. They are a real pain to get to especially the two bolts . I eventually got them out and they will need refurbishing like the fronts , not quite as poor condition but close! I realised i may as well strip the rear end to get better access to everything to check , clean and re-paint if necessary, but that will have to wait for now as i want to get as much of the chassis done as i can till the engine comes out.

and the body is off!

well Friday was a day i had been looking forward to pre-booked my 3 other helpers and at 5pm we got ourselves organised! I had studied the fitting of the body from the manual and just planned to reverse the procedure. the first attempt saw some movement but not much then i realised my front two helpers were holding the nose up a bit too high ( i thought ), so with that lower we tried again still no movement. I then suggested we all push back not realising what i was saying due to my excitement, naturally the obvious happened and we ended up pushing the whole car off its axle stands! I could have nearly cried! Luckily there were no missing toes and the car landed reasonably well. After that the body came off pretty easy. With the body out of the way we put the chassis back on axle stands and all was back to normal :D

Later on i realised i missed something in the procedure which would have made it so much easier, the rear fixing tube that lock into the body frame should be removed before the body is taken off. So in the end i could only blame myself! We live and learn!

water pump

removed the water pump today. I'm a bit concerned about what i saw. Hopefully it will clean up ok and i'll have to flush the entire engine block to clear out all that debris! It looks and feels like a mixture of scale and maybe that leak sealer was used to repair a leak, we shall see in any case ;)

All bolts loosened in readiness for the body removal, cant wait!

update

It's been a while since my last post. Not been able to do much due to the ill family (still! ). Just had a tidy in the garage , removed the radiator and drained and removed the oil cooler. I will add some more when i get the chance :D

calipers

Just a little message to say i managed to get both calipers un-seized and looks like they may be ok for a refurb. Will keep you posted :)

last weekend

well it's a bit late as the rest of my family have 'man flu' , i struggle to find a spare 10 mins in the garage. I have removed the two front brake calipers to see what condition the're in and it's game over for them , not even exchangable ( well maybe one of them) ! Time to serch the scrap yards again , i'll add it to my ever growing list!

You can probably just see how bad the dust covers are for the pistons in one of the pics! Managed to free four pistons on one caliper but the other one is completly seized!

Managed to get the pedal box out , needs a good clean and a bit of paint otherwise not too bad :D

storage!

luckily have have some storage space and managed so far to store the boot, bonnet, both doors and the windscreen.

removed some more bits

Well managed to get some more time in the garage today. Removed the passenger seat, Windscreen, wipers, safety harnesses ( what a pain!) , handbrake , and gear stick ( nearly lost the spring! ), Both doors . All that is left to do is the fuel system including the tank and front and rear overiders/nudge bars, but I'll do those on the same day as i take the body off .

Doh! nearly forgot, i also have to drain the brake system and remove the pedal box. The next job to be done i think!

bits and bobs

i removed the loom from the cockpit which took a while. Removed the fuse box and 2 relays plus a number of other little jobs connected with the loom.
Tried to remove the carpet in the drivers side to get one last wire out, realised i had to remove the seat! The seat looks like the standard type of cobra seat, fiberglass shell, bit of hardboard in the bottom (riveted!) , then the leather on foam. The bolts holding the seat to the slider rail were almost impossible to get to, so i decided that it must have been done before the seat went in. I then sprayed penetrating oil on the 4 bolts fixed through the rails to the chassis (completely rusted up! ). With a bit of swearing managed to get them undone. There is a gap in between the body tub and the chassis which was a bit worrying, i may look at filling it with a suitable material when i put the seats back.

removed the dash

labeled up all the plugs and removed the dash. not sure what im gonna do about the bulkhead, it's got more perferations than a teabag!

this weekend 18/05 cont....

found what looks like a repair done on the engine which is a bit worrying. Last but not least i also discovered the fuel tank had virtually no fixings which could potentially be bad.

this weekend 18/05

I had a whole day to look at the car in general. After removing the inner wheel arches so i could get some better access i discovered the bushes on the front suspension had totally degraded and would need replacing. The steering rack rubber boots were also trashed.

catch up cont.....

a good look under the car and i new i had some grafting to do. sand back and repaint the chassis.

a quick overview to catch up.

Well on closer inspection the engine looked very good considering it had been stood for 10 years. one problem i found was a small leak from the sump which turned out to be quite a big leak as the thermostat housing hadn't been fitted correctly. one job on the 'to do list' logged.

result!

Well all seemed good, it needed a good clean up and the engine needed checking but all in all i was pretty chuffed.

initial inspection

brief check of everything to see what i had bought.

Car in it's new home.