Went to my friend Roy's house to cut the brake pedal. Roy had a MIG welder and had lots of experience welding. It didn't take him much time at all to cut the pedal and weld it together. I'm very confident that the weld will not break.
TIME TODAY: 1 hour
November 4, 2002:
Took some time tonight to mount the new throttle pedal from Tri-State Motorsports. The installation wasn't too difficult. I spent most of the time trying to figure out where to mount it along the 3/4" tubing. It works much better than the stock pedal and it also looks nicer.
TIME TODAY: 2 hours
November 7, 2002
Using some metal adhesive stuff that Roy gave me, I secured the pedal covers that I got from Tri-State to the stock clutch pedal. The stuff that Roy gave me is used to patch metal holes. It comes in a tube and you have to knead the material together for it to react. After "gluing" the pedal cover on, I let it sit overnight to let the adhesive harden and cure. I only did the clutch pedal because I wanted to see how the adhesive worked before I did the brake pedal.
The other thing that you have to do when putting on the Tri-State pedal covers is to grind the stock pedals because the rubber grommets in the pedals get in the way of mounting the covers flush.
TIME TODAY: 0.5 hours
November 8-11, 2002:
Veteran's Day Weekend. I had a training holiday on Friday so I was able to run lots of errands to pick up stuff. I donated my 4 cylinder T-5 transmission to one of the local repairman here. In return he provided me lots of little Mustang things that I had been meaning to obtain (light switches, dimmer switch). I also gathered the correct material to clean off the fiberglass body. I originally bought the wrong cleaner to get rid of the wax and grease. When I got home I drilled holes into the pedal cover and used screws to secure them to the stock clutch pedal. The metal adhesive stuff would probably hold but I felt much better using screws to make sure that they won't come off. They are definitely not coming off now!
On Saturday I started off by using the wax and grease remover to clean off the body. I then used Comet with a Scotch Brite pad and scrubbed the body down. It was a beautiful day so I let the body remain outside to dry. I also was able to finish the installation of the pedal covers on the brake pedal. Spent the rest of the afternoon trying to rebleed the brakes again.
I went to DC after church on Sunday and returned Monday after lunch. I spent the rest of the afternoon working with the wiring routing. Ended up taking off lots of the old tape on the engine wiring harness and rewrapping the harness with new tape. I secured the harness to the aluminum by drilling 3/16" holes and using zip ties.
TIME THIS WEEKEND: 12 hours
November 12-13, 2002:
Finished installing the BAP sensor to the firewall and removed the exhaust in preparation for mounting the body. I also had to drill and clean out a hole in the driver's side footbox because it covered the frame side mounting hole for the body.
TIME: 3 hours
November 15-17, 2002:
Mounted the body on Friday night! Curt and Derrick helped me put the body on before we all went out for dinner. It wasn't too painful of a process. I was a little nervous because you have to do a lot of stretching, etc. to get it on. Once it was on it layed on the frame fine. I just wanted to get it on so while I had the manpower.
On Saturday, I spent a good amount of time trying to see how the holes lined up with the body and frame. Most of the holes matched with the exception of the driver's side, rear side mounting holes. The holes on the body ended up being about 3/4" too high to line up with the frame holes. It appears that the problem is with the way the body is molded behind the door latch. There may be too much fiberglass material and is keeping the body from sitting right.
I also tried measurig heights around the body to see if everything was aligned properly. I wasn't too sure if the holes were right or not. I did some research on people's build sites and it appears that my problem is not unique. I was initially going to drill different mounting holes in the body or frame to make it fit but now I think the better option is to grind some material away to make the body fit properly.
On Sunday I didn't get to do any work on the car. Went down to Nags Head to go surf. Conditions were pretty good and I had the best ride of my life today. The other great thing was that my buddies got to see it too.
TIME THIS WEEKEND: 6 hours
November 18, 2002:
Drilled the holes for the license plate light and holder. I made the mistake of using a dull bit to drill the light holes. The bit walked a little so the hole was a little off. I had to use the dremmel to make it fit properly. I think it looks fine but it doesn't seem to fit real nice.
TIME TONIGHT: 1 hour
November 19, 2002:
Shawn Simonton stopped by tonight to talk Cobras. His car is complete and sweet looking (yellow and black). He wasn't able to bring it this evening becauase he is having the hood touched up by the paint shop. When he looked over the body of my car, he noted that it was in really good shape. The seams lined up properly and there wasn't too much differences in height between where the panels met. He even said my door was in better shape than his kit. I was pleasantly suprised because he has the Mark II kit and I have the older one. He also was so kind to give me the rest of his 3M Blister Repair and a whole bunch of sandpaper! He confirmed that my brakes felt fine too.
After he left I ground down the body in the area near the driver's door latch. As I mentioned earlier, the frame wasn't sitting down all the way because of the thick body material in the way. I was pretty happy that the rear, driver side holes now line up properly!
TIME TONIGHT: 1 hour
November 23-24, 2002:
Got a lot of work done this weekend. I first started by relocating the starter solenoid on the frame. The original location of the solenoid interfered with the hood opening sitting properly on the 3/4" frame rails. I just moved it a little further back along the 3/4" rail and a little lower on it. I also ground down a bit of the solenoid. I then ground the aluminum driver door panel so that the body would sit correctly on the frame. Lots of grinding, cleaning, testing, and repeating.
Spent Sunday installing the trunk latch to the trunk. The holes that were drilled into the latching piece didn't line up properly so I ended up drilling and using some #8 screws and nuts to secure the latching piece to the hood handle. I then ground out the areas around the roll bar to make them fit properly. I also installed the hood handles to the hood. This project is starting to look like a car!
TIME THIS WEEKEND: 13 hours
November 28-30, 2002:
Thanksgiving Weekend. Kathy, Guy and Neil visited this past weekend. Ate a lot of food at the Tanaka's house on Thursday evening. Had a real relaxing weekend. Did some shopping on Friday and went to see "Attack of the Clones" on IMAX. On Sunday I attached the little "L" shaped brackets under the hood. These brackets are meant for the cams on the hood to attach to.
Went to my friend Roy's house to cut the brake pedal. Roy had a MIG welder and had lots of experience welding. It didn't take him much time at all to cut the pedal and weld it together. I'm very confident that the weld will not break.