I must be going nuts.....

Unfortunately delivery of the AK chassis / body has coincided with my wife's implementation of a post-Christmas revised domestic fiscal strategy (i.e my spending has been capped....).  

In the meantime I decided to sort out the various nuts and bolts that AK supply with the new kit and try and work out what else I might need to buy (once funds are released!).

AK supply two packages of nuts and bolts.  One is identified as 'Body Bolts" and the other as "Generation II - Nut / Bolt Kit".  They also include in the documentation that comes with the kit, two lists detailing the contents of these two packs.

So all I needed to do was check the contents of the bags matched the lists - simple.  Well, not as simple as it sounds.

Firstly the nuts and bolts just come in a variety of bags with no indication of sizes (and unfortunately my eye is not practiced enough to know a M8 from an M10 by sight alone and just to mix it up a bit some of the bolts are metric and some are imperial).  

So I spent a happy hour or so with a set of callipers and a ruler trying to identify  all the various bolts and tick them off against the supplied lists.  I also had the AK build manual to hand to assist (although the fact that the AK Nut and Bolt list is largely in metric but the AK Build Manual refers to many of the washers in imperial sizes does confuse things slightly).

Having (successfully?!) identified all the fixings, I separated them into individual labelled bags, so that as the build progresses I can identify all the fixings needed for each stage. (I did seem to be short of 4No 35mm by 14mm washers - but on the plus side I had a extra 2No M10x30 bolts and an extra 14No M8by25 bolts!!!).

It seems that the nut/bolt kit is pretty comprehensive - containing the majority of the required fixings for the chassis / suspension build stage.  So I suppose I was a bit surprised / disappointed that they couldn't supply all the required fixings.  I know some will be specific to the year / model of the donor vehicle and get that they can't cater for all cases.  

But, for example, the build manual indicates that some M6 machine screws and M6 washers are needed to set the caster angles on the front suspension but these are not included. Neither are the M10by70 bolts, M10 washers and M10 Nylocs required to fix the steering rack.  Or the M12 Nylocs to fix the rear control arm bracket onto the diff......

Maybe I'm being overly picky - but having provided 95% of the fixings, it would be much effort (or cost) to supply the remaining 5% of fixings where the sizes are known (and not dependant on donor parts).

Body / Chassis Delivery Day

Delivery day for the body / chassis kit has finally arrived!!  It was a cold and grey day but thankfully not raining.

I spent the morning doing some final tidying of the garage and getting the exchange donor parts out ready to return to AK.  Note that AK now no longer need the rear wishbones as exchange items so it was just the front lower wishbones, stub axles / uprights and driveshafts that needed to be returned.

Exchange donor parts ready to go back

Noel, the AK delivery driver, was right on time; having advised he would aim to arrive between 1.30 and 2.00pm, he pulled up bang on 1.45pm.

What a glorious sight!!

I'd booked the assistance of a couple of friends, Richard and Paul, to help unload.  First task was to roll the body / chassis off the back of the trailer and onto the drive way.  Next was to remove the variety of parts that come with the kit, plus the extra parts that I had ordered, from the body tub where AK had loaded them for transport.  We also discovered some parts loaded in the boot later on (after lifting the body off....).

Lots of parcels in the body tub!

The body was temporarily bolted to the chassis with 4 bolts.  Once these were removed, the four of us lifted the body off the chassis and onto the waiting body support frame.

Something was not right...Despite my matching the AK factory frame measurements, the body did not sit right on the frame and the front cross member of the frame was nowhere near the front footwells in the body that were supposed to be sat on it.  

After a bit of head scratching we all concluded I would need to buy some additional bearers to sit under the floorpan - a job for later.

Next task was to lift the chassis into the garage and sit it on four axle stands (with a strip of old carpet to protect the freshly powder coated chassis!).

Chassis in its new home!

Then a quick trip to Wickes was in order to get some extra lengths of 63mm by 38mm timber studding and sort out the body support problem.

On return I realised what the problem was.  We had put the body on the frame with the rear support under the channel for the rear axle (which is how Stuart Holden had supported his body)

Stuart Holden's body support frame - rear support sits in channel for rear axle

Although my frame was based on Stuart's design, the measurements I had taken at the AK factory were based on the rear support sitting under the boot floor.  

Richard and I managed to lift the body up and forward on my frame and hey presto! now the body sat flat and the front footwells were sat on the front cross member of the frame.  There was still quite a gap under the rest of the body, and so the extra timber I had bought didn't go to waste and we added an extra crossmember to sit under the rear of the passenger compartment.  A bit of fine tuning with some pieces of thick corrugated cardboard was required to get all contact points supported on the frame.

Body sitting correctly on frame - additional crossmember added to support rear of floorpan

With that sorted, final job for the day was to stow all the bits and pieces under the chassis and wheel the body into the garage over the chassis (and it all fitted - just!)

Hurrah - it fits!!  There is even a bit of working space as well!

With body safely stored it was time to retire for a well earned beer.  Thanks to Richard and Paul for your help

Think I could be standing here for some time......

Christmas Holiday Projects - Body Support Frame

Despite being a bit behind with cleaning and painting the donor parts, with the AK body and chassis arriving early in the New Year I needed to get the garage ready to receive the kit.

My plan was to build a timber frame to store the body over the chassis; the idea being that the body/frame can be moved out of the garage to allow work on the chassis to proceed.  The idea came from another AK owner - Stuart Holden - and I have basically taken his frame layout as per the plans on his blog (although I did change some of the dimensions having taken my own measurements of the frame AK use to support their bodies in the factory).

General layout of body frame - courtesy of Stuart Holden

The AK body is supported at the front under the footwells and the kick-up at the rear sits under the boot floor.  The whole frame is wide enough to span over the chassis and sits on casters to allow it to be moved out over the chassis to allow working space.

I bought fourteen 2.4m lengths of 38mm by 63mm timber studding from Wickes, M8 coach bolts, coach screws (80mm and 60mm length) and washers from Namrick and some heavy duty casters from Screwfix.

Christmas Holiday project materials!

Timber cut to size

Fixings 

I started by making the two end frames.  All joints were bolted and glued for strength.  I then joined the added the sides and the diagonals - again all bolted and glued for strength.

I recommend checking constantly that all the elements are square and true (check once, check twice and check again) before and after fixing!.  Despite all my careful measuring and marking I did have to refix one of the diagonal bracings on the front frame, as although I checked the squareness several times before fixing, after fixing, one vertical was clearly out of plumb by a significant margin!! 

Front sub-frame completed...

...and rear sub-frame completed

Subframes joined, braced and casters fitted

The finished frame is nice and solid and hopefully be fit for the intended task (time will tell).  It does look suspiciously like a double bed frame - a point which my missus remarked upon and that it would be quite useful with all the time I would be spending in the garage...not sure what she is getting at!

It is a slightly snugger fit in the garage than I was hoping for so I will need to do a bit more rearranging to give a bit more room down the sides of the frame.  But a days work well spent I think!

Bit tight down the sides......

Early Christmas Present....

Over Christmas I am planning to build a frame to support the AK body while I work on the chassis.  I wanted to check the measurements of the frame that AK use to support their bodies in the factory when they come out of the molds so decided to pay them a quick visit just before Christmas.

When making the arrangements to visit, Carla told me that I must have been a very good boy this year as Santa had a surprise for me in the workshop!!!!

When I arrived at AK I was greeted by the obligatory cup of tea (and chocolates as it was the festive season), and then Wendi showed me our AK body in the workshop (excited) and then took me down to the powder coaters to see the chassis being finished off (even more excited!) - roll on Jan 11th 2019!!

My Gen III chassis fresh out of the oven!

AK body ready and waiting!

Bush Removal!

The title of this page should generate some internet traffic......

Since AK supply new suspension wishbones all round, there is no real need to remove any of the bushes from the front wishbones when stripping down the front suspension.

The only bushed parts that need to be reused are at the rear - being the "pendulum" and the wishbone tie, both of which support the rear lower wishbones and the differential unit.

I had assumed that new bushes would be required all round as a matter of good practice.  However as per my post on the rear suspension strip down I discovered that the bushes in the rear wishbone tie are a non-serviceable item (you can no longer buy them either separately or as part of a replacement wishbone tie part), so DO NOT REMOVE THESE BUSHES!!

So the only bushes that I actually need to replace are in the "pendulum" bracket.

Pendulum bracket

So what is a bush?  In simple terms (?!) it is a sort of vibration isolator found anywhere where there is a joint in the suspension system of a car.  They cushion the movement between two solid parts, helping to avoid shocks and vibration and making for a quieter and smoother ride.

The bushes as fitted to the Jag suspension are of the metalastic type, which consists of an inner and outer metal sleeve with an rubber core in-between.  They are also an extremely tight fit in whichever part of the suspension they are mounted and typically quite hard to remove, especially in older vehicles once rust and road debris have done their bit!

Although I did not need to remove the bushes from the front wishbones, I decided to have a couple of practice attempts in preparation for the rear pendulum.

I am fortunate enough to have a 10 ton hydraulic press in my garage which I thought would be man enough for the job and indeed on my first attempt one of the front wishbone bushes simply popped out with no problem what so ever.  The second attempt was not so successful; having cranked the jack on the press up to what I felt was worryingly close to breaking point, there was no sign of any movement.

Plan B involved using a hole saw with a suitable diameter to cut into the rubber between the two steel sleeves.  This allows the removal of the inner sleeve and then using a cold chisel and a large hammer, one end of the outer sleeve can be hammered inwards with freed the remains of the bearing sufficiently that it could be easily removed with the press.

The one draw back of Plan B is that it generates a lot of smoke and covered my working area with little globules of burnt rubber that stick to everything and are a pain to clean up...

New hole saw (left) - after bush removal (right)

I also found that all the bushes are slightly different sizes which would require the purchase of a large number of different diameter hole saws.  So I needed a Plan C.

In the end Plan C was much the same as Plan A, except that when I reached the point where I thought the press was going to break, I closed my eyes, protected my most valuable body parts, and cranked the jack handle a couple more times!

This generally resulted in an almighty bang - which thankfully was not the press breaking, but the bush shifting in the mounting, after which it pressed out relatively easily.

A naked bush!

Pendulum bracket with all bushes removed

Black Friday (Thursday?!) Bargain

Having slightly (?!) grazed the rear lower wishbone inner fulcrum shafts with my angle grinder while trying to complete disassembly of the rear subframe (Rear Axle Strip Down - Part 4, I had reconciled myself to the fact that I was going to have to buy replacement shafts.

Original fulcrum shaft - with "slight" nick
from angle grinder...!

I had previously checked that it was possible to buy these, and while they are available,  original or OE fulcrum shafts are not cheap!  When I checked SNG Barratt had OE items listed on their website at the time for just over £130 - EACH!!!  

This was going to be a significant dent in my planned expenditure.  However I have to thank another fellow Cobra builder, James, who having read my blog, got in contact to tell me that he had spotted that SNG Barratt had discounted the fulcrum shafts by £113 - so they were only £20 each!  

Needless to say I got straight onto the SNG website and ordered two - saving myself £226.  That's my Black Friday (Thursday) bargain for the year.  Excellent service from SNG; I ordered them yesterday lunchtime and they arrived today. Happy days!!

£266 worth of fulcrum shafts - for the bargain price of £40!

Project Snake goes Global!!

Sometimes the power of internet amazes me (and scares me in equal measure!).

Last weekend I was browsing Facebook and found the AC Cobra group page - which although mainly for owners of real AC / Shelby Cobras, is also open to owners of replicas and generally anyone with an interest in these amazing cars. Once my request to join the group had been accepted I posted an introduction to the group including a link to my blog.

Since then I have had just shy of 300 views to the blog - in less than a week!  The audience has been from all corners of the earth with views from US, Australia, South Africa and Europe and of course the UK.

So welcome to all those who have taken the time to visit my blog.  I hope its of interest and that you keep coming back to see how the project progresses.  I'd welcome any comments or feedback on the content (I'm a blogging newbie) and of course any tips / advice etc will all be grateful received.

I think I can say that Project Snake has gone global (but not viral....yet!!!!)

Thanks all.