GTBradley's build - Still Kick'n!

[GTBradley]

That's an excellent use of $8K!

Yeah, but you didn’t do it just for the looks, I would know, I’ve seen you drive!

[wallace18]

Very nice!

[PeteMeindl]

that looks great, Bradley! Nice going.

[GTBradley]

Okay, so I'm back to finish out the luggage rack mod. This isn't a new idea and it's not cheap or easy, but in the long run probably quite satisfying.

I decided before ordering my Mk4 from FFR I was going to use it for cross-country trips and more, provided my wife got onboard with traveling by roadster. An unknowable outcome at the time I know, but it was my plan and I have stuck to it.

For carrying luggage, golf bag, picnic basket, etc., I decided to add a luggage rack. However, I didn't think that I would like the looks of it, so I set about making a spare identical boot lid which I could swap out depending on need.

What was needed:

- FFR trunk lid. I found one for sale by a forum member who was upgrading to the newer style - half price.
- Luggage rack. The Whitby rack is very nice, but also over $600 and a deal breaker - found a 1957 Porsche 356 rack on Ebay for $160 - back in business!
- Mounting hardware. This was my own design combination based on pictures of Cobras with racks - $40, approximately.
- Luggage. Vintage of course! I found multiple leather Sampsonite bags on Craigslist from the late 50s - $10 (gave the nice lady $20.) Found a four-person, wicker picnic basket, too. Leather straps and dye on Amazon.
- Paint for the new lid to match the car. My painter, Bart Jones, did this for free while doing other repair work, so I'm not sure how much this would be.
- Trunk latch T-handle and license plate bracket. I found these on the parts for sale section of the factory five forums.



The mounting hardware includes: (8) rubber washers, (8) SS washers, (4) brass ferrules (for filling the space in-between the bolts and support tubes), (4) SS bolts, (4) SS lock nuts, (4) SS support tubes, (4) fiber washers (which fit perfectly inside the rubber washers.) I threaded the fiber washers so they could hold the whole affair together while mounting the contraption to the lid.



I made the holes in the rack square so they would accommodate the square shoulder of the carriage bolt. This allows a flush fit of the bolt and prevents turning while tightening the nuts.
Positioning and alignment of the rack was based on old pictures of Cobra's with racks and my stripes, respectively.

[GTBradley]

[GTBradley]

In the end, it turns out, I don't mind the looks of the car with the rack on it as much as I thought I would.



The view out the back through the rear-view mirror is blocked, so I've ordered a center rod mounted mirror like the ones on old MGs. If that doesn't work I'll do an electronic rear display and only use it when the bag is on the rack.

[Lancaster Lad]

GT
I too am planing for a luggage rack and did not anticipate limited rear vision with luggage in place.
I think your bigger problem will be when you tour through Jellystone Park and have to deal with Yogi
and your pik-nik basket.

[GTBradley]

GT
I too am planing for a luggage rack and did not anticipate limited rear vision with luggage in place.
I think your bigger problem will be when you tour through Jellystone Park and have to deal with Yogi
and your pik-nik basket.

...and we've seen what a bear does with a Cobra:


For visibility out the back I've purchased a dedicated rear-view camera system to try out. It's a wired unit as I saw a lot of complaints about the wireless ones. The display is 4.3" and folds closed for easy storage. I can set it on the dash or the center console. I'll mount the camera either to the license plate or directly to the bag. This all provided my center rod mounted mirror doesn't work, or never arrives from **********.

[MPTech]

That rack turned out great, but don't let my wife see it!

Actually, I installed one on my MG Midget when I was dating my wife in college, so we could travel out-of-town for the weekend. (My dad called it my wife's purse rack)

[GTBradley]

I too had an MGB back when I was dating. They always love that kind of thing until you get married. Then the weight set, motorcycle, Lazboy recliner and “art” all get tossed.

[Lancaster Lad]

GT
I must be getting old in my age, didn't think of a rear camera. I agree wired seems to be more reliable.
What you could do is ty wrap to the rear cross bar on the rack when ever the boxes are on. With the
rear mirror on the dash not much room for the display. After looking again at one of your photos looks
like might be room to the left of the mirror, being able to see where you are going is overrated.
I want to thank you for helping me spend my non extra money as I am now looking for some luggage.

[MPTech]

I too had an MGB back when I was dating. They always love that kind of thing until you get married. Then the weight set, motorcycle, Lazboy recliner and “art” all get tossed.

LOL, yeah my weights & Farrah poster didn't make the move to "our" house. Too funny!

[Joel Hauser]

I think the rack looks perfect. Great job. If it's good enough for Steve McQueen....

[GTBradley]

LOL, yeah my weights & Farrah poster didn't make the move to "our" house. Too funny!

Ah, the Six Million Poster Woman...

[Al_C]

I love the rack and the luggage! Well done, my friend! But for golf clubs.... just put them in the passenger seat. I wouldn't want my sticks to go flying out on a corner!

[GTBradley]

I made a video of the first autocross I did in the roadster. I shared it on another post, but I’d like to see what it looks like on Vimeo - Youtube is becoming a little annoying with ads and I want to see what this service is like.

https://vimeo.com/544375799

Edit: I like the Vimeo video hosting service because of the lack of ads and general lack of busyness like Youtube. Our forum video insertion tool doesn't recognize the service (I think it's broken?) so the video link tool doesn't show it with a preview tile nor does it play in place, rather it takes you to Vimeo's webpage, but overall it seems much better.

[460.465USMC]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing. How did you like the autocross? I've heard it can be addicting. Looks like a lot of fun to me.

[GTBradley]

Addicting is very possible, you just don’t get to drive your car like this at any other time. I wanted to push my Mk4, especially since I put big brakes on it. I had a blast and will definitely do it again.

Bradley.

[Fman]

Nice job on that luggage rack, looks great.

[460.465USMC]

Addicting is very possible, you just don’t get to drive your car like this at any other time. I wanted to push my Mk4, especially since I put big brakes on it. I had a blast and will definitely do it again.

Bradley.

I have the Wilwood 13" brakes on mine. I'm curious what you thought about the braking performance in the Autocross, say compared to a daily driver. Is it comparable?

[GTBradley]

Sorry, I didn’t see this, Chris.

To answer your question in a word: superior! I have always regretted putting the big brakes on this replica because it meant I couldn’t do the 15” wheels. Now I have new found respect for the brakes and 17” wheels. There is no need for power assist and the response and effectiveness of these Wilwoods is astounding - better than any sports car I’ve ever driven.

[460.465USMC]

Wow! That sounds like fantastic braking performance! I have the Wilwood 13" brakes on mine. Have never ridden in one (Wilwoods or otherwise), so looking forward to that day.

Keep posting the videos and updates. Really enjoying following along! That autocross video was very cool!

[GTBradley]

I will, I have registered for the next autocross on the 29th and I’ve changed the GoPro mount to go on my helmet, so we’ll see how that video comes out. I’ll post a “Second Autocross - input needed” thread. Glad you enjoyed it.

PS. I should include that I haven’t driven any really high-performance sports cars to compare the brakes to.

[GTBradley]

I recently found a smaller bag for the luggage rack. I couldn't see over the big one even with the high-mount mirror. I can see over this one, but I did mount that back up camera in the bag itself. Pretty James Bond, huh?

I recently got Peter Miles and Alan Grant to sign it for me at the big party at the Shelby American Collection Museum.

[GTBradley]

I have been looking at upgrading the wipers because I feel intermittent function would be really handy when it is misting or there's light rain, which is common in the mountains. I like my Lucas wipers and they work well, but the switch only has high and low speed settings, so I find myself activating the switch on and off a lot. There is a Cole Hersee switch available for this and it includes a push-to-activate wash/three-wipe function just like modern cars. I was unsure about mounting squirters in the body though until I researched the original Cobras and found numerous examples of squirters mounted on the 427s back in the 60s, so I was sold on the idea of mounting the system on my car.

Parts I used:
- Bag type washer kit (only used the tubing, tubing connectors and pump) from Amazon $15
- Polished aluminum tank/reservoir from Amazon $35
- ¼" MIP to ¼" FIP street elbow and a 3/16" ID to ¼" MIP hose barb adapter and brass nut from HD
- Washer jets/squirters from Moss Motors $10.58
- Cole Hersee multifunction switch from O'reilly's $84
- Ashley Hinton old-style, wiper knob $25
- ¾" x 48" aluminum square tube from HD $20
- ¾" sq tube caps - bag of 20 from Amazon - $7.66
- Double-stick tape and various fasteners

I bought the bag style washer kit from Amazon first because it looked like the old-style washer reservoirs and was only $15. It didn't fit anywhere as it hangs too low, but as it turns out, the reservoir that I did use didn't come as a kit, so I used components from the first order.

The Cole Hersee wiper switch (part number 75600-04) works with the Lucas wiper motor without a relay, so it was worth the 84 bucks in my opinion. Wiring the switch to the Lucas wiper wiring is simple but the colors don't match. It's easy enough to interpret, but here is the wiring I used.



The washer reservoir I found looked nice and had a low enough profile that it would fit on top of the right side foot box. It tucks under the fender but still has enough access to get to the fill cap. It comes with a drain port on the bottom with a rubber grommet, so I fabricated a mounting bracket from ¾" square tube to elevate the tank enough to allow a right angle adapter to be installed. I removed the grommet and tapped the hole with a ¼" plumbing tap and installed a brass nut on the inside of the tank as the metal is only thick enough for a few threads.



Access holes were drilled in one side of the square tubes so I could get my socket through to the bolt head. Drilling aluminum is always challenging for me if I want the hole as close to center as possible - the bit just walks too much with a handheld drill - so the benchpress was nice for this part.

The only place the tank is fastened with bolts is on the two ears at the top. I didn't want any vibration induced rattling go on, so I placed double-stick tape on the sq tubes where they meet the tank. It's till removable but insulates the tank from vibration. Mounting the bracket was no big deal as there is plenty of space above and below the foot box to get at the bolts. The pump I took from the first kit is simply stuck to the foot box with double-stick tape. I also bracketed it with zip tie stick on mounts and ran tip ties through them and over the motor. It seems plenty sturdy, but if it comes loose in the future I'll fabricate a better mount. The mount for the tank can't be seen from above except for the tops of the vertical sq tube and to dress that up I've ordered some black, square tube end caps.



Mounting the washer jets/squirters in the body was straight forward, I just measured carefully to have them look symmetrical and positioned them for unobstructed spray from the dual nozzles on each.

FYI, I've had the nut on the wiper cable tube, where it attaches to the wiper mechanism, get loose with use. I suggest checking on this regularly.

If you need to adjust the wiper arms for their home position you'll need to pull one or both off the splined post and reposition one spline at a time. Here's how I do it: There is a tab on the the arm side of the socket down near the splined post. Push that away from the post and judiciously manipulate the base of the arm back and fourth and up all while holding the tab. It’s made a little difficult becuase of the spring load, but it gets easier with practice.

Oddly enough there is no vacuum relief in the tank, but no big deal, I just drilled a small hole in the cap. The whole project was a joy from start to finish and really easy. I say "easy" because there weren't any big issues along the way and progress continued straight through to the finish. However, I did spend three days straight working on it, albeit slowly - makes for a fun three day weekend for me.

I included a video to show the function of the system. FYI, there is a delay period near the end of the video that will make you think it's done but it shows the length of time for the long delay wipe, I think it's about 15 seconds.



I found this on the web for a non-toxic washer fluid that might be safer for Lexan and eyes:
Mix in one gallon jug:

• 8 oz. of 99% isopropyl alcohol
• 1 oz. of liquid Castile soap
• Distilled water

[GTBradley]

Had a chance to try out the new bag on a two night trip to Grand Lake, Colorado recently. Big group of Cobras too.

[WIS89]

Just read your post on the intermittent wiper install -- thank you! I really like the idea of intermittent wipers.

You did a nice, clean job, and I really appreciated the detailed write-up. Please let us know how you like it in action, especially the squirters. I am reluctant to put squirters in when I get to that point, so curious how you end up liking them, as well as the rest of your setup.

Thanks again -- a nice addition to a terrific car!

Regards,

Steve

[GTBradley]

Thanks Steve, I'll definitely report back. One concern I have is that my windscreen is made of Lexan and the wipers go about as quickly as the sprayer does. The spray wets the windshield quickly enough that I don't think it would run the wipers on a dry windshield, but it might. Probably not something to worry about but I could mount a hidden, wash only button for the purpose of soaking the windshield first.

It is nerve-wracking to drill the body of a painted car, but I've done it so many times to this point that my only concern now is getting it right the first time.

Bradley

[rthomas98]

Thanks Steve, I'll definitely report back. One concern I have is that my windscreen is made of Lexan and the wipers go about as quickly as the sprayer does. The spray wets the windshield quickly enough that I don't think it would run the wipers on a dry windshield, but it might. Probably not something to worry about but I could mount a hidden, wash only button for the purpose of soaking the windshield first.

It is nerve-wracking to drill the body of a painted car, but I've done it so many times to this point that my only concern now is getting it right the first time.

Bradley

I got to thank you for this. In Michigan windshield washers are required to get titled. Wasn't fully sure how I was going to do it. But this answered all my questions. I will be following your lead. Thank you once again for sharing.

[GTBradley]

Glad it will help someone. There have been other write-ups but none that really worked for me. The simple and much cheaper rotary switch for Cole Hersee doesn’t have delay or wash function but does allow for the use of a period-correct knob, well it needs a relay and gets complicated in it’s wiring. I was pleased to find that I got all this extra functionality and the rotary switch is plug-and-play.

I just realized that I neglected to give the color coded wiring diagram. I’ll get to it next. EDIT* Added above.*

Bradley

[GTBradley]

The fill tube gasket I installed during the build has been reported many times by others to be of poor quality. I got mine in the kit from FFR and as best I can figure the gasket is a knock-off made by Doorman of the Ford OEM part. I did not change mine when I found out about this problem originally, as I knew mine installed without any damage to it. I figured I'd wait until I had an issue and replace it when the time came. Well, recently I filled up my tank and it smelled of fumes more than it should. I just have the breather tube on my gas tank, so if you stick your nose up in the area behind the wheel well you can detect a very small amount of fuel vapors normally, but not in the garage generally. So when the garage did start smelling of fumes I knew the gasket had gone bad.

I immediately ordered the OEM part # F4ZZ9072DA form Amazon. The OEM part is about $30 and the Doorman is about $9.

When I got the gasket out it looked fine,



but upon closer inspection I found this little tear



It was surprising to me that such a small tear would create such a big smell and that it would develop a tear at all given that it installed without issue.
My advice is to verify that the one you install is actually a Ford OEM part, as the aftermarket one lasted me less than 10,000 miles.

Replacing this was easy, just remember to take out the screws in the LeMans gas cap first. With it loose from the body the fill tube has room to rotate out of the gas tank. Spray some WD40 on the gasket first to make come out easier.

[Nigel Allen]

Hey Bradley,

thanks for the write up. I almost ordered a Dorman gasket as they were available in Australia. Glad I went to the trouble and expense of shipping the OEM out of US. I just received my gasket, which i will change after I burn off some of the fuel in the tank . Hadn't thought about removing screws in the cap, but will take your sage advice.

Cheers,

Nigel

[GTBradley]

You’re welcome. Yeah, it’s a quick job and a lot easier if you don’t have to take the hose clamps off, they’re way up in there. However, if you needed to you could pull of the rear fender wall too.

[Papa]

The fill tube gasket I installed during the build has been reported many times by others to be of poor quality. I got mine in the kit from FFR and as best I can figure the gasket is a knock-off made by Doorman of the Ford OEM part. I did not change mine when I found out about this problem originally, as I knew mine installed without any damage to it. I figured I'd wait until I had an issue and replace it when the time came. Well, recently I filled up my tank and it smelled of fumes more than it should. I just have the breather tube on my gas tank, so if you stick your nose up in the area behind the wheel well you can detect a very small amount of fuel vapors normally, but not in the garage generally. So when the garage did start smelling of fumes I knew the gasket had gone bad.

I immediately ordered the OEM part # F4ZZ9072DA form Amazon. The OEM part is about $30 and the Doorman is about $9.

When I got the gasket out it looked fine,



but upon closer inspection I found this little tear



It was surprising to me that such a small tear would create such a big smell and that it would develop a tear at all given that it installed without issue.
My advice is to verify that the one you install is actually a Ford OEM part, as the aftermarket one lasted me less than 10,000 miles.

Replacing this was easy, just remember to take out the screws in the LeMans gas cap first. With it loose from the body the fill tube has room to rotate out of the gas tank. Spray some WD40 on the gasket first to make come out easier.

That seal looks great compared to mine once I got it out.



I discovered mine was shot after jacking the car on the driver's side and ending up with a puddle of gas on the garage floor. To be fair, I likely created the bulk of the damage just fighting to get the thing out.

[GTBradley]

Yeah, I remember learning about this on your thread, those things are rubbish!

[johnpinetree]

Thanks for the catch! I'll spend the 30 bucks now!

Hey, I also saw the engine cover discussion. You know one thing that I think looks even cooler than a blower are those independent throttle bodies (ITBs) folks run... at that point it's almost a shame to close the hood...

https://www.ffcars.com/threads/has-a...-setup.637690/

[GTBradley]

I’d be more willing to do the ITBs than a blower. The truth is I have enough HP and, like you, I go gaga for the look of those stacks!



This sounds like a job for a quantum computing engineer we both know

[johnpinetree]

HA! Once again, we're aligned on our thinking!

Yeah well the only one I know is slacking on his build! Thankfully a bunch of MIK stuff showed up last week and another round comes Monday.

[GTBradley]

I have been in my seasonal project mode lately and this usually nets me some pretty unusual projects that sometimes are useful and sometimes aren't. The long story is my son decided to buy his own truck before he enters the Marines next summer. He could have kept driving mine, but he wanted an early 90s Toyota pickup he could learn more about mechanical repairs on. This meant he got a beater and one of the things he wanted to do was get new wheels, but keeping it in his budget meant either cleaning up the existing ones or powder coating them. So I decided to build a big powder coating oven on the cheap. This will allow me to PC my spare side pipes too!

Materials:

• Light-weight metal cabinet - Craigslist, $23
• Extra sheet metal from heavy-duty file cabinet - Craigslist, free
• Insulation - Home Depot, $30
• Oven insulator rope for door - Lowes, $27
• Propane tank and burner - built for previous project
• Aluminum angle - Home Depot, $30
• Piano hinges - Ace, $25
• Thermostat - Amazon, $8
• Various screws, fasteners, etc. - leftover junk from previous projects

I needed to practice at powder coating first, so I bought a cheap toaster oven from CL and did some various brackets in black. That worked out fine and was easy. Moving on to bigger things, I got a cabinet that was tall enough to PC my spare side pipes and would eventually be used for wheels.



The only major thing about powder coating is that the cabinet needs to sustain up to 450°F for 20 minutes (high-temp PC, otherwise 400°). Insulating the thin metal cabinet is an idea that seems easy, but I’ll admit is a large amount of labor. I spent a couple weeks cutting up the free file cabinet for panels and fitting them over insulation in the main cabinet.



The doors needed to be modified to accommodate their thicker size and that meant adding new hinges. I also needed to modify the cabinet in multiple locations to keep excessive heat from passing through gaps and causing damage to insulation. I spent a lot of time on the build, but once it was sustaining even heat and not damaging itself I could move on to PCing large items.

[GTBradley]

You might be wondering about the heat source at this point. I could have gone the route of electric heat, but that means 240 volts and I don’t have that anywhere near the outdoors, not to mention the added expense of heating elements and wiring. What I did have was a propane tank and flame torch I built for smelting aluminum. The BTUs that I can make with that thing are more than adequate for this job, but I had read that you shouldn’t use flame for PC ovens. That didn’t make a lot of sense to me, as some of the large commercial ovens are flame heated, and anyway, the PC is stuck to the metal and is not in the air in the oven. So I said, what the hey, let’s see if we can make this thing explode. It didn’t, by the way, no issue at all. I did, however, keep the built-in metal shelf as a flame box. This meant that the cabinet needed to be turned upside down, but again no issue there. There is thicker metal in the flame box to handle direct flame and holes in the shelf to allow heat to migrate upward.



The issues I ran into during testing was heat escaping through gaps around the doors. This concentrates heat on the oven rope gasket and makes it fail. I simply added fiberglass insulation and some aluminum angle to help deflect the heat. I installed a 3” HVAC valve on the top to help direct the heat through the cabinet and prevent hot spots. It also helps cool down the cabinet at a steady rate rather than opening the doors. As it turns out, I think I could make enough heat, even in 30° weather, to melt this cabinet down! The initial runs created a lot of paint smell so I used a grinder to to remove paint it the firebox area and not create such a stink in the neighborhood.

What I do is preheat the cabinet to about 100°F with a small, portable electric heater while I’m applying powder to the metal auto part and then fire up the flame heater once it’s loaded and closed up.

Getting the cabinet up to 450°F takes about 5 to 10 minutes and I have to monitor it to make sure I don’t overshoot my desired temp - a disadvantage of not using electric heating with thermostatic control.

I bought a PC gun from Harbor Freight for $75 and ordered high-temp powder from Powder By The Pound for $30. You could do ceramic coating, but the prep and curing is more involved and the cost is about $100 higher. Ceramic can handle 2000° but the 1200° high-temp powder seemed sufficient for side pipes.

My observations:

• Applying PC is easy, just a little technique is required. Low pressure air is used and the powder sticks to the metal through an electrostatic process.
• If you get too close a spark is created and will affect the finish in that spot.
• The big issue with high-temp PC is you can only process it once. With normal PC you can apply and bake more than once to cover missed spots. The answer to this for high-temp powder is to buy the high-temp spray paint for those missed spots. I have some areas I’m going to touch up, we’ll see how that goes after I receive the rattle can from Powder By The Pound.
• The Faraday effect will make it hard to get powder to stick in the tight bends and corners, such as the inside bends at the 4 into 1 near the collector. Lowering the air pressure can help here.
• You need a lot of light to see where powder is not covering sufficiently yet. Spotlights would be helpful when doing black powder.
• If you don’t like the application, just blow it all off with compressed air and do it again.
• Clean up is simple using compressed air and a broom.

I like how the pipes turned out, we’ll see how the wheels go next. We are planning on a metallic bronze with a clear coat. This a two-step PC process and I’ll be practicing in the toaster oven first. It’s nice because I can use it in the garage and it makes the space smell like pizza.