CABulldogs mk4 #10323

[CABulldog]

Hello all, I am James and I have started working on a Mk4 Roadster. I have long dreamed of building a kit car, starting with a Robin Hood Engineering Lotus 7 Replica (Cheaper than a Caterham) and evolving along the way. My other big dream was to own a front engined rear wheel drive V8 car, with that love being started by the TVR’s of the 90’s such as the Chimera and Cerbera. Move forward many years and the heart still yearns for such things, but now I have the finances and a little boy who loves cars. I wanted to get a vehicle I could work on with him and teach him some stuff. So options were explored and I came up with 2 buy an older muscle car from the mid 2000’s or build a factory five. I love the look of the cobra and it offers what I was looking for in many ways. My first real exposure to the Cobra was seeing one driving into the office site I interned at most days. You could hear that thing coming, I never talked to the lady that drove it so I don’t know if it was real or not but I loved watching and listening to that car. Well when I put the options to my then 5 year old kid build or buy he wanted to build. I met up with a group of Cobra owners/builders for breakfast and started to plan out the order. I knew I wanted a complete kit and IRS but the rest I was open to. Well on Sept 9th 2021 I placed an order for a complete kit with the following

Complete kit
Unfinished frame
Hydraulic clutch
Leather Seats
Front and Rear swaybars
Bumpers (I love the look)
Wind wings
Sun visor
Brake duct mesh
Heater

I have also ordered a Blueprint 347 with fuel injection and the TKX transmission which I ordered on Jan 20th 2022

I have also opted to get
Breeze radiator mounts and shroud
Breeze vintage hood hinges
Breeze forward battery tray
Breeze storage cubby
Electric power steering
Gas N Touring Pipes
Russ Thompson Turn signal and drop trunk kit
Seat heaters
Boig cooling tubes

Well the kit was built in March, picked up by Stewart Transport and scheduled for delivery on April 1st. I live at the end of a court off a busy street, I did not think it was possible to get such a large truck down the street. Mark from Stewart proved me wrong, with me holding the traffic on the street he backed down the court like the pro he was, he had Ted G’s kit on him as well and was going there next.

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We unload all the boxes and kit #10323 is finally here. A buddy from breakfast came around and helped me remove my body and we talked about the frame modifications I am going to be doing, my mig welding skills were piss poor at high school, I think because the welding mask was so dark I could not see anything. I was able to weld with the oxy acetylene torch but nothing else. I am told that I should be able to master mig welding, it needs to work not look good.

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I complete the inventory and found I was missing several big items, including my pedal box assembly, 2 master cylinders etc. I emailed my list to Factory Five and after sending them pictures of box 22 they have shipped me the missing parts due to arrive soon. Factory five did not ask for the pictures just that I look again, I decided to send the pictures myself.

Once I completed inventory I started to remove the aluminium panels that were shipped on the car. I am starting by drilling and Clecoing all the aluminium panels first, then I will work with the frame modifications. Unfortunately my wife has been having some serious medical issues recently so that is slowing progress, I am getting 1 or 2 panels drilling and clecoed on a day right now. The plan is to get the frame mods done and most likely send it out for paint.

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I will save updates up as I make progress to log here, on a weekly or even monthly basis it should be clear the car is starting to make progress.