Factory Five has a MkIII hood in their parts section for $600...I assume a MkIV would be a similar price. Yep, by proper method, I mean the JK method. Agree with you that the FFR manual could use some help in this section.
Congrats in your retirement!! Big milestone.
Greg
Thanks! I think you guys with all the experience need to contract yourselves to FFR as consultants to update their manual! Thank-you for looking over my shoulder--it's greatly appreciated!
You don’t need a hood. It sounds like you’re close enough to make it work now that you know that it might not be a matter of just “connect the dots” and might require you to adjust a bit. Worst case you glass in a couple of inches all around and call a mulligan. Now, if you did like my buddy da’ Bat did a couple of years ago and cut the hole backwards…you’d need a new hood
Now, if you did like my buddy da’ Bat did a couple of years ago and cut the hole backwards…you’d need a new hood
Jeff
Thanks again for your advice - it's extremely helpful.
It's gratifying to hear that even the pros can make silly mistakes. I managed to install my drop trunk backwards early on (reading the instructions while looking from the rear of the chassis, I got to thinking that the front of the car was the rear, and vice-versa, because that's what it was in relation to me). I managed to make that installation work, but I felt awful about it. It was for that very reason that I wrote "Front" on the front of my hood when cutting for the scoop. I'm perfectly capable of making the same mistake twice!
I'm finding mounting the doors to be sort of a Catch-22 - you have to trim the door to get it close, and you have to get it close in order to trim it. I'm working on the right side door, which is supposedly the easier of the two.
This difficulty has caused me to double check the position of the body on the chassis. I have the required quarter inch between the chassis latch bracket and the body on the right side, but only an 1/8" on the left side. I loosened everything up and tried pushing the body forward, but it won't budge. I'm now considering taking everything off, pulling the body back up, and trimming my trunk sheet metal a bit more so that the body will move forward (any opinions on that?)
I know that this isn't the issue with the right side, but I'm concerned that it might exacerbate the difficulty of fitting the left side. What to do?
I think that what I'll first do is trial fit the left door, and see what happens. I'll also look at the latches and do any necessary assembly to see if there are any clearance issues. Otherwise, I'm not sure what I'll do. I'm super-wide open to any advice from the forum regarding this!
You can probably work with 1/8" but...have you trimmed the underside roll of the cowl to assure that it isn't hitting the dash thus preventing the body from moving forward? If so before trimming the aluminum lip at the trunk (haven't had to do that for 5 or 6 years) you can try to get the body to move using my favorite method---Take your rear leg of the rollbar and slide it onto the outside forward chassis stub so that it's just barely engaged (maybe about 1/4") and has lots of wiggle. You can then use it as a lever to nudge the body farther forward. Do the same using the inner stub and also if you have a passenger side bar. I have a damaged chrome one that hangs on the wall for just this purpose!
Regarding trimming; only do the bare minimum for now and save the actual gapping for last, after all of the bodywork and shaping has been done. You're going to find that during the bodywork and shaping process you'll wind up making adjustments by moving the doors up & down, in & out, forward & back (probably multiple times!). If you do the gapping early it'll lock you into place and won't let you make those minor adjustments.
You can probably work with 1/8" but...have you trimmed the underside roll of the cowl to assure that it isn't hitting the dash thus preventing the body from moving forward. If so before trimming the aluminum lip at the trunk (haven't had to do that for 5 or 6 years) you can try to get the body to move using my favorite method---Take your rear leg of the rollbar and slide it onto the outside forward chassis stub so that it's just barely engaged (maybe about 1/4") and has lots of wiggle. You can then use it as a lever to nudge the body farther forward. Do the same using the inner stub and also if you have a passenger side bar. I have a damaged chrome one that hangs on the wall for just this purpose!
Regarding trimming; only do the bare minimum for now and save the actual gapping for last, after all of the bodywork and shaping has been done. You're going to find that during the bodywork and shaping process you'll wind up moving the doors up & down, in & out, forward & back. If you do the gapping early it'll lock you into place and won't let you make those minor adjustments.
Jim & Jeff K.
I wish I knew about waiting till the door was completely fit (adjusted) before gapping. Makes sence. Might have read that somewhere but it did'nt stick! I did it as I was fitting. A little gapping, a few adjustments, rince and repete for a few hours till I liked it. Done now though, and I'm happy with it. Would have been quicker J'K's way ! Go figure.
I did cut the 3/8 off the front and rear cowl lips. Turned out that was the perfect amount. I also had to cut the rear sheet metal (also 3/8") to get the body forward enough. I also mocked up the latches as I did the fitting. I drilled and bolted them when all was fit.
Thanks Jeff for all you do!
Take your rear leg of the rollbar and slide it onto the outside forward chassis stub so that it's just barely engaged (maybe about 1/4") and has lots of wiggle. You can then use it as a lever to nudge the body farther forward. Do the same using the inner stub and also if you have a passenger side bar. I have a damaged chrome one that hangs on the wall for just this purpose! Good luck!
Jeff
Thanks once again! That's a great idea using the roll bar - I was wondering how I might get some kind of leverage to move the body forward, and never thought of that!
I have about 1/32" between the cowl and the dash, so I'll need to trim it a bit in order to get the body far enough forward.
I apologize for my sporadic posting—it’s because I work on he cobra sporadically, so often don’t have any results to report.
Yesterday, I worked on the right side door and had some problems, which made me wonder if I need to take the body back off and re-adjust it. The end result isn’t too bad—the door swings completely freely, and seems pretty well centered in the opening (finish gapping still needs to be done).
However, I have two issues.
First, even with the body sill all the way in, it still protrudes beyond the lower edge of the door. I put two washers between the lower two hinge holes and the door panel to cant it out at the bottom, and the front and rear alignment is good, but the body sill protrudes in the middle area. I looked closely at the FFR YouTube door trimming video, and it appears that the door in that video may be the same. So, my obvious question here is, “is it supposed to be this way?”
The second issue concerns the top of the door where it transitions into the dash cowling. I just can’t get the front of the door high enough to align in this area. In fact, I had to do quite a bit of grinding here to even get the door to swing shut. I thought that I could simply raise the hinge on the chassis, and then adjust the hinge on the door to vertically align the rear, but every time I raise the hinge on the chassis, everything binds. Badly. Especially along the front edge of the door.
This second issue has me thinking that maybe I need to reposition the body. I’d mentioned in an earlier post that was unable to get ½” clearance between the body an the end of the dash hoop—I’m wondering now if my dash is pushing the body up too high in the cowl area and creating the problem. I hate the thought of pulling the body back off to adjust it, but I will if that’s what it takes to get it right. Any suggestions?
Jim, I had similar issues. The first one looks like you can fix by kicking out the lower door hinge where it attaches to the chassis. This will put the bottom of the door further outboard. Its a bit of a ballancing act between the upper and lower hinge attach points. I just snugged them up but kept them loose enough that I could loosen one at a time to make individual adjustments. I spent about an hour adjusting the two door to hinge nuts and the two hinge to chassis bolts. Its a bit like ballancing on a bowling ball because every adjustment effects the other three. Then throw in the two bottom bolts. Have patience it will come around. The body hieght is set by the firewall seal. At least mine is. Cant speak for others. So its not adjustable in the vertical plane. If you want the 1/2" gap between the hoop and body the manual just says to bend it down. My gap is 1/4" on the RH side and 1/2" on the LH. I'll live with it.
I had to add quite a bit of filler to the RH door "horn" or "point" area. (see Pic below). I had to do the same with the LH door. I also extended them to clean up the seam look.
I'm concurring with Rebostar. The top of PS door is always low to the cowl ...if you raise it to flush at the cowl the curve along the front edge where it rolls over will be way high and not match the body. As he said, it's all a balancing act. I'd advise you to be sure that the lower rocker panel is pushed all the way in and get rid of the washers between the door and hinge (I've never had to do that on the PS; DS is a different story and always gets one at the lower front stud) then work on the hinge adjustments. When you bring the lower end of the hinge outward it'll not only bring the lower edge of the door out but also take the upper part of the door in, and vice-versa. Try taking the upper end of the hinge in and see if that helps kick the bottom out. In the end you get as close as you can and then start in on the bodywork on the door and main body to get the final shaping and panel match. Top "point" (horn ), front and bottom.
Thanks, Allyn and Jeff!
Your comments about the fit at the top of the door are reassuring. As for the bottom, I will take out the two washers between the hinge and the door, mark the hinge locations on the chassis, and fiddle with the bottom hinge location a bit more. Now that I have everything fairly close, and the door swinging without interference, I think I'll have better success with the final adjustment. I'm about 99.9% sure that the rocker is tight against the chassis, but I'll loosen the bolts, and give it a mild whack with a rubber mallet to see if it goes in any farther. (I slotted the sills, and am using 5mm round head machine screws in rivet nuts to hold them in place, so they're adjustable). Thanks again to you both!
Jim B
Congrats on your retirement, Jim! Wahoo! (I don't want to think about how many more years until I can. Oof!).
I think I'd be happy to work a few more years if I could build a coupe as my 2nd Cobra project like some people I know! I guess the grass is always greener!
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Originally Posted by gbranham
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), front and bottom. 