Tech Tips...

As a Club, we’re eager to share our knowledge and experiences concerning ownership and building these famous replica cars. Our sponsor, Wolfzter.com (coming soon) as well as any of the BCCC club members are invited to post any helpful hints to share with the Cobra Replica community. We hope you will find this information useful, informative and inspirational and are open to any ideas or requests you may have. If you are interested in any specific technical information regarding these cars, please feel free to browse our Archives or contact Wolfzter's and we’ll see what we can do for you.

Some of our members are technically well-versed and offer their advice freely for the benefit of the Cobra community. Please understand that any of the tech tips listed on this page are solely the opinions based on personal experience of the individual contributors and are not necessarily suitable to each and every circumstance, or necessarily the general opinion of the BCCC. We ask that you read our Disclaimer and Conditions of Use and fully understand its’ contents before considering any of the free advice offered on this page. If you disagree with any of these Terms and Conditions then we recommend you do not follow any of the free advice offered on our Tech Tip page.

 

 

Upgrades to Consider for Mainstream Sports Cars

Unless you own a top of the line Lamborghini or some other ridiculously expensive luxury sports car, chances are you can make significant improvements to your own.  Whether you want to outstrip the competition with supersized power or want to make others swoon over the exterior appearance of your car, there are a number of aftermarket upgrades you could make to get exactly the results you want.  Not every type of vehicular modification is for everyone, but if you have something specific in mind, several of the following upgrade ideas may serve you well.

Vertical Doors

Vertical doors, also popularly known as Lambo doors, are add-ons that can transform your vehicle from run-of-the-mill sports car to super-sleek, luxury sports car.  With an aftermarket Mustang vertical door kit, an entry level sports car can suddenly appear as though it was multiple times as expensive, and the customization allows for a more vibrant entrance and exit whenever you go in and out of your car.  If you want to qualify the beauty of your vehicle and make it look more spectacular than before, vertical doors are the way to go.

Rear Spoilers

This add-on is a tricky beast, most clearly because of its prominence visually.  An unsightly rear spoiler can make a driver look like he’s trying to hard with his car, and can actually devalue the worth of the vehicle (not to mention inhibit its aesthetic appeal).  A sleek, low-key rear spoiler can make a vehicle appear more aerodynamic, more race-ready, and certainly sportier.  So long as you understand how the spoiler fits into to the entire design of the vehicle, you should be able to make an appropriate judgment call on whether or not to install a rear spoiler on your own mainstream sports car.

HID Headlights

Halogens may work just fine on your sports car, but higher-end vehicles are all switching over to HIDs, and for good reason.  These lights offer multiple times the brightness and longevity of traditional halogens, and more importantly, they can be customized to match a particular color preference.  Whether you want bold purple headlights or brilliant white ones, you can get HIDs to match.  BMW first introduced HIDs into market in the early 1990s on their 7 Series, but nowadays, aftermarket HIDs are plentiful and available for use on almost any modern car type.

 

 

Tech Tip April 2011

Hi Guys

If your Cobra or Hot Rod is using a Jaguar IRS unit and you’re having some trouble with your existing Ride Height, then this tip is definitely for you but there are some things to consider first. Simply winding up the spring height (past a safe limit) is not going to solve the problem without creating another one, the shock may bottom out when you hit a bump and the wheel ‘unloads’. This is definitely the case with any short stroke shock such as the ones used in the Jaguar IRS.

Anytime you change the Ride Height on a Jaguar IRS, the Camber setting will also be affected and may need to be re-adjusted by shimming the inboard axle yokes. Raising the ride height by 1-inch reduced the Camber by approx. 1/2 Degree in our case the axles were not set properly to begin with and my modification actually solved this problem without the need to shim.

I’ve just finished modifying the lower Control Arms on a customer’s Cobra to raise his Ride Height by 1-inch and I’m pleased with the results. I wanted it to look ‘correct’, be as strong or stronger than stock and most importantly; to function without quirks. I considered performing the mods directly on the vehicle (I was tempted to save some time) but after some consideration, bit the bullet and disassembled the outboard suspension components.
Be sure to fully understand how all of the Bearings, Seals and Spacers on the inboard lower Control Arm function and make some notes before taking things apart. An exploded view from a manual is also a good idea and may even be found online.

With the lower Control Arms on my workbench, it was time to do a little measuring and some head-scratching. I checked to see if I had the right scrap metal laying around and prepared my Grinder and abrasives for the work. The first step was to cut off the two shock sleeve ends on each of the Arms using my Zipcut wheel, cut these as close to the tube as possible (without cutting into the Arm!) and you won’t have to grind as much metal during clean up. Now span the Arm securely into a Vise, don the Safety Goggles and grind the remainder of the sleeves flush with the Arm tube. You may want to leave a little excess material to finish the take-down with a 50-grit Sanding Disk. Sand off any paint and rust around the area to be welded.

The next step is to knock out the sections of sleeve from the Arm with a drift tool and hammer. If it doesn’t separate, check to make sure you’ve ground off all the weld. A little effort with the hammer and it should come clean. You will now need to remove a section of metal above the holes now left to create a slot for inserting the new sleeves (check out the pictures). The metal you’ll need for the new hardware is a foot long section of 1-inch round steel tubing DOM .156 wall for the new sleeves and 6-inches of 1 x 2” .125 wall rectangular steel tubing for the gusset sections.

Now cut some new sleeves from the DOM tubing by replicating the length of your existing ones. In our case, the sleeve (and spacer) totaled 5-inches in length and this is what we cut the new ones to. I squared and beveled the ends of my new tubes with a fine flat file and then drilled some half inch holes 1-inch in from each end of the new tubes, this is for ‘puddle-welding’ the new shock bolts in place. You may chose to eliminate this step and reuse the existing shock bolts, in my case I didn’t have proper nut engagement with the way the system was originally built and there was a danger of the lower shock nut falling off!

I fabricated some new shock bolts using four 5/8-inch NC x 6-inch long Hex Bolts, cut off the hex, beveled the shafts and welded them together in a V-block. I trimmed the threaded portion so that the proper amount of thread was showing after the nut was in place (solving the previous problem) and then beveled the threaded ends. It’s a good idea to wire-wheel a threaded fastener any time you make a cut. I inserted the new shock bolts into the sleeves, centered them so that each end measured the same and then puddle-welded them in place. This is an added safety step to prevent the bolt from separating or spinning when tightening the shock retainer nuts or during road operation.

With the Control Arm positioned and leveled on my work bench, I positioned a 1-inch round tube spacer where the original tube was and set the new Tube assembly on top of the spacer. Now center the new assembly on the arm by checking the measurement of each end from the Arm and spot weld the new tube in place so it will not move during the welding process. Remove the spacer tube after the spot welding is done.

You’ll need to fabricate some gusset filler pieces using rectangular tubing. It may be helpful to cut a template from a piece of cardboard and test fit it before cutting the steel. The gusset pieces should support the lower ends of the new Sleeves against the Arm and not protrude past the sleeve section (into the bolt area) otherwise the shock will not seat properly. The gussets should also cover the holes left by the removal of the old tubes.
Now spot weld the gussets in place and check things over before permanently welding up the arms. When welding, I recommend you first weld the upper portions where the sleeve and the tubes meet. Cool down the part with water and a rag before welding the remainder. I usually weld a small section at a time and alternate from side to side to prevent warping and distortion. Let the parts cool down completely before dressing the welds.

File or sand off the welding spatter and then fillet the welds with a Die Grinder Burr or careful grinding. Do not weaken the welded part by removing too much of the weld! You may chose to do a little cosmetic work to your new lower control arms (as I did) by applying a little body filler and some hand sanding, your choice. After the filler has been finish-sanded with 320-grit sandpaper, I masked off the sleeve bolts, wiped down the parts with someenamel reducer and applied several light coats of Satin Black paint.

When the parts are properly cured, I cleaned up all of the shims, spacers and seals and reassembled them onto the arms using axle grease to hold them in place during reassembly. I then bolted all of the new parts in place and re-adjusted the track locators to work with the new height setting. Track locaters are custom made parts that do not come equipped on a stock Jaguar IRS system, if you’re interested in building yourself a pair then let me know and I can write a new Tech Tip posting.

This solution worked well for me and it should also work well for you. I hope you find these kinds of submissions helpful and informative and it’s our privilege as a Club to share our knowledge and experiences with you. If you have any questions, please drop me a line at Wolfzter's and I’ll see what we can do to help out.

All the best
Wolfzter / Can-Am Cobra

 

Tech Tip June 2011

Hello Guys

It’s time to submit some more useful info for you regular visitors to our site. We hope you’ll find this stuff useful, informative and inspirational and also invite you to let us know what you think!

The topic of interest this time is the Steering Column,a point of frustration for many a builder, including myself. By far the two most popular columns being used in the Hot Rod and Kit Car industry are the now extinct Ford Mustang II and the near-extinct early GM, the latter still available as new OEM from most Hot Rod shops for a mere sum of $300 plus. To add to the problem, a lot of the factory-type columns (including the bulky GM) may not have the right ‘look’ for your application and some modifications are necessary. It’s difficult to justify spending $300 on a new column and then take the Hacksaw to it, perhaps there is a better solution.

Ideally, the best thing in the case of the Cobra is to design a specific unit that meets all of the requirements and build your own. This may not always be the best option for everyone so let me share an idea with you.

During my years as a Cobra manufacturer I’ve most commonly used the Mustang II column and modified it by shortening the housing & steering shaft and then shaving off the Ignition Switch. A lot of the manufacturers were doing the same thing and the result was OK. I bought the core units in bulk from a local supplier to use in our Kits as well as the Cobra Display units we also build until they simply were no longer available.

A couple of weeks’ back, It was finally time to face the problem. I packed up some tools and visited my local U-pick bone yard to see what’s around, off to the GM section I went. I found an accumulation of early‘80s GM trucks (a good sign) and started checking them out, each one I looked at was missing the steering column! Obviously the Hot Rod dudes were here already, then I got lucky and found one truck with a partially-removed column. The thing looked ugly as hell and I began to wonder if something useful can be made of it, I got to work.
The greasy and ugly thing was now sitting on my work bench in pieces, most of which ended up in the scrap metal bin, but there it was. I wondered ”Where do I begin”?  The collar assembly containing the Ignition switch was my best starting point.  I removed the switch, cleaned the housing and sawed off the aluminum switch boss. Some Grinding work on the housing resulted in a circular and smooth part. I removed the burrs around the cut with my Die Grinder and filled the cavity with Short-strand body filler. After a little sanding, the part was smooth and ready to prime, I put it aside for now.

Most of you guys know how crowded a Cobra foot box can get , Hi-beam Switch, Clutch, Brake, Gas Pedal and Steering column all fastened in a confined area. You need to be able to use each of these devices without your feet getting stuck somewhere, potentially dangerous if not properly thought out!

In my case, I couldn’t afford to use a bulky column housing because it would interfere with the Throttle Cable arrangement so some ingenuity was now required. I had already welded a column mounting tab onto the cowl hoop that was designed to use a 2-1/4 inch U-clamp (same O.D. as the GM column) so I would need to use a small section of the original tube to mount the column and modified Collar.

Careful measurement showed me that I needed a 5-inch long section of the original tube as my baseline. I cut off the section (from the top down) and now needed to ‘Neck down’ the tube. I decided on a 22-inch long section of 1-1/2” OD (.125 wall) tubing as my new column tube. I found an ‘Oilite’ Tee bushing that measured 1” I.D. and 1-1/4” O.D. to use on the firewall end of my new tube…perfect!

I cut an adaptor ring from a piece of 1/8” plate and tack-welded the new assembly together. I checked the straightness in several directions before carefully stich-welding the new assembly. The end result wasn’t bad and close to what I envisioned.

If you’re like me and like to keep things looking neat, you’ll want to spend a little time with a file and Die Grinder to clean up the welds before applying a small amount of body filler to the weld areas. Some sanding effort and the new tube assembly is good to go.

Now then, let’s look at the GM steering shaft! A lot of the guys prefer using the factory splined shaft as it is and buying the appropriate Borgeson U-joint Adaptor. That’s OK and it’s a lot easier than what I normally do, however I prefer to use the Borgeson 3\4-inch Weld-on U-joints for my projects.

I held my breath as I cut off a section of the factory GM steering shaft. I measured the inside diameter and was pleased to find a slightly over-sized 3\4-inch bore. I then cut a section of 3/4” Cold Rolled shafting to insert into the GM shaft, positioned it into a V-stock setup and tack welded it in place. After some correcting, the new assembly was welded together. Again I cleaned up the welds and dressed them with filler to get a smooth looking result.

Don’t stop here. Transport Canada frowns on welded assemblies unless they are also ‘Pinned’ or safety bolted. Drill a 1/8-inch hole through the two joined shafts and drive in a Split Pin to make your new setup safe and legal.
I reassembled my ‘new’ column, cleaned and masked it off before applying some primer. Several coats of Satin black spray paint and my column was ready to install, looks great with ne new billet wheel adaptor and Cobra Steering wheel!

All the best
Wolfzter