Small Steps

Last night I worked on the car!  I don’t know if it will last but I’m going to try to work on it every Tuesday  night now.  So, what did I do last night?  For a while I just stared at the pile of parts.  It’s almost depressing  how little I’ve gotten done.  Then I looked through the manual and was amazed by how little it seemed that I need  to do to get on the road.  Notice I didn’t say finished.

So, I found something small and attacked it.  I got the fuel filter mounted.  Pretty simple process actually.   For a moment there was a bit of depression as it seemed I didn’t have the little white keeper clip for the rubber  line.  I started to think “Ah, this figures.  Always needing something else.”  Then, when I was fishing around in  the fuel filter box I heard something shaking around.  Low and behold, two new clips!  Woohoo!

Next I tackled the driver footbox bottom.  I’d been holding off on this for a long time.  I’m not sure exactly  why, but maybe I figured I needed the room for getting access to the pedals.  Well, after much silicon and some  riveting it was in.  I can now sit in the Cobra with my feet in the footbox and feel what it will be like to be  driving it.  I then started to look at the outside panel.  Should I knock out two panels?  Decided against that  when I tried to fit it.  I need to take a picture of this, the outside panel overlaps with the body mounting  point.  Something isn’t right there.  Maybe I’m just supposed to trim it.  I’ll check on that.

I then started to eye up the back panel for the cockpit.  Wade had told me some time ago that that can go in  anytime.  No need to wait until after the body is on, as the manual states.  It was getting a little late though,  so I decided to call it quits for the night.

I didn’t get much done but it still felt good.  I’m hoping I can stick to the Tuesday night plan.  It’s a  pretty benign night/day in our week so other things shouldn’t get in the way too often.

Next up, rear cockpit panels, fuel lines and battery.  I still sticking with the plan of not having the battery  under the trunk.  I’d really like it to be up in the engine bay, probably over the passenger foot box.  I did see  a pretty slick looking box for attaching the battery to the back of the front x-member.  It was for a Dynabat size  battery though.  I’m still thinking about getting a small battery like that, but I’m concerned about draining it.   Seems like you have to top them off once a month.  I’m not sure I’m diligent enough to keep on top of that over  the winter months.  I wonder if a full size battery would fit there…