not really a build thread......

[indianamoon]

Got a couple of miles on the ole green Ford the past couple of days, and took it in for an alignment this afternoon.

1. Drives pretty nice but I gotta move the seat back. Was worried about the steering effort with the new quicker rack, so bolted the seat in a little forward, but the effort is easy enough that the seat WILL move all the way back now.

2. Alignment started out with the left side caster at -7.5 degrees and it never came in. They finally took a hard look at the car and it turns out the frame is bent. Front cross member is slightly tweaked, a gusset is wrinkled a bit, and the tube for the lower A arm bolt is bent back about 1/2". I think I can straighten it so it's good enough, will certainly give it a try before sending it to the frame shop. Last car I sent to the frame shop, I ended up making a new piece of frame and welding it in myself because they did such a bad job.

3. Charging is erratic.

4. I have a squeak somewhere

5. Seat needs more padding to keep my butt planted against the back of the seat. Find myself scooting forward all the time.

6. EVERYBODY notices this thing!!!

BTW steering wheel is mounted as it is because I have seen pics of the originals that way. And it leaves the spokes out of the way for 10 and 2 o'clock hand positions. Plus it turns out to be pretty easy to just grab that top spoke with the left hand when the right is stirring the gearshift, which is a total joy with that ultra shift gear shift lever. Haven't had this much fun since I sold my last TR-3

[RICK LAKE]

Indianamoon Hey Mooney This car has been smacked. Rack mount is cracked frame is bent. Did you buy this car as is? and how long ago was this?? Was the title as is?? THink you better have a talk with the seller and tell him what happened. If he is the original owner and didn't disclose the car was crashed, he has a big problem and you have a day in court. That creek noise could be the frame is crack and you can't see it. You sure can hear it.
Geting back to the alignment, what was the camber readings on the front and most important the thrust angle of the car. You could be dog walking down the road. This car is bent. You have done repairs already. You could feel free to send the old owner the bills and want partial or complete payment or goto court. Ask Jamo on the finer point of this. I am not a lawyer but know the car bussiness for better than 30+ years. You might want to goto a chassic shop and have this car frame check for trueness. Body may have to come off frame. Good luck. Rick L. Ps I believe it's against the law to not disclaim an accident of an auto or for the auto to have a salvage title. This applys in NJ

[indianamoon]

Yeah, I think that the car smacked something, but probably just the left front tire, and that probably not too hard. Wouldn't surprise me if tht is a replacement wheel though. Body shows no sign of being repaired and I don't see any other damage. Didn't even see this until the alignment guys pointed it out to me, and they worked on the car for about an hour and a half before they saw it. Rack I think was broken because of the way it was positioned in the car. I couldn't get the new one bolted up without making some spacers to move it out from the frame and away from the A-arms. According to the alignment people the thing looked pretty straight and the only thing that wouldn't come in was the left front caster, and it's close. Car seems to drive fine now, but I WILL get it fixed. Where everything on the alignment started didn't mean a thing as I found so many loose nuts and bolts on the car. Upper left A arm hardware was only finger tight. Spose that was affecting anything? LOL

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by indianamoon

Got a couple of miles on the ole green Ford the past couple of days, and took it in for an alignment this afternoon.

3. Charging is erratic.

This could be a bad ground and since you have found many loose bolts, double check the connections at the alternator. If the main power wire comes loose it can really make a mess of things (as I know)


5. Seat needs more padding to keep my butt planted against the back of the seat. Find myself scooting forward all the time.

I've read that thin padding is a common complaint on B&B seats. You might check with some of the other owners on their site. I think a few of them have replaced them with other seats.

6. EVERYBODY notices this thing!!!

Yeah - it's hard to be inconspicuous in one of these.

Good luck with the frame tweaking.

[indianamoon]

Got frame straightened this morning, not too expensive. Next project is getting rid of the roll bar so I can fit the top and tonneau.

1. Everybody stares at this thing. Some even go out of their way to get close to it. Guess if I were in the market this would be pretty much a babe magnet. Also, everybody says that this is the color a cobra oughta be. Yeah, I agree.

2. Glad I went with the quicker steering. Steers like a sports car now. Effort not bad at all. I even moved the seat all the way back last nite for pretty much straight arm driving. Ingress egress much better also. Little adjustment on the clutch pedal and it will be perfect. I like it!!

3. Everybody thinks you have a bottomless wallet when you have one of these. One quote to fill in and spot paint to remove roll bar holes was $2600 and the quote to fit the factory B&B top and B&B tonneau on my B&B cobra was in excess of $1500. Not to make new ones, just to fit them, not including putting in the studs, which the guy said I had to do. Front of the top is completely done, have new bows, needs only studs for the back. Tonneau just needs studs. And if I gotta put in the studs, what did he think I was getting for my $1500+? Guess I will do all of this myself.


4. Haven't gotten familiar enough with the car to wring it out at all, but the little bit of throttle that I have used sure makes it squirt forward nicely. Sounds loud to me, but the neighbors tell me it isn't. New exhaust is in the works anyway, it needs to be black.

5. Have driven it every day for the past week. What's wrong with this for a daily driver? Certainly no worse that any other sports car I have owned. Think that I will keep it for a while.

6. It is 75 degrees and sunny and I gotta work and it's killin me.

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by indianamoon

3. Everybody thinks you have a bottomless wallet when you have one of these. One quote to fill in and spot paint to remove roll bar holes was $2600 and the quote to fit the factory B&B top and B&B tonneau on my B&B cobra was in excess of $1500. Not to make new ones, just to fit them, not including putting in the studs, which the guy said I had to do. Front of the top is completely done, have new bows, needs only studs for the back. Tonneau just needs studs. And if I gotta put in the studs, what did he think I was getting for my $1500+? Guess I will do all of this myself.

That doesn't sound real high to me since you are talking about both a top and a tonneau. One thing he may have been thinking about is that you said the front of the top is fitted to the windshield bows. At least in comparison to fitting an ERA top, that is backwards. On my top I installed the lift-a-dots in the rear of the top to match the body. This is kind of a nerve-wracking task as each one has to be installed in the top to perfectly match the studs on the body. He can't screw one of them up and have a do-over. Then the rear bows must be tweaked to fit the profile of the top and if you have side curtains, to fit the rear of the side curtains frame. If you have side curtains he will have some tweaking to get them to fit the body and the windshield will have to be adjusted to match their front. Only when all of this was done did I pull the top to the front, marked it and glued it to the front bows. If when he gets to that point and the front of the top doesn't reach the windshield or is too loose at the windshield, he has a lot of additional work to do. Also, I think you said you had adjusted the windshield back some - no telling how that is going to all go together at this point.

And then after that he has to go through the nerve wracking job of installing each lift-a-dot on the tonneau to individually fit each stud on the body. It's quite a project, even for someone who does upholstery work for a living.