Ok now that you have had your Cobra what would you change

[Michael C Henry]

I just went through a saga with my replica. Last year I went about hiring a shop to get my broken windshield replaced and at the correct angle to accept a soft top and side curtains I had bought twenty years ago. My roll bar was higher than most and actually functional. When they raised the windshield up to the correct angle it ended up about two inches forward than original location. So a soft top would need to be altered. It turned out that taking the top apart and resewing was not an option. So The shop they hired built a whole new top. The new soft top was a success. but when they drilled the body for the bow ferrules the drill caught the pieces of frame under the top surface of the body. Ended up with oval hole and a ragged hole in the frame pieces that hold the door striker. The frame piece is a 1 1/2 foot of 1 1/2" light wall square tubing bent to follow the doors rear curve bolted from main frame on the floor and bolted to the wheel well housing. I made the mistake of trying to use gloss black Rust-Oleum spray paint on the square frame pieces. I got one side done and the weather changed and things went wrong and it took months to wind up. Tightening the ferrules was awkward. I trimmed the frames tops and repainted. The first went OK but the weather changed it got cloudy and became hard to see outside, It got cooler, the wind started, It started to rain on a regular basis. and the thin side wall clasped when tightening the striker bracket. It took months I epoxied the body holes and ground them back into round holes. I filled and laminated a large SS washer to the under side of both sides forming parallels surfaces to tighten the ferules in to. The holes through the wheel wheel were covered over with black duct tape. I removed the tires and wheel for access to the area. I thought while here I should lube everything. I was reminded that it was always incomplete because the outboard U-joint in both half shafts were wrong and not accessible. So the next hurdle. It turned out that when the original builder he installed the grease zerk while everything was apart. A straight zerk worked out great for the inboard U-joints but not the outboard half shaft U-joints were blocked by the protective bell of the uprights. I was reminded that this has probably been a problem since 1984. That became another chore. I had to separate the upright with it's wheel flange from the tip of the half shaft remove the wrong straight 1/4" x 28 tapered thread zerk and installed new 45° angled zerks. The new zerks make greasing the outboard half shaft U-joints much easier.
I want a second matching roll bar for the passenger side. I want to have new side curtains made that are longer to fit and have zipper access at both front and back. That is out there in my future.