Engine and transmission installed!

12-09-06 - I’ve been slacking on the updates. Dad came down and we spent the weekend working on the car. We were able to get the new pilot bearing, clutch, pressure plate, and throwout bearing installed on the motor. We also got the motor and trans installed into the car! The next day we started installing the EFI components back on the motor. The wiring has been sent out to be “dieted”. This is where they cut out all the unused wiring from the harness, trim everything to the correct length needed, and label the connections. When the wiring comes back I should be able to just simply plug everything in and have it work.

Todd helping us get the transmission installed.

Motor and trans ready to go into the car.

Motor successfully installed!

Showing the transmission installed.

Here I am tightening down the upper intake manifold.

Dad working on the car.

EFI rails and upper intake installed.

Engine Prep and Brake Lines.

e’ve been making some good progress on the car. The engine has been painted. The rollbars have been installed temporarily. We had a problem with the donor steering rack. I went to replace the inner rods to shorter length rods and found that there was power steering fluid inside of the dust boots which would suggest that the power steering rack seals were bad. Rather then rebuild the rack we ended up purchasing a reman rack from the local auto parts store. Waiting for the new steering rack kind of put a halt on things for a couple weeks but then once that came in there were lots of things that got done. I installed the new steering rack with new inner and outer rod ends. Dad came down last weekend and we did the final drilling and install of the steering shaft. We finished up the front and rear brake lines. Installed new brake pads all the way around, and bled the brake system. We have brakes now! We then decided to take our first little “ride” in the car. See below:

The engine after being painted. Turned out good.

All the brake lines routed to the distribution/safety block.

Dad is ready to drive!

Steering wheel installed.

We took the car out on the street for the first time.


Now lets see how fast this can go!

Front brake lines & motor paint prep

This weekend I worked on the front brake lines and pretty much have them almost done. Also was able to shoot the primer on the engine. I’m hoping to get the black parts of the engine finished by this weekend. I also mocked up the steering shaft which I hope to finalize and install this coming weekend as well. See below for pictures:

Nice braided flex brake lines going to the caliper.

Showing the routing of the hard line that runs from the flex line, across the frame to the driver side, and connects to the supply line from the master cylinder.

This shows more of the front brake line routing as well as the steering shaft mockup.

Top of steering shaft.

Getting ready to shoot the primer on the engine.

Engine primered.

Another shot of the engine primered. And yes, we will be changing out the old spark plugs.

Fuel Lines, Rear brake calipers, Start of engine prep.

Dad and my brother Taylor came down for the weekend as we worked on the car. We started with pulling the axels out of the rear to install new brake caliper mounting brackets. These brackets were needed because we had the shorter axels installed into the rear to allow us to run deep dish rims in the rear. Each side was shortened .75”. So that made made the brake rotor sit in .75”, which requires the brake calipers to be mounted back .75” also. In order to install the brackets which wrap around the rear axel tubes, the axels had to be removed.

Picture of the rear gears. We had to remove the pinion shaft bolt and pin in order to remove the axels.

Picture of axels removed. You can see the old stock mounting bracket that wraps around the tube. We had to remove these and bolt up new offset brackets.

Picture showing the a rear caliper mounted to the new bracket with the axels reinstalled. Everything seems to line up good.

Updated roller picture. This shows the fuel tank installed.

Picture showing the routing of the fuel lines.

The next step was to pull the donor motor out of the crate and get it on the engine stand. Many thanks again to Todd for helping us with the motor. See below:

Picture showing the donor motor straight from the crate. Lots of cleanup to do!

This picture was taken after all the stuff was stripped off the block. Here is Dad working on cleaning up the block.

Dad was working hard on cleaning up the motor. It’s looking cleaner for sure. Almost ready for paint!

Suspension Done!

Finally the rear lower control arms arrived from FFR. I now had all the parts needed to install the rear suspension. The installation took about a half a day doing it myself, most of which was maneuvering the heavy rear up and through the frame. After the rear suspension was done I finally was able to see the car off the jack stands and on it’s own wheels for the first time! The pictures didn’t turn out very good because of the sun/shade contrast. See below for pictures:

Picture of rear suspension installed before putting on wheels.

We have a roller! This is the back of the car.

Front of car showing front suspension.

This picture didn’t turn out too good. Side shot of car in driveway.

Another shot that didn’t turn out too good.

The car back in the garage. After this photo was taken I installed the fuel tank.

Fuel Tank, Inventory, etc.

We pretty much are on hold with the build until some of the backordered parts arrive. We are waiting on some of the rear suspension parts so we were unable to install the rear into the frame. We also couldn’t continue on the front of the car due to us needing a different brake booster and master cylinder. It ends up since we are going with Power brakes that we need a Hydroboost brake booster and Master Cylinder from a 96+ mustang. So we are going to have to track one of those down. We did get some prep stuff done though. We worked on making the needed modifications to the donor pedal box. We had time to also finish inventorying the boxes and straightening back up the garage. The Camaro can now go back in the garage. I was surprised how much room I have with both cars in there. I still have plenty of room to work on the Cobra without having to pull out the Camaro. We also got the fuel tank painted and ready to install.

Dad did a great job on cleaning and painting the donor fuel tank.

Front suspension

Finished the front suspension and prepping the donor rear diff for installation. See below:

Driver side front suspension complete minus the steering rack and brakes.

Picture of front suspension with steering rack, brakes, and wheels installed.

Another view of the wheel mounted on the finished front suspension.

You can see the rear diff is all painted and in position to be installed in the car once the backordered parts arrive.

Starting front suspension

Started building the front suspension. Jake came by to help out with the build today. Todd also helped throughout the day lending his expertise and various tools.

Making the needed modification to the donor lower control arms.

The Build begins!

The build begins! The first step is to take off the body and put it on the body buck.

Roan and I wheeling the body buck out from the side of the house.

Andrew doing his part keeping the rear from rolling down the driveway. We had to move the rear out from where we were storing it while we moved the body buck out.

Body installed on the buck! Fit like a glove.

The frame and aluminum after removing the body.

The Kit Arrives!

The kit arrives!!

Stewart Transport arriving

The car being unloaded. Note the GTM Supercar in the truck.

Dad, Myself, and my brother Roan.

Just got the car in the garage. Roan and I looking the car over.

Here I am sitting in the car for the first time.

Dad is ready to drive

This is as close as Roan will get to driving the Cobra since he can't drive a stick shift.

Poor Camaro will be spending a few days outside until we can organize all the Cobra boxes.