Home-->Cobra Project-->Construction-->Body to Frame Installation

 

 

Please send your comments and suggestions to:

Email Me

Copyright © 2013 by
Randy Pflanzer
Technology Professionals Consortium
All rights reserved

Ford, Shelby and Cobra are registered trademarks of the
 Ford Motor Company. LS427 Roadster is a registered
trademark of Lone Star Classics.  Randy Pflanzer and Technology Professionals Consortium are
 not connected to the holders
 of  these trademarks in
any way.

 

   What's New?
 
  02/01/13 - Reformatted web page.

 

Radiator Shroud

My plan to fill the space between the front of the hood opening and the radiator is to cover this area with a custom stainless steel cover, probably in two pieces.

I first took the time to build a cardboard template of what I thought looked right.  I made numerous changes to the template before I finalized the layout. 

Using the template, I cut a piece of stainless and bent it in my brake to fabricate this piece.  It took multiple trial fittings before I finally got the fit I wanted.

Here's the part mounted to the support angles of the radiator with countersunk stainless screws.  This gives me the stability I need to build a template for the front cover.

This is the template that I ended up with.

Here's the piece after I bent it and used a shrinker/spreader on the front lip to get it to match the contour of the hood opening.

Above is the finished product.  I'm very happy with the way it turned out.

Suspension Covers

The area inside the engine compartment around the front suspension components are open to the wheel well and ground.  I suspect that a lot of dirt and water will get blown into the engine compartment from these openings so I wanted to cover them.  I made some male molds of the covers.  I used some construction board to outline the front suspension brackets and glued blue foam to the boards until I got the shape I wanted.  Some of this is guessing and measuring since I can't exactly match the contour of the real parts.  I thought about molding the covers on the car directly but because of the limited space in which to work, I quickly abandoned that idea.

After sanding and shaping the molds, I glued them to my table and then glassed them with three layers of 9 oz. cloth.

One of the reasons I like using blue polystyrene foam is that you can easily remove it from molds by pouring a little lacquer thinner on it.  It melts down into a fairly small amount of blue goo that can be scraped or wiped off the part.

With the foam removed, I temporarily put the part in place over the suspension to make sure it fit.  I had to trim the edges here and there to get the part to lay properly against the frame and wheel well.  After that, I applied to three layers of glass around the edge of the part to form a flange.  You can see the Saran Wrap and Gorilla Tape that I used on the inside of the wheel well to keep the part from permanently sticking.

When it was dry, I popped them off the car and took them over to the bench to trim the final shape.  Not shown is additional layers of glass I added to the flange after it was trimmed to thicken and strengthen it.

After about three sessions of filling, sanding, and priming, I got all the pin holes filled and I applied the final layer of primer.  I mounted the part to the inside of the wheel well with some chrome bolts and fender washers. 

During final assembly, these will be painted the same color as the interior of the engine compartment.

These parts have since been sent off to Lone Star and moulds have been pulled from them so you can now purchase a set of these covers from Brian if you are interested.  That allows you to cover up your suspension openings without all the work.

Next up is to find a solution to the difficult problem of the cooling shroud.  That work can be found on the next page.