AC Cobra Replica
After restoring my 65 Mustang Fastback I wanted to do something a little more challenging, so decided to build a car. I have always liked the look of the AC Cobra and that is what I decided on building ... an AC Cobra replica. I looked around on the internet and came up with a short list of either a Dax kit or an AK kit ... in the end I decided on the AK. It was a bit more difficult with living in Spain as I wasn't really able to go to any UK kit car shows or attend any Cobra club meets and see the cars. Here in Spain they are not into kit cars at all and when I tell Spanish people that I am building a car (in Spanish) they tend to correct me and say "you are restoring a car" ... no I say, I am building one from scratch ... they cannot get to grips with this concept at all !!
Anyway in November 2005 myself and Victoria flew back to the good old UK and went to visit the AK factory in Peterborough. We were made truly welcome, spent about 3 or 4 hours there and were shown round the factory, taken for a test run in their demonstrator finishing up ordering a kit ... there wasn't really a great rush as I had just bought a 1966 VW Beetle and was half way through restoring it (what an easy and cheap car to restore!) so I finished up ordering a kit for April 2006. I ordered the basic kit ... chassis and body (which comes with such as the steering rack, shortened driveshafts and rear wishbones) all this in LHD. I also bought the wheels and tyres ... 17 inch Repro Hallibrands with Toyo tyres, assorted body brightwork, stainless fuel tank, wiring loom, coil over shocks, pedal box etc. So while I was waiting for the kit I would have plenty of time to finish the Beetle and source the Jag donor parts I needed for the build .... so I thought.
Time goes by quicker than you think and the Beetle was not finished ... I had however located a Jag for the donor bits ... well my pal Martin had anyway. He had bought a parcel of cars and luckily one was an XJS of 1984 vintage which he was going to scrap as it was rotten underneath, so he kindly let me have it and I was able to get the rear axle, driveshafts, hubs and brakes and the front hubs, brakes and suspension arms. These were duly, stripped, cleaned and prepared for the build.
Before the kit arrived here I was very lucky to find in a local vehicle dismantlers, an old Chevy pickup which had a really sweet sounding 350 Goodwrench engine in it. The engine was removed and taken to my workshop. There are not too many American V8's to be found here in Spain and I think I did really well to get this one ... especially when after stripping it down I found the bores were like new, standard size and still with the cross-hatching visible ... the pistons were so clean, you could have eaten you dinner off the undersides of them. Unfortunately I was only going to use the block and crankshaft ... yes it was a 4 bolt mains block too. The pistons were dished top, low compression ones ... cam was mild and the steel heads were not what I wanted. The engine was to be rebuilt after the kit had arrived and I had done most of the chassis building work.
The big day (and the kit) arrived in April 2006 ... expertly delivered by Coles Transport of ??? the truck that it came inside of was the biggest vehicle that we had ever seen make it up to our villa ... it made the cement trucks and coaches that went past look tiny. We unloaded the body, chassis and all the other boxes of goodies that came, then sat the body back on the chassis The Beetle was still in the garage, now running, but with all the glass out and waiting to be painted and the interior trimmed ... this was stopping me getting to grips with my new 'project' but I spent a few more weeks working on the body prep etc. .... that was until my pal Martin came to the rescue again and told me I could put the beetle in one of his garages so as to start the Cobra ... I think that he wanted to see the Cobra finished as soon as possible so I could race his big-block Corvette !!
With the chassis in the garage ready to be started the body was left outside with pieces of wood supporting the back end as per the instructions. I remember fitting the first parts, the front suspension arms and hub ... then standing back and taking a photo. all this seems a long time ago now, and indeed is !! With the build starting in June, there were lots of interruptions in the way of visitors staying with us and not much seemed to get done during the summer. I sent off for all the parts to rebuild the Jag brakes, hubs etc. but I always seemed to forget a couple of bits or order the wrong part ... I have been held up many times waiting for parts during this build. The chassis was taking shape now after spending ages on the back hubs, driveshafts and arms ... all those shims, seals, spacers, races etc. ... a nightmare !! Also things like not noticing that the one of the back calipers had had the bleed valve welded in at some time in the past ... another 2 week hold up getting a second hand one sent from the UK.
My attention turned to the engine next ... several orders to Summit Racing later I had most of the stuff to rebuild it. The crank and bores measured up as standard so all I needed to do was clean the block after giving the bores a light honing. I used Keith Black flat-top pistons with a set of new Eagle rods. The cam is a Performer RPM from Edelbrock ... the other Edelbrock bits are the Performer RPM heads and a Performer RPM Air-Gap manifold. The roller rockers are Summit own brand. A Melling high-volume oil pump was fitted with a Milodon 7 quart oil pan. I fitted an MSD pro-billet distributor and an A6L controller. All this being topped off with a Barry Grant Race Demon 750 double pumper.
The gearbox, clutch and bellhousing were bought from Repower in the UK which I chose after pricing the items separately from the States as not being much more expensive ... and knowing the parts would work together as quite a few other cobra builders had used this combo .... also the delivery here to Spain was cheap at only £75. With a little bit of persuasion the engine and gearbox were brought together and fitted into the chassis. More waiting time for propshaft, gearbox mounts, bolts etc. but the car was getting there and was nearly ready for putting the body on !!
Before the body could be put on I had to fit the cooling system ... I had decided not to use a Rover radiator as normally used with the AK kit, but use a Summit Racing aluminum one (the same as I had used on my Mustang). What a nightmare !! Cutting and welding the brackets ... cutting and re welding because although the rad fitted OK when I fitted the bonnet hinge bar it caught on the rad ... then having to cut the filler neck off the rad and get it ally welded ... which eventually turned out to have a leak due to bad welding, the rad isn't the easiest thing to remove when the body is fitted .. believe me.
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