Roadworthy? Maybe... Street legal? Yes!

This morning I got up with State Farm and they were happy to give me exactly the policy I needed. After that, I went and got the plates.

I had left my car on after testing out the windshield wipers so I had to take my battery in and get it charged. BUT THEN FINALLY, I got home and slapped the plate on the roadster and took it for a drive. It was awesome! AWESOME. Everything I had hoped for. It handles excellently, and even more importantly very predictably. Of course it's fast. I drove around close to home a bit and eventually took it out to band practice in north raleigh. I was a little afraid to drive it that far, but I had no problems. Got home and took my wife out for a late dinner.

Too bad it's supposed to run for the next several days! I still have a lot left to do, but things are winding down now :-) Oh I almost forgot, on the way home from dinner, a cop caught up to me on the road. I got over to let him pass (since he was going faster than me) but he slowed down and matched my speed just behind me. He got beside me at a light and backed up so he could read my plate (I guess). I was a little nervous that maybe my speedometer was uncalibrated or something, but I guess he was just running my plate. He did a U-turn at the next block so I guess everything is legit :-)

Insurance

Just got off the phone with State Farm, they are writing me up a quote now. I could have plates by the end of the day!!!

It is a registered car!

Ol' Shelbatoast is just about ready to hit the streets a'runnin. Inspection today went great and then Brandon rushed me over to the license plate office to register. I tried to get it insured on the way, but Geico gave me the middle finger. I'm trying State Farm next. I hope I don't have to go with one of those antique car companies because they only let you drive a few thousand miles a year.

Anyhow, hopefully I'll have state farm tomorrow and it'll be on the road.

Radiator is done - Inspection ready?

The radiator is officially mounted! I added a 4" plate of steel across the top of the radiator which gave it enough height to mount up properly. It's still kinda ugly because I mangled up the side pieces a bit, and the radiator fins are not in the best shape, so I'll probably pick up a screen of some kind and angle it with the radiator. I don't like the flat screens.

Josh played around with the wiper cable a bit, but to truly fix it - I'm going to have to call on his welding skills again. We'll probably cut a few more inches off so the weld isn't going to interfere with any of the wiper gears. I think he's going to head out Sunday to take care of that.

Also, I finally got around to making a mount for the fuse box in the front. It's not the best, but it'll do for now.

Completed Interior

Well, the interior is completely done except for the clock gauge on backorder. The heater ducts are run and the vents are in place and stuff. I ran some liner along the door to hide the carpet edge.

Last of the body modification work

Last night Josh came out and we got a lot of the fiberglass cutting stuff done - (I hate cutting the body - makes me nervous) We (Josh) got the hood latches done, the wipers about done, and the defrost vent done. I say vent (singular) because I don't have room for 2 ducts. The stupid heater box is right where the passenger side vent should be. I think I'm just going to close off the Passenger defrost duct and only use 3 hoses. I didn't want to have 2 vents and be asymmetrical. I feel like it's ok to have ONE and be asym. Still waiting on my clock gauge to come in and then I can FINALLY close up the dash (very excite!)

Last of the carpet installed.

Today I finished the lights. Brandon and Chris L came over and while Chris worked on his STI, Brandon helped me finish up the interior on the cobra. We got the last of the carpet in and remounted the seatbelts.







Here is a picture of the current state. Really getting close to done now!

Lots of little things

2 days ago I mounted the doors and latches and did the under door aluminum. I also accidentally ripped up a piece of carpet on the driver side - crap!

Last night Diana helped me install the roll bars. It was actually really horrible - it pulled the body back and stretched everything out and made awful sounds...required a LOT of rubber mallet beating - but we got them in. I spent about 45 minutes struggling before Diana got there to help. With one person to beat on it and another person to guide it - we were able to get it done in about 20 minutes.

Today we installed the rear view mirror, the windshield (not the final install), the brake lights and turn signals. I spent the time to do the rest of the wiring behind the dash. The only thing left now is to pop in the new gauge and run the heater ducts and the dash will be done. (finally) We mounted the side view mirror, but I cut the rubber grommet to small and I need to replace it with some new rubber.

I started to install the headlights but the wires are too short and I didn't feel like extending them tonight. The real roadblock I hit, is that the radiator is about 3" above the radiator mount...I haven't figured out why or what exactly is going on.

I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Here is a pic of about where I am now. It's been rainy ever since Josh painted the car so I haven't got any decent shots till now. The only thing I've done since then is install the hoodpins. I'm a little weirded out about how to do the hood latches so I'm skipping them for now. I'll come back to them when I run out of time. Gotta say, it's looking pretty good.



Here's a shot of the hood pins finished.

Body Mounting

Brandon came out today and we got a good bit of work done. Did a few odds and ends and then started the body mounting process. We got the main bolts done and got the trunk mounted (hinges, and latch system). We got the new Le Mans gas cap installed and new filler neck done. Next up is the doors and hood. I haven't mounted the dash yet because I still need to get back there for some random stuff. Wire up the alarm, wire up the clock, run the heater ducts

Gauge lights - finally

I finally got around to looking at the wiring diagrams for the fader knob for the gauge illumination. I had one small hitch when I realized the wire was cut from the fusebox. I wasn't sure if it was cut from the knob, or from the lights, so I just guessed that it was from the lights and I was correct. So I wired up my little harness and it worked out pretty well! It doesn't 'fade' as much as I would like, but I'm thinking that's because the fader doesn't start at a high enough resistance. If I put a few resistors in line it should be fine. I just need to guess at what resistance I need.

Also, I got all the bulb seal pressed on and I'm ready to mount the body. I need a second person to do that so I'm gonna have to wait! But it's ready for the final mounting!

Black is ON!

The base coat black and 1 coat of clear have been applied! Josh did a great job - it's fun to watch him paint. Except for the clearly visible cloud that is created as seen in 'exhibit A' on the left here.




Here is the finished paint. It's a bit grainy since I didn't turn all the lights on and it's fairly dark in there. I'll take some pics as soon as the body is mounted out in the sun.

Driveway work

Working out in the driveway today since the weather was so nice. I already broke one of the bulbs in my gauge light setup. I might have to figure out something amazing to pull this one off...

Got a visit from Joshes cobra today. You can see it parked in the driveway behind my body.

Interior

The interior is pretty much done. Here is a shot with all the switches in place and the steering wheel attached. I still have it zip tied up because I haven't illuminated the gauges yet. I have bought the lights though! I just have to figure out how I'm going to wire and mount them.

Then I'll mount the dash with a couple of nice interior screws, ground everything with a bolt, and call it done. Except for the heater ducts...and the mirrors...and the rest of the list...

Last night most everything behind the dash was hooked up. Only things not hooked up are gauge illumination and Check Engine Light. I think I'm going to hook the CEL up so that it comes on when the lights are on instead of when there is a diagnostic code thrown. I've already left the lights on a couple of times... Hopefully this will help.




Here is a shot of me holding the 'near complete' dash up.

B-Quiet!

Saturday was the official B-Quiet day for ol' Rosemary. (lol) B-Quiet is a sound dampening/vibration reducing material that you lay in between the aluminum and the carpet. Tom came over with his roller and heat gun to help get the process 'rolling'. Brandon and Justin pitched in and soon there was a well oiled process in place. Eventually we stopped working and partied down a little bit, but not before Justin cut several more panels to shape.

When I got home from work today, I put all those panels and then Brandon showed up to help wrap up the B-Quiet. We finished it quick enough that we had time to start the carpet installation.

You can see in this pic that we got carpet on the back wall, back corners, transmission tunnel and floors before we ran out of adhesive. We still have under the doors and the foot-boxes to do. Since you can't really finish up under the doors until the body is installed, were skipping that part for now. But we did get the e-brake boot , and the shifter boot installed.