Cobra (re)build

[mylesdw]

I tried most, if not all, of the suggestions above but with no luck.

This set-up allowed me to put a large amount of force in but nothing was shifting -


Next I cut an access panel so that I could get at the sockets


Hammering and cutting slots in the sockets made no difference, so in the end I just cut one of the hoop legs off and then it came quite easily

 

[mylesdw]

It's off!

 

[mylesdw]

It's out!

 

[Wallace]

The Black Prince

The Black Prince was a prototype born out of the demise of the Gordon Keeble car company. They used the 327 Corvette engine attached to a ZF 5-speed and one of these units found its way into a Vauxhall Ventora.

I bought the car as a project - it had been on fire - and put it back on the road. I drove it, on and off, through much of the 80s. It was not a good car but it was FUN, wickedly fast, a real sleeper.

Over that period I rebuilt the engine boring and stroking it from 327 to 355 (5.8L in new money).

View attachment 118569

Tenuous link to The Black Prince, Gordon Geeble at a photo shoot last year for this months Classic and Sports Car magazine. Just by coincidence we had a Honda 50 back in the 70's with a close number plate, GBH 105C. My brother said it stood for "Grievous Bodily Harm 105 Cases".

 

[minimutly]

The front of a Gilbern, the back of a Rover 2000.....

 

[Farside]

The front of a Gilbern, the back of a Rover 2000.....

Michelotti, was it?
The designers all had their own styles that kept coming out.

 

[Wallace]

The front of a Gilbern, the back of a Rover 2000.....

I think they are Jaguar rear lights.

 

[graffian]

GBH 105C. My brother said it stood for "Grievous Bodily Harm 105 Cases".

It's Gobbling Behind Hedges.

 

[mylesdw]

Nice GK pictures but some of the styling a bit of an 'acquired taste'. I like the GBH shape, very Italian, but why would you paint it **** brown?

On with the cobra and some musings, it is interesting taking something apart that you built 30 years ago...

• It has not done a lot of mileage but some of the suspension rubber components are completely shot, particularly things like the boots for the ball joints.
• It's surprising how many 'gotchas' you can build in when you are never really planning to dismantle it again. Things like you can't get the earth lead off without removing the starter and you can't remove the starter without removing the exhaust manifold. I'm trying to put some of these right as I go.
• Hooray for copper grease! I used it on all the fastenings on the chassis ant they come apart just as is they were fitted yesterday, even the grease still looks fresh.
• One of the many things I have learned from the Project Binky series is the value of captive fasteners - I intend to add some as I go to make the whole thing easier to assemble.
• The chassis and its powder coat has weathered very well - a little light surface rust here and there but no major failing of the coating
• That Ram chassis is very stiff; it is almost impossible to get it to sit on four axle stands on a slightly uneven floor; there is always one or two taking little weight.

First job is to give the chassis a good clean and get it into the workshop...

 

[mylesdw]

I separated the engine and put it on the stand



I can recommend the engine leveling bar; it makes life much easier.

Inside was a little cokey but I knew it had been running rather rich



but a little work with a wire wheel and it came off easily



Push rods in a rack in case I decide to reuse them or sell them as a set with the cam and lifters

 

[slim_boy_fat]

@mylesdw Keep up the good work!

I see you've upgraded from the standard, obligatory mug to a cup & saucer - how are we supposed to gauge size(s) now?

 

[Wallace]

I have one of those engine levelling bars, very useful but mine was poorly made so I refurbished and improved the fit of everything so it’s smoother. I have read about the scroll pin shearing on the end nuts under load causing collapse.

 

[mylesdw]

The paint on the block is in great shape and cleans up beautifully. It is a synthetic enamel called Tractol (tractor paint) that I can't get here in NZ (more's the shame). It may look like Chevrolet orange but it is in fact the colour used on Fordson wheels. It is cheap, goes on well with a brush and sticks well too.

 

[mylesdw]

Fitted some new upper ball joints. The previous ones were low mileage but the rubbers had completely disintegrated. At around £13 a pair I replaced them rather than seeking out new boots. These are the sealed ones.



The lower shock bushes show some degradation and I'm not sure why. They were a little grimy, as you might expect but not contaminated with oil or anything. The rubber had turned into a kind of soft gunge.


The top bushes and the ones on the rear appear to be fine



Anyone know where to get replacements? I would not mind changing these for a harder style bushing, nolethane etc.

 

[jsf55]

Try wisbech ? they offer all sorts of bushings that might work
http://www.wisbechengineering.com/

 

[Wallace]

Just to refresh my memory, do those top ball joints have the mounting holes offset from the ball? I seem to remember fitting the same ones on a Jensen CV8 and having to set the castor and camber angle with shims.

 

[mylesdw]

The mounting holes are symmetrical. Caster is set with shims between the ball-joint and the wishbones. Camber is adjusted with shims where the wishbone joins the chassis.

 

[mylesdw]

New timing chain set and, since I'm converting to distributor-less ignition, a crank position wheel. The upper gear is milled to trigger the cam sensor.



Fancy new billet cover has the cam and crank position sensors



I always have this great David Vizard book by my side, it's brilliant.

 

[TigTigger]

Seeing the number plate a few posts back reminded me that I used to have GBH 527T on MK1 Cavalier. Back in the eighties you had to give them your registration number when you bought fuel on a credit card, always used to raise a smile. Wrote the car off one dark night and after they had removed it from a field with a HIAB which crushed the roof it was clearly scrap. However, a few weeks later I got a letter from the DVLA advising me that someone had applied to re-register it. Can only assume they wanted the registration number.

 

[Wallace]

Fancy new billet cover has the cam and crank position sensors

Efi or carb and mapped ignition?