Chapter 16 - Just One Time, Please?

This afternoon as I customized the mounting point for the spark plug wire loom, and reamed out the holes for the oversize 8.8 leads, I thought to myself..."Just once. Just one time would I like to buy something for this car and have it fit right out of the box. Just once. Please?"

Today's transgression was minor. In all, it was a one day project bending, drilling, and re-polishing, ultimately with great success. However as I look back on the last several weeks of progress on the Spence car, much of our time has been spent painstakingly fabricating and modifying.

While I publicly lament about parts not fitting, there is undoubtedly part of me that relishes the ability to put a personal touch on every single nut and bolt that goes into the car. Secretly I must admit, this is the fun part of this build, and the reason we bought our basket case car. Talking with Justin today, I lived vicariously through his tales of wiring and envisioned myself with a soldering iron in hand. Soon enough I suppose.

Until then, here are some shots of progress we have made as we patiently wait for our painter to spray color on our body.


The first shot is our new Canton road race oil pan which is giving more that 2" of additional ground clearance. Unfortunately, I think the tranny pan is now the most at-risk component of the undercarriage.

There are two shots of our modified driveshaft safety loop. We used a Lakewood piece, cut and re-welded to allow mounting along the rear of the frame. I'm pretty pleased with the results!

The next photo is our fuel return line for the EFI system. Just like the feed line on the driver's side, we bent up 3/8" tubing from the rails, to a regulator, then along the outside of the frame, over the rear suspension, and into a custom tapped hole in the gas tank.

Next are engine mount modifications that are recommended on the ERA site. The bolt and locknut preload the rubber mount as well as stiffen it overall.

We mounted our gauges in the dash. The lights and switches are not in and the black is just primer. The layout is modified FIA...Note the speedo is near the column like the street cars.

Finally, here is a shot of the fuel pump and filter along with some plumbing mounted on (you guessed it) a custom bracked milled from aluminum stock.

Brian, I have my electric fuel pump in the rear with a filter and can service it from the underneath. I was curious as to how you will service yours as the mounting would appear to block acess to the filter from the bottom. Optical illusion?? Drive shaft and other componentry looks great. As a number of us have said the most fun is the build. Love to drive the car and feel the acceleration and cornering Gs, but the build frankly I miss it!!

Ralph

Ralph,
The fuel filter is not too tough to get at, but requires a couple lines and bracket bolts to be disconnected. Yes, the filter is blocked from the bottom, but the whole works comes out with two bolts that are accessed from the bottom as well. Honestly, I wasn't planning on having to get at the pump mounted fuel filter any more frequently than once every year or two. Am I mistaken in that assumption?

There will be another fine filter at the fuel rails in the engine bay that will be easier to replace.

Good assumption Brian. I had to get to mine after 5 years but not because the filter was plugged. I had used a racquet ball over my fuel filler hole to handle slosh. Well it deteriorated and some rubber fell into the tank and blocked the fuel outlet at the bottom of the tank. Until I found that little ditty out I had the whole system apart including the little filter. I did replace it as well as the fram upfront. This little adventure happened this fall, Lil' Cobra runs great now!! Sorry so log to get back to you just got in from a long business trip Jan thru May and Sept thru early Dec are our busiest times.

Ralph

From one of the most abused Uniques in all of history to what is turning out to be one of the nicest! Great work guys.