I knew that it was time to post another update to the site last week. If my own instincts were not enough motivation, family, friends, and now site members have been prodding me for information. While I love to write, the call of the Cobra has been much stronger these past weeks. But something tells me that if you are reading this, you already know what I am talking about.
With the deep Wisconsin winter upon us there is plenty of time to stay inside, which is just what our Rescue Cobra needed at this time. Since my last words hit the forum, the Spence car has undergone a radical transformation. In the last episode my father and I (along with all the neighbors we could find on Christmas eve) separated the body and frame. With the two halves of the car by side in the garage, the serious disassembly could begin...And begin it did. What was once a somewhat functional, running automobile is now a tremendous heap of parts that I like to call the "Cobra pile". It is amazing that a car just over 90" in length can spread itself to all corners of a nicely sized home...In the garage we have the engine:
But then down in the basement are body parts, the electrical system, suspension, brakes, etc.
The journey to this state was an intense three week thrash of component removal and engine disassembly. Once the body was off, we started innocently enough. Dad and I peered at the drive shaft that we knew was misaligned from the onset. We removed it to take some measurements for a frame modification that we have planned and set it to the side.
With merely those four tiny bolts bagged and labelled, the socket set started to sing, and the open end wrenches whispered to me in my sleep. The Cobra was calling and the pull was unmistakable, and my darling wife encouraged me to the garage.
Next the brake and fuel lines came off. Then it was the front brake calipers, shocks, and springs. Since our car is (currently) equipped with an MG front end, we consulted a restoration manual for disassembly tips. The most important one I found when taking apart the front end is as follows:
It is important to consider the sprung force of the coil spring in the MG front end. Loosen but do not remove the upper and lower pivot bolts on the kingpin. Use a cable to secure the spring to the lower pan and a jack to compress the suspension while you free the lower pivot bolt. Pivot away the kingpin and drop out the lower arm and be careful as you lower the jack. Once the spring is at resting length, "ease" it out of the perch with a rubber mallet.
The rest of the front suspension came apart with alarming ease and speed. In fact I am quite thankful that nobody ever drove this car...Despite 10 years of corrosion and sitting, there is only a handful of bolts that required more force than a standard 3/8" drive socket could muster. In fact more than a few of the front suspension bolts were removed by hand. Locktite was obviously not a priority for the original owner.
On a squeaky, borrowed engine hoist the 351W came out of the frame without incident. With the mill on an engine stand I dug into the power plant to see if the old girl was going to be salvageable. My first surprise came just after all the head bolts were removed. The builder had used the wrong head gaskets and there was improper coolant circulation to the heads. This explained the mysterious fluid in the oil and the ugly stains running down the block. While this baffled me initially, I was only mildly surprised as I peered down the bores to find evidence of valves which had been hitting the pistons despite deep reliefs. Even with these minor [?] problems the core looks really nice and still appears to be a candidate for rebuild. A trip to the machine shop this week will tell me for sure.
With the front end of the car void of parts, I found that the weigh
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Originally Posted by nolastyankee
