Doner Teardown

Finally got started on the teardown today.  Moved the car to the workbay put it up on the jack stands and went to work.

Wheels went first, then removed the battery, rad, clutch fan and shroud.  Who knew that so much coolant could come from such a small car?  Slight underestimation as to the flow rate from the bottom radiator hose but its my garage floor and I can color it any way I want!  Next step for the engine bay will be to tag all the wires so I will leave that for another day.

Rad is gone.

Way more room now!

Since I was working without a helper I figured that I would do all the simple stuff so the front seats came out and then I ripped out the console and carpet.  Its much easier to tear something apart because if you are not using it again you don't have to be quite as careful as you normally would.  Over Christmas I figure that at least one person will help me for 10 mins so I can get the hood removed.

Carpet and seats are out.

I have made a pact with myself to clean up the workspace after every session so I spent the last 15 mins today cleaning up.  Total time today was about 4 hours and I loved every minute of it.

Adios and Merry Christmas.

Kit Ordered!

Finally placed my order with Al from Western Canada Cobras.  Should be here in 7 to 9 weeks.  I will have to get moving on the teardown.

Doner Car

I finally purchased the donor car I was looking for.  I picked up a 1990 Mustang LX for $3,000.  It has many mods to the original 5.0 engine which I will list later.  It runs Ok but pops out of first gear from time to time.

Part of the deal is that the guy I bought it from will come and pickup all of the left overs after I have stripped off the parts that I need.  This works for me as I don't have the time to try and sell the rest of the car.

Just got my new cabinets installed so the garage is ready to go.

1990 Mustang LX Doner car

A couple of pics of the engine.  Hopefully this is not the last time it ever runs.

Over the next couple of weeks I will start the teardown process and I can't wait to get at it.

Introduction

Hi,  I'm Steve from Calgary and my project is to build a Mark IV Cobra Replica car using a kit from Factory Five Racing.  I have fooled around with various car projects in the past and I also use to race Karts a few years ago so I have a garage full of tools that are crying out to be used.

I recently move into a new house that has a nice big heated garage which is perfect for the project as the average winter temperature in Calgary is about minus1,000 degrees.  The factory five site says that an average Roadster build takes between 200 and 225 hours, so I am going to shoot for 250 to 275 hours and see how I do.

I plan on keeping this blog as up to date as possible during the build and I will post as many picutres of each stage as I can so check back often if you are interested.