Wiper arms

Finally, the rain couldn't hold off any longer and I had to put the car away in the garage, ironically, this reminded me I needed to fit the windscreen wipers. These were relatively straight forward but the arms had to be tweaked a little in the vice to get the bend right so the blades sat square with the bottom of the screen. The arms were adjustable for length and once set so they reached the top of the screen as they swept, a small locking tab is twisted to hold them at that length.

Indoor picture I'm afraid

Windscreen refitted

The windscreen is now back on for good and I've fitted the escutcheon plates around the bottom of the screen legs and those for the windscreen demist vents. The plates around the bottom of the screen were bent slightly to match the curvature of the body in this area and the holes through the body and the underside of the plates sealed with clear silicone. I've also fitted the demister "funnels" (?) which fit under the vents and direct the air onto the windscreen. These are held with the same bolts which secure the escutcheons so the two are done together. A little tip for anyone approaching this stage, I had trouble getting the bolts to screw into the threaded bolt holes in the "funnels". This was due to a layer of paint which had built up so I ran an M5 tap through them to clear them out which made the job so much easier.

Windscreen escutcheon plates

The windscreen has been on and off more times than I care to remember, It's now on for good, well the legs are anyway. Part of the final fitting includes filling the gaps where the legs pass through the body with silicon and then fitting these stainless steel escutcheon plates over the top. I've not tackled the silicon yet but the plates have been subtly bent to match the curvature of the body and and the fixing holes drilled and tapped. Rather than use self tappers or bolts through the bodywork, I've cut a thread into the fibreglass which some stainless steel button heads will screw into. There's no strength required to hold the plates down so this should be more than adequate and look a little better than self tapping screws.

Windscreen on again

Just an excuse for a few more pictures, I put the windscreen on again in order to finish fitting the centre stay. It'll have to come off again so I can drill and tap the screen supports for the side mirrors but for now, I'll leave it fitted because it keeps it out of the way and somewhere safe. Really looking like car now. Oh ! and I .... err .... washed it :-)

Windscreen... second attempt

Spent Father's Day with my Dad, working on the car... doesn't get much better than that!
After my first attempt at rigging up some battens to assist with marking the holes on the screen support legs I went back to the drawing board and built something a little more substantial. This time it worked like a dream and made transferring the fixing holes to the legs childs play. The next part was not quite straighforward as we had terrible trouble drilling the legs themselves. I had thought this part would be relatively easy but despite having a good set of drill bits, a drill press and clamp, the bit was snatching in the material and making a right old mess. Luckily we had started with a small drill as a pilot and were gradually moving up in size so whilst it was a bit worrying and quite honestly frustrating, we hadn't done any damage. We had no option but to down tools and take some time out. Whilst having a cup of tea I turned to the internet and posted a quick message on the Cobra Club Forum asking for some guidance. Within a few moments we had our answer, we were using too slow a drill speed. My thanks to "Toddy" for putting me straight. Unfortunately Dad had to leave so he never got to see the progress I made once I upped the drill speed. Here's a few photos, partly to record my progress for the blog but also to show Dad what I got up to after he left.


Having got the holes drilled in the windscreen support legs and got the screen mounted, my thoughts turned to the bonnet scoop. I had previously spent some time marking a centre line on the bonnet and after making a paper template of the scoop, cutting it out and folding in half, I aligned the centre of the template with the centre of the bonnet and marked it's outline onto the bonnet in preparation for the scoop itself.

Time was getting on by now and I wasn't going to get the scoop finished but partly to see what it looked like mounted and partly to keep it somewhere safe where it couldn't get damaged I drilled three of the mounting holes and bolted it on.

The Windscreen Arrives...

Popped down to GD on Saturday morning to collect my windscreen and bonnet scoop. I wanted to fit the screen so I could get onto fitting the wipers but also so I could fit the windscreen support frame and then the other parts in this area such as forward wiring loom, relays etc.
One thing I hadn't given much thought was where to keep the screen until it was needed, I didn't really want to leave it in the garage, her indoors wasn't keen on it being left in the spare room and to be honest with two little'uns running around neither was I. The only solution left was to fit it ! :-)

I shamelessly copied Simon Rudmans method of making some spacers the same thickness as the frame legs and fixing battens in place to help locate the frame fixing holes and transfer them onto the frame legs. The spacers were made from penny washers wrapped in masking tape.


The battens made from some ply I had to hand and held in place with decorators caulk. Now this isn't the strongest of fixings but it would be very easy to get of and clean up afterwards. The idea here is that once the caulking was dry, I could remove the bolts and the spacers, slide the frame legs into place behind the battens and mark through the holes in the ply to transfer the fixing points onto the frame legs for drilling.



As with most holes the slots in the body were kindly marked by GD in the factory. I masked the area up, made some holes with a drill bit slightly smaller than the width of the slot and then opened it up with a file.

The frame legs were then fixed onto the screen, the whole assembly lowered into place with a support of 930mm used to prop the screen in place. Unfortunately this was as far as I got, partly due to rain stopping play but also becasue the decorators caulk I used the hold the battens in place wasn't as strong as I'd hoped and I knocked them off when passing the frame legs through the slots I'd cut. At least the screen can't (shouldn't) get damaged where it is but there it'll have to stay for now until I get time to attempt a better method for marking the fixing holes in the frame legs.

Couldn't help placing the scoop in place for the final photo