Progress Thread The next "big" project for my Cobra

LILCBRA · May 14, 2026

Didn't get anything done on the car yesterday, but I did notice while I was working on it the other day that I have a bad seal on the driver side axle. So I'm waiting on axle seals before I finish the drums. But I took the wheels and tires in to a shop and dropped them off yesterday, picked them up on my way home this morning. Wanted to see what the rears looked like before I head to bed, here they are.

Blackhawkxx · May 14, 2026

Fits well.

LILCBRA · May 17, 2026

Didn't really get as much done on the car as I wanted to so far this weekend. But the axles are pulled, the bearings seem to be fine. Pulled the leaky seal and I decided that I'll wait until I get the replacements before I pull the other. Opened one bleeder on the front calipers the other day and I'm letting gravity help drain it. I tried to get both but one's stuck so I sprayed it down with some WD40, hopefully that'll work. While I was at that, I sprayed all of the connections for the soft lines, figured that soaking them would probably be the best approach. Decided that instead of spending more money on brake parts, the vert shares the same drum brakes as the Cobra, so I jacked it up off of it's cribbing and pulled the wheels and drums. And, while I had the wheels off, and the thought has crossed my mind about trying those wheels on the Cobra at some point (because I don't think I'll like them on the vert when it's time....), I mocked the rear. I have no idea how the fronts would work with my car sitting as it does, but I really like the looks on the back!

I also started prepping the car for the subframe connectors. As is the case with most other subframes that I've dealt with, they were kind of smashed up and needed some massaging for the connectors to fit. I got the passenger side more or less ready, just have to pull the rear seat bottoms to get to the bolts at the front leaf spring mount to deal with that end of it.

Blackhawkxx · May 17, 2026

LILCBRA said:
I tried to get both but one's stuck so I sprayed it down with some WD40, hopefully that'll work.

I suggest a real penetrating fluid like PB Blaster or other name brand unless you are actually using the WD 40 penetrating fluid which I have never tried.

Is WD-40 A Penetrating Oil? What You Should Know Before Using - SlashGear

While WD-40 is thin and oil-based, is it actually a penetrating oil? We took a look at the chemicals that make it up to find out for certain.

www.slashgear.com

Noobz347 · May 17, 2026

For anything with carbon steel, I like this stuff the best:

Amazon.com: C2005 Thrust Penetrating Oil, 15.75 oz, 6-Pack_AB : Industrial & Scientific

Buy C2005 Thrust Penetrating Oil, 15.75 oz, 6-Pack_AB: Industrial Lubricants - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

That link by the way: There are two left from that specific vendor. 6 cans for $63 is pretty good considering a single can usually goes for around $20.

LILCBRA · May 17, 2026

Slept a few hours this morning, then got up and decided to swap the bearings anyway as it only made sense. Made the trek into my nearest O'Reilly's for a pair of bearings and got that done now.

LILCBRA · May 18, 2026

Rear brake shoes are swapped, the new rear brake hose is installed, and the axles are in. Got the front brakes torn apart now - calipers and hoses are removed and pulled the rotors to have them turned. When I pulled the passenger side caliper I found that the outer brake pad decided it wanted to break apart. Then when I pulled the driver's rotor I found that the wheel seal has seen better days. So I ended up ordering 2 new rotors, pads, and seals to be delivered from O'Reilly's. They have a deal going that when you buy 2 rotors you get a set of pads for free. I jumped on it since they can have them delivered to me by Wednesday. After ordering that stuff, I went ahead and installed the bench bled master cylinder. That officially puts me on hold for the brakes for now. Tomorrow's project will be to finish installing the subframe connectors and an oil change. Then, hopefully I can finish the brakes on Wednesday night and Thursday will be a serious bath for the car and loading it onto my trailer for the trip to my hometown for the holiday weekend. They have a show on Friday night and a cruise on Saturday that I've not attended in about 14 years. So I'll do all of that as well as visit with friends and family that I've not seen in a while.

44th Annual 4th Street Cruise in downtown Waterloo - Cedar Valley Now

The 44th Annual 4th Street Cruise in Waterloo, Iowa, is scheduled for May 22 and 23rd, featuring cl

cedarvalleynow.com

LILCBRA · May 19, 2026

Woke up way too early this afternoon, since I couldn't get back to sleep I ran out to the garage - Stumpy's subframe connectors are installed. Here are a few pics of the process:

First order of business was removing the forward spring support bolts and breaking the spot welds for the retaining nuts. I used breaker bar and was able to snap them off, then used a grinder with a cut off wheel to grind the remaining welds down.

As I said previously, I worked on the passenger subframe to get the connector to fit, the driver side was beat in worse than the passenger side but I was able to get it straightened out well enough.

Here is the driver side positioned into place to drill the 3 holes to bolt the connector in. I actually drilled 6 holes per side, the inner and the outer, instead of attempting to drill straight through. Unfortunately that means I had to drop my exhaust again.

Once the holes are drilled and the bolts inserted, release whatever load you have on your jacks and tighten them to the Gutentite torque spec.

Noobz347 · May 19, 2026

LILCBRA said:
Woke up way too early this afternoon, since I couldn't get back to sleep I ran out to the garage - Stumpy's subframe connectors are installed. Here are a few pics of the process:

First order of business was removing the forward spring support bolts and breaking the spot welds for the retaining nuts. I used breaker bar and was able to snap them off, then used a grinder with a cut off wheel to grind the remaining welds down.

As I said previously, I worked on the passenger subframe to get the connector to fit, the driver side was beat in worse than the passenger side but I was able to get it straightened out good enough.

Here is the driver side positioned into place to drill the 3 holes to bolt the connector in. I actually drilled 6 holes per side, the inner and the outer, instead of attempting to drill straight through. Unfortunately that means I had to drop my exhaust again.

Once the holes are drilled and the bolts inserted, release whatever load you have on your jacks and tighten them to the Gutentite torque spec.

O'Really? Did you use ft/lbs or Nm?

LILCBRA · May 19, 2026

Noobz347 said:
O'Really? Did you use ft/lbs or Nm?

The Ugachugga scale.

LILCBRA · May 20, 2026

Brakes are done.

It's been a day though.... Apparently the body epoxy I used to attach the fiberglass cover to the bumper reinforcement doesn't work for fiberglass to steel. I bumped my head on the corner and it popped off..... that made my day!

Then, after I finished bleeding the brakes, I dropped the car onto it's new tires and tried to take it for a test drive. I got maybe 1/2 mile from home and all it wanted to do was stumble when I'd step on the gas. I'd had enough at this point, nursed it home and parked it. No matter though, it's about time to get ready for work tonight, but it does throw a wrench in my plans for tomorrow.....

LILCBRA · May 21, 2026

Well.... This is an apparent tuning issue that I have absolutely NO idea about how to handle. I've checked for leaks (both vacuum and fuel), set and checked the IAC and reset the TPS more than once, and raised and lowered fuel pressure all with no real improvement. I've searched and found one YT video of a guy that adjusted a setting for his system for the same issue and I gave his recommendation a try, but it's all in the tuning end of it. The results didn't improve my situation, it really seemed to make everything worse honestly. So I took everything back to as close to original as I could on the handheld. I just think I'm done f'ing with it. It could really use someone who knows wtf they're doing with it, and that's not me. So the car stays home this weekend, which really pisses me off....

Blackhawkxx · May 21, 2026

Is this the first time you had it on the road as I know you had the F.I. on it for a while? Is this something new?

LILCBRA · May 21, 2026

Blackhawkxx said:
Is this the first time you had it on the road as I know you had the F.I. on it for a while? Is this something new?

Basically yes. I test drove it in Georgia right after I finished the install and it would die when I came to a stop. Then life happened and it basically sat. It was driven onto the transport, then off and into my mom's garage. Then my mom drove it about 20ish miles to my garage here. I've taken it around the block a time or 2 and it seemed fine, so that's when I started on the brakes and everything I've done over the last couple weeks. Now it's doing this. I decided that it's just not reliable enough yet to load onto a trailer and take it to this event and drive it around town up there, so it's just going to sit here. I've reached out to an authorized tuner, we'll see when I can get that done now, at this point I believe it's a little beyond my abilities at the moment. I'd really like to learn the software and tuning end of it, but I don't think that's going to be a reality for a bit and I'd really like to be able to drive the thing.

DadLife0724 · May 22, 2026

Good luck man. I'm sure everyone in the forum has been in your position at one time. You will get it, and the smell of smoke will be all the more sweeter.

LILCBRA · May 22, 2026

DadLife0724 said:
Good luck man. I'm sure everyone in the forum has been in your position at one time. You will get it, and the smell of smoke will be all the more sweeter.

I think we're all too stubborn to quit.

LILCBRA · May 23, 2026

Might be the wrong section, but a few pics I snapped today.

LILCBRA · Jun 14, 2026

Remote tuning for the Killshot has been scheduled for a little over a week from now on the 25th!

Blackhawkxx · Jun 14, 2026

LILCBRA said:
Remote tuning for the Killshot has been scheduled for a little over a week from now on the 25th!

Please explain to an old carb guy how that works. I kind of understand if it were on a dyno but...

LILCBRA · Jun 14, 2026

To the best of my knowlege, they remote into your laptop while it's plugged into the EFI system and tuning software and make adjustments to the tune. I would follow their directions and make whatever hands on adjustments that need to be made, take test drives, save datalogs to upload afterwards so they can make more adjustments to parameters, etc. I can't speak for the full process as this is my first time doing anything like this, so there might be more to it that I'm not aware of.

Progress Thread The next "big" project for my Cobra

I wish I didn't have all of these balls in the air

Advanced Member

I wish I didn't have all of these balls in the air

Advanced Member

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

I wish I didn't have all of these balls in the air

I wish I didn't have all of these balls in the air

I wish I didn't have all of these balls in the air

Stangnet Facilities Maint Tech... Er... Janitor

I wish I didn't have all of these balls in the air

I wish I didn't have all of these balls in the air

I wish I didn't have all of these balls in the air

Advanced Member

I wish I didn't have all of these balls in the air

Active Member

I wish I didn't have all of these balls in the air

I wish I didn't have all of these balls in the air

I wish I didn't have all of these balls in the air

Advanced Member

I wish I didn't have all of these balls in the air

Similar threads

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency