Projects DRAG SNAKE "Vintage Terror!"

Well we finally broke ground yesterday. After about an hour of measuring and triple checking we drilled a couple of holes in the virgin fiber glass for the roll cage. You know I am known for cutting it twice and it still being too short. lol



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We did have to ad about a twenty degree forward bend on it (after exiting the body). This follows the rake of the roof a bit and allows us to get it up high enough in the top to do some good.

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So after we got the roll bar in place I held up what would be a traditional down bar from near the drivers head aimed down to the passenger side foot well. It actually looked pretty good not to mention extremely functional.

The only issue would be it can not be solid on the roll bar as it has to come out if you ever need to take the body off. This what Dad came up with digging through the parts bins of left over stuff.



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To make sure that down bar is crazy strong where it attaches, this is how we built the bar...



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I am totally stoked about this bar. It is absolutely perfect. It has a 12" slide on, reinforced stub welded solid to the chassis rail in the passenger side foot weld just aft of the motor mount. You lift the main roll bar, slide the "down" bar in place, push the roll bar hoop back down and it captures the top mount piece. Slide the 5/8" grade 8 bolt in place and it is all locked solid.

It is nearly exactly where the originals were off the single hoop roll bars. It is going to be crazy functional and still pays homage to the originals.

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Nice view...

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Yes, fine looking trailer.

 

Actually I was talking about my neighbors tool shed there! I have had my eye on that puppy for years! Lol

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...and here is the cool thing, after getting the bars complete we dropped the windshield back in and sat the top back on to have a look.

The issue we had the first time we put them on together was the top was about two inches too far forward when we matched the roof line with the windshield. My body guy said we could lay the windshield back a bit to make fit better. We made that change today an it actually dropped the top nealy 2 inches!

I totally love the look, check this out!



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The nhra doesnt like grinding/ smoothing welds out on roll bars. It looks plenty strong the way you built it, but they wont know that when it goes through tech.

 

Before you go too far you better check with the local chassis inspector for NHRA. It would be a bummer to get the car done and the roll bar not pass.
I took my avatar to the Hot Rod reunion and they told me that my front lug studs were a 1/2 inch too short when I had just went through tech at Gainesville the week before. Had to go find lug studs and change them all out before I could run.

 

Here you go @choffman41 I fixed it...LOL At least
this is what I see when I close my eyes!

 

Aaaah!!!! yes--NHRA tech. They told one of my customers that he needed to have fireproof covering on his seat belts (blown front engine dragster) so he sent them to me so that I could make sure that the replacements were the correct length. The belts already had black Nomex covering so I called him and he said the the NHRA guy told him that it needed the "shiny silver" covering which is total bullshit. Did your studs not show a full shank diameter outboard of the nut? If the lug hex was long, one solution is to shorten it until the required amount of stud shows provided that there is still a reasonable amount of hex left to wrench on.
As for the Cobra roll bar the best solution for the brace is to use one of the readily available swing out door bar mounting kits that are accepted by the various sanctioning bodies.

Roo

 

That's better, but it looks like the front wheels are on the ground.

 

Found a backup girl candidate for you

 

Man are you ever hard to please! LMAO... But you are right, feels much better, Thanks.

........

 

I started my altered with a "bar" like yours as I wanted it to be "retro".......when it became apparent that it would never be able to run down a dragstrip like that I got serious and installed a cage.......are they going to consider your car as a "closed" car b/c of the top? I would REALLY suggest you contact your NHRA div and run some pics by them - I know this is not your first rodeo, but I'd hate to see you limited to what you can actually do with the car....

 

I thought that was a picture of Bristol (before they ruined it) but that first picture looks like BOOBS

 

You are correct...it was old school Bristol.

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Officially being an enclosed car, the Cobra will have to have an 8 point roll bar through 9.99. Very important distinction between an 8 point roll bar and an 8 point roll cage. It also means we can not pull the roof at an NHRA sanctioned track as a convertible with the same 8 point roll bar has a considerable lower e.t. max.

Anyway an 8 point roll bar is what we are aiming for. At this point we have all but one of the points as we are basically at 7 points. The main hoop legs, the down bar, two 45 degree off the main legs to the chassis and the two side or door down bars from the rear to the cowl hoop.

 

...And one other concession we are going to make is the fuel cell placement. I was originally excited to find a cell that would fit in the original location etc. However after putting the framework in place and sliding it in from the cockpit side, we noticed several impending issues. First off there was very little to no room on the top (or at least no way to get to it etc. in the cramped quarters. It was going to make it virtually impossible to connect the filler tube from my triumph flip top cap to the tank. It would also be impossible to make adjustments to any of the fuel lines, fuel pump or sending unit. Not to mention our planned support for the hinged hard top was not going to fit and it appeared our trunk hinge mount points were compromised as well. So we have opted for the easiest mount area, simply in the trunk. And it will also allow me the option of installing a nice fuel cell back there versus the poly unit etc.

 

289 Cobra Side emblems came in today. I kind of forgot I had ordered them. I think it was sometime in January and they were on back order. So sort of a nice surprise today when I open the envelope and there they were. Certainly worth the wait. They are crazy authentic, very heavy...nice pieces.

 

Well there goes a tenth putting those heavy emblems on. Ha Ha ! They are very nice.

 

H/M would take a burr to the back side.

 

Holy Mackrel it has been a while since we have been at work on the Cobra. With a completely out of control move of the company I work for not to mention my daughter's high school graduation, we have been a bit busy. But yesterday we did finally hit the shop (if for no other reason than to simply relax! Lol)...

While we were there we did manage to wrap up the majority of the space chasis/roll cage etc. We are just about ready to pop the body back off and start all the finish welding.









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Not to be critical, and I have been signed up from the git-go, but you might want to get some better bungees for that Watts link before you hit the road course. Just a suggestion...(>;

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Lol...good call. I might need to double them up!

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Back in the shop this afternoon. Since we knocked out the better part of the rear chassis fab work yesterday we only have a few things left to complete back there. First up is the bumperette mounting brackets. This is important as the bumperette's mounting rods give the rear body section some support as well.


The dimples in the body say drill here! But just before a pop a couple 1.25" holes in there (which is what the rubber grommets require, I decided maybe I should double check...


I unpacked and assembled the rear bumperetts and then measured the distance between the two mounting rods. The Dimples were dead on...so...


...out came the hole saw and poof a couple of perfect holes ready for the grommets.


As I was putting them in place, I noticed they appeared to be pretty close to the rear cross bar that we installed yesterday. To be honest, I should have been, but I was not paying much attention to where that bar ended up in relation to the bumperette holes etc. We were aiming more for floor height of the trunk anticipating the fuel cell placement etc.


After snagging the recently assembled pieces and pushing one in place I peaked inside the trunk area to see where we they ended up. Believe it or not, that crazy bumperette upper and lower mounting rods split that cross bar right down the center. I couldn't have hit that mark if I had been trying. All we had to do was tack in a simple straight bracket to the cross member and bolt them in place!

 

We also finished up the shock upper mount points on the end of the rectangular frame rails.

 

"Always better lucky than good", they used to say. Not sure what they say now as I can't hear to well. All sounds like Charlie Brown's teacher to me.