Chassis Collection

Well it didn’t seem like so long before our summer holiday to Canada was over and it was time to collect the chassis. To be honest our holiday was so good I totally forgot that I had ordered the chassis, when I got back and there was a message from Meena on the answer phone it all came back to me. So after confirming the powder coat colour as silver and that yes I did want two roll bars a date was set for collection, October 7th.

7th October 2006 – Collection day.
After asking around on the club site and confirming that the chassis weighed under 100Kg I decided that my father in laws car could cope with the chassis on the roof rack without concern, so I loaded up both fathers and headed for GD.
When we arrived the power was out to the estate so we had to man handle the chassis through a normally doorway, luckily not such a hard job with 4 people. The chassis was hoisted up onto the roof rack and suddenly looked small!

Strapped down and secure with the chassis bolt pack and brackets, steering rack and brake pipe kit loaded into the boot we bid farewell to Andy and headed for home, checking through the sunroof periodically that nothing was moving.

Here’s the drawback of using a roof rack, the chassis gets covered in dead bugs before its even on the road!!

Once home the chassis was lowered onto axle stands in the garage where no doubt it will stay for a while.

Front axle sub assembly.

With all the bits of the front axle either cleaned and painted or new parts purchased I started to assembly the upper wishbones.

The new powerflex bushes went in first and all the parts were laid out ready to go. That's new nuts, bolts, washers, camber shimms and ball joints.

Following the jag workshop manual I put it all together and wound up with:

Now as it says in all the best manuals, LHS shown, RHS similar. So repeat the operation for the other side!

The lower wishbones were much easier with just the bushes to press in place.

The upright assembly started by installing the lower ball joints, don't do as I did and shear off one of the bolts, Much swearing later Id drilled out the bolt and obtained a new one, luckily it all went together OK.

The stub axles went back in OK and finished off with the water defector.

The old workbench is a bit untidy there, must tidy up a bit.

New wheel studs went into the hubs next, after battling with them in my vice I bit the bullet and purchased a press. Id resisted doing this earlier in the project to save money but wished I had no as the studs went in in moments. The press also came into place when fitting the bearings and I'm sure it will find many other uses.

With the hubs now fitted with new bearings I assembled the new EBC vented, dimpled brake discs to the hubs.

Next the hubs were dropped onto the stub axles and the retaining nut put place to keep everything where it should be. The hubs were then filled with grease before the brake calipers were fitted with new bolts and washers.


To complete the assembly the new GD steering arms were fitted with the modified brake pipe brackets. Job done!

Publish

GD visit June 2006.

On the 1st June 2006 my wife and I visited GD to have a look round and take a test ride. For me the day was really just to confirm that I was making the right decision, check that I could fit into the GD and of course to actually place the order.

We arrived as Andy was having his lunch but we were made immediately welcome and offered a cup of coffee (don’t go to GD just for the coffee not saying its bad, Im not saying its good either!). We had a good look around the workshop at the various chassis in different stages of construction and also I had a good look over a GD427 MKIV that had just been completed.


This sorted one of the questions I had, a MKIV its going to be.

After this Andy took me out for a test ride, well what can I say, it was an experience I shall not forget in a while. The car appeared to handle incredibly well, I say appeared because you can only judge so much from the passengers seat. At no point during the drive did the car feel out of shape, and it wasn’t because it was being driven slowly! Andy obviously knows his car and knows what it can do, and is not afraid to show it off. I can honestly say I’ve never been more scared or felt more secure in a vehicle.

Going up to GD had another unexpected benefit, my wife has always struggled to understand the whole Cobra thing. Quite understandably to her its just a car and she couldn’t get excited about it.

Anyway after the test ride I managed to persuade my wife to take a ride as well, all the way up to GD she had said she wasn’t interested in going out for a drive. But with a little bit of persuasion she agreed.

Its here that Andy shows he’s a salesman as well as an engineer, on my test drive it was raw power and lots of acceleration, the conversation was technical, all about power and handling etc. On my wifes drive he drove a bit more sedate and there was talk about days out, going for picnics etc. Well whatever he did it worked and she came back not only smiling but professing to finally get what it was all about. More importantly she agreed to hand over the cheque book, which had been given to her before our arrival as a kind of safe guard against impulsive buying!

So after a bit more chat I committed to an order of GD427 Jag based chassis. Delivery chosen by me to be the beginning of September.

We drove away with me a very happy man.