DuPuis Family Cobra Build

Sac Arrow said:
It's about time we are able to gauge the progress on Ted's Cobra!
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I see what you did there!

The reality is I’m not far from it being able to be run in terms of hours of labor required. It’s mainly in terms of calendar time because I’m “Ted busy”.

I didn’t realize that “Ted busy” was a term until 3 close friends, none of whom were in cahoots on this topic and who are busy folks themselves in my opinion, said to me within a short period of time “Whenever I think I’m busy I then realize ‘At least I’m not Ted busy’”.
 
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Oh, a seemingly silly thing that I should probably look at dealing with.

My prime opportunity out for turning wrenches is the evenings when Laurie is at work and the kids are asleep. The problem, though, is my garage has daylight white lights (5000K or so). Fantastic for working, but my brain responds strongly to daylight white = wake up. Then it takes me a couple hours to fall asleep. I like sleep.

I should probably experiment with a few things including a 3000K drop light to help make it so I can work in the evenings and then sleep. It seems silly in some ways to not use this fantastic lighting I put in, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
 
So I’ve given some thought to @3393RP ’s suggestions and I’m going to paint the block. I’ll paint it black because 1) I don’t want the block to stand out, I want other parts to and 2) that will help to hide the areas I might miss.

I’ll also wrap the headers. So I need to order the header wrap kit. Question being what kind to go with (his link looked like good stuff) and how much of it I need. Other benefit of the wrap is that my headers are shiny but my side pipes will be black. This will help match better.

I won’t do the work today but I should start getting parts in to do it, especially the header wrap since that’s something I could do more or less anytime.
 
@3393RP would you bother getting one of the kits with the metal tie wraps or would you go with just getting the wrap itself and tie it another way? I saw a few people say they wish they'd just gone with stainless safety wire or the like.
 
I like the stainless ties. Safety wire cuts into the wrap sometimes, and then the wrap has to be redone.
 
Second the stainless ties - cleaner look. But they also make sleeves that may look cleaner than wrap...
 
It's been a few months and I've done, well, basically nothing on the Cobra. Between the RV (main project), some household projects we've had going on, picking up the racecar, and some family items that have come up it's been... quite a busy few months.

But Laurie's at work right now so I'm going to take the kids to the babysitter to play with their friends and spend the day working on the Cobra.

The past couple of evenings I spent some time standing in the garage looking at the car. Getting at it right now isn't super easy right now - the garage is packed with things right now as we wait for the shop to be completed. Because of that, I do have some limitations to what I can reasonably work on just from an accessibility perspective.

I also have some clean-up to do because of mouse issues. We're having a lot of problems with mice this year. I hate mice. We need more cats.

So, I'm considering what to do. I ordered the titanium exhaust wrap with metal wraps that @3393RP recommended, but I didn't order it until earlier this week and it doesn't look like it will be here in time (unless it's waiting for me in the mailbox). There is the engine painting, but given the sub-ideal temperatures right now (as in, COLD), I think I may hold off on that.

What strikes me as the most useful is probably to do some work on the electrical system. I've gotten the ECU wiring underhood more or less completed, but I haven't done anything in the back of the car, which is where I plan on putting the relays etc. So maybe I'll start working on those. The reality is, if I get my wiring done, I'm essentially at the point of first start. I won't get that tomorrow, of course, but if I can get some more progress made then I may get almost there.
 
Today ended up being a much more productive day than I had expected it to be, especially after starting off seeming like I lacked much of what I needed. I was planning on putting in rivnuts to solidly mount the fuse block, but that required #8 screws and my rivnut tool I bought only had down to 10-24s. It also only had 5 10-24 rivnuts (the size I needed for the relays) which wasn't enough to complete the mounting of the 6 relays I had. All that said, I then ended up running, crimping, and soldering a lot of wires and got things well set up. I still need to solder up and finish the injector power wire, but once that's done, the main power distribution is more or less completed.

Wiring is not my favorite thing to do, part of that being that at the end of it I don't particularly feel like I've accomplished much. Of course it's necessary for many reasons. At this stage I do somewhat question the decision to go EFI/electronic ignition just because of the extra time and effort it's added to the program, and I'm certainly also questioning the HVAC decision. Long term, I think those decisions will pay dividends and I'll find myself happy that I made them. But for now, still being some time away from first start, it is a bit of a downer. With nice weather coming in a couple of months, I am hopeful that this is the year that I will hear the engine run and can at least start on go-karting it. We'll see, though. I still need to get the RV back together and then want to get going on the RX-7 to get some races in this year, although the weather has not been conducive to that, not to mention house projects. So, we'll see how much I'm able to juggle the various projects. Getting the shop finished will help a lot.

I've got a video from today uploading, but it's taking a while. I'll probably post it tomorrow, whenever YouTube gets it processed.
 
It's good to see you've returned to the Cobra. You're creating a car. The planning and decisions will be rewarding when it's done.
 
3393RP said:
It's good to see you've returned to the Cobra. You're creating a car. The planning and decisions will be rewarding when it's done.
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It was nice to get a day to work on it. I’ve been spending a lot of time looking at it in the garage and wishing I had to he chance to work on it, but it really does need good chunks of time to keep making progress. Even an hour or two here or there is really not enough, although I do now have some tasks I could do in that short of a time period and may do over the next week as I’m able.

It’s funny, at the start of the pandemic/lockdowns I was thinking I might have a lot more time to work on the Cobra and get it running. That was somewhat true at first, and I got a lot done the first couple months. Then other things came up between Cloud Nine, the Harley build, the Moto Guzzi (although that really hasn’t taken any significant time), the RV (that was the big one, aside from the Harley) etc. The decision to so RVing with the kids this school year has certainly taken up wrenching time, but next year they’ll be back in school and so this is the opportunity to do what we’re doing.

All that to say, life doesn’t go the way you plan it sometimes, and patience is a virtue. I’d hoped to be able to drive my kids to school for their first day last fall, and then there was no real first day (first day of home school doesn’t have the same significant mentally), but this fall? I think it’s very doable, albeit not with a completed body.
 
I’ll also make a silly plea here - I’d like to hit 1k subscribers in time for first start. Yeah I know that’s a bit of a lofty goal given that I’m at a bit over 500 now, but at 1k subscribers YouTube will let me live stream (I think). What’s significant about that is I’d like to live stream the first start attempt.

So if you’re not subscribed to the channel please do - I’d appreciate the help to get to that goal.

Also yes at 1k subscribers I can start monetizing the channel and make billions of dollars off YouTube. But more likely I’d be lucky to get 5 cents.
 
And here's the video on yesterday's progress:


I've been playing with the "premiere" feature. Seems like it probably doesn't add to anything for the viewers, so I may stop that. I ended up making 3 videos yesterday (Cobra, RV, and channel update) and don't want them to all release at once so I should probably just manually stagger them.
 
Checkout_my_Six said:
did we stop flying airplanes? :D
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Yes. Haven’t flown since early September (acceptance flight for the man who bought the MU2) and have no real desire to. On a wintery day like today with low ceilings and blowing snow, going out and playing in the ice sounds fun, but that’s about it.

Actually, I’m doing a channel update video where I more or less state that’s the reason why the channel name changed from my name to “Ted’s Garage”.
 
Sac Arrow said:
We are all waiting to see the video of oil and coolant soaked Ted prying pistons out of the rafters.
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That would be unfortunate if that happened, but it would also be her fault of the company that made the short block.
 
Daggonit....I came here to read about the tales of Ted's flying. I too have no desire to fight the ice and snow to aviate ....those days are over.

Full Disclosure: I havent' flown since November either. Life sometimes gets in the way of my aviation.
Ted said:
Yes. Haven’t flown since early September (acceptance flight for the man who bought the MU2) and have no real desire to. On a wintery day like today with low ceilings and blowing snow, going out and playing in the ice sounds fun, but that’s about it.

Actually, I’m doing a channel update video where I more or less state that’s the reason why the channel name changed from my name to “Ted’s Garage”.
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Checkout_my_Six said:
Daggonit....I came here to read about the tales of Ted's flying. I too have no desire to fight the ice and snow to aviate ....those days are over.

Full Disclosure: I havent' flown since November either. Life sometimes gets in the way of my aviation.
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No, other way around. Fighting the cold and ice and snow and flying in low IMC sounds fun to me. But I never really cared for flying on good weather days.

I shut down Cloud Nine in August, see the thread I posted on it. I miss some bits of it, but ultimately life has phases and I was ready to move on to the next one.
 
Ted said:
No, other way around. Fighting the cold and ice and snow and flying in low IMC sounds fun to me. But I never really cared for flying on good weather days.

I shut down Cloud Nine in August, see the thread I posted on it. I miss some bits of it, but ultimately life has phases and I was ready to move on to the next one.
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your kids need you.....good decision.
 
Ted said:
I’d argue the motorcycles (which I’m now riding a lot more, although only on nicer days and not in busy areas) are more dangerous than the winter/hard IFR flying I used to do in the MU2.
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Key phrase being "in the MU2".
 
jsstevens said:
Key phrase being "in the MU2".
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I probably should've added Aztec and 310 to that list as well.

The 414 I never ended up flying in bad winter weather, but that was more because of luck than anything else as it was broken a lot.

To add, I'm not advocating going out and flying in bad winter weather - especially for those flying aircraft not appropriately equipped. However, I always enjoyed it and I never scared myself doing it.

It's easy to wave judgmental fingers from the lounge chair of no first hand experience. But the reality is if you're on this forum, you participate in or are at least interested in an activity that has more risk than the average person considers acceptable. Y'all flying around in single engine planes, for instance, are nuts. ;)
 
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Ted said:
I probably should've added Aztec and 310 to that list as well.

The 414 I never ended up flying in bad winter weather, but that was more because of luck than anything else as it was broken a lot.

To add, I'm not advocating going out and flying in bad winter weather - especially for those flying aircraft not appropriately equipped. However, I always enjoyed it and I never scared myself doing it.

It's easy to wave judgmental fingers from the lounge chair of no first hand experience. But the reality is if you're on this forum, you participate in or are at least interested in an activity that has more risk than the average person considers acceptable. Y'all flying around in single engine planes, for instance, are nuts. ;)
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Yeah and I'm hoping to rectify that as soon as this pesky IR is done. But finding rental twins where I live is dang near impossible...

Get the rating in one, sure. Rent one after? Not so much.
 
jsstevens said:
Yeah and I'm hoping to rectify that as soon as this pesky IR is done. But finding rental twins where I live is dang near impossible...

Get the rating in one, sure. Rent one after? Not so much.
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And that right there is why I bought the Aztec.
 
jsstevens said:
Yeah and I'm hoping to rectify that as soon as this pesky IR is done. But finding rental twins where I live is dang near impossible...

Get the rating in one, sure. Rent one after? Not so much.
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Tail wheel is very similar. I’m trying to figure out a way to get one and make it available for training and rental at my local airport.
 
Ted said:
...Fighting the cold and ice and snow and flying in low IMC sounds fun to me. But I never really cared for flying on good weather days...
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Yet balloon, just because.
 
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TCABM said:
Yet balloon, just because.
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I’m actually not sure if I’ll finish the rating. That’s for another thread, but it’s a lot of coordination and effort. The flights I do enjoy but I don’t enjoy the limited control over where you land. We’ll see. My wife and I agreed to table it for a bit but we might just sell the thing.
 
Tarheelpilot said:
Tail wheel is very similar. I’m trying to figure out a way to get one and make it available for training and rental at my local airport.
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Got my tailwheel signoff 13 yrs ago, haven't flown a taildragger since. :(
 
I actually recorded this video a while ago about the start of working on the dashboard, but I posted it yesterday for those interested:

 
It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to touch the Cobra, but this afternoon I had some time to work on the wiring, and so I worked on the dashboard wiring.

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At this point if I turned the key all the electrical required for the engine to run would turn on (although I need to run the starter wire still).

I have to decide how much I want to do before first start since there are a lot of details needed before driving it, but it’s getting close to where I could hear it run if I wanted.
 
I managed to get some time working on the Cobra this morning, and tomorrow I expect I'll get most of the day to work on it. A lot of exciting things - all the gauges are now hooked up, I added oil to the engine for the first time, sealed up the cooling system and added water (doing water for the first go round in case I have a problem, and I'll drain it and put coolant in after the first start or two). The fuel system fittings are all tightened down, and I have my fuel pressure gauge on so I can set the regulator. I'll leave the gauge in place until after first start to make sure everything looks to be functioning as it should.

There's a few more wires that I need to solder in, and there are a few ground wires that I'm grounding to the engine that I need to bolt in place, and then I can start turning things on and seeing if things work. I'm excited. :)
 
Ted said:
That won’t be today. If nothing else that’s a “whole family must be present to witness” event.

Plus I’ll need extra people to hold (and probably use) fire extinguishers.
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It’s gonna take a bit of coordination to get the whole PoA family there. :)
 
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