Chassis Arrival

One of the most significant steps in the entire build process is the arrival of the body and chassis from AK. This was planned for a Friday afternoon in late autumn 2018 (this blog was written a little after the fact). After making what I thought was good progress in stripping down and cleaning the donor parts, it soon dawned on me that I still had a lot of dirty jobs to do and not that much time left, as the chassis was arriving in two weeks. After this realization, there was a rush for two weeks in getting the remaining donor parts stripped, cleaned and painted. Again many thanks to Ian for traveling up north and assisting a few weekends before the arrival date.

Storage plan

When you purchase the kit from AK you have to take delivery of both the chassis and body at the same time. Whilst building up the chassis, the body needs to be stored elsewhere. The slight problem here is that I have an odd shaped single garage and so the plan is to support the body in the garage roof space. Further, due to the design of garage door, the body would need to hang perpendicular to the length of the garage/chassis. Whilst this might seem odd, it is made easier by the pair of large RSJ’s which span the garage roof and should easily take the extra weight of the body. Upon measuring the garage and comparing it with the AK 427 dimensions given in the build manual, it appears the body will be a tight fit. To ensure the body could be position and lifted into the roof space I made a simplistic CAD model of my garage and the body to check the fit. 

CAD image of cobra body in the garage.

With this CAD model, I could also sketch out how the body would be lifted and supported. The basic concept was to create a frame for the body to sit on, which can then be hoisted up in the roof space with a pair of chain hoists. The inspiration for this plan came from Mark’s blog. 

Doing a little more digging on the Cobra forum, I found a lot of useful information. Firstly, Jon states the body alone weighs approximately 200 kg; so a wooden frame should be sufficient to lift the body and I don’t need a heavy duty chain hoist. Secondly, I also found this gem of information in regards to how to support the body 

Extract from a post on http://www.cobraclub.com/forum/.

With all the above in mind, the plan was to create a wooden, rectangular frame, with planks passing under the body separated by 1.09 m e.g. the spacing between the first two positions given above. The frame and body will then be lifted by a pair of ropes looped over the body at the key lifting points and on to two chain hoists. To keep these ropes away from the body, an additional plank of wood is placed over the body and the ropes pass through drilled holes. Once the body is lifted in place, to avoid relying on the chain hoist, a pair of ratchet straps will be looped over the wooden frame (same path as the ropes) and the RSJ’s. The body will then be lowered onto these straps so they take the weight and not the hoists. Lastly, the boot would then be supported by a separate plank of wood which is attached to a piece of rope looped over the RSJ’s. I did not use a strap here since most of the weight is being taken up by the other two locations, this is just to prevent the boot from sagging.

If this plan didn’t work, I had a backup plan, which was to add legs to the above frame and place this over the top of the chassis. This is not an ideal solution as due to the overhanging garage door, it would limit the working space above the chassis. 

With the plan hatched and a backup plan in place, it was time to order the required parts. This included the following items: 

• 2 x 2.5 m, 1-ton chain hoist
• 2 x 1 m lifting strops
• 1 x 2 m lifting strops
• 50 m of 10 mm PP rope
• 6 lengths of pine, 38 mm x 89mm x 2.4m (main supports)
• 3 lengths of pine 38 mm x 63mm x 2.4m (bracing)

Delivery Day

Having taken the delivery day off from work, I was up early and in the garage getting it clean and tidy ready for the arrival. The first step was to remove all the paper and cardboard which I had stuck to the floor whilst stripping and cleaning the donor parts. Then the floor was given a quick clean with a mop and soapy water. 

Dirty garage – newspaper and cardboard where I had been stripping the donor parts.

Clean garage, with a mopped floor.

Once the garage was cleaned and the floor dried, the next step was to build the wooden frame for the body. This was a case of laying the wooden planks on the floor, checking and double checking the measurements before drilling and screwing in place. 

Wooden frame built to support body.

No sooner had I finished the frame than a fellow local builder, Mark arrived. We are both around the same stage in our respective AK builds and have been discussing plans/problems over email and WhatsApp for a few months, which has been great help! Being an engineer, Mark has a great depth of knowledge and having also previously stripped down and rebuilt a TransAm muscle car, he has lots of knowledge about the funny imperial systems. I look forward to sharing many beers with mark over the coming years whilst discussing cobras and trying to solve the numerous upcoming challenges. 

After a cup of tea and a chat, the closed AK trailer containing my AK 427 arrived. Even though I had sneaked up to the AK factory a few weeks prior and seen the finished body and chassis, seeing the car outside my house was very exciting. 

What presents lie within – happy days!

The body and chassis in a closed trailer.

The body and chassis arrived temporally assembled together on a metal frame which had small wheels. This metal frame made it a lot easier to get the ‘car’ out of the closed trailer and onto the road. Maneuvering and getting the ‘car’ up the kerb and onto the drive was a little more challenging. This was made a lot easier with the help of Mark and the expert and experienced advice of Noel (AK delivery driver). The small wheels did offer some resistance to the comparatively large step of the dropped kerb, but a few small pieces of wood resolved this. A time-lapse video of the ‘car’ being pushed into the garage is below. 

With the body and chassis in the garage, it was time to remove all the additional parts supplied by AK. This included the refurbished and modified suspension components, door cards and supplied nuts and bolts. Then, with the roll bars hoops removed, the body was lifted off the chassis and placed on a wooden pallet on the drive. 

Body off chassis and sitting on the drive.

With the chassis also out of the garage and off its trolley, it was time to put the body on the DIY wooden frame. Despite the predicted tight fit, with one person at each corner of the body, it easily rotated and fitted into the garage and onto the frame. With the aid of some half hitches and some bowlines, the ropes past over the body and onto the chain hoist hooks. With very gentle and slow turns of the chain, the body began to lift into the air. It took a few goes at leveling the body by adjusting the ropes and shifting the body, but eventually, the body was up in the roof space and away from the walls. This was such a relief, although, it became apparent that the body was not as high as I would have hope as both myself and Mark kept hitting our heads on the frame. 

Chassis and body finally in the garage.

Although we could get the body higher, given the time of day, we decided to start packing up and head in for a beer,. This meant bringing the chassis back into the garage and placing the AK required donor’s parts into Noels trailer. 

Donor parts required by AK.

Whilst the body is an easy four-person lift, with the bulk and lack of handholds being the main issue, the chassis is considerably heavier. With careful lifting, this was then put back in the garage on thick cardboard. This was not put on stands, as it will need to be taken out again to adjust the body.

Chassis sitting on cardboard.

The next day, with more energy I went back into the garage to raise the height of the body and secure it more permanently with ratchet straps. Luckily the body was still hanging, and yes I was nervous about this. With the ropes shortened the body was now sitting high enough. Then using a ladder, the ratchet straps were passed over the RSJ’s and looped around the body. The body was then lowered onto these straps to remove the weight from the chain hoist.

Body raised above head height (ish) and secured with straps.

With the body finally up and stored, the chassis was lifted and put on four axel stands. The positions for these axel stands were taken from a quick review of other AK build blogs. There doesn’t appear to be a standard agreed position, so I’m sure these will move as I build up the rolling chassis. 

Chassis lifted onto axel stands ready for building up.

With the body and the chassis supported, the final step was to check I had all the required parts supplied with the kit. The was a simple task of laying the parts on the garage floor, reading the attached labels and checking them against the supplied AK list. I decided to leave these parts in the bubble wrap to protect them until they are required. 

Supplied AK parts.

When I opened the supplied bolts and nuts, I realized that AK supplies each size of nut/bolt in a separate zip bag. Whilst this makes it easier to ship, to make my life easier whilst building the kit, I decided to re-order them so each zip bag contained a complete set of bolts, nuts, and washers as listed for each job in the build manual. Although this job took a long hour, hopefully, it will save time later. 

Nuts and bolts arranged into bags for each part.

Before I build up the front or rear suspension, I need to finish the cleaning and painting of the differential and rear hub carrier. This is a topic for another post.