Building a GD427 Cobra Replica

The rear hubs have been waiting for 2 parts to be galvanised; the water throwers. I bought these new as the originals were very pitted and dented.

It costs something like € 70,- to galvanise a box of parts. It does not matter if that box has 2 bits or is cramped full. So, I’ve been gathering things to fill the box with, but kind of struggled to get a reasonably filled box. As I do want to finish the rear end of the suspension soonish, the box was delivered to Galvin to process. It should be back here within 2 or 3 weeks or so.

Not sure how I am going to fit the throwers onto the hub though. There is a small edge on the hubs over which the throwers should be ‘clicked’. Obviously I do not want to damage the throwers so I’ll either need to find a way to equalize the pressure over the circumference or heat it up so it sort of drops over it automatically. The edge seems to be smaller at the bottom than at the top, so heating it seems a plausible way to go.

Once I get them back, I’ll give that a try first.

With the engine on the way, I went to Buitelaar machinehandel to pick up an engine stand and crane and some other things which had been on my shopping list for a while. Combined it was worth a trip. If you’re a “tool nerd” that shop is definitely worth a visit. Don’t forget the drool bib.

I went for the el cheapo option on the stand and crane; this showed during assembly. I had to augment the bolt pack inside with quite a few to get the things assembled, but alas it’s there now.

While I was there I noticed a little gadget which seemed perfect to set the camber and castor for the suspension.

It’s capable of doing both absolute and relative angle measurements and has a magnetic base. Sounds perfect in theory. I’ll report back on how the thing works out in practice.

While waiting on the return of all the suspension components from the galvanizer, there is not much to do. One thing is to prepare the rear hubs for buildup.

I started to put in the bearing tracks. The fulcrum ones are relatively easy.

The innner and outer bearing track is a different story though. Even with the proper bearing drifts it takes quite a bit of hammering to drive them home. After having done two, or rather one and a half i phoned the local garage with the question if i could use their press. That made it a lot easier! It did hurt a bit too see my hubs getting dirty again though. d55fa93843f7f09cb422efdeec15c2f1 65f3d5284cef500e1450220b99f111ff

and the stuff is blue! I’m sold.

Spent the better parts of two days with my hands in the blasting cabinet, peeking through a window which doesn’t reveal a whole lot of what is inside, due to the dust.

After a while I fabricated a suction device from an old vacuum cleaner. That helped a lot, until the vacuum cleaner decided to short out and smoke a bit.

This morning I gathered all the parts and delivered them to Galvin where I had the hand brake parts treated too. This time the parts will be yellow-passivated, because that will provide a better profile for coatings than the blue passivation. Got some compliments of the guy at the factory, he said the parts he usually got to treat looked a bit different.