Holidays almost over

Well, time certainly passes quickly and the holidays are almost over and its back to the real world. I have had some progress on the build, but I wouldn't really call it building. As Steve from the Alberta Cobra Club pointed out, the assembly manual is more of a rough guide rather than an in-depth, step by step instructional manual. Alex and I did an inventory, and I was amused to realize that many of the words on the packing list had no meaning in my mind. Although well described, I really don't know what some of the things look like, so I have to assume that some things are present in the many ziploc bags that are in the many boxes.

Nevertheless, I have been working away at learning and figuring things out. The Internet and the FFCobra website have been invaluable. What did we do before the internet? I suspect that many people just gave up, or didn't even start a project like this. Maybe they were smart.

My big job for the next few weeks is to source more parts. I have been to Princess Auto to buy tools and such twice this week, been to Sears to pick up other tools, been to Home Depot to pick up a fluorescent ceiling light since the garage was too dark for my aging eyes and been to Canadian Tire to look over more tools. I guess this is all part of the "fun" and keeps the brain focused so that the unhappy thoughts of real life don't intrude too deeply into one's consciousness.

Well, in regards to actually building, I pulled off the aluminum sheeting after pre-marking the chassis locations, and started assembling the ball joints and the front upper control arms. I provisionally fastened them to the chassis. Who knew this was what keeps the steering working on a car. I was a little worried when the Mk3build.com site indicated that if these ball joints loosen and fail this could be "extremely dangerous". This perked me up and made me think that I should probably test fit many times and keep a record of all of those things that need to be "torqued" and locked.

Oh, need to get a torque wrench. The one I bought on Wednesday doesn't go up to the required torque value. And so it goes on...