My right front fender lip was only about 1/16" thick along the trailing edge of the fender.  I decided to lay up about 6 layers of fiberglass in build up the edge to about 1/4" so I could radius nicely.  

I'm almost done filling the doors and trunk latch hole.  Just need to finish sanding them and they'll be ready for primer too. 

I installed my freshly jethot coated headers using the high-dollar aluminum insert header gaskets.  These are supposed to be nearly leak proof and the inserts are replacable.  We'll see!  I also used Stage-8 locking header bolts, although the combindation of the thicker header gasket, and FFR's super thick header flange make these a bit short in my opinion.  Only have about 1/4" thread engagement.  I may change them.

I finally got around to installing my AC pedals that Beth got me for Xmas.  I was procrastinating since I was sure it would be a real bear to get the brake pedal out of the car since the footbox is all riveted shut.  It was tough, but not horrible.  The pedals look AWESOME!!  I'm very happy with them.  I may move the gas pedal up a bit, but overall it was a success.

One possible problem area of the FFR upper A-arms is that they tend to slip at the mounting bolts under extreme braking or cornering.  Not cool unless you own an alignment shop!  John Lisman on the cobraforum makes some really nice "alignment widgets" that lock the mounting points in place and also make it much easier to align.  I'm too cheap and my budget is already out of hand, or else I'd have bought John's widgets.  So, I took some hardware store 3/8" fine thread nuts and 1.25" long bolts and made my own alignment adjusting screws.  Looks like they will work perfectly!

I ordered and recieved the steering shaft bezel and gas strut support kit for the trunk from Mike Everson.  He's katam25 on cobraforum.  Really nice stuff Mike!

I have decided to run a defroster as well as the heater.  The only problem is that there's only about 1" of room between the body and the top of my heater.  About the same amount of room at the gauges.  I decided to mold my own fiberglass defroster duct after seeing a similar one that Classic Roadsters molds into their body.  I cut out some cardboard in the shape of a trough, lined it w/ wax paper and layed up a few layers of fiberglass cloth and resin.  I'll cut in a nozzle for connecting the ductwork to the heater box and then epoxy the duct to the underside of the cowl.   Finally, I'll cut a couple defroster slots up through the body and finish them off with the vent covers from Finish Line.  Looks like it just might work!

I also ordered some 3/8" carpet padding and heat barrier stuff from JC Whitney.   It's lined with aluminum and is supposed to be good up to 700 degrees!   Hopefully it will cut down on road noise and keep my feet a little cooler.

I kept the garage temperature elevated to about 75 degrees for the rest of the day to help the gel cure.  The next day, I tried to sand the gel, and the paper clogged on the first stroke!  The gel felt dry, but was impossible to sand.  No problem, I'll just wait a few days for the stuff to fully cure.....Yeah RIGHT!    No change after 4-5 days.  Bummer.  At this point, I seriously considered taking the whole mess to a body shop and letting them finish.

The gel coat is thinned with acetone, so I thought I'd try to wipe some off.  The acetone cut right through what appeared to be the last coat, but the underlying gel was untouched.  After the acetone flashed off, I was able to successfully sand the underlying gel.  Wooohoooo!!!   Lots of paper towels and lots of acetone later, I had all the tacky outer layer of gel removed and was able to start blocking out the gel coat.  Once dry, the stuff sands and feathers out beautifully.  I'm not sure if I'll spray any more.  I don't want to take the chance of it not curing again.

Frustrated with the gel coat, I decided to work more on the defroster duct.  The flexible hose I bought is 2" (JC Whitney), so I used a 2" hole saw to cut a hole in the new duct.  Then I cut a square piece of aluminum out of a soda can, rolled it up and covered it with wax paper.  I inserted it through the 2" hole and glassed around it.  The result was a perfect 2" nozzle on my duct.  Once cured, I removed the aluminum and wax paper.  Finally, I cleaned up all the edges with a random orbit sander.

I'm not exactly sure where the defroster slots were located on the original Cobras.  I decided it would be best to locate them directly in front of the driver and passenger.  I marked the slot locations, then used my plunge router and 3/8" bit to cut the slots.  I clamped a straight edge on the body to use as a guide for the router.  The slots look almost good enough to use as is, without the aluminum vent covers I got from Finishline!   I'm very pleased with the results of the defroster design.  Hopefully, I did my calculations correctly, and nothing will interfere with the heater, firewall, dash-hoop, or gauges.

I finished filling and sanding the door skin seam, as well as radiusing the door lip.   I also spend a great deal of time prepping the hood scoop opening to make it look nice.  The hood edges and hood scoop opening have been radiused and sanded.  The hood is also all blocked, and ready for primer.

I started block sanding the gel coat on the main body.  Did I mention I hate sanding?  I broke up the sanding by working on the wheel well lips, forming a nice radiused edge.  I also sanded the front and rear cockpit edges to a uniform thickness and radiused the edges to look like they're rolled under.  They don't look like the original, but they do look alot better than just a square fiberglass edge!

I think after about 1 more good weekend of blocking and filling pinholes, I'll be ready for primer.  I'm using Dupont URO primer.  Expensive stuff!  But, it's supposed to be good primer and doesn't shrink like the old lacquer based primers.   Did I mention the pinholes?!?!?!?  There must be a million of them.  I hope I find them all before paint!