Boot Locks and Latches

As with many things, of you are looking for explicit instructions in the manual you wont find it for fitting the locks and latches so I'll try to add some more info on here.

First up try to find a centre line on the car. This is a combination of a number of measurements from measuring the width of the car, to the gap between roll bars, to the width of the boot. Ultimately I recommend going with what looks right, rather than what's perfect by measurement as the car is not symmetrical.

Once you have a centre line down the boot (to where the handle goes) then measure 230mm either side of the for the boot hinges. You can make a paper template of the hinges as they don't come with a rubber gasket to use which can then be used to mark the holes or you can lay the hinge on its side in position to mark the holes.

Don't forget to get your gaps around the boot right before you drill!

Once you have drilled one side then make a template of the actual holes and use this to mark the other hinge otherwise you will end up not quite accurate across both hinges (which is one of the attention to detail things that winds me up)

Bolting them on it easy, attach to the body first then get a helper and attach to the boot.

Next mask up for the boot light. This task is very straight forward, just use the gasket to mark out where you want the light and then drill two 5mm holes for the bolts and one 7.5mm (countersunk) for the wiring hole. Drill right through both skins of the boot then open up the inside bolt holes to 12mm or 13mm so you can get a socket in to put on the nut (the bolts don't go through both skins)

There is measurement in the manual for where to drill the hole for the lock handle so I measure one on another Cobra (thanks Ken). This suggests I needed to drill the hole 45mm from the bottom of the boot. This seemed to work out ok as I drilled it out to 12mm (through both skins) and then 20mm in the outer skin.

Following this you need to cut two small notches for the lock to locate into which you can use the gasket to mark out, as you can with the 5mm bolt holes.

To fit the latch you will need to cut an access hole which you can do with a cutting disk on the angle grinder after drilling a 12mm hole in either end of where the access hole needs to be.

That's as far as I have got with this job, so hopefully the next set of posts will complete this job.

You can see the lights dangling down from te underside of the car. This is because I have drilled and fitted the wiring but intend to attach them to the nudge bar until after IVA where there will be replaced with chromed ones.