[big_daddy_tone]

Thanks for the replies - great encouragement and many thanks for offers to help.

Much of this is "tongue in cheek" but still feel that a "lock set" should be all that's needed to "lock". After all, if you order 2 headlights and all you get is 2 bulbs, would it be reasonable to be told that you " fabricate" the reflector and lens because each kit has different requirements? Perhaps what is needed is more transparency... ie this is the outside brightwork but you need to fabricate XYZ to make it work. Then no one should feel upset that the lock set dosen't lock.

Or as another example... a stainless steel roll bar to fit XYZ Cobra.... Stainless steel is a hard and expensive material to cut and why do you have to cut so much off? Having it the right size in the first place would obviate the need to cut say 4 or 5 inches off each end so that it would clear a hard or soft top. If it were the right length, you would not be paying up to say around 25% of the tubing cost just to throw it away.

I am building an AK Cobra and I have to say that the service / help / advice I have received from the Freeman family has been outstanding and, in my estimation, second to none.

I agree that building a complex machine is never going to be without problems and these will differ from builder to builder.

I just needed to let off steam as it seems that most things that are not made by the Cobra kit supplier, that all the builders need to source elsewhere, are missing something to make them fit or require modification. To me, only the more masochistic people ( or probably those with more skills, resources and equipment) enjoy paying for something that is never going to "work out of the box" but find it great fun planning for a weekend to manufacture a widget to do the job.... however, each to his own.....