Keeping in mind Speed of downloads and possibly host web size, I decided to post the Class stuff on a separate page. I took some where in the neighborhood of 50 Picts. Tonight I was able to get day one installed, I'll try and work on the rest tomorrow. Check my Cobra class experience.
January 26
Well, we are coming up on our Cobra class.
Leaving Thursday night and heading on up to Tri-State. We called ahead
to Mike Mack and he will have a set of headers available to look and and
buy if interested. I told Dad to make sure to bring the check book!
We can't wait!
I've been doing more research, attacking the Cobra Forum and re-reading Thomas' Website. Trying to gather up everyone's suggestions and decide what to do. This evening I went over some of the parts I got from Steeda. Mostly the engine electronics. They are bulky, but so cool. For those of you who stripped the wiring harnesses, was most of the "stripping" done in the other body harnesses? Much of it done to the engine harnesses? Just wondering.
Well, that's about it for now. I hope to have plenty of pictures to post when I get back.
January 22
Good bunch of the parts from Steeda Showed
up today. Christmas? Yes it was! We got the Supercharger, wiring harnesses
, the radiator, Control Arms, throttle body and odds and ends. Yes it is
starting, and we are just so excited, Dad wanted his picture taken. Well
I never said The Shuffletons don't dream. Tomorrow we hope to look
around at braided Fuel lines at a local shop.
January 18
Sorry it's been so long, I've been working on all the other projects
I need to try and finish before the Cobra shows up. Dad seems to
think that it will occupy all my time. I think he is right.
I've updated the price list, but it changes almost every day. I've become a daily call to Steeda, they are being very helpful. I keep adding things to our list. They will start sending everything minus the engine this week. Parts! It's starting. I will try and get the engine parts list more specific as soon as I can.
January 12
Well, it's time to show what kind of costs we are looking
at. Boy do I have some explaining to do. Well the Engine is a 302 block
with a 347 Stroker all blue printed. 30 lb. Injectors with GT40 Intake
Polished and ported. The latest Ford X heads, I believe is the name,
also ported. Vortech S-trim supercharger with Vortech Fuel rails,
and accessories. Braided fuel lines with T-rex and 190lb. in take fuel
pump. Tremac transmission with Complete rear-end including a 31 point spindle
and 3:27 rear end ( don't want the rear end spinning too much). And
a new radiator to top off. More about the engine and stuff as it comes
available, or maybe I understand it better. Costs
Page
Now I'm sure I'm going to start getting some responses about this before too long. I know it is a bit extravagant and a bit expensive. My Dad basically told me he wants to build a better engine then the one I have. My 94 GT is pretty maxed out with the stupid factory pistons and he just wanted to make sure he started out right (doesn't help I don't have the kind of financial backings he does). My Dad wanted to make sure he had a good strong engine that would kick-ass, yet not break every 6 months. I believe the Guys at Steeda are setting my Dad up the way he wants and he is happy and very excited. Please remember those of you out there wanting to build a Factory Five Cobra that this is in no way the typical cost of building one of these, please refer to Thomas' site for a more practical price. He is going more for the Original look, while being conscience of pricing. Using a Donor, yet adding his own personal touches.
We also Called up Greg LaPointe about getting the rest of the donor parts, electrical and front suspension and all the other stuff needed from a Donor. Greg was telling me, I've just about duplicated his car. Wow! The famous wheelie car! Well I assured him we were not going to be attempting any of those and he was more then happy to start on getting the parts for me in a week or Two. He did of course laugh at my price quoted by Steeda, but Dad's happy, which makes me happy.
Both Greg and Steeda should have their deposits by Thursday and we should be on our way. Kind of happy that part is done. Haven't been sleeping too well trying to figure out what I needed from both of them with out duplication. We'll see how I did.
Now I'll start working on the Autometer gauges and what we will use. We know they are not authentic looking, but man they look cool!
January 9
Yesterday Mom, Dad and I started off though
the Snowstorm attacking the east coast for the Factory Five Factory Tour.
(click on picture to see larger image)
I don't believe I have ever gotten out of bed so easy as I did today! Our appointment was at Nine. By Eight fifteen I was pushing Mom and Dad to finish their breakfast and get on our way. We showed up about 10 of, just in time to see a Cobra kit being loaded onto a flat bed trailer being pulled my a Ford Ranger. After walking in the front door we were greeted by Jesper. After a brief introduction we caught a peak at the schedule for today. There were 5 scheduled tours, each a half hour in length and ending at nine! Oh no, we thought, there is no way we can ask our 2 pages full of questions in just a half hour! Were they going to start pushing us along at about 9:30? After such a long trip was that going to be it?
Unfortunately the storm that we had driven through was now dumping
a steady rain, because as we signed a letter saying that we will not hold
FFR liable for us walking into a Arc welder or something like that, one
of the check boxes had an option to Test Drive One! Damn Weather got the
best of us again! Would that have been a treat!
(click on picture to see larger
image)
The joke was on them! After I asked if I could take pictures, I
was told I could take any picture I want except for the Jig that creates
the frame. No problem! Just put my back to it and took a couple pictures.
Oh the parts! Tons of them, everywhere! All organized, all setup for our
viewing pleasure. Little did we know but there were also 4 people scheduled
to pickup their cars today. That explains all the named boxes, frames and
bodies. Next we went over to the loading section and met the gentlemen
picking up their Cobra at that time (those in the Ranger). They were Driving
all the way to Michigan with the Cobra! Ouch! What a trip that will be.
We were also introduced to Mark Weber. He was helping the people from Michigan
setup. They had just put on the Carbon Fiber body onto the trailer. That
was probably the one thing we really wanted to see of all the things we
were coming for. It looked great! As we expected, it would look great as
stripes but not as a whole body color. Too many seams all over the place.
Next Jesper brought us over the Cars in another building down the road. As we walked in the first thing I noticed was a White body Cobra all apart with an Engine that did not quite look like a 5.0. A brief turn to the left and what should I see but ... 5 Cobras! And Mark and David Smith! Did not expect to see them there! After introductions, they remembered our names because of two reasons. One, us ordering the Car before the Trip to the factory and the class, but also because they had signed a letter congratulating our Dad on his cool Christmas Present. Guess we made a small impression before we even got there.
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(click on picture to see larger
image)
As you can kind of see I did a
panoramic view of what we saw. Picture one shows Jesper's Cobra.
Twin Turbo beast with Cobra R Rims and Slicks. The Frame in the fore ground
is apparently a old Ferrari Race Car frame that Mark is working on restoring.
Picture two is a typical Cobra ( hood up), while the one on the Right (Blue
and white at 45 degree angle), I believe is Mark Weber's. And picture three
is the famous Carbon Fiber wreak from the Run and Gun 98. Mark said it
was good to see what damage could be done and still come out OK.
Mom agreed fully! On the far right is a frame they have powder coated.
Looked real good.
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(click on picture to see larger image)
Yes, I decided to make everyone
see Dad and I in a Cobra. The first time for us ever to sit in one. And
for me, it was actually the first time I had seen one up close. Dad sure
had a big smile on his face!
Well we were watching tours come in and leave, we were taking up almost all of Mark, David, and Jesper's time. I know, we were kind of hogging them, but they were answering questions as fast a we could throw them out. We actually saw the list of customers on the delivery list and we were third from top. Wish I had taken a picture of that. The White Cobra I saw up front was a 427/460 with the independent rear suspension. They asked if I would not take a picture of that since it was still in development, which I said was no problem. David said a new revision of the manual was do out soon as well the construction video. Both would be sent out to customers who already purchased the kit and those who have already gotten their kit within the past couple of months. He said the new Manual is almost doubled in size!
The Cobra Dad and I sat in, as well as Jesper's Twin turbo had Autometer gauges. The family agreed immediately that they looked great and we would use them. The decision partly was based on the Super charger we are installing and you really should have a boost and Fuel Pressure gauge for it. And rather then mixing gauges, just go with the Autometers. We know it will be taking away from the original look, but ... that's us. We figure it should also be very easy to hook up.
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on picture to see larger image)
After we realized it was coming up on 11:30, it was time to let them go home to their families and start our trek home.
Thanks to all that have E-mailed me about this site. You are all very inspiring and if you have any questions about our trip I'd be more then happy to answer any questions you might have. If you get a chance to go visit them, I think you'd find it would be worth your time.
January 5
Hopefully tomorrow I'll get the estimate from
my friend at Steeda. I've spent a good deal of time talking about options
and parts. Looks like we will be starting almost from scratch with this
car. I hope to spend a lot of time tomorrow on the webpages updating the
price list as well try and explain what what we will be getting and why.
I can't say enough good things about the help and kindness people have given me about this Cobra. I've gotten tons of responses from the Forum at http://www.ss-cars.com/forum. Many people have contributed to my decision on building this Cobra. Most of those I hope to acknowledge tomorrow on this site.
January 3
Added more webpages and finally added a few of our costs to the
Costs page.
I'll probably add the tools and stuff soon, maybe on a different page.
I don't want to "fudge-up" the numbers on the Cobra with the costs of our
tools. Since we are new at this, we've had to go out and by lots of tools.
Some, like the compressor, may not be necessary, but add to the cost.
After Discussion, we decided that tools will not be apart of the costs page. Since we will be able to use the tools for other projects and are not directly applied to the Cobra, we will leave them out. Only tools bought specifically for the Cobra will be included in the cost.
I will be calling my friend at Steeda tomorrow to talk about Dad's Engine. Dad woke up the other day and said "I need a supercharger". Well now I'm calling to add a Vortech to the list, type to be determined tomorrow. I hope to soon have a parts list for it tomorrow also.