12-20-2007 Santa didn't come early

Right before Christmas, I came across another Cobra for sale locally; just a couple of miles from my house, in fact. The car was built by Todd Twillman--a beautiful, yellow FFR with black stripes. It was equipped with an AOD behind a stock 302, just about perfect for what I want. The asking price was $21,000--again, right in line.

Sue and I test rode it. It was fine. We both fit well, the noise was just right, impressive but you could converse. The ride was just right. Perky acceleration but not ridiculous. The paint and body was nice but not so perfect that you'd be afraid to drive it. There was plenty of information online about the car as it was being built and driven over the past several years.

Thousands of miles with fine reliability. Even a couple of videos of Todd's car at a dragstrip.

It had been listed on Craigslist for about 2 weeks after being for sale at a local car museum for several months. The day of my test ride, another person who had seen the online ad also took a test ride. He was from Springfield, MO and put an offer in on the car below the asking price. He was also quite anxious to buy it.

Todd was kind enough to call me back and let me get in on the bidding. It was a very tough decision for me and the hurried time pressure was uncomforting. Anyway, I swallowed hard and offered Todd his full asking price. An hour or so later, I heard from Todd that the other guy topped me by a grand. I really did not feel comfortable enough to go further, so I let him have it.

In hindsight, I kind of wish I had gone farther. Simply put, there was no way that another deal on a finished car could ever come along so good. I liked the car, the history of the build, the price, the location, the owner...almost everything. If the "buy and drive a pre-built one at an acceptibly low price" strategy was going to prevail, this was surely the car. And I missed out on it.

11-7-2007

I looked at another finished Cobra this week. This one has traded hands a couple of times and is currently owned by a guy in Arnold. It has 28,000 miles on it and was originally a Contemporary Classics build. I don't think it was a full kit, just the body. It had a nice crate 302 motor in it. I had originally seen it as an Ebay auction. The guy told me that his reserve price was set for 18,500.

In fact, I did not like the car very much. It was a manual transmission and did not have any kind of driver side footbox relief, so it was VERY tight for me. In particular though, the interior looked incredibly cheap. The dashboard looked like someone had unfolded a couple of cereal boxes for the cardboard, then used Elmer's glue and black construction paper to look like it was vinyl. That may be harsh, but you get the idea. It is very obvious to see where the 10 grand or so is saved. It was a shame because the body was very nice, although the paint was not very good. It sounded great and the guy drives it a bit almost every day with no mechanical troubles at all and says it is a blast. He is in the car business. Below is a picture.



I will be curious to see if it reaches the reserve price. I could see buying it but not at that reserve. Only if it was an unbeatable bargain. I will keep looking.

11-1-2007 Long overdue update

This post has a lot of updating.

I did go back to Run N Gun the next day and did take a few pictures that worked.





After that, another thing I did was look at a guy in Ballwin who had an unfinished kit for sale locally. It turned out that it was a little too homegrown for my tastes, a B&B frame with a hodgepodge of other stuff. The deal was quite good, but the lack of support and engineering was too much for me.

After that, I kind of focused on buying a finished car again, but the best one I found ended up selling for $24,000. It was out in California, so lots of issues in pulling that trigger. Not seeing it, transporting, etc. Very capable builder though; the car would have been fine.

Now, I am back to thinking that I may buy a kit and build one from scratch. Timing seems okay now with the rest of my life and my elbow feels great after a recent cortisone injection. I have even gone ahead and bought two seat heaters that were on sale for $100, regularly $175. Here is a pic.



Now I just need a kit. I also have a new lead on an engine/transmission. 302/AOD.

10-11-2007 Wow, where did the month go

A month since I posted. Sorry.

I went to the Run N Gun today over at Gateway Speedway. I'd never been there and it was really very fun. It is the big annual gathering of many of these hobbyist racers, mostly Cobras, but many others. I'd say there were maybe 50 to 100 cars there. I watched about an hour of the autocross and another hour of road racing. I also took lots of pictures, but none of them turned out. I must have screwed something up. Sorry. Maybe I will go back tomorrow morning for more of the road racing and some of the drag racing. I was supposed to pay $10 to be a spectator, but damned if I could figure out where or to whom. Maybe if I had tried to go down into the infield through the tunnel. It was cool enough as it was, though.

On my own car front, I have sent an email to a guy selling a kit he has had for 2 years but never finished. He lives out in Ballwin and is only asking 14,500 for it. Lots of good stuff...tires and wheels, engine and auto tranny, hard top, etc. Not sure what is missing yet, still waiting to hear back from him. I hope I will be able to set up something with him to look at it next week. The biggest problem with it that I know of is that it is a B&B kit. They've been around since 1977, and they look fine, but the online support and community is not what it is for Hurricane or FFR.

Not giving up

I have not totally given up on the Cobra project. Last Friday, I tried to take the family to a cruise-in but we got swamped with rain shortly after getting there. Any Cobras that might have been there were long gone.

I got a call last Friday from Ron at Hurricane. Nice chat. I told him about my attention being more aimed at Sue than the car and he was very understanding. He said he'd contact me again in a couple of months.

Today, I saw a craigslist ad for a 92 T Bird 302 engine and AOD tranny. Asking price is $900. Comes with harness and computer, so it would give me everything I need to drop in the Hurricane. I sent an email to try to find out more of its circumstances, mileage, etc.

No news

Nothing happened this week on the car front. For now, I am focusing more of my attention on my new friendship with Sue. I am still going to be looking around at stuff on the car, but I don't expect much action. Sue has a nice Solara convertible that has reinforced my appreciation for open skies, so that is a nice short run solution to that desire--just let her drive us around.

8-19-2007 -- Why an automatic transmission?

Putting an automatic transmission into a Cobra is considered by some to be blasphemous. I might be willing to listen to the reasons for sticking with a manual transmission, but I think the auto option would be so much easier to drive for me and almost everyone I know. Perhaps nothing makes the case as well as the following video on You Tube....

Video



Ouch!!

Clarence, Iowa

I saw another nice possibility this week on Ebay. A guy in Clarence, Iowa had a Lincoln Towncar engine and auto tranny for sale asking just $800. The car had over 230,000 miles, but the engine was brand new less than 50,000 miles ago and the tranny was rebuilt at the same time. The engine wiring harness and computer were to be included as well. He even offered to deliver it for $1 a mile. If I were really committed to doing this, I could probably have gone for it. I emailed him and did not really forsee any titling troubles. It ended up that nobody bought it and he has re-listed it. Maybe in another week or so I will have more conviction that I really want to go ahead.

08-05-07 Another bad engine

Very little happening right now on the car front. Early in the week, I identified another engine/tranny possibility on craigslist. It was a 92 T-Bird, 302 and AOD automatic. This one was complete with computer and engine wiring harness. I talked to the seller, Mike, and he was very nice. But there were 2 problems that I was not willing to accept. The engine had 180,000 or so miles on it, although Mike said it was good when he got it, no blowback. The other problem was with the title. There were about 5 owners of this original car, and there was some dispute somewhere along the way. So I was not willing to go this route--just too risky.

There were 2 cruise-ins this past Friday. Another out in Wentzville that was supposedly well attended by Cobras. And the usual one at the church on Gravois where this time, there were not any Cobras committed to going. I ended up going to neither one. It was tough timing, and there was a last minute rainstorm that came in, so I decided to bag it.

7-29-07 -- Almost nothing going on

The only thing that happened this week was that I saw another ad on the local craigslist. It is for a 302 engine and AOD tranny from a T-Bird. This one also comes with the engine harness and computer, so it is basically complete. I have no idea about its mileage though. The ad said it was sound, but I have not heard back from the seller yet. Now that I am back in town, I will try to follow up this week.

Almost nothing happening

The car project is definitely in a rut. I did find out early last week the Art did in fact have his engine buyer pick up the engine from him out in Arnold. Back to the drawing board. Nothing remotely hot on the landscape. I should call the Kansas City leads I got from Hurricane.

7-15-2007 -- Off again

Well, the engine deal with the guy in Arnold appears to be off again. I got an email from Art earlier in the week, and he said his auction winner (from Memphis) did manage to come up with a $200 deposit to hold it until yesterday. I sent Art an email today and haven't heard anything back, so I presume that I am not going to be getting the engine from him afterall. Here is a picture of it...


You never know.

I did also get an email from a guy at Hurricane. He had a couple of leads for me to call in Kansas City that might be able to supply my engine/tranny needs. Haven't gotten a chance to call them yet, but will this week, once I am sure the Arnold deal is dead.

7-9-2007--Crummy looking shed

Funny how posting pictures on the web makes you appreciate the way things really look. Take for instance, the storage shed on the side of my house. Last week I posted a picture of it, not thinking anything really all that wrong with it. Here is that picture...





So with a little encouragement from Baba, here is what it looks like after a going over with a $2 rattle can of white Rustoleum...



The grass-laden driveway will have to wait for an equally cheap solution, I am afraid.

7-8-2007--Engine deal alive again?

I got a surprise this week--an email from the guy in Arnold (Art Gordon)who had the engine/transmission auction on Ebay that I bid on and came in 2nd. Well, now it looks like his supposed auction winner is going to be backing out. Not sure why.

So I told Art that I would still be interested his stuff and that I would live up to my highest bid which was $940. I was very comfortable bidding up to $900 at the time and went a little higher just to be sure that I would not regret losing out for one last bid. I also felt okay driving the eventual price up a tad to compensate Art for the time he spent with me talking about this project.

So it looks like I may have a deal on the engine and transmission afterall! I did get Art to agree to load it on his pickup and deliver it to my house, and I also got him to include the original driveshaft, which will have to be cut down, but does save me a little bit of money in not having to buy a brand new one. For another $100, he is tossing in his engine hoist. Saves me from having to spend $180plus for a new one at Sam's. Unfortunately for me, he had sold the shifter for the transmission with the interior stuff he was selling.

Assuming our deal goes through, probably by late this upcoming week, I will still need to acquire some things to make it all work. An engine wiring harness, a computer to control things, a shifter, speedometer cabling, perhaps some things to eliminate the PS, A/C, etc. But I have plenty of wiggle room on my original $3300 budget for this stuff, and should not have to think about touching the contingency budget.

7-7-2007--Fenton Cruise-In

Last night I went to my first car show (not counting the Wentzville show where I mainly just got drenched in the rain after seeing a handful of non-Cobra cars). I heard about it from the Gateway Factory Five Racing Owners Group (FFROG). It was at the big non-denominational church on Gravois, very near my house. I figured it would be a small gathering of a few vintage car people, but I figured I could start networking with a couple of local COBRA owners.

Boy, was I ever wrong. The show was huge and the crowds were enormous. There were HUNDREDS of vintage cars there. Maybe close to a thousand! There was even a waiting line for vintage cars to even get into the display area because there were no more spaces left! Dozens just parked in a line waiting for someone to leave. And the spectator parking lot was jammed too.

I spent an hour there. I saw 4 Cobras and met a couple of the owner/builders. Tom Keiser and Skip Wiese. Got a few tips from them on paint and licensing. Mainly just made contact, though.

The dumbest thing I did was forget my camera--sorry folks. There is a standard amongst this community that if there are no pictures (or video) that it just didn't happen. That just has not become second nature for me yet. Oh well, they have this car gathering every month on the first Friday, so I will try to go back next month with a camera.

7-1-2007 -- No good news

I spent most of the week pursuing an EBAY auction on an engine/automatic transmission that was up for sale by a guy in Arnold, just 5 miles or so from my house. Man, it sounded perfect. Low miles, 5.0L 302, fuel injection, 1993 Lincoln with just 1 owner who was a real car guy, a racing engine builder, who obviously took great care of it. I spent an hour with him prior to bidding and was very comfortable with the two items. The only downsides were no wiring harness and no computer. They would have to have been purchased separately for $200-300.

Long story short, I lost the bidding. I went to $940 but the eventual winner was higher. It was very disappointing. The owner seemed intrigued by my project and could have been a great help besides just supplying the power plant. Wish we had hooked up prior to the auction, somehow.

I talked to Hurricane last week and got the impression that I could probably be grandfathered in at the old prices, once they raise them 2 grand, presumably this week. The guy there actually was going to try to help me with search.

I am not sure at this point if I should just give up or maybe just bite the bullet, figuring I will eventually get the engine thing worked out. In a way, I am leaning towards getting started under the assumption I will find an acceptable 302 deal. Maybe slow down expectations on the time frame on the whole project. This basically makes 3 or 4 different solutions that would have worked in the last 2 or 3 weeks. Just never quite the perfect deal.

6-24-2007 -- Garage stuff

So, I think I am going to try to get into a routine of religously making a new posting every Sunday night, at a minimum. When other big stuff happens I will make additional posts.

Anyway, this week did not show too much progress on the decision to commit to doing this--real life interfered too much. Basically, I am at a point where the budget is constraining me on my engine and transmission choices. These two items are critical to the kit manufacturer in order to begin their fabrications. I am sure I can acquire the engine and transmission for the kind of price I want, but it involves other tradeoffs.

I can either go with an older used Ford V-8, the 5.0L, and put up with it having a lot more miles on it to begin with. Or I could go with a newer used modular engine that Ford has now, the 4.6L, but which makes for a significantly more difficult build. There seems to be a decent supply of acceptible used engines and transmissions on the market, some more conveniently located than others. Transportation costs will actually be very important.

I am playing phone tag with the guy that I was given by the Hurricane president as the best contact to solve the 4.6L issues. He is in Sedalia, MO. I am not too comfortable with such a small source of help. On the 5.0L, I have found a guy in Arnold, MO who has an auction going on Ebay on an engine with 54,000 miles and automatic transmission, both of which he says are in great shape. He owns a Guns and Ammo shop, so I won't argue. Hopefully, in the next couple of days I will get answers from both of those guys to be able to decide which way to go and hopefully place my order with Hurricane by the end of the week.

I have also done a little thinking about my necessary workspace. So right now, I am sitting in a chair in my garage. My neighbors, I'm sure, are looking at me even more suspiciously. The temperature is fine, pretty comfortable actually, especially once I rigged up a little electric fan that I had lying around. And the computer is working beautifully. I also took a bunch of "before" pictures of the garage and some storage areas that will need to get prepped before the kit comes. After 20 years, it is probably time to give some of the places a little cleaning.



I have a nice sized 2 car garage. (Picture is too dark, I know). Plenty of room, once the unused half is cleaned out. Much of that stuff will have to go to this storage shed and the inside of that is not too bad...





I will also need to store a lot of the parts I am not working on from the kit in out of the way places, like my 4th bedroom and my laundry room, both of which will need to be cleaned up a bit...




Perhaps the biggest challenge may be the overhanging paint storage area in my garage. The body buck I will have to build in order to store the fiberglass body while I am working on the chassis needs to roll over the car when I am not working on it, and I doubt I will be able to have the right clearance. So, I thought about parking the Volkswagen on the other side, which has no height issues but the length is an extremely close call and I won't absolutely know for sure until I can really test it after cleaning out the garage.

6-17-2007 -- Visit to Hurricane - Part 1

Here are some pictures from my visit to Hurricane Motorsports on June 16, 2007:

Sorry in advance, for the fact that I haven't figured out decent formatting yet on this website, or how to tweak the camera for the best results.

Picture 1 is the Econolodge in Oak Grove where I stayed the night before. Great room. 50 bucks instead of 90 like the first 4 I went to. It was about 4 or 5 exits prior to the turnoff to Lee's Summit, maybe 10 miles, but it was very clean, relatively quiet, and had very straight forward free wireless internet capability. Lots of food, gas options right there, and next to a Wal Mart. Cable had Speed Network. And it was only about 10 miles or so west of a racetrack, with both dirt and asphalt, but I was too tired to go that night. I would definitely stay there again. Savings practically paid for the installation manual that I bought.


Picture 2 is of the building exterior. It is a modest front in a smallish industrial park. The area is very nice, quiet (except when the Cobra is on the run) largely residential area, right off the highway.


Picture 3 is their conference room. I met with Mike Arps, the president of the company, for almost 6 hours! He was terrific and it was a lot of fun, but he was too bashful to get caught in any pictures.

Picture 4 is in their shop. It shows the area where they stage all of the parts coming in for each car. They basically work on one chasis per week doing their fab work, but the parts gathering takes time so they have 5 orders going at a time. The leadtime from order to ship is more like 10 to 12 weeks right now. They can't start immediately as some of the stuff has to be made by other vendors. Fiberglass bodies come from a supplier, as does the rear end, which is dependant on the customer gear choices. Engine/tranny choices determine some of their frame welding too. Each shelf is for a different car. On the extreme right you can see part of their bench area where they do some bench work and keep all kinds of fasteners and stuff.

Picture 5 is the rig they use to create the frames. The Hurricane story is kind of strange and too long to post, frankly. But this was one of the main assets they bought when they acquired the company (via an EBAY auction), and is still being used after their own modifications.

6-17-2007 -- Visit to Hurricane - Part 2

Picture 1 is of a body that is being checked on a new frame.










Picture 2 is of another build they are working on, here, checking the headers fitment. You can also get a good look at the footbox on the passenger side, the spot behind the driver where the rollbar will go, and a big improvement they've made in the cockpit tub where they have flattened out a spot where the rear wheels encroached too much. This lets them gain an extra 1 1/2" where the seats can be pushed back, and believe me, that is wonderful! The dropped footboxes are also incredibly important for tall people like me.













Picture 3 is of a finished 427 car, actually a very early one that was in for some kind of rework that escapes me right now. Behind it is the body that they are working on for a new model, a replica of the 289 Shelby Cobra. Tough to see, but there are some big differences and this will be a popular model to some builders interested in historical accuracy.















Picture 4 is of the car we test drove. It is actually the darkest blue you have ever seen, but it looks black from any kind of distance. Mike pointed out some poor painting craftsmanship to me, but frankly I would never have seen it without him mentioning it. Hint--look for waviness in light reflections.

















Picture 5 is from the passenger seat as we were leaving the shop for our test ride. Pretty comfy, actually. I was a little surprised at how long the hood seemed. But I did not feel terribly low to the ground despite its low ride height. The windwings on the side apparently do a good job of cutting down wind and noise. It was not as loud as I was afraid it would be, and Mike and I were able to carry on a conversation without much difficulty. That is until Mike did the acceleration test getting onto the interstate on the ramp. OMG!!! Words don't describe that feeling. Think an astronaut during blastoff. I was too dumb to take a video, not that I would have known how to upload it anyway. Mike lit the tires up again later on another stretch of open road where a future industrial park will be sprouting up. It just flew. He slowed down near the end and we turned the corner back at normal speed and a cop was just sitting there. Mike waved. :) He knew the cop well and said he had just been in the shop last week. No problemo.