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.