Good evening, my name is John DeRocker and the son of the former owner of "Thunderbolt Enterprises" John Ysker in Blaine, MN.
My father was in the business for many years of building Cobra Replica's and Pantera's for customers that wanted "Well built" and "Fun" kit cars. I grew up building these cars with my father but then entered the military in the late 80's and we slowly drifted apart over the years. A few years ago, my father passed, but I never lost the hopes of building myself a "King Cobra".
I remember my father talking about the significant differences between a Cobra & King Cobra being that the later had much more room in it. I always wanted to build one with him for myself, but never got the chance to do so.
With that said, one of the things that always stuck with me was making sure that where I bought the kit from, was well built, the tolerances were perfect and the safety was built into it. I do not remember where my father was purchasing his bodies and accessories from, but I believe it was from out west. He built all the chassis's in-house and only bought the body and extra's to fit his chassis. He used "Torsion Bar" suspensions instead of "Coil-Over" as it road much tighter and the adjust-ability was much better. He also used solid half shafts for the torque and Dana Spicer rear ends to handle the power. I'm pretty sure I will not get exactly what he was building as many of the things he did was kept in-house.
However, now I'm going to have to purchase it from ground up as he has passed like I stated, so I'm starting fresh.
My question is pretty simple:
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What corporation do you guys/gals recommend when buying a King Cobra?
I would welcome any feedback as I have been out of this for almost 3 decades now and I'm sure things have changed dramatically.
Thanks,
JD
jderocker003@gmail.com
Hastings, MN
I'm looking to put at least a 427 into this kit.