[Mr Barnwood]

Originally Posted by CompClassics

If it is a fiberglass bodied 8000 then the, doors, hood and truck lid will be fiberglass. At the same time if it is an aluminum bodied 8000 then the, doors, hood and trunk lid will be aluminum.
That being said there are owners of fiberglass bodied Cobras that have gone through the additional expense of having aluminum, doors, hood and trunk lids made from aluminum for their fiberglass bodied Cobras.
Things to watch out for on the 8000 Series Cobras are mostly suspension related. On the early cars Shelby used a inferior leaf springs on the front and the rear that would start sagging quickly. Another issue is the camber adjustment that Shelby had built into the front and rear uprights, it was a good idea that was poorly executed. Another thing the early cars used was a fuel bladder instead of a traditional fuel tank, this caused a finite service life of 4 years and the tank itself has a very low capacity. Another is the foot box size it is a 427 type foot box, it works well for doing exhaust work but in doing so makes the foot box very tight compared to later built cars that used a correct type 289 foot box.

An easy way to tell an aluminum body from a fiberglass body is look at how the body itself is fastened to the frame tubes, fiberglass cars tend to be flat edged and have very few rivets, an aluminum bodied car will have rolled over edges (the body aluminum rolls around the frame structure) and a substantial number of rivets under the rolled over edge (approx spaced every 4” or so).

That’s an impressive answer, and I really appreciate you taken the time to help me. Thank you very much