It's finally done!
Columbus Col-Weld, a huge machine shop in Columbus was chosen to take the donated 289 Jenny motor and bring it back to life. Maynard, the owner has attended both Flings and was kind enough to donate all the labor for the Kirkham Aluminum 289 FIA Cobra.
U-2, Jeff, got us a fantastic set of 289 Hi-Po heads out of California and sent them our way. Jeff, Maynard (the owner of Col-Weld) said those heads had been worked to perfection! However he thought he would do a little upgrading for us. He removed the Ford valves and springs, Replaced them with the Chevy 1.90 and 2.02's. Now those heads are going to breathe!
Then he decided that .010 off the heads would square up the heads and raise the compression a wee bit. Now it was time to eliminate those non Hi-PO "dished" pistons. Flat tops were put in after taking .020 out of the cylinders. The Crank was polished, the block was lined bored and of course, after much discussion a medium "thumper" HYDRAULIC cam was installed, with of course new lifters, matched springs and pushrods.
The heads use ARP screw in studs and of course Maynard has used guide plates for the pushrods! In fact he even went to the trouble of using ARP heads studs instead of the regular head bolts. He is "guessing" the compression is just below 10!
Maynard was great to say the least! He would call and say he would like to do this and that and I would instantly whine about not having that kind of money to spend. We had to have a "solid" motor built for Jenny, but we really wanted to pump up the motor a little bit. He'd simply say something like, "well...let me figure something out".
I finally get the call that it is ready for us to pick up. I know with all the new parts and labor we're looking at a bill well over $2,000.00! The Mrs. and I both decided if in fact it did go over $1,000.00, then we would somehow come up with the money. This very special Cobra could not be short changed!
Arriving at Col-Weld, Maynard greets us with a smile as big as a Halloween pumpkin! Now, Maynard is 64 years old, been in his line of business all his life and has seen just about everything related to motors that you can see. But, this was different. He knows who Jenny is, he has seen Jenny's FIA and I know he was extremely proud that we picked him to do the rebuild! He guided Mrs. DV and myself around the shop to where this new and beautiful Cobra heart was resting. All crated and wrapped in plastic, just waiting to be brought to life. With the pride of a true craftsman, Maynard pulls back the plastic for our inspection. Only a car nut can appreciate this, but this motor was beautiful! Here she sat in all her glory, de-rusted, clean as a whistle, and all repainted. Her fly wheel had been cleaned and ground to perfection. She is now ready to come home and take her place in history!
But, alas, now comes the rest of the story. Maynard, I say with a slight quiver in my voice, what do we owe you Sir? Without so much as a quiver he says, "How about $700.00?" I just about faint! I know for a fact the parts are probably twice that much and the hours spent on labor alone should have come up well over $1000.00! I grab Mrs. DV and tell her to write the check quick before Maynard can change his mind! We head back to the office and Maynard starts picking at his computer. He continues to hit and peck for what seemed an eternity, finally in a futile attempt to get the computer to do what he wants to do, he simply turns to the Mrs. and says just make it out for $600! Seems he was trying to delete all the labor charges on the bill, leaving the parts and the part descriptions.
Bottom line, Maynard will be hand writing a list of all the parts he installed and mail it to us so we all will know exactly what components went into Jenny's motor. Maynard, I know you probably wont see this, but "we love you man!" Jenny and the rest of our Cobra family thanks you!
All parts are for a '65 era 289
What we still need to fire of Jenny's motor:
Carb. (at least 600CFM)
Mr Mustang
Water Pump
Distributor
Lincolnland- MSD !
Dip Stick "TUBE" -we have the dipstick. Remember the shipping "incident?"
Plug wires and plugs
Clutch
Weendoggy
Pressure Plate
Weendoggy
Throw out bearing- hydraulic
Bell Housing
Shifter and Linkage for David Kee's Toploader 4-spd.
Starter
Mr. Alternator (Tom) of course!
Coil - anyone up to donating an MSD system?
Russ Thompson just took care of this!
Pulleys
Fuel pump-
Jeff Kleiner- Holley Chromed Mechanical
Forgive me, but it's early and I'm trying to do this by memory! I'm sure I have left out a few things. We do have valve covers, intake,
oil pan, and alternator. (All of which has already been donated!)
DV...Damn...it just keeps getting better and better. "We" did good!