Which is the best Cobra kit?

[BlueRooster]

He absolutely is stealing copyrighted material. He should just hyperlink to the original article. Be creative...c'mon.

[thorconstr]

Originally posted by computerworks




As is with the Kirkhams. Many folks quote the "digitizing" and the mirror image stuff about the KMP, claiming perfect symmetry.

Not so. The source 'drawings' of the KMP were from CAD, and that was used to make the forms, etc.

...but, Kirkhams are not popped out of a big stamping press... they are hand formed and pounded and welded just like they do ( and did) on all limited production aluminum cars.

The Kirkham body has about 17 discrete panels that are combined to create the car, pounded, welded and filed.

You will see difference on KMPs as well.

To quote the Kirkham brochure,

"We took our own Cobra, CSX3104, as the basis for establishing the accurate geometry for our cars. First, we digitized the original car's body and created a computer model from which we CNC-machined an exceedingly accurate master buck of the entire body. During this process, we did something most other manufacturers overlook---we made the body symmetrical.
Body panels are beaten by hand close to their final shape, over tools created from the master buck. Then, both the tool and the panel are slid under an enormous press where the panels are given their final shape." Tom and Dave K. help please!

[xlr8or]

And I thout the most original looking replica would be Ron (Computerworks) car assuming he ever finishes it.

Come on Ron throw some pics in the thread and show what an exact replica looks like.

[clayfoushee]

Brian,

Just ran across this thread

FFR Body

Click and scroll down a few posts. A picture is worth a thousand words!

[Lowell W]

Al W. (or Tom or Dave),

I'm kinda surprised/puzzled/curious aftter reading your last post. My understanding has always been that aluminum bodied cars were hand beaten in panels because the aluminum was so springy that it didn't respond well to die forming. Maybe if you only press it a little? Or does the die take the place of the English wheel and remove the hammer marks?

Thanks,

Lowell

[Lowell W]

Brian,

Take a look here for the "perky butt" thing.

http://www.clubcobra.com/t50469-15-1.html

Or, if you can't get it to go, take a look under the "Price of Aluminum Body" thread.

Sorry, looks like Clay already beat me to it.

[thorconstr]

Originally posted by thorconstr
Lowell, This is a direct quote from the Kirkham brochure, and the press probably does just as you said, "take the hammer marks out."

To quote the Kirkham brochure,

"We took our own Cobra, CSX3104, as the basis for establishing the accurate geometry for our cars. First, we digitized the original car's body and created a computer model from which we CNC-machined an exceedingly accurate master buck of the entire body. During this process, we did something most other manufacturers overlook---we made the body symmetrical.
Body panels are beaten by hand close to their final shape, over tools created from the master buck. Then, both the tool and the panel are slid under an enormous press where the panels are given their final shape."

[Tom Kirkham]

CW, thorconstr

thorconstr you are correct. CW is mostly correct. Oh how I wish we had cad drawings when we started.... Yes we did digitize CSX3104. From this data we CNC milled out a solid buck from a special wood develped for pressing aircraft skins. However, CSX3104 did have a few problems. For example the oil cooler was ripped off many many moons before we got the car. So our very early cars have a unique oil cooler scoop in them.

To be continued...

[C4 Cross Fire]

mrmustang--I'm sorry--I thought I had read a response by you to another thread that said you didn't mind if I had your photo(s) on my site. I removed everything I thought could be copyrighted by anyone else from my web site. Thanks for your reply to this post--I didn't realize that I couldn't put something on my site even if I attributed it to its owner. I guess this isn't like print media where you can use others' stuff as long as it's attributed. I thought about just linking to the other info on the web but thought that putting the stuff on my site and attributing it properly would be better in case any of the links wound up being down in the future.