Owner built on a budget;

[Hray]

Hey Everybody: Looks like we had some interesting discussions over the day regarding original and not so original. I almost hesitate to post this, but I think others may enjoy and learn from my build.

Sorry this first post will be a little lengthy,
my car was delivered to Calif bay area in spring of 1991. it never got finished.

I found it on cragslist for 8.5K. It came with motor, trans, rearend, and hopefully all the small stuff needed to complete the build. I have no idea how many people bought and resold it. The guy I got it from only had the car for a year.

I am a car guy, any moron that wants to challenge that bring him on. Just because I decided to build a kit makes me no less of a gearhead. I will match up what is in my barn with any other white collar worker in the USA.

Back to the car. I have budgeted another 3K to finish this car for a total cost of 11.5K for a finished car. I figure it to take 500 hours to build the car.

With what I have spent so far I have about 2850.00 left to spend, and about 470 hours to complete it.

My goal is to have it finished for Sac Auto Rama second week of February.

I will do all the work myself, paint it in my barn. I will share my experiences here and as already noted rely on you guys to help me with lots of tech stuff.

I have made a couple of blog entries here. If interested read those and it will fill you in on the last couple of days.

As soon as I figure how to reduce file size I will post pictures.

For those looking to build one of these the first thing to do is find someone with a unfinished project. I actually found three of them within 6 months. all priced for 8.5K and each deal was better than the first.

I figure I at least got 16K value in my purchase, this put me way ahead of the curve. I made my purchases a couple years ago in a better economy, now a person should be able to find equally better deals.

Ray

[Hray]

I stopped by and purchased a upper radiator hose, and got it installed. Cost 28 bucks. Haven't a clue what it was intended for. they guy let me go in the back and just match up something that I thought would work.

I put the filler neck just above the water pump in the upper hose, I guess it will work ok there.

Fired up the engine for a few seconds. Then finished polishing the first wheel, and got about half way done with the second.
I had a lower pully for serpentine belt, four bolt, and a belt 3 hole pully. I lined them up and redrilled the 3 hole to 4 hole. Fit perfect, saved some time and a few bucks in the junk yard.

Had to work in the office so only got a few hours this evening.

I also cleaned shop just a little, guess I have to count that toward the build, all part of it.

Gotta work tomorrow again, so only evening availble for the cobra. and 18.5 weeks till D day.

I will get those trans numbers later for the fluids.

I will provide more specfics of what I got with the car later in other posts.
Ray

[trularin]

Let's hope your optimism is the same when you are done.

Remember, you get what you paid for.

[bran3b]

Sounds like fun, I have thought about doing the same thing but it would be tough to justify another car. I can't wait to see the pictures.

[mr bruce]

How dare you build a "cheep" Cobra. The rite way to do it is spend thousands upon thousands, and then when you want to sell it, to move onto something else, you find that it's worth pennys on the dollar spent.

[rustyBob]

I might be comeing to Cali. at the first of the year and would like to drop in and check out your Cobra build if possible...........and maybe we can terrorize your neighborhood.

[elmariachi]

I am of the opinion that you cannot build one of these cars correctly without being on a first-name basis with a Summit Racing rep, your UPS driver, and someone in customer service at AMEX.

Good luck with your car and post some pics.

[Hray]

Hey guys thanks for the vote of confidence and support, problem is I already know way too many people at summit on a first name basis.

Bob, come on by, door is always open to gearheads,

My approach to resto: During disassembly I like to prep all pieces that are destined to go back on the car. this is why I am polishing the rims now. these things are old, and while never having been driven the decay has already set in. I had to sand them some and then begin to polish them back.

They are compotive TFN's 16 inch size with brandnew goodrich tires, about 8 or 10 inches wide. they will look just fine. I am lucky they came on the car when I bought it.

Worked half hour last nite trying to get these photos downsized to upload, no luck yet, Maybe soon.

later Ray

[elmariachi]

Originally Posted by Hray

Worked half hour last nite trying to get these photos downsized to upload, no luck yet, Maybe soon.later Ray

Screw that, you've got a car to build:

1. Go to www.flickr.com an open a free account. Then load your pics there in hi-res.

2. After you load them up, at the top of each pic there is a button called "All Sizes." Click on that and at the bottom of each pic it has a box called " Grab the photo's URL." Copy that link.

3. Then come back here, open your post, hit the little yellow button above with the mountain on it and paste the photo link in that pop-up box and close it. It'll stick your nice hi-res flickr-hosted pics into your thead.

[Hray]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/belair567/


I took elmarichi advice, hope this works,


stopped by kragen on way home from work, bought two hoses for lower radiator, hopefully I can cut them to make them work.

spent another 25.00


heading out to shop, will be back in about 5 hours to provide progress report.
Ray

[Hray]

this is photo of something, just testing elmarachis directions. thanks,

[*13*]

Looks like a fun Project to me! I considered many kits before ordering my ERA which I mostly assembled in my garage. Many of us here have done complete restorations even if some bought their Cobra's as Turnkey. A lot of knowledge here & I'm sure just as many wanting to learn! Good luck on your project. Hopefully we see it on the road one day soon!

[DAVID GAGNARD]

Originally Posted by elmariachi

I am of the opinion that you cannot build one of these cars correctly without being on a first-name basis with a Summit Racing rep, your UPS driver, and someone in customer service at AMEX.

Good luck with your car and post some pics.

Or own and use a race car for it's intended purpose!!!!!!!!!!:JEKYLHYD E


Ray;

Enjoy the build and enjoy the car once it's finished, I'm sure you will and be proud of it.........

For me, the build is half the fun owning a car like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David

[DocDirk]

My wife and I put in almost 2 1/2 years of our hard to find "spare" time building our cobra together, and while we didn't find the bargain that you did, the experience of putting it together has bonded my wife to the car so much she considers it part of the family now and wouldn't part with it even if we could get full value for it.

The building it together created a unique set of memories for us as we struggled to learn, create, invent and grow together in automotive mechanics. Now every popping start, every growling acceleration and every zoooom down the road makes us both smile at the ride AND the build

Enjoy the build!

Regards!

Dirk

[Hray]

the photo is of the rear end, will any ford drive shaft bolt to this rearend if it has the round type of ujoint housing.

also must I find a drive shaft from a 5 speed stick, or will automatic interchange. I know I gotta shorten it.

tonite I routed the bottom hoses, discovered I have a 3:26 rearend ratio in this. that should be a good road gear shouldn't it.

also look at my upper radiator hose routing is this a good place for the filler neck.

I now have 465 hours left to finish and 2800 left in the budget. and just over 18 weeks till autorama.






I did not want to bore you so i only pasted here my new flickr page, I posted more pics of the build, and some shots of my barn.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/belair567/

[rustyBob]

Ray those 4 lug " Daisey " wheels are awesome....but not on a Cobra i like the other wheels better.......the upper rad. hose looks fine and the fill neck will be ok there but the lower hose looks a little scarey.......to much rubber, i think i would use a piece of copper pipe or exhaust pipe between the 2 pieces of rubber hose. just a thought.

[Hray]

Bob: you have crushed my dreams, I was gonna paint those daisies yellow and black, thought they would add a nice old time touch.... or maybe I am touched.

I agree, those are the only extra junk rims that fit the car, those 10 spokes are what will go on it once done. those are what I am polishing now.

about that lower radiator hose, I agree, not what I want but willl work until better comes along.

anyone have any hose numbers that are a better fit, i did use some 1.5 inchh plumbing brass pipe to connect those things just to make it fit for now.

surely someone has numbers for me.

spent another 9 today for thermostate bypass hose, now got 2791.00 left to spend. later

[elmariachi]

Good job on the photo post. Man, no one can ever accuse you of taking the easy route to build a Cobra. You are chipping that one right out of granite. But that's good, you'll appreciate it even more knowing how much blood, sweat and tears you put into it. I know my hands and fingers will never be the same after building mine. I actually used to be a pretty good guitar player, but not any more.

[rustyBob]

oh boy do i agree with that, i pulleed all sorts of different size pieces of fiberglass out of my fingers and even drilled a hole through one of my fingers mounting my door latches........but i can laugh about it now.......keep up the good work Ray.

[Hray]

I took the nite off from the cobra, spent 4 hours reading DV's log about capt eddies build, they been hitting that fairly hard for more than a year, and he is an expert. and I think I can do it in 4 months. I bet everyone is sitting back snickering. And on a shoe string budget at that.

my only hope or realization is that I am only going to build a excellent driver, not a racer, and not a show car, or at least not expecting to get a trophy at the show.

Just maybe DV's pictures, and posts will save me about a thousand hours worth of mistakes.

Tomorrow off to the junk yard to get a drive shaft, and a couple other parts. with a little luck I can get it installed by saturday evening and be ready for all the fluids to let it get up to running tempertaure.


ray