BoatBuilder3's CMC Build Log

[BoatBuilder3]

Last Friday, I took delivery of an unfinished CMC Cobra. Actually, not very much had been done to it at all considering someone ordered the kit 15 years ago and it has exchanged hands multiple times.

I hope to be finished with it by the end of March (by my 26th birthday). It will be mainly me doing the work, along with the occasional help from my dad and some friends on weekends.

Since I am starting with basically an untouched kit (and I haven't been able to find a well documented CMC build), I will be creating a detailed build log of the work, time, and money involved to build a CMC Cobra. Hopefully this will serve well as a reference for people in the future who decide to tackle a CMC Cobra.

The goal: Have a clean, well-finished Cobra with 300hp utilizing a 302/T5/8.8" drivetrain for under a $10,000 total investment.

Some say it can't be done. Challenge accepted.

[BoatBuilder3]

10/4/2013

I purchased the CMC Cobra kit, associated parts, and a trailer as a package deal for $7,700. Delivery took place today. Most exciting day I've had in a while. I'm super anxious to really dive into this project.

What I received with my purchase:
All documentation (original purchase, vin plates, manufacturers certificate of origin, etc)
CMC Body (in less than stellar condition, tons of knicks, dings and cracks in fiberglass)
CMC Chassis
302 EFI from an 88/89 Mustang with harness and ECU (supposedly has a cam in it)
World Class T5 with a Power Tower Shifter (presumably from the same 88/89 mustang)
Mustang II Front Suspension (4 lug, disc brakes, no shocks)
Mustang II Rack and Pinion (x2)
Ford 7.5" Rear End (5 lug, disc brakes)
Brake booster (x2)
Rear Suspension (unsure of the springs and shocks used)
Steering Column (from an old Pontiac with blue interior...Kinda bulky but we will see...)
6 beater wheels with bad tires (4 4-lug, 2 5-lug)
Full Interior (carpet, seats, seat foam, seat covers, door panels, trunk carpet, etc.)
Lights (headlights, tail lights, turn signals)
Chrome (roll bar, bumpers, mirrors, hinges, latches, etc.)
Glass (windshield frame and glass, side windows frames)
Wiring Harness
Fuel Tank
Convertible Top
Car Cover
Pedal assembly (from an MG or Austin Healy I think?)

And a 20' tandem axle trailer (set up for tri-axle), 2"x6" box steel construction with a solid 1/8" steel floor, built in ramps (broken lights, broken jack, no suspension, no brakes)

Here are pictures of what all I received:

[65pb736]

Hi Boatbuilder! Welcome to the forum. I will look forward to your progress as you and I are in about the same boat . I also have a CMC kit that had changed hands a few times. I have not posted anything in the build log recently and need to update it, but you can see it at "Starting a CMC build" in the builders log. I also don't live that far from you in High Point as I am in the Myrtle Beach area. So good luck to ya!

Tuck

[BoatBuilder3]

K, I haven't made an update in quite a while. I will spend the next few hours updating my build log. Stay tuned.

[BoatBuilder3]

Well, after the Cobra got delivered to my shop, I unloaded everything and straightened up the shop a bit. Went to Harbor Freight and bought myself an engine stand (much needed and long overdue) and a set of wheel dollies. These will not be included in the Cobra budget since they were needed around the shop anyways. When I got back to the shop, I put the engine stand and dollies together. Separated the engine from the transmission and bellhousing, removed the clutch and pressure plate, and mounted the engine on the stand. Knowing I wanted to rebuild the engine (5.0 HO from a '91 Mustang GT), I started stripping the engine down.

[BoatBuilder3]

I began cleaning the parts that were coming off the engine and listing them for sale. I sold the following parts soon after having the engine torn apart:

A3M1 EEC-IV Ford Engine ECU - $125
Engine Wiring Harness - $100
Accessory Brackets + Power Steering Pump - $100

I still have the throttle body, fuel rails, upper intake, lower intake, E7 heads, and the air conditioning compressor for sale.

Total parts sold - $325

bringing my total to....

TOTAL COBRA COST SO FAR - $7,465

[BoatBuilder3]

Soon after that, I worked on taking inventory of all my parts. I found some videos on YouTube from a user named "Petes Hotrods" (you can find his channel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCft...KG-hgiw_yulNxQ). He has some great videos of his Street Beast build. At the end of one of his videos, he had given his phone number and said to give him a call if you had a Street Beast Cobra and had any questions. He also mentioned he had some of the inventory lists from Street Beast before they shut down. Of course I called. It took a few days, but he finally sent me the inventory lists (seen below).

I also came across another builder on YouTube who is in the early stages of his it seems, but his YouTube name is "tomscobradfw". Got some ideas from looking around at his chassis in the videos.

Another great resource I had found posted in the Street Beast community forum located on this site's social groups was a website that documented a Street Beast build. Here is the address to that site: 427 Cobra Main Page

Here are the PDF's that "Petes Hotrods" had sent me that he acquired from Street Beast:

[BoatBuilder3]

After looking over that list, I checked my inventory. The only thing that I was missing was the tail lights (I guess that's not bad for a Street Beast lol). I also decided to run quick jacks instead of the bumperettes and opted to not use the oval bumper hoop for the front (never got a rear bumper hoop).

I decided to sell my oval bumper hoop and my chrome bumperettes to other Street Beast owners to help them finish their kits.

Sold Chrome Oval Bumper Hoop - $200
Sold Chrome Bumperettes - $225

bringing my total cost to....

TOTAL COBRA BUILD COST - $7,040

[BoatBuilder3]

After doing some research and looking at multiple Street Beast/CMC chassis online, I realized mine looked slightly different. The owner of the car before me had a folder with pictures of it's original delivery (which have somehow managed to stay with the Cobra since delivery in 1996 and about 5 owners). I went back to look at those for reference. Sure enough, my worst fears would confirmed. Somebody along the way had cut the chassis and modified it some.

It took me a week or two to find dimensions (shot out to "tony laboy" for measuring his chassis for me and providing me with the dimensions I needed). I cross referenced those dimensions with the ones my chassis currently had. Somebody along the way had cut the lengthed the horizontal frame rail, but shortened the rise of the diagonal going up to the crossmember. This lowered the front crossmember about 1.5" closer to the ground (effectively raising the front of the car 1.5"). I had to sit back and come up with a plan to resolve the problem.

My chassis as it sits now.


Picture of original chassis on delivery. Notice the single gusset vs the two gussets on mine now.


Dimensions I needed.

[RedEye]

I would plan on 2-3 months to do the body work. There is good and bad with this brand of body (same as mine). The good, and this does not apply if you want a light weight car but rather a car which is structurally sound with a uni-body construction concept and has enough material to have the paint appear nice without waves, is that the fiber glass on these cars is exceptionally thick. The bad news is in terms of dimensional integrity these kits are absolute garbage. So... put these two extremes together, and you can have a nice result.

I ended up bolting the body to the frame at every possible opportunity. I ended up with a very stiff car, no vibrations, no fiberglass cracks, and a very very nice mirror finish. Also took about 4 months of 30 hours a week and a 10K paint job at a pro shop.

[BoatBuilder3]

I came up with a solution to my frame issue. After doing some trigonometry, I worked out the dimensions I needed to change things back to. Since I am not the best welder in the world, I opted for more bracing. Instead of placing that bracing outside on the joints like Street Beast did from the factory, I opted to place mine inside.

With a plan in mind, I blocked the chassis up, and cut the main chassis away from the front crossmember.

After some measuring, I found that the Street Beast "main" chassis rails are 2"x4"x3/16". Time to buy some materials.

[BoatBuilder3]

I came across a link somebody had sent me. Can't remember who on this forum but thank you. It is the Fiberfab manual (which later became CMC and Street Beast) for the Cobra!

Here is the link to it: Vintage Fiberfab Kitcar Manuals

Make sure you right click on the link next to "Cobra" in that list and click "save as" to save it to your computer. Don't know how long that website will be up.

[RedEye]

Oh Also, if you have not already, I would spend some time test fitting the body to the frame and check the wheel ride height. The rear of my car rode exceptionally high (will be different depending on wheels and shock type) we ended up creating unique shock mounts, and control arms so that I could get the wheels to look good. Have 315 rear tires, so did a custom shortening of the axles and changed the inside fiberglass structure. 450# rear springs, no rubbing and it looks great.

[BoatBuilder3]

We have a local race shop that I tried to buy some box steel from. He informed me that most Nascar chassis only use .120" wall 2x4 box. He said 3/16" was overkill (made me feel good since this is a street car). Needless to say, he didn't have any 3/16" in stock and no plans to order any anytime soon.

I ended up locating some 3/16" wall material at a business that provides construction materials. They had about 4' of it in stock so I bought 2' of it. From the math I worked out, that would be enough with very minimal scrap left.

I also made a few trips to Northern Tool to pick up some welding supplies and things I needed to finish this job (welding rods, gloves, flapper wheels, grinding stones, sharpies, etc.)

The business next door does a lot of metal fabrication and said that I could have some scrap for free and he would help me cut it out into the shape I needed for the braces.

Advanced Metal Supplies - 24" of 2"x4"x3/16" box steel cost: $29.43
Northern Tool cost for welding supplies, etc.: $71.44
1/4" steel plate for inside bracing cost: FREE

TOTAL COBRA BUILD COST: $7,140.87

[mdross1]

Originally Posted by BoatBuilder3

Soon after that, I worked on taking inventory of all my parts. I found some videos on YouTube from a user named "Petes Hotrods" (you can find his channel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCft...KG-hgiw_yulNxQ). He has some great videos of his Street Beast build. At the end of one of his videos, he had given his phone number and said to give him a call if you had a Street Beast Cobra and had any questions. He also mentioned he had some of the inventory lists from Street Beast before they shut down. Of course I called. It took a few days, but he finally sent me the inventory lists (seen below).

I also came across another builder on YouTube who is in the early stages of his it seems, but his YouTube name is "tomscobradfw". Got some ideas from looking around at his chassis in the videos.

Another great resource I had found posted in the Street Beast community forum located on this site's social groups was a website that documented a Street Beast build. Here is the address to that site: 427 Cobra Main Page

Here are the PDF's that "Petes Hotrods" had sent me that he acquired from Street Beast:

Seeing all these pictures of parts sure brought back memories of my build now 21 yrs. ago. Amazing how clear those memories are just shows how excited I was to have one of these cars in my shop.
Remember now took my frame to a shop specializing in this work mine happened to be very straight and square. We modified the frame for belly exhaust, cut off all the frontend mounts to install chrome moly A-Arms. Finally made up a new trans cross member to give the exhaust all the room it would need.
As frustrating as that job got at times it sure paid big dividends in the end. We still cherish that car.
Sure enjoy reading about you guys and your builds. Our car is in a storage garage surrounded by the deepest snow we have seen around here in a long time.

[BoatBuilder3]

We cut out our metal "frame correction" pieces. We tacked them loosely in place. Realizing it should work perfectly, we knocked them off and moved onto leveling the chassis before we began any permanent welding.

We had a table laying around that we decided to bolt to the ground and level the top of it. We then removed the rear end out from the chassis and picked up the main body. I clamped a 4x2 we had laying around the shop underneath the frame rails as we welded our single-piece "hockey sticks" inside the frame.

It will take me some time to get all of the drilled holes (you will see what I am talking about; we added them so that we could weld in our inner braces).

Here are the pieces tacked in place (roughly):


Since we are removing the gussets that were welded on the outside, we are moving some strength to the inside in the form of these solid "hockey stick" braces we made:


Mocked up:


Another shot:


Front crossmember going in place:

[BoatBuilder3]

Getting bored with welding, I had scored a deal on some Autometer Cobra gauges on eBay. They were evidently bought for a Factory Five Cobra back in the day and never used. They had 0 miles on the speedometer. From the auction, I received a reverse-sweep speedometer, tachometer, voltage, fuel, oil pressure, oil temperature, and water temperature (all of them mechanical). I still need to purchase a fuel sender and speedometer linkage.

The whole lot set me back $275 (+ $16.59 in S/H).

TOTAL COBRA COST TO DATE: $7,432.46

[BoatBuilder3]

I wanted to jump back on the motor and having it ready for when the chassis neared completion with welding. I new I wanted to stay with a 302, but I definitely wanted to get some different heads on it. With a quick search on Craigslist, I found a set of GT40P heads with valves and springs from an Explorer for $100. I went to go grab those that night.

TOTAL COBRA BUILD COST: $7,532.46

[BoatBuilder3]

Armed with the new heads, I wanted to get everything to a machine shop to get checked out and cleaned up for the rebuild. I stripped my 302 down to the block and crank to have it mic'd out at the machine shop and take the necessary steps to clean it up to prep it for the rebuild. Once the block was taken down, I took it and the heads to the local machine shop, R&B Machine Shop (actually, it was the only one I could find). Everyone I had talked to had given them a solid recommendation.

I went over the plan for the block and the engine build and told them what all I wanted done (hot tank, honed, new cam bearings, crank mic'd and polished, flywheel resurfaced, heads hot tanked before I port/polish them).

It will be two-three weeks before I get it back.

I was really happy to see forged pistons inside of this engine:


Pistons/rods removed:

[BoatBuilder3]

I was busy with work for a few days. One weekend, I was bored and got on Craigslist again and looked for mustang parts. I was absolutely shocked by what I saw.

There was an ad for a 1995 Mustang GTS that had been wrecked. I knew that car. The paint scheme gave it away. It used to be my friends car that he had sold about two months prior. The kid he sold it to in South Carolina had evidently wrecked the car while goofing around with it. The one thing I knew about this car was that a LOT of money (I mean A LOT!) was put into this car (I will show you the modification list in my next post)...

I called him and texted him without a response. He finally texted me back, but the news was bad. He told me he had sold the car...

A week later, I received a text saying the buyer backed out and if I wanted it, I could have it. He was asking $2,200 for the car. I talked him down to $1,200 and got him to throw in a set of 17x9 Cobra R wheels and tires. I told him I would be down the next day to pick it up:

Uhaul Car Dolley: $49.54 for the day
Fuel: $59.00
1995 Mustang GTS: $1,200

TOTAL COBRA BUILD COST: $8,841.00

Here was the photo in the Craigslist ad. The gloss black/red pinstrip/matte black paint scheme is what made me recognize the car:


Here was the Mustang when my friend owned it:


Here we are picking the car up to bring it back to NC (my dad in the picture):