Aluminium Bodied Contempoary

[Obsessive]

Hey Everybody! It's been a while since I was involved in this forum but I know there's a wealth of knowledge here and I hope to pick your collective brains to get some feedback.

I have a friend in San Diego, CA who is a recent widow. Her late husband had a pretty amazing Contemporary cobra and she has asked me to help her find a new home for it. I saw the car a couple days ago and only had time to confirm that it runs and gave it a brief inspection. I'm returning next weekend to get all the details but I wanted to ask what you all think it's realistic value might be. Here are the big details that I have confirmed:

• The car is a Contemporary frame, chassis # CCX 35001
• It was professionally built by Monster Motorsports
• It has an all aluminum body. (I crawled all over this thing and confirmed it is aluminum). I found no flaws in the body and the paint is very nice.
• It has a 427 Side Oiler motor with a Sidewinder 4v intake manifold and a single Holley carb. Not sure of the carb size yet.
• Smiths gauges
• Magnesium (not aluminum) Halibrand (genuine) pin drive wheels
• Jag rear end (not sure of gear ratio yet)
• Top Loader transmission

The motor runs great with strong oil pressure. However, he only ran racing fuel in it so I am guessing the compression ratio is pretty high. Sounds glorious. It's a California car, registered but currently in a non-operational status. I will confirm but I think its registered as a 1965 Ford.

I'll be posting more and with pictures soon. The question for you all is, what do you think it might be worth?

Thanks in advance.

MB

[moore_rb]

It's "worth" whatever the market will bear...

Is your question really: "How much should we list it for in a potential sale?"

That one's easy, too- Always start high, and work down.

Lowering your price gradually, until you find your buyer, is always more satisfying than selling it immediately, and then wondering whether or not there might have been a higher price buyer out there.

it's always time, versus price: Sell it fast by selling it cheap, or take your time, market the car to the largest global audience possible, and wait for the deep-pockets to show up.

Have Curt list it for you on his CobraCountry website.

A nicely built and documented Contemporary Classic is a premium Cobra replica - With a side-oiler, they can bring 50, 60, even 70k...

The magnesium wheels are another premium item- If they are real, vintage magnesium Halibrands, they might be worth 5-10k all by themselves (based on the condition, and whether all 4 roll true, and balance easily)

And a full custom aluminum body? That's a mega-huge premium factor, too.

It could be a 6-figure car, if you find a 6-figure buyer for it.

Naturally- other associated used-car factors will also apply: how many miles are on it? How well documented are those miles? Receipts? Service logs? Photo history? - all that stuff matters.


JMHO(s)...

[66gtk]

Quite the head scratcher. We need a lot more detailed photos and information. Didn't Monster build the Miata/Cobra things? CCX didn't make aluminum bodies. That trunk.....

[LMH]

Is it aluminum fitted over fiberglass? The hood looks like fiberglass underskin.
Larry

[mrmustang]

Monster Motorsports built the Ford V8 Miata and never used a name tag such as the one shown above.

I'm thinking the body has the optional aluminum inner panels, maybe the hood, but I've never heard of a Contemporary Cobra with an all aluminum body

Is there a Contemporary manufacturers plate on the car,or are we just relying on the hand made, hand stamped VIN tag?


So much left out in the wind, how about a file with documentation on the car?

[moore_rb]

Originally Posted by mrmustang

Monster Motorsports built the Ford V8 Miata and never used a name tag such as the one shown above.

I'm thinking the body has the optional aluminum inner panels, maybe the hood, but I've never heard of a Contemporary Cobra with an all aluminum body

Is there a Contemporary manufacturers plate on the car,or are we just relying on the hand made, hand stamped VIN tag?

Agree (naturally- Mr Mustang is always spot-on with his info )

Doubtful that this car was built by the Miata guys in Florida - There have been (and still are) a ton of companies around the country called "Monster Motorsports", "Monster Racing", "Monster Race Engineering".. etc...

There was even a guy here in Arizona, many years ago, who raced a car he called the "Monster Cobra"... It was a Factory Five (it was definitely not this car - I'm just making the point that "Monster Cobra" on a stamped tag provides pretty much zero info to go on....)

That rivet tag might as well just say " John Jones, incorporated" on it.... DOCUMENTATION.

Regarding the body- it's impossible to fake aluminum - It either is, or it isn't- if it is, then it's a big custom enhancement for a CCX replica. If it isn't, then trying to sell a fiberglass bodied car as aluminum is called fraud... Tread lightly.

The foot box that the number tag is riveted to, for example- From the photo, it sure looks more like fiberglass than aluminum...

[MOTORHEAD]

All original Cobras had fiberglass footboxes, as do the high-end replicas.

[MOTORHEAD]

Look at the last pic, the detail of the hood skin and tube frame. That mimics the construction of the originals (and kirkhams, among others) but it just doesn't look right !
The hood skin looks too thick, and what's that squiggly line that follows the edge of the skin ? Adhesive ? resin ?
Look inside the trunk at the inside of the rear fenders. I'll bet you will see fiberglass.

[Obsessive]

Gents,

Thanks for your feedback. The body is absolutely an aluminum body and the magnesium Halibrands are the real deal. I crawled all over it and confirmed the way the aluminum skin attaches to the sub frame tubes, etc. The trunk is a really bad fiberglass tub that just doesn't make sense with the rest of the car's attention to important/expensive details. Another weird thing is that there are no inner front fenders!? Hard to imagine an aluminum bodied car missing these details.

The vin plate looks like absolute garbage and really has me head scratching. The late owner's wife told me she found a file on the car so I'll get documentation later this week. I also networked and found a former co-owner of the Monster Motorsports outfit in Escondido, CA (the one that modified the Miatas and some kind of Italian SUV here in CA) who I'll be talking with soon to try and get the story. The widow stated that her husband was a well-to-do contractor who took the car in trade for work done to set up Monster's shop. That might explain why the build seems to have stopped short.

Once I know more details and have a better list of components, I'll post the details and see what you all think is a reasonable price to ask for it.

Thanks again.

[Obsessive]

Originally Posted by mrmustang

Monster Motorsports built the Ford V8 Miata and never used a name tag such as the one shown above.

I'm thinking the body has the optional aluminum inner panels, maybe the hood, but I've never heard of a Contemporary Cobra with an all aluminum body

Is there a Contemporary manufacturers plate on the car,or are we just relying on the hand made, hand stamped VIN tag?


So much left out in the wind, how about a file with documentation on the car?

Mr. Mustang,

Good question about the Contemporary vin. I was assuming Monster stamped their own crappy tag and "borrowed" the CCX vin. The chassis looks like a Contemporary frame, modified with added sub frame tubes to accommodate the aluminum body. It's pretty odd.

Have any of you ever seen a CCX with an aluminum rebody?

MB

[Obsessive]

Originally Posted by LMH

Is it aluminum fitted over fiberglass? The hood looks like fiberglass underskin.
Larry

Wow. Never thought anyone might ever do that! I'll pay close attention to the hood when I go back. I can only say that the hood gave no reason to make me believe there was fiberglass sandwiched in there between aluminum but I'll double check. The double line is odd and I just assumed the builder used some sort of epoxy. It was ALOT lighter than the fiberglass hood of my CSX4000. Same for the aluminum doors. The rest of the body attaching spots were proof enough that the body is aluminum, riveted to the steel chassis.

[RodKnock]

Those are real magnesium Halbrands for sure. The question for CSX and Kirkham owners, who desire mags, what's the backspacing and they won't fit over the larger brake setups like Wilwoods.

I've never seen a breather setup like that. And that gas tank hose looks worrisome, but I'm no expert.

I'd say add $15,000-20,000 to the value of a Contemporary in similar condition assuming it's an alloy body. That's my two centavos.

[1ntCobra]

Originally Posted by Obsessive

Wow. Never thought anyone might ever do that! I'll pay close attention to the hood when I go back. I can only say that the hood gave no reason to make me believe there was fiberglass sandwiched in there between aluminum but I'll double check. The double line is odd and I just assumed the builder used some sort of epoxy. It was ALOT lighter than the fiberglass hood of my CSX4000. Same for the aluminum doors. The rest of the body attaching spots were proof enough that the body is aluminum, riveted to the steel chassis.

Have you seen this thread? Morphing a Cobra into the P51 concept

[mrmustang]

The body is not all aluminum, sorry

[cobrakiwi]

Originally Posted by mrmustang

The body is not all aluminum, sorry

So, how much of the body is aluminum then? And what portion of the body is not?

[mrmustang]

Originally Posted by cobrakiwi

So, how much of the body is aluminum then? And what portion of the body is not?

Still waiting for the additional pictures showing the details the OP mentions in his follow up post.

Specifically the body and sub structure, even more specific, the under side of the body in the engine compartment since there are no inner panels installed at the moment


Bill S.

PS: I have seen at least one Contemporary with an aluminum hood and doors fitted by some strange, quirky fellow in New England

[cobrakiwi]

Originally Posted by mrmustang

Still waiting for the additional pictures showing the details the OP mentions in his follow up post.

Specifically the body and sub structure, even more specific, the under side of the body in the engine compartment since there are no inner panels installed at the moment


Bill S.

PS: I have seen at least one Contemporary with an aluminum hood and doors fitted by some strange, quirky fellow in New England

You already stated the body was not aluminum right?

Just wondering how you came to that conclusion before the OP's follow up with extra pictures?

[mrmustang]

Originally Posted by cobrakiwi

You already stated the body was not aluminum right?

Just wondering how you came to that conclusion before the OP's follow up with extra pictures?

Am I really your new Evan?

Take a close look at the picture showing the Monster VIN tag, tell me what you see. Depending on your screen, you may have to download it locally to your computer and open it with Photoshop or whatever photo program you have to see it properly.

then again, look at the body shots, look closely, and tell me if you see any differences to any other Contemporary body shell, lines, curves, etc


Bill S

[cobrakiwi]

Originally Posted by mrmustang

Am I really your new Evan?

Take a close look at the picture showing the Monster VIN tag, tell me what you see. Depending on your screen, you may have to download it locally to your computer and open it with Photoshop or whatever photo program you have to see it properly.

then again, look at the body shots, look closely, and tell me if you see any differences to any other Contemporary body shell, lines, curves, etc


Bill S

Evan? Sorry I don't get it

The close up picture of the top of a foot box, tag, starter solenoid and corner of a engine, certainly for me anyways, does not rule out the body is made from aluminum.

The OP stated he has looked at the car in person and looked at the sub structure that supports the body attachment etc, and stated the body is in fact aluminum.

Yet you come along and say otherwise, have you seen this car in person?

Just shooting in the dark, yet again?

[bmwdb10]

Boy, this one is interesting. Having owned a very nice Contemporary, I can see some subtle differences with this car. There appears to be some discrete tubing under the hood and deck that are more in line with an aluminum bodied car and not on any CCX. The hood and rear lid are no doubt alum. My CCX had all the available alum panels and the one on my hood looked nothing like this. Clearly the hinge systems on both were correctly done. I would love to see a camera shot inside the fender wells, front and rear. Pretty car side from the cheesy steering wheel!