2152 The Build

prp289 · #1 (**permalink**) 01-26-2014, 10:16 AM

Received my car last week on Jan 17. Now the fun begins!!!

marcalan · #2 (**permalink**) 01-26-2014, 11:27 AM

Congratulations! Looking forward to watching the progress.

M-A

DanEC · #3 (**permalink**) 01-26-2014, 12:11 PM

Congratulations - now the fun begins. ERA's are great replicas. You obviously had much better weather for your delivery than I did for mine 4 years ago next month.

patrickt · #4 (**permalink**) 01-26-2014, 06:27 PM

Nice. It's fun to see 'em come off the truck.

mrmustang · #5 (**permalink**) 01-26-2014, 06:43 PM

You are now doomed, doomed I say.....

Welcome to the madness.

Bill S.

tkb289 · #6 (**permalink**) 01-26-2014, 08:31 PM

Welcome home 2152!

The wait is over and now the you can start your build ...

Looks like there is a fair bit of work to do, is the body bonded or will you do that as well?

Keep those photos coming as you progress, it will be great fun to follow along and see your Cobra come together.

Congratulations!

prp289 · #7 (**permalink**) 02-10-2014, 10:02 PM

To DanEC, we were lucky with the weather out here that day, I think it was in the mid to upper 70's. I started with the drilling of the rivet holes. Asked a couple of my friends that I worked with in Avaition to let me borrow some of their cool sheet metal tools. I hope to pull the body off sometime next month. I will be spraying the frame and then bonding the body. Question to you all, on the FIA cars, were the wheel wells painted black or just in aluminum? Was thinking of spraying the under body in dull aluminum. still deciding on what blue I want, Viking or Guardsman..... also deciding crate or engine shop for motor.....

lippy · #8 (**permalink**) 02-10-2014, 10:19 PM

Congratulations. You'll be surprised how well the kit goes together, and how fast the time goes.

tkb289 · #9 (**permalink**) 02-10-2014, 11:37 PM

prp,

To give you some idea of the underside of one FIA, here are a few photos I took a while ago of the Gurney/Grant '64 FIA, CSX2323.

As for what color to paint your Cobra ... that will be one of the hardest decisions you will need to make along with countless others, but that's all part of the fun ... take your time.

prp289 · #10 (**permalink**) 02-23-2014, 10:37 PM

Started to drill out the rivet holes.... Thanks Tim for the pics.

prp289 · #11 (**permalink**) 02-24-2014, 08:53 AM

http://www.clubcobra.com/forums/atta...1&d=1393257186

Fullchat289 · #12 (**permalink**) 02-24-2014, 10:46 AM

Congratulations, and looking forward to your build progress. Are you looking to create a tribute to any specific FIA chassis, or are you following your own build vision?

- Allen.

1985 CCX · #13 (**permalink**) 02-24-2014, 11:15 AM

Congrats...............

Love the FIA's......................

rlrichins · #14 (**permalink**) 02-24-2014, 05:18 PM

Congratulations on your purchase!!! You are in for a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction as you build your 289 FIA. I purchased ERA's FIA kit #2129 in its very basic form and then added all the options. I look forward to watching your progress.

Silversmith · #15 (**permalink**) 02-24-2014, 05:27 PM

CONGRATS!
Looking forward to a great thread!

prp289 · #16 (**permalink**) 03-03-2014, 08:06 AM

I will be building a 64 or 65 period FIA but I'm not building it as a tribute to a certain car. Looking at a running 331 with Webers, I have a Toploader with close ratio gears. I would say I'm 90% sure of going with the Viking Blue with out the front stripe. If I do a Hurst linkage for the Toploader, what mods are needed to run the Ford/Cobra shifter.

Fullchat289 · #17 (**permalink**) 03-03-2014, 08:12 AM

Some say there are too many blue cobras, but I disagree and would definitely go with the Blue, or an Old English White, or Red for any "do-overs". As far as the shifter is concerned with the TL, I'm sure someone here could chime in, but David Kee could sort you out. I'm assuming you are looking to have a proper operating reverse lock-out via the T-handle? I am personally running a TKO-600 with a replica T-handle shifter. Here's David's site if you aren't already working with him:

David Kee Toploader Transmissions, Inc.

- Allen.

Fullchat289 · #18 (**permalink**) 03-03-2014, 08:18 AM

...and this:

Cobra Shifters

patrickt · #19 (**permalink**) 03-03-2014, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fullchat289

Some say there are too many blue cobras...

It's not so bad when it's blue with no stripe... but the blue with white stripe thing is just waayyyy overdone.

DanEC · #20 (**permalink**) 03-03-2014, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prp289

If I do a Hurst linkage for the Toploader, what mods are needed to run the Ford/Cobra shifter.

It depends which tailhousing you use as there are 3 different lengths and I think some of those may have more than one sifter mount location used. In general you want the short or medium length tailhousing which I suspect you already know. There are various adaptor plates to move the Hurst shifter around. Probably Doug at ERA would be the best to advise you if you can give him the information on your tailshaft casing.

My Hurst shifter, which I bought used off of another ERA owner, has a flat mounting plate on the shift lever arm for the handle to mount to and a Ford shifter bolts perfectly to that. I'm not sure if that is a Hurst option or not as most Hurst units I've had/seen have a verticle mount that a lever bolts to (two bolts vertical). I suspect the Hurst unit may be modified by ERA or an outside supplier for them since I'm pretty sure they also custom built the shift rods and possibly the mount plate that I got with it. For a 289 or FIA you probably want the more forward mount like the original cars.

Something else I failed to get good pictures of (sorry PatrickT) but you can see the top mount where the shift handle bolts down. I made a 1/4 inch spacer as the handle seems to short for my installation. ERA also recommended a spacer under the transmission mount to raise it a little further which I have just installed.