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CC Advertisers
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 2Likes
09-16-2009, 09:55 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
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09-16-2009, 09:56 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
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09-16-2009, 09:58 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
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09-16-2009, 09:59 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
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09-16-2009, 10:01 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
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09-16-2009, 10:03 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
Last edited by David Kirkham; 09-17-2009 at 04:03 PM..
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09-16-2009, 10:05 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
I'll try to post some more tomorrow so anyone can comment that wants to. I have a Skunk Works project that will keep me tied up for a large part of the day, however.
David
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09-16-2009, 10:34 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: San Diego,
CA
Cobra Make, Engine:
Posts: 2,979
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Not Ranked
Quote:
Originally Posted by David Kirkham
I have a Skunk Works project that will keep me tied up for a large part of the day, however.
David
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Teaser.. You put post up a bunch of Alumiporn and then tease us with a hint of something new... shame on you. 
__________________
Remember, It's never too early to start beefing up your obituary.
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09-16-2009, 11:06 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: USA,
MI
Cobra Make, Engine:
Posts: 327
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Not Ranked
I just finished reading your book and all I can say is WOW. You and your employees are true artisans. The attention to detail is phenomenal. I look forward to your next project. I noticed a Daytona Coupe in the background in a couple of photos, what is the story on that. Are you working on producing those as well?
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09-17-2009, 10:41 AM
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Senior Club Cobra Member
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Join Date: Feb 2007
Cobra Make, Engine: KMP 539, a Ton of Aluminum
Posts: 9,592
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Not Ranked
Quote:
Originally Posted by ROSS WEAVER
I noticed a Daytona Coupe in the background in a couple of photos, what is the story on that. Are you working on producing those as well?
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About a year + ago, the Kirkhams were taking orders on building 10 Daytona Coupes made from aluminum. However, I'm sure it took a back seat to Mr. Ellison's Billet car and progress on the Coupe was stopped or slowed down considerably.
Personally, I would love an update. |
09-17-2009, 03:13 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Santa Rosa Valley,
CA
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham KMP500 LeMans- Roush 451 Shelby block; KMP Flip-top with cammer: KMP 289 Bronze under construction.
Posts: 285
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Not Ranked
David, How about a couple accessories?
1. A cool "removable" Armrest/compartement with a drink holder for the long drives? Needs to be removable for the track. I have seen others but am sure you guys can design something really nice and not too cheesy.
2. Retrofit a gas cap assembly for the filler tube.
If you need to work on the Block and Daytona first I'll understand. Darren  |
09-17-2009, 04:00 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
Quote:
Originally Posted by RodKnock
About a year + ago, the Kirkhams were taking orders on building 10 Daytona Coupes made from aluminum. However, I'm sure it took a back seat to Mr. Ellison's Billet car and progress on the Coupe was stopped or slowed down considerably.
Personally, I would love an update.
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The coupe project was sidelined for a number of reasons. We never really decided on a price so we didn't take any deposits--though we could have taken quite a few. I am not sure where it ends up in the list of things to do right now. I will keep you all posted.
David
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09-17-2009, 03:58 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
Quote:
Originally Posted by ROSS WEAVER
I just finished reading your book and all I can say is WOW. You and your employees are true artisans. The attention to detail is phenomenal. I look forward to your next project. I noticed a Daytona Coupe in the background in a couple of photos, what is the story on that. Are you working on producing those as well?
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Thank you for your kind words.
We are thinking about the coupe project. We digitized the entire car, both inside and out, including interior panels. We just have so many things on the table right now.
David
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09-17-2009, 04:05 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
We knew the tunnel was critical for improving the stiffness of the chassis. A lot of work went into designing the tunnel for maximum chassis stiffness.
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09-17-2009, 04:07 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
The tunnel is made from 3 pieces. They all bolt together and are hollowed out on the inside to reduce weight. The tunnel pieces were made from 1/2" plate. The plates were initially blanked out on our water jet, then milled.
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09-17-2009, 04:08 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
The tunnel was quite complicated to make none of the angles are orthogonal. The rear bulkhead sits on an incline and we had to tie the rear bulkhead to the footboxes.
Last edited by David Kirkham; 09-17-2009 at 04:10 PM..
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09-17-2009, 04:10 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
There was very little room around the transmission in the tunnel. An original 427 Cobra has a sharp bend in the tunnel on the passenger side to allow for the emergency brake handle. We elected to remove that bend to make the tunnel as straight (and stiff) as possible. Here you can also see the incline of the rear bulkhead. The different angles were a challenge to machine correctly.
Last edited by David Kirkham; 09-17-2009 at 04:13 PM..
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09-17-2009, 04:13 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
This is a good shot that illustrates how we tied the center of the rear bulkhead to the footboxes. The weakest point in the chassis is right under the doors (because there is no roof there). We had to make the cockpit area as stiff as possible to make up for it. We did that by tying the sides of the rear bulkhead to the front of the footboxes and the center of the rear bulkhead to rear of the footboxes. We couldn't tie the center of the rear bulkhead to the front of the footboxes because they changed angle at that point to spread out around the engine.
Last edited by David Kirkham; 09-17-2009 at 04:20 PM..
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09-17-2009, 04:20 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
To save as much weight as possible, we machined the ebrake mounting right into the tunnel. Notice we also made a little drive shaft safety loop around the drive shaft.
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09-17-2009, 04:22 PM
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CC Member
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Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: Provo,
Ut
Cobra Make, Engine: Kirkham, 427
Posts: 6,990
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Not Ranked
I'll comment on the rear wheel well tomorrow. Now, I'm off to do more Skunk Works projects. Happy to answer any questions.
David
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