Projects DRAG SNAKE "Vintage Terror!"

Wow, can't believe the guy still had this car for sale. Talked him down to 2500 as it has been sitting a long time. I'm going to use it for yard art since it's so old.

 

Very cool, of course this is the car from the awesome video from page 4. If you missed it here is a link to part one of the video.

 

Randall, have you seen this old magazine cover? I apologize in advance if someone has already posted it.

 

^October 1964

 

Check it out...I was just rewatching the video above etc. I did not notice it the first time but sure enough....there is my steering wheel! That is killer. I new the early Cobras were supposed to have had this wheel but to see it on an actual Dragon Snake is amazing!

 

Yours says AC, I think his is DC.

 

Nope @36cab I have not seen it. But I just bought it on ebay. I will let you guys know if it has any interesting things in the article. Thanks.

 

So after sitting in the car and checking and double checking the steering wheel and shaft placement, we locked it in place. I took a piece .25" steel plate, laid a muffler style bracket hoop on it and outlined it. I then took the plasma cutter and cut the arch out of the plate. We welded the clamp hoop in place and cleaned it up. We then put it in place against the cowl hoop (which we have not seen in a while) and after double checking again for placement...we weld it solid.


It is very stout. All we have to do is trim the excess threads off and it will completely disappear behind the dash. Now that the upper area of the column is solid we had to figure a clean way to mount the lower section as it exits the foot well. It is very tight down there with the pedals etc. No real room inside the foot area for a mount. At the same time I did not want some bulky unit hanging on the outside in front of God and everybody. We I came up with this little jewel.


This is a thin steel plate. I was digging around the scrap pile and found a piece of metal tubing that lucky enough the steering column just barely slid through. I mean it is tight but with a bit of pressure you can force it in. I cut a piece of it about 4" long and then did the math to cut it the same angle as the steering column. We then laid it on the flat plate and traced the angle cut end. With the plasma cutter we cut the hole out and welded it together. We marked the hole in the outer wall of the foot well and with a hole saw cut the hole.


Then we shoved the plate with the tube in from the outside and over the steering column end. This gave us a very strong holder that was clean on the outside and took up nearly no space in the footwell. We drilled a few holes and pop riveted it in place.


So above you can see the mocked up steering shaft using a .75" wooden dowel. This is the best way to make sure everything fits before cutting the steel shaft and welding it together.


We played with the wood for quite a while making small tweaks. Then when we were 100 percent we traded the dowel for the steel shafts and welded it up. As you can see we have an extra joint which required a solid bearing mount in the middle (that is what took a bit of trial and error).


Here is the bearing plate in question that we fabricated. It is plasma cut from .25" steel plate and is "U" shaped (meaning there is no steel plate material on the top). This allows us to remove the two bolts, lift and remove the entire shaft as a unit. AND...so why the extra joint?


Well that little support bar from the upper chassis/cage is in the way. If you look close you can see if it was gone you could draw a straight line from the upper steering joint to the lower. Of course that was the plan from the beginning (and a darn good one if I say so myself). Originally that support bar was in front of the upper "A" arm mounting point but when we started installing the radiator it was in the way. So we moved it aft of the "A" arm and unwittingly right smack in the steering arm path. Oh well
par for the course.

 

So we have had a small set back with the motor. My hope was we would be installing it this week but looks like it will have to wait as we had to tear it back down. This is all about the valve train on our AFR heads. These were custom designed by my cam guy and assembled by Competition Products in Oshkosh. However somewhere along the line there was a bit of a miscommunication on valve springs.

To be honest I didn't double check it, and I should have. We just measured for push rods and rolled on. But getting ready for the final install this week we are starting to do things for real. We decide to install the Jesel lifters and double check a couple of things. One I wanted to make sure they moved cleanly inside both the valve covers and valve cover extensions. On the BB Chevy in the Austin we had to do a bit of grinding relief work on the cover extensions for clearance. Secondly I wanted to play around with a very cool lash adjustment tool from Cam Perfect (Roger Hurst my cam designer invented it). I had several questions about using the tool and figure it would be much easier to experiment with it while the engine was on the stand.

As we are rotating the engine to install the push rods and lifters I start to notice something. As the installed lifters are going down they are going WAY down. I mean they are crushing the springs. We were still rotating so no complete coil binding but man just looking at them they appeared to be totally smashed. So I cranked one of them all the way down and got out the feeler gauges to measure it. I had a friend that runs a local machine shop coming over anyway so I decided to let him have a look (even though I knew immediately we were in trouble) LOL.

He about had fit when he measured them his self. The top two and bottom two coils were totally collapsed on each. Totally impacted with no space at all between them. The one coil in the middle that still had some room and allowed us to continue rotating etc. only had about .030. We took one of the spring sets off and found shims under the locator (four shims totaling .145 worth)! Crazy!

The next morning I started the conversation with all the parties involved. As I said there was a bit of mis-communication between them. The issue was obviously the spring choice. Everything was correct with them except the seat pressure which needed to be at least 235 according to my designer. The mis-communication happened when my design said double check the seat pressure and what to do if it was not enough. My designer had given them a second spring for an upgrade should they need to do it. The machine shop thought the spring upgrade already happened at AFR and to get the seat pressure they shimmed it up. This would have probably been fine for most applications even with a pretty big cam. However the machine shop did not have MY cam card. Had they had that in hand calling for .735 lift they would have thrown a red flag.

Anyway all is well and it was all figured out. I have the correct height and spring rate on the way. So a fairly easy fix but it puts a bit of delay in the works not to mention another set of head gaskets and bolts etc. Not such a bad deal as I had installed the gaskets that Ford Racing shipped. I had wanted to put a set of Cometic on there...now I guess I get my chance.

 

Edit;? You stated Jesel lifter but do you mean rocker arm?

 

To use the cometic gaskets the deck surfaces need a very specific finish or they wont work. You might want to look into this. If I remember correctly they need a very smooth finish and cant run o rings.

 

Good thing you found that now and not later.

 

Don't mean to sound overly simplistic, but, remember the old air pressure in the plug hole and spring compressor that hooked to the rocker stud on the SBC? Don't know if this would work on your situation, but if so it would save on gaskets and bolts.

 

Yep Sep...sorry, correct...rockers...fingers typing with out the brain.

 

I would buy one of these. one of the best tools I've bought in a long time for ease of changing or shimming springs.

 

Yesterday I spent a lot time inside the engine compartment making very complex poster board templates for the area just aft of the radiator. We are trying to close in that nose area to assist in direct air flow through the radiator. After quite a few edit and refits we finally got a pattern that worked. Like the rest of the sheet metal, after cutting it out, we clamped it down. Placed and traced our little "L" brackets on the backside. Then we removed it, drilled them, pop riveted them the panel and put it back in place. When we were happy with the placement we welded the tabs on the back solid.


The black stuff on all sides of the this panel is a heavy duty push on weather strip to help seal things up.

I was very happy with the look and fit. It is clean and looks like it could have been factory. I had originally planned to install the Tilton remote master cylinder reservoirs some where there on this panel. So to see what kind of clearance we needed for the hood when closed we sat the hood on and I got back under it to check it out. I didn't like it. BUT while I was there with the radiator in and the hood down etc. I couldn't help but ponder a bit on the hood dilemma. I am taking my first look at where and how to make mounts for the hood pins and to be honest I am still pretty bummed out about it.

For the hell of it I grabbed one of the factory style hoop hinges that we removed a few weeks ago. It obviously will not work, nothing has changed. To fold back under as it was meant to do AND was actually doing before the radiator got in the way it would need nearly .75" shaved off. Certainly an issue since the hoops are formed from .75" diameter tubing. LOL.

So I got to thinking what would happen if it didn't tuck it self all the way back under the lip. What if it just stopped before it got to the radiator. It would have to be cut down. So I went over and just lopped off about 2" of it along with flat mounting plate. I went back under and sat it in place. As we all know it is hard to just look at them and know for sure with this stupid style of hinge but I would nearly bet on it working. I handed Dad the hoop and said grab the other one and cut it to match. Nothing to loose here. I figure I will just install them back in mounts and tack them to the mounting plates on the hood and see what happens.

But believe it or not, the second hoop hinge was MIA. We tore the shop apart and could not find it. I threw quite a temper fit (as you might imagine). Here we are thinking we might possibly have an answer and then right on cue the second hinge is absolutely GONE! Unbelievable!


After we chilled a bit I told Dad...Screw it! ...lets just build our own set. Above is the finished product ready to install the hinge pins, touch to them to the hood plates and weld them. That is some pretty tough steel bar stock. I put it in the vice and simply started cold bending it about a .25" at a time. AND believe it or not after making one I actually made a second one that you would have to get the calipers out to find there was a difference between them...LOL.


We put some scrap rubber weather strip pieces under hood to level it. I put our home made hinges in place (with the radiator out of course), pushed them up to the hood and welded them in place. So I am just standing under there remembering all the fails we have had with hinges. I asked Dad if I should try and open it or not. He said hold on while I duck...LMAO!


With much trepidation I gave a push on the back of the hood and to my total amazement, it went right up just like it is supposed to. I just about fell over!


So we are back in business and I haven't been this happy in quiet a while where the Cobra is concerned.

 

Days like that makeup a little for all the rough days.

 

King Cobra had that wheel too.

 

I don't think so. Look closer. That is a Carol Shelby wheel. Those are the steering wheels the Shelby changed to at some point. I am not sure how many came over before he started changing the wheels. I know I have seen a total of 4 early slab sides with the A.C. wheel.

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Amazing build thread sir it looks like it will be a very fun ride!

 

The engine compartment sheet metal is finished. Thank goodness. I will say it again. I hate sheetmetal work nearly as much as body work. LOL! But it is complete and looks nice. Below is the last piece (passenger side aft of radiator). Like all the other pieces we started with poster board and cut and taped until we had a pattern. Cut one final pattern out of a solid piece of poster board (including any bends) and trial fitted one last time before moving to the aluminum. But even then there were edits as if you close at this piece you will notice it changes a bit before installation. That is because after putting it place it didn't match the other side exactly near the top left.


Anyway as you can see below after we got our panels to fit properly I would clamp them in place. Next I carefully place a mounting tab against what ever we are welding it to and the back of the clamped piece. Then I simply outlined it with a sharpie and numbered both the panel and bracket.


Then we take the brackets and drill them for a 3/16 stainless pop rivet. They do not have to be perfect as they are numbered and we know where they are going on the panel.


After cleaning up the drill holes we set the correct bracket in its outline and mark through the drill hole.


The we drill the holes in the panel and one at a time pop rivet the brackets to the back of it. After it is in place we double check to make sure it didn't rotate out of it is outline.


Finally if we our job right (which I am happy to say we did) these panels nearly pop back in place with their brackets touching the weld surfaces. Then we simply tack the brackets and poof, one solid panel in place.




Sorry I just noticed I do not have a photo of the top piece in place that runs across the radiator. I will have to update this post later with a final pic.

 

We also placed the Tilton master cylinder remote filler tank kit. Originally I had planned to place it on the driver's side panel just after of the radiator. But as I mentioned earlier there were several issues. One I didn't like the way it looked. Two we would have to fabricate a mounting box of some kind to keep it straight up and down (as those panels lean out from the chassis and move up at around a 20 degree angle). And last but not least, it appeared we would have to make and extra "whooptidoo" if you wheel in the radiator hose to miss it. (How about me looking ahead there for once) LOL!


So with all that being said I looked at several mounting points but we have two issues, obviously one we need to be able to get to it relatively easy or what the hell was the point of a remote system. Secondly we have to be able to get the lines to the master cylinders with out basically wrapping them around a header tube!

This seemed the perfect location, besides, aesthetically speaking, it needed something there in the middle anyway. LOL. As you can see we test fitted one of our braided lines just to check the path and all is well. I think however we may move it up on that panel just a bit.

 

I am pretty excited as Dad is working this week on masking off the engine compartment and front suspension pieces so we can do a quick bit of touch up paint on the chassis, cage and other added hard parts. THEN we are ready to drop the little small block Ford in the hole and start wiring and plumbing! Praise the racing gods!

 

Our corrected valve springs made it today.





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Oil them up good.

 

Thanks James...I would ask to borrow a few quarts of oil but I don't have any snow shoes to come pick it up! You melting any up there yet? I am going to start calling you the "Klondike Kat!"

 

If it melted any, I can't tell it.
The weather man says we have more coming this weekend.

 

I saw that...I suppose you have plenty of SALT though...right?

 

Salty attitude.

 

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