Projects DRAG SNAKE "Vintage Terror!"

Hope your not going blind from drinking all that stuff on your Birthday

Happy Belated Birthday Salty

 

Thanks brother hope to see you in the near future.

 

You guys gonna be at George rays


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Did you guys survive the bad weather last night?

 

I had to get the row boat out to get to work lol. But all is well here


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Yep...one piece here. Happy Birthday James.

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Randall,

I came across this article on MSN - Steve Juliano's collection of Cobra's is being auctioned off this month by Mecum. I am not sure if this has been covered in this thread or not, but there are some great photos including his Dragon Snake.

Here is the link to the article:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/cla...-up-for-auction/ss-AAAR0Nn?li=BBnbfcL#image=1

Here is the link specifically to the Dragonsnake:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/cla...-up-for-auction/ss-AAAR0Nn?li=BBnbfcL#image=6

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Steve

 

Yes...very cool. One of the regular contributors here on this thread actually did the restoration work on the Cobras.

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Yep, research, materials, finishes, color comparisons, located all the pieces for both Weber carburetor induction systems, and parts chasing and in person review for all but the SC.

 

Well I shipped back one throw out bearing and one hydraulic line. This is what I got in exchange...some assembly required! LOL




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Spotted on road today....

 

Where's the fork?

 

Between the knife and spoon.

 

Well we hit the shop this morning with big aspirations. Get the motor and trans finished and in the car! AND believe it or not, that is exactly what we did. However I should have been more specific with my aspirations. I should have said in the car for the last time or in the car and everythings fits! LMAO!


So here is what was staring us in the face this morning, the original bearing plate and anti roll pin (actually I have no idea what you call it so that is what I came up with) LOL!


We pulled the scattershield bellhousing off and since our new throwout bearing came with its own bearing plates, we removed the original (I am thinking I was supposed to send this thing back with the other stuff) Oh...well.


With all the new pieces out we sort of hand fit them to double check what orientation they all needed to be in for everything to line up the way we wanted.


When we were happy, we slid it all in place to check the cushion and decide which if any of the supplied shims were needed behind the throwout bearing. We also noticed the "anti-roll stud" (which was much larger was also WAY TO LONG! It didn't say anything about it in the instructions but it obviously going to call issues so we cut it off and reinstalled it.


As you can see this handy dandy little unit is fairly varsitile. However before we can go any further we have to get the flywheel and clutch on so turned our attention there.


So we started by driving in the Timken pilot bearing and slid the inner scatter plate in place. It was funny I put in on but noticed we were missing the down pin on the left side (it turned up later still stuck in the bellhousing)...


It took a bit of doing but I finally got the crazy ass fly wheel installed. Unlike the "brand" I am used to working with there was no dowel. But there was ONE "very slightly" off center bolt which meant it only went on one way (which is a complete pain in the backside when you are laying on the floor trying to hold it in place, spin it and find the correct placement all at the same time)! But it is on and torqued down.


We also got the clutch and presssure plate installed...


...Followed by the bellhousing. There is Dad finishing up the lower bellhousing to inner-scatter plate bolts. After we had it in place we took a measurement as instructed from the outer trans mount area to the clutch fingers. Then we put the throwout bearing on and took a measurement on it to the trans mounting surface. We were looking to confirm a cushion of between .150 and .200. Without any shims, after doing the math we were at .186 so we are good to go.

 

Since we had the opportunity we installed the starter. Which by the way was short lived as when we started installing the motor we had removed it because it was not going to make it past the engine mounts.


So there you go, it took some man handling but she finally slid together...ready to install!


So for the first time in a LONG time the Cobra catches some rays (or at least some pure honest clouds)!


So. We swapped sides in the shop and after a few adjustments including, changing the lift chain point a few times, removing the starter, oil filter and mounting bracket we dropped the engine and trans in place. Suffice to say I didn't take any photos but we had an issue. Even though I must have measured everything multiple times, there was going to be no room for the rear header tube on either side. The fancy new sheetmetal work is in the way!

We just pulled it the motor back out, set it on the floor and the shoved the car inside and shut the door. So tonight this is what the shop looks like...LOL! I had a few ideas on how to fix (edit) it but not tonight! I will deal with it in the morning! Time for PD LIVE!

 

Well I picked up some cool pieces at Pete & Jake's Hot Rod parts open house this weekend. These through chassis brake line fittings are pretty darn cool. Plus a bunch of killer brake line holders.


We decided to take Dads coupe up and introduce the two "Kids" (California meet Caledonia) lol.


Dad had a blast and the old coupe cleaned up!



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Saw the car. Didn't realize it was you guys. I got to sit in the California Kid.

 

I am currently trying to get the photos together from this weekend's adventures in the shop. But first look what I found tonight.



My Ford Performance Fender Covers!

So here is their story. Back when I was ordering all the parts from Ford Racing (and I mean a lot of parts)...I needed a special piece. It was a billet crank pulley spacer. Not a huge item but it cost $100 or so. When I started unpacking parts I found a very heavy box that I did not recognize. When I opened it I found 25 of them...(shipping error). $2500 error!

I contacted them and my rep thanked me. He said send them back and he would send me something cool for being honest. ....you are looking at it! LMAO!

Oh...actually there was more, I also got a plastic Ford performance license plate frame!

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I see something missing Randall


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A 409?

 

Wow james you and I think a lot alike lol


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Very funny! Well actually I blame Jackson for this mess. I believe he snuck down here and changed all my marks so I would waste several weeks finishing the firewall and footboxes. The motor would not have the proper clearance and we would have to start all over. You see it is a very deep plot that involves his recognition that when we finally get this little small block Ford running it is going to walk that big MOPAR mania in his AFX car. But by sabotaging the Cobra he has only prolonged the enevitable. Well nice try there Wrenchbender but we are recovering nicely! LMAO...

Well...somebody must have moved something...LOL. I mean we measured this POS a hundred ways to Sunday before starting to finish out the engine compartment. AND somehow, as you know from the last real Cobra progress report, we "mucked" it up!


It was so damn pretty just before we attempted to slide the engine and transmission in place. But as I reported earlier about halfway in I new we were screwed. We went ahead and dropped it in place to evaluate the situation. The same idiot that measured it the first time took more measurments (to be honest I am not sure how confident I am with his ability to read a tape measure) but what are you going to do. The problem?....no room for the rear header tubes!


So after much debate and tripple checking things inside and outside the foot boxes, this is what we came up with...notch the boxes as marked so the rear header tubes have proper clearance.


We drilled out the pop riveted aluminum angle trim and as you can see above upper left, gave ourselves and extra inch or so down...just to make sure!


We drilled out and popped out the 1/4" alumimum plate on both sides and cut the marked lines we made on them with the skill saw. The same blade we used to cut all the thick aluminum followed by a ton of treated wood building a ramp on the rear porch for my mother...suffice to say I am fairly impressed with it!


Then we cut the .040 aluminum panels at the front and top. Our hope was to do all this with out having to drill out the rivets and remove the pieces...but alas as you might expect we ended up doing it...


After marking the foot box stuctural framework we cut the corner out.

We cut and welded scrap pieces back in to keep the footbox very solid yet expose our corner. We popped the heavy aluminum side pieces back in place. I do not have photos but we also worked up
a two piece insert to form the relief area out of .040.


Originally as noted our angle trim pieces were aluminum, but to be honest I was not terribly happy with the finished results. It was hard, even with an angle finder cut out the correct pie shaped wedge and bend it together to form a perfect joint. I decided this time around to use light weight steel instead so I could find the angles, cut, weld and grind the piece smooth. The only issue was finding light weight (say 16 gauge) angle.


Above was the perfect answer. At the very top left is a piece of 16 gauge 2" square tubing, we marked it and with the plasma cutter and a straight edge quickly made 4 perfect 16 gauge angles (in the middle). Then we carefully put them together to form a very complicated single piece of trim.


It took some doing but we managed to create both the upper and lower trim pieces and they fit like a glove. It is a very clean look and a I think a really killer answer to a very complicated issue.




After drilling them for mounting rivets, Dad spent a while with a heavy duty 2" scotch bright style pads on the angle grinder cleaning up the pieces and then a bit of hand sanding/polishing with a thousand grit.


I picked up some heat resistant (up to 500 degrees anyway) clear. So in the a.m. we will give all the pieces several coats and then install them. I hope by late afternoon to be sliding the engine in again...cross your fingers.

 

We took a break this afternoon and took Dad's coupe to a monthly cruise-in at Steak and Shake in Springfield. I met a HAMB lurker there that admitting to following the build. Hello! Thanks for hanging with us here....You know who you are! LOL.

 

Last weekend at the NSRA event I saw a cool old drag car wearing the same Holman Moody valve covers as the Cobra. I didn't really like the look as much as I thought..

While we waited for the foot box trim pieces to dry I decided to start the process of polishing the raw valve covers.


I started with a corse 2" pad on my angle grinder to really knock the finish down. Followed by a medium pad, 120 paper on my orbital sander followed by 400. They look really good. Dad is going to take it from there tomorrow through 1000 grit and then polishing.

We are leaving the insided of the fins raw. I am already pretty excited about the look.

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Gotta take your word for it, cant see the pictures.

 

Humm. Sorry guys. I can see it. I will try and see what is going on.

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I don’t know what you did Randall but I can see the pic now lol


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Better finish sand with 2000

 

Pics came thru. Nice job on the covers!

 

Normally....definitely. However we started by testing the insides with the die grinder pads to make sure it would not be too aggressive or not enough etc. Then I did just one of the flat faces on the outside to continue the experiment. I went though a 1000 grit and Dad thought if we stopped there and polished they might have a more vintage look to them versus a perfect just off the shelf shine. He gave it quick polish and I really like it. So that is why we are stopping at 1000 grit. I am excited to get home today and see how they came out.

I have been thinking about polishing them for a while even before I saw the raw ones at the car show. I called a local "mirror finish" polishing group here in town and was quoted $250 per cover! Which is more than I paid for the set to begin with...LOL! That is usually all it takes for me to decide to just do something myself! Sometimes, however, that attitude gets me in trouble!