Projects DRAG SNAKE "Vintage Terror!"

I'm liking that glow-in-the-dark shift knob. I'd run it. The color seems closer to old(er) ivory than greenish. But, either way, just when, exactly, was the last time you saw one. & Jnaki's idea works well too. Marcus...

 

Amazon.com.

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While looking on Amazon I saw this one for you

 

I am going to be forever disappointed in you if you do not run that shift knob. Forever.

Hilarious story!

 

Which brings up that whole Cobra shifter difference thing.
Not being up on all the minutia Cobrawise (original), and yes, I could just Google it but how much fun would that be.
Question is why are some shifters short and straight and some are bent toward the dash (so odd), is it a small block versus big block deal? is it a T-10 versus toploader deal?
Obviously the bent one was designed that way to simply put it in a comfortable location.
So why does the straight one still satisfy that scenario on some cars?
And by the way Randall, in my way of thinking, the obvious first thing a racer would have done back in the day would be to pitch the OEM shifter in favor of a Hurst unit, may have been because the Ford style shifter was a much better design than the equivalent ones that GM built.
Also, were these standard Ford shifters with Cobra specific handles?

 

Your shift ball purchase on amazon caught my interest . I am not a big amazon buyer but I clicked on the link and searched shifter knobs and low and behold one of the first ones to pop up was a white knob, it was for a 5 speed but where it would have a 5 on the shift pattern it said F"""KING FAST! lol sounds like a perfect fit for a car that is suppose to end up F""""KING FAST!!! lol I actually like jnaki's idea. Did I ever mention I LOVE THIS BUILD!! Larry

 

Well the first gen small block cars had the straight levers simply because everything fit pretty well in the car. However when they slapped a BB in all hell broke loose in more than one way or place. Lol

In the case of the shifter lever it shoved the transmission further back and suddenly the shifter location was not so comfortable. Unless of course you were a contortionist. It was an easy fix though. They just installed a mustang shifter bas-ack-wards. This had it arching toward the front and put the knob back in a workable position. Clever?

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This is the style of an original Cobra knob, but of course it was a 4 speed. I have one. But it just doesn't inspire me to grab it and pull hard. However I am gathering quite a nice collection of potential knobs. Lol!

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It was stupid hot here this morning. It was hard to get motivated in the heat. But I did manage to scratch a few things off our knock out list. One was to clean up the roll cage and shoot is satin black again.







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Then we got totally distracted. Honestly it does not take much! This however, was a pretty cool diversion.

For the past week Dad has been bound and determined to make an outer band (for lack of better term) for the grill. It really needed it to give it that finished look but I knew it would be a pain in the back side!



You can see the aftermath of several attempts laying there on the table.

A couple of days ago, I helped him get a really good poster board template of the opening. He used it to make a wooden buck (like the one above). Then he heated and pounded a 1" aluminum strip into submission around it. It was not only the general shape of the hole but then he also sort of chamfered it to the inside, just like the opening.



After we confirmed it would fit the hole we laid it on my egg crate creation and marked it. We needed to take nearly a half inch off of it to fit inside. To keep it centered up and down, we took about 1/4 inch off the top and bottom of each of the vertical sections.

After the initial cuts and reassembly, we carefully made small grinding edits one section at a time until the egg crate fit as perfectly as we could get it. Then a quick test fit to make sure we didn't change anything in the process.



Now. How to secure it. We still had the section blocks shown earlier but hated to use them. My welder came with a an aluminum spool gun. It has been in a box in the bottom of my tool box for 6 years.



I have never tried it. We decided since we had come this far, why not do it right (or at least try). So we headed to town to snag a bit of pure Argon gas needed to weld aluminum. I installed the spool gun, watched a you tube video and fired it off.

Thanks to several scrapped attempts from earlier in the week, I had plenty of the exact material to practice on.

It took about 10 minutes or so of playing around before I told Dad to bring me the grill. I am not sure he was as confident as me. LMAO!



We decided the safest way to go at it would be to flip it over and quickly hit every cross point with a shot from the spool gun. The the same thing where the egg crate section touch the outer ring. We got it all set up and I practiced a few times on the scrap. When I had a good rhythm etc, I switched to grill and knocked them out.



It is solid. All we have to do now is take a file to some of the insde corners where the weld spot was a bit too large. Easy breezy



After I was finished, Dad took some 80 grit and quickly evened up or flattened the front of the grill. A couple of the vertical uprights moved a tiny bit during the weld up. No big deal, maybe a 1/16". The sander made quick work of it.



It took some time but it is fairly badass looking! Just a nice little finishing touch!




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Just awesome!

 

I have a spool gun sitting in a box somewhere that I have never used as well. Not sure I would take it to my grille 10 minutes in? Probaby though... only one life, right?!

Looks fantastic. :thumbsupsmilie

 

Dad got tired of trying to file all those corners by hand. So we made a quick trip to Harbor Freight today...LOL

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Well all the sheet metal work is complete in the cockpit. This afternoon we set about trying to get the passenger seat to fit.



Not bad right? Well of course it required a little surgery!



We had to take about 2" out of the the left side. YIKES!

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Technically you don’t need a pass seat but I’m glad you got it in there cause I wanna ride lol. Oh by the way I’m working on the pass seat in my car so I can show you what a fast car feels like lmao


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Randall remember when you ride in Jacksons car to wear padded undies so when the drive shaft tickels your bottom side things don't get awkward between you two! And if you ride in the Cobra you two better leave the top at home so those over inflated ego's you call heads will fit in the car ! Your both building great cars. And if Randall's dad had time to help build Jacksons car and James could drive both at once. We would have the greatest race in HAMB history!!! lol Larry

 

Original levers for Cobras (CSX2001-CSX2200 used one version and CSX2201 and later used a different assembly) and knobs (CSX2001-CSX2200 used a 1963 knob and jam nut and CSX2201 and later used the two piece 1964 knob) seemed to have been fine for Shelby American’s two drag racer but customers usually converted to a HURST® system made for Cobras. Original levers were hard mounted, i.e. no rubber vibration gromments and sloppy fit like the modern "reproductions".

The transmissions were made with high nickel gears and were pretty tough except aluminum tail cases were not up to drag racing requirements (they broke) if an aluminum cased transmission was used. Early Cobras used a 427 Galaxie cast iron cases transmission. Just before the mid CSX21xx chassis range aluminum cased transmissions with an input snout length for 260/289 engines (based on a racing 427 Ford aluminum cased transmission) were introduced. Shelby American stocked a variety of iron and aluminum cased transmissions, a special race unit with aluminum main case and iron tail case, and just the iron tail case for racing customers to buy and install themselves if their car had an aluminum cased transmission. The cast aluminum tail cases of transmissions was weakness #1. Even some street car owners that did aggressive shifting / driving managed to break aluminum tail cases.

The second weakness reported was bending the stock Ford shift rods. Shelby American welded reinforcements to the Ford rods by the time the second drag car was completed and recommended that customers do the same.

The next chronic weaknesses for drag racing reported were twisting and breaking output shafts in differentials originally designed for Jaguar XKE power and narrow tires and twisting and breaking half shafts. Cobra wise, in 1962 racing rubber was narrow and hard. By 1964 rear tires were wider and the compounds softer and sticker. Factory Dragonsnake CSX2427 had trouble with both. It wasn’t until 427 Cobras, even street cars, started ruining half shafts that a stronger half shaft assembly was made available. For Shelby’s team cars, road or drag race, Ted Halibrand came up with tougher differential output shafts and rear axles.

The original axles installed by AC Cars work fine in pure street cars, ours has for decades, but in race cars they would suffer fatigue failures. Ted Halibrand created new stronger axles for Shelby’s team cars and AC Cars came up with their version of “RACE” axles made in a more fatigue resistant steel alloy.

Day one, Cobras were raced with stock Ford aluminum flywheel bell housings. CSX2014 had a serious clutch or flywheel failure and injured the driver (and resulted in a crash). A company was found to supply COBRA lettered safety housings in cast SAE 1030 steel. The new steel safety housings became available early in the CSX21xx chassis range race and special order street. (I won’t get in an original Cobra without a safety housing.) They are tough, a friend had a failure in an dirt track racer. The tach tell tale was just north of 9,000 rpm when the failure occurred. The back of the block was damaged, the transmission snout was gone, and the rest a mass of debris but the COBRA housing held. It was visibly deformed and chewed up on the inside but it did its job.

Shelby American prepared race cars got drive shaft safety loops firmly attached to the main chassis frame.

More information than you might have wished for I guess but it is much easier to cover the in period Cobra racer drive line weaknesses in one commentary. Considering that the driveline designs done in late 1961 early 1962 with a narrow tires and 260 hp small V8 in mind, Cobras in full race trim by 1965 were impressive.

 

Have you sen this photo? It popped up on a Ford facebook page. This is what it said about the photo -
"This Shelby "Dragonsnake" ran out of Peffley Ford in Dayton, Ohio. The photo was shot at Indy in 1969 but interesting enough, the car doesn't show up on the entry list. Reportedly only eight 289 Cobra Dragonsnakes were built, specifically to run the quarter mile. Bruce Larson and later Ed Hedrick ran this Cobra before Bill Nylan purchased it in 1968. The photo was passed over for previous book use and won't be in the next one." - Doug Boyce, Doug Boyce Books.

 

Nope. Cool though. Not 100 percent but looking at the roof and rear flares I think that is the customer built car that wound up as Larson's???

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Correct. Sold new as a street car.

 

Well boys and girls, tonight is graphics night. The grill is fired up and we are about to do it to it. As they say...


We got an early start on it with a couple of small ones.



More shots coming



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Looking good Randall


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Above, right at the windshield, we reversed the stripe.

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Man I have to say, Dad and I just sat there in the driveway with silly grins on our faces for a long time! We would still be there but a couple of mosquitoes carried off my pickup so we decided we better get inside! Lol.

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Looks killer


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Randall, your car looks awesome! The gold and white were an excellent choice and the graphics look great. What a great looking hot rod! I cannot wait to see this video of this beast at the track

 

WOW
What a great looking car you and your dad did great