Projects DRAG SNAKE "Vintage Terror!"

Well it has been a while since I gave an update on the car. We are still breaking in the clutch nice and slow, I think it is just about ready to go as I have already given more drive time and clutch depressions than RAM ask me to give it. I know I am really chomping at the bit to letter rip. In fact I actually launched it pretty hard leaving the last car show. I mean folks had been waiting around to watch it leave for a while and I really hated to disappoint them. LOL

I ran it up to about 5 grand and dropped the clutch. Zoe said we got some air under the front wheels. No photo evidence of that (or at least none has appeared yet on the internet). It wouldn't surprise me though as it really hooked hard and I know the old hood scoop was way up there. LOL. If it didn't, she was close. But other than that, we have been taking it nice and slow, we have hit several car shows and it seems to be the center of attention where she shows up.

Saturday night we headed to a really nice monthly cruise in. I trailered it most of the way but parked down the road a bit to drive it on in. I was backing it out of the trailer by myself and it was simply idling back and rolling down ramp. It stopped and I thought the front wheels had just hit the area between the floor and the door. I gave it a little gas to finish the roll out and it was obvious something was wrong. Something was hitting. I put it back in first and pulled forward a bit and got out to look. This is what I saw!


That is my EXTREMELY one-off header shoved forward about 5 inches. The curve out was now touching the tire and the tip was forced down onto the floor. I just about did something with a brick out by backside if you know what I mean.

It was crazy, I didn't hit it very hard, certainly not enough to trash a header, but there she sat. We shoved it back on in the trailer, strapped it down and headed back home. I was not a happy camper thinking of the prospect of removing the header and rebuilding the whole thing etc.

When we got home it was obvious we had to remove the side pipe section which as you see above was just turbo clamped to the header leg. But it was jammed so hard between the front tire and the floor it would not come loose. So at this point I figure I have nothing to lose. With the car still strapped at the front, I wrapped one of me tie down loops around it, hooked the ratchet tie down to it and to the hook on the trailer floor out back. I only had to click it a couple of times (sort of pulling the leg back in place) to get the tip off the floor. I was surprised, when I release it, it did not spring back in place, but it didn't.

So we got the side pipe section off with no problem and it was undamaged other than the wrap where it was in contact with the wheel when we rolled it back forward etc. There is a cut out area for the exhaust where the body rolls under so it was clear where it was originally. We were still about 3 inches forward of that mark. I decided to see if I could put it back. I mean as I said at this point, I really have nothing to lose.

So I put the strap back in place and very slowly began to pull it back in place with the ratchet tie down strap. When we had it perfect (front to back) I released it and it did spring back this time just a bit. We repeated the pull two more times slowly going a bit beyond the mark and it finally released dead center of the hole. Then we rolled it out of the trailer, stuck a pry bar up into it, put one end of the strap on the bar below the body and the other end on my neighbors tree. We slowly repeated the process of pulling and pretty much put it right back in the hole front to back and now left to right.

The outside header pipe went right back on and you can not tell anything ever happened. I kept listening the hole time for the pop of weld breakage but it made no noise as it went back in place.

 

So yesterday afternoon I decided we needed to do something to get rid of this crazy Cobra Mojo we have going. We decided to take all the cars to my favorite Route 66 photo op which is only about 20 minutes from our house. It is one of only 3 or 4 sections of the original road that has not been paved over at some point. There is a little cafe, gas station, and garage building that have been restored and if ever there was a car place to get your MOJO right, it is this place. LOL














Three Generations of Hot Rods on the original Hot Rod Road. LOL

 

This is what happens when you trailer your car that is street legal lmao you should have just driven it to the cruise and lol. Hope you get to mokan this weekend to make some passes I will not be there as I am goin to Tucson to race the shop truck but keep us all informed of how is runs

 

I have a feeling we are not going to make it to MOKAN Sunday. I had really hoped to finally let the thing eat a bit but we put my mother in the hospital yesterday and it looks like she may be there a day or two. Hopefully we still make it out to a test and tune yet this season.

 

Wishing you and your family the best. I hope it’s nothing serious. As much as I can’t wait to see how the car runs, family always comes first!

 

Had some down time today so I upgraded my Roth Style Decal to match the final paint and graphics scheme on the car. This is a 4.5" round decal that I give to the kids at shows etc. My original ones just had the Cobra graphic from the rear quarters and was cool as hell. But I had this graphic I did a long time ago. The problem the car was blue etc. So I took some time this afternoon to update it and print off about 200 of them. I think the kids are really going to dig it. I know their parents will, I often wonder who actually gets the decals in the end! LMAO.

 

Good Job.

 

Well they let my mother out of the hospital yesterday, no stroke, just calling it a TIA. She is home and no worse for wear but gave us all quite a scare. I thought about sneaking off to Mokan this morning but I hated to go without Dad. So we just hung out in the shop and ended up getting our ART on...LMAO!

Zoe asked what the plan was when I drug her out of bed at 7 a.m. and I said we are going to build something. Going to get donuts first but we are definitely going to build something. LOL As you saw above we always have cool things to hand out at car shows and in the pits etc. but we needed some kind of stand to hold them so folks can be more self-serviced if you know what I mean. But I wanted something more than just a metal stand.

I started with a small plate from the scrap pile and scavenged a bit of tubbing from the Thames roll bar pile (I will replace it...LOL). I have been contemplating something for a while but hadn't really put it all together in my head. What if the upright tube had a Cobra wrapped around it? I took a six foot piece of 3/16 or so all-thread and started shaping it. Before long I had it looking what I thought looked like a Cobra, Zoe had her doubts. Then I found a piece of fairly thin sheet metal. It was about two feet long and 4" wide. I sheared a few 1" x 4" sections off of it and started playing around. If I used the all thread as sort of a backbone, I could use these pieces as scales. AND if I drilled a hole in the middle of each one, I could weld it through the hole to the all thread and fill the hole at the same time.


The cool part was after welding them onto the spine and grinding the weld a bit, they were warm enough to be quite plyable. We sort of adjusted them as we went, giving them sort of an inverted half pipe.


After the last spine turn we started making them a bit shorter and finally ended with a tail point section. We went back and tweeked on them bit trying to match each which its predecessor.


I built a very nice box to hold the hero cards that can be inserted in the top of the upright pole etc.






I still have some finishing welding and grinding to do on the scales. And I have quite a bit of work left on the head but I am getting close. I still have the outer layers on the hood, that makes it larger etc. But for now I think we have a pretty good start on it!

 

Nice, how about a burnout to please the groupies

 

Oh believe you me, I am ready for one! We have to catch a break soon and then we can finally let this thing rip.

 

I get it though. This thread has become one of those never ending web commercials about a miracle drug or a simple 3 minute exercise that will change your life. They just keep telling you how great or how easy it works. And 30 minutes in you are still waiting on them to show you just what the hell it is. Well I am sure sorry about that but I promise it is coming and you will not have to pay $99 or submit your credit card number for an initial free sample. Although...that would be greatly appreciated! LMAO!!!

 

Both Cobras are Great, It will all come in time! Gary

 

If I had $99 I would be buying more car parts but I must admit I'm looking forward to seeing the Drag Snake making some hard passes.

 

While you are killing time you should make up some business cards with "You have been SNAKE Bitten" on it to pass out to the guys you beat.... like say @wrenchbender

 

Well last weekend was a milestone of sorts for me and the Cobra. We attended the 28th Annual Apple Butter Makin Days Car Show in Mt. Vernon, MO. It was this exact show, 4 years ago when the Hamber that built the Cobra body first called me. We talked for a long time about the body and Cobra's in general. By the time the conversation was over we had strucked a deal for a body he was currently working on. The rest, as they say, is history!


But it was a great conversation. I learned a lot of Cobra history and he shared something else that caught my attention. He said he only built a few bodies per year and Reggie Jackson purchased the last one. To be honest, at the time, I sort of took that with a grain of salt. However just a week later, the next large area car show, also had a fairly good sized swap meet. As luck would have it there was an area guy there showing his Cobra bodies. They were the standard fat fendered 427 style but we decided to have a look at them. Especially his chassis set up etc. He strikes up a conversation with me and told him I just purchased a slab side body. He asked where I got it. I told him the name of my supplier and he said, Oh wow, I know him, he makes a really, really nice unit. It made me feel good.


Then he said, you know it's really a small world. You could have seen one of his bodies just last week in person. There was one at his shop. I said really what was going on with it. He said, Oh Reggie Jackson's nephew was in the area with a Cobra his uncle gave him and I did some work on it etc., etc. LMAO. So I found the man was true to his word. And not only with Reggie...LOL ...but later by supplying me with a killer high quality body. Thanks.

 

After the show was over we headed over to Griff's Cam Shop in Billings, MO for little impromptu cruise in to try and raise some money for a good cause. We hung out there and got a some really cool photos of the car at sunset.

 

Cool!

This info needs it's own thread.

 

Perfect shots I agree!

 

Looks great!

 

Ya Ya, how about a time slip

 

Cobra display snake came out good.

 

Glad to see you got it out last weekend, looks awesome. I race with Griff in the Nostalgia Gassers, he is a great guy! Now bring on the burnout videos!

 

And One from Wrenchbender

 

I’ll have to dig up the time slips when I get home but for the mean time here is a pic from Labor Day weekend at funny car chaos maybe this will get Randall’s blood pumping and get that pesky snake out of the show car circuit and at the dragstrip where it belongs lol

 

That picture deserves to be made full size.
I think we would have had a a good run if we could have got together last year

Randall's already running a Tick Bite sticker on the Dragons back window lol

The 56 body might be a wee bit heavier so you two may have a better chance

 

Yeah norb we would have been real close probly been down to a hole shot win one way or the other I am assuming you ran the 10.33 lol if not well then you would have had a real good look at my taillights lol

 

Great shot. Looks like you are hooking up nicely.

 

Man I need that wheels up photo for your hero cards! FYI...We are planning a MOKAN trip Sunday (weather permitting) to see if we can finally make a pass before hibernation! LOL I am still not happy with my clutch pedal but we are going to plumb around the pedal adjustment device this week (since it is screwed down tight and not in use anyway). I am thinking it maybe causing our issue. The pedal is fairly mushy uptop and does not get firm until it hits the firewall. No issue for the kind of Sunday driving we have been doing but I am worried about a high RPM shift.

It feels like it just needs a good bleed but we have done it several times. I am thinking that little device is the cause somehow. But I got fuel this past weekend and we should be ready to start dialing the crazy thing in Sunday. Long range forecast calls for mid 50s and cloudy! Sounds about perfect to me! LOL

 

And now from the show Car Circuit...LOL. She took 1st place at the Maple Leaf Festival Show in Carthage, MO. We actually had some pretty stiff competition! But I am pretty sure it helps when the judging is done by the folks walking through and you are handing out killer decals! LMAO!