Welcome

Let me start by saying this. The car pictured is a dream car. Something like this would cost someone $50,000-$100,000 to build or buy. This is what everyone thinks of when they decide to shop for a car.  Then your dream is crushed when you realize the cost. Personally, I cannot afford to buy a car like this. BUT I still want my dream car!!!!!!!

This is what I bought. It was a mess. Missing body panels! The engine didn't fit under the hood. The brake system didn't work. No seats. No doors. No driveshaft. No lights. No hope of being driven. BUT this mess was only $10,000. While it was cheap at, the time I couldn't afford it! But I told myself one thing, if I passed on this car, could I find another that cheap? So I bought it and never looked back.

This was a decent buy. The previous owner had placed a 460 big block into the engine bay and even though you can see the parts needed to drive a car, not a single part was installed correctly. I threw an old corvette seat into this chassis so I could get a feel for how I would be placed in the car. This was kind of motivating. At this point in life, I felt happy. I had this car, but knew I had a lot of work ahead of me. I knew it would cost money to get this job done. So it sat this way for almost 2 years until I figured out how I wanted to redo this mess. 

I paid $10,000 for this car.  BUT..... I realized after I bought it, I was not a fan of what the previous builder put into the car. It was a 460 big block with an automatic 4 speed transmission. The cool thing is this engine is popular with an older crowd. So I sold the engine and transmission for about $3,000. This dropped my $10,000 Cobra to $7,000. Now all of a sudden this build is even better then it has ever been. BTW I also sold some of the COBRA specific 460 exhaust and chassis parts for an extra $500. 

This is how my COBRA spent most of it's life even before I bought it. Most people would see this and think "this car is ready for a junk yard". When I see something like this I can always see what it can become not what it is. So this car sat with an empty chassis and a cracked messy body for another 6-8 months. 

As of this point in my build I was only into this car for $6500.  When your building a COBRA you can do it two ways. Big 600 hp engine in a 2,000lbs car or a smaller 300-400 HP engine in that same 2,000 lbs car. If you look up the 60s cobras they sold a few different ways. The "SUPER CAR" version was the 427 side oiler. This would be the wide body race car. The other version was the street car which came with a 289 v8 small block. The 289 small block version of these cars is actually the better version. So I chose a smaller 4.6 v8 I was able to source one with a 5 speed manual trans for $400. With this engine at its stock HP and the weight of the car being 2,000 LBS the zero to 60 time is still under 4.4 seconds!!!!!! BUT I can do better. 

This engine at the time I finished the rebuild cost me only $1200 with buying the engine. I added higher compression heads. Higher lift cams and a nice high flow aluminum performance intake. And a light weight high rpm flywheel. With the custom headers and side pipe the out put on this is about 350 HP.  350 HP in a 2,000 LBS car brings my zero to 60 acceleration into the low 3 second range. Keep in mind I did source a lot of parts used. Remember this is a $15,000 COBRA not a $150,000 COBRA!!!

Once I had my engine in place I was able to build a few systems. This car is a 60's car but I wanted a modern car feel. I reinforced the cabin with alot of steel and temperature control.  Pictured is my Power brake booster with a dual master cylinder form a 2000s mustang. I also built catted headers with the ability to have the o2 and fuel systems work like a 2003 mustang GT. Not only does the car drive like a modern car I even built my own power steering set up and larger cabin foot well area. At this point in the build I was under $8,000 because I fabricated everything. 

Something I always hated about the body on this car. It did not have a fuel fill. If you look close I hand made the recessed section of the body to accept the lemans race fuel fill cap. I felt this was too iconic to not have on my car. So I took a shot in the dark. Grabbed a 4.5" hole saw and cut the hole in. After I cut the hole I went to work with fiber glass resin and flexible bondo. I never hand made a section like this on any car but I used to sculpt in high school. I guess those skills never left my brain. I was happy with the result 

This cap has to be there! Opening this cap to add fuel is the most amazing thing. Hearing that metallic click when you flip open a 60s race car fuel cap creates some awesome goose bumps! This looks very expensive but I was able to build this cap set up with the bondo and fiberglass costs for under $200