Hey everybody. I've got a handshake deal right now with a guy on delivering a black 97 cobra (VIN 1FALP47V9VF117538 if anybody wants to hook me up with a check).
Sounds good right? Not so fast. Here's the bad:
1. the engine had some issues so they pulled it, redid the heads, the block (teksid) is all apart, it had boss 302 rods and some forged pistons (not sure the brand), but its all apart. The guy said it had a spun bearing but after giving it some thought when I look at these bearings they just looks scored, not spun.
The story is this. Somehow the cylinders were flooded with fuel which leaked down to the oil pan which then pumped said fuel into bearing journals and i guess could've pumped dirt and crap with it? Could be bad assembly. I don't know but the story goes they had some issues and shut it down after idling a few minutes. A couple shops told the guy the crank just needs to be polished and thats it.
So the engine is out and I've got boxes of parts. I fully expect to need to get odds and ends like gaskets, lines, rails, or whatever is missing because once parts are loose who knows where they run off to
That's the engine story. Remember that shiny black paint? Well, its done by a shop in houston called performance mustangs and they are a dumpster fire of shady crap building nonsense. Think the kind of quality you expect from a mid 90's ricer just trying to scrape together enough cash for a maaco paint job. There ya go. Garbage.
I run the vin through google and this car was in their hands so red flags are flying all over the place. The guy who has it now is awesome, he scooped it up after a rich kid beat the shit out of the car and it started having issues.
I went out to see the car yesterday and spent a couple hours just talking with the guy, going over the cobra, so its all legit. I have a picture of the clean title, etc.
So remember that shiny black paint? Look at the trans tunnel.
I see this and it hits me... this is a fricking crystal white car.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
I'm sure everyone is well aware of the problems with that paint. I check the doorjamb sticker and sure enough, ZR. crap. Alright, so we talk for a while more and he takes a hit on the price and throws in a new set of BBK longtubes and an X pipe to cover the copious amounts of effort that will go into stripping TWO layers of paint off of this little bugger.
Whew, okay. So that's the mess. Here's the good stuff.
1. its a real cobra
2. motor stuff from the ad:
-Teksid block bored .20 over
-Boss 5.0 connecting rods
-Icon 2618 forged piston
-Kellog forged crank
-Stock heads, refreshed with 0 miles on them
-powder coated gloss black valve covers and timing cover
-Stock t45 transmission
-New Clutch and flywheel
-03/04 cobra K member.
3. i have 99.9% of the parts to make the thing run again
4. new black 03 cobra wheels all around
5. new leather on the seats, 7K miles on em tops. mew carpet
6. its in dire need of resurrection so I won't be molesting a good cobra example
7. aforementioned long tubes
8. subframe connectors installed already
9. only 104K on the chassis
10. H&R springs
That's the car. I've been rebuilding a 99 cobra IRS with 4.10 gears for the last few months to go IN said car. It'll have the full delrin treatment and I've cleaned up/reinforced the subframe considerably. Yes, I know, backwards, but this isn't my first car build
So now I got a fire under my butt to get some single stage black on this subframe.
That's where we are today. Hopefully this deal goes through and I can spend saturday cleaning up and tearing apart my new cobra.
PLEASE if you see anything I should watch out for throw stones, the deal isn't official yet
Sounds good right? Not so fast. Here's the bad:
1. the engine had some issues so they pulled it, redid the heads, the block (teksid) is all apart, it had boss 302 rods and some forged pistons (not sure the brand), but its all apart. The guy said it had a spun bearing but after giving it some thought when I look at these bearings they just looks scored, not spun.
The story is this. Somehow the cylinders were flooded with fuel which leaked down to the oil pan which then pumped said fuel into bearing journals and i guess could've pumped dirt and crap with it? Could be bad assembly. I don't know but the story goes they had some issues and shut it down after idling a few minutes. A couple shops told the guy the crank just needs to be polished and thats it.
So the engine is out and I've got boxes of parts. I fully expect to need to get odds and ends like gaskets, lines, rails, or whatever is missing because once parts are loose who knows where they run off to
That's the engine story. Remember that shiny black paint? Well, its done by a shop in houston called performance mustangs and they are a dumpster fire of shady crap building nonsense. Think the kind of quality you expect from a mid 90's ricer just trying to scrape together enough cash for a maaco paint job. There ya go. Garbage.
I run the vin through google and this car was in their hands so red flags are flying all over the place. The guy who has it now is awesome, he scooped it up after a rich kid beat the shit out of the car and it started having issues.
I went out to see the car yesterday and spent a couple hours just talking with the guy, going over the cobra, so its all legit. I have a picture of the clean title, etc.
So remember that shiny black paint? Look at the trans tunnel.
I see this and it hits me... this is a fricking crystal white car.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
I'm sure everyone is well aware of the problems with that paint. I check the doorjamb sticker and sure enough, ZR. crap. Alright, so we talk for a while more and he takes a hit on the price and throws in a new set of BBK longtubes and an X pipe to cover the copious amounts of effort that will go into stripping TWO layers of paint off of this little bugger.
Whew, okay. So that's the mess. Here's the good stuff.
1. its a real cobra
2. motor stuff from the ad:
-Teksid block bored .20 over
-Boss 5.0 connecting rods
-Icon 2618 forged piston
-Kellog forged crank
-Stock heads, refreshed with 0 miles on them
-powder coated gloss black valve covers and timing cover
-Stock t45 transmission
-New Clutch and flywheel
-03/04 cobra K member.
3. i have 99.9% of the parts to make the thing run again
4. new black 03 cobra wheels all around
5. new leather on the seats, 7K miles on em tops. mew carpet
6. its in dire need of resurrection so I won't be molesting a good cobra example
7. aforementioned long tubes
8. subframe connectors installed already
9. only 104K on the chassis
10. H&R springs
That's the car. I've been rebuilding a 99 cobra IRS with 4.10 gears for the last few months to go IN said car. It'll have the full delrin treatment and I've cleaned up/reinforced the subframe considerably. Yes, I know, backwards, but this isn't my first car build
So now I got a fire under my butt to get some single stage black on this subframe.
That's where we are today. Hopefully this deal goes through and I can spend saturday cleaning up and tearing apart my new cobra.
PLEASE if you see anything I should watch out for throw stones, the deal isn't official yet
