97 Cobra Restomod - Snow Pony

Makobra said:

I decided to not brace the two rear shock towers since the coilover springs will not be mounting there. I will, however, be reinforcing the front towers since those will definitely be bearing more load.

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Now it is getting even more interesting...thanks.

Ye olde engine bay is gonna be one color soon!



The carbon canisters are gonzo and behind the bracket was a lot of rust. removing it left some small holes. most of which I welded up. the whole area was then covered with bondo-glass because the material was so thin and the area isn't worth me making a patch panel.



so now no more rust and its ready for primer.



I've decided not to shave the whole bay for several reasons but the core support being front and center could use some work. I'm sure everybody knows from looking at it but these were once two pieces bolted together.



I hope to get the bay in primer soon.



Next weekend I shoot the bottom with avalanche grey and hopefully get that IRS assembly installed for the last time (with all of its new bushings). Once the front end is painted I'll start working on getting the motor back together.

The goal is to have the engine in the car ready to turn over by january.

need to pick up some 2k primer but for now its all sealed with some cheap stuff.

Ladies and gents I present to you... Avalanche grey. now the bottom is restored I can move on to reassembling the rear and finishing up the engine bay.

Beautiful. Nice work, and the color is a great choice.

Maximum Motorsports IRS conversion brake lines for 94-95 cobra on a 97. bolts right up. i'll have to reform or create a new intermediate line if I can't find one for the 94-95 cobra.

Bushings? yep. done.
All of the subframe and diff bushings are poly.
All of the control arm bushings are delrin (including the front tubular control arms).
so she'll have delrin control arm bushings all the way around and the softer poly bushings should help with noise/vibrations for the non-articulating applications.

here's the before:


here's where it is now









Might stick it in before I get the fuel lines done. might not. next up, we finish this front end.

Sharp progress! Can't wait to see this car together. Love the color choice.

When the safelite guy came to replace my truck windshield I gave him a few bucks to take out the cobra one. it was delaminating and just in bad shape so that will be replaced with a new piece when the time comes. for now, i needed it out of the way because when I say full color change I mean FULL color change.



Time to plug this hole some numbnuts drilled through the firewall to snake in their stupid mechanical oil and water pressure gauges.
aaaand no they did not use a grommet. I'm shocked this car never became a pile of rusted ash with all the jackassery I've uninstalled and fixed from it.



and so begins the engine bay cleanup. I'm probably not going to shave everything but I will be taking care of key places like where the shock towers meet the frame rail. that sort of thing will get seam or stitch welded.



oh and this thing is all ready to go back in now.

What color?

Avalanche Grey. its the color i painted the bottom.

I like it.

Since you are not mounting COs at the shock towers, I am most interested in seeing how you are mounting the rear COs.

shurur said:

Since you are not mounting COs at the shock towers, I am most interested in seeing how you are mounting the rear COs.

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the springs use the factory perches. I've been talking to BC racing and their new coilover kit is supposed to be around a grand and the camber plates are much cleaner looking than the standard foxbody bulky as all hell style.

I just did the strategic stitching for the driver's side and welded up the strut tower holes i shouldn't have to use.
i welded where the frame meets the tower at the bottom.


here I stitched the backside of the tower and the L bracket where the k member clamps down as well as all along the firewall.
anything passed the tower shouldn't provide much benefit so I left all that alone.
took an hour and a half for this side, should go quicker on the passenger side. then I'll delete the hood prop and get it all in mud and primer.

Nice!!

ok..but I also thought the rear CO mounts were also going to not use the towers?

Your suspension is unique from anything I have seen; so I am very curious about this part of your build!!

can hardly wait for finished pics of that part of the build.

I apoligized for pressing you on it!

shurur said:

ok..but I also thought the rear CO mounts were also going to not use the towers?

Your suspension is unique from anything I have seen; so I am very curious about this part of your build!!

can hardly wait for finished pics of that part of the build.

I apoligized for pressing you on it!

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nah its cool, there are a couple ways you can do it. the stock setup uses coil springs in those big cups. for the rear the BC racing prototype I saw uses those perches. MM and some other companies ignore those putting it all in the shock tower. I think KW might use the stock spring perches in the rear for cobras, not sure.

for the front every coilover kit i've seen uses the strut towers so I'm stitching those up.

my suspension philosophy is pretty simple. good bushings, good coilovers, stiff body/frame.

I'm planning on having the bay done in the next few weeks so all that crap can get bolted back in.

Here's a screenshot from the development for clarity. basically uses all the stock mounting points so since the weight of the car is riding on the frame instead of the rear shock tower I won't need to reinforce that. Of course things could change but welding up that stuff won't be an issue since I'm using POR15 on the inside of the car. if I have to grind anything away to weld anything in the future i'll just brush some of that on when I'm done.



and no, i won't be going as low as this guy in the video.

here's the video

Front end chassis work is complete. I decided to seam weld around the firewall because well, why not?
now I can just focus on making it look nice. yay.