The SN65 project car

[SN65]

Hi All,

I am working on a "slightly" modified Cobra that I call the SN65.

I am well beyond the stage shown in the photo, but I thought you would get a kick out of this shot.

I will be looking to your help in the selection of components before I actually start bolting things back together again. Right now I am detailing all the 1000 of components that are going into this project.

Wish me luck

 

[SN65]

Hi All,

I will be posting shots of this WIP and bringing you up to date as I go along. All comments and recommendations are welcome.

Here is a shot showing the workup of the new cowl panels

 

[SN65]

Hi All,

Here is a shot showing the planned reinforcement of the rear torque box areas.

 

[RedfireBeast]

What front clip are you going to use?

 

[SN65]

Hi All,

This photo shows the use of a laser measuring system to make sure that the Cobra chassis and the 65 shell are square with each other before we started welding the two together.

 

[SN65]

Originally posted by LG2004Redfire
What front clip are you going to use?

Hi Redfire,

I am using the stock (stock, if anything could possibly be called stock ont this car) 03 Cobra front end. We had to relocate the shock towers forward 7" to match the 65 wheel base.

Here is a photo of the relocation of the shock towers.

You can see where all the shock tower spot welds were drilled out and the gap created when they were shifted forward.

Also, you can see how we are boxing in the cowl / firewall area with 1" structural tube.

 

[BoneCrusher]

This is insane! I can't wait to see what you're going to end up with on this one. Pretty cool.

 

[RickSvt]

Looking good, thats got to be a project that will keep you busy for a while. how lond are you expecting to take on it, its going to be sweet........do you have any drawings of what the finished project should look like???

Rick

 

[SN65]

Hi All,

Here is a picture from the front of the car showing the current state of affairs.

Note the chain inside the cabin pulling the 65 shell into square.

If you look close at the corners of the cowl area you can see the holes left when we removed the 03 main window surround.

 

[SN65]

Originally posted by BoneCrusher
This is insane! I can't wait to see what you're going to end up with on this one. Pretty cool.

insane??? INSANE??? I N S A N E ? ? ?

OK, maybe we are a bit insane, but there is a fine line between insanity and genius... there is a fine line between insanity and genius... there is a fine line between insanity and genius... there is a fine line between insanity and genius... there is a fine line between insanity and genius... there is a fine line between insanity and genius... there is a fine line between insanity and genius...

 

[03Sssnake]

:beer: Please do keep us posted...more pics!

 

[SN65]

Originally posted by RickSvt
Looking good, thats got to be a project that will keep you busy for a while. how lond are you expecting to take on it, its going to be sweet........do you have any drawings of what the finished project should look like???

Rick

Hi Rick,

We plan on finnishing up by the end of the year. Wish us luck.

Also, we do not have any drawings of the finnished project. We have been entering all the sheet metal templates into our CADD system so that we can have the pieces cut on a laser table.

As far as what it will look like, the only exterior modifications we are planing on are flaring the wheel openings to accept the Cobra wheels. We are using the wheel flares from the 03 Cobra and modifying the outer wheel housings for this transition.

We are painting the car with a brand spanking new paint system from PPG that simulates polished aluminum. Here is a photo of a test we ran last week.

The gas cap recieved the new paint. The blue is on my current 65 fastback.

We are going to paint all the exterior sheet metal with this system in an attempt to fool the eye into believing that the car is actually fabricated out of polished aluminum. Everything that would have been fabricated from steel sheet or castings will be painted black or grey. From the exterior the car will have the apperance of polished aluminum and chrome. The only color will be that of the front running lights, the rear tail lights and the tinted glass.

 

[SN65]

Hi All,

Here are some photos of the detailed trans and engine.

We are trying to give this project the look and feel of a SVT fabricated project. We are going to use factory style hardware and assembly techniques throughout. We want people to look at this car and scratch their heads wondering just what is going on.

All of the fabricated panels will have a factory look to them. I want people to be hard pressed to figure where the 65 stops and the 03 begins.

Wish me luck

 

[Blk03SVTCobra]

You've taken on quite a project there!

So essentially, this will be a '65 body on a '03 Cobra chasis, right? What about the engine and all?

And furthermore... What was your motivation for doing all of this??? Just curious...

Keep sending pics daily please!!! :thumbsup:

 

[RickSvt]

Cool, so I take it that you are going to use an 03 drivetrain too??? Its going to look great when you are all said and done.

Rick

 

[Blk03SVTCobra]

Another quick question... What are your estimates for added/subtracted weight (if any)???

And again, what prompted you to do this? And how many people, other than you, are involved with the project??

***EDIT*** And what color was the original '03 and what color will it be when complete?

 

[Whiskey City]

This is cool, cool, cool .

 

[SN65]

Originally posted by Blk03SVTCobra
You've taken on quite a project there!

So essentially, this will be a '65 body on a '03 Cobra chasis, right? What about the engine and all?

And furthermore... What was your motivation for doing all of this??? Just curious...

Keep sending pics daily please!!! :thumbsup:

Motivation... Hummm...

I started off wanting to build a modified 65 fastback. I was going to install independent rear suspension, rack and pinion, 4.6 Cobra motor, along with every modern convieniance I could think of.

I bought a "fair" 65 fastback and started to work up a BOM for all the buy out items I would need. By the time I had worked everything out I was upwards of $55K just for the major buy out items.

There had to be a better way.

I started checking around and found that I could buy a new Cobra for much less than $55K and it would have all the mechanical assemblies I needed. I planned on stripping the Cobra for parts and selling the shell, but somthing strange happened.

I parked the Cobra next to the fastback and started to review the project with my brother. He looked at the two cars next to each other and remarked at just how similar they were to each other. We stared to take some rough measurements and realized that we could actually use the entire SN95 rolling chassis (that is why we call it the SN65 project car, get it ) if we were able to relocate the shock towers 7" forward to allow for the difference in wheelbase.

To make a long story short, we stripped both cars to the bone, took a few more measurements to confirm our plan and broke out the plasma cutter.

Now we feel that we are building a car that will be much better that any we could have built just utilizing the 40 year old 65 chassis. We should have the answer in Jan 05.

 

[SN65]

Originally posted by Blk03SVTCobra
Another quick question... What are your estimates for added/subtracted weight (if any)???

And again, what prompted you to do this? And how many people, other than you, are involved with the project??

***EDIT*** And what color was the original '03 and what color will it be when complete?

Hi BLK03,

We are guessing that the weight upon completion will be in the 2,300 to 2,400 lb range. This is just a guess based on the weight of the two cars we started with.

As far as people involved, currently the count is 7. We are always looking for a bit more help. If you are interested, I am sure I could find a little something for you to do. :lol:

As far as color, you must have missed the post above (the one showing the polished aluminum gas cap). The 03 was red.

 

[BoneCrusher]

Originally posted by SN65
insane??? INSANE??? I N S A N E ? ? ?

OK, maybe we are a bit insane, but there is a fine line between insanity and genius... there is a fine line between insanity and genius... there is a fine line between insanity and genius... there is a fine line between insanity and genius... there is a fine line between insanity and genius... there is a fine line between insanity and genius... there is a fine line between insanity and genius...

hahaha...very true. Keep those pics coming man, this is going to be sweet.