I was recently at a friend’s machine shop and saw this hanging in the rafters. I recognized it as a Cobra body and he explained it was a fiberglass body by Paul Bennett out of Hayward. Apparently before my time, he told me it would fit on a 91” wheelbase chassis. It looks to be really well made and complete including doors, window frame, boot lid, bonnet, and seats. Anybody ever built one of these? I was told Bennett built a chassis as well but don’t think they’re in business anymore. The little research I discovered online stated that it might fit on a Factory Five chassis. It’s for sale and looks to be a cool project. But I’m not going to engineer a chassis for this thing due to the amount of hours involved nor for I have a jig. Yay or nay? Any advice as to weather a bit better than novice mechanic should get involved with a project like this. Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
Go for it! I love Cobras... Take it in small project at a time and before you know it, you’re driving it. I wouldn’t shy away from a project like that. r Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
My buddy built a Factory 5 with duel quad 427 , center Oiler . I want to do a 289 car now , just now sure about who makes a decent body and frame
I've been building these things since 1988, so I know a little. If you don't know how to fabricate and weld, my advice is to look at one of the kit car companys, F5 , ShellValley, Hurricane, ERA, and many others out there,, already assembled? ( bring your wallet)just add motor/trans, look at , Superformance, Kirkham, and the grand daddy of them all Shelby American . I supplied Randalls 289 DragSnake body, look up his thread for what it takes starting from scratch.
Certainly take a look at my build thread: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/drag-snake-vintage-terror.1081919/ I will tell you, I have built a lot of cars in my time and some I think (before the Cobra) I even referred to as from the ground up. HOWEVER...that was not really the case. LOL As @Cheetahman said he supplied me with basically what you are staring at there in the rafters, a Cobra body. Looking at the photos it is obviously based off what I think would loosely be called the Cobra second generation. The body I have, which by the way is incredible, is the first gen or what they call slab side or small block etc. etc. The one in the rafters is based off what nearly all other Cobra body makers use, the 427 car. So here is what I really never considered, it is all the small stuff that we take for granted on most project cars that totally bite you in the backside... Door, Hood and Trunk latch catches. Simply thing right. On most project cars they are there. They may need cleaned up or shimmed up or replaced but they are there or there is at least a place engineered for them. Not here. Not only do you have to figure out how the latches work and what the exact position and orientation they have to be in but you have to engineer something to the chassis that not only holds the latch catch but is not in the way of one of the hundred or two more things coming after it. On a Cobra all that stuff is engineered to the chassis not the body itself. The body just mounts there and then the hood, trunk and doors mount by themselves BUT must fit their respective holes in the body. Imagine taking the body off and then putting the hood, doors and trunk on the chassis. That is exactly how it works. AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON THEIR HINGES! LOL Without a kit, YOU must engineer every single aspect of the car. Take for instance the track width. If you want the front wheels to fit right, you not only have to make sure whatever front end system you use is centered in the wheel well but fits correct left to right. So you basically have to decide up front how wide the frame rails are going to be because that affects what "A" arms you can used etc. You also have to decide how high or low or where to mount these arms to keep the wheel correctly in the well not to mention the correct final geometry. You almost need to know exactly what wheel and tire combination you are going to run so you can choose the correct offset or adjust the chassis etc. I am pretty good at math but we decided early on no way we put any of these calculations to paper and start ordering parts. We actually had the exact wheels and tires for the car mounted and balanced ready to roll before we even cut the first frame rail runner. This stuff is only the tip of the iceberg. Just a couple of what for me has been hundreds of obstacles to climb. If I had it to do over, I would snag the 62 'Vette drag car I was looking at around the same time as we decided to build the Cobra without a second thought. I am not trying to scare you away from it, especially if like me you have an affinity for the Cobra. But I will say for me, I would not do it again. It is also why when someone looks at it and says is this the real thing or a kit car, I consider life in prison might just be worth taking them out! A build like this can sort of put you in that frame of mind...LMAO!
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