Quote:
Originally Posted by tkb289
Probably few cars were done exactly the same way, then add 40 plus years to the equation and that would pretty much make each surviving car a unique example.
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Batches cars were completed with some ‘time of installation details’ of some consistency but in general the details small and large were terribly confounded because nothing seems to be in strict sequential order. Engines weren't assembled by Ford in the sequence the blocks were numbered, evidence suggests engines removed from stock for installation into cars were pulled in random order, and of course chassis were not completed into cars in order.
When I am trying to help individual owners sort out what would be likely for their particular cars a lot of information has to be gathered to make even an educated guess. When was the block made, when was the engine assembled, when was the chassis shipped from AC Cars, what Ford model year was the engine, when was the car completed and invoiced. From those dates and factoids a likely configuration can guessed at and not be real far off. To do a great job on a particular car takes a lot of investigation and comparison to other engines and cars finished in the same short time frames.
Modified, yes. I have been around the car hobby since 1961 and seen and done a lot. Cobras and 427 Cobras have to be just about the most owner modified types of cars ever besides some of the 1932 Fords. It is not common but it is not super rare either to find a Cobra that maybe 90% of its original content is still with it but maybe 90% of the 90% modified in some way or another. Think of polishing and chrome plating everything in the engine bay for example. To return such a car to its day one specification would probably mean finding unmodified replacements for every plated piece from another original car that got converted to a racer and isn’t using the original stuff anyway. Owners have had decades to weld things on, cut things out, relocate things, add things, delete things, grind things, drill holes, fill holes, polish, plate, bend, reshape, throw original parts in the trash, and of course damage all manner of things in crashes.
There are getting to be a few owners here and there interested in taking their Cobras that they might have been playing with for decades back closer to as delivered condition. It is usually not easy and you might be surprised why engine parts are so tough; they weren’t Mustang parts. I have talked with many dismantlers and used parts sellers small and large volume. For the most part unless they can sell a used piece to a Mustang owner that part has little or no commercial interest to them. I went to a yard that dismantled maybe 200 pre-Mustang era Falcons, Fairlanes, Comets, etc. and the vast majority of if went off to be melted down. On the other hand anything from a Mustang was kept and stored waiting a buyer. Most Cobras have 1963-64 Fairlane engine parts. If most salvage operations more or less discard anything that won’t go on a 1965 or later Mustang that means Cobra owners have a tough time finding a 1963 Fairlane parts. Ford made and used countless 289 and HP289 engine parts in 1963-64 but relatively few seem to have survived the melt pots except for cylinder blocks. A lot of what can be found is in poor condition.