Quote:
Originally Posted by ALF
Which one would be correct for a 289 Cobra?
- BECLAWAT
- ELLIOTT
Or did they be used both depending on the windshield distributor?
 |
A common question (this and other forums for years) but no 100% proof positive answer without AC Cars or supplier documentation. I will tell you what decades of studying the cars indicate.
Cobras from very low CSX20XX to end of production CSX258X that have no known history of serious crashes and usually no history of any kind or major rebuild (like commercial restorations) or never been a street car turned race car and back that I have studied all had Elliot frames. No one I know has figured out what the stamped lettering in the top of the frames mean but the numbers get larger between early production and late production.
Same range of cars that suffered serious crashes or rebuilds or street to race back to street conversions in the 1960s and 1970s usually but not always have Beclawat. That includes my red car that was at Shelby American getting work done in June 1965. That includes the car that I worked on that was rolled over and rebuilt with a large number of factory replacement panels and parts including a new windshield assembly and steering wheel in 1965. (Just don't understand why they didn't replace the fuel cap with road rash. The caps may have been tough to get even in 1965?)
427 Cobras that fit the never been significantly messed with category (which is a low percentage of cars) have had Beclawat frames.
The theory from collective studies by our group is that the supplier change occurred between Elliott and Beclawat when new parts supplier contracts were made to build 427 Cobras.
Before an original owner jumps in and says no way, understand that the ways in which AC Cars and Shelby American worked did not include 'first in first out' inventory control and rotation. We have multiple examples of both companies taking parts, chassis, and engines out of sequence to use in the build of new cars. It is therefore quite likely that some 427 Cobras left either AC Cars or Shelby American with Elliott frames. It appears that when the stocks of Elliott frames were exhausted at both AC Cars and Shelby American the last production parts, the Beclawat frames, became the service part for all cars. This is very common practice in all manufacturing situations. Over the decades I have paid attention and since I started hunting an Elliott frame for my red car in 2004 all the new old stock service assemblies people have found that I am aware of have been Beclawat brand.