Don't trust anyone. I like to think of our Cobras as each one being a unique piece of artwork. Truly with a wide variety of small to enormous engines, custom suspension and drivetrains there is NO all knowing expert in a Cobra. For a mechanic, tuner or body guy to say they can work on any Cobra they would need to understand all builds of high performance V8's, coupled with american to european anything, such as leaf, to torsion bar, coil-over or IRS suspensions, and the chassis vary dramatically from replicar to replicar manufacture. Honestly there are a very few who can do all that.
Basic maintenance is not hard to learn, pick up a Chilton's (or shop manual) for your motor they have step by step instructions, much of the work can be done from within the engine compartment. For under car work you can spend $3500 for a SG-7000 car hoist (
Purchase A Made In The USA Car Lift From RadLiftsByGemini.com - Car Lifts, Auto Lifts, Motorcycle Lifts and other Garage Accessories), or $120 for a very low profile floor jack when you need to get under the snake.
If your not a motorhead, my advise is that ALL major engine and drivetrain work should be taken to the expert in the particular engine mill, and suspension rigging setup. For a FE block you want the expert, for a 385 block you want the expert, for a 5.0 you want the expert, and so on. None of these "experts" are the same person or shop (well unless you live in SoCali), even the expert Cobra replicar privateer builders tend to focus on a specific Cobra manufacture and a few engine/drivetrain conflagrations.
This is where Club Cobra as your resource at your fingertips will shine! Everyone, and I mean everyone, has lots of Cobra experience (good or bad), and we all love to expunge our vast worldly advise on those Cobrafile's brave enough to put forth the questions. There is no dumb questions, we're all going to die, so who cares what others think anyway?
Back to the your answer, this is a good place to start as any. What's your motor? Without some basics, all you'll receive in the way of advise is the bad places, because when we get burned, we love to spread the word too. Don't go to Jim Green's Speedshop.
Cheers,
BC