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Old 12-11-2018, 11:07 PM
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decooney decooney is offline
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Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: Folsom, CA
Cobra Make, Engine: ERA 623, 427 S/C Cobra. Ford FE 428 Cobra Jet, Ford Nascar TL 4speed - with a touch of raw; "less is more" theme
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Default When it pays to NOT do-it-yourself: FE Specialties

Have you ever been so busy and tied up with work, family, life stuff and a bunch of other things to the point where you just cannot get to drive or do the right maintenance on your Cobra and it just sits until you can - sound familiar?

Like many do-it-yourself'ers, I really don't like anyone working on my car and have always built and done most everything I could on my own. I built the car.

The FE in my Cobra had what I originally thought was a rear main seal leak and needed regular maintenance checks, possibly a valve adjustment, and some TLC. Tom at FE Spec originally built the motor for me so I finally caved in and made the call to buddy Tom@FE.

Ringgggg. "Hello, FE Specialites"..."Yo Tom, Hey, It's been a while, I give in, I'm gonna have to treat myself for once and turn the car over, and let someone else do the work. Can you do your magic? ."Sure, bring it down, let me have it for a week, we'll start on it, and we'll go through it but you gotta leave it for a bit. Okay. I hung up still feeling guilty I just needed to do it myself. Ugh, no!

WHEN SPECIALTY SKILLS & QUALITY of SERVICE PAYS OFF!
So I go in for an oil leak look-see. At check-in time we talk. I give the go-ahead. One week later the car comes out with extra horsepower, added torque, and new drivability where I needed it most - in the rpm range I normally drive the car most of the time. While it was there Tom fixes the intake leak, adjusts the valves, fixes my year old updated seemingly non-advancing distributor, new plugs, sees an opportunity and re-degrees the cam, timing cover/water pump got resealed, repainted. So Tom's talented son completely cleans and details under the car, and repaints all the R&R better than I would have done on a weekend rush. When I pick it up, I drive the car home, notice it feels tighter. Hmmm. I call Tom later...okay, so "what did you do?". "Oh, since we had it up on the rack, we went ahead and greased every fitting on every part of the chassis and suspension too"". Part of our new business model with added focus on extra quality service and care. Took Care of that Too. Not a scratch, Terri Cloth towels used all over the front end to protect the paint. Wow, so nice to go pick up your car and find surprises like this. Finding+Fixing+Blueprinting comes to mind on this one. Added scary bonus is the car blew the tires off in 4th gear rolling on once at 1/2 throttle on the way home. Ahhhh, it never did this before. Sounds even more *****in' now too

Big Thanks to Tom & son @ FE Specialties. Yeah, I'm bragging on ya. What a treat to get this done. So worth it!
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Duane
Western States Cobra Group 1998-2016.

Last edited by decooney; 07-01-2019 at 07:03 PM..
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