I bought a Lone Star in 2000. It took two years to get in on the road. I was told I could build it for $25,000. I stopped keeping up with it when it went over $35K.
18 years later I had about $65,000 in it. 42,000 miles, lots of fun and I met thousands of great car people!
Since then I have owned two other Cobras. I have worked on about 20 different brands.
I have help sell five or six other Cobras.
Jeff took 18 years to build his. He holds the record.
Paint shops are the black hole for Cobras.
Got lots of stories about Cobra paint job.
My advice is to buy a "good" Cobra with the paint and motor you can live with. Change what you want a little at a time. By motor I mean 302 base or 351 base or FE. Exhaust systems are expensive. Heads, cams, intakes not so much.
Buying a running Cobra will cost you haft as much as building your own! And the time thing.
You can spend time driving (enjoying) you new Car and bonding with the kids as you change things on the car.
Remember a lot of Cobras were build by guys that don't know a lot about cars. Lots of problems.
Thousands of unfinished kits out there!!!!!
I've made a lot of money fixing Cobras.
Have fun which ever way you chose
