The making of a 427 Narrow Hip Cobra starts now!!
 

With winter in full bloom here in Ct.
I thought I would share a new project
that we are working on here at Metal - Morphous Inc. that might help pass the time until spring is here..
We are helping Eddie Clarke REPLICATE a narrow hip cobra
I have notice that in the last few years the trend has shifted to modifying the look and mechanics of the cobra instead of replicating it and most of the paint and body work we've been doing in the last few years has been custom multi stage colors with modified body work and almost all have 17 inch rims or larger, computerized fuel injected modular motors and even touch screen entertainment systems. As I do find this a very exciting and creative phase of the industry part of me was thinking that the original look will soon be a thing of the past. So when Eddie started talking about a narrow hip cobra I will admit I never even heard of it, then I was shown a photo and WOW !! A Gentleman's cobra as Eddie refers to it,, ya with 650 some odd hp !!!!! What's Gentle about that!!
Eddie chose to start with an ERA due to the fact that the body is very close in shape to the originals and the quality of their product.
Now the first hurdle, Eddie set his site on a narrow hip with sunburst, yes some were fitted with halibrands and look nice but a narrow hip cobra with sunburst is just unmistakably beautiful and rare. (Photo 1)
Finding 5 Sunburst turned out to be a challenge to say the least. Some originals are around but usually not a complete set or need a lot of work.
We where on hold until if and when a set could be purchased. Months went by and it looked like the project was going to be scraped and Eddie was
thinking that he would just build it as as wide hip and be done with it. He had already contacted the fellow that was making new sunburst but the return emails he was getting didn't look promising... I was wrong!!! He drove to Canada last week and purchased a set of the most beautiful and accurate set of sunburst you could ask for and they are brand new. I herd even Peter from ERA gave them the thumbs up.
So now its time to start shaping the the ERA body. Eddie is having tires mounted and the pin drive holes bored then we will mount them to the car to use them as a guide to narrow the rear quarters and cut back the front fenders. I'm assuming this is what the shelby boys did back in the day.
I'll be posting lots of photos and if nothing else it should make for good reading

Second photo is of the rims in Ed's possession before boring and tires mounted

http://www.ffcars.com/photopost/data...um/image78.jpg


http://www.ffcars.com/photopost/data...um/image77.jpg

That is an absolutely great looking car. What an excellent idea for a project. I'll bet Peter could've been talked into doing a narrow hip body.

Awesome project! Personal opinion of course but I'm not fan of "custom" Cobra replica's. Great to see a replica replicate!
Larry

The heart, old school 427 FE dynoed in at 650hp with gobs of torque

http://www.ffcars.com/photopost/data...um/image59.jpg

The sexy veiw of a narrow hip

http://www.ffcars.com/photopost/data...um/image54.jpg

Stroker? Tunnel port? High riser?

Not as narrow as mine.... :LOL:

Jeff maybe not Eddies but the last one we did before for Jonny O was:-)

http://www.ffcars.com/photopost/data...e_finished.jpg



Blykins- Standard bore that cleaned up at 17 over with 4.25 stroke to give it 482. Shelby lettered sidewinder with reworked edelbrock aluminum heads and hydraulic roller cam, Carb is 750hp non choke double pumper mechanical secondaries bolted to a wide ratio top loader and 331 gears.
The aluminum heads are painted ,as well as water pump and pan just to keep it looking original

Great showcase for your skills Ron. Beautiful car-make him pick the right color!
Will be watching...

I wish he could be talked into that too - but about 5 years ago. That was the look I was originally going after to mimic CSX3134. Although I'm experienced in fiberglass work I just couldn't bring myself to start hacking on ERA's body lines.

Hacking is such a harsh word, we prefer to use words like lop, cleave and even chop :-)

Unfortunately at this time Peter has no plans to make a new narrow hip mould but I do plan on pulling moulds from Eddies once we have achieved the correct changes.
Stay tuned !!

It will be interesting to get those Sunbursts on there. I'll be surprised if you have to do anything to the front fenders.

Now that is an interesting idea. I expect that nearly the entire rear fender section to near the taillights and from the peak down will have to be revised and pulled in. But it's just fiberglass with no other structure under it except the trunk floor outer aprons - a set of replacement fenders similar to rear quarters on a 63 or 67 Corvette would be a nice market item. The front fender flares shouldn't take too much modification - mostly the bottom of the flare where it rolls under the body.

Since he's going for the street look - take a look at the rocker bottom also. The originals had a pretty good curve there while the ERA is still a little flat because it's hidden by side exhaust on most cars anyway. I actually spaced my rockers down from the outside tube with aluminum bar stock on mine to get a little more curve. I still don't have as much as the originals but enough that it's not especially noticeable.



Please post lots of updates as the project progresses.

Good eye Dan, I spotted you'd done that on yours as the "belly" is a big visual on undercar exhaust cars.

Your a little ahead of me ,,,,Since this has been in the works for awhile I already have a few parts of the pluzzle done.
The front fenders are different and what we found is that earlier ERAs had the correct look and since I own ERA 148 I'm pulling the first mould of the front fenders from my cobra and will use them to retrofit Eddies.
I'm also addind a full flange to all the fenders just like ERA148 has

Photo 1. The new ERA rear section of the front fender
Photo 2. ERA 148s rear front fender section

http://www.ffcars.com/photopost/data...um/image79.jpg

http://www.ffcars.com/photopost/data...um/image80.jpg

Again I would like to point out that without these rims this project would not be near as exciting as it is:-))))
You should see these in person,,, unbelievable!!!!
Definitely designed for a discriminating cobra enthusiast

Ron, do you know the current availability of these Sunbursts?

It's looking better as projects like this garner interest which in turn generates a need which drives demand and orders to get filled.

You're right - #148 does look a whole lot more like the narrow hip front wheel opening flair.

Chas from what Eddie told me he is looking forward to making more sunburst rims and selling them, Best bet would be to move quickly now while there is an interest.