Picked up my first cobra!

Ace23 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-10-2015, 11:02 PM

Well I figured it was time to post up that I'm an official first time cobra owner! I started looking at cobras about a year and a half ago. I had purchased an 03 cobra about 2 years ago and while I love the car it was just not fun to drive. My criteria for the next vehicle was that it had to be a 2 seater, have some horspower and be a convertible. It doesn't sound like a hard bill to fit but I coudn't find a single type of car that fit the bill except a corvette and I'm not really a vette guy. Don't get me wrong there are lots of options but the last thing on my list was to spend money on a newer car that is going to depreciate like a rock. So long story short I said oh what the heck and bought a SPF from a local friend. I looked really hard at BDR from Vintage but just never found time to make the trip and never got an opportunity to see any BDR cars. SPF was local and I've ridden in it a few times and ever since I saw it for the first time it has been what I thought I would want if I ever owned a cobra. I can't remember off the top of my head but it is 18XX build number. The weather has been awful since I got it 2 weeks ago and I've not even been behind the wheel yet. First order of business is to clean it up and change the oil as its been sitting for the winter. Just wanted to go ahead and spread the word so everyone will know I took the plunge. I may be one of the younger members on here as I don't even have grey hair yet......who says cobras aren't for the young generation.

BADSN8K · #2 (**permalink**) 03-10-2015, 11:18 PM

Congrats and enjoy! b Safe!! post some pics!

1795 · #3 (**permalink**) 03-11-2015, 02:37 AM

You will enjoy the SPF! When you get it cleaned up take some pics and tell us all about it. Just be careful with the throttle until you get a good feel for the car.

Ron61 · #4 (**permalink**) 03-11-2015, 04:05 AM

Congratulations and you will really enjoy the Cobra. Listen to the advise in the previous posts and you will be in good shape. Looking forward to some pictures.

Ron

KirkV · #5 (**permalink**) 03-11-2015, 08:57 AM

Congrats, love my SPF and be careful.

Voyager · #6 (**permalink**) 03-11-2015, 09:13 AM

Awesome. Good luck and be safe. Push the loud pedal too far and it will surprise you.

Seagull81 · #7 (**permalink**) 03-11-2015, 09:26 AM

Welcome to the madness, but "no pictures-didn't happen". Don't forget some engine porn while you are at it.

Blas · #8 (**permalink**) 03-11-2015, 11:05 AM

Always sad to hear of a Cobra owner selling, but you just can't beat the smile on the face of the new owner. What's the car number?

Ace23 · #9 (**permalink**) 03-11-2015, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blas

Always sad to hear of a Cobra owner selling, but you just can't beat the smile on the face of the new owner. What's the car number?

The previous owner is moving to a climate where he thinks a SPF coupe may be more practical. Off the top of my head I don't know the exact number but it is I believe its SPF1867. When I get some time to pull it out I will have some pictures to put up and a parts list.

TN Shelby Cobra · #10 (**permalink**) 03-11-2015, 06:34 PM

Congrats Ace! Enjoy the Cobra! Mark

Pman1961 · #11 (**permalink**) 03-12-2015, 04:30 PM

I want to hear you have taken the Cobra out this weekend or early next week. Should be nice weather. May get mine out some. Of course I got my AVON tires although not installed at the time. Ordered the Cobra Valley ball joints last night. Plan is to install joints, corner balance, alignment. Test ride to for comparison over the factory ball joints. Then install the AVONS!! By the way, the gang is meeting at Huey's Saturday evening at 7pm. You ought to come on out....

itstock · #12 (**permalink**) 03-12-2015, 04:47 PM

It looks like forum member Hydramada was who you bought the car from? If so, nice car! Congrats!

Ace23 · #13 (**permalink**) 03-16-2015, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pman1961

I want to hear you have taken the Cobra out this weekend or early next week. Should be nice weather. May get mine out some. Of course I got my AVON tires although not installed at the time. Ordered the Cobra Valley ball joints last night. Plan is to install joints, corner balance, alignment. Test ride to for comparison over the factory ball joints. Then install the AVONS!! By the way, the gang is meeting at Huey's Saturday evening at 7pm. You ought to come on out....

Had family in town so wasn't able to make it out on Saturday. I did take the first spin on Sunday and put about 70 miles on the clock

Quote:

Originally Posted by itstock

It looks like forum member Hydramada was who you bought the car from? If so, nice car! Congrats!

Yes that is correct. Thanks for the compliment

Ace23 · #14 (**permalink**) 03-16-2015, 08:22 AM

UPDATE: Finally had some nice weather yesterday so I pulled the cover off and started the clean up process. I wiped everything down, cleaned the carpets, shop vaccumed the inside and cleaned up the wheels. Got in the car pumped the accelerator 4 times and it fired right up. I kept the throttle on it and maintained about 1000-1200RPM for about a minute and then it smoothed out maintained an idle. Took a quart of oil and some paper towels with me and headed to the gas station to put 93 in it and inflate the tires. The rest of the story is I put 70 miles on it and loved every second.

So.....before I cranked it up I pushed it back out of the drive and under the car was all wet. The weather has been really nasty around here and it has been sitting for about a month since I got it. It looked like a massive amount of condensation had just been sitting under the car but I also found fluid that was just kinda muddy looking. I stuck my hands in it and it was all water there was not oil substance to it so I'm kinda stumped on that one as I couldn't tell what it was. After the car warmed up and about 20 miles of cruising I pulled over and check the oil and it was on the add line so I put about half a quart in it. The second issue I experienced was the brakes felt terrible. I've never driven an older car but something tells me the brakes need looking at it just seemed to have zero bite and I felt like I needed to press the pedal through the floor board to get it slow. The finally issue I had was a few times when I turned the car off about the second you expected it to quite running it seemed to keep turning over and then let a puff of vapor out that I could see rise from the hood intake. I believe I turned it off and about 6 locations through out the night and it did this about 3 times. Other than this the car ran great and it has probably not had 20 miles put on it since last summer so maybe some of this was symptoms of just sitting up for a long time and maybe the gas has changed to the spring mix. Plans are to change the oil and filter and do a coolant flush this weekend pending time and weather.

Mark IV · #15 (**permalink**) 03-16-2015, 11:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ace23

UPDATE: Finally had some nice weather yesterday so I pulled the cover off and started the clean up process. I wiped everything down, cleaned the carpets, shop vaccumed the inside and cleaned up the wheels. Got in the car pumped the accelerator 4 times and it fired right up. I kept the throttle on it and maintained about 1000-1200RPM for about a minute and then it smoothed out maintained an idle. Took a quart of oil and some paper towels with me and headed to the gas station to put 93 in it and inflate the tires. The rest of the story is I put 70 miles on it and loved every second.

So.....before I cranked it up I pushed it back out of the drive and under the car was all wet. The weather has been really nasty around here and it has been sitting for about a month since I got it. It looked like a massive amount of condensation had just been sitting under the car but I also found fluid that was just kinda muddy looking. I stuck my hands in it and it was all water there was not oil substance to it so I'm kinda stumped on that one as I couldn't tell what it was. After the car warmed up and about 20 miles of cruising I pulled over and check the oil and it was on the add line so I put about half a quart in it. The second issue I experienced was the brakes felt terrible. I've never driven an older car but something tells me the brakes need looking at it just seemed to have zero bite and I felt like I needed to press the pedal through the floor board to get it slow. The finally issue I had was a few times when I turned the car off about the second you expected it to quite running it seemed to keep turning over and then let a puff of vapor out that I could see rise from the hood intake. I believe I turned it off and about 6 locations through out the night and it did this about 3 times. Other than this the car ran great and it has probably not had 20 miles put on it since last summer so maybe some of this was symptoms of just sitting up for a long time and maybe the gas has changed to the spring mix. Plans are to change the oil and filter and do a coolant flush this weekend pending time and weather.

Your car has a vacuum brake booster and it sounds like it is not working. Plus the "Muddy" fluid could be contaminated brake fluid. If the master is leaking it may have drawn fluid into the booster which will cause the booster to fail. I wiuld take a good look at the hydraulics before driving for safety.

Ace23 · #16 (**permalink**) 03-16-2015, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark IV

Your car has a vacuum brake booster and it sounds like it is not working. Plus the "Muddy" fluid could be contaminated brake fluid. If the master is leaking it may have drawn fluid into the booster which will cause the booster to fail. I wiuld take a good look at the hydraulics before driving for safety.

Was thinking the same thing. Going to reach out to a friend that is a fellow SPF owner this week to see if he can swing by and take a look and help get me in the right direction.

kevins2 · #17 (**permalink**) 03-16-2015, 11:38 AM

Congrats on the car. Sounds like you have a few issues to sort through. There are threads on this forum about engine run on (sometimes called "dieseling". Some have managed to stop the run on but most of us just put a bit of a load on the engine by letting the clutch out a bit when turning the engine off. So, one foot on the brake and just let the clutch out a bit when you turn it off. Run on isn't particularly good for the engine, so recommend you use this technique to prevent it.

Enjoy the car!