Using Car Kit to build a Cobra

[MisuT]

Hi all,

I am at the beginning of a long journey :-).
I decided to buid a Cobra together with a friend of mine who's an experienced engineer. The thing is that he never build a Cobra before. He only worked on many comercial cars (assemble - disassemble) and he is doing a great job.
Anyway, to get to the point...I made some research and...giving our lack of experience in the Cobra phenomenon :-), it's obvious that our only chance to build a Cobra is by using a Cobra car kit. Now, there are several car kit producers that I found on the market, like: Factory Five, LoneStar, etc. I know many of you are very experienced in building Cobras and maybe many of you have used a car kit to buid the Cobra, so I want to ask your professional opinion: Is it a good and reliable option to use a kit in order to build a Cobra? And if yes, which producer you know is best to order from (from quality, reliability, professionalism and support pov)?

I would really appreciate any advise in this matter and be very thankful !

Thanks,
Mike

[GlynMeek]

Mike...there are LOTS of us on this forum who have built our own Cobras. As a complete neophyte wrt building a car, I was able to build a Lonestar in 15 months. I did EVERYTHING myself except paint it (although I did ALL the prep work for that (200 hours)). Go check out some of my gallery pics to see my efforts. If your friend ahs worked a lot on commercial vehicles, that will be invaluable and more than a lot of us had when we started.

In my humble opinion, given time and interest and a modicum of technical expertise and comfort with tools, then it is indeed a good, reliable, INTERESTING, FUN and AMAZING experience to build your own Cobra.

Now, wrt which producer, you have opened up the perennial can of worms on this forum, and mine will only be one of many responses. Opinions are just like a$$holes, and everyone will have them. There are LOTS of existing threads about this very subject, but you will find that most of us have an inbuilt bias towards whichever one WE built! My recommendation is to a) make a list of what you are looking for in a Cobra i.e. comfort, speed, accuracy to the originals, price, location etc. and go from there when you examine manufacturers literature b) read as many of the other threads on this subject as you can using the 'search' capability on 'which kit' or something similar, and c) go visit (if you can) your top 2 or 3 choices.

Good luck and welcome to the madness!

Glyn

[MisuT]

I see...
I'll start the crazy quest .

Thanks! ;-)

[john chesnut]

Hi Mike, Welcome to the wonderful world of KIT CARS. I agree with Glyn. It's alot of fun to build your own car. More fun if you can take your time! And the feeling that you get when you drive it is irreplaceable. There are some great kits out there. In my opinion the first thing you need to do is determine what you want from your Cobra. I think that kits fall basically into three catagories.
- Kits that try to replicate the original car as close as possible
- Kits that use readily available parts, usually Mustang, to create a Cobra that is a good performer and looks the part.
- Those that try to build the highest performance car with the Cobra look.

Do you want a live axle rear or independent? Do you want to put it on a track? How much do you want to spend? The list of questions goes on and on. Not one kit is right for every one. Once you define what you want then you can narrow your search.
Just my two cents. Have fun, John

[63mercury]

I too am fastenated by the Cobra and decided to start my build from scratch, researching all the available info on Club Cobra, my experiance in building hot rods and rebuilding wrecks for myself is very useful. I like others in the scratch build forum get much enjoyment from this approach, just another view. Carl

[tcrist]

63mercury,

With all of the different wheel bases out there, how did you determine the wheel base of your frame if you do not know what Cobra body you are going to use. Are you just going with a origional wheel base and then adjust the body as needed to match?

Just wondering, Terry

[MisuT]

It's obvious that I need to start a long long research.
The first basic ideeas are :

- build a replica (I don't want a mirror copy of the original since it would cost a lot I presume) - I have to decide between fiber glass and aluminium body, etc.;

- I don't want to put it on a track, I just want to use it on the roads;

- engine: now this is a challange...I might go for a new one and ready to be deployed since we don't have the expertize to assemble it piece by piece, have over 300 hp and good torque . I really want to go for a carburated engine (for the sound ). But there are so many other variables...

- suspensions: also many options available...use one of the top brands and should accomodate Romanian roads (which are quite bad unfortunately), so most likely I will go for an independent rear suspension system, but as I know this is harder to accomodate in the chassis;

- I don't want to exceed 35k $ for this project and I want to make it in timely steps (due to budget and know-how constrains). I want to finish it in maximum two years.
Seems like I will need good project management

I know...It's like I'm saying: "I want to build a car so I need 4 wheels a frame, an engine and a body" but...I have to start from somewhere, so fist I wanted to know which are the most professional kit car producers who can also provide strong guidance and support so I can ease my pain .

Thanks for the initiation John ;-)

Mike

[LMH]

Mike
If trying to replicate an original car isn't important to you, my advice would be build a Factory Five car (FFR). Having their own fourm, just about any problem you could come across has been worked by others before you. If a question arises, the fourm is a huge help with the answers.
Good luck with whatever you choose.
Larry

[GlynMeek]

Mike...sounds like

1) fiberglass - an aluminum one (Kirkham) would put you back more than your budget

2) small block engine - 302/347 or 351 might be cheaper and more suited to a cruiser

3) suspension is usually what comes with the kit, so choose your manufacturer carefully

4) overall budget and timeframe look perfectly achievable

5) hmmm...Romanian roads?????? care to explain?

Glyn

[MisuT]

Yeah well I live in Romania...and most likely I'm the only crazy romanian who has the ideea to build a Cobra replica. But this is good because when I will succeed, I will be a pioneer in my country .
Many of the roads in Romania are horrible...are bumpy, with holes, bad adherence, missing road sections :-)), etc. This is due to the fact that we are sill recovering from the communism period and budget alocated for road infrastructure is low. But it's getting better. By the time I finish my dream Cobra replica we might have better roads then you guys there in USA :-)).
Glyn, what's you opinion regarding Larry's pov...to go with FFR for this project ? Are they reliable as far as you know? I know that..."what you pay is what you get" but honestly I don't want to build a Cobra which falls apart after the first acceleration...sort of saying . I prefer to exceed the budget limit but to know that I will have a performant and reliable car.
Check out this Cobra which is for sale in Germany... amazing:

http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/sh...n&pageNumber=6

I will try to make mine resemble as much as possible with that...except I don't want that monster HP...by the way I think it's exagerated...what control can you get at a Cobra which has 900 HP? And the other question is: Why? :-)

Mike

[GlynMeek]

Mike...900 hp is WAY TOO MUCH FOR ME! lol

Some will disagree, but that is NOT a 'daily cruiser', it is a racing beast

wrt Factory Five, they are a good and very reputable firm, one of the top 5. My only issue (for your build) is that most folks build them using 'loaner' parts from a Mustang and getting a good Mustang in Romania may be difficult!!! They DO offer a kit with all new parts though, so make sure you take that into account when you price! Also, how much will it cost to ship ANY kit to Romania???



Glyn

[63mercury]

The one thing that was important to me is maintaining the 90 in wheelbase because it's closest to original and looks best IN MY OPINION. Also I purchased a build manual from Factory 5 and Hurricane Motorsports they cost $55 US, might be more with overseas shipping, both were VERY useful. Carl.

[MisuT]

Originally Posted by GlynMeek

Mike...900 hp is WAY TOO MUCH FOR ME! lol

Some will disagree, but that is NOT a 'daily cruiser', it is a racing beast

wrt Factory Five, they are a good and very reputable firm, one of the top 5. My only issue (for your build) is that most folks build them using 'loaner' parts from a Mustang and getting a good Mustang in Romania may be difficult!!! They DO offer a kit with all new parts though, so make sure you take that into account when you price! Also, how much will it cost to ship ANY kit to Romania???



Glyn

Well this will be a problem...To ship the full kit in Romania will most likely cost me 1 or 2k, if not more :-(. I'll check it out.
Unfortunately I don't know of any kit manufacturers in Europe...Maybe this would be a good business opportunity

Cheers,
Mike

[ddcobra]

Originally Posted by MisuT

Well this will be a problem...To ship the full kit in Romania will most likely cost me 1 or 2k, if not more :-(. I'll check it out.
Unfortunately I don't know of any kit manufacturers in Europe...Maybe this would be a good business opportunity

Cheers,
Mike

Hi MisuT

Donald from DD Cobra i sell a lot of car in France i can help you if you want we also have a forum in France and a Distributor to help you!!

Thanks, Don

[GlynMeek]

Mike...I think there are a quite a number of Cobra kit cars out of the UK, but I am not sure if they manufacture a left hand drive version, and not sure what engines they use. You might research there!

Glyn

[MisuT]

Originally Posted by GlynMeek

Mike...I think there are a quite a number of Cobra kit cars out of the UK, but I am not sure if they manufacture a left hand drive version, and not sure what engines they use. You might research there!

Glyn

You're right Glyn. I did't know that DAX is producing kit cars in UK. They make the Tojeiro. I saw in their ordering and pricing list that they also make kit with left hand drive. Unfortunately I also saw that they have spicy prices :-(. I'll check it out further and I'll give them a call these days.

Thanks,
Mike

[Ital-cobra]

Mike check out what Donald has to offer....D&D puts out a complete kit and I've been to his shop really nice stuff....for the money.

P.S Donald is a great guy to work with also.

Joseph

[GlynMeek]

Mike...that's because the pound is ridiculously high compared to the dollar!

Glyn

[MisuT]

Originally Posted by GlynMeek

Mike...that's because the pound is ridiculously high compared to the dollar!

Glyn

Exactly ! If I order from USA and pay the shipment I will still get a much better price then from UK.

Mike

[MisuT]

Originally Posted by ddcobra

Hi MisuT

Donald from DD Cobra i sell a lot of car in France i can help you if you want we also have a forum in France and a Distributor to help you!!

Thanks, Don

Hi Donald,

Joseph (Ital-cobra) just wrote that he's been to your shop and he liked what he saw :-). He also wrote that you sell complete kits. Is it possible to order the kit directly from Europe? Can you put me in contact with your distributor in France? Also, it would be great if you could give me a catalogue with pricing in it.

Thanks,
Mike