Owner built on a budget;

[onefastmustang]

They must be very busy.. I sent Ray an email about wanting to give my cobra away and no response. Work work work.. work work work.

[rustyBob]

Ray.......


my hat is off to you and the "CREW"......A FINE JOB DONE BY ALL OF YOU........
it looks fantastic.............
A TROUPHY WINNER FOR SURE............

[MOTORHEAD]

"I Love the smell of fresh paint in the morning!!!!!"
Great job !!!!!!!!!!!!

[James Stern]

Ray, Great job. I figured it was going to be a LONGGGG weekend for you. The important thing is the night gremlins did not undo your hard work.

Jim

[48ford]

Now I understand why you have 19 cars. You can't put that much Love into a car and then sell them. Looks really good. I am impressed. I hope you can feel the pat on the back from here.
Rip

[Double Venom]

I stand and applaud you both !!!

Buddy, you and Craig (?) did everything right, and it certainly shows it.
Just so you know it takes me at least 8 hours just to mask off a Cobra with pin stripes. And I have dozens if not hundreds of them under my belt.

Not to worry EVERY can of paint has at least one run built into it!
DV

PS. My major critic just looked at your photo's and PASSED it with an A+ !

[Hray]

Hey Everyone: Thanks a ton for the comments, that makes this trip worth the ride so to speak.

Gotta get cracking today, took yesterday off, just did not have much energy, plus most likely good to let the paint cure for a day before sanding it.

stay tuned and catch ya later.

Ray

[rustyBob]

Ray...


when this is all over with you will look back on it and be very proud of what you and the "crew" have done over the last few mounths.....
you set a goal and you have reached that goal.....
with all the opinions and advice taken under consideration......
your Cobra has a piece of all of us in it......
congrats.....it looks awesome........

[Hray]

Wed evening update: 765 hours; 76 days down, 14 days to go

Today for me was a little fustrating, I was going to chase parts, but since sun came out nice I thought I should take the sidepipes outside and media blast them and get them painted. I had three different media blasting machines and none of them worked good. finally took them inside the shop. put one end in the media blasting cabinet, duct tapes some cardborad over the door way and blasted them, I will clean up the escaped media another day. Finally got them done and painted them tonite, they are hanging to dry. That was basically my entire day.

Then one of the needles on the gauages fell off, I called west sac speedo shop, they can take the front off and put it back on. That will tomorrows project. along with running to get a few parts.

Craig got doors, hood, trunk all buffed out and ready for reinstall.

Here is dash, nearly ready to reinstall.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4054/...7e189065_b.jpg

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2700/...6e2b54eb_b.jpg

Here is a pix of nose without flash, and after sanding and buffing note color

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2712/...52bccfe7_b.jpg

Here is the nose with flash, seems to be different color

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4009/...e621f19e_b.jpg

Here is close up of nose, can not see much except the reflection of the lights in the ceiling. I try to get these smooth enough that you could hold a newspaper up against the paint and read it in the reflection. if you can do that then it is pretty flat with no orange peel and somewhat glossy.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2781/...8016c45c_b.jpg

Tomorrow will be getting the temp guage fixed and ordering the sign for the display, then hopefully install the floor insulations and carpeting, then windshield,, wiper hardware, doors, latches, dash, and the list goes on.

I surely do hope to have a pretty well assembled car by the time I go to bed on sunday nite.

And as Bob says this has been a group effort, and I do have to thanks everyone on this site for being so helpful. but it aint over yet, later Ray

PS: I guess I have blown the heck out of that time estimate, we are now at 940 total hours and will be knocking on the door of 1100 real quick. But I have still stayed real close to budget, I need to add everything up, if I do go over it will positively not be much more than 12K for total build and I just might be under that. Then again I never figured to bring the car to this level, the paint would have been but all the undercarriage would not have been as well as some accessories would have been closer to driver quality.

But, "it will be worth it" that has been my night time chant to myself every nite.. Craigs chant is, "it is a Cobra, it is worthy".

[Hray]

hey look here, already done, looks great doesn't it.

this has to be nearly identicl color as mine. what a coincidence

http://www.clubcobra.com/classifieds...=P10106021.JPG

[James Stern]

.....and as busy as you and the crew are, you managed to put a new window in the garage. I was wondering how the budget was. You can add up the pennies when it is all said and done.

[Double Venom]

May I?
Never add up a tally sheet on a Cobra Build! Honestly, you don't want to know!
DV

[*13*]

I'll third that!

[rustyBob]

if you start to add things up you may change your mind about building the other car
"sticker shock" can make you crazy........
I stopped counting when i hit the $40k mark........

[Hray]

update; 783 hours; 77 days down, 13 to go:

The side pipes looked real good this morning, was sort of wondering since I painted them standing on my head and in a somewhat dim lite room.

A good day today I think, bumpers are on, side emblems on, rear view fender mirrors on, motor and firewall area got detailed again. carpet is in the trunk, rest of the insulation is on in the cockpit, some carpet is glued down. the sign for autorama is ordered. the temp guage is at repair shop getting fixed.

Tomorrow should be rest of carpet installed, doors, hood and trunk reinstalled, and all the lights installed.

Just maybe we will be 99% done on Sunday, about 10 days early. Of course we will be checking and rechecking, and retouching stuff until set up day. but just maybe the long hours and days are behind us.

My wife does not think the hood badge goes with the rest of the car, guess i have to somewhat agree. but I aint gonna paint it.

Here is latest pix.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4048/...cefe3ac1_b.jpg

[James Stern]

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Kawika]

Originally Posted by Hray

update; 783 hours; 77 days down, 13 to go:

The side pipes looked real good this morning, was sort of wondering since I painted them standing on my head and in a somewhat dim lite room.

A good day today I think, bumpers are on, side emblems on, rear view fender mirrors on, motor and firewall area got detailed again. carpet is in the trunk, rest of the insulation is on in the cockpit, some carpet is glued down. the sign for autorama is ordered. the temp guage is at repair shop getting fixed.

Tomorrow should be rest of carpet installed, doors, hood and trunk reinstalled, and all the lights installed.

Just maybe we will be 99% done on Sunday, about 10 days early. Of course we will be checking and rechecking, and retouching stuff until set up day. but just maybe the long hours and days are behind us.

My wife does not think the hood badge goes with the rest of the car, guess i have to somewhat agree. but I aint gonna paint it.

Here is latest pix.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4048/...cefe3ac1_b.jpg

I put that one on my lawn mower, and got one at finish line for $15

[Hray]

Update: 83 days down, 7 days till we load it in the trailer.

Gonna back track some, someone wanted pixs of steering column, so here they are. first a little bit of explanation. I started with a complete 67 mustang column and a complete chevette column, I cut them both in half both the shafts and the column itself. The stang shaft slide inside the chevette shaft just perfect, we slid in inside about 12 inches so it would stay straight. we welded them together. we then took the bottom half of the chevette column and welded it to the top half of the stang column. we then fit a grant steering wheel to the top half.

here you can see the shaft and the column prior to assembly
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2789/...91a37aab_b.jpg

here is a picture of the hood prop ratchet assembly from the 69 corvette

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4048/...5d43eccf_b.jpg

here is the column installed in the car.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2779/...c6174a63_b.jpg

here is what the under side of hood looks like open and on the car

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2768/...67408e10_b.jpg

here is shot of CRL badge on side. question was there a classic roadesters, then CR limited, then CRII or only the two.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4017/...15fe0ddf_b.jpg


Here is the roll bar installed, I forgot to take close up pix of the model A windshield rubber gasket up close, maybe you can see it. I thinks it look great protects the body from vibrations

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4065/...d1757808_b.jpg

here is trunk opened, we ran out of black texture paint for trunk, will finish tomorrow and install trunk carpet.
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4017/...e16da3e5_b.jpg


here is pic of rear tire, sidepipes, and roll bar, I like the silver on all three, I feel it follows theme, the chrome on outer rim ties in with mirrors and windshield frame.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2767/...d525fb97_b.jpg

side profile shot, I think I need to clean the camera lens,
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2718/...d868721e_b.jpg

[James Stern]

You are almost there. Great pics, great car. I wish you all the luck at the
Autorama. Thanks for including us in your build. I think a lot of us lived vicariously through you. I hope you have a cold brew when this is all over. It will help ease the back aches, cuts, etc. Hopefully, you will have some shots out in the sun. That car will really "shine".

Jim

[rustyBob]

that looks like a Cobra i would be proud to drive...........
looks good Ray......