JCF - John's Custom Fabrication

[snakeeyes]

I take no credit for my car because I bought it turnkey from CC member Walt Tomsic, who had it built by JCF. The only thing I've done to the car was change from round taillights to rectangular ones.

Walt is obviously in a much better position to comment on the build and his interaction with JCF. All I know is what he told me. I recall that he had some issues with the paint when the car was finished, but I believe that John at JCF made those right. The paint on the car is very nice. Not show-quality, but very nice. The rest of the car is built to a very high standard. The interior is outstanding, with high-quality carpet and leather. I do know that Walt was extremely particular about the layout and materials. He was fortunate to be physically close enough to John's shop that he could monitor the progress in person, which may be a key to the end result. He was also lucky to have a friend who owns an original 289 Cobra that he could use as a guide, and he did so (for example, he had John completely re-do the dash so that the gauge and switch layout followed the CSX2--- car).

I also have a scrapbook of build photos that came with the car. They display to good advantage the extensive frame gusseting that goes into the JCF kits. The strength of the frame is apparent from driving the car, as there is very little flex exhibited and no rattles over the washboard road leading to my house. In that respect it feels much like the ERA I used to own, which is high praise.

The rest of the car displays the same kind of quality. The trunk is carpeted in the same manner as the interior. The wiring is all first-class. The trim items--the grille, badges, chrome wire wheels, tri-bar headlights, shifter, etc. are all authentic. I don't know how much of that is attributable to Walt's wishes and how much is "standard" JCF, but the car is really well executed. I have twice had former owners of CSX2-series cars walk up, compliment me, and ask what the CSX number of my car was. That may be because you don't see many slabside replicas out there and so they assumed it was an original, or it may be because it just looks correct. I don't know, but one of those conversations took place when the car was surrounded by over 50 other replicas at a Texas Cobra Club meet, which made the question all the more surprising.

My car has almost 10,000 miles on it now. Walt put about 8,000 on it before I bought it. I don't get to drive it much because of my schedule but I wouldn't hesitate to go anywhere in it.

Walt doesn't seem to post much here since he sold the car but hopefully he'll weigh in with his build experiences. I don't really know if he had issues with the length of time the build took or not. I've spoken to a couple of other JCF owners. They seemed very happy with the end result but both made comments about it taking longer to get their cars than they expected.

Bob