original 427 AC COBRA CSX3160 Help

[Dan Case]

Kris,
Those look a lot like the reproductions, whole belt assemblies, Jim Cowles had for sale at his booth at SAAC-28. The old ones, traceable back at least into the late 1960s, like mine, have a much smaller completely different label. The leather shown your image looks real new. My old ones, and all the old ones I know of, have very darkly oxidized (and staining) cut edges.

I believe a general comment on reproductions is warranted. Genuine Cobra parts, even when the cars were new, have always been a finite and very limited supply. Companies started making copies of almost every part as early as 1971! Old SAAC club magazines have ads in them for "new" sources of obsolete Cobra parts. So far, every reproduction made that I have examined is in some way different from the originals they copy. There are lots of reasons for this but it is almost impossible for two companies to make the exact same part even from the same drawing. I deal with this problem daily in my job at GE. New suppliers always change something for some reason. Even FoMoCo had this problem with assembly plants. Early Mustangs were assembled at several different plants to the same drawings. Every plant did things their own way. Experienced Mustang folks can tell where an unrestored Mustang was assembled without looking at the serial number. Cobra parts are worse. Example: 2" round COBRA nose and boot emblems. There were two versions made by two different companies with two completely different tools to the same Peter Brock sketch. These supplies ran out by circa 1972. A supplier out west had a new tool made and had parts made. By the 1980s these ran out and a eastern guy had another tool made as a copy of the circa 1972 version. Yep, reproduction of a reproduction. Each recreation changed the look, fit, and or function a little. Here in 2004 there are several reproductions of the reproductions available for Cobras. The current reproductions often include details from a combination of original and other reproduction parts.