Aluminum Cobra Nose

[Imperial Wheel]

Last year I posted photos of the Gentry 289 FIA Fiberglas body I had purchased with the goal of using it for patterns to make an aluminum bodied Cobra. A friend purchased a 427 body at the same time and came over last weekend to pick it up. While he was here four metalshaping friends came over and we spent a couple days experimenting with techniques and deciding how we would approach building the body by making a wall hanging of the nose area. The nose area is the most complex from a shape perspective.

In about 60 man hours we ended up with this:





While not finished we made a great start on a wall hanging. Actually it will be a bare metal awning over the walk in door of my shop. I'm going to put a motion light inside and let the headlights glow as well as light the door.

There is still a small panel beside the left headlight to do, the inside of the grill openings, some metalfinishing, as well as wire edging.

We used a variety of methods. One guy used almost all hand tools and my English Wheel because that is what he had at home. Another built and used a concrete hammerform to make the lower nose area. Still others used some power equiptment. The panels were TIG welded and filed down with Vixen files.

If there is interest, I can post a lot photos of the build process.