New member SKCobra

[Kevins]

We have a new member, SKCobra (Sotirios). Here's what he had to say:

I’m looking forward to learn from your members and share my experience building my Cobra. I’m 57 years of age and have admired the Cobra as long as I can remember. I love all types of cars, but have gravitated to Fords.

I bought my 1965 Cobra 427 Midstates replica June of this year. It’s about 80% complete, no paint, but the previous owner was only concerned with function, no form. There’s a lot of items that I’m going to redo to get them to my liking.

Here are some specs:
1965 427 side Oiler block
1966 Mustang Boss heads
Lemans high lift racing CAM
Barry Grant 750 CFM racing carb
4 speed
Jaguar double wish bone rear suspension with disc brakes at the differential
Torsion bars with Koni shocks up front







Welcome to the forum, Sotirios! And we appreciate you providing the photos. I hope you enjoy interacting with the members here.

Kevin

[S_Reynolds]

Welcome. Looks like you are well on your way. Keep us posted on your progress.

[Silverback]

Welcome aboard Sotirios and as Sam mentioned above you appear to be well on your way.

It also appears we have the same hair stylist.

By popular demand (and several threats) I have removed my picture.

[Luce_]

Why. For the love of god WHY post a big pic of yourself? All we needed for the effect was the chrome dome.

[Ron77]

Sotirios,

Welcome to the forum and you have a very good start on your Cobra. Thanks for the pictures and keep posting them as you go along with finishing the car. Also don't hesitate to join in on the joking and other chats we have here. All of the members will be happy to help you with any question that you may have.

Ron

[DanEC]

Welcome to the group. Car looks and sounds like a nice project. But why in the world would the previous owner paint a Ford 427 engine, Chevy orange?

[SKCobra]

Sotirios,

Welcome to the forum and you have a very good start on your Cobra. Thanks for the pictures and keep posting them as you go along with finishing the car. Also don't hesitate to join in on the joking and other chats we have here. All of the members will be happy to help you with any question that you may have.

Ron

Looks like I'll be taking a few steps backwards before advancing forward. A few days ago I spent quite some time sitting in the cockpit trying to envision driving the car to no avail. Footbox is too small, pedals are too close to driver, pedal arms are too long requiring long leg movement. After 30min of this, I realized that I will not safely and effectively be able to drive the car. I resolved that I must remove the body and rework the footbox and transmission tunnel, and lower the floorboard to give myself more room. And the fun starts!

[Ron77]

You won't be the first one to have to do work like that. I am sure that some of the members can help you with suggestions as many of them are tall and large and have had to change foot box and pedal setups to make it easier to use and also to get in and out of the car.

Ron

[DanEC]

Dang - not sure how long I will be able to hang with this thread as every time I scroll up or down it, that picture of John staring at me gives me the willies.

How are your seats mounted? I'm 6'2" and primarily to sit low enough to not be staring at the top of the windshield frame I decided to forgo the seat tracks and mount my seats dirrectly to the floor just off the rear bulkhead. If your seats have adjustable tracks you may need to do the same. Maybe it will help some or maybe you will still need to modify the foot boxes some.

Are your foot pedals top swung or bottom swung? My ERA has bottom swung (or pivoted) pedals and they too are fairly long stroke which is only noticeable on the clutch. It's somewhat exaggerated by sitting so low as your leg needs to extend almost fully to push the clutch all the way in. I think in part this is sort of pre-determined by the hydraulic master cylinder for the clutch and the length of stroke it requires and the pedal ratio to keep clutch effort within reason. If top hung pedals then I'm of no help there. But you may be able to re-set the pedals and may need some pedal stops (at bottom and possibly at top of their stroke).

It's pretty typical for the footboxes to be pretty narrow in these cars in order to fit the engine/trans. ERA spread my pedals out for me across the footbox but I was still hanging the sides of most of my size 12/13 shoes up on a pedal adjacent to the one I was shooting for. You may be able to bend the pedal arms a bit to space them out if that is a problem for you. A lot of guys with bigger feet buy expensive driving shoes to wear. I found a set of Sketchers that had a narrow and smooth sided sole, relative to the shoe uppers that pretty much solved that issue for me - and much cheaper.

[Kevins]

Dang - not sure how long I will be able to hang with this thread as every time I scroll up or down it, that picture of John staring at me gives me the willies.

Our best hope is to get this to page 2 as quickly as possible.

[Luce_]

The foot box on these cars it at best a big compromise.

I did a lot of work maximizing mine. I'm only 5'9" and have a Lone Star (stretched 3.5" at the cockpit) so length is nowhere near a problem, but best I could do, you're sort of sitting facing oncoming traffic.

Pay particular attention to the swing and location of the throttle with relation to the other 2. I've sat in others cobras where it was an acrobatic operation going form gas to brake and back that involved significant knee bending. You want it so that with the brakes depressed, you're about in plane with the throttle pedal while relaxed, close enough to have a hope of a heal toe downshift, but not so close to hit the gas when braking.

Because the pedals all must be shifted to the left (for us LH drive cars) you have to drive sort of swung out that way to keep your legs in front of you. I will confess to once when not paying attention, had to do a little no notice emergency braking, my feet went to the brake and gas instead of clutch and brake. I very quickly noticed what I did and with no real drama snatched the shifter into neutral and go off the gas, braking with the left.

Spend some time sitting in the car making vroom vroom noises in the garage with a beer on the tunnel when not at your lips.

Someone else, quick, post to get this to page 2. Needs to be a team effort.

Oh yea, nice start. Honestly, I had almost as much fun reengineering and building as any other part of ownership... But taming the beast is a hoot.

[SKCobra]

Wow! Kevin wasn’t joking, you guys are awesome. Great info, and glad I’m not alone in this.

Not sure how to progress to page 2?

[Luce_]

Here's what I added to my foot well. This gave me an additional 3" for the throttle. Most Lone Star's have the little skinny Locar pedal surface mounted to the angled part fo the firewall.

sm1010.jpg

[Ron77]

Sotirios,

The site will automatically start page two when the number of posts per page is reached.

Ron

Wow! Kevin wasn’t joking, you guys are awesome. Great info, and glad I’m not alone in this.

Not sure how to progress to page 2?

[Silverback]

Okay everyone, after receiving numerous PM's with physical threats and two that mentioned they were going to contact the Phoenix Zoo with my address, I have removed my picture.

And if my senior bride had not already stomped and killed all my feelings, I'm sure they may have been hurt.

[Ron77]

Darn, and I was going to have it blown up and post it out at my gates to scare away any potential looters. s*>

Ron

[Luce_]

Thank you John.

None of us are pretty, but at least most of us know it.

[GianM]

Welcome to the Forum Sotirios!

That looks like it is going to be a very nice car.

Please share more of your experiences and start a thread in the "Cobra Build" section, where you can document and share your build with other members. It is a very useful way to get advise and to keep you motivated...

[James Stern]

Welcome to the site. The build out is part of the journey. Please keep us updated on your progress.