1994 Cobra AutoX Build

[codfod]

I've been wanting to make a build thread on here for awhile and I'm finally getting around to it, so without further ado awayyyyyyy we go! I've had the car for a little over 4 years now and this is a crap picture of how she sat the day I got her



For the record I'm not a huge fan of naming cars, but the previous owner continually called the car Bubbles so it kinda stuck . I bought it with 84k on the dash and it was mostly stock. The only modifications were a CAI, some BBK shorty headers, catted BBK midpipe, some flowmasters, some H&R Supersport springs, a 96-98 Cobra rear bumper and 17x8 and 17x10.5 anthracite Bullitts. It was left alone for a few years but somewhere along the way my rear sway bar broke apart and I started looking up replacements, which led me to buy a front and rear set of Eibach sway bars. After that the mod bug started to catch on and I had a Crane 2031 cam installed hoping to pick up a little bit of power while maintaining relatively stock like drive ability. If I could go back and do it again, I would get something that had some lope to it lol.

Later I had a set of 3.73's installed and found out that the car already had an Auburn diff in it which was a nice surprise, not sure what model though. After that I spent a fair amount of time on the little details, like for example I bought a small SVT sticker off of ebay to put in the gauge cluster like the Terminators and it came out pretty good for 4 dollars.



Not too long after this I moved to California so anything car wise was put on hold for awhile..

 

[codfod]

So after I had settled in and found time to start working on the car again I installed a set of Maximum Motorsports lower control arms which made the car feel immensely better. This was one of the better mods I've done so far.

After this I found myself wanting a new spoiler even though I still like the stock 94-95 crab claw spoiler. After making my way through the usual suspects I decided I wanted a Saleen T1 spoiler but didn't want to pay the delivery charge to buy one from chicane23.com. I found a guy local to SoCal who was making fiberglass replicas and met up with him and managed to buy one for less than the purchase price alone of the one on chicane23. After finding a decent body shop I had them paint it along with a non cobra trunk that had the third brake light in the trunk so I could avoid any potential tickets. It came out looking pretty decent but the color is slightly off as you can tell.





One of my favorite parts of the T1 is that it keeps headlights out of my eyes at night, almost worth the purchase price lol.

Not too long after this I was pretty much dead set on upgrading to FTR's GT500 brake kit so I started looking around for GT500 stock wheels. I was going to visit a buddy in Phoenix and decided to check their craigslist and found a pair on there so I picked those up.





The pair looked pretty good but I ended up not going for the FTR kit, so all those wheels have done so far is sit in my garage. However I did use the SVT center caps so it wasn't a completely wasted purchase lol.

 

[codfod]

I found a 10th anniversary Cobra steering wheel on ebay for a good price from MPS Auto Salvage so I got that and installed it.



Such a better feel over the trashed stock wheel, and I think it looks a lot better than the FR500 steering wheel.

Speaking of FR500 wheels, that was my next purchase, a 17x9 and 17x10.5 set of Anthracite FR500 wheels (can you tell I like Anthracite?). I had spent a long time trying to figure out what kind of wheels I wanted to replace the Bullitts and eventually went for those.





I still think they're great wheels but if I could go back and do it again, I would get them in 18's instead of 17's and would avoid the deep dish on the back, it just doesn't look quite right to me.

 

[codfod]

Sad times happened after this as the car finally rolled over 100k and I managed to grab a picture right before



With the mileage starting to get up there, I decided to get a new shifter as I was tired of the play in the stock one. After shopping around and reading plenty of reviews I came to the conclusion that MGW would be the best choice so I ordered one of their T5 shifters. Fairly easy install, only annoying part was having to work around the center console.

 

[codfod]

I found an ad on craigslist with a few poor pictures of what were supposed to be Cobra R Brembo brakes and emailed the guy a few times and never heard back. Tried it one last time and got a response, they had been damaged a little bit, and had a chip near where the brake line hooks up to the caliper. So anyway I show up to the guys house and check out the calipers and they don't seem too bad. Up until this point I had been thinking that he was just selling the calipers but then he pulls out a box with the matching rotors, 4 different sets of brake pads from various brands, the brake lines, and a set of brake cooling duct plates. After making sure this was all for the same price I hand over the money and keep talking to him. Turns out these had come off an American Iron foxbody that he had wrecked and had no use for anymore. He then mentioned he had an old pair of Nitto NT01's in his backyard that I was more than welcome to have. Naturally I said yes lol. Probably the best score I've got from craigslist so far. Haven't got them on the car yet so that's still a work in progress.

Few weeks later I found an 03-04 Cobra steering rack on craigslist, and went off to meet the guy. Upon arriving at his place, we walk into his garage and sitting there is a Termi swapped New Edge Saleen and an original Acapulco Blue Boss 302. Needless to say I talked to him for awhile as well. The rack looked pretty good, and he said it probably only had 16,000 miles on it, or whoever he bought it from had claimed anyway.

 

[codfod]

The most recent thing I bought was a set of Authentic R58 17x9 95 Cobra R wheels from [MENTION=9209]ReplicaR[/MENTION] that he had sitting around from his upgrade to RPF1's. Pretty swell dude, he showed me around his car, so I promptly drooled all over it (sorry Dmitry :grin. Making all 4 four wheels fit in the car was real fun, couldn't see out of the passenger mirror the entire way home lol. The car as she sits now



The wheels don't quite sit flush with the rear fender at the moment so I have a pair of spacers on the way currently to remedy that.

 

[codfod]

As of the moment there are quite a few things waiting to go on the car, that includes

• MM Panhard Bar
• MM Subframe Connectors
• MM Steering Shaft
• Terminator Steering Rack
• Spintech Mufflers
• Cobra R Brembos (still awaiting rebuild)

Once this semester ends and I can find a bit of free time, I'm going to do as much of this as I can and source the rest of it out.

As you might be able to tell at this point my main goal for the car is handle a lot better than it was ever intended to. First up is to start going to autocross events, I've been to a few as a spectator but none as an entrant thus far. Hopefully that'll change relatively soon.

 

[DKblue98GT]

Nice car! those FR500 wheels are the wheels I want...

 

[codfod]

Nice car! those FR500 wheels are the wheels I want...

Thanks! I actually already sold the wheels to a guy who said he was putting them on a Shelby Cobra kit car, might pick some up again someday though.

 

[ReplicaR]

The most recent thing I bought was a set of Authentic R58 17x9 95 Cobra R wheels from ReplicaR that he had sitting around from his upgrade to RPF1's. Pretty swell dude, he showed me around his car, so I promptly drooled all over it (sorry Dmitry :grin. Making all 4 four wheels fit in the car was real fun, couldn't see out of the passenger mirror the entire way home lol. The car as she sits now



The wheels don't quite sit flush with the rear fender at the moment so I have a pair of spacers on the way currently to remedy that.

Glad you like the wheels and I’m glad they went to someone who appreciates them instead of someone who would rattlecan them black. Also glad they are being put to use again. There might be another Speed Ventures Autox in January, you should try to make it to that one. I’ll alert you if we end up going.

 

[codfod]

Glad you like the wheels and I’m glad they went to someone who appreciates them instead of someone who would rattlecan them black. Also glad they are being put to use again. There might be another Speed Ventures Autox in January, you should try to make it to that one. I’ll alert you if we end up going.

Sounds good, let me know!

 

[hotmustang95]

Very nice build so far. I did not know the 10th university Cobra steering wheel looked like that. My FR500 is worn out and I'm keeping an eye out for a possible replacement. Also I'd love to know where you got that replica T1 spoiler from?

 

[codfod]

Very nice build so far. I did not know the 10th university Cobra steering wheel looked like that. My FR500 is worn out and I'm keeping an eye out for a possible replacement. Also I'd love to know where you got that replica T1 spoiler from?

Thanks! Yeah I'm a big fan of the thumb grips, main reason I went for that over a FR500 wheel. I don't know if you've seen it but Late Model Restoration brought back the FR500 wheel semi-recently. Usually it goes for 250, but over their big black Friday sale I think its down to 199.

I actually got it from Dave Martis at G-Stream. I messaged him about it through the Paul Brown Tiger Racing page. I can dig up his email if you'd like?

 

[sleepn_sn95]

Every time I see a T1 I get so jealous

The car looks great on the cobra r's, what size spacer did you go with?

 

[codfod]

Every time I see a T1 I get so jealous

The car looks great on the cobra r's, what size spacer did you go with?

Thanks! Spacers aren't on there yet, still waiting on them to show up. But I went with a 25mm/1 inch spacer. Hopefully it'll sit perfectly flush like it used to when I had 315's back there.

 

[hotmustang95]

Thanks! Yeah I'm a big fan of the thumb grips, main reason I went for that over a FR500 wheel. I don't know if you've seen it but Late Model Restoration brought back the FR500 wheel semi-recently. Usually it goes for 250, but over their big black Friday sale I think its down to 199.

I did see that 50Resto brought it back as a SVE wheel. I've had mine for a long time now and wanted something more suited for track use.

 

[codfod]

I did see that 50Resto brought it back as a SVE wheel. I've had mine for a long time now and wanted something more suited for track use.

Gotcha, can't really comment yet on how the 10th anni wheel feels for track use, but I imagine that it's better than the FR500.

 

[hotmustang95]

Gotcha, can't really comment yet on how the 10th anni wheel feels for track use, but I imagine that it's better than the FR500.

It just has thumb grips. I was thinking maybe I could find one of those cheap but probably not. Maybe just go with a MOMO or Sparco. Another option I hear is to send out my wheel to Redline and have them restitch it to my liking.

 

[Musturd]

Beautiful car and nice staring mods t1 wing wtf

 

[codfod]

It just has thumb grips. I was thinking maybe I could find one of those cheap but probably not. Maybe just go with a MOMO or Sparco. Another option I hear is to send out my wheel to Redline and have them restitch it to my liking.

They pop up every now and then on ebay. I bought mine for 275 and it's not exactly perfect condition but decent enough. If you're looking at a completely aftermarket wheel, you could do the Sparco Ford Racing wheel, I think it was used on the Cobra Jet's and the Boss 302S.