1998cobrasvt
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1998CobraSvt’s Bright Atlantic Blue Coupe
1 of 553
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This is quite a long intro post as i have to catch everyone up to speed, going back to 2013. Will be posting more photos when time allows.
2013-2015
Spring 2013-Fall 2013
Bought this cobra in the fall of 2013, but this is not my first mustang. The search began around Spring 2013. I was searching for something between 94-04. The plan was to find something clean that I could build over time to put down some power and bring to track events. Something unique. I browsed the internet searching for a long time, test drove a few but no luck.
Nothing pops up worth looking into the rest of the summer until finally to my amazement i find an ad for my favorite mustang of all time a very clean/”rare” 98 Bright Atlantic Blue Cobra a couple of hours from home. 1/553. Something I could not pass up seeing. It is advertised as “amazing all around.” 75,xxx miles on the ad. Price was fair and one of my favorite paint colors on an sn95. The guy was very short-answered on the phone as his English sucked but I decided it couldn’t hurt taking a look at. I could tell at least from several photos that it was clean. Hopped in the truck and trailer and drove a few hours out of state to check it out.
Waiting in this quite town applebees parking lot for the guy for 25+ mins and finally I hear it pull up. (I guess I can drive hours to see this guys car AND be on time but hes too cool to be on time 5 minutes from his house lol whatever.) Sounds nice, paint and body is just as nice as the photos, car is very clean minus his little touches but I can in-vision how I would have it if it were mine. My first glance around I notice the driver side wheel is pushed back towards the wheel well badly. Will go over this in a minute. (Still see its potential if the price is right.) We test drive it and it certainly was not as described. The guy was bulls***ing out his @**. (Will go into detail on this also in a minute. Major tlc was needed) The guy was never willing to admit the car was in a minor front end accident to his knowledge but it was quite obvious. (The driver front wheel was rubbing on the wheel well when turned left.) He did however admit the car needed a lot of work and we were able to figure out a price that worked for us both. The damage was not major as far as accidents go, All damage seemed to be located in the driver side front end and fixable.
After Pointing out the work needed to restore it, verifying the title was clear and also verifying the vin as being a cobra and the paint code as being K7 (Bright Atlantic Blue), + Clean Car Fax, we came to an agreement. He reduced the price, I payed a fair price for the hurt cobra and then set-off back home. Along with a set of 17” chrome cobra R’s. (Replicas?)
Now lets go over how horrible this guy treated this car. Lets start with his taste… to began...He had a cobra hood ornament in-between the nostrils. :deeplist:
(Pic)
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The shift knob was a cheap plastic cobra head. (What a horrible shift knob for function!) (will get pic up when I can)
A “ghetto snake sticker” on the driver side rear window (Gone)
Cheap pealing “clear” tints (gone)
On the interior headliner he had two more stickers…above the rear view mirror on the headliner…one of some pinup graffiti-chick and another of Jesus. Of course I can’t/will not tare-down the Jesus-sticker, he can stay there. But 90’s pinup graffiti chicks gotta go.
Has the mach 460 Speakers…..attached to subs and an aftermarket radio. And I use the words “attached” loosely. The whole thing was wired like s***. When I tested the radio only one speaker worked no subs and if you hit a pothole right the passenger speaker came on. LOL. Had to be rewired. Don’t worry its done already. speakers are good but the Whole sub system is from the 90’s and shot. Plans to remove eventually.
The stage 2 clutch was stiff
The steering wheel had tremendous play
Dyno results showed the way previous owner had it sitting at only approx. 230rw!!! On a junk tune
Cheap shorty headers to a cheap x pipe.
Cheap Lowering springs so low the car was not streetable.
The wing was flopping around held in by one screw.
The headlights were faded and loose in placement.
The interior door clips broke so both panels were flopping everywhere
Chapter 2:
Car is stored for the winter. Winter was rough. No time to focus on the car. Spring 2014 comes and Its time to get the car over to Wicked Motorsports for a full overhaul at Kevin’s shop. If you don’t know Kevin he is a stand-up guy, his knowledge on our cars, hell on all brands and years is insurmountable. One of the nicest guys you will ever meet. We knew the car was hit on the driver side, the question was will the k-member fix the problem? The tire was not touching the wheel well when straight however when turned to the left it DID rub the wheel well. Thankfully, after hours and hours of measurements it was confirmed that the k-member swap would solve the problem.
FULL INSPECTION:
The only three good things that were benefiting the car was the 4.10 gears, the mgw short shifter and the stage 2 clutch on a bad t/o bearing. Pretty much everything else had to go.
As for the the Xenon side skirts and rear bumper, We did not mess with it to see condition underneath, no time to worry about condition underneath this season. (I looked them up and they are averaging about $800-$1000 plus paint-costs for the kit) What do you think? Leave them on or take them off?
IMRCS clogged, Cross over bar rusted shut.
Oil pan was dented from his crash, when the pan was replaced you could see in the old pan how he once had a Supercharger setup. (My theory is he supercharged it and drove it around built just as I described above and crashed. He removed the supercharger and sold it at a reasonable price knowing the work it would need..if not the owner before him in the 90’s had one but I doubt that.)
Did compression test, motor is still strong.
Replace motor mounts
Time rolls on, after hours of measurements and finally getting the green light to began.. the k-member fixes the wheel issue. :thumbsup: was planning on doing a k-member regardless of this matter. Things are looking good, LTs are in with k-member.
(Before and after shots of the front wheel.)
Before:
After:
Car is worked on when time allows. On/off. Summer comes and goes… winter 2015 pops up out of no-where. We decide its best to leave at the shop and finish the rest in-between winter and spring.
Winter-spring 2015:
Smoothing out the edges:
As mentioned before, the previous owner had installed this custom trunk setup with subs and wired it horribly. The subs wiring had to be gutted for the rear coilovers and rewired. The 1 ¾ Headers to 3” catless x-pipe had trouble fitting. It was right in the way of the trans mount.. Kevin did his magic. Rather than refabing the whole exhaust to fit he decided to fab the trans-mount into a 99-04 which allows the clearance! Sick!!
Parts list for this year:
American Racing Headers 1 3/4 Primary Long Tube Header 3"Collector With Catless 3" X-Pipe
Ford Motorcraft 99-04 Transmission Mount
Ford Motorcraft Primary 02 Sensor
Ford Motorcraft Secondary 02 Sensor
Ford Motorcraft Oil Pan Gasket
Ford Racing 03-04 Cobra 4v Oil Pan
Ford Motorcraft Exhaust Manifold Gaskets
Ford Motorcraft HD Motor Mounts (LH & RH)
JLT True Cold Air Intake Kit (Bright Atlantic Blue)
Ford Motorcraft Coolant Tube O-Rings
Oil Filter
UPR Chrome-Moly K-Member Kit With Coil Overs & VikingSprings
UPR Steel 4-Bolt HD Caster Camber Plates
Steeda Underdrive Pulley Kit (Crank, Waterpump, Alt)
Steering Rack (Rack & Pinion)
Tie Rod Ends
Koni "ORANGE" Sport Strut & Shock Kit
UPR Rear Coil Over Kit With Viking Springs
UPR Pistol Grip Shifter Handle
UPR Clutch Quadrant & Click-Type Firwall Adjuster
NGK TR6 V-Power Spark Plugs
Brake Kleen (60 oz)
Ford Motorcraft Clutch Cable
Cross over bar is cleaned prepped and painted black.
Everything was falling into place for this season.
Late Spring 2015:
Car is dynoed and tuned. Misfire on dyno, Small oil leak in plug boot of cyl 3. Valve cover pulled, sealed, new plugs. Wait and test. Car is good to go. Final numbers are 289RWHP 284 TQ.
Replace headlights and interior door panel inserts.
Remove plastic cobra shift knob and replace with pistol grip. Remove clear tints. and stickers
Ready For the season! A BIG thanks to Kevin @ Wicked Motorsports, this project would have been one hell of a nightmare without you!
To all wondering "whats next?" The build has only just begun! Much to come!!
Here are some shots of the car done and ready for this season.