94 Cobra Project ... Carnage pics added 7-23-14

[MSRTom]

Thank you all for the warm welcome in my introduction thread. This is going to be a pretty long introduction to the build thread. The introduction alone will span from 04 to the present. From there, I'll keep the thread updated. Hopefully I can count on you guys (and gals) to keep me on task to get this car looking good again, and performing just as well.

The purchase (September, 2003):
After losing my first 94 Cobra to brake failure and a (surprisingly) low speed collision with a brick column, I was on the hunt for another 5.0 Mustang. I had low hopes of finding another 94-95 Cobra that was close enough and within my budget. Two weeks into the search, and finding a few overpriced 5.0 GT’s, a 1994 Cobra was listed for sale in the newspaper with no price. After contacting the seller and having a look, it was coming home with me.

Meet “Vanessa.†There she is bone stock aside from the grille emblem, a set of FMS headers and an off-road H-Pipe.

I drove her to Nashville in 2004 for the 40th anniversary gathering. My dad and my friend David (Vibrant Red 94 GT in some pics to follow) went along. During a lunch stop on the way, we happened to park next to a White '91-ish Ford Escort station wagon. An interesting juxtaposition, since my first car was almost identical to that one.

 

[MSRTom]

The Honeymoon:
It didn’t take long for me to start stuffing parts into her. I don’t have many pictures of the intermediate phases, but between the time of purchase and the summer of 2004, I had accomplished the following:

• BBK Chrome Unequal length shorty headers
• UPR Cold Air Intake
• MAC Prochamber off-road H-pipe
• Powerslot brake rotors w/ Hawk HPS pads
• Tokico Illumina adjustable shocks
• Eibach pro-kit springs
• 17x8 01 GT “Starfish†wheels
• King Cobra clutch
• Cervini’s Stalker front bumper
• Saleen side skirts with door caps
• Saleen replica hood (Kaenen?)
• Saleen rear bumper
• Export tail lights
• Fresh paint: Kalapana Black

 

[MSRTom]

The Kalapana Black is a Mitsubishi color, the paint job was a gift from my uncle Mickey who owns a truck/bus/fleet vehicle service shop. This is the same paint he uses on the limousines and hearses, the blackest black he could find.

 

[MSRTom]

I drove it like this until October ‘04, when I added a Spec Stage 3 clutch, Magnaflow exhaust, Pro-M mass air, underdrive pullies, and a UPR blue thunder shifter...

....OOoooh shiny...

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[MSRTom]

.... Oh, and a nitrous express wet kit.

I started off spraying 50, then 75, then 100: Fun stuff. Then on Martin Luther King Day, 2005, I was getting onto the interstate when my T-5 ate 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] gear. Funny thing is that I wasn’t even getting on it when it stripped off all the teeth on 3[SUP]rd[/SUP] gear. So, while my T-5 was being rebuilt and the Cobra was on jackstands, I ordered a full Energy Suspension bushing set, Prothane motor and trans mounts, UPR Caster/camber plates, UPR bumpsteer, Steeda X2 balljoints and some staggered chrome replica 03 Cobra wheels (17x9, 17x10.5) with 255/45 Kumho Ecsta Supra tires on the front and 315/35 Nitto 555R Drag radials in the back. I also stepped up to a 150 shot after pulling the timing back a little bit.

During the summer of 2005, I added some other goodies: a lot of billet interior stuff, adjustable clutch goodies, and was pretty happy kicking ass with 150 shot at the flip of a switch.

 

[MSRTom]

The “recent unpleasantness”:

I can’t describe the terror you feel when you see the front end of a loaded 18-wheeler coming your way, but to paraphrase Boondock Saints: “Panic… desperation…”

In late September 2005, the out of control truck fishtailed into the woods after smacking me in the front driver’s fender. This sent me spinning 360° into the guardrail, which caused some significant damage to the passenger side front. Airbags deployed, and I hope I never have to go through that again. I crossed my arms and put my hands on my shoulders before the impact, instead of locking my elbows perpendicular to the steering wheel. I had big purple bruises on my shoulders, airbag burns, and this nice gash in between my knuckles opened up again. Otherwise I was unscathed, so to speak.

The doors were jammed shut, car was dead in its tracks (the battery was crushed and exploded). I managed to climb out the window. After we made sure the truck driver was alright, the Highway Patrolman crossed over the front of the car and told me “Kiss her goodbye, son.” That moment, out of either youthful defiance, foolish hope or brash overconfidence, I decided that she would be rebuilt. I would not let another 94 Cobra rot in a salvage yard. And since then, our destinies shall forever be entwined.

Recovery:
To say that progress was slow would be an understatement. Going to college, making $9/hour at a grocery store wasn’t going to get it done. The insurance payout (totaled, duh), was nice, but this had been my daily driver. I picked up a 94 V6 Vert (separate project thread to come), and started tearing the Cobra down. I saved what I could, and scrapped the rest. I’ve got to recover some hard drives to find more damage shots, but here is a post-teardown pic taken right before she went to the body shop. This shows the extent of the front end damage.

Fast forward to May 2007. I'm just out of college, been working at my first real job for 2-3 months. What better way to spend my first few paychecks? (Don't say pay back your student loans.. trust me, I know...) Loading her up to go to the body shop, that's my little bro steering. He's not so little anymore (14 in that pic, now he's 19. He grew up a lot in those 5 years).

At the body shop, old ruined stuff cut off, front clip from MPS from 94 GT lapped on, just like factory. Black 94 GT, your sacrifice will not be in vain:

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[MSRTom]

Then it sat for 2 years while I got some shit together. Fast forward to May 2009. I have a new windshield installed, and before you know it the engine bay gets flat-blacked, and a bunch of parts start finding their way back onto the car.

 

[MSRTom]

Yes. I know the blue interior stuff is gross. It was cool back then, but now I long for a nice, stockish interior.

So after I put all of that stuff back in the car, I figured that I should get it running (no-brainer, right?). I wanted to rebuild the factory longblock (still do), but needed something right then. So I called up a local salvage yard and got a 5.0 out of a 96 Explorer.

After helping me get the car turned around and pointed in the right direction toward the other garage door, Dad took a break from helping me out. It looked like it was about to rain, but as I stood there, looking at the empty engine bay, then back inside to the waiting engine hoist w/the Explorer 302 sitting on the floor on an old tire, something told me to keep going.

As "Free Bird" started playing on the radio, I pushed the front end into the garage enough to get the engine lowered into the bay. I had it bolted in place and most of the wiring harnesses connected by the end of the song. I know it's a pretty long song, but I still thought that it was noteworthy. Then I pushed it back, repositioned the canopy and snapped the above photo. It's still one of my favorites of the whole project.

From the summer of 2009 until the spring of 2011, things were accomplished, but incrementally. I am trying to become one with my camera so that I can take pics of stuff that I do for the project thread, but back then, I wasn't taking many pictures. During this period, the clutch and transmission were reinstalled, interior pieces fitted, and a few issues (mostly electrical) were sought out and corrected. For example, the ignition switch would not engage for the longest time, but I finally traced the problem to some wiring problems at the steering column. At some point (It bothers me to this day that I can't remember the exact date), I took the car on its first drive ever since the accident. Holy crap, it was terrible. Hesitation, backfiring, suspension all out of wack, speedometer didn't work (still doesn't...but I know why). Nevertheless, it was one of my happiest moments as an automotive enthusiast.

So if you haven't noticed by now, go ahead and scroll up so that you can see all of the crap that's filling up my parents' two car garage. Most of that is mine. Mostly either parts that I picked up for spares, or pulled out of the Cobra, or performance parts that I had planned to install. I started feeling guilty about it, so I decided that I should probably buy my own house (I assure you, this was the only reason I bought my house. ). I bought my house in Summerville, and moved 25 miles north of my parents' house on James Island. Needless to say, not much got done on the Cobra for a while. In June, I decided that it was time to get the Cobra moved to Summerville. On one of the days before the voyage, I sprayed off the car to knock off the dust and loose pollen. Here are some of the shots after that. It's not clean, just wet.

 

[MSRTom]

So, on the day that it would set out for its new home, it did get a good washing. I also swapped the wheels for some 98 Cobra wheels that I had on my blue 96 V6. Two of the tires on those 03 Cobras are toast, and btw, three of the chrome 03 Cobra wheels were damaged in the collision.

I know my parents have shots of the car pulling away, but for now, here it is magically in my driveway:

...and up into the garage for the first time.

So of course, it had tags and insurance for the drive up to Summerville. No A/C, still not aligned, but screw it. I'll drive it to work on Friday.

Ironically, that back tire had a boot on it 30 minutes later. If you'll notice in the above pics, my parking decal is NOT on my mirror. I could go off on a tangent about how I removed the wheel and put it in my trunk with the spare, invoked my inner DollyMan (google Arizona Parking Solutions to find the thread from VWVortex) and called them to come and get their boot before I went home for the day. The cops were called, my boss got pissed (was hilarious) at the parking company, and had the manager write an apology and personally deliver the $35 refund.

So a few weeks go by and Mustang Week in Myrtle Beach is fast approaching. It had been my goal to attend with the Cobra since, oh, the last time I had it there..2005. I went in '06, '07, and '08 with various V6 cars. Do work, son!

Yes, there are jackstands under the K-member.

My neighbors saw this for many nights in a row.

A/C compressor installed. Charged up the weekend before MustangWeek, and dead two weekends after. More on this later.

Look how shiny that diff cover cleaned up. There was some lacquery goodness that came off with some brake cleaner, but I had never changed the diff fluid on this car before.

I hate the smell of gear oil.

Back to earth. Let's take it for a test drive.

Didn't need no stinkin' bumper.

I will update this post with some shots from Mustang Week later, but we made it, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

 

[foofinator]

Hope you don't mind me posting before you are done!

But I have to say, I love your perserverence!

Looking forward to this thread for sure.

 

[Musturd]

Keep up the good work dude it will be bad ass again soon

 

[MSRTom]

Hope you don't mind me posting before you are done!

But I have to say, I love your perserverence!

Looking forward to this thread for sure.

Heck no, I don't mind. Just be sure to come back and see how far it's come.

Keep up the good work dude it will be bad ass again soon

Thanks, I sure hope so. Otherwise, I have wasted a lot of time and money on it

 

[Pitbull_SN95]

Wow man. You have quite a bit of passion for it! Keep it going! I'll be checking back!

 

[ttocs]

that looks insane.........

 

[MSRTom]

Boooo 20 picture limit. Introduction continued:



A few weeks go by, and I drive it to adjunct appreciation day at the technical college where I teach part-time:

... to pick up some meds for my cat from the vet:

..and home:

I do some work on it here and there, fixing some little things over the winter. In February, I need to get two new tires for my 240 (daily driver), so I decide to cash in on my lifetime alignment deal with Firestone:

It rides soooooo much better now. Although, I never did square my k-member (UPR Tubular) and I'm regretting it. They couldn't get my alignment spot on because of it. That is on the to-do list. The handling was much more predictable, which was great, because two weeks later I had a sidewall separation at ~80mph on the interstate:

Front passenger tire:

As scary as it was having the car attempting a Dick Van Dyke-intro sidestep into the middle lane, it was pretty funny watching the guy in the Tacoma next to me drop his jaw, his cell phone, and presumably shit his pants. Especially when said asshole was previously riding my ass and flashing his high beams because apparently ~80mph in a 65 isn't fast enough, even with a line of cars in front of me.

 

[Knuckles@Empire]

to say im impressed is a gross understatement. I have had a couple nasty accidents in my life one in my first car a 1973 Mach 1 were i flattened the side of it, the other in my 05 Evo 8 RS that i turned into an accordion. It definetely takes something out of you when these things happen and it takes a real enthusiast/nut to keep going with your cars even after you get into life threatening situations with em. My hats off to you for keeping the parts of the snake you had alive.

Knuckles

 

[MSRTom]

Well, that wraps up the intro. I'll fill in some more missing pieces as I find more pictures.

You may have noticed from the pics that I have also made the following changes from the car's previous life:
-UPR Tubular K-Member
-UPR Tubular A-Arms
-UPR Coil-over kit
-Koni SA's
-Energy Suspension motor mounts and trans mount
-Goodridge stainless brake lines
-GT brake booster because my stock Cobra one was ruined in the collision
-Smoked headlamps
-Saleen bumper (it's authentic, but temporary. and it looks like crap)
-Stock hood (temporary)
-Side-skirt-less (Temporary)
-UPR 4-Bolt Caster/Camber plates
-Mishimoto Aluminum Radiator

Here's a list of things that I have, but need to install:
-04 Cobra IRS
-Fender wells
-My old nitrous kit
-Crane 2031 cam (going to wait for the shortblock rebuild)
-Smoked Cobra fogs (waiting for Stalker bumper)

I'm sure there's more, but that's why this thread is here. I also have about a 2-page long to-do list for all the little piddly crap that bugs me about the car. Thank you for sticking with me through the intro. Just as a reminder, here is Vanessa in her former glory: the benchmark that I am trying to exceed.

 

[Gallows]

You have had some shitty luck the past few years but nice to see you decided to give the Cobra a second chance.

 

[BruhBrahBrad]

I just want to applaud you for bringing that car back, most of us would have found a v6 and done a transplant and been done with it.. you went the extra mile to do everything right, to bring back that car...

 

[JoshHooten]

Nice to see someone who loves there car that much.Great work man.