Messages

To follow the original thread on the SAAC site:
   
   http://saacforum.com/index.php?topic=38623.msg296553#msg296553

CSX2201 and later cars came with alternators similar to ones used in a particular 427 c.i.d. engine option package for a 1963 Mercury and Ford sedans. Evidence suggests all the ones used in production had sheaves made by a different contract machine shop because they are different than what the Mercury and Ford sedans used. Mercury and Ford sedan ones are very rare and true Cobra production assemblies are extremely rare not on a Cobra. Alternators with the wrong sheave are not all that rare. Dearborn Steel Tube sold modern interpretations of the original sheaves into the 1990s but I don't know if they are still in business. Lately ebay® sellers have wanted between around $400 and $1,000 for a remanufactured alternator, then you have to come up with  a large 427 Ford style fan and sheave assembly, and then you have to find somebody with the special tool required to remove the wrong style fan and sheave so the large diameter 427 Ford style can be pressed back on.
   
   A shop owner in California makes AC Cars style alternator mounting brackets and adjustment arms. I don't know his current pricing.

The images shown exhibit an extremely modified car right down to custom vented brake rotors.

quote:Originally posted by Morgy
   
Thanks for the reply
   
   those assembly dates are some 8 months before my cars consignment date, Assembly dates to my knowledge are around one month after casting.
   
   Also those dates on 6120-6122 are some 12-15 months before there consignment date.
   
   Chances are the engine should be a early 66 unit  but i would hate to actually find what i think i need only to discover 6118-6119  6121-6126 has an Original late 1965 unit..
   
   I thought COB6120 was converted to 427 spec
   

   Ford High Performance 289 engines of any model year were never more than a tiny fraction of Ford 289 engine production.  With exception of some known very rare odd circumstances production 289 engine blocks were drawn from running production as required, inspected, and if passed pressed into HP289 engine service in short order.  There are several "dates" associated in some way with engine blocks (or many other Ford parts). Ones related to engine blocks that some of us discuss are dates that revisions to specifications and or engineering numbers change, dates parts of those revision went into final assemblies, dates particular parts were cast, dates particular engine blocks  were machined, and the date a particular machined block was integrated into a new engine assembly. It is very common for dates on the engine block in a HP289 engine to be very close together.  Casting to machining might range from a few days to a few weeks normally. Machining dates and engine assembly dates could have been the same day, the next day, or slightly further apart but usually pretty close.
   
   Bob Mannel did extensive research on the 221/260/289/302 (non-Boss) engine family a long time ago when it was still possible to sample just about everything and sources within Ford Motor Company were still around to help. His book is the go to reference book for all those engines 1962-1969. I highly recommend it as a reference for anybody working with any of those engines.
   http://www.fordsmallblock.com/
   
   The best clue to what type HP289 engine your car received is the "Engine No.". That number might be listed in the original sales documentation. That number was normally stamped into the foot box data tag.  Possibilities are Ford serial number (most five bolt HP289 engine blocks), Shelby serial number (only a few unaccounted for Shelby works engine assembly serial numbers, FAV engine assembly number (only one known case), or six bolt style engines without serial numbers from Ford  (AC Cars normally adopted the engine assembly date as an engine number).

I don't know that this will help you but from what I have seen the "Engine No." on foot box tags for that series of cars usually the engine assembly date of the engine stamped on the block in front of the LH cylinder head. Because assembly dates were used for engine numbers I have notice more than one car using the same number. The only two I recorded were COB6120 using 6D13F and COX6122 using 6D12F. I recorded those two by chance. 6D12F and 6D13F are April 12 and April 13 1966.
   
   It might be a long shot but you might ask Bob Mannel what engine specifications were in use by Ford mid April 1966.
   
   Dan

I sent you an e-mail.
   Dan

Modern after-market replacement.

Bearings:
   Most bearings (plain, taper, or ball) are easy enough to get something for service at large industrial or power and motion type supply houses. I bought a bronze plain bearing (a.k.a. bush, bushing) for my steering pinion through McMaster-Carr Supply for example. If you know any manufacturer's number most places can cross reference it to a modern equivalent or better.  (Or better? I could not find anybody except one place in the UK that had exact same service steering pinion standard Conrad type ball bearing. The place I found had new old stock original maker bearings. Unfortunately he priced them so high he priced me out. I upgraded to a heavier duty rated SKF® bearing the same size for a fraction of the cost.)
   
   I never found exact replacement thrust bearings for road spring and suspension upright joints so I reverse engineered them and had some made. I went further and had some made plus and minus 0.005 and 0.010 inch so I could select fit.
   
   Spring eye bushes are standard ones reduced in length to match the spring eyes they are fit into. Having a plain bearing handbook on your desk makes finding replacements pretty easy.
   
   Once years ago I got every service part for a 427 Cobra suspension and drive line except the differential input cup and cone set and half shaft slip joint seals in one trip to the local industrial supply firm. The company I chose to do business with had to special order the Timken® brand differential input bearings from the UK for me.  I didn't ask for 427 Cobra parts, I took in the list of O.E.M. numbers I made as I dismantled the car.
   
   Brake Pads and hydraulic kits:
   Brake pads for cars after about CSX2188 are frequently on ebay® or at least they have been. I have purchased nos/nors AC Cars used versions and nos Shelby American versions at very reasonable costs. I can't tell you about pads for earlier chassis because I have never hunted any for them. Porterfield in the USA (believe that is the correct name) has or will make brake pads for just about any popular sports car.
   
   I have been getting hydraulic over haul kits where ever I could find them, including ebay® auctions.

I have collected and recorded public domain data by chassis numbers of what might be called Cobra "values" for decades.  For cars that were sold new as street vehicles some trends come and go. i.e. what trend or trends seem apparent for a couple of years might not keep going for five or more years.  A trend that has been on going for some time now is the range of prices or gap between modified cars and substantially as delivered cars is growing.  One can't just quote raw data because values are influenced by chassis ranges.  For whatever reasons sometimes CSX20xx chassis command more value,  and sometimes anything "rack and pinion" steering get more interest, and sometimes CSX2201 and later chassis seem to me more important to the market. COX and COB prefix chassis data points also affect raw data calculations. The trend over the last ten years has shown very original cars commanding substantial and growing premiums over the market average for buyers looking for originality.  The inverse is also true, i.e. the more modified he car the less interest there is in it by buyers wanting originality in particular.

CSX3173 was returned to its original color. It is a silvery blue. The SAAC Registry lists it as "1965 Lincoln Silver Mink".
   
   http://www.flickr.com/photos/sundudecan/7185098775/in/photostream/

quote:Originally posted by rstainer
   
This is an exceptionally desirable car.
   
   I hope to goodness it's not bought by some Euro go-faster buyer and given the standard ten-a-penny or so modern treatment (split boot, Le Mans fastback, GT40 intake, Webers, six-bolt 'J' block, 8.5" rears, Rose-jointed adjustable suspension, stripped-out interior, 80+ more bhp etc). Such rare cars ask to be preserved and deserve to be preserved, not bastardised.
   
   RS
   

   
   I agree.
   Dan

When I was trying to find and buy a Cobra (leaf spring car) in the mid 1970s into the start of the 1980s, the common U.S.A. use by various clubs and car dealers of MKI was for cars with worm and sector steering and MKII was rack and pinion cars. Somewhere in time common use changed to be associated with engine size.  The very first time I wanted to buy suspension and brake service parts after buying a Cobra the parts places (back then Bill Kemper and Cobra Restorers were the main parts by telephone or mail order places in the U.S.A.) needed your chassis number to insure that correct parts were sent.
   
   I am in no way a Ford GT (a.k.a. GT40) expert but the VIN tags images shown as examples in the latest SAAC Registry show chassis numbers with GT40P prefixes.  Refer to page 960. It shows a "FORD MOTOR COMPANY" chassis tag with a "GT40P" chassis number prefix, a "FORD ADVANCED VEHICLES LTD" tag with a "GT-40P" number prefix, and the "holman and moody inc." tag for a car they  modified that starts with a "GT 40 P" number prefix.  Unless the published SAAC information is false, Ford put "GT40" on the cars when new even if they did not advertise them that way.

Cobra use update. Since the original study years ago a couple of very low mile early Cobras (CSX2034 is one.) came into public inspection after decades of storage and they had brass guide pins.

A-Snake gave contact information for a supplier of the rubber bumpers in one of his posts above. I did the research, reverse engineering, commissioned the making of a mold, and the commission of a production run years ago. Several owners and a few shops joined in the get the quantity up enough that per part cost was not unbearable. At the time I wanted four new ones. After a long and frustrating search I just took care of recreating them myself.

The common usage is all manner of vehicles that look something like a Cobra AC Cars produced for pure street use (not with the racing wing modifications they did, Shelby's works did, or anybody else for that matter). The usage is comparing any car body shape from any maker at any time to a new in 1963-65 street Cobra; stock street Cobra shape to one with any kind of modified wings to cover larger than stock fitment wheels and tires.
   
   It was the modern look alike car fans that took the term into their main stream cross talk and continue to use and spread the term.  Most of the appellations used these days were created by individuals long after the cars were new.  A hypothetical conversation might start with something like this, '(insert the name of any builder involved) is getting set up to add slabside bodies to their production'. Another variation is something like; person one, '(I just got a quote on a car from (insert the name of one of several builders), person two, 'an FIA?' (another grossly misused term as used in modern times), person one, 'no a slabside'.
   
   In any case, no matter when the first person coined the term,  the term as used seems as inappropriate as calling any car with a fiber and resin composite chassis and or body 'a plastic pig', a car with an aluminum chassis and or body 'a beer can', or any car sold as components or owner fabricated a 'kit car'.
   
   
   Dan