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Okay, more from my collection. This AC script was purchased from someone that claimed it came from a European delivery Cobra that also got a more familar Cobra emblem transplant.
   
   
   

quote:Originally posted by A-Snake

    Photos of CSX2001 in the US by the first owner show two emblems.  

   
   In my search for original parts I meet lots of people that had hands on the cars back when they were the new sport's in town.  In discussing very early cars and emblems one person that has worked on Cobras since new on our east coast said the several early cars completed in Pennsylvania had dual emblems like CSX2001 did when the first owner took it home.
   
   Not everyone knows that not every Cobra was sent to California.
   
   
   For your amusement....
   
   This particular emblem is believed to have left AC installed on CSX2033. I purchased from a man that claimed that he removed it, put it in his tool box, and installed one of Shelby's emblems in its place during an early rework of the car. I have heard period accounts of these being on USA delivered cars that did not go through California until the large emblem (third one down) came out.
   
   
   
   
   This emblem was also claimed to have been removed from an early Cobra. In this case the man said he helped work on an early car that was stripped down and converted to racing. The emblem found its way into his tool box and all the wear visible is probably from sliding around in the tool box for decades.   My opinion, based on years of asking questions and examining old pictures, is these mainly found their way onto cars finished on our east coast by one of two early dealers.
   
   
   
   This one is a new old stock one from Shelby. This design is said to have been created to replace the one above. This what is now believed to be the second "production" version. It has a brushed satin chrome plated finish.  One of D. Friedman's images shows an earlier version with a radiused outer facing edge and very fine smooth chrome plating.  CSX2055 has ones like shown in Mr. Friedman's image.  Once service part supplies ran low subsequent parts went back to bright smooth chromium plating but lacked the rounded border like the one shown by Mr. Friedman.  I have come across two former Cobra owners with one each satin and bright service part that they bought from the SAI parts department a few years after the last leaf spring car was completed.  The parts department  seems to have just sent whatever they put hands one without checking to see if they match. The mismatch is why both former owners never installed them. My opinion here is that this design  set appeared mostly on early cars finished in California until the smaller round version below came out.
   
   
   
   
   
   This is a mint used emblem I came across in 1971. The man I got it from , a Corvette owner/racer, said he vandalized a new Cobra and kept the emblem as a trophy. This is the Peter Brock design.  The majority of U.S.A. delivery Cobra received this design and maybe some early 427 Cobras.
   
   
   
   
   This is new old stock emblem is a Ford supplied emblem, i.e. one for Ford's large suppliers tooled up for and produced in large quantities, that took the place of the one Peter Brock came up with.  This one is similar to the one above but different.  Most 427 Cobras got this version. The earliest documented existence of this part I can find is in 1966.
   

Here in Alabama U.S.A. (at least here at my residence) it is great that the cars in question are 'AC Cobras'.
   
   
   CSX2551 waiting for its engine to get reinstalled, note registration plate.
   
   

Great information Robin. Thanks.
   
   
   For Guardsman Blue Fans: Making comparison between any two cars painted by different people with different materials and different equipment is going to be frustrating. I have had my experience with the finish on one of my old cars long ago and while trying to help others figure out what went wrong.
   
   
   The base formula is more translucent than many and is high in the tiny flakes that give it the sparkle.  Everything can make or break your day. Make of gun, size of gun, type of gun (old 1960s style or modern high solids low solvent type), size orifices in the gun tip, type of paint, "speed" of your reducer, brand of paint, factory pack or mixed at a dealer's shop, air line pressure, Zhan cup viscosity, degree of agitation before and during painting, ambient conditions of temperature and humidity,  distance from work piece, angle to work piece, primer/sealer color, dried film thickness, so on and so forth.
   
   
   Case in point. A company in town here manufactured their version of a 427 Cobra "replica" in the 1990s. A customer wanted a Guardsman Blue car. One night after diner I took a frantic call from the shop owner. The car had just been painted minutes before and it came out SILVER with a tint of blue.  He wanted me to bring my color panel that I had matched to some Shelby American applied finish. I dug my panel out and head to his shop. The car was silver. We looked at the car, checked out the paint in the can, and checked out the specifications. Everything looked good except for a silver-blue car instead of blue.  I looked at his equipment and suggested that his gun tip and air pressure weren't appropriate. He wanted to know what to do. I said go home, get some sleep, and call the paint manufacturer in the morning. Tell them you need somebody to come see their paint booth and equipment.  I told the business owner that he need a technical representative from the paint company and not a salesman. My final advise, do whatever the manfacturer says exactly.  The paint company did send in somebody, they did make a set of recommedations, and the second time the car was painted FROM THE SAME BATCH OF PAINT(they bought enough for several cars) it was a fantastic looking blue car with sparkle.  The business had painted all kinds of cars, and painted several replicas with all kinds of finishes and never had trouble until they got to Guardsman Blue.
   
   
   My point, what final product looks like is extremely dependent on the way it was applied. Makes comparison between different cars/eras/countries less than satisfying usually.
   
   
   Dan

Three "blue" Cobras together a couple of weeks ago. Each restorer tried to match the original cars' finishes to 'original' colors. The Princess Blue car on the left was matched to the original paint left behind trim on another car. These are modern paints so they have a somewhat different appearance than 1960s lacquers.
   
   This more or less covers the spectrum. Offered here purely as color types without warrantee.
   
   
   
   
   
   In my AC Cars Ltd color chip set Princess Blue looks like their metallic silver that had a trace of color tint added to the mix. Inside lighting makes the chip appear silver. Out in the sun the tint shows.
   
   Dan

Lost and found are relative I guess. Some "finds" are not so much "lost" as just out of circulation.  A lot of the "barn find Cobras" of the last five years have been ones somebody worked on getting purchased for years.  The 'find' announcement wasn't so much a find announcement as a 'finally got it" announcement.  A friend of mine has known CSX2080 since it was new and actually had it stored at his place for a while decades ago.
   
   I know a real early Cobra that hasn't been out in maybe 15 years now, maybe longer. I have known the owner and the Cobra both since before he purchased the car in the 1980s. Years ago the hydraulics for the clutch failed. A combination of his extremely busy life as a business owner operator and difficulty finding anyone anywhere close to where he lives that he would trust with a Cobra  has led to the car sitting out of action. For a few years he would start it occasionally and exercise the brakes. Eventually the brake hydraulics failed so the car became completely static.  The owner is now getting to a point in life that he has some time and money he can spare but just a hydraulics work over won't be sufficient anymore. After all these years every bearing,  bushing, and seal  in the car needs to be at least cleaned and inspected.  I am also pestering him to put the original extremely rare HP260 Ford back in the car. Based on what I found when I serviced the mechanicals for CSX2551 I have recommend that every suspension piece be non-destructively tested (dye penetrate, magnetic particle,  x-ray inspections or combinations of all three) during the end to end mechanical service.  The work required now is more than a weekend or two.  If I can't pester the owner enough to get him to get the old car going then someday it will probably be a "barn find Cobra" for sale.

Your welcome.
   
   Dan

My response is not simple because how AC Cobras (leaf spring chassis) were outfitted was not simple.  (If you expand the discussion to 427 Cobras another variant would be included.)
   
   Part 1: There was not a single mirror design and or variant used on cars sent to America but several.  Just examining pictures published in new car road tests and by Shelby American's in house photographer of the period you will find at least three easy to spot different assemblies.  You will notice the type of mirror used on chassis seemed to be in batches with very early cars using one style, middle and late cars using one of at least two variants.  On later cars one variation in mirror assemblies was just painted versus plated glass clamps.  As far as I can tell all O.E. AC Cobra assemblies included the "LUCAS No. 104" stem.
   
   Part 2: I personally am not aware of an exact recreation of any of these O.E. mirror assembly designs.
   
   
   Part 3: New old stock mirrors of all varieties show up for sale occasionally.  Just to add more confusion, there were curved glass mirror assemblies and short mounting stem versions used in some other applications that people buy mistakenly thinking they are correct for a Cobra.
   
   Dan

quote:Originally posted by TLegate
   
Ah, the yeti of the Cobra world!! So who committed that cardinal sin? A slush-o-matic indeed (he said, praying it ain't your car :-) I assume it was thrown out.

   
   I drove CSX2580, another of the few original factory installed Ford C4 automatic transmission Cobras (now believed to have been one of just 16 Cobras so equipped), about the time Jim et alii were on the tour in the mountains. I was in Washington (state). Sure was strange. I kept trying to push a clutch pedal that wasn't there. Not enough gears either; but the ones it had shifted quickly!

I have never noticed just a stem for sale anywhere but occassionaly whole mirror assemblies show up on one of the ebay® sites.
   
   Dan

Update. I was given a lead that Cobra Restorers in Kennesaw Georgia USA carried replacement knobs so I contacted them. They offer a replacement knob under part number CP1349 and emblems separately under number CP1349-A. I just ordered two of the replacement emblems to get a close look at them and see if they will fit into original knobs.
   
   Dan

quote:Originally posted by AC Ace Bristol
   
Nik & Jay
   
   
   Cobra wheels were 15 inch by 6 inch (72 Spoke triple laced )
   
   Keith
   
   

   
   I think you will find that early 15X5.5 inch wire wheels fitted to Cobras are 72 spoke and that the subsequent 15X6 inch wheels for Cobras are 70 spoke. I don't know much about the 5.5 inch wheels but the original 6 inch wide wheels have unique model numbers stamped into them. I know of two models, one painted and one chrome plated with the outer rim slightly different on the plated model.  Years ago I purchased the painted wire wheels from a late coil spring (think AC 289 Sports) chassis made circa 1970-71 I believe. The wheels looked like the originals on my Cobra but when I got them the offset was slightly different and they had a different model number stamped into them. Once I found they were not an exact match I sold them cheap.
   
   In the USA now you will find very many Cobras fitted with some type wire wheel other than their originals. With after-market replacement wheels having been available for decades by several makers here in the USA any purchase of "old" wheels needs some investigation work done first. It is no fun to pay top dollar for 'original' wheels just to find out later you have purchased a set of used after-market wheels for more than they still sell for new. Oops.
   
   Case in point. I located the wire wheels that were on my red Cobra at the time the previous owner bought the car. He converted the car to pin drive and installed early six spoke magnesium Halibrand wheels from the spares collection of one of the cut back door special competition roadsters in the mid 1980s. I would like to be able to go back to painted wires at some point in the future so I tracked down the wheels that were on the car when I first rode in it in the 1980s. Surprise, of the five wheels just two are genuine Cobra issue ones. The current custodian of the five wheels will sell them but he wants top dollar because they are 'genuine' Cobra wheels, at least from his point of view. I have not purchased them. It is bad enough to pay top dollar for correct wire wheels and then send them off for expensive inspection and rebuild if necessary. To buy five and junk three is just beyond my sensibilities so far.
   
   Dan

Are different models of cars built in different time frames with different specifications being discussed together?
   
   I have looked at very few AC roadsters built prior to the introduction of the Cobra but I have examined and studied vary many Cobras and 427 Cobras since 1972 when I first noticed so many differences in construction between Cobra CSX2144 and Cobra CSX2465 just three blocks apart near my home back when they were just used sports cars to most of the world.
   
   Early U.S.A. delivery Cobras were fitted with windscreen washer systems marked as being Lucas, including glass fluid containers in a wire frame mounting bracket. The screen jets  found as new old stock today come in old Lucas packages.  A running change in U.S.A. delivery cars included the replacement of the Lucas brand reservoir and pump with Ford regular production parts with the remainder of the washer system parts staying as they were. Most U.S.A. delivery Cobras received one of a few versions of Ford pump and plastic bag reservoir used in the production time frame.
   
    Did Trico really manufacture the Lucas marketed parts? I don't know. Names on packages don't mean that company made what was in them. Sears, Roebuck, and Company (Sears) distributes many goods under their brand names here in the U.S.A. and yet they make nothing. Countless suppliers around the world make goods for them and put them in "Sears" packages.
   
   427 Cobras were done to different specifications than any of the U.S.A. delivery Cobras. The 427 Cobra received washer system reservoirs labeled as Trico brand and they used a much different screen jet assembly than that of the earlier Cobra .
   
   That is why I asked if this discussion is mixing different car types in different time frames into a single subject.
   Dan

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   Also note that there are more than one shade of blue and some are just "metallic" blue while others are "hammer tone" blue.
   
   Dan

Re: Style Used In USA Cobras/427 Cobras. The grease reservoir is at the screw cap end, i.e. to refill the cylinder you unscrew the cap and pull the pump toward the opposite end while filling the resulting cavity with grease. The actual pump is on the opposite end of the tube as the fitting adapter tip. When the cylinder is full the tube will extend its maximum and when empty most of the tube will be inside the cylinder. The pump is simple check valves and spring type manual pump. The whole pump slides along the length of the cylinder as grease is depleted. There is a large rubber ring seal around the pump that is supposed to keep grease from escaping out of the discharge end of the cylinder. The tube is not sealed where it rides in its bearing.
   
   To dismantle the main pieces, remove the fitting adapter tip (carefully the tube damages easily, all the ones but one that I have are aluminum), remove the screw cap, and push the tube into the cylinder until the pump on its other end comes out of the body.  It is not easy to dismantle the pump and tube assembly so should probably not be done unless it will not operate properly anyway.  It can be done but the assembly has a bearing/o-ring retainer that is captured in place by swaging the pump body housing extension over it. I has able to slowly open up the swage and get the rest of the assembly apart. I made my repairs and put it back together using a tiny jeweler's hammer to gently bend over the edge of the retainer housing to recreate the functional crimp of the original swage operation. On the other pumps I just used WD-40® lubricant to dissolve and wash out the old grease.
   
   Dan