Barn-find Cobra in Fort Lauderdale sale

[cobham cobra]

Interesting Cobra up for sale soon. What I don't understand is if you owned this car, why would you just park it up for the last 30 years ?
   http://www.classicdriver.com/uk/magazine/3500.asp?id=14916

[nikbj68]

There are more pictures on the AuctionsAmerica website.
   I`d guess it could be the old "I`ll get around to fixing that ...[insert problem here; seats, paint, notchy gearbox, clutch went, I lost the gearknob....whatever!]... but it`s gonna cost $500 to fix, the wife says get rid of the old heap, BUT, hell, I paid 2 thousand bucks for it, I ain`t scrappin` it...the ol` girl will be worth sumpthin` one day..." Story.
   Then the old boy died, and Ma wants it off of her damned porch for good...
   "IT`S WORTH HOW MUCH???"
   
   SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEIT.
   
   You have to read Tom Cotter`s "The Cobra in the Barn", which has dozens of similar stories, such as the Cobra that Lynn Park purchased in 2001 that had sat in the garage since 1967, because when the owner drove it in, he knocked of a silencer!!!

[ak1234]

These events actually take place I found 2 - 427 SOHC's sitting on an old building that was going under renovation .. the ower told me to get them out of here.
   
   If we could someday i could figure out how to post a pic i would.
   
   Ron

[rr64]

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.