97 Cobra RestoTouRod

AvalancheSVT

10 Year Member
Jun 12, 2005
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I've been working on this thing for almost three years now so I figured maybe its time to share with you guys. Yesterday she made an admittedly unimpressive 320rwhp on the dyno but it was my target so that's a win for me. She's a 97 SVT Cobra crystal white, neglected, abused, repainted badly, and I got her as a rolling chassis and the drivetrain in a million pieces. Its basically a 99 cobra in a sn95 skin at this point.

She's still under construction but the running, driving, looking like a whole car milestone has been hit. Short story: everything you see (and don't see) is either new, rebuilt, or refinished.

Paint: Avalanche Grey single stage PPG. sanded down to bare metal complete color change from head to toe. POR15 coated interior
Body: too many mods to list https://www.thedouglasjones.com/cobra-restomod/the-work-body/
Engine: Teksid block, ARP everything bottom end, Boss302 rods, flat top pistons, C heads/cams, mach 1 intake plenum, JLT intake, JBA headers, custom sidepipe exhaust
Cooling: highly modified MMR cooling kit so you can fill it up with coolant without any special tools or drama. functional hood vents.
Drivetrain: ford racing clutch, aluminum driveshaft, 4.10 gears, completely rebuild and reinforced subframe for 99 cobra IRS
Suspension: every IRS part in the Maximum Motorsports catalog. Delrin bushings for all control arms, poly for the rest, bc racing coilovers, MM k member and control arms. 03 cobra staggard reps.
Electrical: lots of stuff relocated and deleted. Braille 21 battery
Emissions: LOL
Brakes: stock calipers refinished with some powerstop rotors, pads, and stainless braided lines.
Chassis: through the floor subframe connectors, seam welded engine bay and fenders/firewall in strategic locations
Interior: new carpet, seats, seatbelts, momo prototipo steering wheel, relocated door switches to center console.

I have some paint stuff to fix and the interior is the current situation getting sorted. The plan is either speedhut or a full digital cluster, custom console, simplify the door panels, and just make it a nice place to be.

Oh and the sideskirts aren't going back on, the hood was chosen on purpose, and so was the front bumper.


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well she runs great so now im just taming the beast. Finally built the sidepipes (I had some turndowns right at the pinch weld for a while). The rest of the exhaust is mild steel while these bits are stainless. I got a couple magnaflow straight through mufflers on the way to bring down the resonance a bit as well.

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I moved all the window and lock controls to the center console and the mirror control now sits in the dash.

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the switch harness uses deutsch connectors to make it easily removable
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Bravo man, that is a ton of work. I really dig the color choice. I'm just starting on a 2000 now. It wont be as in depth as your build, but basically anything outside of the long block that can be replaced or rebuilt is in process now.
 
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Thanks man. It has been a lot of work. I'm doing the interior now. At some point I want to have it professionally reupholstered but for now its just getting some duplicolor black so i can start really enjoying the car. I scored some GTS door panels the other day I'm refinishing and reinforcing.
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stereo finally installed, too.
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interior is pretty well sorted. rear seat delete is left then its more shakedown drives to work any bugs out.

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here's how i did the door window and lock wiring.

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its the largest braille they make so if you get in a pinch however you decide to mount it should be able to take something else. I built the frame for it to be very specific. hopefully it lasts a long time :D