King Cobra Build in Oregon

79PaceKar

Advanced Member
Jun 28, 2020
249
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Eugene,, OR
Larry here from Oregon. I have started a new thread, as least I think I have for my King Cobra build here in Oregon. Update for new readers, or is the correct verbiage Threadies?? Bought car in Washington state and bright here to Oregon. I was working on my 79 Pace car but painted it a ruby red and HATE the color. Then this ii came up for sale from a buddy in Washington. Wife told him to select a car to sleep in or get rid of at least one.......been there myself. So I bought it. As shown it is all black with 302 and OEM interior. Car is very straight. To he honest, it is impressively straight of a car this experienced..... Clear is coming off. Pulled engine and transmission. Engine is a resent rebuild. I have a professionally rebuilt T-5 to install. Will be painting Ford Triple Yellow. Using urethane paint and clear. Never been to painting school, self taught but my mentor said painting over the OEM paint that does not show metal is the way to go. Installing Edelbrock heads and MSD ignition. When I owned an LED brake light business I designed a dash insert that would replace gauges with either VDO or Autometer gauges. I like the rims but need to get them polished. Want raised white letter tires. Typing correction does not work. Photos attached. Engine is pulled, getting ready to start body work. More photos to follow.
 

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What is a good source for a 7inch master brake booster? These things are hard to get off......Pulled a muscle in my back laying upside down getting that last nut off........the one behind the clutch pedal.
 
I'm not sure where you could get one to be honest. It seems like I was able to pick up a new booster from a parts store when I went through my car ~20 years ago. I just pulled up the O'Reilly's website and it lists a price like they're available but says call store to order. :shrug:
 
Dorman will rebuild them for about $100. Check their website for details. Last year I bought 2 new ones from ebay for fairly cheap. I have not been able to find another one for the coupe though. Somewhere I read NAPA will send it to Dorman for you but I have not used them yet.
 
7 inch booster easy to find.
One that bolts up stock style much harder to find.
You can have yours rebuilt but the down time sucks.
 
Larry here from Oregon. I have started a new thread, as least I think I have for my King Cobra build here in Oregon. Update for new readers, or is the correct verbiage Threadies?? Bought car in Washington state and bright here to Oregon. I was working on my 79 Pace car but painted it a ruby red and HATE the color. Then this ii came up for sale from a buddy in Washington. Wife told him to select a car to sleep in or get rid of at least one.......been there myself. So I bought it. As shown it is all black with 302 and OEM interior. Car is very straight. To he honest, it is impressively straight of a car this experienced..... Clear is coming off. Pulled engine and transmission. Engine is a resent rebuild. I have a professionally rebuilt T-5 to install. Will be painting Ford Triple Yellow. Using urethane paint and clear. Never been to painting school, self taught but my mentor said painting over the OEM paint that does not show metal is the way to go. Installing Edelbrock heads and MSD ignition. When I owned an LED brake light business I designed a dash insert that would replace gauges with either VDO or Autometer gauges. I like the rims but need to get them polished. Want raised white letter tires. Typing correction does not work. Photos attached. Engine is pulled, getting ready to start body work. More photos to follow.
Have you checked the buck tag to be sure it's a King Cobra ?
 
It is not a true King Cobra. Hard to find one my wife would let me buy :) But this is more fun then getting one already done. New parts starting to arrive. Yellow tall valve covers arrived today. New wire harness tubing, tape and such arrived yesterday. My body kit parts due here Wednesday. Photos to follow. Hoping to have body painted in about 10 days. Done doing the engine compartment. Removing hatch Monday. Has some rust, but on the inside. Easier to repair on a stands. I will contact NAPA regarding having the booster rebuilt. Have lots of time. Cheers
 
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OOps forgot. Can anyone recommend a set of coil overs and tubular control arms? Thought a search would be easy but there are so many. Not building a race/drag car, just a nice show and good driver. Just ordered Edlebrock heads and CDO tach for my dash. Hard to find the one I wanted, so bought today just incase VDO does not make the cockpit tach anymore. Looked on their website but did not see it. Only the black cockpit gauge.
 
I initially purchased the speedway brand a arms. I returned them and picked up the heidt's. They are not cheap but are a much better made product vs the speedway brand which were not machined correctly at the threads for the ball joints. One hole was oval the other arm the ball joint would not tighten. The hole and threads were a little too big. Speedway was fairly easy to deal with though.

I stuck with stock v6 springs, cut 1/3 a coil and put on new shocks. I am not happy with the ride. At All. The ride height is fine it's the actual ride quality that sucks.

In hindsight I should have gone with adjustable coil overs but tried to save a few bucks. I think QA1 has coil overs for us. Although finding coil over capable lower control arms that retain the strut bar was double the cost for the arms iirc.
 
As I am new to the "coilover" world, what spring rating should I use for a show/weekend/not raining day? I looked up Viking's coilovers. Any words on these or other brands? As a side story, went looking at a 62 Falcon Ranchero today that was listed on craigs list. It had been sold. Then my wife got this "just one more car please, I promise".....She tested a 2002 Chrysler Prowler....It has 69K miles. Trans made a loud bang when shifting to 2nd and 3rd. Walked away. Thanks muchly
 
As I am new to the "coilover" world, what spring rating should I use for a show/weekend/not raining day? I looked up Viking's coilovers. Any words on these or other brands? As a side story, went looking at a 62 Falcon Ranchero today that was listed on craigs list. It had been sold. Then my wife got this "just one more car please, I promise".....She tested a 2002 Chrysler Prowler....It has 69K miles. Trans made a loud bang when shifting to 2nd and 3rd. Walked away. Thanks muchly
To bad on the Ranchero...they are cool !! Prowler...Ahhh..guess that was to bad...?
 
As I am new to the "coilover" world, what spring rating should I use for a show/weekend/not raining day? I looked up Viking's coilovers. Any words on these or other brands? As a side story, went looking at a 62 Falcon Ranchero today that was listed on craigs list. It had been sold. Then my wife got this "just one more car please, I promise".....She tested a 2002 Chrysler Prowler....It has 69K miles. Trans made a loud bang when shifting to 2nd and 3rd. Walked away. Thanks muchly
I think it was the old .net site, but there was a write up on spring rates somewhere. I don't remember what the stock spring rates were, but I remember someone using springs from an 80s T-bird with success. It was probably in that write-up. :shrug: I'll look around and see if I can find it, that could help you decide on what rate to go with. If I can't find it, I'm sure there is something somewhere which could help....
 
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Here is that article. It was either shared on the .org site or it was copied/pasted and saved. In any event, here's some pretty good info:


Or here's QA1's site on how to calculate spring rates. There's a section specifically on the MII front end at the bottom of the page:


OR..... if you want to get more technical and specific, here is Ridetech's calculator:

 
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I went another route: keep as much as possible from the stock suspension.
Here are more or less the details, where my setup comes from:
https://www.motortrend.com/features/0604phr-1976-ford-mustang-ii/
https://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/threads/congrats-to-alcino.610410/#post-5977686
https://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/threads/lets-talk-suspension.779287/#post-7850169

I have currently:
PU bushings at the leaf spring shackles (rubber at the front eye leaf spring bushing)
PU bushings everywhere at the front (except strut rods, which are rubber replacments) with stock control arms
KYB GAS-A-JUST at the front and KYB Excel-G rear shock absorbers
I still have the stock/small sway bar at the front and no sway bar at the rear. Stock front springs and (I think) stock leaf springs.
Most important is the low tire ration of the 195/50R15 tires (which are actual 205 wide) and the aggressive front wheel alignment. Car has a lot of grip (with very good tires).

This is obviously more for cornering than drag racing. Next modification is the 1'' sway bar, but body roll isn't that bad at the moment as I thought.
PU bushings and "stiff" dampers make a stiffer ride without changing the spring rate.
If I want to upgrade the suspension (after the 1'' sway bar) I would start with adjustable shocks.

When I'm driving it feels like walking barefoot. Such a direct feedback from the road.

if coilovers are a must for you, forget what I wrote :)
 
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I went another route: keep as much as possible from the stock suspension.
Here are more or less the details, where my setup comes from:
https://www.motortrend.com/features/0604phr-1976-ford-mustang-ii/
https://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/threads/congrats-to-alcino.610410/#post-5977686
https://www.stangnet.com/mustang-forums/threads/lets-talk-suspension.779287/#post-7850169

I have currently:
PU bushings at the leaf spring shackles (rubber at the front eye leaf spring bushing)
PU bushings everywhere at the front (except strut rods, which are rubber replacments) with stock control arms
KYB GAS-A-JUST at the front and KYB Excel-G rear shock absorbers
I still have the stock/small sway bar at the front and no sway bar at the rear. Stock front springs and (I think) stock leaf springs.
Most important is the low tire ration of the 195/50R15 tires (which are actual 205 wide) and the aggressive front wheel alignment. Car has a lot of grip (with very good tires).

This is obviously more for cornering than drag racing. Next modification is the 1'' sway bar, but body roll isn't that bad at the moment as I thought.
PU bushings and "stiff" dampers make a stiffer ride without changing the spring rate.
If I want to upgrade the suspension (after the 1'' sway bar) I would start with adjustable shocks.

When I'm driving it feels like walking barefoot. Such a direct feedback from the road.

if coilovers are a must for you, forget what I wrote :)

My front end is similar too. I used polyurethane bushings everywhere up front, bought replacement front springs (I asked for 4 cylinder springs, but I don't think they sell different spring rates at the parts stores...) and cut about a coil from them before installation with standard issue Monroe shocks. It isn't a soft ride like it was stock. Obviously, looking at my car's set up, it's NOT built for cornering but it doesn't do too bad on the road even with the skinny tires on front. The rear is completely stock - rubber bushings everywhere, stock replacement springs, standard Monroe shocks, etc. The only thing different from stock is I replaced the spring plate with Southside Machine lift bars. Apparently they don't make them anymore, but here is a pic of what they are from another member here on Stangnet, @parthos

1628598454591.png


And a gratuitous pic of my car for reference. ;)

47549877321_69a94681f6_c.jpg
 
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WOW! Thank you muchly for all the information. I will be going with the QA1 rated at 1,850 front end weight. Springs at 650/700 according to the QA1 website. Will let you know. Expecting my King Cobra parts this week. Wife decided against the Prowler .....Wore out my rosier beads last night...
 
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