Build Thread "Rising from Ashes" 94 Cobra build thread

95steedamustang

I tend to be on the ocd side…
SN Certified Technician
Apr 22, 2009
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East TN
I have been on a bunch of different forums over the years and have never done much posting, but my favorite threads have been progress threads. I figured I would try to post up my build thread and start with the car I finished in 2009. I worked on this car on and off for about six years until I finished it in the summer of 2009. I poured my heart and soul into the car doing everything myself. Here are the finished pictures taken summer 2009.
The started out as a wrecked 95 Cobra having been hit in the rear and driver's side.

1995SteedaCobra654.jpg


I smoothed the engine bay and built a 331 stroker motor. I spent numerous hours polishing every single piece on the motor.
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I also poured numerous hours into getting the paint nice and slick.
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Interior was originally tan but I changed it over to black
B8.jpg


Coil048.jpg


Spent just as much time on the undercarriage
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Tried to give some detail to the trunk as well
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I managed to put 50 miles on the car between summer 09 and October 2009. Then October 6th, 2009 my worst nightmare happened.
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So thats where this build thread starts. I will try to update this thread as often as I can. I am already well under way to building another car and will be posting quiet a bit until I get caught up to where I currently am.

Kevin
 
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HOLY......

Any car fan's worst nightmare. I second Venom351R, what started the fire?

Such a heartbreaking sight to see. I would be concerned about warped sheet metal and wondering if there really is enough there to base a rebuild off of. I won't question why, for my Cobra clone project wasn't exactly a "rational" decision either. I wish you all the luck in the world, and I'll be here waiting for updates on this sad story.
 
Thats what I want to know to is if this is still going to be the rebuild car or is something else going to be used b/c its hard to tell if that thing can even be saved or not
 
I really don't see him buying that back from the insurance company to start from, even if it is technically feasible (which I doubt). I feel even worse when I see all the other cool stuff he had in the garage :(
 
holy crap! That must have been unbearable. How did the fire start and what is the new project car going to be? That car was beautiful

The fire started in the garage wall. It was most likely a wiring issue with a two year old house but I never found out the exact cause, just where it started. The new project is a 94 Cobra, which learning from past mistakes is a nice solid car to begin with. The 95 I rebuilt was hammered in the rear when I got it, so I had to back half it to start with.

Both cars and house were a total loss. Insurance did not cover one cent on the cars. But I am re using some of my old car.

It was definitely heartbreaking but the important thing was no one was hurt or injured and we all made it out.
 
i think holy crap is an understatement!!


alot of time and hard work put into that sn95... was there much work done to the hatchback sitting next to it?

The Gt sitting beside it was an 88 that I had owned for 14 years. First car I rebuilt and repainted. This is the most recent pic I had if it before the fire. I got it when I was 17.
1988MustangGT419.jpg


This was the last pic of the Gt when we hauled it to the crusher.
Oldhouse69.jpg
 
Oh man that sucks. That car was absolutely beautiful. I had my first Mustang for 4 weeks and then the garage caught fire and I lost it. It sure didn't look anything like either of those cars, and my insurance covered it.

Kurt
 
Will there be an investigation into code issues on the house so you can go after the builder at least? Anything built to current ICC/NEC codes has less than 1/200,000 chance of a failure, let alone a full fire. It takes multiple systems to fail before a fire starts. The one thing that appears to have worked luckily was the rated firewall between the house and the garage which is required by code. Some of it still looks charred, so it's hard to tell from the pics though.
 
There was an investigation but they were unable to determine exact cause. Since it started inside the exterior garage wall, it was simply ruled accidental. I worked through my insurance company on it. The fire took out the garage then traveled up the wall to the attic and sent smoke and fire damage through the entire house making it a total loss.
 
Sounds like the fire we had. There was a brick wall blocking the fire from entering the house, but the smoke came up through the attic and ruined the house.

If it was wired anything like the houses in GA, then no investigation would be necessary. Down here, they tie Romex to a rat's tail, then light his ass on fire and he runs through the house wiring it. Another rat is sent to run the phone cables.

Kurt
 
Sounds like the fire we had. There was a brick wall blocking the fire from entering the house, but the smoke came up through the attic and ruined the house.

If it was wired anything like the houses in GA, then no investigation would be necessary. Down here, they tie Romex to a rat's tail, then light his ass on fire and he runs through the house wiring it. Another rat is sent to run the phone cables.

Kurt

Yep TN is pretty similar. But we're going to fix that the second time around. They were basically trying to determine accidental or not. After seeing what I lost, the investigation was short lived.
 
Ultimately, the fire wall is only supposed to give the building 'run time' in order to get everyone out safely.

We'll be cheering you on with the new one. Especially since we've seen what you're capable of :nice:
 
So fast forward one month to Nov. 2009, the replacement car arrived. Its actually a much better car than I started with having lived north of Atlanta its whole life. 94 Cobra #4344 came Black leather interior/ Black exterior. It was a two owner car 83,000 miles having only moved a mile between owners. No rust and one repaint. At some point, the hood flew back and got the front of the roof, resulting in the repaint. The seats had also been stolen, which is a plus for me because I never like the stock sn95 leather seats. The funny thing is they replace a hood that flew up with another cheap hood that was destined to fly as well. Here are pics two days after it arrived.

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