Progress Thread The next "big" project for my Cobra - T-top conversion coming soon!

[LILCBRA]

One hint: keep the plastic cover in front of the battery to hide additional electrical installations. With cover engine bay looks much neater... at least to me.
Beside that: could you please measure roughly and make pictures of the brace between cowl and fenders and the brackets at the fenders?
At some point I would like to build/install something like that. I have never seen some original pieces live.

This cooling duct is cracked and missing a piece, but I've saved a few on Ebay since your last suggestion. I'll probably pull the trigger on one sometime in the relatively near future.

Speaking of Ebay and pulling the trigger - I couldn't help myself and pulled the trigger on one of these a couple weeks ago.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/137205892492?mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&siteid=0&campid=5335821607&customid=&toolid=10001&mkevt=1

It arrived on Saturday. Now I'll have some more garage art!

Here is the front and back on my queen bed for size reference.

There are a few different styles if you're interested.



As for the dash removal from the T top car - since I've slept on it, I think the wisest path would be to just cut the driver's floor pan out. Then I can stand on solid ground and probably have more clearance to see/reach bolts and such on that side of the car. Time will tell what the passenger side reveals, but that may get the same treatment. I figure if I cut it at the front torque box all the way back to the front leaf spring mount that I'd have plenty of space. I'll leave the rockers and transmission tunnel intact as those are the structural pieces to keep the car from folding....

 

[LILCBRA]

This should help.

 

[Blackhawkxx]

This cooling duct is cracked and missing a piece, but I've saved a few on Ebay since your last suggestion. I'll probably pull the trigger on one sometime in the relatively near future.

Are you sure you don't want to put the battery in the rear? It gets it away from all the heat and opens up more room. I've never regrated doing it. BTW- love the banner, do you think you will be able to get the creases out it?

 

[LILCBRA]

Are you sure you don't want to put the battery in the rear? It gets it away from all the heat and opens up more room. I've never regrated doing it. BTW- love the banner, do you think you will be able to get the creases out it?

I've thought about relocating it to the hatch area, just haven't committed to it.

As for the creases in the banner - I've not thought much about it. I'm wondering how the freshen function of my dryer would work or if I could just use a low heat setting for like 20-30 minutes.

 

[LILCBRA]

Tell you what - having no floor pan sure does make removing a stereo a breeze.

You know, if this still works it may just end up in my car. I mean why not? It's period correct....

 

[LILCBRA]

Not much got done before work tonight. Today is the first day that it's not rained in 8 days and the forecast calls for the rain to return for almost another week so I took the opportunity to get yardwork done. But I did get the tail lights and spoiler end caps pulled. The tail lights are both jacked up but I'm looking to take the outer lens on the driver side to replace the cracked lens in my car. Otherwise the only reason I pulled them both was to access the mounting studs of the spoiler end caps.

Hopefully I can get the dash pulled tomorrow. Then all that's really left is the T top skeleton and this car can go bye-bye!

 

[LILCBRA]

You know that yard work I did yesterday? And how, not too long ago, I said that my back was killing me? Yeah, I apparently overdid it yesterday, so I only got a little bit done before deciding to call it quits for the night. I pulled the passenger seat out (which is what prompted the idea to not go too far tonight...) and cut the floor out of this side. Not surprisingly it's just about as bad as the driver side.

You know, it wouldn't take much to cut this one in half now....

On another note, look what was still under the passenger seat. This might give an idea on how long this car's been sitting. Had to do a little internet searching to see what years this design was used, it appears to be somewhere around 96-98.

 

[DadLife0724]

That can is a blast from the past. Geez.

 

[LILCBRA]

Dash is out. The only real issue it gave was that the dome light wire didn't want to pull cleanly through the A pillar, but I was able to finagle it out of there.

And I found out that the steering column is indeed a tilt column! I was looking for a second lever aside from the turn signal lever - I didn't realize that the tilt was incorporated into it. So I pulled it and will try to eliminate the column shift stuff in some way or another and install it in my car too!



Here are the reasons I'm taking this dash. Mine has seen better days. I ended up breaking the area below the steering column when I reinstalled it in 2004-05, though I don't remember how it happened now. And my glove box door has always had this crack.

And here's a comparison between a II dash and a Fox dash. There was a discussion a while back about my AC dilemma and swapping a FOx dash was suggested. Now that they're side by side you can see that it wouldn't come close to working without some severe modifications.

 

[LILCBRA]

And about everything else that I wanted to get out of the car is out. Only things left are the passenger mirror, the console mounts, and some window trim bits, then the T top skeleton comes out. The passenger mirror will be decided once I make up my mind whether or not the doors are worth saving. Surprisingly they seem fairly solid given the state of the rest of the car. Their only real issue is that the speaker area was butchered which you can see in one of my previous pics. The passenger mirror screws aren't cooperating. One just spins, the other is stuck but under the front side of the mirror making it difficult to reach with my drill. I've been debating on whether or not I just want to cut the door around the mirror so I can work on freeing it up on the bench. Like I said, it seems fairly solid except for those speaker holes....

 

[DadLife0724]

I've been debating on whether or not I just want to cut the door around the mirror so I can work on freeing it up on the bench.

That makes sense to me. Little easier on the back too.

 

[Blackhawkxx]

Is the pedal assembly something you might want to keep? If there is any good metal that you may want to cut out to save for future repairs, it would be the correct thickness. Maybe I'm just cheap that way.

 

[IICrew]

What's the build date for the t top car? I've just noticed a few things slightly different on the t tops and trying to see which is which. My red t top car is different from my orange t top parts car. Red t top the trim is 3 pieces. The targa band feels and sounds like its stainless with vinyl roof material on top. The orange car has 1 piece trim. It's targa band is definitely painted fiberglass.

I currently think the 3 piece was done outside ford and the 1 piece was when they moved them in house.

 

[LILCBRA]

Is the pedal assembly something you might want to keep? If there is any good metal that you may want to cut out to save for future repairs, it would be the correct thickness. Maybe I'm just cheap that way.

I pulled the pedal assembly but already have a clutch in my car, so I'm not sure what I'll end up doing with it. I've rolled the idea around in my head of finding a good donor body and building another II - you know, like I need [another] project.... Aside from that, the quarters look like they've been reworked in the past but the area around the fuel filler is half rotted away. I've toyed with the idea of cutting some steel out of the flatter sections to have some material on hand for patch work, specifically in my floor pans, for the simple fact that they would be similar thicknesses.

What's the build date for the t top car? I've just noticed a few things slightly different on the t tops and trying to see which is which. My red t top car is different from my orange t top parts car. Red t top the trim is 3 pieces. The targa band feels and sounds like its stainless with vinyl roof material on top. The orange car has 1 piece trim. It's targa band is definitely painted fiberglass.

I currently think the 3 piece was done outside ford and the 1 piece was when they moved them in house.

I'm not sure on the exact build date, but it's unit number is 157602. My car is 197219 and was produced in April of 78, so it stands to reason that this one was probably late 77/early 78. The targa band has 2 trim pieces with a vinyl covered fiberglass piece that runs between them. The little research I've done said that that's how they were done but I have no idea if that was for both the outsourced and Ford built cars or if it was just one or the other.

 

[LILCBRA]

Dash is out. The only real issue it gave was that the dome light wire didn't want to pull cleanly through the A pillar, but I was able to finagle it out of there.

And I found out that the steering column is indeed a tilt column! I was looking for a second lever aside from the turn signal lever - I didn't realize that the tilt was incorporated into it. So I pulled it and will try to eliminate the column shift stuff in some way or another and install it in my car too!



Here are the reasons I'm taking this dash. Mine has seen better days. I ended up breaking the area below the steering column when I reinstalled it in 2004-05, though I don't remember how it happened now. And my glove box door has always had this crack.

And here's a comparison between a II dash and a Fox dash. There was a discussion a while back about my AC dilemma and swapping a FOx dash was suggested. Now that they're side by side you can see that it wouldn't come close to working without some severe modifications.

In fact, starting at post #264 is that discussion on swapping these dashes....
@Noobz347 @RaggedGT

Progress Thread Post in thread 'The next "big" project for my Cobra - T-top conversion coming soon!'

Nov 5, 2024

It's been a while since I've done anything really productive with either of the Mustangs.

Well, I did finish the fuel injection install on the Cobra but stalled because the water pump is leaking and I need to get the accessory drive ironed out, but that's going to have to be saved for another post....

BUT, I just bit the bullet and ordered a Marti report for both the Cobra and the GT. I'll share them when I get them, but I'm going to give this disclaimer RIGHT NOW - the Cobra isn't a real Cobra (as I'm sure most of you already know....) - it was a black Rallye package.

...

• LILCBRA

• 

 

[LILCBRA]

Spent the last 5 hours in the garage and finished pulling the rest of the trim before starting on the T top frame. I started by cutting all of the welds I could find. Then I reinforced the body just in case it decided it would try to fold in on me. I melted the front lead seams to be able to weld some 1x1 tube as high as possible yet give me some clearance to get at everything. I also melted the rear lead seam mostly to show anyone who may be interested in cutting a roof. I tried to get pics of everything while I was I working....

As you can see, I decided to cut the door to get the mirror off. I looked a little closer at both doors. This door has a rust hole about the size of a quarter in the front lower corner and the left door seams are starting to split, so they're not as solid as I initially thought.

If I had to do it over, I'd wait to weld the reinforcements or would have placed them a little lower. I had some problems around the tops of all 4 pillars that it would've been nice if I had more clearance to work on them.

Next I used a heat gun and chisel to scrape away some of the foam, then used a 3/16 drill and drilled 43 rivits.....

After all of that I stopped and contemplated my life's decisions and..... wait a minute, wrong audience.....

After all of that I took a serious look at all of this and wondered how in the hell this was actually installed. The best explanation I could come up with was that the framework was installed in 2 pieces, an upper and a lower. I can't see how it would've been installed in one shot. There's not enough clearance to move the frame fore or aft to be able to finagle it out in one piece as the frame essentially encapsulates the 4 pillars. So, I figure, the roof was cut using a template (which I've already made.... ), the channel was installed and spot welded in place, then the lower frame was rivited into the roof's framework while the channel was spot welded afterward - probably using a handheld resistance welder. Soooooo it looks like I'll be drilling a bunch of spot welds relatively soon. I suppose the good part is that I can drill from the top, that way the weatherstrip will hide any imperfections. Still doesn't mean I'm looking forward to it though....

 

[LILCBRA]

View: https://youtu.be/Epwns3FTgdY?si=H_8eZaJeA-NxVgpe


Skip to 26:45, he was able to get it out in one piece. But he does mention how he's not sure how he'll get it into his other car. Unfortunately he's not posted an update or anything about it in a couple years either. It should come out in one piece - but I think I'm just going to drill spot welds and pull it out in 2 pieces because I don't know how I'll get it installed in my car otherwise.

 

[DadLife0724]

24:02, I thought he died for a second there.

 

[LILCBRA]

Went out and scraped the foam to get a better look at the framework. I [think] they may have installed it all in 5 or 6 pieces. I'd guess that they used a template to cut the roof skin, placed the channels, then spot welded and riveted the supporting framework last. So I'll start locating all of the spot welds and drilling them out over the coming week....