Restoring a Unicorn - Nate's 2004 Competition Orange Cobra

Klaus

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What's up SVTP. It looks like I found my way into another terminator. Some of you may know I JUST sold my low mile Sonic Blue cobra that had a TON of stuff done to it. I thought I wanted something else. I looked into a c6Z06, GT350 and some other mustangs but at the end of the day, I felt like I had to have another Mystichrome terminator.

I was very close to pulling the trigger on a couple MC's, but they weren't exactly what I was looking for. I wanted something I could drive and not feel bad about racking up the mileage. Something I could mod the hell out of and enjoy doing it. At that point I expanded my search to include CO, DSG and MG.

A cobro (Thanks Tyler!!!) noticed a post on someone's SVTP WTB thread about a CO that needed some work in GA. I messaged the seller immediately and had a deal in place an hour after he had made that post.

The post basically said " I have a high mile Competition Orange Cobra. It has a build motor (with no paperwork) with a whipple and has a few small issues. Its been parked for a while and will need towed home. Asking 19K." So I'm thinking, this is the perfect car for me. Its semi-local, its orange, has high miles and mods.

I drove 3.5 hours to go check it out. It idled smoothly and sounded great. I just wanted to make sure that the body was good (two minor accidents on the carfax) and the motor was healthy. I planned to do a compression check while I was looking at it, but I accidently grabbed my leak down tester....... So there is risk involved with this purchase. I paid to have the car transported and I took delivery last night around 8pm.

That's how I got my hands on a 1 of 281 2004 Competition Orange Cobra. Here is the rundown that I've been able to see on the car so far.

124k miles
Built motor (unknown specs or condition, pending leak down test)
2.3 whipple
JLT RAI
Accufab TB
3.2 RR pulley
Moroso Coolant tank
Combination of Billetflow and some other random idlers
Metco lower pulley kit, looks like a stock size ring
Lethal budget return? Reuses stock rails with attached regulator and has a -6 return line.
Black injectors, assuming 80s
Maximum Motorsport Tubular K member and arms. Coil overs
Steeda CC Plates
Power coated Timing cover and valve covers
Mac Headers
Mac catted prochamer
Magnaflow cat back
17x9 and 17x10.5 satin wheels. MT street comp tires 275/315
Rear springs are blue, Maybe Steeda?
Innovate Wideband
Boost gauge

At first glance this may turn out to be an extremely good deal for me. It really depends on the health of the rebuilt motor. The paint is in surprisingly good shape for a car that has 124k miles. There is a long list of things that need to be done. Once I have the results of the leak down I'll develop a plan.

I found a bill of sale from some owners of the car circa 2013-2014, so I'm hoping to get some info from them. I believe one of those owners are responsible for the engine rebuild.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the car in the state I've received it in. I can't wait to compare before and after pictures once I bring this car back to life.

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Nice find! congrats.
 

Lstruck03

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This is the second well modded orange coupe for cheap I've seen sell in less than a month and I missed both dang it! Lol congrats on the pick up!
 

NateDogg

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Picked up some new TR6 plugs and gapped them at .028. Also grabbed some oil and a new filter.

I found the fuse for the fan blown. The previous owner mentioned that the AC clutch froze and that why he eventually parked it.

It would make sense to me that this fuse blew when that clutch seized. I’ll pick up some spares tomorrow so I can trouble shoot the fan issue.

Put the car on jack stands and was able to get a good look underneath. All in all, not too bad. Some goodies were found

-DB heads on both sides. Awesome

-ARP main cap side studs. Some verification that this motor is “built”

-the clutch is red. Don’t know if it’s RXT or RST

-MGW shifter

-stifflers trans crossmember

-poly motor mounts


I also received my first part that I ordered. Some XTS brake calipers. For this car I decided to go with the XTS set up to be budget minded and for a street driven car these did awesome on my sonic blue car before I swapped to Baer.

I’ll be running the FTBR 13inch rear set up as well.

I also found some not so good stuff. Oil leak all around the oil pan. I figured this was going to be the case.

The passenger side pinch weld is destroyed in two spots. I found this pretty crazy because the driver side I perfect.

No subframe connectors. So I’m going to order some from MM and I’ll pick up a solid steering shaft aswell.

With the car off the transmission seems to go into gear smoothly in all gears EXCEPT 4th and reverse.


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Venom351R

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That's awesome great pick up!! Glad to see you go this route and not with a GT350. They fall far behind the driving experience you get with the Cobra's
 

NateDogg

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The guy that found this car for me has been digging into the history of the car and I have ended up with a pretty rare car.

Turns out this cobra is one of the few CO cobras that was ordered with satin wheels. Estimated to be around 1 of 10. Pretty cool.

He also was able to track down a sales ad from 2004. He knows the guy that sold it at his dealership from back then.

Here are the pictures of the car in 2004 along with the marti report and the sales ad!!

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P49Y-CY

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^ very cool. i'll add that to the list. yeah, machined wheels a very rare "non-option" with co.

when i first saw your pics i thought it might have been one, but then i saw that your mod list showed the 10.5 aftermarket wheels.

when you find out the svt build #/date, post it up and i'll email you the updated spreadsheet
 

COOL COBRA

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If there ever was a CO car that deserves saving, it’s this one. Carry on!
I bet the paint chip areas could be airbrushed in, blended, vs spraying the entire panel. In vintage auto restorations it’s not frowned upon anyway.. it’s still looked at as an original paint car, just corrected.
 

NateDogg

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The fan was the issue for over heating. Replaced the bad OEM fan with a stock replacement and burped it for good measure. Considered doing the mark 8 upgrade but decided to do that another time.

Fan kicks on at 190 and was hovering around 182.

I have a cross over delete and new tanks on the way so when that gets here I’ll flush the entire system and refill with new antifreeze.

Also installed some MRT hood struts.

Next up: oil change and transmission stuff. I got a firewall adjuster, billet quadrant, bronze shifter cup bushing and some synchromesh.

Hopefully with some adjustability reverse is easier and we can start looking to getting the car tuned.

If I get out of this deal with a good motor and transmission I’ll be ecstatic.

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NateDogg

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Had some time to change the oil, transmission fluid and install the bronze shifter cup bushing I found out that I already had a clutch cable firewall adjuster and billet quadrant installed so I didn’t have to use the stuff I bought.

Took the car around the block for its maiden voyage and the transmission shifts smoothly. However, reverse still wants to pop out from time to time. Seems to be intermittent. Unfortunately it looks like I will have to replace the transmission.

So I have some decisions to make. The likely answer is a Magnum. I just know it’s going to escalate into “while I’m in there” type mods so it could get out of hand.

I may get it tuned first to make sure the motor holds up.

The front coil overs make some noise so I’ll also have to look into to that.

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NateDogg

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I was contemplating cams so I wanted to run a borescope to see what kind of pistons I had.

Of course I wanted to look at the one that was lower the rest and I found some evidence to show why. Cylinder wall is def scored a bit. I don’t see anything broken or excessive oil in the chamber though.

Here is a video. Sorry about the crappy quality as this was filmed with a cheapo unit from Amazon.

Any idea what that one part of the piston is super bright?

What do you guys think? Send it for now or just stop and plan the full rebuild?



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