The saving of a 1998 BAB Cobra

[mysteed]

Roughly a month ago I came across a thread in the Marketplace where a user wanted to sell their 1998 BAB Cobra or trade for a more user friendly DD. Realizing I had a snowballs hope in hell of actually obtaining the car using what funds I had in my bank account, I offered the gentlemen a trade for my 1998 GT. He was curious as to what mods were done to it so I gave him my laundry list of parts (Mark 8 motor, full suspension, new trans, etc) and after about a week of going back and forth via PM's a deal as stuck. He would be willing to trade his Cobra for my GT but I would have to drive to Houston, TX to pick it up and trailer the car back (about a 1,7xx mile round trip). Well around 3 weeks went by where I couldn't get out there or he had somethign scheduled. Finally both of us had a free weekend so on the Thrusday before the trip I loaded the GT on the trailer and was packed and ready to go.


Here are the pics I was sent of the car I was getting:

And here is my GT I was trading him:

Now follow along on my road trip!
*Sorry in advance for some of the cellphone pics.*
Loaded and ready to go!

Guy that passed me while in Louisiana:

No idea WTF this guy was thinking:

Texas!

I never knew these signs existed:

Oil!

BAB loaded and on the trailer:

Back in the home state!

Atlanta skyline:

Washed and tucked in a bay at my shop. Home at last.

More to come...
edit: To clairfy I believe that the owner was not aware of anything other than a few small issues with the car.

 

[tt54l32v]

What all is done to the BAB

 

[chaoticdismay]

What all is done to the BAB

built motor... and .... nathan can chime in and tell the specs/rest.

 

[mystical]

Congrats man, looked like an interesting trip!

Was that a MAC Catback on your GT?

 

[FordMustangLove]

Im confused, why would he trade a cobra for a gt.

 

[DaBigBone]

Im confused, why would he trade a cobra for a gt.

Thats what I was thinking...

More details?

 

[semperfimrn1]

nice pick up!

 

[Got-Cobra?]

I can not believe you towed both cars like that... :uh oh:

 

[chaoticdismay]

Im confused, why would he trade a cobra for a gt.

the other guy needed a reliable DD and since the "new" cobra motor had some issues (that nathan was able to sort out) he wanted to get rid of it. as stated in the OP, the "gt" has suspension work plus a 4v swap...

 

[twista]

Wow, i doubt that GT is a better DD than the snake. Hell both cars suck as DD if you ask me. A lowered mustang= hell as DD.

Grats on the snake though.. you got really really lucky lol.

Really!

 

[NateV8]

^ Those cars don't even look low at all. Even if they were crushed I would still DD either of them. A car being lower than stock doesn't make it non-driveable IMO.

 

[a1yola]

definitely a nice pick up! That BAB is WAY cooler than the swapped GT!

 

[mysteed]

Now a lot of you may be wondering "why in the world would you trade a BAB Cobra for a silver GT?" Well I'll tell you why and that is because, according to the owner, the vehicle hit a guardrail at one point and did some damage to the left front fender, bumper, and hood and popped both airbags. On top of this I was told that it sat for months at one shop waiting on a tune then it bounced back and forth to shops trying to solve various engine issues. Thus the Cobra has been sitting for almost 2 years without being driven. In knowing this I was aware that I'd be spending money to get i back up and running but I had no idea just what I was getting myself into.


First off when we put the vehicle on the rack we noticed this:

The front core of the vehicle was just practically folded in half. Then we noticed that in where the bumper and fenders were scratched and chipped, there was a nice layer of red paint underneath. Apparently when someone "repaired" the Cobra they put on used parts. Upon further inspection we noticed that both sideskirts were the same way. Hmmm...odd indeed. So we washed the car AGAIN and got all the grime off the inside of the door jambs and trunks and there is a paint line as plain as day. So not only did they put on used parts they also repainted the entire car (and quite crappily I might add) except for the roof (which has a huge dent in it).

So the more I dig into this car the more I'm not liking what I see but I keep telling myself that atleast I have the means to fix it. Well when we checked all the lights we noticed that a bulb was out in the right rear taillamp. So I pulled it out only to find....that the bezels were originally red and someone used JB Weld to secure every one of the taillight sockets (and later I found they did the same thing to the headlight corner lights). Then I see staring me in the face is tons and tons of bondo in the rear quarter panel. So in my questioning nature I look behind the rear wheelwells and I find...more bondo! Yay!

So at this point I figure if it's one one side they they must have done the other rear quarter panel right (and right I was) but before I have a chance to check it I see there is a trailer harness just hanging from one of the rear brackets and all the mounting hardware for the trailer is still in the holes drilled in the rear bumper support. Discouraged about all that I've found I keep saying to myself that atleast the motor is running well...boy was I wrong.

At the time I picked up the Cobra the car would idle very rough, would want to die, and sometimes wouldn't start. When we looked under the hood we noticed that the idler near the tensioner was completely gone and the belt was near shredding. Thus the first thing I did under the hood was put a idler and a new belt on. Then the car would crank but not stay running. We checked for OBDII codes (even though the check engine light was not on) and we found TWELVE active codes. We ended up tracing downe most of those codes and replacing the alternator, TPS sensor, both coolant sensors, both coolant sensor connectors, the passengerside coil pack, all sparkplugs (they were gapped at .032 and dripping in fuel), both front 02 sensors (the aftermark Bosch ones on there had been extended improperly), rerouting the vac lines to the correct spots, adjusting the idle with the throttle stop. Then I got Justin at VMP Tuning to send me a tune to turn off a few things and tune for 93 octane.

Here's a shot of the motor as it sits now:

Well after all of that I still had a P01232 code coming up. The previous ower told me that he had a shop replace the fuel pump (which I verified when I found the original one in the trunk) and the fuel filter. So in my search I pulled the Fuse Pump Relay and it had 3 wires running to it instead 0f 4. Thus I thought well maybe AllData was wrong so I looked in Chiltons and searched online and every source said the relay had 4 wires not 3. So in thinking perhaps the wire had popped out accidentally I pulled out half the dash and harness on the passenger side and found nothing. While putting it all back I noticed that part of the harness looked newer than the rest of it. So I took a razorblade out and carefully cut the harness and this is what I saw:

Hello missing wire! I then plugged it back in the relay, cleared the codes, and volia the code went away. Problem solved! Thus with it atleast not kicking out codes I pulled the cluster to install the new LED bulbs I ordered for it and for the SVT tach decal and the bulb for the check engine light was gone! Shocking! The speedometer also had a broken odometer gear so that was replaced as well. Someone had also attempted to pull off the window tint but failed (or gave up) so I pulled off the rest fo it and cleaned the goo off. So I'm still waiting for the LED's to get here (hurry up USPS!) but here's a shot of the SVT tach decal (and note the miles):

With a majority of the problems solved (or so it seemed) I decided to take the car around the block for a test drive. BIG mistake. As soon as I took one turn I heard/felt a scraping noise in the rear and then with my heart in my stomach I put the car back inside the shop. When we were able to look at the car with the suspension loaded we noticed that the rearend looks offcenter to the left about an inch and that 3 bolts in the control arms were only hand tight (obviously not good). Thus we took all of the suspension bolts in the rear out and realigned the bolts/nuts to specs and torqued them to specs. We also noticed that at some point in time the rear swaybar (I assume it's a Steeda because of the color) broke and here is a picture of all that is left:

Now while we had the car in the air we fixed the leaking differential and filled with new fluid, filled the transmission with new fluid (it was dangerously low and had no gasket on the shifter), and replaced the rear transmission seal, rear rotors, rear pads, rear caliper hardware (there was only one clip left), front brake pads, resurfaced the front rotors, hooked up the front swaybar, installed a new the battery tray (original one was gone), painted the calipers red and left the Cobra lettering polished, painted the gas tank, painted the rear wheelwells, did and oil and filter change, and tightened the oil pan (three bolts were only hand tight and dripping oil). We also noticed while we were under there to hold the transmission crossmember up they used header bolts and cut the crossmember mount to fit the MM subframe connectors but then used 2 (very thin) mismatched bolts to hold the mount in place.

As of right now I'm still working on getting the car to idle perfectly as it will still die on occasion (and I have a Motorcraft IAC on it's way to me to fix that issue...hopefully) and I haven't even touched the "paintwork" and the interior yet. So for reading (or skimming) through all of this here are some pics of the Cobra as it sits today:

More to come as I continue on this mission.

 

[FordMustangLove]

dude that sucks so much, sorry to hear that

 

[FromGTtoSVT]

wow, props to you for putting up with that

I would have been unbelieveably pissed off at the previous owner for being so shady.

Are you pissed or upset at the guy?

 

[MountainDew]

holy shit, that sucks a ton. glad you're doing it right.

 

[RIO RED SNAKE]

^what he said? and i woulda been upset too but id do any thing for BABs!!!! love that color..think im gonna paint mine that color when it comes time...looks soo siick...congrats on the car tho, seems like you really know what you are doing..glad you are fixing it!! keep the pics coming..enjoying the thread

 

[mysteed]

built motor... and .... nathan can chime in and tell the specs/rest.

Mhm. Thanks Rico. :beer:

Congrats man, looked like an interesting trip!

Was that a MAC Catback on your GT?

Oh yeah, interesting to say the least. That was a MAC catback and boy did it sound good.

I can not believe you towed both cars like that... :uh oh:

We were about 1k lbs under the weight limit and got 16-20mpg towing there and back. Not too shabby at all.

Wow, i doubt that GT is a better DD than the snake. Hell both cars suck as DD if you ask me. A lowered mustang= hell as DD.

Grats on the snake though.. you got really really lucky lol.

Really!

Yeah, the GT was infinately a better DD.

definitely a nice pick up! That BAB is WAY cooler than the swapped GT!

Agreed.

dude that sucks so much, sorry to hear that

Yeah...it happens. Another cause of buyer/trader beware.

wow, props to you for putting up with that

I would have been unbelieveably pissed off at the previous owner for being so shady.

Are you pissed or upset at the guy?

Nope, he took it to shops for EVERYTHING so what's wrong has everything to do with them and nothing to do with the previous owner.

 

[thirtytwovalve]

MORE!

Lookin good, gunna keep it blue or change the color?

 

[Mudd92]

Wow....

Well, props and congrats to you for turning her fate around!