Erkenbrand
Active Member
I'm starting to dive into my 1980 Cobra. I've always loved Mustangs, and this is the first I've actually owned. I've helped restore a couple of 65s, and do some tinkering on Foxbodies, but just never pulled the trigger on my own. Then, a couple of months ago I came across this car and just had to jump on it.
The history as I've been told:
- It's a 1980 Cobra, and the guy I got it from bought it a bit over 20 years ago. The person he bought it from had been working on the car, and then somebody stole the turbo motor and he gave up.
- The new owner dropped in a motor from a '90 GT and set it up with a Holley 4bbl on top of a Ford intake manifold. He also added shorty headers, and really nice duals with an H pipe.
- He also used a 4spd from a mid-80s Mustang. Supposedly, the rear has a locker, but I haven't yet confirmed that.
- He had the car running and driving well, but never bothered to get the gauges to work. He was going to paint the car, so he pulled all of the trim; pulled all of the interior trim including dashpad and headliner; sanded the entire car down; painted the engine compartment, door jams * sills . . . and then stopped. After getting that far, he parked the car in the corner of his garage. And there it sat until I picked it up.
- In the years between he lost the headliner, dashpad, and fog lights, and all of the interior screws. But everything else is still there. Including the paint he was using. The car fires right up and runs really well.
Now . . .
- I've been over and under the car. It needs a lot to make it a really nice driver, but most of what it needs is just cleaning up. The harness under the hood is a mess. The harness in the dash is weirdly chopped up. For instance - it looks like everything but the blower and radio work. No idea why those don't.
- My plans:
- Replace all of the brakes. Small upgrade with the goal of getting on the road.
- Replace all of the shocks / struts.
- Get the interior put back together, and get the instrument cluster addressed. Probably pick up one of the complete panels from CJ or Rock Auto.
- Clean up under the hood. Bring it back to looking good, and remove about 3/4 of the crazy wiring. I'll also replace the distributor with one from Pertronix (probably) so I don't need the external ignition box. I'm not looking for insane performance. Just solid numbers and a clean presentation.
- Paint job. I might do that myself, but I'm not sure if I want to tackle that. I used to do it, but it's been several years since I had access to a paint booth, and I don't relish doing what it would take to get my shop in shape.
I'll keep posting my progress here. We'll see how it goes now that it's really nice and cold up here.
The history as I've been told:
- It's a 1980 Cobra, and the guy I got it from bought it a bit over 20 years ago. The person he bought it from had been working on the car, and then somebody stole the turbo motor and he gave up.
- The new owner dropped in a motor from a '90 GT and set it up with a Holley 4bbl on top of a Ford intake manifold. He also added shorty headers, and really nice duals with an H pipe.
- He also used a 4spd from a mid-80s Mustang. Supposedly, the rear has a locker, but I haven't yet confirmed that.
- He had the car running and driving well, but never bothered to get the gauges to work. He was going to paint the car, so he pulled all of the trim; pulled all of the interior trim including dashpad and headliner; sanded the entire car down; painted the engine compartment, door jams * sills . . . and then stopped. After getting that far, he parked the car in the corner of his garage. And there it sat until I picked it up.
- In the years between he lost the headliner, dashpad, and fog lights, and all of the interior screws. But everything else is still there. Including the paint he was using. The car fires right up and runs really well.
Now . . .
- I've been over and under the car. It needs a lot to make it a really nice driver, but most of what it needs is just cleaning up. The harness under the hood is a mess. The harness in the dash is weirdly chopped up. For instance - it looks like everything but the blower and radio work. No idea why those don't.
- My plans:
- Replace all of the brakes. Small upgrade with the goal of getting on the road.
- Replace all of the shocks / struts.
- Get the interior put back together, and get the instrument cluster addressed. Probably pick up one of the complete panels from CJ or Rock Auto.
- Clean up under the hood. Bring it back to looking good, and remove about 3/4 of the crazy wiring. I'll also replace the distributor with one from Pertronix (probably) so I don't need the external ignition box. I'm not looking for insane performance. Just solid numbers and a clean presentation.
- Paint job. I might do that myself, but I'm not sure if I want to tackle that. I used to do it, but it's been several years since I had access to a paint booth, and I don't relish doing what it would take to get my shop in shape.
I'll keep posting my progress here. We'll see how it goes now that it's really nice and cold up here.
