looking good

just curious i remember you saying how many hours you have into this project - so what's the total now ?

Hi TT,

I guess that we are pushing the 3000 man hour mark right about now.

So....

50/hour x 3000 hours x the square root of my checking acount = ????

so in the end your looking at about 250 to 300 to duplicate

ps - i firmly believe it's worth every penny

Hi TT,

Actually, doing it the second time would require a bit less time. A lot of the time wasted on this project was spent reworking things that did not work out exactly the way we planned. Also, the engineering ate up a big chunk of time. I think (given the correct doner cars) we could duplicate this project, makeing all the changes that hindsight allows, for right around 200 to 225K.

Shall I put you down for two??? :-)

Also, at that price we might be able to incorporate a carbon fiber hood, deck lid, door skins and fenders. I have been working on this for a while. I have been developing a carbon fiber structural foam core laminate that should produce extremely light parts that are far more rigid than carbon fiber alone.

Fairly Certain i would end up in Divorse Court.

Well... Thats why you have to order two. :-)

Hi All,

Don't know if any of you have seen the "Wizards of Winter" video that has been circulating about the net lately, but it is pretty cool. We have loaded a version on the "amusing bits" page of our website. If you get the time you really should check it out.

OBTW, happy holidays to all. Hope that for x-mas you all get the Mustang upgrade you've been dreaming about all year. :-)

Hi All,

It's a new month and sit is starting off well.

At the website we have lots of new photos of the FINISHED paint on the shell.

WO HOO!!!!

Now we can start assembly in ernest.

Hi All,

AAAUUUUGGGHHH!!!!

Their coming tomorrow. Their Coming Tomorrow, THEIR COMING TOMORROW!!!!

The camera crew from V8TV is coming tomorrow to start shooting the car and WE ARE NOT READY. We have to clean up the shop, hang some banners, and a whole **&@$load of other things.

Can’t talk now. Gotta go. You will probably not hear from me until Monday. Have a nice weekend.

Oh BTW, we are currently looking for a body man. Go to the bottom of the websites home page for details.

By

Good luck, Bob. I hope everything works out for you. :thumbsup:

Cool, let us know how the V8TV stuff goes. :thumbsup:

Good Luck Bob!

Love how the project is going. Keep us posted when you can. :thumbsup:

The SN65...
 

We shot the SN65 today... what a friggin' awesome car. To see this thing in person is just a mind blower. We were extremely honored to have the opportunity to point our camera at the car.

Personally, I think one of the best attributes of this car is that it looks like it was built new on a Ford production line. The quaility is 1st rate. There is no visible structural transition between the '65 and the Cobra. Bob and Wayne are really doing an incredible job. The Cobra dash looks like it was made for the '65 shell, and the use of all the Ford systems makes the car even more unique. I could go on for days.

I'll keep the board posted on when the V8TV episode with this car airs.

- Kevin Oeste

Hi All,

Wayne and I have been pretty busy this week. We have been able to work on the car a little, but other maters have been putting demands on our time. :-(

Even so, Wayne has wet sanded and applied the final coat of clear to the doors.

I have been working on installing the interior. I have fit the lower rear interior panels. I cannot fit the upper vent panels until the outside vent assemblies are installed. I have wired up the door ajar switches (pretty cool, they work exactly as the 03 setup with the delay on the drivers side. When you open the drivers door the interior lights don't go off until you close the door, insert and turn the key). I have installed the new carpet and fit the seats (including wiring them up). It is interesting to note that the passenger side is different from the drivers side. This is something that I never really paid attention to. That being the case, I have to relocate the passenger side seat mounting bracket about one inch. This will move the seat a bit closer to the center console giving the passenger a bit more shoulder clearance on the door side. I have the headliner hung, but not glued yet and I have mounted the subwoofer.

Once Wayne gives me the go-a-head on mounting the doors, I will be able to assemble the door internals, locate the window/door lock switches and the speakers.

Tonight is the company X-mass party. I am looking forward to having a good time. As always, I hope the same for you and yours.

Catch ya'll l8r

Thanks for the update, Bob. :thumbsup:

Hi All,

Wayne made some decent headway on the sanding and buffing of the roof and pillars this weekend. He just has to do a little more buffing and hand glazing and these areas will be done.

I, on the other hand, did nothing exciting save watching the Bears lose to the Steelers. The game may have been disappointing, but it did give me some time to catch up on a few car periodicals. One of the things I noticed is that the fascination with huge diameter rims tucked up as far as possible under the fenders and quarters is still prevalent in the hobby. Fords, Chevys and Mopars alike are all getting the same treatment. This practice is starting to ware a little thin on me. The cars are starting to appear somewhat cartoonish in nature. Also, I do not consider rims over 17" in diameter to be suitable for performance applications. Should not form follow function?

We are currently planning on 17" rims for our project. Personally, I think that these look rather massive on this car and that bumping them up in size would take us away from our overall theme. Even so, people have been dropped me notes saying that the car deserves something a bit larger, say 19's in the front and 20's in the back.

As with everything else on this project, we are going to go counter to the current trend. Hopefully, this decision, as well as all the others we have made, will help bring the car together into a cohesive, fully functioning, reliable, enjoyable to drive, street performance package.

With that said, I have to get back to work. I just went over our check list and we still have a long row to hoe before we are done.

Catch ya'll l8r

I agree on the wheel combo. If you do it correctly 17" or even 18" rims will look very ncie.

The benifit of doing a staggered size rim and tire you can do an 18" with a 3.75" sidewall on the rear (25.5 tall) and a 17" 3.75" sidewall on the front (24.5 tall) and have a very nice balanced look.

I've seen the car in person and it really doens't matter what size tires you go with as long as you don't use 15's.

Bob:

I agree with your assessment on the 17" tires. 'Cartoonish' is one of the best descriptions I have heard for the extreme oversized rims with 1/2 inch of actual rubber to the road.

Love the project and thanks for the update. :thumbsup:

Bob, that car is the epitome of Pro- touring. Keep the 17's, or go with 18's. I wouldn't go any bigger than that.

Hi All,

Yesterday we went over our list and prioritized things. Wayne's main focus, as always, will remain on the remaining paint/bodywork. So, unfortunately for him, it will be more of the same. Sand and paint, sand and paint, sand and paint, sand and buff.

For me, it means all things mechanical. yesterday I modified the stamped aluminum sill plates to fit. There was some bending and cutting and some more bending. I will show you some photos when it is time to install them. Also, I had to prepare everything for the windows to go in. That meant that I had to alter (smack with a big MF'n hammer) the angle of the sun visor mounting brackets so that the 03 visors would sit parallel to the windshield opening. Wayne got me started, making sure that I understood the consequences if I missed my mark and hit the roof by accident.

This morning I need to install all the remaining windshield trim retaining clips . A relatively easy task once I locate and drill all the holes. I need to finish this, and get the headliner stretched, so that the glass guy can get the windshields installed.

So, by the end of the day, we should have the headliner and the front and rear glass installed (among a few smaller incidental items).

Catch ya'll l8r

Hi All,

New update at the website. Maybe today I can get the doors, along with most of the internals installed. :-)

Hi All,

Sorry I haven't been posting a lot lately. I have been so busy with the car, business, x-mass parties, etc... that it is tough to find time to sleep never the less anything else. :-)

Anyway... We have been making steady progress on SN65. Right now it is the doors that are consuming all our time. As I have stated before, it's the little things that bring me the greatest satisfaction. For example....

We wanted to use the door cylinder from the 03 Cobra. We wanted all the locks to function with the ignition key. Wayne went and modified the door to accept the 03 cylinder and I went about installing all the internal mechanisms. All was going well until we ran into a little snag. Unfortunately for us, the 03 cylinder does not function the same way as the 65. The 65 lock has only two positions. All the way down for lock and all the way up for unlock. The 03 lock has three positions. All the way down for lock and all the way up for unlock, but the lock always comes to rest in the center. The 03 cylinder is designed to function with a electrical relay while the 65 is designed to work mechanically. We stood around and scratched our heads for a while. We went home and slept on it. We came in and gave it some more thought, when we finally hit on a workable solution. Here is a photo of the installed linkage.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/05-12-20%20019.jpg

What we did was linked together two rods that would slide over each other until they hit a stop. This allows the 03 cylinder to function mechanically. What happens is you turn the key to lock the door and it pushes the lower stop down to lock the door. When you rotate the lock back to the center position to remove the key, the rods slide over each other leaving the door locked. When you rotate the key to unlock the door, it lifts the upper stop up to unlock the door and then the rods slide over each other leaving the door unlocked.

It is a rather simple mechanism, but I have to say that I am thrilled at the way it functions. Yes the guy's in the shop make fun of me. It is nothing that anyone will see or even notice for that matter. But every time that I use the key (which will be rarely if ever, seeing as the car has a remote lock and unlock function) it will bring a smile to my face.

Catch ya'll l8r

Hi All,

When we started this project, many of you thought we were whacked, loony, psycho, off our nut, certifiable, ready for the rubber room, etc…

Well, for those naysayer’s out there, take a look at this.

http://sn65.com/SN65%20chronological...er%2005-12.htm

Read the 12-24-05 update.

Hi All,

New update at the site.

Also, did anyone see the new Hot Rod mag. There is an article about the Ring bro's new car (the one that made it to the final five in the Good Guy's streat machine of the year comp).

Anyway....

They made a comment about wanting the car to look as if it were built in the factory....

Well, maybe that is what they wanted, but to me the car looks, pretty much, like your typical pro touring car. Don't get me wrong. The car is a killer car. I love some of the small details and the article is one of my favorites (I find myself picking up the mag just to re-read the article). I also have to give them props for dialing down the "bling" factor. I really like the look and feel of this car far better than their two previous attempts, but they are still following the basic "pro street" template.

Maybe someone should turn them on to this thread just to show them what a real "factory" custom looks like. :-)

I agree - very nice car

Hi All,

Yesterday we got a lot done in regard to assembling the doors, but we still have a way to go. There is only one thing that is holding us up right now. We need to find the material used to bond the stainless steel trim pieces to the drivers and passenger side glass. The material appears to be some type of fiber impregnated with some sort of rubberized material.

Any Clues???

Here are some photos of the wing window assembly and the door handles mounted to the car. You will note that we have left the door lock black with a silver center section. We were originally going to make it all silver, but decided that the black fit in well with the "black" exposed rubber trim around the door handles.

http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/06-01-11%20(1).jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/06-01-11%20(2).jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/06-01-11%20(6).jpg
http://sn65.com/images/SN65%20Images/06-01-11%20(8).jpg

With that said, I have a little announcement....

THE SN65 WILL BE ON V8TV TONIGHT!!!

If you have the Dish Network, it can be seen on the Men's Channel. The show should air on Wednesdays at 10:30 PM eastern, 9:30 PM Central and 8:30 PM Pacific time.

For those who are not fortunate to have access to the Dish Network, you will be able to get a copy of the show directly from V8TV sometime after the show airs.

Catch ya'll l8r

Hi All,

We have been moving along quite well. We have the fenders, hood and headlight buckets mounted. We have spent a lot of time re-aligning the doors, fenders hood, etc... to give us the most consistent gaps. We have all the door internals complete save the installation of the glass. The "glass guy" will be showing up on Saturday and spending the entire day installing the front and rear glass along with the trim.

Today we will be checking all the fluids and bleeding the breaks. We will also be rerouting the clutch cable and installing a new firewall adjuster and aluminum quadrant. The factory items don't give us the proper throughout adjustment on the CenterForce clutch. We will be installing the front valance and working up the front bumper mounting brackets.

After we get the bumpers installed and properly aligned, we will be sending them out to be re-chromed. The quality of the chrome on the re-pro items just sucks. There are all these tiny little pin pricks that reflect when the light hits them just so.

On another note, I talked with the powers that be at the Detroit Autoramma. They tell me that our project sounds interesting, but it probably will not be considered for the "Ridler" award. We figured as much, but the reason he gave me was a little surprising. The fellow said that it the award emphasizes "creativity, engineering and workmanship" He felt that our project might fall short on the "engineering" side. I believe that he really did not understand the scope of the project. He probably believes that we just cut two cars apart and welded them together. From his point of view, we really did not "create" or "engineer" anything. All we did was graft two cars together. Nothing that requires any engineering. It is not as if we designed the car from scratch....

I believe that this is the way the project comes across to those who are not aware of everything involved. Just like Kevin from V8TV. What he thought he was going to see and what he actually saw were two different things. People have seen way to many photos of cars where the actual car is nowhere near as nice as the photo. It always brings a smile to my face when people stop by the shop for a peek. everyone (so far) has been totally blown away. They may just be trying to be nice, but I prefer to believe that they are really taken by the project.

That said, for us to have any hope at the Autoramma we have to stop publishing photos of the car. The car actually looks like a car right now and they have rather firm requirements that the car not be published in its finished form.

So, what do you all think. Should I keep publishing the as built shots, or stop for the off hand possibility of Ridler consideration?

Catch ya'll l8r

Hey Bob, This is "Tony 96 Cobra" from SVTP. I figured your car would be over here too; if not I was going to link it..lol.

It's to late, in order to be considered for the Ridler you are not allowed to post pics of the car during it's construction. Since you've already done that just keep posting the pics.

Plus if you stop posting pics then people will stop coming to this thread. Even if people don't post they are at least looking at the car.

Hi S,

The rules are so vague. This is all it says and you can read it a hundred different ways.

1) The vehicle must make its first public showing at the Detroit Autorama. Showing the vehicle at any indoor or outdoor show or any part of the frame, engine or body will make it ineligible for contention.

2) Realizing that car owners and builders may need some form of exposure to develop interest or to gain sponsorship and give credit to suppliers and/or sponsors, magazine and video buildup coverage is allowed. No articles, video footage or stories with photos of the vehicle in finished form will be allowed until after the award has been presented, i.e. car cannot be painted or upholstered to be considered as finished.

In rule #2 it says that "...magazine and video buildup coverage is allowed". It also says that "No articles, video footage or stories with photos of the vehicle in finished form will be allowed..."

The question is, what is the finished form. Is it OK if you show a photo of the car totally assembled but unpainted. Is it OK to show a photo of the car totally painted but not completely assembled? Is it OK to show the exterior totally assembled but without the interior completed? What if everything was complete, but you did not have the bumperrs on. Is that OK?

I read the rule and, to me, it means that as long as the car is not 100% finished, it is OK to show photos.

The rule cannot possibly mean that no photos of any painted assemblies are allowed.

Thats a tuff one - i agree if you don't show the finished project to the Net then you should be okay. I have about 800 pictures of the build of the Grandmaster prior to it being unvailaled at Detroit. If you want to play it safe post all of your pics up till the completion and debut it at the show.

Your goal was to debut it at the show and i am certain that has not changed. If you play it safe and don't show the world the finished product then you could argue that you want to be considered.

this is my understanding unfortunatly.

Have you ever been to detroit Bob? In all honesty what you have done is very cool and most would never think to do anything like it. You have executed it very well, and should be proud of what you have built. But even if the car was allowed to be entered it isn't going to be anythng the judges will be interested in.......looking back at the last 5 cars that have one...they have all been 750k + purpose built street rods that have taken years to complete that are only designed for one thing to win the riddler! However it is your decision I do hope to see it at detroit but if it were mine i'm not sure I would sign it up as a riddler entry...

Hi T,

Thank you for the kind words.

I agree with your comment about "But even if the car was allowed to be entered it isn't going to be anythng the judges will be interested in" I have looked back over the winners over the past 25 years and custom street rods are king.

I really did not have any expectations as far as actually winning. But I have noticed that they do tend to select a car other than a street rod for the great 8. That would be my greatest achievment to date. For examples sake, the car that won the Good Guys street machine of the year was a Ridler finalist.

Also, I love custom street rods as much as the next guy, but honestly, isn't there a 60's 70's 80's 90's custom car built that has just as much "creativity, engineering and workmanship". As far as the Autoramma is concerned, only two cars (a pro street Grand Am and a custom Mercedies <sp>) were deserving of the award.

It is time for builders of our types of cars to push the envelope. Our cars are just as creative, just as complex and exhibit just quality worksmanship. Isn't part of "creativity" coming up with something different. Breaking new ground. Taking a different slant on old trends.

How about building a street rod that meets all of todays production requirements. If Detroit were produceing street rods today, what would they be like? If WWII never happened, what would the cars of the 50's been like. If the fuel crissis never happend, what would the cars of the 70's been like.

Regardless of cost, it is time for us to show that our cars can show just as "creativity, engineering and workmanship" as any 30's street rod.

Detroit did build a late model "street rod"...the Prowler. It didnt sell very well. I agree that muscle cars or sixties cars dont get any respect for the Riddler. If its not a street rod they dont get it. I think your car is a great out of the box example. I would love to see it in person someday. :thumbsup:

Hi S,

The Prowler. I had totally forgot about that car.

That is the perfect example.

Imagine if Dodge never built the Prowler. Imagine if, instead, that car were built by one of us. A car that incorporated all the functions and features of the Prowler and built in a way that simulated factory construction. A custom car that satisfies ALL of the current production car requirements. A custom car that in fact could actually be built on a production basis. Imagine taking it to the Autoramma making the great 8 and then taking the Ridler.

That would be something different. IMO that would be a car deserving of the Ridler.

Didn't Chip Foose build a street rod that was AWD here a few yrs back.. Looked similar to a Prowler red/silver if I remember correctly. Actually, I don't think it was Foose that built it. I don't remember..lol

Are you talking about Quadradeuce II ( I believe Quadraduece I was an AWD Roadster that was purple and yellow with yellow wheels). I believe it was built by Trepanier.

Hi All,

Today the glass goes in. I am really pumped. This is the last major item prior to installing the interior. Wish us luck.

Bob

PS: All this talk of the "Ridler" has been fun. But the Ridler is not something you actually enter, but something for which you are chosen. I hope that all the comments, both yea and nea, have given everybody food for thought. That maybe some of the comments here will inspire you to look at your car project a little differently than the current status quo. Be different, take chances. Just because everyone else does things in a certain way, does not mean that you have to.

I don't think so. I think this one was on the cover of Jegs or Summit at one time. I am pretty sure it was red/silver with billet wheels.. I may be mistaken. I will try to search for it.

i think the quadraduece was originally one of steilows projects, summit took it over and finished it in the purple and yellow paint scheme, rad rides refreshed the car a couple years ago, changing the 6 spd to an auto, adding billet wheels, and changing the paint to the 2 tone red/silver making it more "street rod" styled.