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Fox Chassis (Ford) community build anyone?


whale392

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That's cool Jason...sounds like what I am doing to start a model of my 1991 GT...using the Cobra upper body grafted to a GT Convert lower section and making the GT wing.

Mark Taylor....good looking out for the Foxes just in case someone had been thinking of doing one of the mentioned non-Foxes :unsure:.

riknight1972......I thank you very much for your enthusiasm, but I have to agree. While the SN95 cars (94-98) were still similar to the Fox underneath, they were major departures from the cars covered here.

Ok, got some more done on my 'vert, and a minor setback this morning when I got home from work. One of my cats had gotton a hold of my scratchbuilt power steering rack and used it as a chew toy! Well, time to build another one. This time I will scratchbuild the STEEDA bumpsteer kit (tie rod ends) the car has under it now instead of the stock pieces (he actually did me a favor, although it was a backhanded one!). Got the lower control arms seperated from my second rear end and shaped/drilled to look more realistic and be posable. Also got the rear diff cover from the second rear cut free, reshaped (to better simulate the 8.8" unit) and filled (I am making it into a Ford SVO unit-the aluminum girdle type with the preload bolts). Next up: upper control arms and the mounting ears on the diff case (and filling the open top of the diff) and the mounting brackets on the chassis for the U.C.As. Pics to come this weekend (I hope!).

Edited by whale392
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Not really sure how the 83-88 T birds fit into this build yet the SN-95s and New Edges do not ?? ;) the only similiarities the 83-88 Bird had was the fact it was "Based" on the Fox theres not a bit of Fox Style in that body design..... Well maybe the mirrors or door handles. the SN-95 Stangs are the Same way "Based from " I have never driven an 80s bird but I do drive a New Edge and I tell ya that car acts drives and rides just like my 82 True Fox. Even has the same quirky power window where ya bang the door when it gets stuck. So I kinda think myself if ya intend to allow 83-88 Birds ya should allow all Mustangs from 79-04. or banish both cars for not having fox style. Just my 2 cents

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Mike, the entire bottom of the car has to be changed over to GT versus Cobra pieces. Easiest way to do that is cut the Cobra body below the beltline, the GT convert body below the beltline, and graft the GT bottom to the cobra top. Also, the GT wing was never produced in 1/24th scale, but one can be made from scratch or by modifying a Saleen wing. Also, the grill opening has to be closed in to convert it from a Cobra to a GT (again, the GT vert that gave its' side moldings can donate its' nosecap. I'll see you at the meeting Thursday....I'll talk to you then about the finer points of bad paint, peeling clear, and dents on a Fox!

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Good question Rick, and not without merit or base. And Mr.Taylor does a wonderful job of explaining the reasons. Now, I agree that the 83-88 T-Birds are quite different, but most of the underpinnings and some interior will bolt back and forth between the Mustang. Now, before you raise the point that so will the 94-98 (in particular) Mustang underpinnings; take note that the FoxBirds shared the same crappy 4lug mini-me brakes and spindles (for the most part) that the rest of the Fox line did. Now take into account the 94-98 Mustangs; 5lug and finally some reasonable brakes. Now, we can look at the SVO Mustang as another special case. Body of a Mustang but underpinnings of the LincolnFox. And then we have the Lincoln in itself. 5lug, big calipers, and disc brakes all around. These too will bolt to the FoxStang and Capris (as well as most of the other Fox cars).

The 94-98 suspension geometry also changed (for the better I might add), and for the most part will bolt back into a true Fox (your arguement point). Valid I will agree, until you take into account the revised ball joint size, longer A-Arms (87-88 TurboCoupe TBird length), heavier struts, revised wheel bearing hub/steering arm axis, metric versus standard brake fittings..........the list can go on. While the SVO had similar suspension features (if you will), do we rule it not a Fox? It is a Fox Body as well as a modified Fox Chassis. Ford took what they learned from the SVO and the T-Bird TurboCoupes (and to a lesser extent the Lincoln MKVII LSC) and applied it to the 1994-98 Mustangs. 1999 saw even more changes come to the SN95 (now called the 'New Edge'). However, a lot of the parts will bolt back to the Fox. Even some of the S197 (2005-up) parts will still bolt back to a Fox; so would we let them in too?

As I said Rick, your points are very valid. But for the purposes of this build, we will consider true Foxes only, even though they can have a healthy dose of SN95, New Edge, and S197 thrown into them. ;)

Edited by whale392
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So, someone give me a quick rundown of what should be changed on a '93 Cobra from Monogram to make it a regular GT, besides the obvious engine & Wheels. I plan on building mine in distressed, high milage mode (faded / peeling clear coat, dents, maybe a different color panel here or there, interior well worn) & want to know what needs to be fixed ahead of time.

I am going to not use the cobra wing either, unless i paint it a different color.

Wing, rear bumper cover, side skirts, taillights, and grille.

The front valence (below the headlights) is the same between a 93 Cobra and GT, but the GT doesn't have a grille opening between the headlights, where the Cobra does. You could source the taillights, nose, and lower body stuff from one of the GT convertibles with a little bit of cutting and bodywork, but you'd be left without a wing. You could use the Saleen wing from the 89 'vert kit (also available in resin on eBay), or try to adapt one of the GT wings from the MPC/AMT 87/88 GT kit, but I don't know if the scale difference (24 vs 25) would give you any problems.

The only thing you'd have to change on the engine would be the upper intake (and maybe the lower intake if the kit parts are molded differently between the Cobra and GT kits), since the rest of the differences on the 1:1 aren't visible (heads, cam, rockers, throttle body).

The only interior difference I can think of is that Cobras didn't have cruise control, which wouldn't be noticeable in scale since they still have the same steering wheel. Also, all 93 Cobras were 5 speed cars, so if you want an automatic GT, obviously you'd have to use a different transmission, change your pedals, and source or scratchbuild a shifter.

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My only question...the '93 Cobra kits I have were all bought right when it came out. Did they eventually fix the intake? All of mine are identical to the '89+ Monogram "regular" 5.0 kit parts, dummied up with a Cobra plenum decal.

I thought they had, but I'm not 100% sure. I'll have to check tomorrow evening when I'm back at home.

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The differential can be made to resemble an 8.8" with some work.......no upper control arm detail. As far as the real Cobra is concerned, it also carried 4 wheel discs and the kit has absolutely NO brake detail. The Cobra intake (as was eluded to earlier) was never cast in 1/24th scale. The closest you MIGHT get is the first-gen Lightning kit, as at least the lower intake was Cobra-type (even though the Lightning was 5.8 and the Cobra was a 5.0). The 94-95 Mustang kits come close, but they are 1/25th scale........! Good catch on the taillights. I didn't mention the airbag wheel as it would have to be made for the Cobra, but the kit wheel is correct for pre-1990 GTs. The Cobra rear bumper isn't correct for either the Cobra OR the GT, and the Cobra kit exhaust is still GT turndown fair. Also, being that the rear is based off of the 1979 tooling, there is no rear sway bar. Again, you would have to bend up your own (7/8" diameter in real scale if I remember correctly). Cobras also had a thinner front sway bar than GTs (Cobra was 1" while GTs were 1.25" diameter). As to GT wheels, pre-1991 cars had the God-aweful turdbines....1991 and later cars got the Pony wheels (only available in kit form in the original issue 1992 GT convert).

I could go on as to how glaringly inaccurate the kit is from either the GT or the Cobra standpoints; but at least we do have a fair starting point to go from.

Edited by whale392
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The AMT kit is a more accurate starting point, but the level of detail (or lack thereof) is lacking to the Revell-O-Gram offering (the Cobra). Some of the AMT proportions are WAY off, and the chromed representations of front light dress and the cast-in Cheese-Grater taillights make it a little harder to get good detail on. The K-Member is horrid, the rear subframes hang down WAY too low, and the sideskirts are too far out from the body.

Edited by whale392
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Something not mentioned...

As for the Monogram /Revell Mustangs. It was mentioned that the steering wheel changed, for the air bag cars 90 +, but so did the steering column. So while the 93 Cobra includes the air bag steering wheel... None of the kits have the right steering column for an airbag car. You would need to make your own, or customize one to fit. wink.gif

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Hey, It's all good I made my points you made your counterpoints. We are at an understanding Life goes on as it should

Mike if your doing a well worn one you could use the "Cobra " parts to your advantage. Take a look in any mag you'll see a lot of the stuff from the Cobra body as aftermarket parts. I know a dude with a 92 GT that is pretending to be a cobra at this point lol Dunno if he's ever going to paint the new parts to match tho lol

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I have actually done the very thing you suggest Mark. It takes a little filing, cutting, slight shortening of the floorpan to make it fit right, but in the end combining the MPC body with either the Revell or AMT 94-95 chassis pan yields a very good looking and far more accurate model. Now, the slab-side lack-of-detail interior panels are another story!! (but they too can be made nice with some scratchbuilding)

Rick; no harm was meant in my reply and I hope you didn't take any offence to it. Maybe when the Fox build is done, we could do an SN95-New Edge build! :wub:

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Has anyone done a tube K-member/tube A-arms (UPR style) yet? How about aftermarket rear control arms or a coilover conversion? I've played around with a K-member for the AMT '87 but haven't gotten too far. Hadn't decided what to use for A-arms - make them or swipe them from something else.

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Quick update:

Got the donor body, for the coupe. I now have the engine bay and rear bumper roughed in. I had to primer the body, as I was begining to go cross eyed staring at the sea of white...

103_0616.jpg

103_0620.jpg

It would appear I still have a little work to do on the front bumper...

103_0613.jpg

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Re: the Cobra intake- You're all right, it's just the standard 5.0 HO intake. Guess I wasn't paying too much attention. There's a good looking Cobra-ish intake in the 98 Saleen kit, you just have to sand off the Saleen lettering... ...but it's 1/25. The intake in the AMT 95 Cobra is the wrong style (and also 1/25), with the kink in the tract so that the throttle body points toward the headlight instead of directly to the side. The GT-40 intake in the AMT 94 Lightning is fair at best, would require the Lightning lettering to be sanded off, and is also 1/25.

I need to figure out what I'm going to build for this thread. I have some progress made on the MPC 79 Cobra, but I've kinda lost motivation on it, and I've got plenty of other things to work on instead.

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Thanks for the birthday wish Matt!

Yes, the Saleen S281 Speedster kit has an excellent 1/25th scale representation of a Cobra-style intake.

Body looks good to me Jason. I will post pics of what little work I did on mine soon.

As far as I know, no one has done a tube K-Member yet; I have one in the works (Maximum Mootrsports unit), but that is a long way off.

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Thanks for the birthday wish Matt!

Your welcome, Bradley. By the way, I haven't forgot about the build, I've been busy working on my 1:1 Ford F350 lately, so haven't had much time to work on the T-Bird, but I hope to have some more progress on it soon.

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My builds, but not for this build...just thought I'd share my T-Bird Pro-Street and Mark VII LSC custom. The T-Bird is on the Mark VII chassis, and vis versa. I built the Mark VII to replicate a (I thik) Brad Leisure drawing, and then used the left over T-Bird body & Lincoln Pro Street chassis. Pictures were just quickly done to share here on a whim!

T-BirdMarkVII001.jpg

T-BirdMarkVII002.jpg

T-BirdMarkVII003.jpg

:blink:

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011.jpg, 012.jpg, 019-4.jpg, 020-4.jpg, 021-3.jpg

Getting some work done on the rear end. Took a spare unit and cut it up for the parts I would need to detail out the rear going into the build. Shaved the rear diff cover off the usable rear to make way for the modded cover from the spare rear, and got the Lower Control arms cut, shaped, and fit to the kit rear. Doesn't seem like a lot of work until you are deep into it wondering if you have gone mad (I do believe I have, but that is another story). So now I am test fitting the LCAs to the modified rear (opened up the LCA mounting brackets to fit the modded LCAs into). Yes, the back of the brackets will be closed back up and the shock mount made and installed.

023-3.jpg, 024-3.jpg, 025-3.jpg

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Working the interior for better wheel/tire fitment.

009.jpg, 010.jpg, 015-2.jpg

Got the car sitting better and the seats you see in the interior now are later GT seats that will be cut down into low-back buckets with the seat belt loops under the headrests.

Edited by whale392
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