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Welly '65 427 Cobra--Rite Aid Rescue


Snake45

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Got this one at Rite Aid last week, $10.00. Looked VERY good, excellent red paint, not much to do to it. Trimmed rear wheel rims; sanded tire treads; cut flash on edge of hood scoop opening; touched up white stripe on edge of hood scoop; painted sun visors (molded as part of clear windshield) black; Silver-Sharpied sun visor and wind wing brackets and the edges of the windshield; painted headlight stems white to lessen the googly-eye look. The side exhausts were chromed, and nicely too, but they had a seam I couldn't live with so I scraped that off, then stripped the chrome. I usually strip off chrome in minutes with household ammonia but this stuff was tough—after three hours soaking in it, only about a quarter of the chrome had come off, so I took the rest off with Easy-Off oven cleaner. Didn't have any good flat aluminum/steel paint so I just left them in bare black plastic. (I see now from the pics that I should have painted the inside of the hood scoop black. I'll take care of that soon. 

The roll bar looks like it might be too tall. While I had it apart, I removed the heat seals from the bottom of the roll bar tubes and opened up their holes in the interior floor so I can push it down lower. I diddled with the brace bar a little and was able to get the roll bar down very slightly, but to get it lower I'll have to cut the brace bar and remount it to the new geometery. I'll worry about that later if/when I confirm that it needs to go down more.

It sits a little high, especially in the front, but for $10 I can live with it. (And that might even be fixable.) BTW, the front and rear wheels and tires are different sizes, a nice touch. 

No Before pics this time. My changes, which only took a couple hours, are so small and subtle that they might not even show in pics.

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Here it is with the Monogram kit I built in the late '80s, which I think was the fourth model car I built after returning to cars after doing airplanes for more than 15 years. The Welly displays quite well next to the Monogram kit (which I spent a LOT of time building and painting), and I think they look good together. Thanks for looking and as always, comments welcome! B)

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Greetings,

Looking really nice both.  Another thing to seek out is the WIX oil/air filter promotion 1:24th Cobra which can go for very little online. When new there would be people trying to sell them for $80 at area shows, and I was almost tempted at that.  In particular, whoever tooled and designated finishes for the model  opted to color stain the exhaust dumps in a very accomplished fashion.  I grabbed one these for less than $30 if my memory of such is accurate, whereas if you can come up with an example for something close, do consider it.  If it tells you anything, my initial ambition was simply to steal the tires for an SCCA Trans Am road racing project, but then I just couldn't kill it without regret.  Thanks...

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Mike K./Swede70

Edited by swede70
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I agree with you Snake the Welly is an excellent value and you have added some nice touches.  You asked for comment so here goes,  I am surprised you did not use amber on the front turn signals lenses.  I agree with you the height of the roll bar seems too high.  I also agree with Swede70 that the WIX is a good value as well.

Here is a comparison of the diecasts that I had posted earlier.  L to R: Revell, Welly, WIX, Monogram (plastic)

5c35d135b6bad_Cobra_427_diecasts_0968sm.jpg.de2e9b37db54fec3ef737657add8cf9d.jpg

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3 hours ago, Gramps46 said:

You asked for comment so here goes,  I am surprised you did not use amber on the front turn signals lenses. 

To be honest I didn't research that, just assumed they'd be white in 1965. Easy enough to fix. Thanks for the heads-up! B)

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10 hours ago, vamach1 said:

Nice job Snake.  I was impressed with the Burago diecast but for $10 this looks like a steal.  The emblem decals/paint look nice too.

Thanks for the kind words. See, that's how you do it! B)

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59 minutes ago, randyc said:

Very nice.   I have looked at this one but I already have the Wix version which is like a high water mark for Cobras I think.   Comes out very nice.   

I've never seen a Wix but it looks nice from Swede's picx. I doubt I'll ever see one for $10 or anything close to it. The low price was the main reason I bought the Welly. As you can see I already have a Cobra on my shelf and didn't really NEED another one but I find it hard to walk away from a good-looking bargain. B)

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1 hour ago, Snake45 said:

I've never seen a Wix but it looks nice from Swede's picx. I doubt I'll ever see one for $10 or anything close to it. The low price was the main reason I bought the Welly. As you can see I already have a Cobra on my shelf and didn't really NEED another one but I find it hard to walk away from a good-looking bargain. B)

You had a Cobra and didn't need another one ?? :D  It looks pretty good for only 10 bucks. To my eye the side exhaust rides too low.

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2 hours ago, cobraman said:

You had a Cobra and didn't need another one ?? :D  It looks pretty good for only 10 bucks. To my eye the side exhaust rides too low.

I was wondering if you'd weigh in here. B):lol: I actually already have THREE Cobras on the shelf--the blue 427, the yellow "survivor" I built in 1966 (which you've seen), and a nice green AMT 260 I built in the early '90s and have never posted here. 

Eventually I want to do one in bare metal, if I can figure out how to get the effect I'm looking for. And then unless I get a Daytona Coupe somehow, I'll be pretty much Cobra-ed up. Hey, it's not like Cobras are '69 Camaros. B):lol:

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26 minutes ago, cobraman said:

What's a Camaro ?  :D

It's something you can build dozens of interesting, accurate, and historic variants of and never once have to resort to building a jacked-up 4X4 or phantom "Batmobile." :lol:

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3 hours ago, Snake45 said:

Eventually I want to do one in bare metal, if I can figure out how to get the effect I'm looking for. And then unless I get a Daytona Coupe somehow, I'll be pretty much Cobra-ed up. Hey, it's not like Cobras are '69 Camaros. B):lol:

Richard,

I wanted to do a bare metal Cobra as it would be coming down the assembly line. I took a Revell diecast and stripped it down to bare metal but it has not been buffed out yet.  Might be worth a try unless you want a shiny one like the bare metal Franklin Mint one JC posted, or you could spray a matt finish on it I suppose.

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2 hours ago, Gramps46 said:

Richard,

I wanted to do a bare metal Cobra as it would be coming down the assembly line. I took a Revell diecast and stripped it down to bare metal but it has not been buffed out yet.  Might be worth a try unless you want a shiny one like the bare metal Franklin Mint one JC posted, or you could spray a matt finish on it I suppose.

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Interesting. I'm looking for that "brushed," hand-sanded look. Got a couple different ideas on how to do it. B)

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33 minutes ago, cobraman said:

OK Snake you convinced me to build a 69 Camaro. Which kit would you suggest I buy. Thanks

The Revell snapper kit is quite nice and accurate, and won't bog you down with details or fiddly final assembly. If you LIKE details and fiddly final assembly, Any of the Revell '69 Camaro kits is fine. The Z/28 and Yenko seem to be easiest to find at the moment. 

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2 hours ago, Gramps46 said:

Richard,

I wanted to do a bare metal Cobra as it would be coming down the assembly line. I took a Revell diecast and stripped it down to bare metal but it has not been buffed out yet.  Might be worth a try unless you want a shiny one like the bare metal Franklin Mint one JC posted, or you could spray a matt finish on it I suppose.

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Great idea Gary.

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