Agora 1/8 Scale 1965 Shelby Cobra SC

[MrObsessive]

I guess this car could be considered a "street car", but since it did have a racing pedigree, I figured I can put the thread here? Mods feel free to move this if this is incorrect.

I have to give a big shout out to @Brudda for turning me on to this car! I had no idea this kit even existed as I was looking for something totally different when I came across it.

Agora if you opt to do so and want to pay the extra cost, will send you the first four packs in one shot. This hood came as part of Pack 1 and while the finish was not bad (Guardsman Blue with Wimbledon White stripes), the clearcoating was a bit too orange peely to my eyes.

So out come the polishing cloths and soapy water...........rub out parts of the hood and polished it out with Meguiar's Car Cleaner Wax.

The wheels had to be assembled in sections. An inner and outer rim with the "spokes" being attached as a separate piece. The tread of the tires was too shiny for my tastes, so I scuffed up the tread with 220 grit sandpaper to give sort of an "on the road" look.

Assembling the disc brakes......

Neat knockoff spinners that attach with magnets due to the wheels being attached to the spindles with screws.

Disc brakes now attached......

This was a bit tricky. Agora sends the air cleaner filter as a flat piece of PE. You'd need something to bend the PE around to match the circumference of the air filter. Then you have to "trap" the filter between the upper and lower halves of the air cleaner.

It took several tries before I was able to get this to look right to my satisfaction.

On to the engine which was in the next pack. The exhaust headers attached to the heads along with the water pump assembly. I thought about toning down the chrome a bit, but I want this to go along as stress free as possible.  

Well, the stress free part became short lived when it came time to wire the engine. Agora suggested that you need not use any kind of glue when putting the wires into the distributor.

No.

I ended up having to "pin" some of the boots as the plastic ends broke on a few of them and drill holes into the dizzy to make them sit right. As I mentioned in the buildup of my 1/8 Shelby Mustang.....Just because these are "screw together" kits doesn't mean they're for the novice.

There are some things that will require you use some advanced modeling skills to get some things to turn out correctly.

Here's the finished engine so far.........Some other items to be attached further along in the build.

Just to show you how BIG this thing is! That's my 1/25 scale Ford Cougar II.

In the next pack came time to build the frame. I thought at first they'd send the frame as one solid piece. Nope! You gotta build this up one section at a time.

Next steps involved getting the floor sections put in and then setting the engine in place. Not too much trouble here.

In the final pack for the time being, the left rear suspension is built. Parts were given to attach the disc brake, caliper and upper/lower control arms. Suspension is fully functional with swiveling arms and U-joints.

Agora sent me an email the other day letting me know that Pack 5 should be arriving at my doorstep within the week. I downloaded the instructions ahead of time and this pack involves getting the front suspension together, the rest of the rear end and getting it up on all four tires.

With other WIP's I have going on, I'll get this Pack together hopefully in the next couple weeks.

Thanks for lookin' in and stay tuned!

[Brudda]

22 minutes ago, MrObsessive said:

I guess this car could be considered a "street car", but since it did have a racing pedigree, I figured I can put the thread here? Mods feel free to move this if this is incorrect.

I have to give a big shout out to @Brudda for turning me on to this car! I had no idea this kit even existed as I was looking for something totally different when I came across it.

Agora if you opt to do so and want to pay the extra cost, will send you the first four packs in one shot. This hood came as part of Pack 1 and while the finish was not bad (Guardsman Blue with Wimbledon White stripes), the clearcoating was a bit too orange peely to my eyes.

So out come the polishing cloths and soapy water...........rub out parts of the hood and polished it out with Meguiar's Car Cleaner Wax.

The wheels had to be assembled in sections. An inner and outer rim with the "spokes" being attached as a separate piece. The tread of the tires was too shiny for my tastes, so I scuffed up the tread with 220 grit sandpaper to give sort of an "on the road" look.

Assembling the disc brakes......

Neat knockoff spinners that attach with magnets due to the wheels being attached to the spindles with screws.

Disc brakes now attached......

This was a bit tricky. Agora sends the air cleaner filter as a flat piece of PE. You'd need something to bend the PE around to match the circumference of the air filter. Then you have to "trap" the filter between the upper and lower halves of the air cleaner.

It took several tries before I was able to get this to look right to my satisfaction.

On to the engine which was in the next pack. The exhaust headers attached to the heads along with the water pump assembly. I thought about toning down the chrome a bit, but I want this to go along as stress free as possible.  

Well, the stress free part became short lived when it came time to wire the engine. Agora suggested that you need not use any kind of glue when putting the wires into the distributor.

No.

I ended up having to "pin" some of the boots as the plastic ends broke on a few of them and drill holes into the dizzy to make them sit right. As I mentioned in the buildup of my 1/8 Shelby Mustang.....Just because these are "screw together" kits doesn't mean they're for the novice.

There are some things that will require you use some advanced modeling skills to get some things to turn out correctly.

Here's the finished engine so far.........Some other items to be attached further along in the build.

Just to show you how BIG this thing is! That's my 1/25 scale Ford Cougar II.

In the next pack came time to build the frame. I thought at first they'd send the frame as one solid piece. Nope! You gotta build this up one section at a time.

Next steps involved getting the floor sections put in and then setting the engine in place. Not too much trouble here.

In the final pack for the time being, the left rear suspension is built. Parts were given to attach the disc brake, caliper and upper/lower control arms. Suspension is fully functional with swiveling arms and U-joints.

Agora sent me an email the other day letting me know that Pack 5 should be arriving at my doorstep within the week. I downloaded the instructions ahead of time and this pack involves getting the front suspension together, the rest of the rear end and getting it up on all four tires.

With other WIP's I have going on, I'll get this Pack together hopefully in the next couple weeks.

Thanks for lookin' in and stay tuned!

WOW Bill !!!! That’s impressive!!!!

[MrObsessive]

30 minutes ago, Brudda said:

WOW Bill !!!! That’s impressive!!!!

For anyone that's REALLY into Cobras, IMO this is one of those GOTTA HAVE IT kits! I was simply blown away the first minute I saw this on Agora's site and knew right then and there I wanted one.

I realized that I'm about halfway done with this already according to the schedule that Agora has me on. The last parts should get to me by October as far as the subscription is concerned. I hope there's no hangups like I've had with Eaglemoss. I've had nothing significant from them for that Mercedes 300 SL since June of last year. They've sent a few parts here and there since then, but they are waaaaay behind schedule and I'm about to give up on them.

Thanks for tuning in Bruce!

[Force]

The engine block looks a bit too clean and smooth to be correct, the ribs on the sides are not on any FE engine and there are nothing for the cross bolts for the three middle main caps either wich are on all 427's and some of the late 406's, the other FE engines doesn't have them.
I also wonder where they had thought of routing the oil lines to the oil filter from, there is nothing on the drivers side of the engine block where the filter and filter adapter usually goes on a FE engine.
There should be a squareish hump casted in there on the block side where the two main oil lines from the oil pump to the filter and back into the oil gallery comes out and the oil filter adapter mounts on that hump with four bolts, the filter usually mounts on that hanging straight down beside the block skirt and oil pan, if you want to use a remote filter there is another adapter for that with two oil lines going to the filter and back.
The kit is supposed to be a 1965 and that's the year the famous "side oiler" came but there is nothing of that showing on the engine block for that either and no fuel pump or fuel pump mount.

Well enough rambling, it looks to be a nice kit and easy to assemble.

Edited March 28, 2021 by Force

[cobraman]

I love what I am seeing.

[cobraman]

I am very interested in this kit. I do realize that it is a very large investment. I emailed them to inquire about buying the kit complete at one time. They responded that they do not yet have complete kits and are getting ready to ship out pack 7.  Silly perhaps but i am reluctant to do the subscription deal as if something were to happen where the parts stopped coming I would be stuck with a expensive partial built model.  The man assured me that the kit would be completed but,,,,,, things to happen. For the time being I will just enjoy watching this on come together.

[MrObsessive]

Oh I understand Ray! I'm sort of dealing with that with Eaglemoss right now. I can't seem to get past the rolling chassis of their Mercedes 300SL despite assurances that they're "getting on track".

It would be a bit before they offer this as a complete kit. I'd say maybe not till sometime next year after they get parts built up and the bulk of the subscriptions are on their way to being done. A while back I did pick up a complete kit...........LeGrand's 1976 VW Beetle convertible in 1/8. This will probably be the last of the big scale kits I get because they suck up soooo much space!

No pics or thread started for that one yet.......just getting going on it. If you've seen DeAgostini's version of the car, it's the same thing except it's done in a metallic Lime Green.

I'm not too worried about things getting held up with this company. I've heard only good things about them and no complaints about parts not showing up. October is not that far away considering so this won't be a long-dragged out parts gathering project.

Can't say the same for Eaglemoss though......... 🙄

Thanks for following along and yes, Pack Seven is soon to be on it's way as far as download instructions on the 'net with parts to follow.

 

[MrObsessive]

I got Pack 5 a couple weeks ago and just finished that pack just the other day. In this one they give you the right rear suspension parts which I now have on and the rear is fully independent.

The next step was getting the rear part of the passenger structure in place. Just a few screws to get this on the chassis.

This pack also included the rest of the tires and wheels and to complete the front suspension. Agora gives you solid steel pins to attach the suspension arms. While I was not paying attention when trying to get the shock absorber parts in place, lo and behold I ended up putting the wrong part in.

Thank goodness I have plenty of steel rods lying around as I was able to find something very close in diameter, took a hammer and placed the lower arm in a vice and I was able to knock the pin out of place and then reattach the correct part.

It once again reinforces why these kits are not necessarily for the novice. Someone new at this might not have had any idea how to get a set pin out of place once it's been pressed in. The knurling on the one side of the pin ensures that it stays in place and you need something of greater force to wack it loose in case you make a mistake.

All wheels and tires are now on and it's setting on all fours nicely now. As usual, I scuffed up the tread as there's no such thing as a shiny tread Cobra.

Note the "duct" that just ahead of the rear axle. I've not seen that on a Cobra before, but I'm sure it belongs there on this particular chassis.

I'll be glad when the tie rod parts get here in the not too distant future. When I pick this up the suspension really hangs down low letting the shock piston come out of its upper tube. The final stages of this pack has you putting on the inner fenders. A bit tricky as a couple of the screws were located behind the front axle centerline directly below the engine and was a bit difficult to reach to get those screwed in.

Pack 6 should be getting here before the end of the month. Taking a peek at the instructions I downloaded, the dash/gauges and some more of the interior is to be done. I'm about halfway through this already and it would be nice if they send the entire body for this in the next couple months.

We shall see...........

Thanks for tunin' in folks!

[Ralph Henderson]

quite amazing, Bill. I too am enjoying it, but it is WAY to rich for my wallet..

Still fun to watch though...

Thanks for the ride along...

[MrObsessive]

This is waaaay overdue for an update! I've had other things going on......chief of which was Eaglemoss's '55 Mercedes 300SL in 1/8 which I just finished up this morning. To make a long story short, I never started a thread on that one due to the real fact that getting parts from Eaglemoss was like pulling teeth.......and I know how much that hurts.

It was over a YEAR since I got anything significant from them, so one day a few months ago, I saw the entire kit on eBay from a seller in France. I went ahead and bought the kit from him, called Eaglemoss to cancel everything, and went to work on it. I've got a TON of pics of the whole build and down the road I'll start a separate thread on it......pitfalls and all.

Well, now that the Benz is out of the way, I can get my attention back to the Cobra. Last time I posted, I showed above the bare chassis of the kit. Since then, I do have the interior all built up.

This will be just a few pics in this update..............more to come as I have packs #9 through 11 ready to build. #11 was a nice surprise as you'll see below.

I have the dash done as well...............I'll show that one later on as the steering wheel has yet to be attached.

A few days ago, I got this nice little surprise on my porch-----this was part of pack #11.

I couldn't resist putting the body on the (not yet finished) chassis!

Sooooo..........I got my work cut out for me for the forseeable future! Pack #9 from what I can see has a bit of fiddly small bits to get sorted out. I can also see some effort to get the windshield frame "chromed" as they painted that in aluminum for whatever reason. I'll have to take some time to strip it and polish it up as it is solid metal.

I just downloaded the PDF instructions from Agora for the final pack #12. That should be here to my house any day, so I can get this one finished up and call 'er done. 👍

Thanks for tuning in to this quick update. More to come later on!

[MrObsessive]

On 3/29/2021 at 4:52 PM, cobraman said:

I am very interested in this kit. I do realize that it is a very large investment. I emailed them to inquire about buying the kit complete at one time. They responded that they do not yet have complete kits and are getting ready to ship out pack 7.  Silly perhaps but i am reluctant to do the subscription deal as if something were to happen where the parts stopped coming I would be stuck with a expensive partial built model.  The man assured me that the kit would be completed but,,,,,, things to happen. For the time being I will just enjoy watching this on come together.

Ray, I don't know if you're still interested, but there are full kits of this car coming very shortly.

If you check the link here, Agora has all the details.

[cobraman]

Thank you. I am still interested. Now I just need to convince myself to pull 1400 bucks out of the bank !

[Brudda]

Well Bill, a 427 cobra is arriving soon. Had to get one. Going to paint it red. No stripes. Black side pipes and black rollbar. Going to add detail also.. Since it is cold now, going to paint it in a real heated automotive spray booth. Cannot wait. Yours looks great!!!!

[MrObsessive]

Bruce, I think you'll really like how this goes together! Mine's all done.......just haven't had time to take some decent pics because it's so big. One thing to watch out for is the last step which was for me pack #12. Super-Duper fiddly, and there was some cursing involved to get thing to cooperate.

I didn't sink a lot of detail/changes into this. I like to use these larger scales as more of a stress reliever (almost) from the small super detailed stuff I do. Hopefully during next week when I'm off for Thanksgiving, I can get some "Under Glass" pics up of mine.

[Brudda]

On 11/19/2021 at 12:03 AM, MrObsessive said:

Bruce, I think you'll really like how this goes together! Mine's all done.......just haven't had time to take some decent pics because it's so big. One thing to watch out for is the last step which was for me pack #12. Super-Duper fiddly, and there was some cursing involved to get thing to cooperate.

I didn't sink a lot of detail/changes into this. I like to use these larger scales as more of a stress reliever (almost) from the small super detailed stuff I do. Hopefully during next week when I'm off for Thanksgiving, I can get some "Under Glass" pics up of mine.

Oh yes please more pics. Love your build.!!! Cannot wait for it to arrive.

[MrObsessive]

It's all now finished and posted in the "Under Glass" section fellas. Here's a sneak peak at 'er.........

[Brudda]

On 12/5/2021 at 7:45 AM, MrObsessive said:

It's all now finished and posted in the "Under Glass" section fellas. Here's a sneak peak at 'er.........

Hello Bill. Can you pm me? I can give you Marks home phone number and his e/mail address. But the best thing is to call. He just does not want it all over the internet. 

[Brudda]

13 minutes ago, Brudda said:

Hello Bill. Can you pm me? I can give you Marks home phone number and his e/mail address. But the best thing is to call. He just does not want it all over the internet. 

I am sorry as my daughter just helped me. I just sent you a pm.