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AMT Shelby USRRC Cobra Update 5/23


torinobradley

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I tried to stop myself but I just couldn't let it sit until I finished other projects in progress (or not in progress)... I recieved a partial kit in a package deal and then bought one with a resin FIA body. When I received the Cobra with the resin body, I found the body to be 1/24th and the kit to be 1/25th so that was a no-go. Well, I threw them both into the same box (the partial kit and the doner kit without the 1/24th body) and let it sit. A week or so ago, I grabbed the kit because I was checking out some of the USRRC Cobras on the web and got the urge to mess with a kit. Before I knew it, I had the doors cut off and started on thinning them to scale.
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One of my peeves about this kit is how thin the motor appears. I know the SBF is a smaller motor but this little cobra kit has a 289 on a diet! So, I glued both motor halves to a thicker piece of plastic to give it some bulk.
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I noticed the oil pan did not match the racing ones utilized so I grabbed some exoxy putty and went to town on the kit supplied one.
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I also started doing some other work like smoothing the chassis, removing seam lines and filing these springs to look more presentable.
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I also started working on cleaning up the body. This is an older kit designed in the '60s and it shows its age in some places. I added the rear fender flares but have not added the fronts yet. I glued in a thin filler in the door spaces to create the door sills but decided not to cut it to minimize chassis flex. Here is the fender flares and the intial shaping. I'll let the putty cure a while longer then sand them to their final shape.
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Since I widened the engine, I would have to source a new intake manifold or modify the kit one. Comapring the kit and parts box units I had to the actual hardware on the 1:1, I decided to scratch one up as the available ones look downright tragic. I also grabbed a parts box water pump/front cover to replace the anemic kit supplied one though I did use the kit one as a spacer and timing cover. I have also sourced a thicker set of valve covers to replace the anemic ones from the kit. The intake and oil pan are not complete as they need details, flanges, water necks and such but you get the idea from the pictures of what they will eventually look like.
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I plan to use the Goodyear Blue Streaks with Parts Pack Halibrands and some white metal knock-offs I found. The rear wheels will be deepened. I have also cut the half-shafts off the rear end and replaced them with a pair out of a parts Vette. I don't plan to go total nuts on this kit, just want to make it look much better and maybe raise a few eyebrows.

Thanks for looking and please let me know if you see any mistakes I am making before they get too far... I done a lot of research but somethings are just hard to find reference for.

Edited by torinobradley
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Is that a microballoon slurry you're using for filler on the rear flares? Sure looks like it. Nice work.

You might want to look closely at the shape of the rear door cut-line on the 1:1 FIA where it clears the rear flare. It's kind of ugly (IMHO) and has a reverse curve in it...not as pretty as on yours and some of the other Cobra bodies where the curve is bulged towards the rear. The FIA has the curve bulged towards the front (to clear the flare).

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Thanks for the comments. The fender flares are modeled after the early cobras. They had the more angular flares and don't appear to affect the door.

The attached picture is the style I'm going for though not the actual car (unless I can find the decals for it). That would be a cool team to do with the Revell '56 Pickup and maybe the sprint car trailer?

Look at CSX 2127, 2128 and 2129 to see what I'm going for. Maybe they weren't FIAs? My car is supposed to be about the 1963 race type. I want to use the Black overall paint with yellow nose and fender stripes decals but will need to find a second set as the kit ones appear to be too thin. I have also began work on thinning the windshield frame. This is turning out to be a fun little project and allowing me to stretch my skills a bit.

Keep the comments coming.

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Edited by torinobradley
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CSX 2127 , 2128 , and 2129 raced the USRRC in 1963 and the FIA Cobras raced in 1964 . The one in your photo is CSX2128 after it was sold to Coventry Motors in Northern California .

That would make a great looking model ! Why don't you make your own decals ?

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I do like the coventry cobra and think that would be an awesome combination. I have found a site that does full size decals for the car so maybe I can use the picture to create some smaller ones. I will have to work on it. Though, I still like the black car with yellow stripes. I changed the title to say USRRC instead of FIA so I am being correct. Thanks for all the knowledge passed along from our viewers!

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The Revell 56' p/u is 1/25th and I don't think it will fit on the Midget trailer however the MPC Caprice comes with a two wheel car trailer that fits the bill perfectly. Also a lot of the rear fender flares were crudely put on and you can see in some photos that they are pretty rough but yours is very nice!!

Edited by bigphoto
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  • 1 month later...

I've had little leisure time as of late but snuck off and did a bit of work on this one. Since the last episode, I have done more work on the body, trying to fill the sink-holes and remove the mis-molded casting marks on the fender tops along with trying to get my rear fender flares to a more acceptable level. Initially, they looked very cool but were in fact, too large. So I am in the process of trimming them down. The major work, however, has been on the intake and exhaust system. I tried several times to heat bend some plastic tubing to create the side-pipes. I knew this would make or break the model so I wanted to ensure they were perfect. As anyone that has tried to bend plastic, it's pretty darn hard. After several tries and several tubes, I needed a better way. The aluminum would kink, brass was just too hard and I was running out of options. So I tried solid rod and pow. I had it. Then, I drilled the header end to accept a pin the size of the center hole in the photo-etched flanges, glued the pin in and drilled the bottom of the header to mate. I then cut to size and drilled out the business end and thinned the walls with the drill and exacto.

I pretty much did the same for the headers. Drilled holes in the heads the size of the plastic rod, then used heat and persuasion to create the headers. Then, made sure they cleared the interior tub and chassis and lined up wth the side pipes. Enough talk, on with the pictures!

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Thanks for looking and feedback encouraged. After all, how am I going to know if I did something wrong without frank and honest feedback...

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I've been interested in this thread because I tried a similar project a number of years ago. I really like some of the things you're doing, especially with the exhausts. Yours are going to be more accurate than the ones I fabbed. Also, your trick of widening the AMT 289 engine block was a clever solution to the problem of that engine looking "too skinny".

In my case, I mated the now discontinued Scale Coachworks resin FIA Cobra body to the AMT chassis and used the 1/24 289 engine from the Revell Shelby 350GT Mustang with some Replicas and Miniatures Webers. I used the AMT 1/25 frame rather than the one from the Revell 427 Cobra because of the differences in the front suspensions between the 289 and 427 Cobras. I needed to widen track a bit and lengthen the frame by about 1/4", but other than that it worked pretty well.

Here are a couple of reference pics of the engine compartment you might find helpful, along with the Revell 289 with the R&M carbs. Hope they help.

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Thanks for the good words, guys! I found the Coventry decals from a firm in Australia that does both stick on and waterslide for a lot of different cars. They are for slot cars but fit the bill perfectly. I'm ordering a set. That being said, I went ahead and ordered the roll bar, tonneau snaps and windscreen from Historic Racing Miniatures. Looks like this one will be the Coventry Motors Executor. IF I get this one finished, maybe I'll work on the truck and trailer! Would be a nice display set.

Regarding the trailer, looks as though I might be scratching this one. The Caprice one is too big and the sprint one may be too small. Does not appear to be a too difficult project, though.

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If you look at pictures of CSX 2128 & 2129, you will notice the front fender openings are stock & the rears are flaired. Many of the early racing Cobras were like this. Even the early "works" cars had stock front wheel openings with bolted on flairs on the trailing edge of the front wheel openings. Just a thought.

Jeff

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Very nice work! I managed to score an old Revell FIA Cobra slot car body in need of serious work, but it was pretty cheap in that it came as part of a much larger bunch of stuff I resold for the same money. It is among my ever growing pile of things to build.....

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I got some time to work on this beast today. I swore I would not make this a stalled, super detailed build and, well...

I did a white glue build up of what I have so far on the motor. Today, I added the bolt detail to the intake and flanges and bolts to the side pipes. I also cut the pulleys off the belt assembly and did some re-shaping. Then, stuck them in my poor-man's lathe (drill) and cut a grove in each. I also added a harmonic balancer (something that always seems to be left off the engines). There are pictures of the motor a-la-cart and of it sittin pretty in the bay.

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Other things I did but don't have pictures of are cut the hood scoop hole, glued on the scoop and then thinned the hood to the thickness of the tab pockets, trimmed the hood opening and added a thin piece of sheet plastic to create the shelf the hood sits on. I'll use thin black wire to adjust the hood to sit flush with the body at the same time imitating the weatherstrip. I tried bending a hood hinge last night but gave up after about 3 tries. I also opened up the ducts on either side of the grill just as the 1:1 Executor had. I also got some of the 2.5mm ferreles and they are going to make the carbs really stand out. They are wonderfly thin and being copper, don't take all that much to cut and file down to the right size, and since they are tin plated, they look good. Thanks for following my never-ending high-detail torment...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got a bit more work done on this little Ferrari slaying beasty. Got the decals to do the Coventry Motors Executor along with a few other parts from HRM. Started working on the generator, pully and mount. It's not exact but looks fair and eleminates the "magic" alternator/generator problem that plagues so many models. Also worked on thinning the trunk lid, trimming the rear differential, the red half shafts are from a doner Vette. Have a bracket on the front of the differential so it does not hang mysteriously in it's place. Still have to create the top mounts. I have also started creating a fuel tank for the trunk. I added two little filler pieces to the front wheel skirts to fill the area behind the grill. Speaking of the grill, the Executor uses a stock grill painted black. I don't like slab type grills you can't see through so I took some time and began sanding the back of the stock Cobra grill from the AMT kit. After quite a while and a lot of sanding, I ended up with a large quantity of fine, white polystyrene dust and the grill you see on the left propped up against my fuel tank sub-assembly. The untouched kit grill is on the right. Of course, comments and critisism welcome.

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