ea0863 Posted July 27, 2023 Posted July 27, 2023 (edited) Hello All, While I was working on my IMC Cougar II project, I not only learned the fascinating history of this vehicle, but also about its stablemate - known as the Bordinat Cobra XD roadster (named after Ford Styling Executive Eugene Bordinat who was responsible for many of the concepts his company produced during that time). I found a couple of examples of this roadster on our forum, including one from @cobraman, who was kind enough to give me some pointers on his custom creation. The natural starting point was the Lindberg production of the Cougar II as it is less expensive to obtain, and identical to its earlier IMC counterpart - albeit molded in white. I found it interesting that the exact same issues I had experienced with the IMC model were present in the Lindberg one - including door shut lines that did not line up well at all. Thus, as with my Cougar II, I welded the doors shut and aligned body panels with equal parts sanding and body filler. And while I was at it, I also filled in the vents beneath the windshield as on the roadster. The hood was going to require a long row of louvers, which I approximated with Evergreen "metal siding". The next major body modification was obviously going to be the toughest - removing the top and creating a rear deck. This was started by cutting the body apart along the upper belt line. As with a number of other decisions that came later, I had to cheat the lines a bit as it turned out the roadster had an extra crease along the upper doors not present on the coupe. The opening that was left was then filled in with .020 Evergreen and bowed in place with a curved gusset. The trickiest part was creating a tapered seam along each side like the original. The body having largely been addressed, I turned my attention to the underpinnings. The Bordinat Cobra apparently differed from the Cougar II in that it was built on the first coil spring Cobra chassis (# CSX3001). I thought it would be easy to find a suitable Cobra kit and make my creation all-the-more accurate. This of course was the plans of mice and men, as it turns out all the kits out there with coil spring frames are 1:24 scale - not the 1:25 of the Cougar II. One would think this is a minor difference, but it is not. Thus reluctantly, I stayed with the leaf spring suspension of the Lindberg kit. (BTW; if anyone knows of a 1:25 coil spring Cobra kit, I would still love to know about it) Unlike the understated tones of the Cougar II, I decided to give the roadster more panache with a Duplicolor Milano Red frame, and lots of chrome bling. I also chose to go with racing wheels from an AMT/Ertl Custom and Competition Parts Pack. The engine on the Bordinat was reportedly a 289 hi-performance v8 (rather than the 260 hi-perf found in this kit), and was mated to a C4 automatic transmission (as opposed the the 4 speed manual found here). I decided to leave well enough alone though and stuck with what came in the kit - both for ease, and because it struck me as sacrilege to have a roadgoing Cobra running around with an automatic tranny . The rest of the build was fairly straightforward, with a few artistic licenses taken - for instance relocation of the gas filler to the rear of the car, and a custom front grill to showcase this roadster's Shelby Cobra heritage. The body color is Tamiya AS-12 bare metal silver and TS-13 clear. The interior is again the Duplicolor Milano Red. All brightwork is either chromed from the kit, or Molotow pen. So without further ado, I present my best effort at the 1963 Bordinat XD Cobra... And just because I couldn't resist, here are a few beauty shots of the two cars together... Edited July 27, 2023 by ea0863 15
vamach1 Posted July 27, 2023 Posted July 27, 2023 Nice work on the conversion. Cars were so stylistic back then but of course probably not very practical and would have been a lot more expensive than a 260/289 Cobra. 1
Rattlecan Dan Posted July 28, 2023 Posted July 28, 2023 Very Nice. Has a European flair to it. A Gia look to it. Nice job.
ea0863 Posted July 28, 2023 Author Posted July 28, 2023 34 minutes ago, Rattlecan Dan said: Very Nice. Has a European flair to it. A Gia look to it. Nice job. Thank you Dan, I agree. Someone else saw a Pininfarina Corvette Rondine flavor to it, but any way you cut it - - - beautiful design. 1
Gramps46 Posted July 28, 2023 Posted July 28, 2023 Truly significant accomplishment. Thanks so much for sharing it with us. 1
espo Posted July 28, 2023 Posted July 28, 2023 Both builds look great. The history associated with the two different body styles is interesting. 1
karbuildr Posted July 28, 2023 Posted July 28, 2023 Beautiful build, silver and red always looks so good on a roadster. Top notch scratch building. 1
BeakDoc Posted July 30, 2023 Posted July 30, 2023 Pure class, all the way around (on both, actually.) I truly enjoyed this post from top to bottom.
ea0863 Posted July 30, 2023 Author Posted July 30, 2023 16 minutes ago, BeakDoc said: Pure class, all the way around (on both, actually.) I truly enjoyed this post from top to bottom. Thanks Chris, I get so much from this forum that it feels like a little way to pay it back by taking the extra time to take photos and explain my builds. And yes, I too have always loved these two cars and am proud to have them in my collection now.
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