The Chronicles of my 95 Cobra OCD Machine

[95riosnake]

Hello all, I've been following all your projects on here for almost 3 years now, led here to follow the Syborg build thread. I figured it was time I throw my hat in the ring and share my project with you guys. It seems that the majority of the projects on here center around classic muscle, but maybe my car can fit in, haha.

A little background... bought this car back in July 2003 while in college. It stayed mostly stock with some bolt ons for several years, then slowly started going off the deep end. After doing a H/C/I swap I found the car was burning almost as much oil as fuel, and was making what a stock longblock with bolt ons should have made. So the car got a forged 347 stroker and a bunch of other stuff. I never really took the time to document the build of this car until last winter when I did the Procharger, IRS and Tremec so I'll just start this thread from there and add to the beginning whenever I have time to sort through 3 different computers for pics...


Build log - Winter 2011/2012:

I was pretty happy with the car (actually I was ecstatic) after getting a feature shoot for 5.0 Magazine at the NMRA event in Columbus in Sept. 2011, but it was time to step things up. Right before leaving for Columbus I pulled the trigger on a used Procharger D1SC. It was a satin unit, and came with some very rough looking piping, cast 3 core intercooler, and the blower bracket...nothing else. The missing parts and crappy piping didn't bother me, I was planning to make my own piping anyway because my radiator setup wasn't going to let the Procharger piping fit anyway. So here's what showed up at my door:









But alas, it was prime driving season still...so I forced myself to resist the urge to rip the car apart and instead the blower found its way to the shelf until the snow flew.



In the meantime I sent the head unit to Mirror Finish Polishing to spruce it up, and started looking for an upgraded Procharger sheet metal intercooler.

Once the weather turned colder and the insurance was off the car for winter, I started tearing into it.

Front bumper cover and bumper support out of the way



The power steering cooler had to go





Picked up a Derale power steering cooler and some AN fittings (which I later swapped after learning I needed to use teflon-lined braided hoses for the pressure levels of power steering)























Power steering bracket, PS pump and AC compressor out of the way.



No pics of the process, but I also relocated the fuse box to right behind the driver's headlight, which required a couple days of boring work lengthening wires and separating the harness. I modded the fuse box's factory bracket and paired it with a bracket I made to mount it to the fender skirt. Also ditched the windshield washer reservoir. Finished product:







The AC condenser was just not going to fit with the way I wanted to mount the intercooler, so the whole AC system came out. I had used it maybe 3 or 4 times since I bought the car in 03, so I won't miss it, or its ugly hard lines that run in the way of everything in the engine bay. All that crap out: