Coventry Cobra by Mike Sells

One of the first Cobra "privateers" was Allen Grant, who managed to talk Coventry Motors of Walnut Creek, California into buying and preparing an early 260 Cobra as his entre' into professional road racing: with it he hoped to convince Carroll Shelby to let him race Cobras as a team driver. The first two races were entirely successful (he won both) but Grant's military obligation intervened. After he returned, he did in fact become a driver for Shelby American in America and abroad. When Grant went into the service, the car was returned to Shelby and converted to one of the USRRC racers so it unfortunately no longer exists in its original form. The Coventry racer was one of the prettiest and easily the most recognizable of the early Cobra racers with bright yellow paint, black stripes and number circles and the matching yellow '56 Ford pickup and black trailer that carried it to the races. As Cobra roadsters and '50's Ford pickups are available in both 1/32 and 1/25 scales this seems like a natural model combination. The cars shown here are static models built to 1/32 scale. The markings, body modifications and detailing would apply to slot racers as well. Revell's early '60's 260 Cobra slot car body was mated to a current Monogram 427 Cobra interior and chassis. The truck is as close as one can get in this scale: a 1/34 First Gear '53 Ford diecast model that has been repainted and detailed to match the Coventry hauler. Revell's '56 Ford pickup has been available in several versions in 1/25 and the 260 Cobra likewise from AMT. The Revell pickup requires a stock engine, easily available from an AMT '56 Ford hardtop or Monogram '56 T-bird, although it is not known what engine powered the 1:1 truck. COBRA RACER: Alterations to the Cobra body are quite straightforward, as this early 260 had no fender vents and quite modest front and rear fender flares. The Revell Cobra slot body represents the LeMans hardtop version with fender vents and a deck lid unique to the LeMans cars. The body is so finely detailed that the panel lines tend to disappear under a coat of paint so they were re-scribed more strongly. I cut the deck lid from the Monogram 427 donor kit and scribed a new deck lid on the 260 body using the 427 lid as a pattern. The panel lines are correct on the 1/25 scale kits. The rear fender flares are transplanted 427 front fender lips. Cut the flares from the 427 body, and then sand them flat on the back. In 1/32 scale, they should to be about 1/8" wide at the top tapering to 1/16" or so at the bottom. Sand the 260 rear fender flares flat to the body provide the maximum gluing area. The 427 flares are larger than the original openings and should be for larger racing tires, but get the best fit possible to reduce body filler. Fill any gaps and blend the flares to the body. Grind out the inside of the finished wheel openings to match the new flares and provide tire clearance. The front fender openings are standard except the bulges behind the lower rear corners. Pick a piece of scrap styrene the same thickness as the fender lip: about 0.040" for the Revell body. Cut it into a triangle of the appropriate size, then sand or grind a curve in the forward edge to fit the fender lip and bend to match the lower body contour. The bulge tapers into the body along the top edge and rear corner, rolls under to the lower body edge and blends into the existing fender lip at the forward edge all at once. Removing excess material may be easier before it is glued into place. Blend it into the body with sandpaper, filling any gaps as necessary. Fill the front fender vents, extra holes in the body for windscreen or mirror mounts and remove the cast on details not required. Add small oval brake vents on each side of the grille opening. The stock bumper mounts were visible though the brake vents on the full sized car. Large rectangular brake scoops with rounded ends were used under the body below the outer grille corners in at least one race. Either rectangular brass tubing or semi-crushed round brass tubing mated to some sort of ducting running back to the front wheels should work. Paint them black. Minimal body detailing befits a racer: right side tonneau cover, small racing screen, two racing mirrors and a competition fuel filler cap are about it. Paint on both the truck and Cobra is Duplicolor Ford medium yellow over white VHT primer, polished smooth. The stock Cobra grille insert is painted flat black. Headlights were covered with black vinyl tape, simulated here by covering Monogram 427 lenses with black decal film. No effort was made to remove the wrinkles from the decal and the effect is about right. The roll bar is the standard 289 hoop with a diagonal bar running northeast into the passenger foot well. The assembly is chrome finished. The model roll bar is bent from 1/16" Evergreen styrene rod but brass rod would work better if you plan to race. Note that the bar goes through the body behind the seat and mounts on the floor. The cockpit cover was cut from a 0.020" styrene sheet shaped over the edge of the workbench to fit the body curves and then painted flat black using several heavy coats to add some texture to the cover. Mirrors and fuel cap are from the 427 donor while the racing screen is a 1/8" strip cut from the lower corner of a 1980's Firebird rear window - the curve and slope are close. The Monogram 427 Cobra interior is used even though it is not quite accurate for the 289 but acceptable modifications are very minor. Fill the shifter hole in the tunnel with styrene rod and sand the tunnel flat. Drill a new shifter hole about 3/32" forward and slightly left of the original and install a new ring cut from styrene or aluminum tubing. File the tubing ring to the proper height after the glue dries. There are small differences in the dash layout between the 427 and 289 but I did not consider it worth the effort to change. Apparently only the driver's seat was used in the racer but that is based on my interpretation of a single photo. Paint everything inside flat black before adding racing seat belts and a fire extinguisher. The cockpit can be cut off at any point from a flat plate to a full depth unit for slot racing, depending on the chassis/motor combination used. Monogram's 427 chassis was used with only minor changes for the 260 racer, incorrect though it may be. The chassis tubes should be smaller for the 260 and the suspension is different, a situation that will not arise in 1/25 as the correct parts are available. Here, as the wheelbase differs slightly from the kit chassis to the slot body, I cut off the original axle ends and added styrene tubing to provide more gluing surface and to allow the new wheels and tires to be adjusted to the body openings. The racing exhaust was created from bent Evergreen tubing and rod and glued in place before painting everything flat black again. The wheels are 1/25 Halibrand wheels centers of unknown origin turned down to mate with MPC 1/32 Porsche 917 rims, then cast in resin. The original issue AMT Cobra Halibrands are correct in 1/25 and are also available as aftermarket parts. The wheels are painted flat black with silver rims and silver lips around the five slots in the wheel. Knock offs are from the parts box. Tires are Monogram big and little slot car parts from the 60's. FORD PICKUP: The First Gear '53 Ford pickup is an excellent model that requires the addition of only a shift lever and perhaps a taillight for an accurate stock truck. This was a very early release and subsequent models may have those parts included. Disassemble the truck by finding and removing the screws through the chassis into the body, including the one under the spare tire. Trim the melted knobs off the suspension mounts to release at least one end of each set of springs. Slide the metal axles out of the front and rear suspension parts for modification and painting, if desired. Clean up any flash on the plastic parts and detail paint as desired. I painted the block Ford engine blue, the exhaust in several shades of aluminum and steel and the chassis and underside of the body and box the ubiquitous flat black. The stock wheel covers were replaced by Revell 1/32 scale '56 Ford hubcaps inside MPC Porsche 917 wheel rims. The original First Gear wheels were sanded flat on the outer ends down to the rim that fits inside the tire. Four new wheel covers were cast, sanded flat on the back side to the proper depth, then painted with chrome paint. Narrow styrene rings cut from Evergreen ½" tubing become the new wheel rims and are glued in place with the tires mounted on the wheels for correct positioning. The wheels are painted body color before the installation of the new wheel covers for a crisp paint edge. White walls are narrow concentric circles cut in white decal film using a frisket cutter mounted in a drafting compass. Cut the rings at one point around the circumference so they can be adjusted to fit the tire. Install them after the wheels have been painted and the tires mounted as the decal will not flex with the tire. The correct wheel covers are easily available in 1/24 scale. The diecast "toy" aspect of this particular pickup is a problem only in that the front and side hood emblems are Tampo painted directly on the body; and very well too; but this makes salvaging them after painting difficult. I covered the front hood emblem and the small side markings with a coat of white glue, washing it off after painting, but this worked only because the original body color showing though behind the silver trim paint was very nearly the same yellow as the finish color. I recommend sanding down the original paint and priming over it rather than stripping the body entirely. Diecasts usually have very heavy paint jobs covering rough castings. The First Gear trucks all exhibit excellent paint jobs with very little in the way of mold marks, so why start over? The front bumper is replaced with a distressed balsa wood push bar weathered with India ink diluted in rubbing alcohol. Mount a trailer hitch on the bottom of the rear bumper and fill the pickup box with tool boxes, spare wheel & tire assemblies, jack stands, and other race team "stuff." Note that the truck grille bar is also painted black. The interior color is a matter of conjecture, but was probably light gray or white with black trim as '50's trucks were very plain compared to the modern ones. The dash, top edges of the door panels and door frames on the model are body color; the floor, shifter, seat edges and steering wheel semi-gloss black. The headliner and balance of the seats and door panels are white with "chrome" door handles and cranks. Neither of these 1/32 vehicles has an engine. The situation is much better in 1/25 as the AMT Cobra has complete engine and chassis details, and of course alternate parts are widely available in 1/25 if you don't like the AMT kit pieces. TRAILER: The trailer is a very simple tilt bed unit constructed to look like the color photo found in Dave Friedman's excellent "Shelby Cobra - Original Shelby American Archives : 1962 - 1965". It's made from 0.10" square styrene, 1/8" tubing, 1/16" rod and some 0.020" sheet, all by Evergreen; two "Hot Rod" cycle fenders, and a pair of leaf springs and parts box wheels and tires. Two lengths of 1/8" tubing are cut to the trailer width, then joined by four lengths of 0.020" x 1/8" strip notched at the ends to match the tubing. Two of the strips are installed at the outside ends of the tubing; the other two are the inner edges of the wheel trough installed about 12 scale inches apart. Cut the trough bottoms from 0.020" sheet to the width of the trough plus the edges and glue in place, leaving any extra width to the outside so it can easily sanded off. Three 1/16" rod cross braces were installed at the center and equidistant from both ends. Note that these are inside the troughs and between them rather than underneath. The trailer axle is styrene rod mounted to a pair of Monogram Mustang GT 350 springs but any similar parts will work. The axle length matches the trailer width and an offset plate is glued to each end to drop the trailer on the wheels. A 1/4" drop looked about right, so I glued stub axles to the top end of the plates to mount the wheels to. The cycle fenders were glued to 0.020" styrene sheet blended into the fender curves to form the inner fender surfaces. Notched on the bottom to clear the axle, they were glued in place around the tires. An "A" frame pivots around the axle and runs forward to form the hitch mount. The entire trailer is painted gloss black. The 1:1 trailer wheel covers were '54 Chevy according to my local Detroit Iron consultant, apparently not available in any scale, so get as close as possible. Add lights, license plate, safety chains and electrical hookups as desired. DECALS: ***{Mark: do you want to provide a scanned decal sheet as part of the article so they can try their own or should we dispense with it? I don't know how well it'll work but it might be worth a try. The original article was to be paper printed and it would have been much easier to get a good copy.}*** Markings for the truck and racer were created on a CADD computer as variations on existing text styles and reproduced here. While not a perfect match they maintain the illusion pretty closely. The lettering, number circles and stripes are all black which allows the use of a normal office copier to create decals from the provided artwork. First, set the copier to the scale of your model: 1/32 - 75% reduction, 1/24 - as is. Copy the artwork onto a plain white sheet of paper to the desired scale. Adjust the copy density until you get a solid black image. Making note of how the paper comes out of the machine and without removing the artwork from the glass, tape a sheet of clear decal film at the feeding edge over the copy. For economy's sake the film doesn't need to be any larger than the artwork plus a small margin but be sure that the tape doesn't cover any of the area you need to copy onto. Re-feed the copy and film combination into the copier. You should get a sharp black copy of the artwork on the film. Cover the film with a clear coat of your choice, let dry and treat as any other decal. If you find that the copy smears in the machine, you may need to roughen the surface of the decal film with a soft eraser to improve adhesion and try again. The black number circles are installed over white decal film circles, or could be copied directly onto the white film if you prefer. Trim the lettering as closely as possible and install directly on the yellow bodies. The black stripes are narrow strips of black decal film (trimmed out from behind the number circles) and the sponsors' decals come from appropriate commercial sheets. A final coat of clear paint or wax over the finished body is a matter of personal choice. The above technique can also be used to create simple color decals as well by copying either black markings or line drawings onto colored decal film or by starting with images on clear film colored with paint, waterproof inks, or even magic marker. Make sure that whatever coloring agents used are compatible with each other and will not smear when you soak the decals. Clear lacquers may or may not solve the entire problem but you won't know unless you're willing to experiment. All of the early 260/289 racers can be duplicated from the previously mentioned Cobra kits with varying degrees of effort. The '63 Sebring Factory car body modifications were very similar to the Coventry racer for example but as is often the case, the detailing is not identical, not even to each other. Fortunately, there is quite a bit of information available on the early racers even if few were as dramatically finished as the Coventry Motors combination. The Monogram 1/32 Cobra is not only a superb 427 (and some of the European versions even have chrome parts!), it also provides acceptable chassis and interior parts for the Revell 260 roadster bodies that I've been hoarding all these years.

Mike Sells