Project Snake Charmer, though not 100% complete, made its public debut at the National Parts Depot/Silver Springs Mustang & Ford Roundup the weekend of January 11th-13th. Read the full blog for our show prep follies.
With a little more than three days to take the project from painted/rolling shell to something that looked like a finished car it was a mad thrash of half-days in the office and half-days working on the car from home.
Reliable Carriers delivered the project the evening of January 7th around 7:30 pm to the cheers of about 20 of my neighbors. Starting the Cobra up myself and hearing the side pipes for the first time since last May put tears in my eyes (or was it just running rich?). Anyway, with the project safely in the garage Monday night I started laying out my plans. I’d work half a day Tuesday, take Wednesday off, work half a day again on Thursday and then pick up the company truck and trailer Friday morning to head to Ocala and Silver Springs.
Things went fairly well, as they usually do at this stage. Just like a Mustang, once it comes back from paint much of the finish work is bolting on new or cleaned parts. First came several hours of cleaning out the bare interior and the whole engine compartment, and engine as well, from being in a body shop environment. Then came the headlights and taillights—wow, it’s looking like a real car already! Lastly the windscreen, wipers, and fender louvers went into place. There was no time to do the interior justice so we just slapped in a few of the larger pieces of carpet and the two seats and called it done—or done enough anyway.
While I would have loved to have stood next to the project all weekend and answered questions and taken in the compliments by the truck load, I did have to cover the Silver Springs show for the magazine. But whenever I was near the car to get camera batteries, etc. I would end up being sucked into 20 questions with whomever was there admiring our hard work. Now to just get the interior finished and get it tagged and insured and we’ll be ready for those sunny days behind the wheel! To all of our readers that stopped by to see the project I thank you for the great compliments!