Well I have a neighbor four houses down the street who does fairly rapid restorations of fine quality and I envy his real steel cars, expecially the Model As, but they are of the 40 HP, mechanical brake original type. A little further away about a mile across I95 there is the Outlaw Shop building big block drag cars based on late model steel and right next to that shop is John York Sports Cars specializing in turnkey Cobras. John does nice work and has a near assembly line; he seems to turn out about five Cobras a year and the retail price is about three times what I have in my Bebops '29! Still for folks who have the money he will build a nice cobra with a 351. The thing about the Cobra kits for him is that there seems to be only a little variation and he has templates for the dash cutouts and knows every step of the build very well. I think the Cobra kits are fairly complete in the sense that the body is relatively simple and the engine bay is huge compared to my Model A replica so working on it may be easier. Actually what I see in John York's shop is the same sort of hard work on any car build but he makes it look easier because he has done it over and over while I have a steep learning curve every step of the way. I think I have learned from this thread that I don't want to join a car club since I am pretty much doing my build "my way" with the main goal of meeting State Inspection and driving the car. During the summer months there are several informal meeting places for folks to show their cars and go to runs and other than my own driving that is all I aspire to do. One original goal was a local parade on July 4th and at Thanksgiving but that is really a mixed bag of restored cars and street rods. Originally the main motivation/goal was to have a rumble seat for the grandkids in the July 4th parade but they have moved to another state so I am left just wanting to drive the car myself.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder