I may have asked this a few years ago, I can't remember either way but here goes. I was approached by a gentleman Sat afternoon at Carlisle, he has a 78 for sale, and this was the story I got. Bought brand new by an older lady, she wanted a Cobra II but didn't want the spoilers or the windows louvers, she couldn't see with them on the car. The car is also green, kinda like a kelly green which was the way she ordered it. This is where it gets interesting, this guy claims he knew the lady who owned it, and worked for a garage which serviced it from day 1. The car has a CB on the bucktag, and the heavy duty sway bars, and Aux tank. no spoilers or louvers, has the original paint, BUT the paint in the engine compartment is black. From what he tells me the car had to be brought down from Canada and has no airpump, or cats. I saw pictures of under the hood and undercarriage and it is VERY VERY clean, he's asking $3995. I know the car is worth the asking price but does anyone think this could be real?? or some knothead trying to fool me?
Well, stranger things have happened. You could pretty much order a car anyway Ford will let you, then have the dealer alter it further before you even pick it up. Many "oddball" cars were dealer built. If it says CB on the bucktag, that obviously means Cobra. The next step is to verify the bucktag to the car. The bucktag has the VIN on it. See if it matches the dash plate and door sticker. If it does, then I would still look furthur as both of those items can be swapped out. Get a small mirror and a flashlight, and look up in the front fender area. The REAL VIN for the body appears stamped on the fender apron of the body (not the fender) and is stamped backwards, like a mirror. It's hard to see, but if you know where it is you can see it. That will verfiy if the car matches all the VIN codes. Sure would like to see pics of it. BTW, what color is the undercarriage? You say the engine bay is black. If the underside is also black, I'd bet it was ordered as a black Cobra II and painted that color by the dealer for the customer.
I forgot to add this guy said that when she ordered the car, and it was brought from Canada, a Ford dealer changed the gauge cluster to the american cluster, doing away with the flipper around numbers. Is there anything on this that would give it away as a canadian model? the DSO I would imagine would be wherever she ordered from from maybe??
Well, it sounds as if the car was a dealer swap/buy. If that is the case, the DSO should show the regional area it was originally sent to.
He's about 3 hours from my house right off of route 81 in Virginia, so I might drive down this weekend and verify some things, plus I want digital pictures to post. When i saw the pictures of the engine compartment I was suprised for a car with 98,ooo mles, it was very clean. here's another thing, the interior is beige, could you get any Cobra's with a beige interior??
Personally, I'd be at least a bit leery of it....I know that Canadian models had both airpumps and cats in 78 (I still have the cat from my stock 78 exhaust...)
Never seen it, but I'm pretty sure that the " Starman" car had beige aluminum-insert panels. Kinda surprised me, and now I'm gonna have to dig the tape out again to be sure.
