Project Snake Charmer, Part 18 - Interior And Trim Install

Due to the shape of the Cobra's body, it's prone to paint damage at the front of the rear-wheel openings. Because of this, we had ordered Factory Five's carbon-fiber rock guards. When our Roadster was at KR Performance & Restorations (www.krpandr.com) for paint, we told the guys to bury the guards in clear for a super-slick look. Some painter's tape helped us line them up on the body for easy attachment with double-sided tape.

With the Roadster's trim and other exterior bits handled, it was time to move to the interior. We covered all of the exposed aluminum with Mr. Gasket's G-Muff Titan-Lite sound-dampening material, just as we had with the foot-box panels and firewall earlier in the build. The carpet supplied by Factory Five comes precut and ready to install, though we added some vinyl edging to several of the larger pieces. The seatbelt trim bezels are from Mike's Replica Parts.

Both the under-door carpeting and the foot-box carpeting require careful installation so that the precut carpeting covers completely.

Some areas require small amounts of trimming; we even had to custom-cut a few patches to cover certain areas.

We left the transmission-tunnel top last on the installation list so we could access the drivetrain and wiring for any last-minute changes. Instead of riveting the cover in place as suggested by the build manual, we opted to install the top panel with stainless Phillips-head screws so that it can be removed for future service. Note the Mr. Gasket Neo-Foam pad on top of the tunnel; it gives a nice padded feel to the carpet.

We didn't glue down all of the carpet in the car, as the main floor carpets, as well as the tunnel carpet, are secured with strips of industrial-strength Velcro. This allows for easy removal of carpet sections for service access and cleaning.

Our Cobra's interior finally matches the paint and bodywork. The seat mount-ing brackets shown here are from Breeze Automotive [www.breeze automotive.com; (508) 533-6455] and give the stock seats a slight tilt for more thigh support. The wiring seen here is for the heated seat elements we'll install.

The original 427 Cobra used the Mustang's four-speed shifter mounted in reverse, which gives the Cobra that famous forward-arched shifter. While Factory Five provides a similar shift handle in its kit, we upgraded to the look of a true four-speed shifter with Finish Line's dummy reverse lock-out function. The shifter bolts directly to most any five-speed, though our TKO-600 required us to drill the mounting holes in the shifter handle to match the TKO's mounting bolts.

With the shifter handle in place, we topped off the installation with the supplied Factory Five rubber shift boot and trim ring. To dress up things, we added a vinyl shift boot from Mike's Replica Parts over the rubber boot. The vinyl matches the seat and dash trim, giving the shifter and trans tunnel a more finished look.

Since we chose not to install a water-based heater, we felt the next best thing was to upgrade the stock Roadster seats with heated seat elements from WarmSeats. The kit includes carbon-fiber heating elements for the seat back and bottom (for two seats) as well as wiring, switches, and instructions. Installation is simple in just about any seat and the switches can be mounted on the seat, dash, or console.

The Factory Five's base Roadster seats that came with our kit are comprised of a fiberglass shell with wood support structure and foam cushions. After carefully removing a bunch of staples and rolling back the seat covers, we installed the WarmSeats' heating elements. A few well-placed cuts in the foam allow the wiring to be hidden and not show through the vinyl cover.

Once the heating elements are properly placed, it's simply a matter of pulling the vinyl cover into place and installing new staples to secure it. Once the seats are installed, all we'll have to do is connect the wiring (shown earlier) to them. Hang tight everyone-we're almost done!