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COBRA II BOREDOM ZERO
Larry Roberts' Cobra II is one of the last true factory street freaks
by Doug Marion
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Over the past few years, Ford's Cobra II has been seen in increasing numbers on streets everywhere, including one particular street in the Texas town of Lewisville, where 20-year-old Larry Roberts tools around in his eye-popping '76 Cobra II daily.
Except for the pinstriping, flames and cobra snake mural, Larry did all the work on his Cobra himself. The white lacquer paint wears a subtle pearl overcoat, while the blue racing stripes are enhanced with a gold pearl topcoat. The aftermarket fiberglass front end was originally a two-piece unit. Larry wanted a one-piece flip front end, so he bonded the hood and fenders together permanently.
The 'glass front end alone didn't quite fill Larry's needs. To make everything fall together, he added a Harwood scoop and then formed his own custom spoiler out of fiberglass. Carrying the theme further, Larry hand-crafted rear wheel flares out of metal and made a rear spoiler from fiberglass.
For the underside of his Cobra, Larry fabricated a complete frame assembly and joined it to the existing factory front uni-body frame. The original gas tank was discarded and replaced with a custom, molded-in unit that rests just behind the rear license plate.
The stock rear end was replaced with a '75 Ford Elite heavy-duty assembly housing with 2.98 gears. The housing had to be narrowed 6 inches, but otherwise the swap was a bolt-in affair. Economy plating of Dallas upped the Cobra's appearance by chrome plating the new axle housing and the Lakewood slapper bars.
For shocks and brakes, Larry installed Gabriel units along with '75 Ford Elite discs up front and Gabriel Hi-Jackers and Elite drum brakes aft.
The Cobra's 302 CID V-8 remains basically stock, with the exception of a Mr. Gasket velocity stack air cleaner, M/T valve covers and competition spark plug wires. Larry plans to slide in a Ford high-performance camshaft in the near future. Topping off the 302 package are Hooker headers and Pro-Stock chrome side pipes, which also make for better performance and gas mileage.
The interior of the Cobra features a Cal Custom 8-inch steering wheel plus blue shag carpeting throughout. Larry opted to remove the rear seat, then custom built a battery box to fit directly behind the passenger seat.
The final touch on Larry's Lewisville Cobra came from the hand of "Plano Bob" in Dallas, who laid on gold-leaf flames topped off with blue pinstriping, added blue pinstriping to the hood stripes and spoilers and painted the cobra mural.
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