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Cobra Daytona Coupe


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over the past 20 years ive had conversations with revell, lindberg/hawk and Shelby motorsports about a full detail Shelby Daytona PLASTIC  kit and the bottom line is it will never happen due to Shelby motorsports wanting a kings ransom for the license...at least that's what I was told by the guys I spoke with.  once I even tried to start a write in campaign to Shelby and revel and there wasn't much interest.  I finally bit the bullet for one of the hrm kits.

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1 hour ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

How are the proportions on the Gunze kit? Please, be hyper-critical.

I'm not worried about a lack of engine or opening hood. Easy enough to rectify. But I just HATE having to redo a body because the manufacturer didn't get it right.

I suppose that partly depends on which Cobra Daytona you want it to represent - they were all a little different, right?! And I'm not completely sure of this, but I suspect the HRM body may be based on the Gunze body. But for the price, I'd go with the HRM kit, unless you can find an affordable builder like I did a few years back. It's a crazy kit to build, but with the addition of the VRM decals, you can end up with a reasonable looking Daytona:

Daytona Coupe LF 1 

 

Daytona Coupe right 2

 

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8 hours ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

How are the proportions on the Gunze kit? Please, be hyper-critical.

I'm not worried about a lack of engine or opening hood. Easy enough to rectify. But I just HATE having to redo a body because the manufacturer didn't get it right.

My research on the Gunze kit:

 

Edited by afx
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55 minutes ago, afx said:

My research on the Gunze kit: ...

Thanks. I'd forgotten entirely about that thread. I stupidly sprung $130 for a Gunze kit prior to doing the research, and now it's looking like all I got was a starting place if I want reasonable accuracy. To get it even close to right in 1/24 OR 1/25 looks like it's going to take considerable surgery. 

                                                                             image.jpeg.542f9d24fe1b28cd928682ec1265cba7.jpeg

I bought the HRM Cheetah some time back. Probably shooda waited for a Cobra Daytona to come up, but getting in a hurry can cause dumb. Oh well. B)

Looks like the Gunze kit will end up as this one...

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/shelby-daytona-cobra-coupe/index.html

1965 Shelby Daytona - salt flat

 

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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I have built two of the Gunze Daytona kits.  I happened to measure the frame against the Monogram 427 and found the Gunze to be short.  I substituted longer frame tubes, easy to do as the kit uses metal frame tubes, and added a strip to the cowl and the bonnet.  I also converted one of the kits to the 1964 configuration.

The Gunze kit is based upon CSX2299, the high windscreen chassis.  Mike Shoen, who owned CSX2299 at the time, sent me a copy of the photographs that Gunze used to make their kit from. I would post those but do not have permission to do so from Mike Shoen.

Here are my builds and I included the my build of the Mini Exotics Super Coupe on a Monogram chassis.

Cobra_CSX2299_1964_003.jpg.b5ecc6b97f1768853505c0322d44a4cf.jpg

Cobra_CSX2299_1965_001.jpg.348a1bf85475850a25e133119f6c61ea.jpgCobra_T65_014.jpg.068112f11ecc6d4e4f907fbb0a0eb70e.jpg

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59 minutes ago, Gramps46 said:

I have built two of the Gunze Daytona kits.  I happened to measure the frame against the Monogram 427 and found the Gunze to be short.  I substituted longer frame tubes, easy to do as the kit uses metal frame tubes, and added a strip to the cowl and the bonnet...

Really appreciate your input there. Those look great. Based on what I'm seeing, it's looking like the easiest way out is building it as 1/24 (there's a scale discussion in the other thread referenced above) to avoid narrowing the body shell, and slightly lengthen it (and the frame tubes) as you suggest. Thanks again. If mine ends up looking as good as your's, I'll be entirely satisfied.

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1 hour ago, Ace-Garageguy said:

Really appreciate your input there. Those look great. Based on what I'm seeing, it's looking like the easiest way out is building it as 1/24 (there's a scale discussion in the other thread referenced above) to avoid narrowing the body shell, and slightly lengthen it (and the frame tubes) as you suggest. Thanks again. If mine ends up looking as good as your's, I'll be entirely satisfied.

Thank you Bill for your comments.  One of the challenges with the Gunze kit is getting the seats to fit.  I ended up having to grind the sides down.  One other thing I found was in my opinion the nose was too flat having been rebuild following striking a dog at Le Mans so I added some material to the top lip of the nose.

Edited by Gramps46
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Yes, I think we can all agree that the Gunze kit does not represent CSX2287, the first coupe built (also the Bonneville salt flats car and the infamous Phil Spector/lost coupe). But I think the K&B body might?

In case any of you aren't familiar with the story: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/death-deception-and-the-4-million-cobra-feature

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Well I have the HRM and the Gunze kit in front of me and for sure HRM is a copy of the Gunze kit. Now Harold made some modifications but it the bodies line up pretty much perfect. Now all the details that Harold put into his kit make the the Gunze kit look basic, but if you add his detail up set to a Gunze kit I think anyone would be hard pressed to tell the two apart.

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10 hours ago, RancheroSteve said:

Yes, I think we can all agree that the Gunze kit does not represent CSX2287, the first coupe built (also the Bonneville salt flats car and the infamous Phil Spector/lost coupe). But I think the K&B body might?

In case any of you aren't familiar with the story: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/death-deception-and-the-4-million-cobra-feature

The Lindberg kit is CSX2287. 

Cobra_Daytona_CSX2287_sm1.jpg.ab3dd54372c84f3fcea623b535919814.jpgCobra_Daytona_CSX2287_sm3.jpg.8ad6bedb15c918c91060bd002bcb12df.jpg

There are two versions of the K&B and they are CSX2287 too.

Daytonas_1016.JPG.7164424da90abd5d20d246a32e297f74.JPG

 

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