Most of us have, at one time or another, considered undertaking a project that was likely beyond our abilities. Maybe it was a muscle car too far gone with rust, but its rarity and completeness convinced us to give it a shot. Or perhaps we tried to build the ultimate man-cave, and instead wound up with a shed for the kids’ pool toys. But gearheads are a dedicated bunch, and for every half-baked idea and half-finished project, there is a car that defies the odds and is resurrected by those with the gusto to do so.

Tim Roi at SCT put us on to a project on the Greater Toronto Area Mustang Club that even we would have dismissed as a total loss. But Jeremy Clutterbuck and his father Larry saw this John X Cobra kit car, which was involved in a fire, and they saw a potential project they could do on the cheap.

Pictures: Jeremy Clutterbuck

Jeremy and his father have always been car guys, but tended to fall in the “cut a check and have someone else do the work” category. “I have a Mustang convertible, and I’ve paid to have bodywork and suspension components put on it. But I never did any of the work myself, so I never really formed an attachment to it,” he said. Jeremy wanted to do a project with his father that they could do together, themselves. Carpenters by trade, they figured that if they could build a house (and a four car garage for the Mustang and their Corvette).

They found this particular Cobra on Kijiji, which is sort of like Craigslist. The asking price was $6,900, and to the untrained eye the car looked worthless. But after lifting it up on a forklift, Jeremy saw braided brake lines and wiring that was unburnt. Jeremy and his father do many insurance restorations, so they know how to spot fire damage. While the body and interior of the Cobra were shot, the chassis, wiring, and piping looked intact.

They found out that the fire had occurred around the car. The former owner had been cooking biodiesel, which exploded and burned down the garage and house. Insurance paid $69,000 for the Cobra, though the scrap dealer wanted just 10% of that. They talked the price down even further, and took the car home.

“My neighbor came out and told us how we had wasted our money and the car was worthless,” Jeremy said. “But an hour later he was cranking the engine over using the original burned battery.” Knowing that soot was corrosive, they powerwashed the chassis and engine down and the car almost immediately started looking better. They saw the car had upgraded suspension, plumbing, and that was before they even tore into the engine.

“Right away I recognized that the heads were aluminum. I pulled off the valve covers and saw roller rockers and then I measured the stroke of the engine. We had a stroker!” Jeremy said. He took the engine to a mechanic friend, doing some hardwood floor work in exchange for the engine work, who put the engine back together. He estimated the engine made between 450 and 500 horsepower.

Surprisingly, Jeremy and his father were able to salvage almost all of the parts from the car. While the body and interior were beyond repair, they did save the pedal assembly, most of the suspension (the brake calipers needed to be rebuilt). They even managed to rewire the fuel pump, which had the wires burned off, all the way through. The car is now running, and a new body has been mounted and bolted down.

They managed to do all of this since about New Years day. The pace of the project has since slowed down (it was originally supposed to take 4-5 years), and Jeremy plans to have the car wired in the fall, and roadworthy next spring. Easily one of the most ambitious projects we’ve ever encountered, Jeremy and Larry are truly dedicated gearheads. And believe it or not, this is their first hands-on project, though they are already planning their next one.