... and found that over the winter the brakes had completely disappeared.
So, Barry came over for tea and crumpets?
I read through the old thread. Must have missed it originally. A few mistakes in the replies here and there, but the most important thing is that this is a Cobra, not a Fairlane or Torino. It is its own model with its own body code, and nowhere on it does it have anything other than Cobra emblems and FORD lettering. 1970 was when we saw the first Torino Cobra.
The Cobra thing is kinda weird. You can find many answers.
In the 1969 Shop Manual, theyre all Fairlanes, in the FAIRLANE section. Theres a Fairlane Fairlane, a Fairlane Torino, and a Fairlane Cobra.
The 1969 mailer "Presenting the better idea cars for 1969" (addressed to my dad at our old address, suburb of the "D") is the same. All prices are in the FAIRLANE section, for the Fairlane Fairlane, the Fairlane Torino, and the Fairlane Cobra.
In that same mailer, there is a FORD section. There s a FORD custom, a FORD galaxie, and a FORD XL. I guess this means that some year, the XL stopped being a Galaxie. Funny, I cant recall now what our WerbyFord car (an early 69 XL) said - did it say Galaxie anywhere? I just don't remember.
The 1970 Shop Manual is the same layout as 1969.
HOWEVER - I have Ford ads from 1969 that show Petty's "East Tenn Torino Cobra", and the text of the ad also says "Torino Cobra". Maybe "Torino Cobra" meant you got either the 427 TP or the 429 Boss. Sure it did. This ad refers to the win at Dahytona which means Feb 69 at the earliest.
I also have a Brochure that has a Fairlane page (no Torino or Cobra), and a Torino page, which includes the Cobra though they never refer to it as
"Torino Cobra".
My 1970 Torino Brochure, Jan 70, lists all the Fairlanes, Torino, Cobras, and refers to the Torino Cobra.
Then again, my mid-70 SCJ Cobra didn't say Torino anywhere on it. It did say Fairlane inside the glove box.
So, is the Cobra a Fairlane? Yes and No.
Is the Cobra a Torino? Yes and No.
Is the XL a Galaxie? Yes (1964) and apparently No (1969). In between, now I have to look at a bunch of other stuff.
back in the day, in the "D", your goal was just to find a cheap ($1200 or less) rust-free big block car. You didn't really care what it was called or what head castings it had on it. That was the easy stuff.