Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.

[Davedacarpainter]

I keep putting off the body work.

Each night, I take a little baggie of bondo dust and put it under my pillow, hoping that the bodyshop fairy would have came in the night, and finished it up for me.
Every morning, I turn over my pillow, only to find the stinkin baggie of dust right where I put it.

I'm starting to think that there might not be such a thing as a stinkin' bodyshop fairy.:no:
Next thing I know, somebody's gonna tell me that the Easter Bunny isn't real either.

So, with all the body work still looming in front of me, I do what I do best...

I put it off.

If building a car could be about the stuff I did today however, I would be done. It's the little quirky stuff that I like to do. The creation of something from nothing.

Earlier this week, I stopped into a sign shop and bought a piece of black perforated mesh to cover the lens on the cyclone center piece. Today I installed that first.

I also got some more of the white LED strip product that will allow me to put 6 strips of white LEDS directly behind the perf. But I was tired of messing with that,so that'll have to be another day. For now the lens is there, and sealed.

If you have a Fairmont you know what you're up against. Despite the fact that it's a Mustang baby daddy, The things that make it a "Fairmont" are exclusive to themselves.
Take the door panels for example.
If you have a warped, raggedy ass looking door panel,you better have some NOS pieces stashed in the attic, or you better get out your jig saw.

Since I didn't have a set stashed in the attic,..... I drug out my saws.

Fortunately, I still had one stock door panel to serve as a template. I skinned the thing of its upholstery down to the backer board, and transferred the measurements over to a piece of hardboard.

The OEM backer board actually has a pattern painted it that resembles the pleats that the door panel was covered in. Why they did that I cant imagine,...but it served it's purpose.
I made two of them.

Next, I grabbed the door bar that I had partially made a years ago. (Yeah,.... a year ago). I wanted to add a second bar to better match up to the dash. I got some little scrap bends, and made it work. It did take the better part of the day though.

Kinda looks like I stole it off of a Harley don't it?

It still needs the stands that will support the arm rest. The center will get the same mesh and trim that that dash has, and will be capped on the end where it will meet the dash bar.

On my last update, what to do for a trim plate to cover the slot the shifter handle sticks through was discussed. I found an oval grommet from Seal-it that would work, but I wanted to try something first.

The rubber gasket is the problem. Very thin butyl rubber is what you need so it'll be flexible enough to stay closed around the shifter. Where to find that stuff was the dilemma.

Fortunately for me,...I only needed to open a few old boxes.

Ol dude here takes on for the team.


Once I had my material, I glued to to the back of my coverplate and let that thing sit in the sun for the whole day.

Then I installed it.

Now you're probably saying to yourself "That looks like an electrical switch plate for a house, and you'd be right. I saw this thing sitting in the specialty switch plate display yesterday, and thought...
"I wonder if I can make that work?"

Damn Skippy.

The Seals it grommet was $60.00 plus shipping. I'd have a 70.00 grommet serving as a shifter coverplate. The thing is made out of aluminum, and the center has the all important butyl rubber.
It has like 6 holes predrilled and I'd have to rivet the thing in place.


But,....I cant go for that. Not yet at least.

For now, I got a coverplate that conceals it's mounting hardware, with a butyl center gasket that costs a whole whopping 4 bucks.... yea me.

I don't know Mike, we had this one guy at the shop that would qualify as a body shop fairy. I'm thinking you wouldn't want him to stop by your house. Stop sleeping on the bondo dust, for your own well being, just stop it.

 

[Adieu]

Aaahhhmmm. Did you CT me?

That's taken out of context!

That's the best kind, you should see Turkey Sammich's CT, THAT was taken out of context.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

An interesting day.

My welding gas bottle was empty. I need it for the upcoming door bar fabrication, so that is what I did first thing this morning.

While returning from the welding supply company, I decided to stop in to a body shop to see if they'd be interested in finishing the hood that is kicking my ass. The hood is close to being finished, but when the body work is complex with a bunch of detail involved, what would take a pro maybe 2-3 hours to finish would take me a day or more. The hood is the stalling point. If I could just get that done, I'd have a renewed outlook towards getting the rest of the car ready for paint, and quit putting it off.

The place I chose had some nice looking work sitting in the front, so in I go.

A worker greets me and asks if he can help. I tell him what I want, and he re-directs me to the owner building a ramp into the side of the dumpster.
When I ask the worker what the owner is doing, he tells me that the shop dog is at the bottom of the dumpster, evidently lured in by something that smelled good. Higher ground on the outside obviously made jumping in a lot easier than jumping out.

When I walk over to talk to the guy, sure enough, there is a big assed pit bull sitting in the bottom of the dumpster. The owner is building a ramp similar to the one that you see in a chicken coop, with rungs to allow extra traction.
I introduce myself, tell the guy what I want, and he drops what he's doing so we can go and talk with his son.

He leaves the poor pit bull sitting in the dumpster wondering WTH the master just went. ROT-ROH!

Once inside I meet the owners son, and whip out my phone so I can show him a picture of the hood. With the notion of pictures being discussed, all of the shop employees gather round to catch a glimpse. I show a lot more of the car than just the hood.
The one guy that first greeted me looks over my shoulder, and asked what kind of car the pics were of. I tell him a Fairmont Futura.

He says, "I've only seen one of them cars that I liked, and it was fast as hell" I didn't even know what the hell the car was back then, but that guy was flyin." Used to watch him at Lassiter Dragway, he'd drive that thing in and just bust everybodies' ass.
When was that I ask?
Been a long time,....Back in the early 90's.
I scroll through my pictures and produce one.

Did it look like this? I ask the guy.

"THATS IT!" The guy just about yells. "Was that you?"

Yep, that was me. My head now was as swollen as a balloon.

"Man that car was cool!" The guy tells me. Thanks I said....."It's been a long time since anybody has talked about that car,..That was the first of 6 that I've had since then."

We all settle down.

The owner's son says he can do it, but would only give me a rough estimate of 200.00-250.00 to finish it, and put it in prime. That, plus the owner wanted a ride in it when it was done.

Not a bad price considering it would free me up to finish the other things.

"I'll have to think about it." I say. I thank them, and the owner returns to building the escape ramp for the pit bull.

I leave and go home. I decided to give the hood one more try to get it close enough to not need the services of that shop.

I spend the rest of the day sanding, and waiting, sanding and waiting. It's close. Not done, but close.
The fenders got the same treatment, they are equally close.

It starts to rain, and I had to go to the store and buy groceries anyway, so that brings the day to a shorter than usual end. I pack up all my junk and put it all back in the garage.

But,.....

Did you ever tell yourself that you were done for the day, only to turn right around, and do something else?

It's supposed to rain tomorrow I think. For that reason, I push the car an additional 6' into the garage. For whatever reason, I grub around through my tool drawers looking to find the windshield removal tool I bought for the front glass. I wanted to see how hard it was gonna be to cut the rear glass out of the car.

Evidently,..not too bad.

In reality, It' would have been a bitch. My saving grace was the fact that the bottom hadn't bedded into the old ribbon sealant. After I got both sides cut down, I was able to lift the glass like it was on a hinge. All it took to get i free after that was a box cutter. The thing came off the car intact. Too bad it's covered in weld spatter, and grinding sparks,....It was good before I started building the car.

So,...no real pics to go with the update,...you all know what my hood and fenders look like. But who knew I was such a celebrity?

 

[Davedacarpainter]

An interesting day.

My welding gas bottle was empty. I need it for the upcoming door bar fabrication, so that is what I did first thing this morning.

While returning from the welding supply company, I decided to stop in to a body shop to see if they'd be interested in finishing the hood that is kicking my ass. The hood is close to being finished, but when the body work is complex with a bunch of detail involved, what would take a pro maybe 2-3 hours to finish would take me a day or more. The hood is the stalling point. If I could just get that done, I'd have a renewed outlook towards getting the rest of the car ready for paint, and quit putting it off.

The place I chose had some nice looking work sitting in the front, so in I go.

A worker greets me and asks if he can help. I tell him what I want, and he re-directs me to the owner building a ramp into the side of the dumpster.
When I ask the worker what the owner is doing, he tells me that the shop dog is at the bottom of the dumpster, evidently lured in by something that smelled good. Higher ground on the outside obviously made jumping in a lot easier than jumping out.

When I walk over to talk to the guy, sure enough, there is a big assed pit bull sitting in the bottom of the dumpster. The owner is building a ramp similar to the one that you see in a chicken coop, with rungs to allow extra traction.
I introduce myself, tell the guy what I want, and he drops what he's doing so we can go and talk with his son.

He leaves the poor pit bull sitting in the dumpster wondering WTH the master just went. ROT-ROH!

Once inside I meet the owners son, and whip out my phone so I can show him a picture of the hood. With the notion of pictures being discussed, all of the shop employees gather round to catch a glimpse. I show a lot more of the car than just the hood.
The one guy that first greeted me looks over my shoulder, and asked what kind of car the pics were of. I tell him a Fairmont Futura.

He says, "I've only seen one of them cars that I liked, and it was fast as hell" I didn't even know what the hell the car was back then, but that guy was flyin." Used to watch him at Lassiter Dragway, he'd drive that thing in and just bust everybodies' ass.
When was that I ask?
Been a long time,....Back in the early 90's.
I scroll through my pictures and produce one.

Did it look like this? I ask the guy.

"THATS IT!" The guy just about yells. "Was that you?"

Yep, that was me. My head now was as swollen as a balloon.

"Man that car was cool!" The guy tells me. Thanks I said....."It's been a long time since anybody has talked about that car,..That was the first of 6 that I've had since then."

We all settle down.

The owner's son says he can do it, but would only give me a rough estimate of 200.00-250.00 to finish it, and put it in prime. That, plus the owner wanted a ride in it when it was done.

Not a bad price considering it would free me up to finish the other things.

"I'll have to think about it." I say. I thank them, and the owner returns to building the escape ramp for the pit bull.

I leave and go home. I decided to give the hood one more try to get it close enough to not need the services of that shop.

I spend the rest of the day sanding, and waiting, sanding and waiting. It's close. Not done, but close.
The fenders got the same treatment, they are equally close.

It starts to rain, and I had to go to the store and buy groceries anyway, so that brings the day to a shorter than usual end. I pack up all my junk and put it all back in the garage.

But,.....

Did you ever tell yourself that you were done for the day, only to turn right around, and do something else?

It's supposed to rain tomorrow I think. For that reason, I push the car an additional 6' into the garage. For whatever reason, I grub around through my tool drawers looking to find the windshield removal tool I bought for the front glass. I wanted to see how hard it was gonna be to cut the rear glass out of the car.

Evidently,..not too bad.

In reality, It' would have been a ****. My saving grace was the fact that the bottom hadn't bedded into the old ribbon sealant. After I got both sides cut down, I was able to lift the glass like it was on a hinge. All it took to get i free after that was a box cutter. The thing came off the car intact. Too bad it's covered in weld spatter, and grinding sparks,....It was good before I started building the car.

So,...no real pics to go with the update,...you all know what my hood and fenders look like. But who knew I was such a celebrity?

A star is born.

 

[mikestang63]

An interesting day.

My welding gas bottle was empty. I need it for the upcoming door bar fabrication, so that is what I did first thing this morning.

While returning from the welding supply company, I decided to stop in to a body shop to see if they'd be interested in finishing the hood that is kicking my ass. The hood is close to being finished, but when the body work is complex with a bunch of detail involved, what would take a pro maybe 2-3 hours to finish would take me a day or more. The hood is the stalling point. If I could just get that done, I'd have a renewed outlook towards getting the rest of the car ready for paint, and quit putting it off.

The place I chose had some nice looking work sitting in the front, so in I go.

A worker greets me and asks if he can help. I tell him what I want, and he re-directs me to the owner building a ramp into the side of the dumpster.
When I ask the worker what the owner is doing, he tells me that the shop dog is at the bottom of the dumpster, evidently lured in by something that smelled good. Higher ground on the outside obviously made jumping in a lot easier than jumping out.

When I walk over to talk to the guy, sure enough, there is a big assed pit bull sitting in the bottom of the dumpster. The owner is building a ramp similar to the one that you see in a chicken coop, with rungs to allow extra traction.
I introduce myself, tell the guy what I want, and he drops what he's doing so we can go and talk with his son.

He leaves the poor pit bull sitting in the dumpster wondering WTH the master just went. ROT-ROH!

Once inside I meet the owners son, and whip out my phone so I can show him a picture of the hood. With the notion of pictures being discussed, all of the shop employees gather round to catch a glimpse. I show a lot more of the car than just the hood.
The one guy that first greeted me looks over my shoulder, and asked what kind of car the pics were of. I tell him a Fairmont Futura.

He says, "I've only seen one of them cars that I liked, and it was fast as hell" I didn't even know what the hell the car was back then, but that guy was flyin." Used to watch him at Lassiter Dragway, he'd drive that thing in and just bust everybodies' ass.
When was that I ask?
Been a long time,....Back in the early 90's.
I scroll through my pictures and produce one.

Did it look like this? I ask the guy.

"THATS IT!" The guy just about yells. "Was that you?"

Yep, that was me. My head now was as swollen as a balloon.

"Man that car was cool!" The guy tells me. Thanks I said....."It's been a long time since anybody has talked about that car,..That was the first of 6 that I've had since then."

We all settle down.

The owner's son says he can do it, but would only give me a rough estimate of 200.00-250.00 to finish it, and put it in prime. That, plus the owner wanted a ride in it when it was done.

Not a bad price considering it would free me up to finish the other things.

"I'll have to think about it." I say. I thank them, and the owner returns to building the escape ramp for the pit bull.

I leave and go home. I decided to give the hood one more try to get it close enough to not need the services of that shop.

I spend the rest of the day sanding, and waiting, sanding and waiting. It's close. Not done, but close.
The fenders got the same treatment, they are equally close.

It starts to rain, and I had to go to the store and buy groceries anyway, so that brings the day to a shorter than usual end. I pack up all my junk and put it all back in the garage.

But,.....

Did you ever tell yourself that you were done for the day, only to turn right around, and do something else?

It's supposed to rain tomorrow I think. For that reason, I push the car an additional 6' into the garage. For whatever reason, I grub around through my tool drawers looking to find the windshield removal tool I bought for the front glass. I wanted to see how hard it was gonna be to cut the rear glass out of the car.

Evidently,..not too bad.

In reality, It' would have been a ****. My saving grace was the fact that the bottom hadn't bedded into the old ribbon sealant. After I got both sides cut down, I was able to lift the glass like it was on a hinge. All it took to get i free after that was a box cutter. The thing came off the car intact. Too bad it's covered in weld spatter, and grinding sparks,....It was good before I started building the car.

So,...no real pics to go with the update,...you all know what my hood and fenders look like. But who knew I was such a celebrity?

can;t wait for the movie to come out.. Who's going to be cast in the role of Mad Mike?

 

[stykthyn]

can;t wait for the movie to come out.. Who's going to be cast in the role of Mad Mike?

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Well,...For those of you that don't like my wheel choice, rejoice. I changed them out today.

In light of the upcoming events, and the fact that I actually got 16 new wheels for Christmas from the wife,...I decided to have them mounted, and see if I liked them.
Getting them mounted was no easy task though. Being on a limited budget forced me to get a little creative, and I had to use what I had laying around to make it happen.
But I got it done nonetheless.

The "upcoming events" is the paint job. and the 16 wheels are attached to the HF wheel dollies the wife did in fact buy me for Christmmas. I have had a piece of 4 x 4' 3/4" plywood laying a the front of the garage for about a year now, so it became the mount for the monster to sit on. Now, I can finish stripping the inside wheel wells, and the lower rockers w/o having to dick with the big assed rear tires (that are temporarily stacked in the front of the garage where that piece of plywood used to live)

You actually didn't think I was gonna get rid of my "no-polish" wheels did you?......Not on your life...I'm done with chrome.

I will say the the HF wheel dollies are typical for HF junk. I've had the car sitting on these things with the tires on, and now with these "stilts",...You still about blow a nut trying to get the car to move. I had to manipulate the direction o the casters by hand to get this pig to roll the 2' back into the garage that I pulled it out, so that I could jack up the front end. I can't imagine pushing the car out into the aggregate portion of the driveway,..I'd never get it back in.

Stupid HF junk.

 

[RacEoHolic330]

I have those same dollies, Mike. I had to use a 2x4 under the dolly to pry them forward to get the car to move. Then to move it back, I have to grab the spoke of the wheel and yank back as hard as I can. It's a chore, but ones with nice wheels and bearings cost 3x as much.

And forget about it if you hit a zip tie on the ground.

 

[Phillip123]

I kinda like the first wheels... Can't wait for the movie tho

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

You don't even know how close you really are..

sporting a wide collared, green polyester leisure suit, a crazy assed afro, cut and maintained by my mom, (that's why it isn't).
Where do you think that guy got his inspiration from anyway?

 

[Phillip123]

LOL

 

[jrichker]

You don't even know how close you really are..

sporting a wide collared, green polyester leisure suit, a crazy assed afro, cut and maintained by my mom, (that's why it isn't).
Where do you think that guy got his inspiration from anyway?

You mean that you actually had hair once upon a time?

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

You mean that you actually had hair once upon a time?

It Appears that I had wool,....

 

[stykthyn]

You don't even know how close you really are..

sporting a wide collared, green polyester leisure suit, a crazy assed afro, cut and maintained by my mom, (that's why it isn't).
Where do you think that guy got his inspiration from anyway?

Vote for Pedro

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

OK Dave, @Davedacarpainter. Nows your chance. I'm gonna try to put the G hood in it's first few coats of 2k primer this afternoon I hope. I have a brand new gravity feed gun that has a 2.0 tip, and an old reliable that has a 1.7 tip. The primer I'm using is mixed @ 4:1. It's about 70 out today. I have some warm temp reducer, medium temp, and slow reducer. When I first primed these panels I used old reliable, and dry sprayed the hell out of them. Turned out the gun was filthy. ( never took it completely apart to clean it.) That has been resolved. I also bought a new Chinee 2.0 gun as stated above.

Which reducer, which gun, and what gun pressure?

 

[Noobz347]

I generally go with 5. For just about everything.

 

[Noobz347]

Quick Question:

Is this the dude that was hitting on Donna after Eric left for Africa?

 

[stykthyn]

Quick Question:

Is this the dude that was hitting on Donna after Eric left for Africa?

Mike's no Randy Pearson

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Well. Now that we got the soap opera references out of the way.

DAVE,...must be too busy for me.

I jumped off the cliff, and did it myself anyway.

I used the new Chinee gun with the 2.0 tip.
I set the pressure at the gun to 35psi flowing.
I used the med temp reducer.

I forgot to drain the compressor.

I followed every other step to a T though.
I drained the lines and water trap.
I cleaned the hood with a wax and degreaser thoroughly.
I tacked it off.

I sprayed the first coat and got excellent coverage w/ almost no visible overspray build up.
I waited 15 minutes.
I did the same thing for the second coat
I got water droplets everywhere.

I did all this out under my makeshift, redneck spray booth. The same one I used for the dash bars, the same one that I used for the green wheels. The only difference I could cite today, is that it's overcast. I couldn't see the water in the primer until I went back and looked afterwards.

*PsshhT "Uhh Mission Control,...this is LEM......have LZ in sight,....touch down in 3,...2,....1,... Mission Control, we are on the moon.

Literally,...if you didn't know you were looking at Mike's hood,...It could just as well be the moon.

As expected,...primer reveals what your eyes and hands cannot.

There's still a bunch of work to do.

The center rib is still kinda wonky,..and the front legs of the scoops are kinda weird. Ones thicker than the other, and a couple of the lines are a little screwy.

But it is flat,.......So I got that going for me......Which is nice.

I don't know how much of the wonkiness can be "blocked out" by sanding, but tomorrow, after this thing dries overnight that's what'll happen next. I guess I'll ask ol absent @Davedacarpainter if I'm supposed to do that wet, or dry.
I have a brand new roll of 320 grit longboard paper, as well as some 180G stuff. I intended to use the 320 dry, but I'd imagine that it'll clog just as soon as it hits the primer.

Whatami supposed to use,.......DAVE?

 

[95BlueStallion]

Dont know what youre supposed to use, but you motivated me to get back on my heat extractor hood. Took an easier route this time, and just need to get the pieces painted before assembly. I'll derail your g-thread with a pic or two once its done, since I dont really have my own thread to work with anymore.