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

[CarMichael Angelo]

Once I got the car running the first time. I started working on the interior of the car. I went ahead and pulled everything out of the car except for the dash. The door locks didn't work, so I replaced the door actuators and the truck release actuator. This kinda got everything working. Someone at some point had the great idea to shave the door locks off and the truck lock off... A really crappy aftermarket alarm had been installed that worked as a key-less entry. All the relays had gone bad. After a lot of wire chasing I got it back to stock configuration and the doors and trunk lock as normal. Dont lock the doors and get out though. You cant get back in. I've got to reinstall a key-less entry at some point down the road.

The inside of the car was just gross. I ended up washing and de-greasing everything. It makes it easy when everything is out of the car and you dont have to worry about getting something wet. I ordered all new door gaskets and seal, truck seals, sunroof seals, carpet, armrest pads, center console pad, trunk carpet, rear seat carpet, door handle cups, window belting, and tons of other little things here and there. I also had a new headliner made.

All the plastic was washed, and degreased. I pulled everything out of the car. The black stuff was painted back SEM trim black. Everything else was painted SEM Ladera (kinda gray). The car was titanium, but it looked terrible and I just liked this color.

I washed the factory carpet pad multiple times as it was much thicker than the one on the back of the replacement carpet. When I installed the new carpet I put the old pad down first. Then slowly reinstalled all the plastic bits and the rest of the interior. I'll post some pics later.

Amazon prime to the rescue

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01HRCTD0G/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?ie=UTF8&amp&qid=1547905321&amp&sr=8-6

Put the interior together and order it anyway. We all (the 7 of us watching) know that you'll have to take it apart AGAIN for something soon, so you'll have a chance to install the antenna without making a special trip. So to speak.

I vote to take the side pieces off the handle and do them in wood. I'm sure the tools to do it are laying around. You could even put a little tornado on them with a soldering iron. I think it would bring out the feel of the car.

Then again.... there's no other wood in the car. It would cause you to redo a bunch of stuff to add a wood element that compliments the leather touches. The Monster interior would never get done....so...never mind.

Yeah Mike, show us some wood.......

Nib's are little pieces of foreign matter that get into the paint while it's wet. Typically can be sanded out in the cut and buff stage.

Unless he means " New in Box", which is what nib always meant to me.?

Id imagine that sanding and buffing will change the status of that "nib" in a hurry too.

Q. What would it take to make inserts that mimic the look of the spokes, and (if you can resist) have no writing on them? Maybe black with a metallic center section between the screw heads?
A. For you, just about nothing.

And...in trying to make sure that we keep the the 10-12 that make up this thread involved,........

I like the wood idea..there is enough brown in the interior that walnut ,or rosewood, or any of a dozen other exotic woods could be used in the handles. Had I bought a B&M shifter, I coulda bought already done rosewood side plates,.but they'd have B&M engraved into the wood.
I also like duplicating the steering wheel spoke design, and in the end, that may be what I do, but there's just too much to do worry about the side handles,...( especially if I can just wet sand that silkscreen junk off of the existing side plates).

I'm gonna focus on going forward..if I keep moving sideways,..ill start turning into a hermit crab.

 

[Davedacarpainter]

And...ill start turning into a hermit crab.

Well, ........you're half way there already, right?

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Well, ........you're half way there already, right?

I knew that somebody would jump on that,....glad you're paying attention Dave.

 

[RaggedGT]

I’m still picturing two TVs in one living room

 

[95BlueStallion]

I’m still picturing two TVs in one living room

That’s what I thought too, but I think he put the bigger TV in Kate’s back living room, and the smaller one in his front room. Mike?

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

That’s what I thought too, but I think he put the bigger TV in Kate’s back living room, and the smaller one in his front room. Mike?

That's right, two seperate spaces, ....but both are " living rooms"

Mine......

Hers...

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Well the car stereo fits....but it isn't right.

It opens without interference upfront,...MOF, it's just high enough to miss the shifter completely as it opens.
But When it tilts upward, it doesn't project out enough. The horizontal lower dash bar won't let the screen stand completely vertical. The screen covers the center dash vent, and covers one of the two gear indicator lights that I just put in.

It needs to move out another inch 3/4" so it'll stand vertical. The only way to accomplish that is to space the thing out that much farther., and that means I'll have to modify Blinkin.
Which I don't really wanna do...I like how it looks with the AC controls and the head unit shrouded. If I move that mounting surface out 3/4" there'll barely be a shoulder left to surround the metal mesh.
And it'll still cover the center vent regardless.

If I lower it, and drop the bottom of Blinkin, kinda like I did to Winkin to make the gauge housing accommodate the new gauges, it'll run into the shifter unless the shifter is in low...While that may be an acceptable consideration, when you shut the car off with the screen out, it will store itself automatically once power is cut.

And jam itself against the now forward shifter.

I decided to put that aside, and mess with converting the tail lights over from the sequencing led panels that made up the old Shelby tails, to the LED bulbs that I bought some while back. The problem with that is that there were four wires coming off of the little processor (12v, gnd, brake, and running) that go to the main panel..the main panel is somehow part of the whole sequencing deal. So,..if I can, I'm gonna see if I can't cutdown the LED panels to fit the old comet tail light housings.
But not knowing what'll happen if I just cut a row off of those light panels, I'll wait till tomorrow and call those guys before I trash a set of 500.00 tail lights.

Since that was a fail, it forced me to deal with Blinkin again. I know I'm gonna need to change him one way or the other, and that requires that I remove everything out of it to do that.

Cept the HVAC controls have a freakin capillary tube that prevents me from removing anything unless I remove the dash top, and the gauges, and pull that capillary tube out of the plenum box under the dash.

I ain't doing that.

So I opted for the other route of removing the temp control that had that stinkin cap tube hanging off of it from the back side of the HVAC panel. Scratched the panel up all to hell.

I'm not moving sideways,....I'm walking backwards....No,..I'm running backwards.

 

[95BlueStallion]

I know you aren’t this dense, but just in case.... When I had one of those head units, there was a screen adjustment feature in the settings. It could be set to sit further out/in, or change the angle at which it sat. Still needs to come out more? Mine could be made to sit several inches out from the dash...

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

I know you aren’t this dense, but just in case.... When I had one of those head units, there was a screen adjustment feature in the settings. It could be set to sit further out/in, or change the angle at which it sat. Still needs to come out more? Mine could be made to sit several inches out from the dash...

Not this one. This is a 7" diag screen. it's giant compared to the chassis it retracts into, which is only 6-3/8" deep.
I know that I can change the tilt angle, but there is a physical obstruction preventing that.

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Laying in bed again, thinking about how I fix the fitment issue on the new touchscreen. I really don't want to extend the mount out, and hate the fact that the center vent is covered when the thing is open.
So,..desperate times call for desperate measures.
I could make the thing fit where the center vent is now, and drop the center vent down to where the old radio location was before, or simply move the center vent over. That'll mean the dash top, and gauge pod come back off, but it'll give me a chance to add some wires for the eventual upgrade to MS3x. Most notably SEFI. I want to build a wire bundle, and pass it through the firewall so that I can have all of that stuff coiled and hanging at both ends when/if I ever upgrade the thing.
It'll also allow me to deal with the the future possibility of adding a full time onboard computer to hold the Tunerstudio program
Again, if I choose to deal with that.
The head unit has provisions for a back up camera, a microphone for hands free integration of my phone, and can have Sirius and Nav added as options. For sure, I'm gonna add Sirius, but I'll forego the Nav, opting to let my phone do that through Android auto.
I'd like to add the camera, but having seen how bad a lot of factory b/u cameras look, I can't tolerate a crappy looking image that I had to pay for, so I'm Leary of that.

Moving the thing up will solve al lof my issues/concerns for the aesthetics when the screen is open, but will create a big gaping hole in Blinkin where the old radio used to be. Easily solved with a new cover plate, but what to stick back in that space is the question....

I need a place to mount the phone.
I need to display the two gears ( overdrive "4", and lockup, "5" ) You'd think that you could just buy little 12v lights with numbers on them, but you can't.
I have a boost gauge that's just sitting in a drawer doing nothin.
I'll have to deal with the vent that the car stereo will sit in..
I need to install a panel mount for the USB cable coming off the back of the head unit.
It's gonna be okay,..I got more than enough junk to fill this space up.

 

[six_sigma]

Hey Mike, if you have the option to put onboard nav in you might want to, if it's reasonably priced. You never know when your cell service is going to go out and when it does, bye bye navigation, and it of course happens in the most inconvenient back woods locations.

 

[General karthief]

This is a domestic monster, he don't go in no back woods.

 

[95BlueStallion]

Except the ones he lives in...

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Except the ones he lives in...

Whhaaaa??

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Everytime I've taken one of those personality profile tests they always say the same thing.

I'm a Driver, High "D", I have an overly dominant, narcissistic personality that doesn't jive well when I'm not in control of things in my life.

I know this.

A lot of you have probably figured that out as well. The Monster on the other hand, evidently didn't know it.
He found out today...I don't think he'll be back talking me anytime soon.

I found out a lot of stuff,....
#1. Even though I intend to have Sirius, I don't need the antenna. Much in the same way that I intend to use Android auto for my Nav, the current Sirius account I have allows me to stream it through my phone as well.
So,....no need for the goofy magnetic antenna.
#2. Rather than cut up the LED tail light panels, I'm gonna modify the housings that came with the Shelby tail lights instead.
I called the guy that sells them, and he told me that I can cut off one panel completely. The tails will sequence two panels instead of three.
#3. The side plate on the shifter is powder coated aluminum. Sand off the sides, and you get a black outlined insert. I still have to work the scratches out and polish them shiny..but...fixt.

The car stereo has moved on up to a Deeluxe apartment in the sky.

This is where ol G buddy thought he was gonna try a " No said the finger" on me...
I got out my sawzall, and cut that finger clean the hell off.
It was tenuous..running a sawzall blade along the top and bottom of those bars, cutting off the welded backer that the mesh is sandwiched against. I had to worry about the blade cutting into the bars, cutting through wires, or kicking back and jamming against the front of the bars. ( that happened,...you can see the little doink marks in the top bar)
Fortunately, I only spot welded the backer every 6" or so...there was a hole in the dash in about an hour.
The rest of the day I was either running around chasing my tail,...or screaming at the top of my lungs after I tried to relocate that center vent to Blinkin...
The vent hose was too short.
I learned this, " after" I mounted the head unit..now I have to take it apart so I can move the center vent 10" to the right.
But in the end....and aside from the fact that I'm gonna have to take it back apart so I can add back the center vent.
I have a touchscreen head unit that isn't covering up anything when it's open.

Go sit in a corner Monster....

 

[95BlueStallion]

And it’s in a nicer line of sight at that height versus looking down while possibly driving. Nice job, good work, keep it up.

 

[a91what]

It always amazes me how much you get done in such a short time.....

 

[General karthief]

I bet he figured out most of it while in bed and the rest on the fly when he got to fiddling around in the monster lair

 

[CarMichael Angelo]

Well come hell or high water, I ordered the stuff to connect the old computer to my new car stereo.
( This was the whole reason for the upgrade....you guys didn't think I was creating all of this headache because I wanted to display Sirius meta-data on a larger screen, did you?)
I think I can make that work.
I figured out the whole led panel sequencing thing..I have modified the old Shelby housings to work with the Comet tail lights.
I just gotta finish, and paint the tail light panel so I can get that done, and behind me.

I PM'd Steve this morning regarding the ms3x upgrade....he responded. Despite that, I still see no reason to upgrade.

I will never convert the thing over to LS coils ( I think they look like ass unless they are mounted directly to the valve cover, and I think coils mounted directly to the valve cover beg to fail from heat, and vibration...and I think remote mounted coils offer zero benefit over EDIS...)
So,.......One strike.
The thing works beautifully in batch fire mode...converting over to SEFI is just additional complexity that I don't want in my life.
Two strikes.
The fear........the fear of doing something that negates the positive gains I currently enjoy over the possibilities of this upgrade....
( Who was it that said " if it ain't broke, don't fix it?")
Strike Tha-Ree!!!

I got 7-8 projects at least goin on here, just trying to get the monster running for 2019:
The new tails
The hood, and trunk redo.
The new Head unit.
The new shifter, and related work to blend that dude into the new console.
The PC integration.
The other side stripe.
Putting the thing back to a running state.
Adding in the new rear speakers.

I do not need anything else to distract me.

 

[90sickfox]

Seems like the car was running great last year...so, I understand why you don't want to change it.

I would like to integrate my laptop into my car as well...but probably never will. There's no real reason for me to do that right now no matter how cool it would be.