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

95BlueStallion said:

Hmmm, sand paper. Good talk guys. Now about the rear end of the Gila lookin like a big Chevrolet emblem... Oh, and what do you thing about closing in your spoiler brackets? Im sure its just me, but the hollow triangles just look a little funny for some reason.

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Hey,...at least were talkin. You stop by on your way to buy fertilizer, pesticide or feed corn every once in a blue moon to tell me that the recess that'll have Shelby tail lights reminds you of a bowtie emblem on a chevrolet.

Sheesh,...some peoples kids.

And FYI, I have considered doing something w/ those plain ol brackets, only I don't think plating the sides is the solution.

I was thinking something more "internal"

Granted. Not to scale, Not properly centered, and not the same shaped triangle, and drawn in 5 minutes on a paint program. I have always considered inserting this little Japanese throwing knife kinda looking thingy in the middle to make the thing a little less primitive. But IDK.

That will be a lot of additional work to gain little more than that.

95BlueStallion said:

Technically I have been captivated by my new (to me) Buell motorbike. But yes, I have been peeking in from time to time to see how many things you have done 5-6 times. Just to give you a laugh, yesterday I bought a used stock hood for my car. A guy at work bought a 2012 black V6 Camaro, and I cant stand that my car shares any resemblance. I still have my stock hood, and will one day continue on with it, but not anytime soon. As far as your brackets, maybe if you just made them narrower (just enough to screw into), that would make them stand out less... Is there any material that can be removed as such, or are they already as narrow as possible?

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Ahhhh.....you just added to the "Why should I listen to this guy?" quotient.

I didn't know that your eyesight is so bad.

( cause if you think a Camaro hood, and your belly button's hood look the same just because they're flat).............

You must be blind.

The mounts are made from 3/4" wide stock. I could've made them from 1/2" stuff just the same, I guess. Granted, that ain't happening because I actually have to roll the mount at the base to match the curve of the trunk, and because the mounts are all different w/ regard to bolt hole height, getting something new to match perfectly would be a pain in the ass.

You'll just have to add my thicker than you'd like Gila tail mounts to your " I do not like that about Mikes car" list for future water cooler gossip.

jrichker said:

You want one of these for the valve cover...



or



It's called an AN bulkhead fitting. The nut and a big washer would secure it in the grommet.

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Those things are all over this car,"j". ( 7) -12's, (3) -10's, and (2) -6's.
I was thinkin that that was what I was gonna try and use. Only all I'm gonna be able to do ( w/o cutting my new valve cover ) is push the male end into the rubber grommet.

Both holes in the new cover have these cast in cones that taper from 3/4" at the top, to about 1/2" at the bottom ( guess they're supposed to keep oil splash out of that hole that way). So left as is, all I can do is push in the bulkhead fitting.

Well today I traded breathing one type of dust, for another.

I traded Bondo dust, for Sawdust.

Tired of having to either push around, or completely move the equivalent of 1-1/2 sheets of 1/2" MDF, I decided to cut it into smaller pieces.



And put them where I always intended them to go.

They call this thing a rear seat delete. Right now, I call it a pile of wood behind the front seats.

The purpose is obviously to hide the ductwork the feeds the rear heat exchanger. Having to consider several design objectives, the first was building the thing so that it can be easily pulled apart should I need to. On the opposite side of that street, that had to be done so that when the thing is in there, it doesn't look like an ugly wooden box. Lastly, it has to be sturdy, and solid. There is going to be a 12" sub in the trunk that will rattle the hell out of anything that isn't locked down, so I got a few hurdles to over come.

It's going to be covered in black "no back" carpet, w/ a separate different color, and material in the center that will act as a cover plate to hide the two separate sides.





This took a full day to get to this point, and there is at least that much to get it finished. Once I get all of the pieces parts to fit, I'll take the thing back out, and reassemble it outside to shape it. The square sharp edges get rounded over w/ a router, and some padding will get added to will fill a "soft gap" between the edges that are along the sides that butt up against the interior quarter panels. Lastly they'll all get covered, and put aside until time to install them for real.

Real quickly.

I did some more work towards completing the rear seat delete, but there is nothing more to see than what there was yesterday.

I decided to put the new valve cover on permanently, and that required that I solve the dilemma on how to get a -12 bulkhead fitting installed at the rear of the cover for the vent.

I already had a -12 straight bulkhead fitting and the nut,....what I didn't have was the plastic washers to seal the thing. I grubbed around.

I found a couple of stainless washers that used to go to some torrington bearings for a C/O kit that I used to have. They fit really tightly, so much so that I had to clearance them to fit over the threads. But a tight fit was what I was after, so all-in-all they'll work fine.



If you look you can see the cast on "cone" that I had to cut off, and grind down to get it smooth enough for a nut to seal. I guess it serves as a oil baffle of sorts, all I know was that it had to go.

When I had the old cover in place and had the leak, I tried adding additional silicone on top of the gasket to seal the damn thing. That didn't stop the leak. What it did mean, was that I had to pry that one and only cork gasket (that I just can't go down to AutoZone and buy new) back off the head so I could clean it. While I managed that w/o too much difficulty, I did find absolution on my decision to buy the expensive new valve cover.



Hopefully the camera caught the wet oil that was under the bottom of the gasket. This is where the oil was getting past the area where the old cover didn't have a bolt to hold it tight. I just figured that 1/4" thick aluminum bar turned on its end didn'tneed a buttload of bolts to hold it tight enough to seal. Evidently, I was wrong.

Lastly,....that new valvecover just seemed like it was missing something.

I remedied that.



I was able to pry the old script off of the old valvecover. The fact that I could left me even more convinced that buying the new one was for the best. Who knows how long that stuff would've stayed glued together?
Back on the RSD. Today, I went downtown and threw 100.00 at some guy selling upholstery.

I decided that I was going to cover the panels that make up the rear seat delete in a trunk carpet. A really lightweight, backless carpet typically used on sub woofer enclosures. I wanted it because it's more pliable, and way thinner than your typical "no back" carpet.

It is about 1/8" thick. Something I should've considered when I made the panels, but again,.......what's my name?

When every piece was cut to fit w/o the carpet in place, things change after all the edges are wrapped. That meant that the piece that fits in between is now about 1/2" too long/wide/high. Fortunately, only one piece on each side fits that criteria, so its not too bad.

Now if I could just remember which side is up before I wrap it,.......I wont have to that that twice..................again.

I managed to get one side done and fitted. The top piece is made out of three pieces,..(because it's just easier to make 1/2" MDF do what you want it to do when it's shorter, and easier to manage.) In this case, "what I needed it to do" was bend. Significantly.

It was still asking too much of my limited cabinet making skills. I tried to clamp the thing across the top and glue it, but that was not to be. I ended up shaping the thing w/ a grinder, and finished it w/ a sander.
I put (4 )1/4" bolts in the rear firewall (what remains of it anyway) and held them there w/ 1/4" speed nuts when the center unit is placed in there it gets bolted in now, as opposed to sheet metal screws.
Well you can look,...I took pictures.



You can see the curve of the top plate that I had to create. It turned out pretty good all things considered. I will finish the other side tomorrow. What I'm gonna do w/ that gap in the center,..I'm still undecided.

It's a damn shame.

There's more activity on this thread when I don't post something, compared to when I do.

You guys just take it from here.

Noobz can put pictures of his nerdy assed robot collection in here and claim their mine, blue stallion can take bets on whether or not I'm dead,
Ragged GT can poke me in the eye,
And A91 what can make recommendations for stuff I'm already doing.