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

So,...for the sake of being an "official update" and because I get to steal pictures that Dave has already taken, and posted,...here is the official recap of the weekend.

The rescheduled paint date was this weekend. I picked up my friend Dave (The painter) from the airport at 2PM friday afternoon. 1 hour later were were at my house, in "paint clothes" and working in earnest to get the car ready for paint. The hood that I had been obsessing over for months was the first thing I wanted him to look at and surprisingly, he said that it was actually pretty good.
(I swore the thing was gonna look like ass)

Granted, it wasn't "ready for prime time" as it sat, and it took him two hours of finessing the thing, but soon enough, he was ready to call it done. he primed the thing for a final blocking.

The rest of the day, and up until midnight, we spent prepping the separate pieces,...getting them ready for paint. By midnight, they were ready.
We called it quits, and got some sleep. Because it gets so hot here by 10 AM, he wanted to get back at it early enough to beat the heat. "Early for him is before dawn.......Considering that I actually hadn't really slept, getting up at all was a major chore in of itself,....but eventually,...I drug my ass downstairs, and we were back at it by 6AM.

As with everything on this car,....nothing has went completely perfect. And in keeping with that tradition, the pressure switch on the compressor failed. In other words, it would not turn on when I turned it "on". It just sat there and stared back at me. After a few panicked moments, I managed to remove the cover of the compressor pressure switch, and by some quirk, decided to stick a screwdriver into a slot and forced the contacts closed to get the compressor to restart. But, as soon as I removed the screwdriver, the thing quit.,.....so I spent the entire weekend sticking a screwdriver into a slot on a switch that had 220 volts wired to it......


The separates painted w/o incident. By the time we were done with them, and as fast as the paint was drying however, Dave decided to forego trying to paint the car at that time, so we basically spent the rest of the time prepping the car for paint. I had him two tone the tail light recess.

Done by 3, day one was put to rest. We had a party to go to at 6 PM, so we had to clean up, and get ready for that.

We didn't stay late at all given that we had this day in front of us,..matter of fact, we were home by 10. All I'll say about the party, is that Dave enjoyed himself....... Thoroughly.

Back out in the garage at 6 AM this morning, we got back to business.

Even though I took precautions and tried to keep the dirt at bay, I still managed to get dirt in the paint. I also had a water spattering issue, but not for lack of draining the lines and compressor,....there was just water in the hose as a result on a non-stop running compressor, that occasionally made it's way out onto the paint.

Dave says it's not the end of the world, but I'd just as soon not had it happen.

So, that brings me to the end of the talking...........

That brings you to the beginning of the pictures.



Let's just say that I don't like my picture taken.










And everything put up,...waiting on my next opportunity to see if I cant scratch something.

And then there's Dave, and me..... If not for him,...none of this would be here today..Almost 48 hours to the minute, I dropped our buddy Dave off at the airport.



Thanks Dave,.....You are definitely THE MAN.

So,...what's next then?......

Final paint work needs to be done to the cowl. Something that Dave simply did not have time to get to. That means yours truly has to do it. Once the cowl is painted to match the black scheme on the hood, the major paint work is done, and the parts can start to go back on......

I'll be able to assemble the fenders, hood, and trunk. Clearly a very dangerous time for somebody prone to fcking up. Then the color sanding and buffing.

Then the grille, the front splitter, and the rear duck tail.

The wheels,...originally gloss black, sanded, painted a green-gold color, then soda blasted clean to remove that. Now are going back to black. Only Satin this time,..with a body color band painted over what used to be a polished lip.

That's done,...It's a definite, as in not open for discussion.

Glass after that, and then all of the trim that surrounds it, painted in trim black. I'll have the windows tinted as dark as I can get away with in this state.

Interior will be last.

So,...how much time is that?

A month? Two months? By the end of the year?

It don't matter actually,..The monster is on my time table now.....How ever long it takes him, it takes him. When this car rolls,...you'll know it's coming.