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

Boosted92LX said:

Sorry for the continued derail, but I gotta know.

What's #1?

Click to expand...

Davedacarpainter said:

Going pee pee silly

Click to expand...

madmike1157 said:

I fully intended to go downstairs tonight after work, and bolt the fenders in place, but the wife had other plans..

Looks like a bar was more important.

So, now I'm too "compromised" to even do much more than look at the car.

So that's what I did.

Did I mention that I have a really cool paint job? The Wife and I,...gently swaying in tandem, standing in the garage with it's orange floor, looking at all of the orangeness, and me pointing out the plan to somebody that could give a sht if it would ever run again.....

How poignant.

I don't even care.

Wednesday is partially committed to the same people that I used to sell to. Fixing stuff that they have decided to change midstream,...causing me to lose quality time with my monster,...in exchange for a measly couple of hundred dollars.

Dammit!!

Click to expand...

madmike1157 said:

Wait,....you have thousands of great movies to choose from,....No, scratch that,....... TENS OF THOUSANDS of movies to choose from,......and What movie is your #1 of all time movie again?

The Count of Monte Crisco?

Isn't that a movie about shortening?

Click to expand...

madmike1157 said:

Yeah, the mechanical stuff,....(what little there is of it) I know will go quick.

But there's still fabrication......The passenger side door bar, and panel. The head liner,... (has to be built from square headliner stock).The rear interior quarter panels need some repair as one of them has a piece missing. The two interior A pillar pieces have to be modified to fit the dash top.

Then, despite the fact that I've had 99% of this car bought for what seems like forever now, there still is sht to buy. Gaskets for the trunk, windshield, and that one that runs across the back the firewall specifically.
I think Fox Mustang junk will fit that bill, but I need window run channel. I'll have to find a generic supplier to get that stuff.
Bumpers for the gas door, gaskets that go under the door handle,.... (again Mustang stuff).

I called my glass friend to arrange the windshield install....It looks like it's been so long,...he's now just a "glass acquaintance." He refers me to another guy that's gonna charge me $300.00 to set the front and back glass..(seems high)...and he's not gonna be able to get to me "anytime soon."

Assembly,....of the fenders, hood, trunk will be the motivator,..because I'll have an entire car again and that stuff shouldn't take long at all, provided I can keep from fcking stuff up.

Painting,......lots of nit picky detail stuff. Bolt heads for the fenders, hood, and trunk hinges. All of that stinkin door and glass trim, and the frames around the rear quarter glass.

The G tail, and the G splitter need a good etching primer, and more of the black that is on the hood. The (4) stand offs that hold the G tail have to be painted orange.

So,....all this stuff still in my face.....Guess I'll just wade in and start swinging.

** Edit,..I just looked. I forgot about the wheels,...painting the wheels

Click to expand...

madmike1157 said:

Yeah, the mechanical stuff,....(what little there is of it) I know will go quick.

But there's still fabrication......The passenger side door bar, and panel. The head liner,... (has to be built from square headliner stock).The rear interior quarter panels need some repair as one of them has a piece missing. The two interior A pillar pieces have to be modified to fit the dash top.

Then, despite the fact that I've had 99% of this car bought for what seems like forever now, there still is sht to buy. Gaskets for the trunk, windshield, and that one that runs across the back the firewall specifically.
I think Fox Mustang junk will fit that bill, but I need window run channel. I'll have to find a generic supplier to get that stuff.
Bumpers for the gas door, gaskets that go under the door handle,.... (again Mustang stuff).

I called my glass friend to arrange the windshield install....It looks like it's been so long,...he's now just a "glass acquaintance." He refers me to another guy that's gonna charge me $300.00 to set the front and back glass..(seems high)...and he's not gonna be able to get to me "anytime soon."

Assembly,....of the fenders, hood, trunk will be the motivator,..because I'll have an entire car again and that stuff shouldn't take long at all, provided I can keep from fcking stuff up.

Painting,......lots of nit picky detail stuff. Bolt heads for the fenders, hood, and trunk hinges. All of that stinkin door and glass trim, and the frames around the rear quarter glass.

The G tail, and the G splitter need a good etching primer, and more of the black that is on the hood. The (4) stand offs that hold the G tail have to be painted orange.

So,....all this stuff still in my face.....Guess I'll just wade in and start swinging.

** Edit,..I just looked. I forgot about the wheels,...painting the wheels

Click to expand...

madmike1157 said:

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.

Click to expand...

madmike1157 said:

I have 50 bagillion factory fender bolts. But they're all painted in the wrong color. I guess I'll ask you guys, because it's something I've never paid attention to in a nicer build. I put the fenders on last night and just grabbed up some black headed bolts that I had already prepped for some other folly. They aren't the ones I'll use (at this stage) but getting them to where I'd want them is a pain in the ass.

So Let me ask you..

Do most guys use the factory bolts on a nicer custom build?
If you use the factory bolts, are they the primary color in the paint scheme?

@RacEoHolic330 ? What did you use?

Click to expand...

Boosted92LX said:

I've wondered about this as well, if you paint with it blown apart, how do you paint the bolts and not tear them up during installation? When I did Jr's car, I intentionally put it together so I could mask the engine bay and paint over the bolts.

@Davedacarpainter ??


Edit: not that that was even remotely a "nicer build"...

Click to expand...