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

What a great freakin weekend.

Friday night I get to go see the new Magnificent Seven ( Good movie). Come home and have a great dinner w/ custom cut, (by an actual butcher shop) fillet mignon as the centerpiece.

Saturday night, I meet the wife at one of our bars. It was so freakin cool. I was there first, straight from work, and she comes in an hour later lookin' all smokin hot and comes over and gives me a kiss. The last time we "met" at a bar was pre-kids.

Sunday......Monster time.:woowoo:

But,...


It didn't start that way.

#2 decided that he didn't want the upkeep required to keep the 86 Mustang up to par,..so we helped him buy another car. The car that he ended up with was a 2005 Buick Le sabre. ( I have since nick-named that car "The Sword") That car was a super well kept up, low mile trade in that I was lucky enough to intercept on his behalf.
That car,...decided to sht a heater core a couple of days ago. Today i was gonna attempt to replace it.

It took me 30 minutes to come to this determination:

N.F.W.

No online you-tube out there with decent pics, and step-by-step removal instructions, found me breaking two trim fasteners within minutes of attempting this,..and no detailed instructions out there to keep me from breakin more junk, had me throwing in the towel almost as quickly as I started.

Resigning myself to the fact that I'm gonna have to pay an "expert" 350-550.00 on Monday left me with...............................no plans.

So what else to do but monster work?

I decided to finish the console and the driver's door panel.

The console needed the trim pieces painted so that the whole rest of the thing could be bolted together.

So,...that's what I did.


So,..what we got here is the done deal. Both circuit switches wired in to activate Overdrive, and lock up,...Bot Yeti coolers serving as "fillers" to take up the slack that was there with the original cup holders, and the trim strips, and shifter know screwed down and locked.

I moved to the door.


I had to remove the speaker box cover so that I could get my arm in the door high enough to hold the backer plate that allowed me to secure the front of the door bar.


Now you can see the goofy assed door window motor. I had to run the window up to install the backer and that system works like a champ.

Once I had that little tab bolted to the door, I was able to bolt the door par (now that it was painted) in place.


I still have to stain the little armrest (standing out in the pic like a beacon) and see if I can find a different bolt alternative to hold the bar on. But other than that, this side is done.

This side has taken days......no,.... make that weeks. Between installing the window regulator, the weather stripping, and then building the door panel, the speaker box, and the door bar, then building all of the stuff that trims it out It has proven a daunting task in of itself.
The other side only has a roughed in door bar to work from,.so I'm thinkin a month before I get that side to a point equal to the driver's door.

95BlueStallion said:

Man, I liked it before, but the "finished" product is top notch. I wondered if your speaker box was that size for acoustic reasons or what, and now I know. Its a cool idea that flows as well as it functions hiding that motor system.

Click to expand...

That's the intent. I needed something to offset the flatness of the panel, while giving me room to mount that motor system. Originally, I had it all inside the bottom of the door, but still needed some stand off for the speaker magnet so it wouldn't crash into the front edge of the window glass.

Now I know what that dude felt like that built Mt Rushmore.

Everyday, (and I know I say this all the time) I think I'm gonna make something happen,....and all I have at the end of the day are a pile of debris.

I had to meet some guy this morning that was gonna look at buying the 86 that # 2 used to drive. So I meet dude at 9, he says he'll think about it. I never hear from him again.

When I returned home, I decided to install the new sill plates that Fearnot so graciously sent me.

Before I could do that however, I had to install the kick panel.

Before I could install the kick panel,..I had to wire and mount the external crossover for the component speaker system. I decided that I'd just insert the crossover in the pocket behind the kick panel.
It rattled.

So I "insulated" it.

Now,.....I don't have to tell you. I'm not the kind of guy that's gonna post up a pic of my brilliantly hacked together solution to keep my crossover from rattling,...lets just say that it doesn't rattle and I'm ok with that.

Then I fitted the kick panel in place.

Are you ready to participate?

Put your hand over your mouth and gasp in a OHH My _ _ _ _ _ _ _ GOD!!!.

I cut the carpet too low,.....the kick won't cover it.



Since I was in Cobble mode,...I had to glue a piece of the carpet to the back of the existing carpet to fill the gap. (Again,.....just like Trumps tax return,......you'll never see that either).

I installed the kick, and the sill plate.



Fits like a glovie.

This would lead me to believe that Fairmont and Mustang share similar door opening sizes. That kinda makes it possible to imagine a really amazing hybrid..

A T top Fairmont Futura...


It could happen!!

Just not by me.

Anyway, back from La-La Land,...I decided to try and button up as much of the dash as possible I needed to hook up the bluetooth microphone and that required that I go backwards and remove the pieces that I have screwed into place so that I could get to the back of the head unit. Once I did that I realized that I had also forgotten to allow for a stinkin AM/FM antenna.

And I didn't have one.

So, back in Mike's Mini, back at AZ so I could spend 15 bucks on a stinkin' chrome antenna w/ a fixed mast and the right rectangular base. It just wasn't the right color.

That got scuffed,..primed in rattle can etching primer, (SEM,...the good stuff), and coated in SEM trim black.

I put the thing loosely on the fender just so I wont have to go hunting it later. (I still have to cut and buff that side).


I ran the cable to the back of the head unit, and put the center piece back in place.

Then,...decided to bolt the seats in place.

As usual,...the brackets no longer fit. The bolts were now too short, and would not allow me to get a nut on them by any stretch. That meant that I had to remove the existing through bolts that were welded in place at the bolt head.

Get the picture? Do you now have an idea of where the rest of the day went?

Yep. Trying to beat out and re-do 4 bolts took two hours.

Then,...for what ever reason one seat refused to go back in. The other seat could be swapped side to side (trust me when I say this,...the one seat fit on either side,..the other wouldn't fit either.) It was too short. Something had changed. I ended up bending the bracket forward to get it to fit.

I finally won the battle.

The seats were filthy and they still are in the pic. (You would be too if you sat in my garage uncovered for 18 months) So I cleaned them up superficially for the pic.(There's always tomorrow)



This is what you see when you're riding shotgun. If you try hard enough,..you'll also see the carpet gap at the bottom of the kick plate.

And how can we forget my little adopted oriental step child...



Little Fuje..all set to go on a trip. I can almost hear him asking.........Are we there yet Dad?

Not yet Fuje,........not yet.



Sunday,..we got big doin's

The glass goes in.

-

95BlueStallion said:

Your kick panels dont match the rest of the panels, and your cowl still looks not right. But that interior is looking cool as hell!

Click to expand...

Ok Eagle eye,.....I could see if you said that there was a color mis-match on the kicks if they were up against something to compare them against,...but they aren't. None of the dyed pieces match the carpet.

This was your opportunity to point out the obvious:

Missed it!!!......
The metal piece that spans over the door opening is the new dye,..the quarter, and the C pillar trim are original color. You can see the difference when they are up against each other.

How are you seeing that with the kick panel? Do you have some sort of color-match chip installed in your brain that allows you to reference color in a new picture from a previously posted pic? or did you think that the carpet matched the original dye color better , and you're going from.....recollection?

As for the Cowl,......That is another day.

Several "another day's" matter of fact. I see what you see. But it don't bug me bad enough to alter the course of the progress to scuff and mask that portion off and paint it HRB like the hood.
If, and when I do do it,.......a gold pinstripe will separate the colors.

Put your bit chin flips flops on for that one now,....cause the only reason that there isn't a stripe there now, is that the orange surround on the cowl breaks up the black line to the windshield right now. When that changes,......it's gold stripin' time.

95BlueStallion said:

I just thought that the kick panel versus the A pillar was off in the same picture. I know the door/dash is leather, so that isnt going to match perfectly, but the kick panel looks very light. I am sure the picture makes it seem worse than how it looks in person though, always does. As for the cowl, I just enjoy giving you sh*t as much as I do watching you build this car. If you changed anything on this car or not, I would still give you sh*t. That is just part of our friendship buddy, get used to it.

Click to expand...

Ohh it's definitely the lighting (or the lack of it) that makes the kick panel look that much lighter. The new paint is actually darker than the original stuff ( as evidenced in the pic I linked).

I have become accustomed to you questioning my decisions, as I'd imagine you've become accustomed to getting poked in the eyes for doing it.