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

84Ttop said:

Pictures of the new hood, burnouts, tacos, something....sheesh

Click to expand...

I'm in a new, non offensive post diet.

Since apparently, I'm uncouth, inconsiderate, and use inappropriate,language filter skirting expletives, I've decided to limit my replies to other peoples' threads.

The stuff I do requires commentary.

Since I'm addicted to using drunken sailor talk in my updates, I find that just like an alcoholic needs to stay away from the drink, I have to stay away from the speak. So by limiting my commentary to replying to other threads, I'll be less likely to feed my need to step on the rights of others.

A few things:

( and after some introspection, this will probably be............long. Since there are those that will try and skim this to get to the pictures at the end, ( which there aren't any BTW) I've made a chaptered version so you can read what you want.))

Since this is in effect "my soap box", or my " show", and the only apparent restriction(s) to keeping me on top of the box, or on the air, is to keep the content w/i the forum topic guidelines, and free of non- filtered profanity, then I for the most part, am compliant.
(With a few exceptions, where I did in fact skirt the other filtered words creatively in times past)

The choir has 15 guys in it.

When I update this thread, I don't consider I'm talking to the collective. ( However big that is). I'm talking to the 12-15 regulars that follow. I've been doing it now for years. W/o exception, the way it's done, and has been done hasn't changed. I liken it to a tv show on broadcast TV. There is content in here that some may find objectionable, but by common consensus, most of the respondents like it the way that it is. I'll admit that there really isn't any "need" to use the word ass when I write something (or any other four letter word for that matter) but like I said earlier, I liken this forum to hanging out at one of your shops/garages. When you talk to me in person, it's the same guy that you get here.
At the same time, one could argue that the thread is open to all eyes and I have to be considerate of that. I Agree. So, along those lines, I'll commit to not trying to get a word past the filter if it is blocked. If it flies however, and I choose to use it for whatever reason, it's gonna be.

I can't bring religion, or politics into the fray.

(But if I could). Congress added " In God We Trust", and "Under God" to the currency, and to the pledge in the 50's, To keep the nation from falling under the control of all of the "godless commies" that evidently were everywhere back then. How we managed before that is beyond me. Not being a believer doesn't mean I choose to just willy-nilly step on your rights, demand that those things be removed, or that prayer be removed from school, or at sporting events.
That said, my choice to use the word ass on the phone most assuredly offended the core sensibilities that the other guy had, most likely founded by his efforts to be a good Christian.

The irony here is the core of this argument ( my use of the word) revolves completely around that......who is, and who isn't a good Christian.

For every liberty that some liberal group gives somebody, I.e. Freedom of speech: ( so church groups can picket gay soldiers funerals) freedom of expression: (so somebody can burn the flag my grandfather died defending).......

There is a conservative group trying to stop another from watching something they don't approve of The last temptation of Christ was banned by the local affiliate here). Typically the quickest to step on the religious rights of other faiths:
(Don't try to be a Muslim in America, especially,if you might be a black man who just happens to be the POTUS.) And lastly don't step in my core values w/ your choice to use a 3 letter word in a phone conversation.

That is all I'm gonna say about it. as I said above, I'll "PG" up my updates.
If you don't like what's said in the update after that, then you can filter me, if you're reading it at all after this.

Ok, I'm gonna have to peck on the stupid iPad to do this update. This morning, I updated my iPhone to iOS 9, and it locked my phone into recovery mode. Getting it out of recovery mode requires that iTunes be installed on my computer. My computer has a Win 10 os, and QuickTime doesn't support win 10 Quicktime is part of ITunes, so,...no worky.

Bottom line, no iPhone as of yet. Pics are in this iPad consequently, and there is no photobucket uploader app for iPad, so I'll upload the pics directly from this stupid thing, and deal with the autocorrect.

In between offending people, and me standing on my soap box, I have actually been working on the monster. On my last update, I had to go 40 miles to get a hood from a salvage yard that was ran by Beakie Buzzard. On Tuesday I went up there to get the thing. When I got there I found that it wasn't a salvage yard, but a yard full of salvage cars.

Dudes private property was comprised of 20 acres of cars he " aquired" over the course of 15 years.

When I get there, the first words out of his mouth were "You look familiar".

Turns out, after the rudimentary small talk, he remembered one of the cars I use to run at the local drag strip. I guess that says a lot, considering the car he remembered me for was last ran in 1993. Despite my fame though, it didn't affect the price of the hood one thin dime.....still 100.00.

He walks me through the jungle to get to the fairmont in question, and there it sat: A bucket seat, factory V8 Futura, that for whatever reason, was now rotting away in the woods. There are graphics on the car.........Futura 2002. I kinda laugh at that, but dude swears that that was a factory option. After coming off of my last toe stepping, I chose not to challenge the old guy, but I'm here to tell you,......there ain't no damn such thing as a dealer optioned Futura 2002.

Now if you'll Google that, you'll find that there is in fact one.

A Falcon Futura 2002.............in Australia.

Anyway, I buy the hood, get it back home, and proceed to start stripping the paint off of it.

The hood is pretty rough. Living for countless years in a junkyard has not been nice to my Futura 2002 hood. It has deep scratches all over it. A myriad of small dings and dents, and the stinkin center rib has two dent in it.

It takes me days to even get the thing close to priming.

After thinking about it, I decide to reintegrate the hood scoops back onto the hood. Only this time instead of welding them on, I modify them so they could be bolted on. See, one of the things that bugged me about having an open front scoop welded onto the top of the hood was the fact that there would be un- paintable sheet metal covered by the scoops exposed to water and air. Only a matter of time before that unpainted surface turned to rust, and that wasn't gonna fly. So I decided to change that.

First, I had to get the damn scoops to fit right.

What I ended up doing was removing the welded grille out of the front so that I could " shave" the scoops so that they evened out. What I ended up with were two scoops that were fully 3/8" shorter than they were before, and w/ noticible damage to the sides where the three bolts were welded along the inside edge.

But they fit, and they're the same.

They'll get their appointment w/ Dr Bondo as well.

As pointed out be @84Ttop, there is a good chance that I actually don't even need the clearance above the skin, so the fact that the scoops only stand 1" off the hood is a moot point now. As for the rear Gvents, I believe that I'll pass on cutting them back in. Whether or not I actually cut a hole to either let cold air in, or hot air out under the scoops is still YTD.

What to do with the air that comes off the rear mounted radiators came next. Originally, I planned to just dump it on top of the rear end through a slot cut in the floor, but I thought better of that. It seemed to me that the air would just languish around under the car, and compete with the hot assed air that would come off the road,.........so I'm gonna change that. ( Actually, I already have)


The grille in the rear 2/3rds of the trunk measures 13 x 8. Two 6" flex hoses will go to a plate that is bolted to to bottom side of the trunk by 16 through bolts that sandwich the top plate to the trunk deck. Those two hoses will serve as a exhaust for the G gills that are in front of the rear tires. Two 6" inlets, two 6" outlets coming off fan driven radiators will hopefully augment any air that might get rammed into the G gills on its own.

What about all the water that's gonna go down those holes Mike?

Glad you asked. Those hoses attach to two 6" pieces of exhaust tubing that fits inside the flex pipe at the top of the trunk, and the other end goes into a female sleeve that is welded to the radiator support structure. The old vent will get covered, and become a " gutter" of sorts for the water to drain on top of the rear end housing.

Genius! It's freaking genius I tell you!

Lastly, there is the doors.

In the previous update, I raved about how perfect the doors were after they came back from the soda blaster.

That wasn't exactly accurate.

One door, ( the passenger door) was perfect. The Drivers door?........
Looked like hell.



I swear,.....grandma lived next to a curb, and that crotchety old bag smacked the bottom edge every time she opened the door. She smacked the door into every other blue hairs car that was at church, and they in turn smacked into her. Typically it's the passenger side that gets this banged up, but for whatever bizarro world reason, the drivers side door had all kinds of dings, creases, and dents from the front to the back, from top to bottom. Even the handle recess was bent inward at the front ( stupid old goat,...... I'd trip her at the Sunday ice cream social if she wasn't already dead)

Wait,........Is that inconsiderate of me to talk about a dead person that I don't even know, or to speak in a negative light towards the elderly in general?...

I'm sorry.

At least it worked for this guy.


Any way,........after a few more hours,....I get that side straight enough to prime as well.


And now both sides are vastly superior to the final finish that the red car had.

One last thing had to be done,.....the two front fenders are still raw.

They will get integrated into the front bumper like the back. That required that I hack the ends off the bumper so I can start that process.



Damn green dust is everywhere. The bondo turns green when it's mixed, and the dust goes everywhere despite the fact that I'm sanding all this junk outside. After a couple of days, it coats everything, and I just go to the front of the garage w/ a leaf blower, and blow all that junk out at 300 mph. Looks like a sand storm coming out of my garage.......the neighbor loves me

You gotta know it's like coming to a fork in the road when considering what I want to accomplish on any given day. The first criteria typically is "Can I get it done in one day". The next deciding factor is how bad do I hate doing it. The last is based on time. Namely how long have I been putting it off doing some other junk that fits criteria A. or B.
Imagine coming to a fork in the road, and there are a dozen forks?

Now you know what it's like to be me.

I let "C." be the guide for today.

I have been putting off building the passenger side Gila Gil for probably a year now. It's one of those out of sight, out of mind kinda things. So, procrastination got put back in its little box,.....and I started scrounging for some 18 ga. sheet metal.

For your reference:


This is a Gila Gill.
Completely one-off. No pattern, no template, no jig. Just cutting, welding grinding, and fitting.

Shows poor planning on my part,...considering that I have to build another that has to look like the one already in place. Considering my track record for not being able to duplicate things I build,....pretty risky stuff.

But,...

The passenger side Gila Gill, and the driver side Gila Gill are not side-by-side. You cannot visually compare them w/o walking around the car. So,..if I'm a little off, I'm not gonna get too wacked out about it.

So I start out:

Using the existing gill as a jig, I use it to get size and angles determined, and cut out the first 6 pieces that make up the gills.


Then, in an attempt to even them up, I clamped them together, and filed and ground on them until they were fairly close.


the two center fins are actually made up of 4 pieces welded together at the leading edge, spread at the rear to give the middle fins some thickness.




This is the reason a TIG beats out a MIG everyday. The edge isn't actually welded per se',...it's actually just melted together. Melting them together doesn't make for the strongest union, but, it's not a stressed part,........you know the deal.

Because I don't want a weld bead in between the fins, They're welded from underneath, That means that I had to cut stupid little sections that fit precisely between the fins, so I could weld the thing.


No easy task, when you consider that I had to try and keep the whole mess square, and straight while welding little chinky-doos in between the fins w/ no frame of reference for what was straight or square. And when you consider that the fins are curved, (courtesy of Mikes upper thigh bend-o-matic) it's no wonder everything I do looks like Jack built it.

But after a while, the thing started to take shape.



The top was more of the same, only all of the concerns that revolved around keeping everything straight, and square compounded significantly.



A Gila gill, in it's embryonic state. Still needs welding completely, and some tweaking (I still managed to goof up getting the top plate level across the top (like the driver side, which has also got it's fair share of wonkiness.

Again, this took the better part of 6 hours to get to this state of completion, There is still a significant amount of fabrication left to do before it can be fitted into the quarter. I have to build the back of the thing w/ a 6" inlet so I can route duct hoses to the heat exchangers, and then hack a hole in the quarter and weld the thing in there (another of my less than favorite things to do,......welding paper thin, galvanized sheet metal at a compromising angle, that requires I lay on my back to do it.

Can you say fire?

Only I'll be the thing burning.