My 72 Comet Build.....

Please don't take it wrong if I don't sympathies with your foul weather! It was a balmy 38 degrees in our warehouse this morning, we don't dare leave our archaic heaters on over the weekend, might not have a store on Monday.

 

It was 46 when I went to work this morning and we don't have any heaters..... That is way to cold for where I live, I choose not to live where it gets as cold as it does where you live.....

 

I hear you, been tempted to move south a few times. We can go from 0 in the winters to over 100 in the summer. We get all of mother nature's mood swings minus the destructive storms.

 

Frank,
Knowing you work on cars full-time is another aspect that has always been a mind-bender when I look at what you get done. I wouldn't be motivated. I get to talk about cars all day (big difference there ... LOL). At least when you are working on yours, nobody else is telling you what to do.

The strategy for dealing with cold is layers of clothes. I grew up near Chicago and there, you just keep piling on clothes until you almost can't move from all the weight and layers ... perfect!

If it is 50 outside and I want to work in the garage, I frequently will have on two regular t-shirts and a long-sleeve third over them. As long as I don't open the door and let wind in, that usually works for me, and still keep a lot of mobility that is lost when wearing a jacket.

We will be going to Mecum on Saturday. In the past, we spent about half the time in the arena because this close to the end is when the high dollar cars roll out. If you change your mind, call me and we will get together there. I may take a jacket that I smuggled out of Ohio. It looks light, but gets the job done at a -10 wind chill .... amazing! It reminds me a bit of wet suit dive gear. Might be overkill. I walked the dog the other morning, walked inside the house, and was sweating inside it almost immediately.

 

Looks great Frank. You do beautiful work!

 

wow just binge viewed you thread great work and sweet build!!!

 

Thanks.....

and thank you.....

 

Cleaned all the grinding dust off everything and moved the car a little further from the wall so I could open the door all the way, then made a little progress on it today..... I removed the steering column and pulled down all the fuse boxes I was using to make some room(all the wiring is getting changed soon anyways)..... Then I opened the hole in the firewall for the new feed through connector.....

Here is the current under dash condition.....




Here is the original firewall feed connector hole, then the modified hole for the new feed through connector and a couple with the connector mocked up in place.....

 

Went down this morning and drilled the mounting holes for the connector..... Also made a connector trim ring template for the engine side of the firewall to cover the small notches in the sides of the hole in the firewall where the old connector hole was..... I'll made the trim ring this week at work..... I also started on the export brace layout, I'll get some stuff this week to work on that next weekend.....

Here is the hole in the firewall with the mounting holes drilled and a little touch up paint on the exposed metal from cutting it open. and one of the template on the connector.....





Here is what I am looking at for the export brace so far.....

 

I went to the US Nationals in Brandenton yesterday..... Today I made a little progress, I got the pieces for the tower/cowl brace on the pass side made..... I got a set of universal brackets for the back of the towers that only needed minor modifications to work there.....

Here are the brackets I purchased showing the before and after mods.....






In process of fitting brackets.....




and the new assembly mocked up after fitting.....

 

I made the trim ring for the connector this week.....




Today I finished fitting all the pieces for the cowl/tower brace and got it all welded up..... Then I cut apart one of the factory outer tower braces so I can make it fit around the struts.....

Here are the brackets welded to the tower and a couple of the brace itself all welded together.....






Here it is installed on the car.....







Here is the outer tower brace before and after cutting it apart.....

 

Sunday I started to work on the outer tower brace, but the more I look at them the more I don't think they are really necessary for my set up(I may revisit them later)..... Right know I think it is more important to get some form of a monty carlo bar made to provide support across the towers..... So I started by bending a piece of 1"od x .120" wall tubing which I actually ended up bending too much..... I started out with one idea, but once I got it in place I devised a much better approach for mounting it..... I need to get another piece of tubing but I will post some pic's giving a rough idea of what it will look like.....

Here is what I did with the outer tower brace on the driver side so far.....





Here the monte carlo bar of sorts propped in place..... The new one will have the same appearance but will have less bend and be a similar height, and will be mounted closer to the top of the aprons.....

 

Well it's been about 6 weeks sine I made any progress on this thing..... I did manage to lower and install a bedliner in my new truck, did some work on my fathers car and took a vacation..... But it's finally time to get back to this project.....

Today I made and welded in some reinforcement brackets on the front aprons just in front of the towers at the top..... This will provide a good place to mount the monte carlo type bar I am going to make..... I also made the outboard mounting brackets for the bar itself.....

Here are the reinforcement brackets and getting them welded in.....








Here are the monte carlo bar end brackets bolted in place.....

 

Will you have hood clearance issues with the top piece on the shock tower mounts?

 

No, everything is test fitted and/or clearance checked before anything is welded in.....

Here it is with the fenders and hood mounted with this suspension.....