72 Mercury Comet GT in Germany

in the meantime, some parts have arrived. what we have here is the laurel mountain mustang front suspension kit, minus the sway bar and the front shocks which arrived in another box...



also, ups called today. they'll deliver my driver's side quarter panel on monday
got that one from here:
http://stores.shop.ebay.com/American-Muscle-Car-Parts__W0QQ_armrsZ1QQ_fsubZ3

 

and here it is!


looks like a quality part - i'll find out the fitment later on.

 

today was a public holiday in germany, so more work done to the car. cleaned up the underside, and tried to figure out the brake system.
the master cylinder was held by a custom made adapter, the proportioning valve carried a chrysler logo. at least front and rear disc brakes are branded fomoco, although i haven't got a clue which car they came off. i started a seperate thread about that.
the system must have been really set up by a pro - starting with the non ford master cylinder up to custom made brackets for the parking brake in the rear which were actually not holding anything. i guess this will need thorough planning to get set up properly.

pictures:



all pictures here:
http://www.72comet.de/gt/index.php?id=28

 

Shipping

Can I ask how you had those parts shipped to Germany? Especially the quarter panel. I was selling some auto parts to Europe on Ebay a couple of years ago. But then the US Post Office stopped the delivery by ship (sea) program. Now everything the US Post Office delivers to Europe goes by plane (air). They have two boxes they use for flat rate price plan. Both boxes are pretty small. If you use your own larger box, the price goes up dramatically. Which company do you use? How much was the shipping on the quarter panel? I hope you don't mind me being nosey.
By the way; you are doing a nice job on the Comet. You are taking on a job that a lot of guys in the US wouldn't attempt. The fact that you have to pay more for shipping and wait longer for parts makes it that much more impressive.

 

shipping is fairly easy. usps for the smaller parts, as you mentioned. rates vary, but you do not have to use their boxes, you can use your own as well. it's all air freight though, and i have spent rates up to 90$ for a complete front grille.

it's ups for the big parts. if you use their "air freight consolidated", the rate was around 200$ for the quarter panel and about the same for the front suspension kit. i shipped a complete set of rims for my mustang for less than that.

and thanks for the kind words - i'm not sure if you american guys wouldn't have attempted this task. it's a comet, it's a real gt, it has the floor shifter option which makes it a fairly rare car to start with.
i thought it wasn't in too bad a shape when i bought it, but i learned from my mustang that there simply isn't an accident free, rust free fourty year old car. yes, there is the occasional old granny, very trustwothy, first owner bargain. but you hardly get these anymore.
plus i have never seen a car like this over here. the mustangs are common, the cougars can be seen once in a while, full sizes as well. but on the biggest mustang forum in europe, only very few people ever heard of the maverick.
so i think it's my opportunity to build a really beautiful and rare car - and i have the funds to actually do it. that makes me quite lucky, i guess.

in my mustang i have the inline 6 engine - which can be found nearly nowhere around here. i started being different with that already, as i build it up with the oz250 cylinder head. now it's all about being even more different with a car no one has

 

talking about shipping costs and bargains... a tranny mounted neutral safety switch, NOS from ebay, 26$ delivered to germany isn't too bad

 

1971460Maverick's right your doing a heck of a job and I'm sure your project when completed will be truly unique especially there in Europe.

 

thanks again

help me out with some vocabulary, please. i continued to remove paint today, with a chemical. the dictionary comes up with "etchant", "pickle" or "stain" as a noun or the verb "acid cleaning". what would be the correct term?

anyway, results look like this, the roof is completely cleaned, tomorrow i'll continue in the engine bay.




all pics here:
http://www.72comet.de/gt/index.php?id=29

oh, and why would a 72 car built in late 71 have the mounting holes for the emblems on the rear quarters? am i correct that the comet gt's never came with any side emblems at all?

 

I'm not quite sure what you asking, but do you mean etch or etching? I think this would be similar to ätzen when used as a verb. Also to chemisch brennen die Farbe which means chemically burn the paint. Right?

When removing paint with chemicals, I usually hear it called stripping: to strip the paint (remove the paint).

The work on the car looks great. Please keep posting pictures!

 

ok, if etching is "ätzen", it's not quite correct.

the german term is Beize (noun) or beizen (verb). it's a slimy white-ish looking mass you apply on the paint with a brush. it reacts with the moisture in the air and loosens up the paint which starts to peel and can now be scraped off easily.

so let's stick with stripping, that does it for me.

whatever the translation is - it worked quite well. it had to apply it a couple of times though, as it had to go through 4 layers of paint.
the factory primer stays intact, so the raw metal is still protected.

 

Oh, I understand now. Sorry, I don't speak good German. It sounds like stripping the paint would be to beizen.

With the four layers you had to go through, chemically stripping it saved alot of time!

 

third day of work in a row. the taillight panel is completely stripped.



i removed the badly fitting piece on the rear passenger floorpan and found an attempt to repair a rear torquebox about which i could only laugh out loud.



next the passenger side rocker panel - that's when i stopped laughing and thought of getting rid of this project for the first time. luckily, this thought only lasted for ten seconds. played "the meteors - you ain't gonna bring me down" a couple of times on the stereo to cheer myself up. this worked quite well.



then onto the engine bay, which needs more cleaning next weekend. out of sheer interest i put the wire wheel onto the tank and found pretty solid metal under the rust. at least something...

the pictures are here: http://www.72comet.de/gt/index.php?id=30

i started a new thread on the replacement rocker panels i found at autokrafters to see wether they are any good. something definitely needs to be done about that!

 

in the meantime i have found a NOS rocker panel for the passenger side on ebay. i will buy a replacement part for the driver's side.
i'll also get the early mustang cowl panels so i can at least use the little "hats" for the cowl repair. i'll also try fitment of the rear outer wheelhouse patch panels from the early mustang.

 

yesterday's work included stripping the engine bay (still not finished, way too many small corners) and the a-pillars where the doors are mounted. i also cleaned up the radiator support. found lots of corners which need fixing...






http://www.72comet.de/gt/index.php?id=31

as of today, roughly 65 hours spent on the car!

 

Wow, you're sure getting a lot accomplished. Looks like its coming along nicely.