72 Mercury Comet GT in Germany

thanks! it sounds like the same, also on the mustang seats. this way, i can use the decent upper parts of the mustang seats and the high rising bottom parts of the original tracks.
was it hard to flatten out? which tools did you use? BFH?

 

I never did actually take mine apart. They were pretty rusty, and ended up cleaning up OK assembled after all.

What is wrong with your original tracks? They should bolt right up to the Mustang seats.

 

i guess this picture explains it a little better

 

Looking at that, I would say to try knocking off those added-on adapter bars with a grinder first. That is, if the tracks seem to work OK otherwise.

These things are loaded with ball bearings ... might be pretty tough to get them loaded back in there.

See the dimple just behind the front bolt hole? ... that is the stop that I was talking about that would need to be flattened out in order to take these apart. Another thought I had would be to drill it out and substitute a bolt or rivet.

 

well, they're pretty rusty in general, and on one of the handles, the part which actually goes back into the track and engages with the teeth on the rail is broken off, too.

i looked closer at the tracks today, and there are four dimples on each side as well as four matching bolts on the lower parts of the tracks. in between the tracks, some bearing is running between two of these dimples. i will look at the mustang tracks first - if i can safely disassemble them, i'll write a howto...

 

Check out this article that Mustang Monthly did on rebuilding the mustang seat tracks. Great step by step photos. - Matt

http://www.mustangmonthly.com/howto...e_seat_tracks_on_a_vintage_mustang/index.html

 

thanks for the link, at some point in time i had seen this already. in photo 6, you can see the main difference:
http://www.mustangmonthly.com/howto...eat_tracks_on_a_vintage_mustang/photo_06.html
there's no metal tabs on the later seat tracks, but the small dimples.

i'll see what i can do this weekend

 

i compared the seat tracks side to side - there are some small differences. the dimples on the mustang ones are in different locations, for a start. i guess i'll have to try to fix the original tracks first.

but look at what happened to the cowl panel:


also, front floors are fixed. maybe i'll even have the body painted before christmas



http://www.72comet.de/gt/index.php?id=61

 

What's wiped on the metal? Is that Vinyl Wash or some kind of Zinc Oxide?

 

man that's a clean install. nice work!

 

@paxtond: it's some kind of primer

@mean_maverick: thanks! your parts were a great help (and will be again when it comes to the rear torque box!)

 

Looks great! All this progress... do you sleep?

 

Your making great progress. Nice to see this one coming back together.

 

well, i thought the sleepless nights would start when i get the bill from the bodyshop - but apparently i'm getting nightmares right now

the cowl vent area now looks like this - i'm very pleased with the result:



but the i saw how they are fixing the passenger rear torque box - it was nonexistent in the first place, and i'm eternally thankful that mean_maverick had a parts car to cut up. but this is a repair which i guess should only be attempted by a highly trained professional:





apparently, they *really* know what they are doing there, i'm very happy with that

 

Can't they at least bill you in stages so that's it's not a complete sudden heart attack? But man,it's sooooo worth it isn't it?