72 Mercury Comet GT in Germany

Tody,

a couple of concerns ....

I used to work with window film ... are you taking the glass out just to strip the film? If so, that isn't necessary, someone with some skills can do it in place just fine.

If you are doing a new gasket, etc... then of course, getting the window out removes the mess from the car.

The film should strip off easily ... it usually leaves an adhesive that smells unbelievably bad to novices. The right mix of ammonia and water will break down the adhesive. You need to keep adding ammonia a small bit at a time until the adhesive will release but not completely melt (worse mess), and ball up when you scrape it. This will vary with the brand of film used, so sneak up on it.

If doing this with the window still in the car, set about three layer of old towels down to catch the mess and your good.

The second concern ... is that screw touching the glass and putting tension on it? I am very afraid that will break the window in short order, just going over bumps. If you put some kind of pad under it, it could be OK.

Quickest way to break safety glass is pointy metal.

 

Jeff, no need to be worried.
Gasket is leaking, so I'll have to rope it in again anyways. Even after a year, it's still very soft and will surely be reusable.
The two screws were the only ones i had lying aroung with a head large enough to cover the hole. Will get new, shorter ones!

 

Great work Tody,

I love your dedication.

 

been a while since i updated this thread.
engine is slowly coming together, last week i sent the right length push rods to the engine builder. so lets hope i get the engine back in before the year is over.

tweaked some more things on the car.

• rebuild the steering box, wrote a tech article on it.
• repainted the interior panels. used VHT SP27 poly bumper paint. worked really well.
• swapped in the LDO seat tracks. ran into some issues with the bolt pattern, but got everything sorted out. the new seating position is awesome for someone as tall as me, 6ft4
• swapped the outer door handles one more time. the cheap repro mustang parts suck, the more expensive repros are worth every penny.
• will rework the interior door panels again and repaint them with VHT SP942.
• upgraded the rear suspension. had a rear sway bar laying around ever since. as i have the versailles rear i asked addco which bar to use. the told me that the versailles and maverick bar are actually the same and only use different hardware due to thicker axle tubes. so i got the versailles bar.
• also upgraded the front sway bar with poly bushings.

while upgrading the shackle bushings to poly i found that i have an odd sized 1 1/8" rear leaf eye on my JRS springs. others on here had the same problem. the 1" bushing will have too much play, so i ordered mustang parts, 1 3/8" OD with 1/2" bolt and will have them turned down. should be easy with poly.

mean_maverick sent me the correct heater controls. they're in, together with the NOS face plate:



and i was lucky on german ebay and scored a set of TT wheels. they're the reproductions from REV Wheels, the Classic 100 wheel Scott Drake sells. 15x7 with 4" backspacing. well, they're new, so the old cragars with peeling chrome had to go:



the to do list isn't long anymore.
finish the door panels.
put the rebuilt engine in.
finish suspension, retorque and grease all suspension parts.
bleed the brakes, readjust the parking brake.

 

nice nice tody! The one with the seat tracks you have to explain to me again in German, I'm also pretty big.....

 

today's task:


accomplished:


getting the engine in was easy, the headers went in in no time. even the z-bar is in. all the parts which gave me a headache last time were not so difficult this time.

the engine was running out of the car this morning, but the carb is leaking. hopefully i'll get that fixed tomorrow so i can get the car on the road again. finally!

 

Nice work, Tody!

 

it's alive... (again)



the new stance with the shelby drop is simply awesome.

 

Looking great Tody!! nice work on the louver mounts, looks like you know what you're doing, those wheels look great on there....and man you work fast, I'm struggling with time right now still working two jobs (and glad to be doing so) November 10th is my last day at my DJ'ing job till a few days pop up during the holidays, after then I can get moving faster, I have already bought everything I need just gotta get time to do it all, paint is getting close....finally!

 

And take your video camera with you again!

Awesome progress Tody!

 

let me get the front end align first... and the engine broken in properly

 

Awesome update.

Glad to hear it is running anew.

Congratulations!

 

Looks badass!

 

front end is aligned, had to work with shims on the driver's side.
camber is 0°, caster at +0.6°. couldn't get more caster, as the lower control arm started to flex and the wheel came way off center in the wheel housing.

rides pretty smooth, only on sharp right turns the tire rubs against the wheel molding on the driver side. i hope i can fix that by trimming down the molding a little as it sticks into the wheel housing over the edge of the fender.