Captain's Comet

glad you had a good day. I could really use one.... I just need a skinny Comet bumper for my conversion...doesn't have to be nice just straight but I can't seem to nail one down. Oh well, I'll just enjoy yours for now.

 

The BumperBoyz are very close to you ... I know they are out of Cali, and they hit all the bigger shows all over the country. They sell refurbed/rechromed bumpers.

Reviews of their quality seems to range from great to poor, so look anything over well before purchasing. I liked what I saw on display at the swap meets.

 

That's awsome Jeff. It's great to visit a member and get goodies.. especialy extras.

 

I looked up their web page. They're close by in LA. I may contact them soon. Maybe they take a deal with my big bumpers as they are in good shape. Thanks for the tip.

http://www.bumperboyz.com/main.htm

 

Wow ... a month since I posted anything ...

The carpet is trimmed to size, and most of the seat belts are in. I got the driver side front and rear kick/side panels in.

I put a lot of effort into restoring/reinforcing a passenger side door upholstery panel. It is in very nice shape overall, the backer is good, but needed a few of the clip holes glued up. Then I taped over those repairs with Gorilla Tape (black waterproof duct tape). The vinyl cover has shrunk over time, so I stuck it back down with contact adhesive, pulling it flat, but not snug. I also added a lot more staples to the back. This meant taking regular office staples and trimming the legs down to 1/8th inch long with nippers. If they were full length, they would possibly poke through the front puncturing the upholstery. This were hammered into place by hand.

Then I cleaned the panel up. It was black to begin with and looked really good except for a couple of small details. Thought I'd fog on some dye and make it look great .... right! .... after shooting it far too many times, I finally figured out that too high humidity and too heavy a coat of dye = flat black and patchy. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr .... a lot of super-light fogging and a brand switch later, and it looks really good.

Pictures to come soon.

PS .... 2000 posts .... bananamanbananaman

 

Well, back for my monthly update ...

Happy to report a lot has gotten done...



Did a fair amount of work to the uphostered panel in the passenger side door. It had shrunk over time and a few of the fastener holes were stressed.



This is 71 Mustang Coupe uphostery stretched over my stock rear seat upper frame and a heavily modified LDO frame and foam. The upper is very close in size, about an inch too wide, and you can gather that up. The bottom is another story ... my stock rear seat frame was two inches too high, and the LDO bottom that I scored out of the boneyard was more like three inches too tall because there is so much more foam on it. This meant radical surgery on the spring system to shrink the height.


The pic on the left was the stock LDO frame. Note the number of coils in both types of springs. The pic on the right is the modded frame. That round spring on the end is cut down to three coils, and the flat springs are much shorter and re-routed directly to the frame rather than bending in a sideways "V". Note where I had to bend the lip of the frame up just to be able to slide the spring back into place. That is because of the now-straight approach from the upper front edge. The frame is much less bouncy, but that is made up for by the thick slab of LDO foam ....




The good news here is that being 6'1", I can now sit in the back seat without my head rubbing the headliner.

Much more comfortable seat, too.

I also made armrest pads for the side panels.... and idea borrowed from the board here. I wish I could remember who to credit with the idea ... Certainly like that better than the ashtrays that were set into the ledge there.

 

Looks gud. It sounds like quite a challenge making it come together. At 6.1 isn't it a little cramped in the rear seat no matter what config u have, unless maybe, u have the front seat pretty far foward?
I am 5.11 and w/ the no-tilt str wheel I brake w/ my left foot 99% of the time. I have to do that or my knee hits the bottom of the stock wheel.

 

I replaced the original boat tillers in both of my Comets with 13 inch wheels. Had to in my first one, it was a stick ... couldn't use the clutch without smacking a knee.

 

looking good! i also used the mustang seat covers...

 

The seat looks good too me, I was just thinking about seats toda and what I am going to do about them.....

 

I really like the rear armrest pads

 

Awesome build!! I can't wait to see it when your done! And I also, love the armrest pads in the back!!!

 

Work progresses here ... started rebuilding my heat/AC box, and needed the ducting for underdash. Found the ducting locally, and lo and behold, along with it comes another heat /AC box, and this one is in much better shape. Sooo, I may be using that one instead.

Got a new blower motor from Rock Auto on close-out for $13! Awesome clearance deal.

Did a little more work on the console ....



Cut out the insert for the shifter. Took that one a nibble at a time ... snuck up on the final size. Definitely wanted to be careful here ... good luck getting another if I messed up.

Going to dye the console black and paint that insert black too, or maybe use the black vinyl in there. I have a trio of mini-gauges and the panel fits perfect in the top half of that pocket in front of the shifter.

All that wiring will get revised too ... that is the result of a couple generations of stereo gear.

 

I am in process of rebuilding my heater/AC box also. Where did u find the 2 1/2"ducting? I wud settle for any flex ducting that I thought wud work for what we are tryin to do.
I had quite-a-bit of rust on the vent doors that I cleaned-up once I scraped all the dry rotted foam away, that is all that had'nt crumbled and fell off. I also need one vaccum motor, "fresh air vent door" motor.
I installed new heater core and had evap checked out, evap had rust on one side lip where it bolted to the box case.
I saw those closeout motors on Rock Auto - My motor is checkin out ok but I might still get one if any left.
I painted the doors w/ alum fence paint and hope to put new foam seals and have the unit back in soon. I think I shud put the AC expansion valve back on the box B4 putin the box back on the firewall; I think it will be easier than doing it from the engine bay.

 

I just got done adapting two 4" speakers to an original dash speaker bracket.



As I stated earlier, I really wanted to hide the speakers this time around, and am pretty happy with the way this turned out. I did mock this up and decided to paint the bolts and washers black so that they were not as visible when looking at the top of the dash.

The speakers are mounted to 1/4" oak plywood, which is then attached to the speaker bracket. I had to mod the sides of the bracket slightly for the small ears that the speakers bolt to.

Best part of all this ... the cost was $0.00 ... nada ... I had all of this hanging around. Speakers are leftovers from my past daily driver.

I am running 6x9s out back with an amp, so these just need to fill in some of the highs up front. They ought to do fine.