Captain's Comet

Whoo-hoo .... hit the boneyard yesterday after seeing a nice 72 Cougar get checked in there. Another one, too nice to scrap, but yet, it was there.

Got another pair of bucket seats, these with nice black plastic backs and hinge covers and good clean release handles, too. All of these pieces are upgrades compared to what I was going to use.

I may use one of these to make my driver seat rather than the other pieces I have here. They are much cleaner frames than my other stuff. All in all, I have 5 seats here now (including the finished passenger seat).

Kind of like I had 7 cylinder heads here ... all 1970 351W castings ... finally broke down and sold off a pair ...

Is this how hoarders get started?

 

I got the tangle of stereo wiring cleaned up and repurposed the original rear radio mount. The "new" radio I put in the Comet, in the early 90s, is an Alpine AM/FM/Cassette. It has green backlighting that matches my gauge set (and the green car, too!). It is, naturally, quite a bit smaller than the original radio, so the rear mounting spot is quite a bit different.

Upon looking at the rear hanger that I pieced together for it, way back when, I found myself muttering, "Nice fabrication work there, Dr. Frankenstein."

It was truly ugly ... a piece of hanger iron, roughly bent in a "U", bolted to the original mount. I had to ask myself "why didn't I just rebend the original?", and then spent the next two hours answering that.

Pretty sure it boiled down to that the bench seat was still in the car (nothing there right now), daylight was likely running out, and getting to that one bolt that holds it in, right next to the wiper motor, made me think better of it at the time.... it is a royal pain to get it started.

I rebent the bracket, and drilled a new hole for the radio bolt to go through. The bracket was in and out of the car about four times (remember the PITA bolt? ... ). The bracket now hangs down a bit from the radio and the slot that the AM radio bolted to is now a great place to bundle all the wiring to, secured with a cable tie.

Much, much better!

Now the dash tray can go back in, and work starts on the driver seat.

 

Comedy Day at the Captain's Workshop

Got two seats apart ... grabbing the best frames that I have. Unfortunately, both pieces are the passenger seat from the Cougar that I just got, and the release needs to be on the other side.

I took the release lever out of one seat back that I have here and was really scratching my head as to how to reverse the "D-shaped" bar that runs through the middle. It looked like it was the first thing put together and the seat frame was spot-welded together around it. Very puzzling ...

Took the release lever out of a second seat back, and the stupid bar that was giving me so much trouble in the other one fell out.

I guess that first one is a bit rusty ...

Then I moved onto polishing the release handles. Got down my trusty plastic bottle of Meguire's Metal Polish, and was remembering how nice it was to get a "care package" from Meguires after attending the Hot Rod Power Tour. This was probably 1999 or 2000, and this bottle was part of it.

Shook the bottle up. It had seperated a bit. Gave the bottle a squeeze and ....

....SPLAT !!!.... this is so old that the bottle split, showering me in fine globules of white specks. It contrasted nicely against the navy blue t-shirt I was wearing.

Changed my shirt .... going back into the garage to see what other kind of trouble I can stir up.

 

Got the driver's seat bottom restuffed/reupholstered, and having done this once already on the passenger seat, I managed to do this in one smooth flow of steps, spread out over a couple days. Must've learned a couple things ....

Installed the added foam and batting to the bolsters and stretched the cover on. Left it clipped on the front and sides, and left it overnight for all the new foam and the cover to relax a bit and get comfortable with each other.

Day two ... unclipped the cover from the frame, leaving it roughly in place on the foam, and hog-ringed the center panels down. I installed one side at a time, and from previous experience, hog-ringed in line with the horizontal stitching on the center panels. The hog rings will create a small pucker, and the stitching helps mask this, and makes the cover look like the stitching is doing the work of holding it together.

Then comes stretching the cover into place. The hog rings attach to a bar that runs front-to-back, and will slide a bit along its length. You just have to slide it all into place. Clip the front in, and start tugging the cover toward the back. It will be a fight. (Leaving a small amount of slack in the hog rings could help here ... I squeezed them on pretty hard). Had to trim one of the plastic side clips to fit around the spring bracket on the frame. Clip the side in place as you get close. Keep pulling and pushing the cover toward the back.

It took about an hour to get it where it needed to end up.
Today ... boy, are my thumbs sore. , all that tugging on the cover ... and like smilie here, they are drawn to scale, about as big as my head.

 

Installed the cover on the driver seat upper yesterday. Did a fairly good job the first time, and did it in just about an hour. I like letting them sit, to see if they relax a bit. I came back to it this morning, and thought that it needed a couple of tweaks to fit better.

Spend about two more hours, and worked it over pretty well. It does fit really well now, and am much happier with it.

Still there is ONE detail that I look at and, it is near the bottom, and I still think it could be a smidge better. TIME TO WALK AWAY ....

Going to let it set for until at least Sunday now, and see if it still looks "good enough".

It's no wonder why this is taking so much time ....

 

Man Jeff you have been busy.And i have been whining about painting my car haha.

 

The reason I never get anything done either. I do things till I like it then I want to make it better. I end up walking away but it's awhile till I return.

 

Aaaaaargh!!!!

Just spent way too much time not finding my perfect set of black armrests and bases that are stashed here somewhere. Tucked them away for safe-keeping three years ago, and they should be in one of three small areas of the garage.

I did find several items that will go back on the car soon, so this search wasn't a total waste of time.

I feel a big garage clean-out coming on ... always good for a few good surprises.

 

Whoo-hoo ...

... I got to actually sit behind the steering wheel yesterday!

The driver's seat upholstery has been done for a couple weeks, and the seat put back together.

I had to repair a stud on the seat track, just like I did on the passenger side. This time I did a small tech article this time, and it can be seen here ...

http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?p=871328#post871328

The seat position is very good for me. I am 6'1" and my knees have always been in conflict with the steering wheels in these cars. With highbacks bolted to LDO tracks, my right knee tucks in a bit in front of the steering wheel.... perfect.

Wow .... forgot how "way-too-high" that brake pedal was. Got to shorten that rod. (Disc brake M/C swapped in)

A good friend that did upholstery for years has been coaching me and had loaned me a couple pairs of hog ring pliers. I was glad to finally return them to him after all this time. He also is stitching up the new cover for the Versailles console armrest. Since money would be awkward between friends, I brought him a bottle of Crown Royal Black, and made him smile. Some drinking ensued after that.

Still can't find my perfect armrests and bases that I have have stashed here .... grrrrrr .... Good thing I have have more that are close-to-perfect.

 

Showing off the driving position.

It occurred to me that with the door off, it was the perfect chance to show how good the fit is now for me with the LDO seat track/Highback bucket combo .... very comfortable. I believe the steering wheel is 13 inches.



What you can't really see here is my hand on the shifter, but everything is in the "right" place finally. Armrest on the console will be good too.

I drove this car too many years with cobbled seat tracks, and the seat a bit too high... bangin a knee on the steering wheel.

 

thanks for the picture! i have a set of ldo tracks waiting to get blasted & painted. gives me a good idea of how they will work...

 

Awesome! I'm planning on doing the same thing in my car, but I'm no where near as tall as you, but I've never liked the seating position in these cars.

 

Arghhh!!!!

Couldn't sleep ... out in the garage at 4 AM .... taking the driver's door apart.

Wanted to science out the mirror placement better, and think I have that worked out well ...

http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=85926

Started looking around inside the door. This car was sideswiped a bit prior to my getting it. The door had real fitment issues that welding the hinge post fixed, and I finally got the door to align really well.

Now looking around inside the door, I am seeing evidence for the first time of slide-hammer holes with tiny bits of 30 year old bondo sticking through. The front edge where the door meets the fender has never been good either.

I am really conflicted .... rust-free door, definitely not straight ... but works well now.... do I just replace the whole thing? .... or reskin it?

Aggravated .... I guess I'll go to work now .... grrrrrr ..... (nah ... it will still be a good day ... not going to take it out anyone .... )

 

It's been a GREAT week ...

... first off, my buddy, Howard, presented me with my freshly reupholstered console lid. ...


(click on any of these pics for bigger view)

I admire his patience. This thing had to be like sewing up a wallet from scratch. He had it all glued up and ready to go.

Then, Thursday, the big brown truck left a large oddly-shape lump next to my door wrapped in this....



My immediate panic ..."WHAT! ... It's not in a box .... aaaaargh!"

Got a closer look at it, and this outer wrap is about half the strength of bedliner.

Inside ... a small mountain of industrial strength bubble wrap ... two layers.... OK .... I think I can start breathing again ....



Wonder of wonders ....UPS didn't kill it in transport ...

YES! ..... YES!..... YES! ....



Original Ford Door Skin .... pulled from the back, back warehouse from a old time Ford dealer. I was asked "are you sure you're going to want this? ... we are going to have to hunt to find it ..."

Left is the outside shot, right is the inside ... a little dusty, a little bit of surface rust inside. It does have a couple little dings where it was leaned up against something. The inset shot is the original Ford labelling ... there are part numbers on it. The camera washed the shot out too much. D0DZ part number.

VERY HAPPY!

 

It looks like you have the door problem solved..... and your interior is looking good too.....