Back to the Blue Oval

[mlcraven]

Brother-in-law lived in New West (Queens Quay) through the late-90s, worked for Toyo Tires. So we used to regularly get the ferry over to Tsawassen and visit he and his wife for the weekend in their leaky condo. That came to an end when they moved back to Fredericton NB to be near his elderly parents and we were sent to Ottawa.

The army really regrets losing Chilliwack, that was some primo real estate and lots of guys retired there.

Must be sweet having a high-quality track like Mission so close to home. Are there a lot of rain-outs like other PACNORWEST venues or is the weather consistently good?

[langleylad]

Not to many rain outs , but I'm sure you know the saying around here ( if you don't like the weather , wait 5 min it will change ) . I wouldn't live anywhere else .

[mlcraven]

Smoothing Things Over

Finally getting some days into the high 70s/low 80s so I'm spreading bondo. First coat on Sunday and knocked that down with 40 grit for general shaping/contours, second coat tonight. Tomorrow I'll hit it with 80 grit on the ROS.

The sanding is dusty work but a heck of a lot more enjoyable than the stripping down/de-greasing phase. And that electric blue-colored bondo...very cool!!

Also visible where I finally coated the front floor and interior side of the firewall with POR-15.

[mlcraven]

FE versus Pressure Washer

Well, I've been applying bondo, sanding, applying more bondo, sanding some more, and so on, for what seems like weeks. Slowly getting there but man am I sick of it.

Nice break today. Our front porch is covered with dirt and mold and badly in need of cleaning. Informed the landlord and yesterday he offered to come by with his pressure washer to clean things up. Generous guy that I am, I suggested that if he dropped it off for the weekend I'd do the job plus the driveway, walks and back deck.

True to his word (he's a good fellow), the pressure washer was dropped off first thing this morning. Porch, walks and driveway are now all clean as whistles. Oh yeah, did I mention, somehow an FE motor managed to situate itself in front of 2100 psi at the same time?

Now that all the crud is off it I'll pull the top end and pan and get an initial assessment of things.

[mlcraven]

Firewall Smoothing

With apologies to professional body men -- who undoubtedly will need to clean the vomit off their keyboards -- here's my hack-effort-in-progress at firewall smoothing.

[mlcraven]

Firewall Smoothing 2

Rattle canned on some high-build primer just to see what things looks like in one color...and I'm going to call it smooth enough. Very pleased that the passenger side no longer looks like Swiss cheese. And the eventual contrast of underhood black and a nice shiny FE should distract all but the fussiest onlookers.

[Huskinhano]

Originally Posted by mrocketscience
It's funny, none of my neighbors have any interest at all in any of my cars. Zip.. Nada... I've lived in my house for about 8 years now, and never once has any neigbor come by to shoot the breeze or talk car stuff. Oh well...

Yeah, it was like that when I lived in Canada (Ottawa). In fact, there were a few car-hating bastages...had the by-law officer visit me a couple of times. He wouldn't say who was ratting me out but luckily he was a car guy and keenly interested in the El Camino project. So I had the last laugh. All we can say is it takes all kinds, yes?

Yeah, here in NJ nobody is interested. The only car guy was my buddy a few blocks away but he moved to SC. At my place in PA, some mild interest in my Mustang.

I remember reading some where or hearing it on the radio about a guy in CA with a classic car that was fully drivable, insurance and registration and was getting harassed for having an in operable vehicle because it had a flat tire from a puncture, had it fixed but still leaked. The guy spent 5 grand on lawyers fees defending himself and keeping his car.

[Deaf Bob]

It's like that here in this hick town, Daughter had a Bronco 11 that she drove 2X a month.. Always lic and insured.. Every so often, parking enforcement would put a sticker right over the driver's view stating it would be towed... Even when it was on her RV pad cuz it " could be seen from the street" ... It used to be my dad's. She liked having "grandpa's Bronco" Just wasn't worth it.

[mlcraven]

Front Suspension

Managed to get the upper control arms and coil springs back in without causing myself an injury. The blue tape is in anticipation of spraying the engine compartment with underhood black, just as soon as we get a warm dry day. Have the fuel line installed as well.

[mlcraven]

Front Suspension 2

More assembly accomplished this weekend; alignment so far with Mk 1 Mod 1 eyeball. I've also sprayed underhood with Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black -- not factory correct but I like it. After only a couple of days drying the finish is rock hard.

[mlcraven]

Trunk Before and After Part 1

Sprayed the trunk (except for the insides of the quarter panels) with Extreme Chassis Black as well. And coated the top side of the tank with Diamond Clear after giving it a good rubbing with steel wool.

First pic the before, second the after. Progress!!!

Next step is to spray the quarter panel interiors with grey/black trunk splatter paint.

Again, not factory original but I think the look will work for me.

[mlcraven]

Inspiration - 67 Comet Caliente

Saw this at HHRR in Bowling Green...there have been photos of it previously on Bangshift but here it is again.

Chatted with the owner for about 20 mins in the staging lanes, it was orig a little old lady's 289 car but now runs a 460.

[mlcraven]

Doors Media Blasted

Decided a while ago that, with all the compound curves etc, I would have the doors media blasted instead of sanding them down manually. Set me back $140 but was well worth it.

They're in excellent shape and I'll get some self-etch on them ASAP -- one of the reasons I put it off so long was to ensure good weather for painting.

[mlcraven]

Steering Assembly

Tidied up the steering column and got it installed -- in the process scratching the fresh black paint on the lower part of the column where it goes through the firewall. I did think about taping it to prevent just this from happening but then thought, what the heck can go wrong? If I'm careful...

Never yet taken a shortcut that hasn't backfired in some manner.

No matter, the steering wheel aligns perfectly now -- a good thing because an off center steering wheel is one of my pet peeves. The original Cyclone wheel is in rough shape so I have a new Grant waiting in the wings.

[mlcraven]

Trunk Spackle Paint

Spent considerable time masking things off so I could do the quarter panels inside the trunk with black/gray spackle. It's not the way the car was originally finished, but I thought it would nicely clean things up, provide a contrast against the black paint on the trunk floor and inner wheel wells, and look good.

Not sure I'm liking how things turned out.