Ran the engine for a bit yesterday, and picked up a 3.25 Track-Lock center section...

 It been about a month since I last ran the engine, so I decided to fire it up and charge up the battery. I'm always impressed at how well this car runs, and the relative ease to start it. And it is at this moment that I realize that I have not added a video of the engine running. We had more snow today but, weather permitting, I will get a video of the engine running and post it tomorrow. 

This is a mild-built 429 with ported and polished  D0VE-C heads, a simple Performer intake, and a Holley 750 with vacuum secondaries. The headers I build myself, and there are a couple of posts about them, ignition is a Jacob's Electronics multiple spark ignition, and it backs up to a C6 transmission.

And, as the title of the post says, I picked up a 3.25 Trac-lock center section which will be added soon!

Next projects up are assembling the remaining components of the rear door and working on the front bumper.

Rear bumper is installed...

 The rear bumper is installed. I've been working on this car for so long now, I sometimes forget how much went into the car. I have several hours into cleaning things up, removing, or at least improving, some of the dings or dents as well as removing overspray paint, a little polishing, and general clean-up.

I actually have three bumpers for the wagon, the one it came with which had nice chrome, but had been hit and needed work. A second one I picked up off of a parts car that was in better shape, but not by a lot. And a third one which was listed as NOS, but I suspect was just rechromed at some point and then left to sit. This third bumper is the one I have opted to use in spite of the fact that it does have numerous pits in the chrome as it shines nicely and is straight.

The bumper brackets were in good shape with just light surface rust, so they were sanded, primed with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator and then painted with Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black which I've had good success applying with foam brushes.

The back-up lights and license plate lights all needed to be cleaned and polished up. Everything was caked in Texas dirt and most had overspray where someone had painted the car a darker blue, but must have taped off almost nothing.

One of the really cool additions was a set of NOS Ford over-the-counter bumper steps. I picked them up years ago and it's great to finally see them on the car.

Before I could install the bumper, I also had to clean up the bumper fill panels, a 3-piece set of anodized aluminum trim that actually cleaned up pretty nice. The main center piece took more then an hour to clean off oversprayed primer and paint that was down into the ribber pattern. I also decided to add the door handle while I was at it, and will be adding the door lock/rear window handle shortly so I can finally reinstall the rear glass. Inching closer.

Assembling Doors, Installing Trim

 Still slowly plugging away. Working on assembling the doors which includes changing over to power windows and power locks. Lot's to figure out here, but I purchased all of the parts pulled from another vehicle, but I don't have a good guide to use for installation. So, taking my time. I am having to clean all of the old parts, remove all of the old grease which has hardened, re-lubricate, and fix any damage to the wiring harnesses.

I also need to do the beltline fuzzies. I just ordered a set from AutoKrafters for a 4-door Galaxie and am hoping to make those work since I have been unable to locate anything specific to a Mercury wagon.

And, I have been installing the trim. All of the trim needs to be washed up, overspray paint and primer by the previous owner has to be removed, dents knocked out to the best of my ability, and a quick polish. Most of the original factory mounting hardware is shot and finding something the works has not been easy. In most cases I can find something close, but requires modification. Very tedious work.

I did drive it out of the garage the other day, so it moves under it's own power, by it also leaked some tranny fluid, most likely from where the speedo cable gets installed, but I may have a bad seal at the shift arm that needs to be addressed.

More to come...

Slowly getting cut and buff done...

 Just a quick update on the progress of cut and buff (or in my case, wet sand and buff) the clear. I've got my process down pretty good at this point.

1) Sand 4 times with 1000 grit

2) Sand 2 times with 2000 grit

3) Sand 2 times with 3000 grit

4) Buff 4 times using heavy cut and denim pad

Just need to finish up the driver's door, driver side fender, hood, and front of the car and I'm done! Basically about 3/4 of the way done, and pleased with the results for my first time painting a vehicle, and first time wet sanding and buffing out a vehicle. Results below, and hope to post in a couple of weeks that I've moved on to finish up reassembly.

Working on Cut and Buff of the Clear Coat...

 Making slow progress on cut and buff of the clear coat, but it makes a huge difference. The new paint isn't perfect, but it isn't half bad either. I will try to get a decent picture of a finished panel soon. Very time consuming, and a bit stressful, but looking great.