Working Toward Starting The Engine!

Working on trying to get the engine started on Monday, and I have a buddy coming over to help out for the day. Lots of stuff done, and lots more to go if we are to get it running. Here is a rundown of the last couple of days of what I've accomplished, and a few pics for fun!

I started out the weekend cleaning up the distributor and starter. The distributor (cap, base, wires and all) was painted blue, and where it wasn't blue, it was dirty and oxidized. I disassembled, cleaned and painted it to dress it up. The vacuum advance is paint chrome which give a nice finish. Not really chrome-like, but a nice shine for cheap, and far better than what I uncovered.

The starter was an even tone of oil and dirt covering surface rust. Once again, disassembled, cleaned up, and sprayed. This will sit behind a header, so it doesn't need to be perfect. I just couldn't put it back dirty.

Then I installed the heads and headers. What a pain! I made the headers myself and the passenger side wasn't too bad, but the driver's side was a bear. I had to pull the steering column and drop the steering box to get them in. I also had to "massage" them a bit up around the head as I couldn't test fit the last two pipes without tearing the front end apart, and I was off by about 1/4". No worries since this isn't going to be a super high performance vehicle. I wanted headers, and these should WAY outperform stock cast iron truck manifolds that were on the car.

Last, but not least, I polished up the valve covers I have. That meant wet sanding with 320, 600, 800, polishing with a Mother's Power Ball, and then hand polishing with a product called Autosol from Eastwood. In the end, I got the bright, satin finish that I was looking for. The covers are used, and they have "character marks", but I didn't want perfect, or highly polished.

I hope to be posting more pictures in the next few days that include a running engine,but we'll have to see.

Things Don't Always Work Out Like You Hope!

OK, so the other door skin just isn't going to happen. The first issue I ran into was the profile at the top of the door is different. No problem Just cut at the upper body line and replace part of the panel. It doesn't even have to be perfect since the molding will cover there.

I removed the new panel and trimmed it down. While planning the new attack on the existing door skin I held the new one up to make sure everything lined up. It did ... until I noticed that I couldn't see the door handle holes through the replacement door skin. Argh!

Apparently, on the hardtops, the door handle is moved a couple of inched inboard from the four-door models. This has officially made reskinning this door more hassle than its worth. So back to the bodywork on the original door, and we'll accept "not perfect."

In other news, I have started reassembly of the motor. I'm going to shoot for this weekend to start the car. So I cleaned out the cylinders to make sure nothing snuck in, ordered the gasket kit, put on the fuel pump cover, and I just finished doing a quicky detail of the starter and distributor.

The starter was covered in gunk and had light surface rust, while the distributor was oxidized, and 90% sprayed Ford blue. They look much better, and certainly suitable for the vehicle. The starter will be mostly hidden, so there was only minimal disassembly performed.

Tomorrow I need to pick up a new starter cable as the current one is rough. After that, drop the steering box to add the DS header and slip in the PS. Hope to post pics tomorrow!

Reskinned A Door From An Old Donor!

After fighting with the driver's door for more time than I care to admit, I finally caved and purchased a donor door that I have had my eye on for some time. It was rust-free and aside from a couple of very minor marks, dent-free.

So why didn't I just bite the bullet and buy it instead of messing around with all of the body work? Because the donor door is from a 4-door hardtop, so there are no window frames. That means I either have to move my window frames, or I have to reskin the original door.

Since my doors are very solid, and the only rust I have in any of the doors is a small hole in the corner of the door skin, and because it looks like there are a lot of ways to have things go wrong moving the frame, I opted to reskin.

Now I'll start by saying I didn't take pictures of this door, but I will be doing the DS rear door as well, and will document the work I do to that one. It will be a little harder due to the shape, so it will be a better subject. Anyhow, here's what was involved!

After looking over both doors about a dozen times to make sure measurements, body line, mount points and all other essential details were the same, I dug in. Remove the donor panel FIRST. If anything goes horribly wrong, I still have my original door. Using a hammer, two different sized screwdrivers, a pair of pliers and a drill with my Eastwood weld-cutter I cut out the welds, and carefully peeled back the bottom and one side of the door edge to about 90°. The other end I lifted, but only enough to pop it loose.

In some areas the lip is quite wide and will lift easily. In others, there is maybe 1/4" width wrapped around the edge, and those were the most challenging to peel back. My biggest concern was distorting the metal on the front side of the panel when I lifted the edge. I can safely say this is unavoidable. It didn't happen in all places and it wasn't severe in any, but it did require a small amount of filler to true up the edge when reinstalled.

As it turns out, this was not to be the biggest concern after all. When you take sheet metal and put a 180° tight radius bend in it, it work hardens the metal at the bend. When you attempt to take that bend out, or when you attempt to put it back in again, you can (and likely will) split the seam.

In my case, 3/4 of the bottom and roughly a third of one end split and separated. This required welding the seam. Now I'm no expert welder, but since I didn't notice the issue until after I permanently removed the original door skin, I didn't have much choice but to make it work. Using low heat I just worked moving around a lot so as to not distort the panel and just gave it a little zap until I dotted everything together. A little work with the grinder, and it was stitched up. This really wasn't that hard, just time consuming and a bit stressful.

The unfortunate part of having to do this (beyond the extra work of having to weld it up) was it all had to be clamped up which meant I had some additional putty work to do at the edge. Still, when all is said and done, the door looks so much better than the other panel ever could have, with considerably less filler. Actually probably less that you would need for your typical door of this age. As an added bonus, I didn't have to remove/transfer the door tag to a new door and the rivets remain unaltered. Not a huge deal for me, but that might be more of a consideration if your vehicle is rare or you would like to preserve provenance.

When I do the next door, I promise lots of pictures and more details on how it was done. Hopefully it will provide you with enough info to do this yourself if you have been on the fence about tackling something like this.

Refinished Mercury console and starting clean-up in the third row seat well...

While I continue to work on the body on finish up the interior trim, I have some new pics!

First is the "correct" '67 Mercury console that I located after restoring the '68 Galaxy console. It was definitely the way to go since it houses the controls for the power windows and power locks. And, I decided to go white with the console as I think it will set off against the black carpet better than the black console would. The controls still need to be cleaned up and transferred to the white housing. This was originally red...

Next up a a couple pics of the third row/cargo area. Lots of cleanup in there, but no rust holes. After a lot of wire-wheeling, I applied two coats of Rust-Fix, a coat of zinc primer, a coat of Eastwood's Rust Encapsulator, and a final coat of Extreme Chassis Black. Let's hope rust is never an issue there. Oh yeah, I also added in the seat belt brackets so the kiddies will have seat belts to keep them safe. (Note: Sorry, no pic of the finished black available yet. On my to-do list.)

Interior Trim and The Third Row Area ...

The long weekend has provided me with some extra time and extra help. Tim stopped over to help bang out some dents on the passenger rear quarter. The job is impossible on my own, so it is good to have his help. Older bodywork here included drilling about a dozen holes to pull out a dent. Those were welded up after we straightened things out considerably.

Next I moved on to cleaning up the cargo are (third row seat bay) where there was a bit of rust in the pan area with some heavy pitting. An hour's worth of wire wheeling with the angle grinder, sanding, and two coats of extend prepped it for primer. Next step, after cleanup, is a healthy brushed on coat of Eastwood Products Extreme Chassis Black. I'm opting to do this instead of bedliner or the white interior paint. My hope is it will strike a balance between function and looks.

Lastly, I have been hard at work at refinishing all of the interior trim. It has all been pulled, and more than half has been completed. It will (and does) look significantly better when done. Only a few more pieces to go and that will be ready for reinstallation.

Next Up:

• Finish rust repairs on corner of doors and at rockers
• Finish body work
• Paint lower dash (while still in car - eep!)
• Pull steering column and paint

More pics soon!