I saw this one the other night at a local cruise. Nicest guy you'll ever meet, very nice Comet. I thought about your thread and thought I would post a pic or six for inspiration, navigation and motivation.
Got a few hours in on the Cyclone this weekend. Saturday I finished up aligning things and I think I have all of the body panels as good as they are going to get, just need to drill and pin for ease of reassembly. Got the booth cleaned out (post garage sale) and the floor laid down and started hanging some lights but got side tracked with some lower back disc issues so I finished up filling pin holes in the glass bumpers. Yesterday I finished them off with 500 grit on the DA with an interface pad and laid down some sealer, 3 coats of Ford Silver Birch base and 4 coats of clear. So far so good other than I missed a few pin holes - oh well.
Now there is a chrome paint available and it’s great for glass bumpers. It’s a two part process first you spray black then the chrome finish and I guess you can spry a clear cote but it’s not required. It looks great I’m going to try it on my front bumper for my Mopar.
Got some time with the Cyclone this weekend. Fixed the dents and dings in the fender extensions and then got all of the odds and ends re-epoxied and sealed. Today I put down 3 coats of base and 4 coats of clear on them. Then I drilled most of my panels for pins and pulled the trunk lid to get it blocked out and the underside scuffed. Plan to do the same for the hood in the morning and with any luck get the undersides sealed, based and cleared tomorrow. Really amazed as the minimal amount of dirt in everything I have painted so far. The floor needs to be swept out and really i should buy some of that paint booth sticky spray on stuff go trap debris. Need to get the rest of my lights hung so I can get some solid light in there. I will say that this 3M Cubitron II sandpaper is da bomb. I am blocking with 400 and it cuts like butter and doesn’t clog with epoxy. It’s amazing. And lastly, since I seem to have some suspension issues I can’t quite figure out a friend gave me the front suspension from his 64 Caliente so that I can harvest the spindles so I can do some trouble shooting, maybe just go back to them and see if that fixes things… Tomorrow hopefully I can get the underside of hood and trunk painted and then the rest of the car broken down and blocked. At that point I think I will toss a seat in it and set my roll bar hoop location. Have to go up north next weekend but hopefully weekend after the chassis can get painted. Exciting times ahead!
Been chipping away over the last week or two. Fenders, hood and trunk are painted and doors are ready go into the booth for the same treatment. I was going to paint Saturday but there was a threat of rain and it did sprinkle a bit so I decided to clean the garage and work on rollbar mockup and fitment. I’ll swing buy a local shop and see if they will bend up the rear bars. This is only a 1 5/8” bar so finding material might be difficult. Other option I guess is to take this and have it made out of 1 3/4” material so in the future I could ass door bars if I want to make it NHRA / IHRA legal. Right now I simply want somewhere to attach seatbelts. I don’t remember this car being so “small” inside when I was a teenager but it sure seems so now. The steering wheel nearly rubs my legs. My head isn’t far from the roof, maybe 3”, and I am only 5’ 7” tall. I am going to pull those 1/2” spacers between the seat tracks and frame. I assume some of this is because of the new seat foams which are pretty thick compared to the old foams. Now I understand why Jim’s belt bar is set back from the main hoop - needed if you are tall and hope to have leg room. Spent all day yesterday blocking out the chassis. It’s 95% done. I still need to go over the jams and stuff. My arms and shoulders are jello this morning Along the way I ran into what could have been a disaster. For some reason the epoxy lifted from the substrate where the rear sail panel meets the quarter. I dug it out and faired it out. I think maybe the high build primer had pooled and when it cured and shrank pulled it up. I don’t know, best I could come up with. Everything was thoroughly cleaned multiple times before putting material down. Was it the lead or contamination? I don’t know as it didn’t grab the body filler either.
Put sealer and base on doors yesterday. There is a pesky midge hatch and no freeze in sight so I have been fighting small bugs committing suicide in my finish. Everything but the last coat of base or first coat of clear is easy enough to fix. I ran out of time last night before dark so waited until this afternoon to lay down the clear. Remnants of two gnats entombed I think. Hopefully not too many ppl notice. Tomorrow afternoon the chassis will get a final scuffing of all jams and the cowl will finish getting prepped before I give it a wash job. I took Friday off so my plan is to get the booth cleaned out and maybe a “ceiling” put into it to help contain the bugs. Thank god this clear is dust free in like 15 minutes. With any luck I can have the trunk and dash done and ready for masking so I can get the exterior done Saturday / Sunday. Here is to hoping the weather coming pushes out to Monday! Also - who here had left the dash between pad and windshield glossy and who has matted it out?
Was a long day to get the trunk and dash painted. Rain in the forecast mid day Sunday so I really want to have her colored and cleared tomorrow. Scrubbed it down really well this morning, got the booth cleaned out and car in and took me a while to mask it. Went to town this afternoon and bought 1/2 gallon more of base and another gallon of clear (so I don’t run out). Gave it a lot of attention to get everything clean and by and large it is clean. I will matte out the top of the dash in the AM and will mask and paint the end satin black. Then on to masking to get color on the rest. This moment has been a really long time coming.
Yesterday was a loooong day. A solid 14 hours in the booth. Unmasked everything, matted out the dash with some satin 2K clear in a can, masked off the rear and put down a single stage satin black. Then had to wait a few hours so I could mask it all up along with the rest of the car. I 100% hate masking, especially alone with only 2 hands. No matter how well I clean things it seems somewhere it always comes “unstuck” during the subsequent painting process. Ended up getting sealer and 3 coats of base laid before dark. Had a few bugs due of the solvents killing them and I had to hit at least 3 or 4 spots with 800 on a backing pad and then do a drop coat over the area. Good thing I am using a non-metallic paint or that wouldn’t be doable. I got up before daybreak this morning and vacuumed all of the bugs out of the booth ceiling and got everything tacked off and clear mixed up and by 0830 I was clearing. 4 coats of clear later and it looks pretty good. There are a couple of bugs and a little lint / dirt but I should hopefully be able to sand and compound most of them out, same as on all of the panels. Tally so far: 2.5 gallons of reducer 3 gallons of 2K epoxy (mixes 2:1 so 4.5 gallons sprayable) 1.25 gallon of 2k acrylic urethane satin black (mixes 4:1:1) 1.5 gallons of body filler 2 gallons of 2k high build primer (mixes 4.1 as high build so 2.5 gallons sprayable) 1 gallon of 2k urethane sealer (mixes 4:1:1 so 1.5 gallons sprayable) 1.75 gallons of base (mixed 1:1 for 3.5 gallons sprayable) 4 gallons of clearcoat (mixes 4:1 so 5 gallons sprayable) After cleaning everything up in the booth and garage and discovering the o-rings in this 3M gun do not like lacquer thinner (they swell) and ordering $40 replacements, I decided to break down the front suspension my local Comet friend gave me. I am pretty well spent. I think I might have earned a frosty beverage or two this afternoon. Weatherstripping kit (most of it anyway) should arrive this week so I can start getting it reassembled. I need to order carpet and a headliner too. So now the question is… Cut and sewn OR molded? Opinions?
I haven’t added it all up. I do have receipts. but off the top of my head I can tell you that the base was $650 / gal and clear was about $260 / gal (including activator)
I pushed the old girl out into the sun yesterday afternoon. I think it’s red…. I started bolting some parts on so that I can get the doors and trunk lid hung. I want to be able to put her back in the garage. Carpet arrived and I tossed that in there to let it relax. Big box from Melvin’s should be here at some point. Ordered a headliner and hopefully my door and vent window seals (we’re back ordered) make it here sooner rather than later. I would like to have glass back in it by winter. In the meantime I need to wipe things down (dusty!), get brakes commissioned and start installing the wiring. I also need to pull the front suspension apart and figure that out. Reading the manual I have the springs rotated 180 degrees from how FoMoCo said to install them (spring end toward tire). I installed like all of the mustang ppl do. Is that the issue? I don’t know but it’s worth a shot. The only other thing I have is that it’s a spring stiffness issue. If I can’t come up with anything after rotating springs I might just go scorched earth..
In case anyone wants to know what the going rate is to rechrome all of the investment cast pieces and A pillar / roof trim. This is the quotation from Custom Chrome Plating, Inc in Grafton, OH when I dropped everything off today. https://www.customchromeplating.com/ Vent window frames (2) Tail light housings (2) Radio bezel (1) Glove box bezel (1) Dash end piece (1) Fender extension inserts (2) Fender extension trim rings (2) Comet letters (10) Wiper trim (2) Console insert (1) Vent window pivots (2) Sunvisor brackets (2) A pillar / windshield trim (3) My strategy has been to buy “new” pieces or pieces in NOS condition wherever possible (like vent window latches, knobs, knob bezels) to save on cost overall.
The Jalopy Journal
