brokenbird66

The Restoration of my 1966 Ford Falcon Futura Sports Coupe

I wish I had began this page when I actually bought the car in October of 1997. Unfortunately, I didn't begin until January of 2000 when I had my accident. Originally, This was just a page to show people my wreck. That eventually turned into warning people of the Evils of Allstate Insurance. Then, That eventually turned into a detailed progress report on the restoration of my car after the accident and the efforts being made to put it back together. As the car neared completion, I decided to add a little history of the car at the top of the page to make it all more complete.

As bought, 10/97

In 1993, I bought a 1966 Ford Falcon Club Coupe. After a few years, It was in poor shape, with no motor and attempting a restoration. During this time, a friend of a friend of mine bought a '66 Falcon as well. It was the first time I had ever seen another one in person. I was pretty jealous because it was much nicer than mine, even though it was a bit tired as well. But I definitely wanted it. Well, Fast forward a year or so, and this person was forced to sell it. I agreed to buy it over the phone, and headed out to get the car I remembered seeing close to a year earlier. Boy was I surprised at what I saw.

During this time, The owner had removed ALL the trim, the front bumper, and poured paint stripper over the entire top surface of the car. It was a mess. It barely ran, had horrible exhaust, and the brakes sank to the floor at each attempt to stop. I paid (a foolish) $900 for it, and drove it to work straight from the previous owners house to my work so I could get it painted. These pictures were taken as I pulled into work, without shutting it off, literally about 25 minutes after buying it. I have an interior shot that Ill post when I can find it.

If I had known how much it needed at the time, I wouldn't have bought it. But maybe that was a good thing. Ignorance was bliss, and I fell in love. I drove it to work on a Friday night, and Over the next 3 days, I gave it a full tune up, changed the master cylinder, And replaced the exhaust manifold. But that's not all. I stripped 75% of the car (all top surfaces and halfway down to the ground on the sides), did some quickie body work, primered the whole car, and painted it Deep Jewel Green by Monday night. Tuesday, I sold my other car and drove this one home....putting it into full time driver duty. I spent weeks tracking down all the missing parts I could from the previous owners knowledge of who's house he took it apart at. I tracked other stuff down at swap meets and such (this was before my days on the internet and Ebay!). After about 6 months of parts hunting, I ended up with a car that looked pretty good. Not a show car, but a decent looking car for a daily driver. And by Daily, I mean it was my ONLY car. A true daily driver. It did the grocery shopping, hauled the baby around, and got me to work daily.

For the next two and a half years, I worked on it all the time in addition to driving it daily. Always fixing something up, mechanical upkeep and cosmetic. I got a headliner put in it, and was really starting to get into the car and was considering parking it for resto when he unthinkable happened.

01/21/00 ~ The day the Falcon died.

On Friday, 01/21/00, about 6:40 P.M. Eastern time, My heart was broken.

I was driving East bound on County line Rd (the county line of Greenwood to Indianapolis on the south side). I approached a traffic signal at Meridian St. where a vehicle was facing westbound (towards me) waiting to turn left (south). As I approached the intersection, the light went yellow. The westbound driver began to make his turn and realized he would not make it. He stopped with his car obstructing my through lane.

I saw him go, I saw him stop, and got on my brakes (about 35 MPH). However, being only two to three car lengths apart, and on snow covered roads, I had no chance. My 1966 Ford Falcon Futura Sports Coupe began to fishtail sideways, and I caught the other vehicle head on and at a 45° angle right in the middle of my grille.

The damage was pretty substantial, including core support damage, inner fender apron, and a radiator that hit the fan and drained out.
The fender is wedged into the front tire, making it a pretty rough ride!

Luckily, noone was injured.

E-mails welcome at Falcons66@usa.net

I hope you dont have Allstate on YOUR car

Well, all I can say is that Allstate Insurance refused to pay my claim, despite the police report that states their driver was at fault for failure to yeild. After about a month or more of phone calls to their office about twice a week, they never even had the courtesy to return a call or inform me. I found out through MY insurance company who called Allstates' claim department. The official report listed in Allstates computers was that they had a "witness" that provided sufficient information for them to feel that their driver was not at fault. Oddly, there were no witnesses listed on my police accident report.

Unfortunately, I did not have collision coverage on my insurance policy, and so, the bottom line was, I was out of luck.

I did contact about 20 attorney's, and the story was the same at every one. "Sorry, sir, but that's Allstate Insurance company for ya. They know how to work the system. You don't get rich by paying people you know,....You get rich by getting paid. It's happened a million times, you're just one million and one. They don't call them 'Allsnake for nothin'. "

So, it was up to me to get her fixed or throw her away.

Here she is after six months, finally back on the Road. I know, It isn't much to look at, but I was driving it again, and that's all I cared about. The passenger fender was powder blue, The hood was navy blue metallic, and the left fender pastel green. The turn signals were literally drilled into the front of the car to make it legal. What a sad picture!

Here is my car in September at a car show / club meeting in Middletown, Indiana. It has come a long way since the last picture. I wish it could be done by now, but it is a daily driver. Everything that I do must allow for the car to be road worthy the next morning. This picture shows the freshly painted wheels, that will match the roof when the car is done. They are Light green metallic, like the interior. It has four new tires with white walls, The fenders and hood have all been fully stripped, undersides and insides are painted, outside is in primer and is essentially paint ready. The picture doesn't show it, but it has new quarter patch panels installed, and has a fresh front and rear bumper on it. As of today, It sits in the garage totally stripped apart, getting completely redone. I wish I could see the future of this site and see what the next update looked like!

Not the best pics, They turned out kind of dark. These were taken on an unusually warm January day. I took advantage of the kind weather to pull her out and get some pics taken, and straighten up the garage. As of this day, She is coming along well. The exterior is fully apart now, all trim, body panels, etc. passenger door has been fully stripped, and is all painted in on the jambs and inside. The outside is fully primered. That door is ready to go back on the car. The drivers door is stripped, but needs a little rust hole fixed and some work done to it. The drivers side door jamb on the car itself is fully painted in, and looks marvelous! Next step is probably going to be painting the passenger jamb, and deck lid jamb. Then the engine bay. The engine bay isn't going to be a show car style. I am going to make it nice, but am not going to go crazy. It will be painted satin black, and that's it. Besides, it is crinkled up pretty good from the wreck, so a show car it will not be. But it will be one damn nice daily driver! This has me thinking of maybe renaming this car when it is done. It has always been called 'creeque alley', but after all that has happened, I know this car inside and out now. It needs more of a personality, A name. I've been thinking about naming it Mr. Krinkle, which is also the name of a song like Creeque Alley was. Of course, The Krinkle is in reference to the accident. We'll see!

Just found this pic lately (7/06!). Didnt know I had it. Shows the car gutted, stripped, and with new quarter patch panels on!

I cant believe it has been THIS long since my last update. Naturally, I'm chomping at the bit to get this car done, and it SEEMS like forever, But once you start counting the months, it really puts it in perspective! I don't have a pic right now, hopefully soon. We are finally making progress! The body work and all rust repairs were completed last month, and all body panels are officially stripped, rust repaired, body work fixed, primered, 'edged in' (underside of hood and all door jambs, trunklid etc painted underside). The cowl are is all painted in, Factory stickers are going back on. Wiper assembly is back in place, Just ready for a new windshield. (windshield was removed, channels all stripped and painted in). The inside of the doors are all fresh paint, and the new rubber weather-stripping is going on. Trunklid is back on car, Drivers door is back on car ( all new pins and bushings ).

This seems to be taking way too long, But most cars don't get done the way this one is. Most get the outside painted , and don't get stripped. This car is being done way to detailed, considering it is supposed to be my 'driver'. Hell, The door hinges on this look better than allot of peoples cars do ! Well, That, and since I am two toning the car, Each door jamb etc takes that much longer to spray the two colors instead of just one. Hopefully, the next update will have an assembled complete car, getting detail work done in hope of paint.

Well, Albeit I don't have a pic to put up yet, there is great progress. The car is now totally assembled. The drivers door still drops a little bit despite new pins and bushings, but overall, The car is assembled. The grille and bumper is in place temporarily, to make it look complete. It is still in need of a windshield, but I haven't been able to afford this item quite yet. But it is nice to have all the jamb work done, All the rust fixed, all the major dents fixed, The accident damage fixed, and even the engine bay painted in satin black. Once the windshield is in place, I need to align all the body panels, drill a couple holes for the rear bumper, and give the car a rough block sanding. Once sanded down, I will see all missed pings and dings, can square them up, and give the car an overall final primering. I guess it doesn't seem like a big update, but it is to me. Just need that danged windshield! Pics soon I hope!

Finally, Photo update! These pics were taken March 17th, 2003. Last month, in the midst of a snowy winter, I took it and got a brand spankin' new windshield installed! That's the single biggest amount of money I have spent out at one time since I bought this car! I guess that means I do 95% of the work myself! I finally was able to drill out the new rear metal to allow for the bumper to be installed. It has been ready for this for 5 months, but it was a ROUGH winter. Snow on the ground almost every day for about two and a half months! With no heat in the garage, The bumper had to wait. Today, I rewired the turn signals, including adding the N.O.S. front turn signal bezel and wiring unit (I hope to get the left too, it made a huge difference in functionality of the signal on that side). The bumper is on, and the plate lamp in place. I got her new tags on, and put windshield wipers back on her. A few other random screws and such, and the car is.............are you ready..........100% road worthy for the first time since September of 2001!! Naturally, with the degree of disassembly it had, There is allot to be done. But overall, It is definitely a car again, and I cant wait to drive her outside of the neighborhood soon! The day was gorgeous, but by the time I finished up my work to it, and pulled it out, it was overcast; Thus the gray pictures. (see clearer pictures in 4/5 update below) Also, The multiple hues of color are due to parts being primered and guide-coated separately. All the primer I used is PPG's K36 Prima, But each piece was guide coated as it was primed, and thusly appear darker and lighter. If I had known about powdered guide coat, I would have waited and done it all later. With liquid guide coat, it is easier to do it while it is masked up. With powder, it can be done after the fact.

Some clearer pictures of the car in same condition as above, only clean and on a sunny day.

Well, Talk about overdue! What a great update. The above update was great, in the sense that a major hurdle was cleared....making it roadworthy. But roadworthy and solid were two different things. By solid, I mean every bolt in place, not just enough to hold it together. Seats fully bolted down, not just laid in place and steadied by two bolts. Al the body was together, but lined up horribly. The doors didnt open from the inside, had no catches to keep them from swinging out 90 degrees, and when they did open, the would POP as they hit the fenders. I could go on and on, but the point was, It could drive down the road, but not as stable as it should have.

So, comes the week of 7/17-24, 2004. A slow week at work left me a wide open door for workin on this car. My co worker, Adam, and I agreed to tag-team this car all week to get it done, but unfortunately he fell very ill and missed nearly the whole week. Luckily, He was able to do a full body-panel line up on it before leaving me to fend for myself. So finally, all the body lines were straight, and the doors opened and closed cleanly. I pulled all the trim that was on it off, bumpers off etc, and proceeded to spend 2 solid days blocking the car out.....panel by panel, by hand, with a durablock (the best sanding block ever made). I found a couple of dings and dents that had appeared over the last year or so, and repaired those. The car was then masked up, and given 3 full coats of PPG's K36 primer all over.....the final priming of the car! After the primer was on, I gave it two good coats of DP90 Primer/sealer to give it that nice satin black vintage hot rod look. This will also serve as the guide coat when I decide to block it down for paint. But I really like the look and think Ill keep it for a couple years.

I then proceeded to build the car farther than its been built since January of 2000. It now has all of its locks (not on in the pictures yet), whole front end build including rock guard (valance between bumper and grille), full windshield trim, deck lid trim, all taillights and door handles etc. All of them work inside and out, and all windows function as they should. The door catches are in, and tension spring things (all new). I could go on and on, but the point is, the car is solid, straight as an arrow, properly aligned, and nearly fully built (wheel well trim and quarter panel trim will follow). I then get a set of rims and tires from a friend who no longer needed them, and the tires had only a few hundred miles on them. I stripped and painted them and put them on to complete the old hot rod look. I have my factory steel wheels and hubcaps still, and may swap them out every so often just to change the look a bit. The tires were originally on a 1961 Comet I painted for a friend, and can be seen here: http://www.fordfalcons.com/paintergeek/images/ANDY61comet.jpg

I hope to get new rings and baby moons before too long, but it isn't priority one. Again, Eventually this car will be painted as it was, more or less, in deep jewel green all over, with light Kiwi metallic roof (same color the interior is redone in). No, these aren't factory colors, but they don't look too modern or out of place either....just 'not so drab' versions of what it originally had.

Ok! Here we are again! After driving with the all black/red rim look for a bit, I decided the red rims were holding me back from moving on with my plans. So the factory rims which I restored some years ago were put back on, with the stock sports-coupe hubcaps. The roof was then final-prepped and painted. That's right!! After, oh, 5 years........There is finally exterior paint being applied to the car! The roof is officially DONE. Hard to believe! It is PPG Light Kiwi Metallic, as is the rims and interior metal surfaces (such as the dash and door tops). With the roof painted, I can put the roof emblems back on and the rear window trim. Windshield trim is back on already, gorgeous. Also have quarter-panel trim on, decklid trim, and some emblems.

Things planned for this year are to finally get the rear frame boxed in, the new leaf springs and bushings installed, and am currently in process of putting the Hooker 6 Cylinder dual-exhaust headers on it. Tracking down gaskets as of this typing. Unfortunately, The repair done to the decklid didn't hold, so Ill have to either cut that back out and patch it again, or replace the decklid before I can consider full-on paint. But I plan to keep it flat-black for a couple years anyway.

Also acquired are some great bucket seats I found in a round-body falcon in the junkyard, They weren't even bolted down, and I don't know what they were originally out of, but they are in near-perfect condition. I am going to have them redone in black when I have the rear seats and carpet all redone at once. they are bright red cloth right now. I like factory buckets, and would probably prefer originals, but they are hard to find in good condition, and seat covers for a 66 are tough to find too. So this is my easy-way out. Here is a not-so-good picture I took while they were in the junkyard car, but it was with my old camera (2 MP), and I was standing in about 6 inches of mud, and the yard guy was waiting for me to finish so he could help me load them.

With this new look came a new personality for this car. I decided after LONG debate to change it's name.As mentioned earlier, It had been Creeque Alley for its first three years or so. After the wreck, I jokingly called it Mr. Krinkle (due to the krinkled body panels etc). But with the new look, It needed a permanent name.....and I found it while watching a TV show on Ancient Egyptian Culture. And so it was, 'Horus' was born. Google 'Horus Falcon' to see the significance of this name.

OK! It has been a long time since my last update, But with good reason this time! I had always intended to get this car to the nationals in Indy in 2006, But after the update above, I just enjoyed driving it so much that I didn't want to take it back apart or be without it for a long period. I was enjoying it too much! So next thing you know, Its April and it occurs to me I don't have alot of time to get the car done. The plan was to just re-block the whole body down and give it a fresh and final paint job before the nationals. Although I was going back to satin black again, The previous flat-black was just a quick black-epoxy primer called DP90. It looks good at first, But it isnt a long term solution. The new paint job was going to be a full proper base/clear paintjob, only using satin clear instead of full gloss.

Before I got into the body again, I decided to replace the defroster plenum. The original ones tend to crumble, so I got a solid used one years ago and fiberglassed it up and painted it. So I decided to get that installed before I got to the body. This one step started a snowball affect that has lasted almost three months, cost me a ton of money , my sanity, and every weekend since the week before memorial day.

In order to get the plenum out, you have to take the heater box out. Taking the heater box out meant that I might as well replace the heater core. And, I figure if its out of the car, Why not clean and paint it up. So thats what I did, and it came out REALLY nice. I used PPG Gloss Black (DBC 9700 basecoat and DC 3000 clearcoat) on the black parts, the gray is Lilith Charcoal Zolatone. Very sexy for a heaterbox.

Once the heater box was out, I noticed a rust hole in the firewall. I also had always battled a leak that would wet my carpets in the rain. I had repaired everything I could find and reach and STILL had the leak. So I began prodding for the leak. Before I knew it, I had everything in my interior gutted down to nothing but the headliner and the wiring. EVERYTHING else was out....and we had a problem. The firewall to cowl seam had rusted. We couldn't find the exact location of the leak, but knew the whole are that needed attention. In fact, There were a few problems. Rust through on the toe board, firewall, firewall to cowl seam, transmission hump, an area under the rear seat, and a small area of both rear floors. Yikes.

Call in my friend, Bud Bivens. This guy is a metalworking superstar. (you should see his hand built bike I painted. Will link to pics when assembled). I laid the whole situation on the table. " Bud: THIS is what I need, And I need it done FAST". He answered the call like a true hero. Bud went to work first thing Saturday morning, May 27th and stayed glued to it until Monday afternoon, May 29th. All repairs were completed, beautifully and solidly. Old stuff cut out, new stuff TIG welded in. Now, It was up to me!

Now it was my turn to get on it! With all that happened, I was far away from the exterior body. First I had to Seam-Seal all of the areas of repair and all of the factory seam sealed areas back into shape. Not so fun up under a dash! But with all the dash cluster, fresh air vents, stereo, glove box, and heater box gone...it wasn't TOO too bad. After the seam sealer, The entire floor and underdash was coated with POR-15 (google it if you don't know what it is. Good stuff). One all of this was done, I aimed for the trunk.

The weekend earlier, While Bud had been welding on my car, I removed the gas tank since it always had a slow top-end leak. So, for his safety and for the sake of repairing it, I pulled it out. So, With the floors all coated in POR-15 and drying, I focused my attention on the trunk. I prepped the inside the best I could for what it is, sealed the whole thing with DP90 primer, and then sprayed a fleck-type of 'spatter' paint called 'Zolatone' over the whole trunk. I used a color called Lilith Charcoal. In these pics, You can see the trunk pictures below. I also removed and painted the gas filler neck in the dark green pearl used on all jambs. Very sharp looking in my opinion. Gas tank at this point went out to be stripped inside and out, then off to have leaks soldered up. It then got the inside coated with Red Kote gas tank sealer. After all that, I will need to get it painted before reinstallation. Not sure what color yet. Just black? Dark Green? We'll see !

With all the dash and trim removed to allow better access for rust repair, It seemed dumb not to restore it too. So the dash cluster was fully gutted and cleaned and prepped. I couldnt afford the time to send it out for plating, so I decided to do what I do best...Paint! I painted it like original, only using a coarse sterling silver instead of chrome and then the sating black accents. I did this to all the dash trim as well. I removed and buffed the speedo lenses to crystal clear, replaced every bulb, and hand painted the speedo and gas/temp needles with a neon red basecoat I had. It came out incredible. I had a spare inst cluster, but it was identical to my own in condition so I just kept my original in there. Pictured below left is the spare cluster to compare as a before/after affect.

I also redid my own dash pad. It was cracked pretty good, and I wasn't about to spend $500 to fix it up and could never find a nice one. So I did it myself using fiberglass, duraglass, polyester filler, polyester primer, urethane primer, and eventually vinyl dye. Al; in all, it came out really really nice for the nearly nothing I have in it. It was neat to have it in, cause its the first time since I have owned '66 Falcons that I have had one with a respectable dash.

With the inner trunk painted, It was time to focus on the trunklid itself. The original trunk lid had the Sports Coupe / Futura trim on it. I didn't mind that so much, but always preferred the 'Club Coupe' (or more commonly known as the base line) falcon decklid which had individual F-A-L-C-O-N letters on it. The two styles are show here:

Even though I preferred the simpler look, I wasn't about to go through switching decklids just for that. But, an old rust area that was repaired poorly came back in full force, and in just a year of being outside in the weather, It rusted back badly. Irreparably bad. I began kicking myself because a couple years earlier I had SOLD a near-perfect club decklid to a fellow falcon owner who found me online. I came home and searched for that persons name in the probably pointless hope that he still had it and hadn't used it, AND might want to sell it back. But it didn't matter, as I couldn't find his contact info anywhere. But fate was meant to be. It was meant to be with me, and wouldn't you know it...just two days after that, The owner contacted ME looking for some trim for his car. I could NOT believe it. A few weeks later, we met, and I traded him the sports coupe trunk trim and some dash trim for my decklid back! I was literally giddy about this. The car pictured above right is my first Falcon, and that is the actual decklid that is now on my current falcon pictures lower down on page.

After some work, That decklid was stripped, painted inside, Zolatoned on the inner areas (see heater box and inner trunk as well), and was back on my car where it belonged. Another odd thing...I also had given him my letter 'L' from the F-A-L-C-O-N lettering figuring I would never need it again. Well, Now I did. Wouldn't you know I hopped on Ebay, found a guy with a 66 falcon being parted out. He didn't mention the letters, but I sent an inquiry anyway, and ended up with a full set of 6 in about an 8/10 condition. Very exciting, since they don't remanufacture these emblems like the do for other years of Falcons.

With the trunk painted, I aimed for the engine bay and core support. But the engine bay is going to be a rather timely process, one that I didn't feel I had adequate time to do before the nationals. So, I moved right to the core support. With the fenders already off, I disassembled everything on the core support including wiring, horns, braces, brackets and such and prepped it all for paint. I then sprayed PPG DP90 black sealer down and then a few liberal coats of black/black Zolatone. Came out sharp. I have always disliked core supports painted body color. It takes away from the front of the car and 'bleaches out; the grille. I think it MUST be black, and on this car..... Zolatone was the perfect fit. Especially since it has been in an accident, It helped hide the repairs a little more than paint. Its really not noticeable anymore. The horns and brackets mentioned above were all sandblasted and painted gloss black DBC9700 basecoat/clearcoat. The following pictures are actually from weeks later during the build-up, but show the core and brackets nicely.

With that done, and the fenders off, I decided to do something I had debated doing for years. Some time back, someone (if its you, please remind me) was kind enough to send me a full set of inner fender rubber seals. They were off of a parts car and in great shape. I never thought I would get the desire to put them on though. But I knew it was now or never (I don't plan to ever pull these fenders off again!). So I went for it. I didn't take pictures, but believe me when I say it is BEAUTIFUL to see them in and to look up in the fender and see them sealed nicely at the top. This car is not a year round daily driver anymore, so it isn't as critical as it once was. But it feels nice to know its 'right'.

As pictured higher above, I had purchased some seat at a junkyard to go in this car. They needed some bracket adjustments (which is putting it mildly). Once again, Bud came to the rescue. He did an incredible job making sure they sat 100% right in the car. All four brackets of both seats needed major modifications, and he did it like they were done by the factory for this car. Actually, the factory wouldn't have done them this nice.! So here they are fitted to the car and bolted in, and now they are off to the upholstery shop!

All that being said and done, It was time to focus on getting the body back together and preparing to get it painted. But I couldn't do that on that day, so I began putting more dash stuff together. While laying on the metal floor on my back putting it together, I decided maybe it was time to get the carpet in. It had been sitting out 'relaxing' for a month, so I thought it would be an easy install. I laid it in, and knew right away that I didn't want to trim it myself. Since I had dropped off my seats a few days before at the upholstery shop, I decided to ask if they would finish the install on the carpet. The guy said he'd do it up for $50, and he'd glue it down to keep it from shifting. For $50, I said HELL YEAH! A few hours later it was in, glued down, high beam hole installed, and trimmed right. I brought it back to work and installed the freshly dyed kick panels with new speakers, The brand new front seat belts, and custom floor mats. (The rim inside was to sit on and drive in and out while seats were getting done).

With the interior as far as it could get until the seats got back, and not being able to assemble door panels until it was painted and had door handles installed etc......There was only one thing to do......Get it painted.

The first step was to finish the disassembly of all remaining trim, taillights, bumpers etc. The car was so far down already, this only took an hour to complete. Thats when the new decklid went on. Another talented friend of mine, Adam, offered up his hand to help me get this project done before the FCA Nationals. He helped me with the decklid installation, and did a body alignment on the front end. He had actually already done a body alignment a year or more ago, But the car came back apart for rust repair, and needed redone right. Here, the car sits stripped down for paint. New decklid is on (in gray primer). Roof was painted last summer, so the trim was already installed and doesn't need removed for the body paint. Everything else is off but the rear bumper, which came off the next morning. (green tape is on window because the rear window leaks. I have been through hell and back with that rear window for 8 or more years. I taped it up as a temporary fix, which Ill remove for the show. But it will need attention again after the nationals.

The following morning, Adam and I went to work on the final prep for paint. Because I had chosen an epoxy primer last time to achieve the 'Flat Black' look, we ran into problems. Epoxy primers aren't intended to be sandable, and tend to 'gum up' your sandpaper. Even though this primer over a year old, It was NOT dry-sand friendly. So, We did what I hadn't done in 10 years.......Water-Sand a car All-over. I HATE watersanding. Luckily, The weather was cooperative and so we did it outside. By 1:00, We were done. Here it is outside drying in the sunlight.

By 1:00 p.m., the car dried off so we pulled into the booth. It was then masked and prepared for spraying. These pictures show the car in the booth. Two show me working, and not too happy in one pic having just found a dent we both missed. It was easily fixed, and little time was lost. Almost time to paint! I set up the fuel cap and cowl on a stand behind the car, and set the front valance in a different room to get painted at the same time.

And here we go! I set the time for this 'in action' shot of me spraying. I didn't realize my suit was torn down low, and when I got home, I had a very distinct black-line where my sock ended on my ankle! It appears that in this pic, the black sealer has already been sprayed, and the black basecoat is going on.

I actually had a problem with the clear on the 8th when it didn't 'matte' enough. I used a PPG satin clear, But it requires some cocktailing to achieve the desired amount of gloss. Flat (app 20% gloss) looks chalky like a faded primer, and the semi-gloss (app 80% gloss) just makes it look like you TRIED to give it a gloss clearcoat, but did a poor job or used a cheap clear. Well. Thats what happened. My mixing was not right, and I ended up with WAY too much gloss. So I lightly prepped it all, gave it a quick coat or two of basecoat JUST to make sure, and then remade the clear. It came out just right, with a nice eggshell ( app 40-60% gloss) sheen. So here it is painted, but a day AFTER the date written on the window of the car in the first booth shots.

After allowing a couple days to dry outside in the sun, I began the build up.

Wednesday, I put the taillights in, door lock cylinders, and headlight buckets. Still waiting for the new door handles to show up before I build the doors. If they don't arrive by Wednesday, It gets built with the old stuff for now.

Thursday the left quarter panel trim went on, front rock valance, and fender support brackets. I also got the rear set back, which was laid in place just to fit.

Friday, I got my gas tank back. I put the first application of Red-Kote tank sealer in it today. I also got the front seats back. Saturday is the BIG build day.

Saturday, I POR-15'd the gas tank and gave it a second application of Red Kote gas tank sealer. I got the roof trim on, and the right side quarter panel trim. Put on rear bumper and license plate light, trunk lock/latch.

Installed New coat hooks inside as well as replaced final interior window trim pieces. . Two new Kenwood 250W 6X9's went in the package tray, and the new rear seats and rear interior panels went in for the last time (for this build anyway). Rear arm rests and pads were put in, and rear floor mats. Front buckets were installed. Interior looks odd in this light, but looks pretty cool in person.

Sunday, Oh bloody sunday. This was a big day for me. ALOT to get done, and my last full-day of build time before the show. Any BIG stuff had to be done today. First major thing was the front bumper. Once again, Bud came to the rescue. There were some issues with the nuts welded into the front frame that accepts the bumper bracket bolts. Thee issues went back a long way, and still weren't right. Bud had the answer....Heli-Coils. I left him to do his magic, and before I knew it, We were lifting the bumper on. Its is rock solid now, and needless to say...Im pretty happy! This picture shows the bumper on, Signal wiring still hanging down. It also is a great shot showing the contrast between the Zolatoned core support and the gloss black painted grille support brackets, horns, and hood release. All of those parts were sandblasted and painted with automotive base/clear a long time ago. No spray-paint on this car.

With the bumper on, The next step was the grille. A quick polishing and a re-paint on the mounting brackets behind the grille, and it was ready to go on. All new hardware bought for it and the headlight bezels this time too.

And then, of course, the headlight bezels. I hope to get better one or maybe even original unused (NOS) ones, but for now.......the old ones with a fresh polishing will have to do. This pic also shows the brand new F-O-R-D hood letters. Beautiful reproductions.

With the front end essentially complete, I moved to the trunk. The trunk now had two full coats of Red-Kote inside, and two coats of POR15 sprayed on the outside. If it was a nicer tank, Id have sanded the POR15 down and painted the tank nicer. But this thing is beat to snot, and although it is finally sealed and full functional.......It isn't a display piece. That being said, I decided it was time to get this thing back in the car. I laid down some Strip caulk all along the channel in the trunk, and dropped the tank back in. I installed the new screws, the filler neck-to-tank hose and new clamps, and ran some gaffers tape around the top of both to make sure the strip caulk didn't stick to the underside of my new trunk mat. Naturally, Next in was the new trunk mat, Spare tire, and jack assembly.

And last but not least on the day was a fresh steering wheel I had been saving for years. The other one was cracked bad when I bought it, and repairs had come back over time and were looking pretty poor. I painted it to match the interior, and got it installed, and installed the new scuff plates.

Monday I did alot of building, But nothing photo-worthy. ALOT of 'nuts and bolts' and other random things that took an entire day, and yet didnt have much cosmetic affect.

Tuesday. however, Was a big day. Basically, the final day. I got one of the two exterior door handles today, so I put it on the drivers side. The passenger side will just have its old door handle for awhile until the new one shows up. I tried to put the new Sports Coupe emblems on the roof pillars, but the pins were not correctly located during the reproduction and wouldnt fit the factory holes on my car. SO, the original emblems went back on. I also got the fender emblems marked and installed (originals),

I also installed the F-A-L-C-O-N letters on the trunk. Getting those emblems on assured me that I had made the right choice, That this decklid looks WAY better than the Sports Coupe decklid trim. That's just my opinion, But it looks ALOT cleaner to me now.

With the door handles on, I could finally install the door panels, window cranks, armrest pads, and interior door handles. That being said, The interior is done other than a major post-paint clean up. The door tops, dashboard, steering wheel, armrest bases, and interior window trim is all painted PPG light kiwi green metallic basecoat/clearcoat. The door panels are dyed with the same color made as an interior dye, and black dye on the secondary door panel colors, armrest pads, and dashpad.

And with the emblems on, It was time for a bath. So it got its initial cleaning, and Here is the exterior body, complete other than custom pinstriping that should be done Wednesday. I will probably spend all day Wednesday detailing the car inside and out, and if it gets the striping done, will hopefully have some nice 'completed' pictures of it sitting outside and ready for the nationals!!

And here it is......The day after the national convention. I went for a little drive looking for good photo spots..(alright, I had been to two of them before!). But this is how it will look for some time to come. I still plan on doing things to the car, like adding on the awesome set of rocker trim I bought, finding wheel well trim, and replacing the back window seal AGAIN and putting in a new BLACK headliner( I replaced it already once, but now want black instead), and replacing the rear window trim.

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