1972 Mercury Montego – November Updates – Front pieces getting painted

11-2 Had to replace the printed circuit. So this is the start of disassembly.

This is the old printed circuit. It was tattered on the right lower of the cluster

All the parts taken out. I reset the speedometer to 00000. I also changed the number dials on the tripometer since the orginal were faded

This is the new dials and the rest of the odemeter

Reassembled – I redid the clock already on the 5. I did a quartz conversion

Done

11-6 Brackets all painted

First glimpse at the header installed – been a long time (14 months)

[xyz-ips snippet=”1972-Mercury-Montego-GT”]

11-7 Header is painted!

I decided to do the insides of the fenders first. They are just too big and bulky to do the inside and outside at the same time.
I’ll go in today and finish all the parts except the hood.

Pic of the inside of the fender. I’ll mask all this area when I do the outsides

The underside of the bumper filler

 

First glimpse of the header on the car. Also installed the headlight brackets

11-10-14 Buffed both fenders. All other smaller parts are done Fender extensions. bumper filler, grill surrounds, front valance
All I have left to paint in red now is the hood!!!!!

Brand new wiper washer bottle

11-11 First glimpse at the fender on the car.
Just put it on to check the gap on the door along with the height of the core support.

 

Reflection after wetsand and buffing.
Brand new NOS emblems installed – I’ve had these for about 7 months now. Finally get to install them.

11-13 Right fender installed. Still have to align

A good look at the engine compartment after both fenders are installed.

11-13 – left fender is aligned

Fender extensions, buckets and grill surround pieces

Starting to install the grills. All three are NOS.
I had the original front bumper rechromed about 6 months ago

Front valance

11-17 – Monday and Tuesday – Did some work on my front springs

11-20 First time the Montego GT has been out of the shop in about a month.
Today I received my custom made rear springs that dropped the car another 1 1/2″

Side markers installed

11-26 – Its first bath!

Hope to make it’s Maiden Voyage tomorrow (11-28). First time to drive it on a road.

11-28 – 2014

After 15 months of building, I’m ready to take the “Maiden Voyage”. Going to drive it home which is about 7 miles away. Kind of nerve racking knowing that you put pretty much every nut and bolt in the car and realizing, that was once a couple frame rails, you’ll be taking this car up to about 65 miles an hour.

My wife Jody and I spent 6 hours Friday cleaning and detailing it for the ride home. What a great help she is.
AND also a great support cast to help on this build. Though it was fun building, it was still the challenge. Especially since this is such a rare car. At least all the trim was there, but still ran into parts that were tough to find, BUT I DID find them like the NOS headlight and center grills, taillights, emblems including The “Mercury” on the header panel, “Montego” on the fenders and deck lid, along with the “GT” emblems on the fenders.

Home sweet home!!!!

The trip went PERFECT! Stopped to get gas – quite a few people gathered to check it out.
The car drives and stops perfectly straight – pretty good considering I didn’t have the front end aligned.

Got a couple nice little projects to do at home. Going to be a great weekend