Our '64 Comet A/FX Drag Car Puts On Some Weight With A New Front Spring Setup

Today on muscle car, red sleds back in the shop for body work and primer altered ego takes on a new stance and we're going topless in this big block beauty.

Hey guys, welcome to muscle car. Now, we got a lot of projects going on in the shop right now and each one has its own personality. Now, the coo and the trans am, they're all about going fast and flexing muscle. The comet. Well, it's all about taking a wild ride back in time. Hanging on for dear life with the front wheels hanging out over the track.

The impala has got a different attitude. It's all about cruising low and looking good. So it's time to take a break from the knee for speed and

get the body smoothed out on this big bad street machine.

Since the 61 Impala limped in the muscle car, we braced up the X frame.

He gave it some air ride, widened, the tubs patched up the sheet metal smoothed out the bumpers, mocked up the 409 and four speed and finally pulled the body back off the chassis

before we really get going on the body work there's a few odds and ends. We need to finish up like boxing in these body mounts.

The sea has done its job in protecting the metal but it's time for most of it to come off. A 36 brid disc on ad removes the majority of it and preps the surface for body.

A stripper disk takes care of the tide areas and some hand sanding will knock off the rest of the shine

before we go any further. The whole car needs to be blown off and wiped down to the pre cleaner because we want the surface as clean as possible before any body work is done.

After a rub down, she's ready for some filling when spreading the plastic, especially the first layer. It's important to work it into the surface and make sure you don't trap in the air bubbles

after waiting for it to harden, we'll rough it in with 80 grid.

The first layer is for filling in low spots. It doesn't have to be perfect yet. So you don't want over sand here.

You know, ever since our bodywork Extravaganza episode aired a few months back, we've got some emails asking me whether or not the cardboard I used to mix a filler on is gonna pull any of the resins out of the plastic.

Well, in my experience, it's very, very little if any at all. Definitely not enough to or make a difference.

Now, you can use a commercially available mixing board or an old piece of scrap metal like Brent's using.

But if you work in a shop, most of the time when you go to grab it, someone's left a big old wad of plastic on it.

So I've learned to just use a piece of cardboard. It's always worked for me.

Body work equals lots of dust. So it's a good idea to get some ventilation going.

If there's one trait that top body men possess it's patience when dealing with large areas like a quarter panel, you may have to go over it four or five times before the first coat of primer ever goes on.

Men are like artists and they all have their own style. Some guys prefer to hand sand, everything others use their tools. Most guys use a combination of the two.

Now there's no right or wrong way to do it as long as you end up with a straight panel

guide

code isn't just for primer. It can also be used on filler to give you a better indication of where you are.

You know, the old saying sea is believing. Well, at this stage, don't trust your eyes, use your hands and guide coat to gauge your progress

with the quarter panels roughed in. It's time to start smoothing out some of the smaller areas like the trunk lip and tail light panels.

I'm using a stripper wheel to clean off the surface rust that red sleds accumulated sitting around the shop

once it's cleaned off, I'm back to spreading plastic. I'll rough it into shape, using the spreader and even my fingers

while I'm taking care of the back end, Brent's up front, smoothing out the firewall.

Still got some San doing on the firewall before it's as smooth as eggs. I'll finish this up and work on the roof. When we take a break. When we come back, we'll get at the booth for some primer

up next red sleds roughed in. So it's time to prime.

Hey guys, welcome back. You know, when we got the lead pulled out of this thing, we told you, we're gonna come back later

and finish it with the trim on. So while Brent's working on the roof, I'm gonna get the window trim fitted

since these parts have already been polished. I'm using electrical tape to protect the finish and prevent the filler from sticking to the trim.

Since this area is a seam. I'm using metal filler instead of plastic filler. It holds up better and high stress without cracking.

You could also do this using a torch and lead free solder minus the electrical tape. Of course,

I'm using a pocket knife to score the edge. Once it dries, I can just break off the excess.

I'll use some 36 grid by hand to blend in the top edge, then come back with some 80 grid on ad A to weapon the rest of the shape.

Now, at this point, you can pull the tape off and check the fit

like a glove

with all the body work roughed in. It's time to turn red, sled orange. As always we start with mask enough anything we don't want sprayed.

Ok. All you paying guys out there, pay attention. Our Philip primer

choice is Clawson's Z Chrome Rust Defender. Every time we use it, a ton of emails flood in about the stuff.

If you want more info, check out power block tv.com and look for the link to auto body color and supply

this layer of primer will seal in the metal and gives a fresh starting point for blocking and continuing the body work.

You heard right? This is only the first prime

red sled is going to see a lot more love before she ever sees the color red.

The red sleds looking great, Brent still got a couple more coats of primer to put on it though. So I'm gonna go ahead and get rolling on altered eagles front end. Now, we knew when we ordered these springs, they were gonna be hanging out the front a little bit. So I'm gonna go ahead and get the rear mounts done and then I'll come back later in the show and design the front ones

after the break. Ford's answer to the GTO.

Today's flashback. A 1967 Ford Fairlane GT A.

There is nothing like the feeling of driving a car that you've built yourself.

And Bob Carter has built many Fords in his lifetime.

He spent over three decades on the assembly lines in Detroit, building some of the finest blue oval cars.

This Pristine 67 Fairlane GT A is his price possession

and he doesn't mind taking it out for a spin with the top down. Even in the dead of winter,

I like to drive it because I have, you know, quite a lot of zip to it and uh

get a lot of attention from people that really don't know, you know how old the car is or what kind it is.

The Fairlane first hit the road in 1955 as a full size car, but shrunk to a mid size in 62 filling the gap between the compact Falcon and the massive galaxy.

Now Ford wanted to take on the mighty GTO. So in 66 they redesigned the ferry lane, enlarging the engine bay and dropping in a big block V8 for the first time.

Yeah,

this 67 has a 394 barrel which could belt out 320 horses.

It uses a cast iron mid rise manifold and features the same hot cam and valve train as the 428 Cobra Jet

Fair

Lanes came in a wide range of packages including the 500 the XL, the GT and the GT A,

the GT A was virtually the same as the GT except the A meant that it was an automatic.

The select shift cruise O Matic gave you the best of both worlds. Some people like

automatic transmission, it functioned like an ordinary automatic for everyday driving or for extra control, you could use it like a three speed and shift it from first to second to drive.

G

has come with power front disc brakes, blacked out grille treatment, wide oval tires with deluxe wheel covers, bucket seats and plenty of badges of stripes.

Power domes replaced hood louvers this year and had integrated turn signals. The 289 V8 was standard with a two or four B

390 as an added option,

67 s got a slight makeover from the 66 models.

The grill got three vertical cross bars and a crest was added in the center as well as on the rear

taillights. Also got a new stack designed to match the headlights

to lower the top first. You had to unzip the glass rear window and lay it flat. Then you let the car do the rest.

The GT held its own against more powerful muscle cars like the 442 in

Chevelle,

but it couldn't quite top the GTO unless that Tiger wasn't automatic

production fell by 40% in 67 to a total of just 20,787.

This was the second and final year for the fairlane GT with the Toreno Gt replacing it in 68

the GTAS limited production life and status as the first of the big block Fairlanes make it highly collectible today.

There's no doubt this car is close to Bob's heart, I suppose. After spending almost 30 years at Ford, you get a little Ford in your book

coming up. Altered ego, puts on some weight.

Hey, we're back and ready to mount the front springs under altered ego. His plates I designed,

they're not only going to mount the back end of the leaf springs, but they extend all the way up past the motor mounts. That way when this thing comes down from a wheel stand, the force from the engine will be distributed up onto the frame rail and all the way back into the chassis and the roll cage

build on a budget muscle car projects that save you time and money.

Now you could buy a set of spring mounts, but these are not only much cheaper,

they're going to be way stronger and they're serving more than one purpose.

All it takes is some scrap eight inch steel in less than an hour of your time to cut them out and drill some holes for the plugs.

I'm running the bolt through now to make sure my alignment is right.

The heads are coming off the mock up engine. So it will be easier to get to the inside of the frame rail.

I'm also boxing in the back of the mouse for some added strength.

Have to get it, man.

Yep. Got it.

The red sled. All orange. Oh, yeah. Right on. Ready to build the front mounts. Now, dude,

we're coming up a little bit short though.

Yeah, a little bit.

So

that what we saw this one coming. Got any ideas. If you cut this front out right here, drop us a tube in.

And I was thinking if we can open that up and get like some two by two, open it up and slide it all the way in and plug weld it.

And then when we come in with that bar up into the engine compartment,

it comes in. It's gonna tie in up here. We can plug it in right on top of that,

that inside box and that should give us enough support on that front.

Sounds good to me. Sounds good. Oh, yeah.

Ok.

Go find some two by two box.

If our measurements are correct, this tubing should slide right inside the stock frame rails. But first we need to get some metal out of the way.

The old bumper bracket mounts have to go to make room for the new extension.

We know we'll have to relocate the bumper, but we'll deal with building new brackets. Later,

the original frame rails have internal bracing. So the end of our extensions have to be notched to clear it.

Now, we won't know exactly where the springs will sit until we get weight on the nose. So we're making these long and we'll trim them back later.

We need a couple of extra holes for plug wells. Then we can clean it up and set the new rails in place

with the angle on the extension, matching the original frame rails. We can tack them in place

before moving on to the other side. Brent's checking to make sure everything is parallel.

Now that we have a place for the springs to rest, we can bolt in the axle and make sure it's centered. We

won't set the caster or weld the perches until the car is at its final.

The easiest way to determine the location of the front shackles is to load about the same weight as the engine in the front sheet metal on the finished car.

We added about 450 pounds and that compressed the springs about an inch and a half, pushing the eyelet forward about three quarters of an inch

with the bushings out of the way to keep them from melting. I'll chop the holes for the sleeves,

spider web gussets. Well, they're not really necessary, but they do look cool. So they're going in,

the car needs to be raised up to get the shackles installed. We'll pop the bushings back in and slide them in place.

All right, man. Time to drop this dude down.

All right. It's good to see it on the ground. Yeah, it looks like it's sitting about Right too. Once we get the more weight on the back should be perfect. Yeah. Now I can move on to getting all the steering linkage and stuff put together. That'll be nice.

But you know what, you have to check us out next week to see all that stuff come together because for now we're out of time so we're out of here.