Great thread, great car, love all the things you have done and the details on the fix ups. I wonder for the rear fenders if you could get a paint shop to mix up a closer match to the rest of the car, eh, probably not worth the trouble overall and after a while you stop noticing it.
In reply to Harvey :
Thank you for the kind words!
I suspect I could get some kind of closer color match going if I tried at all... but most days I barely notice it. The paint on this thing is pretty crappy anyhow; I would like to try and buff it to see if I could get some shine back into it. At that point it might be worth color matching it better.
Oh, yeah, a good polishing would probably work wonders on the overall finish. It actually looks pretty good from 10 feet anyway and a nice once over with the buffer and then a coat of wax can make a big difference. I love doing that sort of stuff once in a while especially when the car has been neglected. I had a red 90 Miata for a while and when I got the car the finish was so oxidized that it was pink. I took some polish to it with the buffer and the transformation was amazing.
The only problem is that once you start making it look really good then you start seeing all the stuff that doesn't look good! 
With a single stage paint
Yeah this one has been repainted at least once in what seems to be some shade of the original color.
My dad has a buffer maybe this spring I'll get around to borrowing it from him and going to town. I don't really think I'm going to make it worse...
Gunchsta said:Yeah this one has been repainted at least once in what seems to be some shade of the original color.
My dad has a buffer maybe this spring I'll get around to borrowing it from him and going to town. I don't really think I'm going to make it worse...
Nah, you'll be fine. Unless you are using a rotary it's tough to mess this stuff up.
Still winter here in MN but my wife and I did a thought experiment that I found kinda interesting so I guess I'll share it with the class as it pertains to this car.
We have a wedding on the west coast in October. We're thinking about road tripping there, and this happens to be a pretty good road car, so we started discussing the possibility of taking this car out there. I did some pretty rough math and came up with an extra $1,250 in gas to take this over her 2014 Accent.
Here's my calculations:
4,400 miles round trip, $5 a gallon for premium, 12 mpg average for the Merc. Call it $1850 for gas.
Same 4,400 miles for the Hyundai, $4 a gallon for regular, 30 mpg average, figure $600 roughly for gas.
Now, this is a lot of speculation, guess work, and vague numbers so it's not set in stone. And, it doesn't necessarily rule the Merc out either, but it is a pretty big dollar amount, and I thought that was somewhat interesting.
So there you go. Thanks for reading :)
In reply to Gunchsta :
That was yesterday. What are the numbers today?
In reply to Recon1342 :
I see what you did there.
In reply to Gunchsta :
I went through a tank and a half over the last two days while driving mom around for surgery, pre-op, etc.
My pocketbook is currently in the corner whimpering...
Finally got around to installing my Mooneyes tach, love it. Install went really well. Ended up using a hose clamp because the tach hilariously came with one. So, I figured for authenticity I'd use it.
Also took the car out today for the first time this year. Felt nice! Pulled it out of the garage, installed the tach, washed and vacuumed it. Good stuff!
Coming home I stabbed it pretty good and the 1-2 shift was right around 4,000rpm which frankly is about perfect for this tired old 390.
Nice that after sitting the car performed as expected!
Not much to report, had some good weather on Monday so I took the car out for an evening cruise and listened to the Twins baseball game on the AM radio. Put about 20 miles on just puttering around.
I also ordered a couple of breathers that should work for my Cal-Custom valve covers, so maybe this weekend I'll clean those up and get around to putting them on.
I try to read this whole build thread, but I only get a few pages in before I head off to CL to find a 60's land barge of my own. So cool.
I said I wasn't going to clean these up, but then I did. Probably an hour of sanding got one looking sweet. I think these are my favorite aftermarket dress up item, they're just so dang good looking.
In reply to Gunchsta :
Those have got to be good for at least 20 HP! Sweet!
Mmm, shiny
The weather this week has been gorgeous so I've been driving the Mercury to work a lot.
When I got home yesterday I decided to tackle replacing the strut rod bushings. I've had a set of prothane ones a friend recommended in my possession for a couple weeks and they were starting to feel like one of those well intentioned but never utilized purchases. You know the one, "well if I buy those now I'll HAVE to replace them". Anyways, last night I did replace them.
These are the originals from 1965- still had the 65' date code in them. As you can see they're a little worn.
I didn't slow down for any other pictures unfortunately, but the process went well and probably took an hour and a half to complete. Pretty straight forward.
What a difference! I took the car for a quick test drive and some rattles were gone and it over all just felt more confidence inspiring. Quite pleased for a $20 part
I LOVE those valve covers!
You may know I also play with an old Mercury (1969 Cougar) here. I follow the old Mustang forums as my car is a platform mate with them. The general consensus from that group is that the PU strut rod bushings increase the stress on the rod due to their increased hardness such that they induce failures and most Mustang guys warn against using them. I don't have direct experience with them as I've got a custom set using rod ends but I wanted to bring this to your attention.
In reply to wawazat :
Thanks, I love the valve covers too. I think I've strolled through your thread a bit as well! Cougars are very cool.
Thanks for the heads up on the poly bushings. I'm not too concerned about it but I'll keep an eye on them for sure.
I enjoy any and all updates to your car. Keep up the good work.
In reply to Dirtydog (Forum Supporter) :
Thank you!
Right now it's all clean in the driveway ready to go check out my local cars and coffee.
Cars and coffee was chaotic as expected, but Benswen recognized the car and said hi, so that was cool!
Here's a couple pictures of things I liked from the show
5/24/22 - Ticking boxes
Not much visually to report, but after lightly stabbing the gas leaving a light and feeling a rather disconcerting 'thump' I decided this old yacht must need motor mounts. I began searching and found what I would consider spotty-at-best availability. It's 2022 so nobody is terribly surprised by that, but I did some advanced Googling and was able to find the part numbers I needed on Summit, and then cross referenced them to eBay and Rock Auto and found all the parts in stock. Interestingly, Rock Auto didn't list motor mounts for a 1965 Mercury Monterey, but they did for a 1965 Galaxie with the same engine. Summit's part numbers for the Mercury ended in the same digits as Rock Auto's Galaxie numbers so I took a gamble.
Parts arrived, and are now installed. Everything fit like it should! I did the transmission mount on Saturday and noticed some rattles gone and a little more solid feel to the car over all. Last night I wrestled with the motor mounts for about two and a half hours and got too dirty for a test drive. Possibly tonight. I will say, when I popped the drivers side mount free it came apart in 2 pieces. It isn't a 2 piece mount 
. The rubber had completely delaminated from the engine-side portion of the bracket. Beyond that they were mushy and overall just nasty.
Now my 390 can stand tall and proud in the engine bay, and all of those horses can be directed back through the drivetrain, instead of rearing up threatening to smash my pretty valve covers on the bottom of my hood. I expect blistering speed and performance.
Kidding. But I am very excited to have these parts installed!
Gunchsta said: I expect blistering speed and performance.
Bwahahahahaha! You're funny. Reminds me of Mater in Cars:
"I'm a precisional instrument of speed and aromatics!"
In reply to Gunchsta :
Good thing you got a pic of that super clean Z24. Not gonna lie, I actually kinda like it (with different wheels, of course...)
The Mercury looks most excellent. Nice to put a face to the screen name as it seems we travel in the same motorhead circles in these parts.
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