Miscellaneous interior features III

With the power windows in and operational, I turned my attention to the power seat mechanism. Ford hadn't offered a driver's side power bucket in the Torino, but they did offer a power bench as well as a power driver's side split bench, which used the same track assembly as the bucket. Since I'm cloning the TV car and it was equipped with a power seat, mine will be too! The Cougar Jeff was parting out was equipped with the power split bench so I got the seat bottom assembly and harness from him.

Again the first order of business was to determine functionality. I installed the harness per the photos Jeff took during disassembly and removed the seat track assembly from the seat bottom. I was surprised how HEAVY the seat bottom assembly was as I drug it out of the box the seat and associated parts were shipped in! I was glad I only had him ship the bottom of the seat! I think the seat bottom alone weighs as much as the entire bucket seat does !! Anyway once I had the track separated from the seat, I place it in my car and plugged it in as presto, it moved......but extremely slowly.

It worked in all 6 axis but they were all glacierly slow. I also notice the bezel of the power controls was slightly pitted, so I made a mental note to add that to my rechrome list. My thoughts on the slowness of the seat movement was probably years of crud built up around the drive gears as well as perhaps lack of lubrication around the hinge points as well as seat track. A friend has a '92 Crown Victoria (the one I got the idea for rear seat armrest from) which also has a power driver's seat, so I thought I'd look at it my next visit and see how fast the seat was supposed to move.

When I got my chance to look at it, the first thing I noticed was that the seat controls were EXACTLY LIKE THE ONES ON MINE! Ford hadn't changed the controller in at least 16 years! So I revised my mental note to see if the bezel was removable and to also try and locate a NOS controller for a '92 CV. As far as operational speed was concerned, the seat wasn't extremely "fast" in any direction but it was a constant motion a bit faster than my seat exhibited.

With that info in hand, on my next play day, I proceeded to disassemble my seat track for cleaning, detailing and restoration. I pulled the motor and cables from the track so I was left with just the bare frame. I proceeded to clean it thoroughly with carb cleaner and a tooth brush to get everything out of the track rails, gear drives, etc. Once I had her as clean as I could, I washed the entire track down in lacquer thinner to remove any traces of oil or any other contaminates that would prevent the paint from sticking. Once I was happy that it was nice and clean, I blew it dry with a pressurized air nozzle and hung it up for a quick coat of primer.






























My primer of choice for anything metal I'm shooting with a rattle bomb is POR-15 SELF ETCHING PRIMER. Having used POR-15 products in the past, I'm sold on the durability of their paints and related products. A couple quick coats per the can instructions and I called it a day.

I think I'll call it a day on this post also, so watch for the next installment.....COMING SOON!

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Miscellaneous interior features II

As I mentioned earlier, while I was stripping the paint, I was also gathering up options and other parts necessary to clone the TV car. A couple of those factory options were the Power Windows and the Power Driver's seat. I wanted to get everything test fitted and powered up prior to pulling out the door guts and interior wiring harnesses to insure everything was in order prior to detailing all the various bits and pieces.

The driver's door of my car already had "power window" glass installed but the passenger side had the "non-power glass" fitted. The difference between the two is that the power glass has an arc cut along the bottom edge to clear the power window motor and the manual glass is straight across.

Since the driver's door was closer to being "done" I started there. I first had to remove four 1/4" rivets that held the manual window regulator to the door inner structure. Since I wasn't sure if the glass would stay up without the regulator in place, I blocked the window in the up position. I simply set a hammer across the top of the door side impact brace and an opening in the inner door skin and it kept the glass from falling as I removed the mechanism. The power regulator fit to the door in a different position than the manual regulator did so it took a few minutes to figure out the orientation and which existing holes were used to mount the assembly.

The next trick was "cocking" the regulator arm and locking it in a position that would allow me to install the lift arm roller into the window lift bracket and still be able to engage the lift motor gear with the regulator gear and mount the motor to the door.

CAUTIONARY NOTE: THE POWER REGULATOR IS SPRING LOADED TO EXTEND FULLY TO THE UP POSITION OF THE MECHANISM. THE SPRING IS VERY STRONG SO USE CAUTION WHEN REMOVING THE WINDOW MOTOR TO PREVENT THE SUDDEN EXTENSION OF THE LIFT MECHANISM AND DAMAGE TO THE VEHICLE OR PERSONAL INJURY!!

The full up position of the mechanism is too far up for actual window operation, so a slightly "cocked" position must be found and locked in position until after motor is installed.) It was a bit tricky finding the sweet spot so everything would line up but with a little patience and taking my time to insure things were as they should be, I got it all together. Since I would be pulling it all back out again for detailing and paint, I used 1/4-20 hardware to install the regulator assembly. During final assembly, I will use 1/4" rivets like Ford did and also use a backup washer to insure the rivets hold the regulator securely in place.

Now that I "knew what I was doing", I went to the passenger door. I removed the four rivets holding the regulator to the door, blocked the glass in the up position and removed the manual regulator. The next chore was to remove the manual glass and install the power glass, so I removed all the window stops from the upper portion of the door and then removed the screws securing the glass to the vertical guide and then removed the guide from the door. I thought "hot dog that was easy! Now just finesse the manual glass out and the power glass in and we're home free!"....... WRONG!

I couldn't find the appropriate openings in the top of the door that would allow me to remove the glass as an assembly. There had to be a way to do it because Jeff (the guy I purchased the power systems from) had gotten the thing out as an assembly. I got out my shop manual and flipped to the door glass section and it said I needed to drill out the rivets securing the lifting bracket to the bottom of the glass. I thought no, there has to be a way because Jeff had done it. I decided to go ahead and install the wiring harness and get that taken care of then call it a day and check with Jeff and see how he was able to get it out all together.

When I got home, I immediately fired off an e-mail to Jeff asking how he had gotten the door glass out without breaking it down into individual pieces. When I got his reply back I knew I wasn't going to be able to follow his example... since he was parting the Cougar out and the doors were pretty much shot due to rust, he cheated and used a pry bar to spread the window channel open far enough to slip everything out in one piece! So the shop manual was right after all..... imagine that!!

The following Saturday, rather than drilling the rivets out, I used a 3" course sandpaper wheel in my 1/4" angle head grinder and ground the heads off the rivets securing the lift bracket to the power window glass first (this is also how I removed the rivets from the manual regulators). Since it was out of the door it was easier to work on and get a feel for what I would be doing in the confines of the door itself. About 5 minutes and I had both windows pulled apart. The next tricky part was getting the manual glass out of the door BY MYSELF! It took some creative thinking to figure out how to position the glass so it would stay in position while I moved my hands from inside the door to outside so I could get it the rest of the way out of the window channel and jockey it back and forth to allow the window stops to slip out through the provided door openings.

Inserting the power glass back in the door was every bit as challenging because I had to finesse the stops into the openings then position the glass to stay in place while I got my hands inside the door to finish positioning it for reassembly. Instead of rivets, I used 1/4-20 x 1" hex head bolts with nylock nuts (just like the shop manuals said to do) to put the lift bracket back onto the glass. Once the bracket was installed, I replaced the vertical guide and window stops, blocked the glass in the up position, "cocked" and installed the regulator assembly followed by the window motor. I had installed the harness the previous Saturday, so all I had to do was plug in the motor leads and reconnect the battery. The moment of truth had arrived....... I hit the down button and..........NOTHING!

I though "CRAP what's wrong?" I rechecked all my connections and grounds and all was in order. I knew the harness was good because I had checked continuity of each wire prior to installation. I thought things through and then it hit me...."Turn on the key DUMMY!"

With a click of the ignition and a push of a button the driver's window slowly slid down into the door and then a lift of the button and the window rose from the door! Tried the other switch and the passenger glass slowly disappeared and then reappeared on the opposite side of the car. Almost there.... I went to the passenger side and tried the button on that door and again the window did it's magic act.

Both glass don't glide as smoothly up and down as they should but I still need to detail and lube everything then make the adjustments during final assembly that will restore the smoothness to the power window operation.

SORRY NO PICTURES... HAD A SENIOR MOMENT AND PULLED EVERYTHING BACK APART WITHOUT SHOOTING ANYTHING!

Next installment I cover the install of the power seat track and the power door locks......STAY TUNED!

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Parts Search..... Part 1

Sorry for the delay in posting this installment. Would love to say it was because I was extremely busy working on the 2M8O, but that's not the case. I've had my 16 year old daughter Emily for most of August, during her summer vacation, and I realized that pretty soon she's not going to want to spend as much time with her ole Dad as she did when she was younger, so I made a concerted effort to spend as much of my off time as I could doing things with Em that hopefully would be as valuable to her as it was for me. Out next big endeavour will be finding her FIRST car together! She's wanting a Ford Focus or a VW Jetta so hopefully we can find a nice used one to start her off with. Wish me luck!!

As I was stripping the trunk, the interior floor and the body, I was also searching for the major and minor options that the TV car had as well as those to replace the original options my car had but had been removed over the course of time. One of the options I was able to snag early was a complete AC System from the firewall evaporator box forward. I was also able to get an operational Power Window and Power Driver's Side Split Bench System from a guy in Minnesota that was parting out a '76 Cougar. I got the complete systems that included all the wiring harnesses, brackets, clips, bushings, hardware, etc. so it will hopefully be a matter of just "plugging and playing". Time will tell!

I contacted John Haney at BlueOval to see if he had any floor shift tilt steering columns for a Torino. He said he had a couple column shift tilt units but no floor shift models. He told me the tilt wasn't offered with bucket seats and a floor shift tilt column was pretty rare. I asked him if it were possible to modify a column shift tilt unit into a floor shift model and he said they had tried several times without success. I thought there had to be a way to do it, so I went ahead and purchased one of the column shift units to try my hand at the conversion.

I also picked up on eBay a complete Motorola Micor multi-channel Police radio system that included the head unit, speaker, cables and trunk mounted transmitter, a Southern Products magnetic teardrop revolving red light and a Federal Signal siren controller w/PA and a Dynamax 100W speaker.

Well that's it for now, but watch for more coming soon!

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Miscellaneous interior features 1

While I was stripping the trunk and floor I was also rounding up additional parts I wanted to install on my car to make it more like the TV cars as well as making it my dream ride. I purchased the deluxe light group harness, fittings and clock from John Haney at BlueOval.com and also picked up the deluxe dome light with map lights and a NOS power trunk release on eBay.

The deluxe light group consists of the underhood and trunk lights, ash tray and glovebox lights, driver and passenger side footwell courtesy lights and headlight and wiper control illumination. The in-dash clock also came with the necessary wiring to plug into the main harness.

The dome with dual map lights was actually part of the deluxe light group but it was a separate item from Blue Oval. Since the map lights were independent of the dome light, a dedicated hot lead had to be run from a hot tab on the fuse box up to the dome light assembly. To make identification easy, I used a red wire and let it run parallel with the dome light lead. Since the hot wire terminal of the maps and dome light circuits also served as the mounting point of the dome assembly, the screw had to be isolated from ground (the sheetmetal crossbrace), so I used a small square plastic insert (like the plastic nut used on license plate brackets) on two of the three mounting points. I drilled an undersized hole and rocked the bit from side to side to make the hole more obround to grip the insert securely. For the ground terminal I just drilled the correct size hole for the screw to thread itself into the roof brace.































The power trunk release also required a hot lead, so I made a piggy back connection with the map light at the fuse box terminal. Since the trunk release is a momentary load and a rarely used option, I doubt there will ever be a time that I have both map lights on and then open the glovebox and trip the trunk lock. Even if I do, the load will be brief.

The trunk light needed a hot feed too so I tapped into the red hot lead to the map lights. At the point where the wire starts up the sail panel, I cut into it and made a Y connection. One red wire runs on up to the map lights and the other red wire runs parallel with the black wire under the package shelf out to the deck lid and through the underside reinforcement to the lamp location and on to the trunk release.

Well that's all for this installment but stay tuned for more.....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Flooring.... Part 2

With the trunk stripped, I moved to the interior. After removing the seats, carpeting, seat belts, carpet underlayment, wiring harnesses and drain plugs, I vacuumed the loose debris and got ready to go to town with the Scotch Brite pad.

On the subject of the Scotch Brite pads, remember to keep them moving in a wide area to prevent heat build up and potential sheetmetal warpage and they tend to wear away quickly on rough and irregular surfaces. If memory serves me correctly, I went through two and a half boxes of (50?) pads stripping the floor, trunk, damaged sail panel and roof area, the windshield and rear glass openings as well as using them to removed the trace particles of paint after using the paint stripper on the body. Oops, there I go again getting ahead of my story... more on that later!

Stripping the interior floor was just a bit more challenging with the various contours, reinforcements and brackets but nothing that wasn't easily figured out. Here are a few before and during shots of the interior floor....























































With the floor and trunk stripped I moved on to the body. Next installment I'll pull the exterior trim, glass, ornaments, lights, etc in preparation for stripping the body. More to come....

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Flooring.... Part 1

I decided to start with the trunk floor first since it was the easiest to access (I hadn't pulled the interior yet). After removing the asphalt sound deadener pad, the filler neck cover, the body drain panels and moving the fuel level sending unit wiring harness out of the way, I mounted a maroon 3 1/2" Scotch Bite pad to my angle head grinder and set to work.

Really it was pretty quick and easy to remove the paint and surface rust from the trunk floor and wheelhouse. A couple things were accomplished starting on the "hidden" aspects of the body... first I got used to maneuvering the disc into different areas to get at the tight spots and it also allowed me to learn how to keep the disc moving so I didn't overheat the sheetmetal. The second aspect would be critical as I stated stripping the backside of the quarter panels and the tail panel so I wouldn't warp any exterior metal! Here are a couple before and during shots....






























































To keep this and future entries short, I'll pick up the stripping of the interior floor next installment. Stay tuned........

ZEBRA 3 OUT

Back on track....

Kinda got side tracked there with the seats, so let's see if I can get back on track. As I was saying earlier, my first project was to just convert the interior over to black. Pulled the seats, door panels, dash pad, package shelf, windshield post trim, side window interior trim, rear side trim panels and everything looked normal. I did notice a sticker on the driver's side rear seat quarter panel interior bulkhead but didn't think too much about it. I removed the sail panels interior trim panels and coat hooks and started removing the headliner and still nothing looked out of the ordinary, but as I started removing the sound deadeners the problem started to show.

When I removed the roof insulation from the area above the driver side rear passenger seat, the bondo pigtails became visible....




























then when I pulled the insulation from the drivers rear sail panel area, the structural damage became evident.....















when I removed the seat back insulation sheet I discovered the driver's side package shelf reinforcement was slightly buckled as well....





















This was when I called upon the body shop manager for his evaluation and was advised if I were going to do this car right, I should just go ahead and do it all now and not have to pull the car apart twice. Well as I pondered my options I thought if I were going to strip this thing down to the bare shell, then I might as well rebuild the car in the configuration I would have ordered it in had I had the opportunity to do so back in 1976.

Since I had sent the VIN into Ford Customer Service and knew what the original factory installed options were and I knew I was going to clone the season 2-4 Hero cars, a visit to StarskyTorino.com revealed the Hero cars were also equipped with the following additional options:
Dual Remote Controlled Chrome Mirrors
Deluxe Light Group
Deluxe Bumper Group
Intermitted (Delay) Wipers
Tilt Steering Column
Illuminated Passenger Side Vanity Mirror
Power Seat
Power Windows
Power Door Locks
Electric Clock
Security Lock Group
Luggage Compartment Trim

Additional items to be installed during the rebuild will include:
Pioneer AM/FM/8 Track Supertuner In-dash Stereo radio (NOS)
5-Band Stereo Equalizer
Pioneer 5 way speakers
Motorola Micor 6 channel FM Police Radio with Microphone or Handset
Federal Signal Siren Controller with Dynamax Speaker
Southern Products Magnetic Teardrop Revolving Red Light
14 x 7 & 15 x 8 1/2 Aluminum Slot Mags
Hooker Super Comp headers
Flowmaster 40 Series 2 1/2" Mufflers
Complete 2 1/2" Dual Exhaust System

Now that I have a direction and a plan, the process of stripping, refinishing and optioning the car begins. I think I'll end this session right there and I'll talk a bit about the stripping of the floor & trunk in my next installment. Until then......

ZEBRA 3 OUT