1966 Mercury Comet

[MarkJ]

Finally finished the decals for this and will begin the build today. Will be changing a 67 Comet into a 66 Comet.

[wrenchr]

Do you have pictures?

 

[MarkJ]

3 hours ago, wrenchr said:

Do you have pictures?

 

Yes, they will be coming soon.

[MarkJ]

Here is the kit.

[MarkJ]

I will have to dechrome and change the grille and also remove the scoops from the hood and make it flat with a center strip down the middle.

 

[Pierre Rivard]

This is a great project and I very much look forward to seeing how you tackle it.

Is this going to be a Bud Moore solution or a Holman Moody style half chassis?

[MarkJ]

5 minutes ago, Pierre Rivard said:

This is a great project and I very much look forward to seeing how you tackle it.

Is this going to be a Bud Moore solution or a Holman Moody style half chassis?

Thanks, Pierre. As always, I don't give away what the project is ahead of time to hopefully cut down on hijackers who want to share their like builds in this thread. But I think as the build goes along it will become obvious which car, I will be modeling. Thanks for your positive thoughts about the build. I don't think the scratch building will be as intense as the last project. It's a build I have always wanted to do and now finally getting around to doing it.

[MarkJ]

Got some more work done changing the grille from a 1967 to a 1966. 

[Pierre Rivard]

Brave man. I would have chickened out and done a 67.

Is there as much change needed for the back end?

[MarkJ]

25 minutes ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Brave man. I would have chickened out and done a 67.

Is there as much change needed for the back end?

Thanks, Pierre. I don't think so. I will have to cut off the rear bumper from the rear panel to save the chrome bumper. I'm not as good as you when it comes to redoing chrome bumpers. The toughest part of the grille will be making the grilles that go into the upper and lower grille cavitys. One good thing is that the real car had the grille painted black. 

[MarkJ]

Got some more work done on the grille. I used a hole punch to make the filler plastic that goes between the headlights. Just make two holes extremely close to each other and use the plastic that is left between the two holes you punch out. I will probably just finish the voids left with putty because there is not that much area left to fill.  The hole punch makes perfect sized discs to cover the headlight cavities.

[MarkJ]

After studying my ref pictures more, I came to the realization that this Comet was a Comet Cyclone that came with a fiberglass hood with scoops and a grille with more of a horizontal bar look that was split in the middle. So, I had to make 4 separate grilles to fill in the grille cavities. The smallest material I could find was some .020 rod, so that's why it's not as accurate as I would want it to look, I would need .010 rod to do it justice. But I don't think they make it, and my finger dexterity is not what it use to be to pull that off anyway. And the glue would melt material that small.  So, this will be close enough for me. The car I'm modeling had the hood changed to a metal stock comet hood for the race I'm representing. So that's why I'm having to remove the hood scoops. A lot of the chrome trim on the grille was also removed and they painted the grille black, so just so I have the basic look of a 66 Comet grille will have to suffice.

[Pierre Rivard]

I think you'll make it look great. An alternative would be a styrene insert with a grille texture decal. Slixx has many options available. I can post pic or send you a pm if you think it might work.

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Pierre. I think I'll just stay with this deal I'm doing. I could make a grille decal myself, but I think it might look like an old car trying to look like a modern car that is supposed to have decal headlights and grilles. 

[MarkJ]

[Pierre Rivard]

Looking good. I have worked with .020 rod lately and it is small and very difficult to manipulate. Good stuff!

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Pierre.

[MarkJ]

[jjsipes]

Looking good. Keep it up.

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Jason.

[MarkJ]

[Bainford]

Looking good, Mark. Nice mods so far. 66 is my favourite Comet.

[Bills72sj]

Nice modification work. I am working on a project converting a 75 Olds promo into a 74 Hurst/Olds. It has been fun and challenging.

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Trevor and Bill.

[TarheelRick]

As always I am completely impressed with your ability to make something out of nothing. That is some beautiful scratchbuilding. Looking forward to more updates.