2007 Ford Interceptor

[Peter Lombardo]

It has been a while since my last post on this project. I have been very busy at work, and my wife and I were able to sneak a few days away, so work on it has slowed. I haven’t even really had time to look at the forum much, but that is not important now. This, as I said before is a long term project. A modification of this magnitude doesn’t happen over night.

On to the progress I have made. I have the overall body shape as close as I think I can get it from the reference pictures that I got from Conceptcarz.com. I have measured as many dimensions as I could from the pictures I have, than converted them into percents of the overall vehicle. Then I did the same on the model, converting the dimensions into percents. Any variance was converted into the proper measurement and adjustments were made. As I have stated before, this is as close as I can get considering I do not have the real car available to work from. Next step I had to deal with was the 4 doors. At first I thought I would just scribe in the door opening lines as the putty work on the sides was pretty extensive. But once I got started making the lines, I could not fight the urge to “dig a little deeperâ€. Normally when I open doors, I rely on my trusty Squadron Panel Scriber, a #11 knife blade and a small exacto saw blade fitted to a # 11 holder. But this body was so thick in many spots; I took my Dremel tool with a rounded grinder head and cut a deep trough on the inside of the door openings. This helped to even out the thickness and make the cutting bearable. The upper window frames were very difficult to say the least. Not only was the top chopped, but it had been moved inward, as the top greenhouse is not as wide as the original Chrysler 300. So cutting through all of the splicing was very tedious. I cut the doors out on each side intact, meaning that I kept them together and separated them once free from the body.

Also, the doors have different lengths then the Chrysler doors have, so the cut between them is in a different place (does that make sense?) If you look carefully at the rear doors, you can see that they were cut just on the inside of the rear wheel wells. That was fine for the actual opening but the outer door skin flows all the way to the wheel well. This required extra support to the inside of the frame because I was going to have to grind down the outer section and add outer skin to the rear doors. I think you can see the addition to the rear door on the picture of the inside of the door. I cut a piece of sheet plastic to match the back contours of the rear doors, super glued it on and finished it with putty. Then I very carefully trimmed the outer skin to fit. It was made more difficult because there is a “flat†edge that runs around the wheel well openings, so it needed to be built up. I fabricated the two posts that separate the front and rear doors out of small strips of plastic and once the rear hinges are built, they will be finished on the inside with the piece that I cut free from the interior side panels. The hinges will be difficult on this on. Usually, the hinges are straight forward, but because of the curves on the sides and the extra work I had to do to the front area by the hood; the hinges will be rather complicated, but certainly do-able. Next I tackled the hood and front fascia. To cut the hood free, I had to fabricate inner supports because the hood tilts upward and forward and the hood opens all the way down to the side accent ridge almost half way down the side. So the space between the lower body side and the windshield needed to be supported before I cut the hood free. I was concerned that the windshield would not be in the correct spot once the hood was cut free so I took extra care here to secure it first. Once free, I added the front wheel well tops and the access panel that runs between the wheel well and the firewall. After that was installed I began fabricating the curved firewall. This is a multi-piece unit that is being built in place, so there is a lot of cutting and fitting going on. The top portion has a grill, to let air into the ventilation system, I presume, so that will be added last. Now I began working on the engine. The actual car has the modular Ford 4.6 liter V8, same as the Mustang GT. In fact, the Interceptor is based on an extended Mustang platform. Fortunately I have the 4.6 engine from the Revell Mustang GT that I did not use on the Shelby GT 500 conversion I did earlier this year, so that will fit in nicely. I need to scratch build the correct head covers and the intake system will need extensive modification because the air cleaner sticks up through the hood. Next the front grill, headlights and bumper assembly will be tidied up and/or built and attached to the front of the wheel well openings.

I have no idea what the real chassis looks like (stretched Mustang), so the slightly modified Chrysler 300 chassis will be pressed into service. The interior will require extensive scratch building but that can wait until the body has moved along. I still need to cut out the taillights and make the exhaust openings below the taillights. The last big item after that will be the wheels. There are not a lot of 7 spoke wheels around. I have not found any aftermarket 7 spoke wheels of the correct size yet. Anybody know of any? What I have found are the Pegasus #2399 Aluminum Stepped Sleeve wheels. These are 23 inch wheels with great big wide tread. The Revell Honda Civic SI Coupe from a few years ago has a set of 7 spoke wheels in it. If I grind down the raised ridge on the center of the outer diameter of the wheel, it will slip into the Pegasus sleeve perfectly. The shape of the spokes is not exactly right so modifications will have to be made, and they are 4 lug wheels which need to be made into 5 luggers, but that is do-able.

Ok, as usual I have run long again, sorry, but there were a lot of modifications to catch up on. This build is another tough one, but no pain, no gain. I really enjoy solving problems as they arise. Every challenge overcome is a new technique learned. I am learning a lot these days. I know the front grill and headlights will be a mid term exam.

[Peter Lombardo]

[Peter Lombardo]

[Trans Am Erik]

WOW!!! I am impressed, that is some great bodywork. Keep it up

[The Creative Explorer]

This is a massive work-in-progress. Good luck!

[JAFFA]

Now thats a lot of modifications!!

[bjscustommodels]

thats awesome Keep it up

[bigphoto]

Quite the under taking can't wait to see it done!!

Also I have included a link so some folks can visualize what you are vocalizing.

http://www.autoblog.com/photos/ford-interceptor-concept/

[rollinoldskoo]

wow... you're crazy!!!! j/k man.... good luck!!