Ok,
Looks like I'm waiting till next weekend to get a new HG from Cometic, and the powder coater had no incentive to do anything since I told him I'd be out of country till the 12th. So no engine stuff is gonna happen this week.
That leaves me w/ how to deal w/ the obsolete tail light panel.
Sheet metal work.
I honestly can say that I've never had the patience to build a buck before. I always considered it a additional waste of time and resources.
That changed today.
Not having a clue as to how to go about making a rear tail light fascia I did like I always do:
I just started doing it. But not w/o cutting away the old attempt #1 first.
I also cut away a portion of the trunk lid that I always found odd.
Why the Boneheads at Ford decided to angle the trunk lid there instead of just making a straight line is beyond me, but now all is right in the world. I cut that off clean on the Sharpie line.
From there I went to Home Depot and bought the necessary materials to do it. One sheet of 1/2 " MDF and brought it home. Followed by me dragging out the jigsaw, my table saw, and the router that was attached to that table saw. I dicked around w/ a few designs for the tail light panel by trying to from them out of wire, but quickly gave up on that idea, and just started cutting and forming the necessary spars that make up the buck.
This piece was the original, hand cut and formed spar that all of the others were made from.
I labeled it "O.G."
Once cut where I was satisfied w/ the shape, I used it as a template, I cut the other 9 pieces out w/ the jig saw, and one by one screwed each one of those bitches to the O.G. and cloned them over w/ the router. After that, I went about the task of modifying the stand off of each one so they would follow the curvature of the trunk lid lip. The center is fully 3/4" deeper than the two outside edges are, so only two of the spars could be cut the same.
And there are ten spars.
I don't quite know how I'm gonna transition the quarters into that rear bumper yet, so there is still alot left to the imagination.
The silhouette that looks like the cross section of the stock bumper is in fact the actual cross section of the rear bumper. I wanted it to look like there is a bumper despite the fact that it will end up looking like it is all blended into the quarters when it's done.