Today's update is brought to you by fine folks at Ford, whom without their help, I would be totally devoid of any ideas to steal.
I'm almost finished with the Monster fender. You gotta call it a monster fender, it no longer looks like the original. Now, the leading edge has a significant under bite. Similar to the jutting jaw of an English Bulldog.
As the front end modifications evolve, you'll see what I have to do to close down the enormous gaps that the "Jerry's Kids" at late 70's Ford design didn't bother to address.
There is almost a full inch gap between the top edge of the bumper, and the bottom of the grille and headlight trim bezels, and an additional 1/2" on top. I've got the bumper jacked up all the way to try and close that gap, and it's still that big. Everybody that owns a Fairmont knows that doing that creates an even bigger eyesore, by exposing even more of the lower radiator saddle. Again, a problem solved by the wizards at Ford Design w/ a flimsy piece of plastic that was supposed to hide the jutting lower saddle.
I've got a plan for all that.
Firstly, I'm filling the bottom gap w/ a 1" riser that will be attached to the back of the bumper.
The top gap will be fixed by adding a 1/2" piece of 1/8" bar along the bottom edge of the hood, and inside of the upper headlight opening on the fender. You can see what I did to the fender where the underbite curves around. I'll just extend that whole riser all the way across.
As for what I'm gonna do to try and hide the over exposed lower radiator saddle...........You'll just have to wait on that, A whole bunch a junks gotta happen before I can take the light bulb that's burning in my head, and make it happen on the front of the car.
To address the first line in this post,.......I don't think I stole any ideas at all. I just modified one I've already used in the past.
I'm not one to try and reinvent the wheel (at least not all the time.) If there is something I had, did, or used in the past,....I recycle the idea, change it accordingly to suit the new build, and put it in place.
In this car's case, That would be the Orange paint that I used on a previous drag car. It would be the Cyclone decal that has been renamed, and used on 3 other cars before this one.
It would be the grille:
Similar to the one on the red car only rectangular, and never a big fan of the factory Fairmont egg crate grille in any version, I decided to hack mine up so I could recess the mesh at the back of the thing, and give the front end some depth, and less of a "smash face" look.
This of course brings about a "how am I gonna fix this?" because cutting away the old grille has left me w/ a series of holes all around the perimeter. I guess I'll back fill the holes w/ filler, and go through the arduous task of detail sanding that hacked up frame and hop I don't break it.
But the thing looks freakin' awesome in place.
Just what the DR. ordered.