1972 Gran Torino Sport - 17 year barn nap find

I have been posting my progress on one or two other sites dedicated to Torinos, but here is some progress shots of my 1972 Gran Torino Sport.
Background for those who don't know me much;
I found my Torino, an original Q code 4 speed 351c CJ setup, HD suspension, sitting in a small barn. Paid $600. Tore it apart, and decided to drive 3,200 miles to get another "puzzle car" shell, from a certain someone {COUGH-Jon-COUGH} here on this great site through a mutual friend.
Redid original 4 speed car frame front to back, boxed the lower front and rear control arms, all suspension parts new, upgraded my front brakes with the adaption of 13" rotors and dual piston calipers off a 1999 CVPI, upgraded to a lincoln dual diaphram booster with larger master cylinder. Still due to get 1976 police drums out back. Replaced/battled with passenger wheelhouse and quarter panel. Drove from Nebraska to Niagara Falls Canada and back for NOS fenders. Yes, I am nuts. Currently been working the 1/4's, trying to meet a self-imposed deadline for the 2008 powertour after having my Torino apart for 6+ years, and just getting it street legal June 2007.
Here are some pics, and a few vid clips.
Hope you get a kick. And to think I know of a '73 sport waiting for a rescue job...{and a collective groan from the wife}













{poster's Note-Jon-that roof was a hellava lot rougher than I recall in the pictures!}




















And some Videos:

digging those blue gauges...is that blue LED? tell me more...

Thanks-I had another Fordmuscle member ask me, here is the info:
I used a guy on ebay, after hearing about him with a buddy with a 78 cougar-I removed my cluster's blue-green plastic light defuser caps, and swapped in the LEDs, direct replacement of the 194 style bulbs. I spent maybe $30 for a couple differnet types, I got like 20-30 lights for my Torino and my f150, pretty easy swap. Guy was pretty fast, happy with the service. Main thing was cleaning the contacts in the cluster and she was good to go. plus the LEDs come in mini-clusters, which boost light output without worry of overloading the lighting circut because of the next to nothing amp draw.
Also, a heck of a lot better at dusk and at night BIG improvement in looks...plus, if you are broke, cheap way to spruce up your dash with new looking guages!
{one note I forgot to add-alot of the LEDs I used are in 6 or 7 cluters on a single 194 bulb base. I used a couple single large LED bulbs. All in a blue color.
Have a good one

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iTech LEDs

Like the other guy said, those blue gauge lights are AWESOME! Cool project also! now comes the fun stuff

great tip...thanks for the info. I was interested in trying something like that for my old f150...but you saved my a lot of trial and error...thanks again.

PS...i know with some taillights you need some kind of resistor or something due to the low voltage...will i need something like that with these?

Off hand, not in the cluster. When I adjust my brightness, the LED's dim out just like if you do with the regular bulbs.

As far as if you are running LED bulbd in place of like the 1157's for the tail lights, I think you need to run a special relay / breaker in place of the standard turn signal relay / breaker...but that's mainly for the tail lights/turn signal issue I believe...need to check on that.

Originally Posted by job1bf

great tip...thanks for the info. I was interested in trying something like that for my old f150...but you saved my a lot of trial and error...thanks again.

PS...i know with some taillights you need some kind of resistor or something due to the low voltage...will i need something like that with these?

awesome car! goor body work! love the look. good job!

Updated as of today:
Spent some time cleaning up the passenger door-took the fender off, drilled some 1/8" alignment holes on the hinges, and took the door off after all my finish blocking. Asside from 4 layers of paint {mental note-Jon, just who in the heck owned that puzzle car, these doors are pretty nice but 4 layers of paint and primer?!?} - anyways- asside from the paint I stripped off, and then 80g DA'ed the door, that thing is pretty nice asside from some minor rear lower tin worm cancer in the back corner. Made a patch panel, plan on welding it up in tomorrow. Need to dig out my NOS fenders and headlight buckets now.

I had to do some work on the 1/4 to door gap, but after thinking about what I watched on the Musclecar show when they were doing the crate camaro and the gaps, I did the same.
basically did a spread, hand blocked it, and used a cut off to get a nice gap.
Did some minor work to even the gap out a tick more, and I am happy right now, panel is straight finally, and after all the blocking, I am satisfied with the look.

Saturday was a good day for me.
I finished blasting the inside of the bottom of the door, and had a little help welding in the patch so I would not warp the heck out of the door bottom.
Welded up the door shell inner also fixing some holes, before the patch was welded on.
I still need to finish the corner, but want to install the door back on to gap it before welding the door edge.








Not 100% perfect, but it's getting there.

Well, I managed to get a little bit more done.
Been block sanding. Sick to high hell with it! but it's getting there.
I had to patch a section of the left quarter, the wheel house was rotted and had to form a patch panel {ironically, my main regular use dolly was the ideal pattern to form the patch! It was the correct curve and everything} and weld it in. Then I managed to carefully spot weld the section of the sheetmetal that was rotted at the bottom behind the tire on the 1/4 panel. need to just finish up the very bottom.
Having access to a lift and having the car 4 feet in the air has made it some much easier to work on at my buddy's shop.
Stripped the 30 year old undercoating out of the wheelhouse on the LH side. welded up one small bad area. Need to finish up the RH wheel house...all I can say is that undercoating was a NASTY job to remove.
Took the RH door off and patched the rear corner, sandblasted the inside of the door and the entire jamb area. Got my gaps really good, after working the bottom of the door and filing and a little more welding to get a nice gap.

I had a problem with Photobucket, and had to reload the pictures, sorry is some stuff seems a bit off.

I need to finish up some more blocking on the quarters, and hope to get it primered finally, maybe a week.