Look carefully, you can see the engine and trans are still in the car. Tom says he can read the serial number on the back of the big block from the driver's seat!
Look carefully, you can see the engine and trans are still in the car. Tom says he can read the serial number on the back of the big block from the driver’s seat!
Our friend Tom Wilson down near Atlanta is always cutting something up, stamping something out or putting something together. This time around I think he is doing all of the above! He recently sent me some photos of his most recent adventure into the unknown.
Here is another view of the engine with the firewall removed! Note that the brake lines and other items are still in place waiting for the new firewall.
The cowl vents were rusted so Tom removed them. I don’t think much scares him.
This Cyclone had its good parts and its bad parts so Tom decided the bad stuff had to go. Next up he is going to cut out the floor, all of it, and replace it in one piece from another Cyclone that has a good floor but not much else.
Here is the donor firewall that will be going back in.Tom builds airplane parts so he can cut up (and build) Cyclones!
Some of my first and strongest memories from my childhood relate to cars. I still remember when things happened based on what car I was driving at the time. I grew up and lived in Iowa for nearly 40 years before moving to Southern California and now live in Tennessee. I was a Corvette fanatic for years but then re-discovered vintage American Muscle. My wife, Katrina, and I decided we wanted to focus on unique and rare muscle cars. After a lot of research we fell in love with the Ford Blue Oval Aero Cars. These were only built in 1969 and and aerodynamics became an important part of winning races. The only purpose of these limited production cars was to win NASCAR races using the Boss 429 and 427 power plants complimented with a special, wind cheating, aerodynamic body. The Ford Talladega and Mercury Cyclone Spoiler II are terrific and historic cars. This site is devoted to these car and their owners past and present. We provide an Online Registry for recording the long term history and ownership of every remaining Talladega, Spoiler and Spoiler II.
Tom has got a big job ahead of him . It will be like eating an Elephant one bite at a time .
Its not really that bad of a job and it is saving a car that might have been parted out.Just cant do that to a color code car.