Our good friend and passionate Cyclone owner, Tom Wilson, is at it again. He calls himself the Cyclone Junkman because he likes to buy the Cyclones no one else is willing to buy. That is a very good thing for the rest of us because he has the ability and tools to make repair panels for his cars. Although it may not seem like it, but when compared to the Cyclone there are a wealth of repair panels for Torinos. Until Tom, there were zero for the Cyclone.
Have you ever wondered why you can purchase reproduction parts for a Torino but not a Cyclone? In 1968 and 1969 Ford built 738,698 Torino and Fairlane cars. In 1968 and 1969 Mercury built a total of 22,771 Cyclones! That is approximately 3% of the total Torino/Fairlane production. Now you understand why no big manufacturer makes interior or body panels for a 68/69 Cyclone. There just is not enough of them left!
In 1969 only 9,143 Cyclones of all variations were produced. By comparison Ford built 299,824 Mustangs and Chevrolet built 243,085 Camaros. It is not uncommon to hear announcers on TV say how rare the 1969 Z28 Camaro is. Well, they built 20,302 Z28 Camaros in 1969. That is just slightly less than all 1968 and 1969 Cyclone production. According to Kevin Marti there were 503 Spoiler IIs built and 969 Spoilers for a total of 1,472 Dan Gurney and Cale Yarborough cars built. That’s it, that’s all. That means that for every Spoiler or Spoiler II built, Chevrolet built 13.8 1969 Z28s! Drop that fact on your Camaro Z28 loving friends when they tell you how rare their car is.
Enough of the number came (for now) let’s talk about what Tom is doing. The photos below are of his patch panel for the right real quarter panel. This panel is the piece just above the rocker panel and just in front of the wheel well.
He is constantly pumping out new panels and currently is working on the inner wheel housing and other rear quarter panel pieces.
Nice work, Tom!
Have made a lot of bucks, and pounded out a lot of shop made panels my-self over the years and I will say that is a first class patch panel…looks better than some of the Torino and other make models we have used over the years…Keep up the nice work.
Every interesting story on the numbers…Good Job !
Rick O..
Thank yall for the kind words guys.I will try to have more parts done shortly.I’m working on the dies for the lower rear quarter to trunk drop sections now.I will be picking up some parts for my press to start draw forming parts in the next few weeks.Things will prove interesting after that.
Tom is a true craftsman. Sure glad he likes Cyclones!!!
How true, and has you probably know, there are more great things in the works from him that we will all benefit from! I will have a new post on some of what he does in a couple of days.
I call Tom “Doctor Cyclone”. He does major surgery, cures them of cancer and brings them back to life.
I like that. Dr. Cyclone it is from now on!
Tom does nice work . He has a guy that supplies him with good parts to copy . I told Tom I thought that I was the Cyclone Junkman . One mans junk is another mans treasure .
Hello everyone, I have the front and rear outer wheelhouse dies made and have prototyped a set of parts now.The lower rear quarter dies have made as well but havent made any test pieces yet.The prototype parts will be used on the test mule or as I call my colorcode car Ole Pinhole.Will get more pics sent over soon.