1961 Mercury Comet Rebuild

SHE RUNNNNSSSSSSSS

2008-03-10T12:29:00.001-07:00

i am smiling so much!

got out to my dad's late friday night. me and cassy stopped at in n out and got loaded on so cal goodness. we woke up saturday and got to work!

as you can see below we got the radiator back in, and the hoses on. we also got the transmission cooler mounted:

we cut a hole for our transmission lines to run through:

next we ran copper line in for the oil pressure gauge:

i also hooked up the gas pedal as you can see.

my dad ran the copper line through a clear plastic tube for protection:

next we started playing around with the fuel lines:

we custom bent a bit of brake line for a fuel line (not sure how well this is going to work, as it leaked later on):

we also bent up some more brake line for a vacuum tube to our modulator from the back of the carburetor

more pictures of the fuel lines:

i got all the spark plug wires out and ran everything:

that night we spent FOREVER trying to figure out a good way to run our transmission lines:

we ran them pretty close to the block all the way back. actually getting them in was a bit of a pain.

we used a right angle bend on the forward line, and went into a 90 fitting for the rear, for anyone wondering:

hooked up!

my dad pulled a TON of wiring apart that night, and we ended up going to bed around midnight, this is how we left the car:

the next morning we pulled the transmission pan, and put in a fitting so we could mount a temp gauge. we got a rubber gasket, which ended up leaking later (SUCKED), but oh well.

i also picked up a few things, and took a picture of some 289 emblems my dad got:

performance sway bar ends?

289 emblems to make the car look even funnier.

now here is where we MESSED UP. turns out you are supposed to install the oil pump shaft when you assemble the motor. well ours didn't have one installed, so we really sort of forgot about it until now. we had to pop the collar off of it, and drop it down the hole VERY carefully. we luckily got it into the pump using some hose to hold it, and a rod to push the hose off. this was a pain in the ass, but it is very nice we got it done.

there is my dad concentrating very hard.

now i don't have much pictures from here, but this is where the night got INTENSE:

wiring the motor up (hot wiring i should say). my dad put a toggle switch in so we could kill the coil at any time, in case the motor was running wide open/etc...

wiring the distributor up.

wiring finished!

now here's how the rest went. we got everything wire up, and fired the motor a few times without spark to build some oil pressure. once we felt like we had oil pressure (our gauge inside wasn't reading for some reason), we hooked up the spark, tossed some gas inside the carb, and crossed our fingers!

she ran! of course it was only for a few seconds each time we threw gas in, and it was moderately rough at first, but it was GLORIOUS. now we got a bit concerned because we weren't seeing any oil pressure on our gauge. so this prompted us to take off the distributor very carefully, and hand run the pump. we didn't see any pressure at first, but due to being zealous and making mistakes, i completely forgot that the oil guage probably had a lot of air in the tube, and it was preventing oil from reaching the gauge (after all, it's an oil pressure gauge, not an air pressure!). well after i unhooked the gauge to let the air bleed out (as well as a little oil on my carpet, doh!), we saw we were getting 75-80 lbs of pressure, not bad, and i think compliments of our high performance (high pressure, high volume) really helped that.

we ended up rehooking up the fuel pump to a gas can via a line, and got the motor running/idling for around 15 seconds! very steady oil pressure, and SO nice. with the open headers, it obviously sounds VERY loud, and i cannot begin to describe how i felt. biggest smile on my face, you have no idea.

after that we really just tidied up and i went home. i can't wait for next weekend!

slow weekend

2008-03-02T18:00:00.000-08:00

i just got back from another crappy weekend. lots of misty rain, and really bad wind! we got some good stuff done, didn't get it fired up though, with the bad wind, i decided to avoid running lines/etc... plus my dad had to leave for a funeral up in nor cal at noon on sunday.

we ran out saturday morning, and picked up some trans fluid/header bolts (3/8"s so that we can get the box end on them if need be).

b&m trick shift. because blue is better. 70 dollars for all of these.

new header bolts, 10 bucks. got these on the headers when i got back.

plumbed up heater hoses

fan clearance on radiator

driveshaft hooked up

leaf spring perches/shocks hooked up.

headers/transmission mount/b&m shift cable coming down (still need to secure this better)

we got the coil mounted on the intake manifold. this was actually pretty rough, our mount had a really crappy bolt, so we welded our own bolt on:

we drilled a few holes to run our gauges and put some grommets in.

we also drilled the hole for our throttle bracket:

we built a new gauge cluster and started running the gauges. the reason we built our own out of aluminum is because i wanted an extra gauge for transmission temperature.

my dad also welded a mount onto our trans dipstick tube. came out pretty slick! saved 70 dollars (didnt have to buy the lokar).

we also went out and picked up new tie rod ends to get the steering linkage all hooked up. good news is it all works now we think, bad news is we got one tie rod end that was bad, and have to wait for the new one to get delivered to auto zone. oh well!

i got the carb, throttle linkage bracket and air cleaner on as well. i guess i did get a lot hooked up?

good picture of the drivetrain.

here's to next weekend. should be driving by then, i hope. i also finished hooking up the b&m shifter, and we spent 127 at autozone picking up:

new radiator hoses
hose clamps
trans cooler lines
fuel line
vacuum line

and many other various and sundry.

quick update

2008-02-28T10:28:00.001-08:00

yesterday i went out to my dads and i unfortunately have pretty much no pictures to show for it but we accomplished the following:

- fixed transmission crossmember to allow our ebrake cable to be used with the headers we have
- modified some steering linkage pieces to not rub on the headers/painted them/reinstalled them
- installed rear pads for the rear end, these are what the shocks and ubolts attach to and hold the rear end in with
- installed drive shaft (which fit damn near perfect!)
- re ran some rubber padding for the radiator to sit in
- installed the fan
- played around with the coil and ballast resistor for mounting
- installed most of the pieces for the b&m shift cable (one last thing to hook up)

hard to see in that picture but thats with the radiator and fan/etc.... in the car.

we are looking like this will fire up this weekend (i know i've said that before but i actually mean it now!). so stoked.

on the way home, a tire blew out on my friends car, AGAIN. i am ridiculously tired as a result.

last weekend

2008-02-26T20:42:00.000-08:00

rupdate!

i went out to my dads last friday with julie. weather was bad the whole weekend so not much was accomplished but heres goes:

saturday morning we went out getting parts (as usual) and i took some pictures of them as well as my new driveshaft.

my dad taking out the u joints from the driveshaft

mount my dad made for the gas pedal to mount to the firewall (it's adjustable as you can see to 5 different heights. thanks dad!)

sitting with the motor in her!

o no dey be takin my motor!

new u joints, 24 dollars

new brake lines, 20 dollars?

brake line fittings, 30 dollars

bolts/new taps, 10 dollars?

now before we could do much to the motor, we had to fix the steering box. a few weeks ago i turned the wheel and noticed the steering box end cap popped out as well as bearings, so we pulled it out and began to work on it

me taking it out, i think

no pictures of the work, but we added a new bearing, and readjusted it, as well as regreased it, etc...

back in the car!

next we put the new u joints in my new driveshaft. i painted the driveshaft as well (nice new gray color!) note that this work is occurring on sunday (this weekend was such a waste due to crappy weather:

voila!

this is just a funny picture of me:

this is me trying to reinstall the steering column:

my dad started working on the master cylinder and this is how i spend most of my time:

we eventually got the brake lines all bent for the front end, and the master cylinder installed as well.

we dropped the motor back in and started installing the headers towards the end of the night (once it stopped raining, FINALLY):

the west coast, are you a blood or are you a crip?

headers in!

that was pretty much the end of the night, we drove home and a tire blew out on my way. it SUCKED. i was for once glad that i had metric tools. tomorrow i am going to potentially do some more work when i drop julie off at the airport. update more then!

presidents day weekend

2008-02-19T12:01:00.001-08:00

back from a long ass weekend! here we go!

we got out to my dad's mid day friday, and ran around to pick up some parts. we didn't get much done, but got some stuff picked up from a few places.

the next day we woke up early, and got right down to business. i wheeled the motor outdoors, and you can see in the next pictures, the nice lifting setup my dad made for this:

i took some pictures of stuff we picked up:

rotors, with brand new timken (made in USA) races in them, as well as bearings, which added around 50-60 dollars to our excursion.

the calipers.

organic pads, so that when i stop it's quiet, and hopefully they won't destroy the rotors like semi metallic do. 20 dollars

brake hoses

built to last. duralast. 70 dollars?

new motor mounts, 20 dollars.

trans cooler which i ended up taking back, but ended up being around 40 dollars.

premium wire set. i think 22 dollars? i also got spark plugs for free, thanks autozone dude!

copper exhaust gasket, 30 dollars.

we got the motor up in the air, and started piecing everything together:

the plate was originally cracked, my dad ended up welding it. thanks dad!

we got the flexplate on, and started torquing it down.

we put a bar on the harmonic balancer so that we could turn the motor and get the torque converter on.

if you are reading this, you are probably laughing and on the internet.

torque converter on!

next we got the bellhousing put on:

put the new motor mounts on:

next we lowered the motor in!

now the reason we did this was to fit test the radiator, and figure out what sort of fan/spacer we would need:

as you can see, not much room there!

couple of glamour shots:

we ran out and picked up some parts, including a flex fan.

50 dollars or so.

with the fan and no spacer, this is how close the blade came to our alternator:

not much room at all!

we solved this in two ways. we moved our radiator back about 3/4 of an inch or more, as well as by cutting out the rear firewall, to allow the motor a lot more room to move back.

patched in firewall.

with the tube moved back, now the tubes of the radiator hit on my dad's support he had built, so he had to cut out and modify that. lots of work, and i'm glad he handled it:

next we welded the bracket on the top back in place, to move the radiator back like mentioned earlier.

now we could fit the radiator, and a fan+spacer

that was the end of saturday, and i passed out.

sunday i woke up and was so groggy i moved the transmission 20 feet without noticing i had fluid spilling all over me.

we got the transmission on my dad's truck and then started pulling it apart.

we pulled the pan off to get the filter out, as well as clean the whole thing up.

while my dad was lolly gaggin, i got the b&m shifter brackets mounted on the tranny:

we removed the front and rear seals, as we figured it was a good time to replace these:

here you can see the chrome pan i got for the transmission with a drain plug. worth the 20 dollars completely. i had wanted a deep pan, but i understand you need to make some modifications i didn't feel like doing.

we ran to autozone and picked up some more parts. they are getting to know us and our "frankenstein" by now. it's pretty funny.

new filter installed, 10 dollars?

spraying the pan gasket.

installing the pan.

now something that has stunk for me, is being i have to take most of these pictures, i never show up in them working! julie came out and took pictures of dad and i, while installing the transmission onto the bellhousing:

"clocking" the transmission to accept to our torque converter. just a little bit of a pain:

well dude, uh, there you have it.

my dad mounting the starter:

dropping the motor and tranny in:

with the motor and tranny in, i had to get under the car and block it up, etc....

blocked up, and the rear seal.

now my dad started playing around with a transmission mount, and while he was doing that, i got down to business and mounted the shifter:

julie helped me with it, and we got to rip carpet, drill, etc...

my dad also decided against my wish of mounting the battery in the trunk, and cut a hole where he wanted to mount the battery.

at first i wasn't feeling it, but later you will see it came out pretty nice, and fit well.

the next morning, yesterday, my dad woke me up at 5:30 am and we went out to build the battery box/mount. we also picked up parts from autozone, and it escapes me what we got, aside from dust caps and a transmission mount.

when we got back, i started getting the rotors on the spindles, while my dad worked more on the battery box/mount:

my dad putting the box in:

once the box was in, we mounted the starter solenoid, and began making the cables:

we shoved a header up in place to make sure we built the cables right, as well:

i took sometime to take pictures of the old trans mount for the 6 cylinder, and how we adapted it to work with the c4:

i am not completely sure, but i believe my comet has the old style mount, that you cannot buy a bolt in replacement for from a website, so to anyone wanting to figure out a similar type of situation, heads up:

e brake cable moved down.

pieces of tube steel to give us a little bit more room.

you can see the header tube and the transmission in this picture. i just took it because it made me happy.

we shot some rubber undercoating on the inside of the fenders, it looks a lot nicer now:

next we mounted the calipers, which isn't exactly easy, and the hoses/etc...

we got the tires up in place, and dropped the car:

as i had suspected with the mustang springs, they are TOO heavy duty, and the suspension would barely react, even with the motor/tranny in, and me/dad jumping on the bumper.

my dad ran out, got the spring compressor, while i took the original comet springs and cleaned them up/painted them aluminum color.

we put these in after much screaming and yelling, and the suspension appears to be a lot better now. note to self: it is always easier to put a spring in without the upper control arm in place.

with the car on the ground, this is how i left it last night:

while everyone was fooling around with the springs, i installed the gauges (hah).

next weekend:

- remove engine one last time
- fix steering box
- finish steering setup
- reinstall motor/transmission
- install headers
- install accessories
- install brake lines/master cylinder
- finish wiring
- fill fluids/etc...
- fit driveshaft to trans/rear end

and hopefully, hear this thing fire up/drive it around.

rear end

2008-02-14T14:44:00.001-08:00

i ran out to fontucky on tuesday to pick julie up from the airport/see my dad off (he had to goto the hospital). after getting some fries at the hat, and my dad getting back, we tore the rear end out of my car. julie took pictures of that process, i unfortunately do not have them on me.

old rear end out

new ford 8" rear end

side by side for comparison

cassy showed up after we finished piecing together some parts on the rear end (brake line stuff, emergency brake cable out of the old rear end), and we started installing the new rear end.

in:

me and julie, me very dirty

my dad discovered that our shock perches had the wrong angle for the current shocks, so well, he decided to heat them up by about 1,000 degrees and fix the issue.

old perches and new perches:

for the record, they didn't work at all, and my dad got new ones off ebay for some price i don't want to think about (thankfully he is).

rear end IN:

after we got done, we all took pictures with hats that welders use on:

my dad trying to be elmer fudd:

we went home for the night, and here is the progress so far:

my dad sent me a picture of this:

my front end brakes came in!

100 for rotors

70 for calipers

35 for brake hoses

STOKED.

this weekend is a four day weekend. expect to see a TON of awesome stuff come tuesday.

another weekend

2008-02-11T16:16:00.000-08:00

monday morning and a new update, as per usual:

i got out to my dad's late, like we are talking 2-3 in the morning. my buddies car kept breaking down for unknown reasons, and i have to look at it tonight as well. my dad woke me up bright and early on saturday, and we went out junkyarding in hopes to find a brake caliper mounting bracket in a junkyard. we went to:

ecology
pick a part
and a few other places until we got a tip on a dude in san bernardino who has a load of cars from the 60's sitting in a real junk yard. within 5 minutes, the guy had what we needed, and we scavenged for other parts (maybe going back at some point). the part ended up costing us 50 dollars, which is unusually high, but pretty on key with what it would cost anywhere if you could even find it.

in that picture you can see the brackets attached to the spindles. finally!

what you can't see is my dad made a bushing adapting one of the spindles to fit the granada bracket, as for some reason the bolt hole had changed in whatever year it came from.

we made some other rounds and picked up a new water filler neck (the spectre one would not work), distributor clamp, and silly things we needed.

i tore apart my old control arms, and removed the spring perches. i cleaned these pretty good, and then painted them for good form.

also, here is a better picture of the alternator setup that my dad has working right now:

we got the spring perches mounted on the control arms, and then put those up in place.

i also started chipping some residue off of an old spring guard, i still need to do the other side:

my dad ran in and cleaned up some of the other suspension part.

we got the control arms up in place, and then mounted the spindle. what a great feeling.

my dad mounted one of the junk rotors, and a tire to see what our clearence looked like (we are moving to tires about two inches taller overall, etc...)

the next morning we went out and got some shocks, as well as borrowed a coil spring compressor.

next we got one of the mustang springs and started sucking it up!

we lowered it in and with some banging, got it in the perch.

these springs are incredibly stiff, and i'm not sure if they are going to work, but we have yet to see. they seem like they will raise my front end quite a bit in comparison to the original springs, and we might switch back over.

after we had both springs in, we turned our focus to finishing the radiator mounting. my dad got his plasma cutter hooked up, and marked out a few spots we would need to eliminate for the radiator to fit.

sure beats using a torch/cutting wheel.

next we mounted a piece of tube steel we had picked up, for the radiator for rest in (along the bottom rail).

having a welder as a dad sure helps.

sitting on the rail:

next we measured out the top mount, and made some holes/cut it fit into the frame.

next we got down to brass tacks again, and welded the piece in place.

i didn't get pictures, but we laid down rubber for the radiator, as well as used a rivet gun to add screw in's for the radiator (i had never seen this type of rivet before, and was really stoked on it)

my camera got funky, but here are some pictures of the rest of the night:

shocks installed!

installing tie rod ends. we ended up going to autozone twice to find the right tie rod ends, the first time we went, we got two tie rod ends that were wrong, but in the right box. what are the odds.

from here i took the long drive home, and i'm sure i'm missing a lot of detail, but my dad informed me that he has purchased the front brakes (cross drilled rotors too!), and those will be here for next weekend. we had hoped to get the rear end in but my brother was being lazy, and my best friend was too busy with midterms.

here's to next week!

rear end and control arm progress

2008-02-07T10:36:00.001-08:00

my dad got bored and finished the rear end! here is to boredom!

new control arms. you can see how the new ones have bigger ball joints, as well as the lower ones being a little beefier.

when the cat is away, the mouse will play

2008-02-06T10:33:00.001-08:00

came home to that last night. bummer on the dude spray painting his dumb ass logo on it, but whatever. it'll be covered by a fan anyways, and shroud, and this will definitely get the job done.

my dad went and machined the extra grooves off of the pulley that we are using:

came out looking really nice, and it looks like he got a fan belt that fits and mounted it all up:

my dad also picked up four tires for me yesterday, as well as got new valve stems for the rims, which is awesome. the tires i think are on the far left in this picture, they are 215 70 r14's that should work pretty good for now:

back once again with the renegade action

2008-02-04T11:16:00.000-08:00

well, here it is, monday, and it's time to update this beast!

i got out to my dad's at like midnight on friday, traffic was a beast and my ride had to go "dippin" to a "party" so you know, wuteva wuteva. i woke up pretty early on saturday, and my first agenda was tearing into the mustang front end that we got for free.

as you can see, my dad just cut the whole front end out of the mustang. made for a lot easier disassembly of the front suspension overall.

also, my dad also liberated these parts from the mustang (doors, fenders, etc...)

i think we are hoping to sell them and make him some money on this whole deal, since he's spent a lot of time helping me out.

julie will be mad at me if i don't post these pictures, as i was working on the front end, i took a quick break to hang out with smokey:

in b4 "yay smokey bonez"

here is a picture of the front rims my dad liberated for me. they aren't much, but they will get me on the road, which is the focus. also we only have two of these:

they are the old magnum style rims that were very popular on the mustangs/etc... back in the day. i wish i could find two more to match, because i'd probably clean them all up and keep these.

we ended up moving our base of operations over towards my car, and i got the spindles/etc... all torn off of the mustang front end:

we noticed that our calipers and spindles appear to be from two different years, which gave me a huge headache, but more on that later.

we shifted focus to the master cylinder/proportioning valve that was obtained from the mustang. we are moving from a single reservoir to a more modern style dual reservoir for safety and improved braking.

as you can it all bolts in, and we actually drilled some holes for the proportioning valve. after all of this, we took a break and ran out looking for parts/etc... and returned with the following:

chrome water filler neck - 10 dollars

1967 mustang front disc, rear drum, manual master cylinder - 20 dollars

sunpro gauges - 20 dollars

not pictured: high performance thermostat - 12 dollars, new ignition switch/key - 10 dollars, towels/lucas gear oil, etc...

now to be noted, when tearing apart the disc spindles, something became very obvious to us, and that was that my ball joints for my control arms are the wrong size. so 270 dollars later, i'm waiting on all new lower and upper control arms from the 1962 and up style falcon/comet to arrive. yay.

we got lazy so we went inside and watched dune. my dad hated it. i love it.

the next day we awoke, and it was raining, aka piss on me for getting anything done. we got very daring and ran out to pick a part to scour the junkyard for a new crank pulley/etc...

whether this was cost effective remains to be decided, as it cost us 30 dollars for the pulleys, one of which we aren't using, and 10 dollars to even get in, but whatever.

while we were out, we picked up two more 14" rims for my car. 5 lug. 50 dollars for both:

shifting our attention yet again, we focused on getting the alternator to fit on the motor. we are using a GM style three wire internally regulated alternator, which used to be a big advantage over the ford externally regulated type, but nowadays you can buy a stock ford alternator that is internally regulated as well. oh well this alternator was free so why should i complain?

after we took a quick ride up to ace hardware, we picked up some stainless pipe and a bolt to mount the alternator, on the driver side as well. traditionally, and i am sure someone can prove me wrong, the alternator on a ford goes on the passenger side, close to the solenoid, etc... but we like to do things the interesting way, right?

using the chop saw to modify the stainless pipe to the right length, etc...

here is a picture of us getting the alternator up in place:

i don't remember where i was, probably inside reading up on control arms or something, but when i came back outside my dad had cut a universal alternator bracket i picked up, and mounted the alternator:

lookin good!

next we switched it up, and started working on the rear end, as i wanted to get something MAJOR finished over the weekend, as it felt like we'd spent so much time doing just small stuff that didn't feel progressive. half of working on a car is getting at least something major accomplished so that you don't get depressed and feel like you'll never get to the end of the tunnel. with the amount of parts i'd had to order, it is very easy to get into that mindset, and not realize or partake of the joy that you can get from all of this. my personal goal has been to do something "MAJOR" every weekend, so i can walk away feeling a lot better about the whole ordeal.

we got the rear end put back together, barring some small mistakes here and there (wrecking an oil seal, etc...) and the axles put back in.

my dad got the backing plates sandblasted and painted, they look so much nicer now.

we installed the wheel cylinders which are brand new, into the backing plates, and as well, started fabricating up our brake lines:

my dad has a handy brake line bender, as well as flaring tool, which made short work of all of this, compared to having a shop build all the lines, etc...

next we got out the spring kit/etc... and started putting together the brakes, which i anticipated to be a nightmare, but my dad was smart and took some photos ahead of time which turned out to make the whole ordeal very easy. good thinking pops!

one almost finished rear end:

ready to bolt in pretty much, which will hopefully be the focus of next weekend, or maybe this week if i can get out for a day or so.

so right now i'm waiting on control arms in the mail, my radiator, copper exhaust gaskets (found these on ebay for 30 dollars) and some other goofy junk. next weekend hopefully i will do the following:

bolt in new control arms, possibly the mustang springs (i've heard this will lower my car around an inch on the front end, maybe give it a more aggressive look?).
figure out the spindle ordeal, and calipers, and bolt in whatever makes sense brake wise on the front end.
figure out our radiator mounting, and bolt this in for mockup.
remove the old rear end and install the new one. this should be relatively easy being we've done so much prep work to our old one.
install new gas pedal.
install new master cylinder/brake lines.

if we can get all of that accomplished, i want to put the motor in, but we will see if we can get that far. i'm predicting two weeks before this thing fires up. that makes the first sound of a motor being heard sometime the weekend of the 16th/17th. i hope i can stick to that, and get this baby on the road.

other neat things:

a good friend from old work/buddy of my dad's does painting. i'm not sure how much it will cost me beyond buying paint and whatever else, but he's said that he will paint the car. very good to hear! he paints harleys for a living, and is a pretty great guy all around.

by the time i finish all of this, the car will be damn near brand new. i can look at that in a negative light of how much we have spent, but most everything is a new part so far, and i should have some good confidence in hitting the road and whathaveyou. point being this should be a very reliable "grocery getter".

mlk weekend

2008-01-22T09:34:00.000-08:00

this weekend started off with a bang:

my dad and i ran down to the local speedshop in riverside on saturday to pick up an ass load of parts. the big item was hooker 6901 headers, as after some research on a ford message board, i was informed these would fit with very little trouble. my only other option had been doug thorleys at around 400 dollars, and these came in somewhere around 160. not bad at all!

after getting back, as you can see we dumped in the donor motor along with the headers. as you can also see, the night before we ran out to the dock in bloomington, and picked up my ford 8" rear end, v8 front end, motor mounts and transmission mount.

if you look at the following picture, you can see the #5 header tube (front most driver side) hit the shock tower a little bit. my feeling had been to bend the tube in a tad, but my dad decided that we should fix it (the shock tower) with our friend the BFH (big effin hammer).

to recap my big spending here goes:

floor shifter, 120 dollars

stainless throttle cable, 30 dollars

chrome dipstick, 9 dollars

two chrome breather caps, 10 dollars?

fuel pump, 20 or so dollars?

aluminum shift handle for the b&m (original is plastic), 26 dollars

throttle brackets for carb, 20 dollars or so

copper header collector gaskets, 10 dollars?

flex plate, 65 dollars (original was missing some teeth)

pimp looking gas pedal to use with our throttle cable, 35 dollars

everyone gets a horrible picture taken of themselves once in a while, here is one of my dad:

now based on a first adventure that we had experienced with flying in the motor and transmission, we made a decision that we wanted to make the radiator top support removable for ease of engine installation/deinstallation. this is where having a dad who welds comes in REAL handy.

dad cutting out the radiator hole, as well as the top support.

now as you can see from the following picture, this came out pretty slick looking:

my dad also welded in some angle and flat bar to create a bottom support area for the radiator we will be putting in (while he was doing this, i ran inside and purchased a 19x24 inch aluminum crossflow radiator for 180 dollars).

so as you can see from this picture, when it comes time to fly all of the motor and tranny in, it's going to be a straight shot, rather than a ton of angle and scraping:

while we were doing this, my best friend cassy was getting busy vacuuming out the car, where we had removed the seats to make this very easy:

now we turned our attention to the front end/steering. i pulled the steering column rod out, as well as box, but when comparing the new box, the rod we had from the 64 comet appeared to be an inch shorter. to make a long story short, we pulled apart both steering boxes, bearings were lost, bearings were found, and we swapped out the rods.

after getting this put together, we installed the front end essentially, steering box, pitman arm, etc...

my dad had to drill out new holes on the passenger side for all of this, as the v8 has three holes on a slightly different pattern than the straight six had (two holes).

it's hard to get pictures of yourself doing stuff, but i removed the spindles with cassy's help, as well as lower control arms:

here is a picture of the six cylinder spindles compared to the v8 spindles:

i forgot to mention but this was the start of monday.

next we began tearing apart the rear end. i had not wanted to do this, but i'm glad my dad talked me into it.

we cleaned out all the gunk, which you can see an abundance of in this picture:

here is a picture of the third member/pumpkin:

axles and pumpkin:

my dad loves to clean things, so this is us lifting the rear end up so we could spray from the tube down and clean it out:

we took off a for a couple of hours, and picked up:

new brake lines, 20 dollars
new brakes (drums, shoes, spring kit, wheel cylinders), 130 dollars
new pumpkin gasket, 3-4 dollars?

we took the "long way" home, and stopped to check out our donor mustang. i am glad we did, as upon checking, the front end of the mustang is disc. hello free front end disc conversion!

we also stopped and pressure washed a few parts (bellhousing for our transmission, motor mounts, trans mount, etc...)

when we got back we wire wheeled and cleaned the rear end off completely:

after this we gave the rear end a shot of primer and then medium gray:

after this we got sick of the cold and rain so we moved inside, and cleaned the third member surface:

after a quick permatex job on the gasket, we reinstalled the pumpkin:

we did some routine cleaning of some parts and then called it quits and now i am back to work. a gargantuan amount of work done in around two days. i am exhausted!

i am missing pictures of it, but we also picked up some steel for a few other things we will be doing, but that is coming later. i am hoping to have this running by feb 10th. if you see records up for sale, that is why.

next weekend i can go out is the first weekend of feb, and that looks like it will be finishing the rear end, installing the front end and rear end, and getting the motor/tranny flown in. oh happy day! from there it will be hooking everything up and then hopefully firing my baby up.

motor work

2008-01-13T17:22:00.001-08:00

hello, update!

went out to my dad's on friday night taking the train and shit. we went out to dinner but when i got back to his place i put in a little work refinishing and painting my oil pan and harmonic balancer:

the next morning we woke up early and got down to brass tacks, lifting the donor motor into the air and checking clearances in the engine bay for headers/etc...

what you don't see here is me telling my dad the headers wouldn't fit and we'd need to put them in from the bottom and then having to take them off and putting the motor into the engine bay. woof. we spilled tranny fluid everywhere in the process, but got the guts into there.

as you can see above, headers are right up against the shock tower, and thats with just one side in. oof. back to the drawing board!

below is my dad going "son of a bitch that isn't going to work!"

cassy got over and we lifted the whole car up in the air to get the front end off (next weekend)

next we went over to the motor and started changing freeze plugs. we got to the furthest back and as you can see from the next two photos (wesssssttttt siddddddeeeee) it was in need of some desperate attention:

one touch with a screwdriver and it burst. good thing we changed these now! note to anyone reading, ALWAYS USE BRASS FREEZE PLUGS!

we coated all of these with #2 permatex to ensure we got a great seal. there is no way in hell i want to see water running down my block.

next we scraped off the old junker gaskets, and then flipped the motor right side up:

we torqued on the cam shaft bolt, and i forgot the technical name for it, but the cam type deal that is responsible for powering the fuel pump. next we got the seal put on the timing cover, and #2 permatexed the gasket for it, and got that on the motor:

we also got new freeze plugs in on the other side, and began to install the oil pump:

and then the pickup tube:

following this we installed the oil pan (finally!) with a one piece steel reinforced dry seal rubber pan gasket. very nice!

once we got the oil pan on, we gave it a quick coat of ford gray, and i must say, it looks damn near brand new now!

next we got the redone harmonic balancer put on. i don't have pictures of it, but we picked up a shaft saver for the harmonic balancer to bring the somewhat worn down shaft back to normal:

next we started putting the intake manifold on using some nice looking grade 8 bolts, which i am glad we used for both strength and aesthetics, working as a welders helper for a few years, i began to learn an appreciation for that goldish hue you'd see on a grade 8 bolt.

after this we got the water pump installed after putting some more #2 permatex on the gasket. we ended up using a water pump for a 1970 ford mustang with an outlet to the driver side. the reason for this is to match our newer style harmonic balancer, as well as timing marker.

after we got this all done, i took some shots for the night

now while this was all happening, cassy shot the spackle paint into the engine bay. i took some pictures this morning but they don't really do it justice. next weekend we will shoot another layer and perhaps a clear coat:

next weekend:

remove and reinstall the new front end
install flexplate and other miscellaneous onto the motor
install motor mounts and drop motor and transmission into the engine bay! (yessssssssssssssssssssssss)

and we will see where we get from there.

daylight shots

2008-01-08T15:50:00.001-08:00

UPDATEEEEEE:

last night i had to drive back out to my dads to meet him coming home from alaska, and also to drop julie off at the airport the next day. we shot a real quick test of spatter paint to see how it would come out in the engine bay/to see how our primer job was doing.

you can see how there is a textured look to the paint now. upon looking at it though, and i'm definitely learning, i need to take some light steel wool/sandpaper to the primer just to make it rougher/let the paint stick a bit better.

some better pictures (daylight!) of the car and interior:

this needs torn out/replaced badly (dash):

yellowing/cracked wheel. hopefully replace this with a nice wood grain wheel:

rear deck, messed up from taking speakers out/etc... back in the day. probably not going to change much, just get some speakers, clean it up, and put it back together.

inner door, hopefully going to make some clothe side panels. my dad was talking about using aluminum diamond plate, or something like that, but i'm really trying to stick with the "grocery getter" look. really clean and using the cars old aesthetics.

julie's great job of cleaning up the interior. she did such a great job.

last night i also shot some stripper on the oil pan to remove the gunky ass paint that has been on it for years:

i'll be sanding it down and stripping the rest this weekend and repainting with this hi temp engine enamel, which is ford gray:

this is a GM internally regulated alternator, which i'll be using on the motor, to avoid having to use an external regulator/etc...

plus i think it looks nicer than the ford ones. sorry ford!

i went ahead and took some pictures of the crank and rods/etc...

everything is sitting with oil on it and we've turned the crank a few times messing with the timing chain/etc... to keep it all loose:

you can see the gross looking block, which hopefully i'll be stripping/repainting this weekend as well, and also changing the freeze plugs/etc...

getting more excited every day!

engine bay work day two

2008-01-01T22:16:00.000-08:00

another update. went out tonight with cassy and julie, and met up with my brothers while i was at it. we finished sanding and primering the interior of the engine bay.

julie also cleaned the interior a little more, and it looks almost brand new!

getting somewhere!

engine bay work/interior clean up

2007-12-30T23:13:00.001-08:00

good update! today julie flew in, and after i picked her up with my best friend cassy, we went by my dads and got some workin in:

worst pic of me ever.

me and cassy working.

we spent a good 6-7 hours sanding, degreasing, and what have you, to accomplish this:

still have to do the firewall and etc... but we got a good amount primered, and it already looks so much better. hopefully we can get some spackle paint on there soon, and just make the engine bay look REAL nice.

while me and cassy were doing this, vlv's own individjulie, and the most wonderful girlfriend ever, did this:

very nice!

we spent 77 total, but most of the cost was for a k&n air filter.

i'm hoping we can get back out there next weekend, and get the rest of the engine bay finished. tonight felt awesome though, good progress to me.

2007-12-24T20:54:00.000-08:00

merry xmas to all of you out there! i'm in jolly olde pittsburgh, but my dad is at home playing around at my expense (hahah!). looks like my air cleaner came in the mail, and my dad installed a dual roller chain in place of the regular timing chain we had gotten because he apparently got a "sweet deal". he also grabbed some new headers for me that he is positive will fit with a little help from our pal "mr. sledgehammer". i am hesitant, but we will see.

he's nerding out while i'm making pierogies. i'm not sure who has it better!

motor day one

2007-12-20T10:50:00.000-08:00

ok so last night, me and my buddy mikey went out to my dad's to get some early motor work done. the first thing we did was hoist our donor motor up in the air, compliments of my dad's nice crane.

the main reason to get this up in the air was to remove the oil pan, and bolts for the oil pump/pickup. this motor had been sitting for years without an intake manifold on it, so when we drained the pan, it just bled water for what seemed like 2-3 minutes. thankfully oil followed the water, and rested some of my worries about the pan being rusted and junk.

once we had the donor engine robbed, we got the 289 going into the comet into the air:

first thing we did was replace the back freeze plug before we put it onto an engine stand. having the transmission off, and such easy access, it only made sense.

once we got the engine on the stand, we rolled it into my dad's shop, and removed the intake manifold. my dad did this while i was eating pizza, stinker!

next began the process of getting the surfaces clean so that the new gaskets/manifold would have a good seal. this translates to spending a good 15-20 minutes scraping cylinder heads with a razor blade.

on the upside my latest hair dye job looks excellent! thanks revlon!

clean(er) surfaces! yay!

next thing we did was pull the water pump off to see how it was doing. it seemed to not be turning great upon inspection by pops, so we got it off and this is what we see:

CHECK YOUR LEASE, CUZ YOU'RE LIVING IN CORROSION CITY.

also upon checking the timing chain/gears, there seemed to be a lot of play in the chain. with all of this discovered, a quick phone call to autozone, and a short trip down the road, we came back with the following:

timing cover - 110 dollars

water pump - 30 dollars

timing chain and gears - 20 dollars?

my freshly paid off credit card is now 200 dollars deep again. oops!

also, in the mail/trips to napa the following came:

mallory unilite mechanical distributor - 110 dollars

clevite high performance (high pressure, high volume) oil pump - 42 dollars (thanks napa guy!)

to get the top end sealed up and reduce the amount of gunk that could fall into heads/oil galley, here is a great picture of my dad polishing up some chrome edelbrock valve covers we liberated from the donor motor. not bad for free! i have to say though, it was a contest on who did a better job on the valve covers, and mike's left hand cover was looking pretty nice!

after that nonsense, we got the new timing cover up in place to check out some issues we had sensed in the force. this timing cover was missing a timing tab, which we are obviously going to need to time the motor. we ended up robbing the timing tab off the other 289, but our major issue is that this one is a left hand mount, and does not match the marks on our harmonic balancer. the harmonic balancer that is on is not in great shape at current time, but replacements vary from 100-400, so we are doing what we can.

we installed the new gears and chain, and it is a lot tigheter, less play to the chain now. looks snazzy too!

after getting this on, we went back outside and went to work on the oil pan, which had been sitting in degreaser for oh, around 3 hours.

to say this thing was a sludge beast is an understatement. we spent a good while cleaning everything out. my dad did some tig welding on it to fix where the drain plug was (he created a flatter surface for a better seal) and we flattened out a few dents in the pan, as well.

after all of this, we called it a night, and i took some photos of stuff sitting in place. manifold/valve covers have not been sealed up yet, just sitting to keep gunk from falling into the motor.

sure looks nice with all of that on it. my dad called me this morning, and it looks like he is going to try and replace the rest of the freeze plugs, and clean the sides of the motor. he's also out getting some nice stainless steel allen head bolts for the top end, and steel for the bottom end. things seem to be progressing quite well. thanks go out to mikey for getting me out to fontucky to work on this last night, and standing in the cold helping out as much as he could.

intake manifold/updates

2007-12-09T13:48:00.000-08:00

update:

today me and julie met a dude in a parking lot and picked this up

small amount of corrosion on the back plates as you can see, but 75 dollars. this particular part (edelbrock performer rpm intake manifold) runs around 180 to 240 brand new.

# Performer RPM 302 Intake Manifold SB-Ford 289-302ci
# 4-bbl Square-Bore Carb Flange (non-EGR)
# 1500-6500 rpm

Designed for street 289-302ci Ford V8s. This dual-plane high rise manifold has excellent high rpm power while retaining throttle response. This intake manifold is a stock replacement/street legal part for Shelby Mustangs with 289ci V8 with OEM 4V carb. 1965-66. No provisions for exhaust heated choke. Aftermarket 4-bbl carbs are not compatible with Ford Auto Overdrive Transmission (AOD) unless used with Lokar Throttle Cable Bracket & Springs p/n 625-SRK-4000.

very stoked right now! still waiting for the edelbrock carb to come in the mail, for anyone not in the know, i picked up a 600 CFM edelbrock carb for around 147 off ebay. might need a rebuild, but a good deal considering how much they run new.

my dad called me earlier to inform me he is picking up brass freeze plug kits, and all the gaskets i need as a christmas present (thanks dad!).

next steps are hopefully picking up the mallory unilite ignition, and an oil pan/other parts i need to get the engine put together and buttoned up so to say. hopefully by next weekend i'll have some pictures of engine progress and by the end of the month (hoping) to have it dropped in and turning over, if not driving.

car day one

2007-12-06T13:39:00.000-08:00

backstory:

for the last 6 months or so i haven't driven. i've been biking around orange county, or taking the bus. not the best solution in southern california. when faced with the option of getting a new car, or rebuilding my old car, i decided to rebuild the old car.

benefits -
cheaper car insurance (don't have to have full coverage)
cheaper registration
no car payment
car parts and fixing everything is cheaper, as i can do all the work myself

cons -
gas prices suck, and a 61 comet is invariably going to get worse mileage than a mid 90's acura, or the ilk
lack of some more modern luxuries

so today i took the first major step in rebuilding the car, meaning i suckered my dad into giving me a ride, and we went a bought a motor for the car.

more backstory:

i've had this car since i was 17. it originally had a ford 170 cid inline six cylinder in it. through some misfortune, that motor blew up (fan belt came loose while driving, motor toasted to death, hole in the piston, not a great memory). the motor that we purchased is a ford 289 cid v eight cylinder. not original to the car, and ford did not even put v8's into the 1961 comet or falcon, so no stock parts that can be found for cheap, etc...

reasoning:

i've always wanted to do a v8 into my old car, i mean if not just solely for the fact that i have a tim allen complex and like things that make loud noises. performance parts and also other parts are much easier to obtain for these motors as well, being that ford manufactured this block from 1962 till around 1990 something, so there's an abundance of interchangeable parts.

we also got a transmission which is a ford c4 three speed transmission. i don't know if it's running but for the price we paid for the motor and transmission, if it's not, it's worth at least the core price.

to anyone who cares, we also got the flywheel/flexplate with it, and the torque converter/starter. pretty swell deal.

when we finally got back home from picking up the motor, i took some pictures of the car in it's current state

after taking the pictures, we mounted a new tire on one of the rims, and put it on the car so we could move it, as well as hooked up some of the steering linkage that i had taken apart some odd years ago.

we got the car moved onto concrete for better working/etc... and i did some clean up work on the interior

hard to tell but i scrubbed a good amount of the dirt off the front seat, and a few other areas. i need to go over it all with some vinyl cleaner next time i'm out there. the back seat i still need to clean but it had gotten too late to work and dinner was on the table.

i'll keep updating this as i go, and i hope someone enjoys this, because i'm having the time of my life doing this.