Hi everyone, I havent been on here for a couple years but im back now and would like all your opinions, good bad ugly, on this Comet I picked up. I traded thks guy a nice 75 Corvette roller with perfect frame and birdcage, t tops, NO MOTOR, TRANS, INTERIOR AT ALL including dash or gauges, center consol, exrta front fenders hoods and boxes of parts inside the car. Anyways, here are some pics I took yesterday when I got it here, it even has original keys for doors, trunk and ign and all work really smooth, thought that was pretty cool. Its going to need floors but rockers are ALL their, perfect doors, front fenders, a little rot on the lower rear quarters, NO rot in the trunk, even unibody is solid with just some scale. Now my plan for this car is to build a gasser out of it but what I DIDNT know, is that it was a unibody. I know this can be done but I was wondering if anybody could point me in the right direction on what, how, where to cut the unibody or what to weld to it. Does anybody ha e some good pics in a build? Any help would greatly be appreciated. I wont be able to start this project to soon as we are looking for a new house right and dont want to start it then have to move it in pieces. My girlfriend is the one that got approved and she wants me to have a nice heated 2 car garage for my projects, how sweet is she for thinking of me like that, haha. But hwn I get started, I will post up some pics, till then, thanks for any help.
Yep that's a comet all right. Those don't make good gassers, I would look for an SBF and make a mild custom out of it. Just being honest. If you throw a 260 in it and just bump the front suspension up with spacers you could actually run D or G gas under the rules of the day. Simple is good.
Its just going to be a strictly street run car, not a track car. I was maybe just looking for the "Look" of the old gassers but dont know of a way to do so to get the straight axle in. It has a 289 in it now but needs to be rebuilt.
Straight axlis easy enough, cut it just under the firewall and splice your new frame horns to the floor and the unibody structure. An econoline axle ought to be close to correct. Build yourself a couple of supports from the firewall to the frame horns and you are almost there. look for gasser front stub kits for a box Nova to give yourself some ideas. Or you could keep it simple like it would have been done in the early '60s.
pics are just to help give ideas. do a search here for 1960 Comet - including "Wally Park's Hot Rod Comet"
Did you know the Falcon, Mustang, and Comet were all built on the same platform? That means many Falcon and Mustang parts will fit. I would be fixing the 289 or looking for a good 302. If you can find an HO 302 and 5 speed out of a later Mustang it will fit. For now why not fix it up and get it on the road. The gasser look can come later. Have some fun and drive it around. You don't need a straight axle for the gasser look. Just raise the front a few inches and put big n littles on, it will look great.
To at least get the front end up in the air, would the stock front suspension work with a spring/body lift, like the 2in spacer or a little larger that they use for coil spring lifts on 4X4's?
Can't do a body lift on a unibody. Put spacers on top of the springs ( or under) like they use in Nascar. be careful a little spacer goes a long ways. A one inch spacer is usually worth a couple of inches of lift. I make my own. A tire tread works real well.
Early Mustangs (65-68) share many components. Body parts, suspension, etc. The steering wheel of my 65 Mustang has Falcon under the Mustang logo.
Falcon debuted in 1960 followed by Comet in 1961. The Comet was a face lifted Falcon with many Falcon parts like engine, trans, suspension, etc. In 1964 they brought out the Mustang. It too was based on the Falcon but with a different body. It shared many parts with the Falcon like engine, trans, suspension, and even the dash board. If you take the padded dash off an early Mustang you find underneath, a Falcon dash with 2 steel brackets spot welded on. The Mustang gauge cluster will fit the Falcon because they share the same dash. The Mustang has more gauges but the panel fits into the same hole. I'm no Ford expert but I think they used the same platform up to 1967 (Mustang) and 1969 (Falcon). Some parts continued to be used in Mavericks to the late 70s. They designed a new V8 for the Falcon in 1962. It came out as a 221 cu in, was quickly enlarged to 260 then 289. The 289 went on for years then was made into a 302. All the same family of engines. So a 302 out of a late model Mustang or pickup truck will fit your car. I only want you to be aware of the possibilities, for specific parts swaps you will need to ask a Ford expert. But, now you know why it is so easy to get parts for your car at any auto parts store, the same parts were used on millions of other cars up into the 70s. I am talking about things like brakes, suspension, and engine parts not so much body parts and trim parts that are specific to your car.
No, I understand on top or under the spring, thats how they are on the jeep cherokee sports and I put a 2in in that, so you do know what im talking about and it can be done which is good, thats what I needed to know so I will just trial and error till I get it to what I want, thanks for the answer on that one.
I have no idea if something like this would work, just throwing it out there. The 61 Ford Econoline was a unibody and had a straight front axle w/front leaf springs. They were roughly the same size, maybe something like that would work. One reason I remember them was the kingpin front end. The kingpins were always harder to remove than T750 dump truck. Always got a good workout on those.
This sounds like a pretty damn good reason why you can and how to do iy Sent from my iPhone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
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