Hot Rods Southeast Gasser 65 Comet Super Stock Wagon

Mike,

Just curious - what do you use for fuel line and fittings?

 

I use AN fittings from Summit. Their brand. I have never had an issue. I use their brand of push lock hose also.
Since this is a seldom used drag car . My cars always get checked from bumper to bumper after each use. That goes back to my dirt track days of having to check for bent , broken or worn out parts.
Almost finished with my wiring. Went and got fuel last night. So we are getting real close to making noise.
Need to run one more wire from the MSD box to the switch and wire the dash and hook up the temp and oil pressure gauges.
Just taking my time to make sure it's done once and done right. If I take my time and do it right the first time I won't have to take the time to do it again.

 

Leave it to Sally to screw things up. My first ex wife's name was Sally .
couldn't do shit today because of her. rainy day.

 

I think I am ready to crank the motor. I am going to pull the distributor and re prime the motor. It has been over a month since I primed it the first time.
All of the systems are working and it should be ready. The only unknown is the used MSD box I got in a trade. The guy said it came from a running vehicle and I have dealt with him before and everything was what he said it was.
I still need to bolt the seats down. Install the belts. Bleed the brakes. Align the front end. Install travel limiters on the front end. Build a driveshaft loop. Try and get a coat of primer on the car.
Other than that I am ready to race. I do have to work Sat. and Sun. at the golf course so my weekend is pretty much shot.

 

Well as usual I got side tracked yesterday. Got ready to crank the car and our daughter, grand daughter showed up with our new great grandson.
they didn't want me to crank the car and wake him up so I had to do something else.
So I got out some metal and cut it into 2 inch wide strips and put it in my press and bent it into a U with the screw on top of my argon bottle. Then finished bending it in my vise with a long cresent wrench with a piece of pipe on the end. It is my driveshaft loop . Feeling good about making such nice bends I get under the car to see about installing it and the driveshaft tunnel is too small . It originally had a 2 inch driveshaft and my new shaft is 3 inches. My loop is 5 inches wide to allow clearance for the bolt heads.
So I marked the floor and cut out a 2 inch strip and recessed the top of the loop into the floor.
the top half of the loop is now welded into the floor and fits perfectly. Added 2 12 inch pieces to the loop on each side to make sure if the shaft breaks and tries to come up it will be contained by the loop and not join me in the driver seat. Those are sandwiched top and bottom and bolted through the floor pan.
Maybe no distractions today after I get off work.

 

Always run with drive shaft loop & know required in inspection, but: saw “Myth Busters” TV show they tested broken drive shafts. Could never get it to enter driver area until dug hole in pavement to catch dropped shaft Then shaft broke & up out rear window. Interesting, but always better safe then sorry

 

Did they try 600+ hp and 8000 rpm?


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Well just got off work and got the front floor cleaned up and painted . Ready to bolt the seats in.
Won't get the carpet in until after the first race. No door seals and 500 bucks is out of the question for now. That's for the doors, windshield, 2 rear side windows. Not including the tailgate seals.
Just make it run and drive for now. The pass. side door bar will have to wait also.
Under the hood is almost done. Still need to hook up the r.front shock and install turn buckles to hold the motor down.

 

What, no a/c? Just kidding. Looking good. I'm impressed.

 

Well got off work today and came home and pulled the distributor and primed the oiling system and put it back in. hit the switch and turned on the fuel pump to prime the carb. Hit the switch and it kicked back a little so I pulled some timing out and it fired right up. No death rattles or unusual noises just the sounds of a high compression solid roller small block.
Didn't run it too long without water, but it sounded good and healthy. So that part was good.
Put the right front shock in so that gets checked off. Tomorrow I will get the diaper on and the front end put back together. Need to put my travel limiters on the front end and get the alignment done.
then bleed the brakes and put th. car on the ground.

 

Way to go.

 

No matter how mild or wild they are built, you just can't describe the feeling of hearing them come to life for the first time! Congrats! One more thing off the list!

 

What do "they say"? With out pictures it didn't happen?............
With out video it didn't happen!! Need to hear that thang after all this time of following along!
Glad UR getting closer.
Jackson is right around the corner.....
6sally6

 

I am barely able to post pictures and now you want video too. I have 8 days worth of work and 5 days to do it in. Let me just try and make this deadline. Now they are calling for rain Thursday and Friday.
It doesn't look good for a coat of primer before the weekend. Maybe Quain will have an ugliest car award.

 

Or maybe the "git'r done award"?

 

go get'em!!
6sally6

 

Been following you! Now you are getting really close. Keep at it-good job!!!

 

Yesterday was fairly productive. Got the front suspension done except for setting the toe in. Made my front bumper brackets and got that done.
My wife painted the rear floors so I can do my seat belts today Got my wiring cleaned up and tucked away. Put my oil pan diaper on which is a real treat on this car. Universal diapers are just that. Meaning they don't fit anything. In order to make it fit the oil pan and clear the steering linkage I had to attach the back 2 straps to the lower scatter shield bolts instead of the back header bolts .
Today hopefully I will have the brakes bled and the car on the ground with the seat belts and seats installed. My wife asked what I wanted for my birthday today and I told her I needed her to pump the brakes so I could get them bled and she could buy me 5 gallons of race gas and a 4x8 sheet of black plastic so I could make the door panels and the inner fender aprons in the back to keep the tire smoke out of the car.
Our daughter texted my wife and asked if I wanted to go to Cleveland and have a dinner this afternoon and I told her hell no. Not only did I not like the place she picked but I couldn't afford the time to go. I told her to tell them to go buy a bag of burgers and come to Athens and help finish the car.
Since when did it change that the grand parents had to go to the grand kids ? The way my wife and I was raised was that you drove to your parents house or grand parents house. You did not expect them to come to you.

 

Well We have brakes and seats and seat belts. Thanks to my wife helping me we knocked out quite a bit of the list.
I really have only 4 things to do before I can load it on the trailer. I need to set the toe-in, build my door panels, install my pinion snubber and hook up a taillight.
The office is open for business. Starting to look like a car again. An ugly one ,but a car.

 

We must have spoiled them too much... LOL. But I hear what you're saying. It's starting to dawn on my kids if they want to see me, it's on them.

 

Sounds like taking your wife out to dinner should be on that list!

 

We both work today at the golf course this afternoon and this morning we are riding to Cleveland,Tn. to get race gas and a sheet of black plastic to make the inside door panels out of.
Tomorrow is 90 % chance of rain and Friday is 70 % chance so it's a good thing I busted ass yesterday.
Tomorrow night sounds like a good time to take her out. Too bad her favorite Chinese place is only available for take out boxes. She likes Famous Dave's bbq in Knoxville and it's right off I-75 on the way to the track so we might make that our night out.
You guys don't know my wife. She looks forward to a track burger as long as we are going racing. That could be her night out. I am so blessed.

 

Glad to see you're making good progress Mike, the wagon is looking good.

 

Sounds like my wife, she would do without so I could go racing. The best cheerleader in the bunch.

 

Well I got a present today when I got to work . It turns out a few weeks ago I pulled a shift for my high school senior worker so he could go to a golf tournament state qualifier.
I had forgotten that he said he would pull my shift today so I showed up for work and got started and he called me and asked what I was doing working today when he was supposed to work for me.
I got to come home and fab up my pinion snubber brackets and get that installed. I was starting on the door panels when the rain started and this is the first of that tropical depression that hit Houston.
We are supposed to get 2 plus inches of rain by tomorrow. Not bad if you have a garage , but when you are doing a driveway build it sucks. I just hope I get some breaks in the rain tomorrow and Friday because I am so close to having this car ready for Knoxville.

 

Well mother nature won again. It rained long enough that I couldn't get everything done on the car to race tomorrow in Knoxville.
I tried though . It didn't stop raining here until about 2pm today. I managed to get the toe-in set after mopping up the water out of my driveway with my sweat shirt. Too bad I was wearing it at the time.
I fought with the rear straps on the diaper and finally got them hooked up and not get melted on the headers and not get tangled in the steering linkage.
so I set the car down off jack stands and the camber is way off and the wheels are leaning out at the top.
So jack it back up and take some shims out and check it with a level. Back up and take more out until I finally got that right.
Filled up the radiator and had a water leak at the sending unit . Fixed that . Another leak at a brand new thermostat gasket. Then another at the upper rad. hose. Easy fix.
We fire up the motor and have a bad vacuum leak. turns out I had loaned my AED carb to a friend a few months ago to race a guy and he had power brakes and pulled the plug off the back of the carb.
Found a rubber cap and plugged that then the timing was all over the place so pull a plug and verify # 1 and try again. the timing is all over the place so I need to check the dist. and see if the advance weights are working.
The motor sounds really strong , but with no time to even drive it around the block and still more work to do my wife and I decided rather than work all night and still too many unknowns . we will just go and be spectators tomorrow.
We will have plenty of time to go to test and tune before the next race at Carolina Dragway in October and we will have time too at least put some primer on the car.
So for all you folks that live close to Knoxville come on out and watch the SEGA show.

 

Sorry about no updates. Just took a breath to recharge my battery. I didn't stop on the car though.
I got the motor running great. I had a neighbor come down and give me a hand and he wasn't familiar with my timing light and that's where the confusion came in. Want it done right do it yourself.
For those of you that didn't go to the SEGA show on Saturday you missed a great show! Massive wheelstands , close racing , parts carnage. Tazmanian Devil Willys unfortunately getting into the wall in the shut down area.
All in all a great day of racing.
I have spent the last 2 days moving things around so I can get the Comet in my little one car garage.
Not to work on , but as a security measure. Now that it is a running car I would hate to come home and find out some low life has stolen it and stripped it for parts. 2 Jeeps and a Razor were stolen this past week in Athens. One less than 4 blocks from my house. They were recovered after all of the easily removeable parts were taken.
I hate a thief. That's why our Granddaughter no longer lives with us. Things started to go missing and she says she never took anything , but we never had anything gone before she moved in and now that she is gone nothing is missing. Go figure.
Had to to change the locks on the doors and install cameras.

 

I drove the car around the block today. the brakes sucked and the front did not inspire confidence but it felt really strong and has a 2 stroke power band not much below 4,500 but then it hits from there on up.
Just can't baby it off the line and turn it up and drop the hammer.
I came back and reset the toe-in and bled the brakes again and now I have brakes.
the car is in the garage for the first time since I bought it. I won't have to hold my breath when I drive down the street hoping it is still in the driveway. Now we can start doing something about at least shooting some primer on it after we have a sanding party.

 

Reset the front end and had to replace a left rear wheel cylinder. Did not get to take it out for a test ride
As I have to work this weekend at the golf course.
I did get a lot of the pass side paint scraped yesterday morning. It was cold out early . Low 40's to start the day.
Hoping to get a good test session tomorrow . I did get the lights hooked up . So I have dash lights , head lights and tail lights.
Just need to run 2 wires to make my brake lights work and she will be street legal. I am going to get a tag so I can go to some local car shows this fall.
Since I have the car in the garage we will start on the carpet next week. A more finished look maybe primered and carpeted by the time we get to our first race.

 

Tennessee's Anitique tags have gone up to $32.75 this year. Mine was about half that ten years ago.