Projects 1965 Comet Caliente Convertible Project

As usual I’m doing lots of work but I don’t have a lot of pictures to show. Since I am inserting one car (Mountaineer) inside another most everything needs different holes and brackets. I believe the Mountaineer is a left hand car and the Comet is a right hand car because it seems that everything I go to use off the Mountaineer goes the opposite way I need it to for the Comet. I have been working on connecting everything to the engine. Radiator hoses, heater hoses, fuel lines , vapor lines, throttle linkage, intake snorkel, vapor canister, vapor canister valve … . Below is a picture of the transmission cooler in place. I will put the air conditioning condenser behind it when I do the air conditioning … someday.

 

Jeff;I hate to burst your bubble but I don't think you will get your front valance on with the cooler there!It looks like the valance will run horizontally through the middle of your cooler and the grill and hood latch support will run vertically through the cooler!! ROY.

 

Roy,

Well it would not be the first time I had to move something around in fact I have stopped counting I think it’s best. Thanks for the info and see you Saturday.

 

Picture 1 ... Got the heater hoses done after taking the intake off to get to them. Not what I wanted to do but there was no other option. Also the connectors for the wiring harness are the size of watermelons so I had to cut an access hole in the fire wall so they would fit thru.

Picture 2 … I made a cover plate to cover up the hole.

Picture 3 … I got the fuel lines bent and hooked up to the engine and I mounted the vapor control module and hooked it up to the engine.

Picture 4 … That’s the freeway overpass of lines. That is two fuel lines, two vapor lines, a vacuum line and an electrical hook up. Also you can see I mounted the cruise control.

Picture 5 … The fuel lines and vapor line running along the frame rail.

Picture 6 … Well the vapor line had to go somewhere. In true fashion with this build the vapor canister from the Mountaineer was long and flat and I needed it to be short and tall so I modified it to fit it in the area available..

Picture 7 … Got the fuel lines and the vapor line run back to the back of the car. I used a lot of the mountaineer fuel line and connectors. I mounted the fuel filter using the mount and connectors from the mountaineer.

Picture 8 … I mounted the vapor canister and hooked it up to the vapor line.

Picture 9 … I got the wiring harness installed. All I need is a little more duct tape to secure it in place and I am ready to go. I can still see out the wind shield so I think that is good enough. Really what I am doing is plugging in the wiring harness to prepare for the first start. Once I get the car started I will start dieting the harness and mounting it in place.

Picture 10 … I decided to use the Mountaineer fuel tank so I used bailing wire to attach it to the car and since it hanged down so low I used sheet metal screws to attached a cast to the bottom. Seriously I am using the Mountaineer gas tank for the first start. I have not decided exactly what I am doing for the final configuration.
I have done lot of other work but nothing I can take a picture of. Installed the spark plugs, ordered custom ignition wires, planned a custom wire separator configuration (still have to build that), Altered the accelerator cable brackets to fit, welded in ground bolts for the wiring …

 

The beauty of old cars is that they are fairly simple............a stock 289 would have been much easier. Why complicate things with all the modern stuff?

 

Indeed.

 

As they say "Because it's there". What would be the fun in creating what everyone else is doing. Why not do something a little different. The possibilities are infinite.

 

Diggin' the progress!

 

2dr sedan,

Thanks it's nice to have the hard work appreciated. By the way cool Fairlane.

 

I have to commend you on your work ethic and dedication to this project. It takes some of us years to get to the stage you are at now. Alot of these things come apart and never go back together. I've got my brother's Falcon wagon in my shop right now and he's been working off and on (more off than on) for 15 years or so, moving it from place to place.
It looks like more work than I would take upon, but kudos to you for making it how you want it and keeping it all Ford.

 

Modeleh,

Thanks for the complements. Very cool forum name. As I have said before this project is not a restoration it’s a salvation. The car was about a month away from being cut up for a parts car so we saved it. I agree it was much more work than I had anticipated but I learned so much and you just can’t put a price on that. Yes I like that we have been able to keep it all Ford in fact it’s all Mercury. It’s Mercury Mountaineer running gear in a Mercury comet. I hope your Brother is able to get his project done. I try and do something every day on the project even if it’s just ordering or picking up parts, planning, research and or actual work on the car. It has kept the project moving forward. Thanks again for your input.

 

Let me start out by saying I do not like day light savings time. With that out of the way I have been working but I don’t have many pictures . I got the front bumper mounted. As you can see the precious owners decided to torch the bumper bolts off and I tried drilling them out but after breaking bits I just used my trusted grinder with the cutoff wheel. Thank goodness for the grinder and the welder. Thanks for the bumpers Roy it is the first time this car has had the correct bumpers on it for I don’t know how long . The car came with 66 bumpers on it and the mounts (if you can call them that) were welded to the frame and I am surprised that the bumpers didn’t fall off before the car was deliver. If anyone needs 66 bumpers I have a set. I have removed the diff and I’m in the process of drilling out the plugs so I can narrow it. I have the new axel and over thanksgiving my brother and I will narrow the 8.8.

Yes that is LaFonda my girlfriend in the back ground. She likes to hanging out in the back yard naked and I don’t have a problem with that (it’s a long story).

And Oh yeh happy or should I say scary Halloween .

 

Keep it up!! Looking good

 

Jeff;now I see why you didn't bring her to the Mercury show!!!! Holy CRAP,those bumper bolts were a new one for me,never seen anything like that before!!!! ROY.

 

Hey Jeff. Too late now, but I have a quick fix for those captive nuts for the bumper mounts. The captive nut is made of die-cast white metal and they're just crimped in place by the frame rail. You punch them out (in rather) and then replace them with a nut welded to a fender washer, with the nut side placed in the frame rail. You then weld the washer flush with the frame.

 

Mike,

That’s a great idea. Thanks for the info. I never thought about doing it that way. Do those inserts just brake away when you hit them?

 

Jeff;Mike has a good idea but it looks like a rattle[or six] waiting to happen.I was able to snag mine [one] that fell off,trimmed the opening up,loosely installed a bolt,then welded it back in place. ROY.

 

Roy,

Yes I was wondering about that too. I tend to do things the hard way but sometimes that is the best. I welded in a nut in the front holes and I’m bolting all the way thru the frame on the back two.

 

Roy's probably right about the rattling. I also was able to snag one and put it back in place and crimp it securely. Another one was completely missing, so I crafted the replacement.

 

I have gotten some things done on the car. Work has been busy (luckily) and I have been out of town. Pulled the diff back out of the car so my brother and I can narrow it. I’m doing all the prep work here and will do the rest when I get it to my brother’s house. I stripped everything off the axel tubes and drilled out the plug welds. Then it took most of a day to cut the axel tube off and get the piece pressed into the center section cut out. The Dremel worked really good but I was working at a right angle to what I needed. I started on making a gas pedal and also started on restoring the heater which was in pieces when I got it. I made a custom ignition wire separator and I’m working or ordering a custom set of wires from Taylor. That’s about it. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

 

I had a great time in AZ for Thanksgiving and my brother and I narrowed the differential. Unfortunately now that I am back I have to shift my focus to another project so it may be a few months before anything else is done.

 

I got the narrowed differential together and painted (again) so it’s ready to install in the car for the final time I hope. I started on the heater which I got in a box and it looks like one side of the heater was run over by a car. Well some epoxy glue and seam sealer should fix it and no that’s not my patch work in the last picture. That came with the heater.

 

I just came back to your thread. I LOVE these pics of the harness draped over/around/through the body, it looks like ALL my builds! Why use all the "...modern stuff..." indeed. It's there, it came with your running donor, you don't have to buy all that stuff piece by piece, you are truely recycling. Good for you. Your car is a great deal like the '68 Mustang GT convert we built for our son, using an '87 Mustang GT as donor. That car has been on the road as a daily driver, including 2 cross country trips and 3 years Las Vegas as his only car, since 1990, with no issues

Great build, don't let the negative comments about the modern bits get to you. ANYBODY could throw it back together with a 289/C4, but what would you learn from that?

Brian

 

Brian,

Thanks for the encouragement. I agree all this was engineered to work together so why change it. It might take a little more work but the car will be reliable and this will be my daughters daily driver. It’s good to hear other success stories like your Mustang convertible. Now all I need is the time to finish this.

 

I agree! Different is good. What you're building is unique.

 

Hahahahaha!

 

I got the differential back in place, the angel set (that&#8217;s not the angle in the picture), drive shaft installed, the shallow pan installed on the transmission. The wheels fit great with the narrowed diff. Now for the junk yard trip to get steel wheels. We are going with the steel wheels, the small hub caps and the thin trim rings per my daughters request. We will be looking for the 93 to 97 Crown Victoria or Grand Marquis wheels (15 inch diameter) with 225 60 15 tires. I think that will do it. As always any suggestions are welcome.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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I mocked up the new ignition wires on my wire separator configuration. It&#8217;s a computer controlled ignition system so I don&#8217;t understand why Ford did not program the coils to a more meaningful sequence at least match the coil on the left to the cylinders on the left and the coil on the right to the cylinders on the right. I guess they took care of that when they went to the coil on plug configuration.<o></o>

 

I got the differential back in place, the angel set (that&#8217;s not the angle in the picture), drive shaft installed, the shallow pan installed on the transmission. The wheels fit great with the narrowed diff. Now for the junk yard trip to get steel wheels. We are going with the steel wheels, the small hub caps and the thin trim rings per my daughters request. We will be looking for the 93 to 97 Crown Victoria or Grand Marquis wheels (15 inch diameter) with 225 60 15 tires. I think that will do it. As always any suggestions are welcome.

I mocked up the new ignition wires on my wire separator configuration. It&#8217;s a computer controlled ignition system so I don&#8217;t understand why Ford did not program the coils to a more meaningful sequence at least match the coil on the left to the cylinders on the left and the coil on the right to the cylinders on the right. I guess they took care of that when they went to the coil on plug configuration.

 

Now for wheels for the car. My daughter wants to go with the classic look of a steel painted wheels, trim rings and small hub caps. I need 15 inch steel wheels at least. What I am thinking is going to the wrecking yard and getting 1992 to 1997 Crown Victoria or Mercury Grand Marquis wheels. There seem to be a lot in the wrecking yard. Any other wrecking yard ideas out there for steel wheels.

 

With more research it looks like I need 69 to 91 crown vic wheels so I can put the dog dish hub caps on it.