On the weekend of 1/4/13 thru 1/6/13 I ventured from Florida to New Jersey with a car trailer in tow, all to purchase 72 Mercury Comet that has spent the majority of it's life in an antique car meseum..... It currently has the original 200 I6 and C4 automatic in it..... It only had 15,052 miles on it when I perchased it..... It has a a couple dings and a few nicks and scratchs but the paint still has a shine to it, even though it was a little dingy looking when I picked it up..... The chrome pieces on the car are straight but not in the best condition, I am sure due to it's 15,000 mile in the NJ weather..... The car is very solid, it only has surface rust on the underside and has never had any body work before..... I cleaned it up really good today and I have to say it looks pretty damn good for it's age.....

It was running when I got it but not to my liking, today I changed the plugs, straightened out some vacuum hoses, replace a couple pieces of fuel line, added an extra fuel filter to it, set the timing - It is definately running better but not great yet, I think the gas is a little old(it is cloudy looking in the clear filter I put on) so I put some gas treatment in it and filled it up with 93..... We will just have to see what happens there..... I also found the water pump to be wobbling around(I have no idea why it didn't leak), so I flushed the cooling system and replaced the pump and thermostat(I think the alternator is making some noise too, guess that will be next)..... I am not going to use this motor but want to keep it running and dependable until I change it.....

Any ways the good stuff, here's some pic's of it after I cleaned it up.....

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Saturday I had a chance to get it up on a lift at work.....

I can't believe the condition of the batery tray.....

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Here's the torque boxes front and rear.....

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A few more.....

Here's the rear quater drops and inner fender areas.....

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Here's the upper shock mount area.....

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and the floor pans.....

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looks really solid. good project to start with for sure. what plans?

 

That is a real nice survivor car,it will not take to paint the undercarriage of this thing at all,just through your wheels off the Maverick and drive her for a while.

 

Can't wait to follow this one.

 

WOW that's a nice project!!!

 

It definately is a great start for a project..... It will be a turbo'ed SBF(302 I think) evventually, we will just have to see what happens.....

It is a really solid car, this is the main reason for the project change..... You just don't find them is this condition.....

I can't wait to get started, but then again there's no reason to rush it..... Right now I am enjoying just driving it around like it is.....

Thanks.....

 

sad to see the Mavrick go, but excited about the new Comet!

 

I feel the same way.....

 

The Maverick is now gone and I have all the suspension parts, rear end, brakes and wheels/tires back at my shop now(for those that were following my old Mav build).....

I also did a couple things to the Comet today, old alternator was noisy so I replaced it along with the belts..... I removed the stupid looking saber tooth buck-e-beaver front liscense bracket since I don't need it here in Florida..... Then I removed the chrome door edge molding off the doors and edges of the trunk lid, why people used that stuff like they did I will never know.....

 

I did the first mod on the car today..... I had someone who wanted to buy the original steering wheel, so I put the new Grant wheel I have on.....

Here's the before and after pic's.....

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I love comets, my buddy has a grabber blue 70' comet gt.

 

That car is in great s hope and will make an awesome project.

 

well I guess I'll sign up for this one too. IDK how much more I can take frank. Your build threads make me tired from how much work you do, and then you just give the damn things away and start over. This the last time!

 

Thanks, I am sure it will.....

I don't know about giving them away..... Thanks for the interest.....

 

Fun project. I will follow this as well.

 

I have been driving this thing around with am radio that I can only get talk/sports radio on..... I can't take it any more so today I put a new stereo in..... I could only find a head unit I liked locally so I put it in and hooked it up to the stock dash speaker and through a couple Pyle 4" speakers I had laying around in the corners of the package tray for now..... Just about everything I found for speakers locally look like a damn space ship or something, so I ordered some on line today that look and will work decent.....

Here I was cutting the radio mounting plate from the car out for a single din style head unit.....

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Here is the modified bracket with the new head unit installed beside a stock am radio and bracket assembly.....

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Here the new one is mounted in the dash.....

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Subscribing

 

That's pretty amazing how much different the interior looks just by changing the steering wheel.