Brand new 1965 Comet

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Rocket989
Posts: 1678
Joined: Sat Jan 11, 2014 2:53 pm
Location: Kansas City Metro

Re: Brand new 1965 Comet

Post by Rocket989 »

I'm with Pop - tweak 'er a little more. Mine will hold the Comet on my ridiculous ski-slope, toddler tumbling, ice hill sledding, run-a-way big wheel inducing turd of a STEEP driveway...!! :D :lol: :( :oops:
'cause Johno says you gotta have a sig pic! :)
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poboyjo65
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Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2011 9:40 pm
Location: Camden, Tenn.

Re: Brand new 1965 Comet

Post by poboyjo65 »

Rocket989 wrote:I'm with Pop - tweak 'er a little more. Mine will hold the Comet on my ridiculous ski-slope, toddler tumbling, ice hill sledding, run-a-way big wheel inducing turd of a STEEP driveway...!! :D :lol: :( :oops:
THAT SOUNDS STEEP! :shock:
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Jims65cyclone
Posts: 2754
Joined: Sun Nov 23, 2014 10:29 pm
Location: Lexington, SC

Re: Brand new 1965 Comet

Post by Jims65cyclone »

Here's how to adjust the parking brake. :wink:
Jim
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anoNY42
Posts: 93
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2016 1:34 pm
Location: Central Florida

Re: Brand new 1965 Comet

Post by anoNY42 »

Jims65cyclone wrote:Here's how to adjust the parking brake. :wink:
Jim
Awesome, thank you!

-Rudy-
Posts: 62
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2016 2:31 pm
Location: Laredo, TX

Re: Brand new 1965 Comet

Post by -Rudy- »

Welcome to the forum! Sounds like a fast little ride with that 302/t5 combo. I know I'm a glass half-full kind of guy, but I still say that a car like that looks beautiful. Just seeing it sends my imagination reeling just trying to picture all of the cool times people had in it (and bad times) and how it must have been a dream for somebody at one point in it's life. Heck, I think it's amazing that cars this old even exist now a days. I love it!

I have a 2 year old myself that loves cars, can't wait til we can take our first ride around the block in my 63. Hope to get it to my place this week and start tearing into it. I've never painted a car before, but I figure now's the time to learn. :lol:
1963 Mercury Comet Custom 2-Door Sedan
170/2-Speed Auto

anoNY42
Posts: 93
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2016 1:34 pm
Location: Central Florida

Re: Brand new 1965 Comet

Post by anoNY42 »

-Rudy- wrote:I have a 2 year old myself that loves cars, can't wait til we can take our first ride around the block in my 63. Hope to get it to my place this week and start tearing into it. I've never painted a car before, but I figure now's the time to learn. :lol:
You and me both, on both counts. I actually almost bought a 63 with the 170/2 speed combo, but then my current car came up and was priced right. The 63 did look much better on the outside, though, I loved the tail fins.

WesleyK
Posts: 15
Joined: Fri Oct 03, 2014 11:43 am

Re: Brand new 1965 Comet

Post by WesleyK »

Welcome brother your comet looks mean...I am so grateful to be on this site...in the presence of great human beings an IMO brilliant geniuses...with class an the funniest an best of stories...I have a 65 comet 2 dr hard top ....looked for one for 16 years...guy wanted cash $4500...an I didn't have 2 nickles ta rub together but traded him my lifted jeep an ford truck with new huge tires all around ...had about $10,000 in each but he wasn't interested in either without $ but he couldn't turn down both rides...an I just love my comet ...anytime not driving it ...is time we can never get back in life

anoNY42
Posts: 93
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2016 1:34 pm
Location: Central Florida

Re: Brand new 1965 Comet

Post by anoNY42 »

I worked some easy magic this weekend (thanks to much reading on the interwebs).

First, I got my coolant mix down to where I want it, about 80/20 water/coolant. I am not sure of the mix that came with the car (I started tinkering before I bought a tester), but the car ran around 220 cruising on the highway and got up to 235 in our brutal 94 degree heat at stoplights. After the coolant change, I was down to around 200 highway and 215 at stoplights.

Then, I read about vacuum advance. My car came with the advance hooked up to ported vacuum, so I switched it to manifold vacuum (and put new vacuum caps on the unused ports, since the ones that it had were falling apart) and I just got back from a test drive. In mid-90s heat, I was around 180 cruising with it going up to about 200 at stoplights. Much better!

Furthermore, the car's idle is much nicer. The idle speed actually dropped a bit, and it is much quieter inside the car while still sounding menacing outside (I have IMCO chambered mufflers with my exhaust terminating before the axle). Now, I can actually hear myself think at idle and when cruising at part throttle.

All in all, the car is more pleasurable to drive. I barely even noticed myself sweating in the sunny 94 degree day, with no carpet or insulation between me and the exhaust pipes!

Edit: I almost forgot to add that I also hooked up a GPS speedometer, and found that I do in fact have a 3.00 rear end (or something very close). This confirms my earlier test where I turned the rear tires and counted the turns on the driveshaft.

anoNY42
Posts: 93
Joined: Thu Apr 07, 2016 1:34 pm
Location: Central Florida

Re: Brand new 1965 Comet

Post by anoNY42 »

Timing Day

So I bought a timing gun and found I have 20* of initial timing set. That is higher than the recommended timing for a 302, but I have 289 heads on mine and I don't know what my compression is. Also, when I bought the car the PO said the original engine builder told him to use 89 octane gas. The car seems to run fine with this amount of timing.

This assumes that my balancer timing marks are correct. The balancer is an aftermarket unit (Fluidampr), and the engine did not have a timing pointer on it when I bought the car. I installed a pointer (2 o'clock position) and used a screwdriver in the spark plug hole to find what I think was TDC. It was very close if not exactly on the balancer mark, but I could not be completely sure.

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