COMET CENTRAL

popscomet wrote: sometimes the starter needs to go on before the header,,depends on the header...pop

bigdan wrote: Poboy and Pop - starter is a mini, so it shouldn't be too tough to get in.
Dan

Good point Pop but I think I'd want to know now if the starter will go in with headers on & engine down.(but before the cherry picker gets rolled away) that way I'd know what to expect next time I had to pull the starter.


I think you'll be glad your hoses stay in the bay. When I was building mine I kept seeing all these TV shows building show cars with clean ,bare engine bays,hiding wiring & hoses, & it's beautiful but when it came time to do it ,thinking it thru in my head, how much more trouble it would be to do,how it would be to service, & a thought crossed my mind,,,the factory used the hood to hide everything, & you open it up & there is everything so you can inspect it & work on it. then I thought of that KISS thing you mentioned & decided to just make it as neat as possible but leave it all in the bay.
This is a top notch build, it ALL looks great!

Dan...I'm not as familiar with the engine bay of a Falcon as I am a Comet, though I thought they were identical. What is the collection of cables(?) passing through your firewall where I assume the blower motor was formerly located?
Jim

Johno, in the end easy availability for maintenance won out, but I'm trying to keep it clean and organized, so we'll go this way. I think it'll work in the end .

Jim, I used a painless harness with a bulkhead connector. Because of the hydraulic release bearing and reservoir, I decided to route the harness on the opposite side of the firewall, so I used the old blower motor location. The reason it appears to be multiple wires is I used braided wire loom and separated the harness by circuit for ease of working on it later, so for example headlights, horn/ fan, ignition, charging etc are easily tracked down, if that makes sense.

The goal was to keep it simple and easy to work on but a little different, built my way. We'll see how it works in the end.

Thanks for looking -

Dan

Long, long week at work. Multiple really long days, but at least we're limited to 16 hours, and the money doesn't hurt . . . . .

That being said, I didn't even get a chance to work on the 65 till last night. I was able to get all of the under dash heater plumbing and wiring complete last night, so this morning it was time . . . .



So now the remaining plumbing, wiring, etc can get done. Pretty much dropped in perfectly with no issues, which was nice for sure. Have a little adjusting to do to get dead-nut level then we'll finish wiring and drop in the starter/headers. I'll probably do plug wires, hoses, etc and have that all complete before the headers go in, but man it feels like a big day!

Thanks for looking -

Dan

[quote="bigdan] but man it feels like a big day!

Thanks for looking -

Dan[/quote]
Some days make it all worthwhile! EH!

Some days are definitely better than others, Sassy!

Yesterday was a good one.

Today, not so much.

I mocked up the RH header on the table numerous times figuring out exactly where I wanted my starter, and it fit tight, but perfect.

LH header? I just held it in place real quick, eyeballed it, called it good and moved on during mockup on the table. Nope. It fit with that 0.060 over stock head mockup block, so I didn't worry about it to much. But, as I discovered after fighting it into position, getting the gasket as all the bolts in and tight, the tube from #6 hits the head. It appears the AFR heads, while exhaust location is stock, have more material at the lower edge of the head. It didn't hit horribly, but enough. So, spent an hour going backwards to pull it back out and gently caress it with a 4 lb love-tapper. Fits now!



More later -

Dan

bigdan wrote:So, spent an hour going backwards to pull it back out and gently caress it with a 4 lb love-tapper.

Nothing like a little love to make things do what you want, of course I never have to do that sort of thing

Looks really good Dan.

See Ya,
Mike

Lookin' REAL Good!
Jim

Looking awesome Dan
tom

Thanks, fellas. I'm stoked after a successful weekend for sure. Some non - Falcon issues have been dealing me a lot of lemons lately - this weekend, we made lemonade! as the saying goes.

All in all, after the minor hiccup on the LH header, it went smoothly, other than header bolts, but i knew that was coming. 1" are too long, 3/4" too short, so had to dress a little off the ends of 1" bolts to get them right, but good to go now. Was able to get the headers in, starter installed, engine and trans leveled up, coil and alternator wiring complete and a few other minor details accomplished so it all went our way in the end.

I'll keep tinkering along this week trying to get as much done as possible, just looking forward to hearing this little motor growl! I'm lucky to have a 5 day weekend come Thanksgiving, so we should make serious progress then.

All that to say this; new goal in sight. I hope to fire it up between Thanksgiving and Christmas some time. With that in mind, I took a vacation week after New Year's so that should give me a little more time, but I'm still pushing HARD to finish this winter and be driving this spring.

A little clarification here also for those wondering why i rerouted my heater a little from the factory location. With the tall valve covers to clear the valvetrain, the factory hose location would cause all sorts of interference issues. Not being concerned with a stock look let me cheat to the outside a bit, plus using the little street rod heater gave me more under dash room.



Closer every day - Thanks for looking.

Dan

Took a little different direction today to keep from leaning over the core support non - stop; saves the old back. I did get the engine ground strap installed and started refurb on my taillight buckets, however.

I studied for quite a while on the ground, and ended up deciding to attach it from a bellhousing bolt to the subframe. Since my subframe is all tied into the cage, and the battery ground is drilled/ tapped into one of the cage feet in the trunk, I drilled/ tapped for a 3/8 bolt in the subframe right above the header. Out of the way and easy access also, so win - win.




As for the taillight buckets, I have 2 sets, this being the straightest. I stripped all of the anodizing from the headlight trim rings back in the summer and decided on a titanium flake color; looks really good and alot easier than finding someone to re- anodize them local. Plus, I can touch them up if necessary. The sockets were fairly worn out and crushed by a previous owner, so I was tickled to find Ron Francis dual filament sockets that'll fit the bill. So, I'll strip and paint then in the next few days, and move on to something else.



All that being said, just tinkering around after work, trying to keep marking things off the list.

Thanks for looking -

Dan

Continuing along. Another busy week at work taking time away from the 65 - but I guess it's necessary LOL . Just tinkering during the week, but wiring is continuing, plumbing continuing, etc, etc. Stripped the splotchy anodizing off of the taillight buckets during the tiny bit of sunshine yesterday and got them painted, so only the grille is left to strip. At this point I still think firing the engine between Thanksgiving and Christmas is still possible . . . . So fingers crossed.

Thanks for looking -

Those buckets look good. What did you use to strip the anondizing with?

loman wrote:Those buckets look good. What did you use to strip the anondizing with?

I used frustration and almost a hammer! Kidding, but it was an aggravating issue to begin with till I discovered the secret. I had a piece of anodized 67 Galaxie grille laying around from a previous junkyard trip, so I used that as my test piece. I initially planned to get rid of it with 400 grit wet sanding. When i realized that would require a year or so and carpal tunnel surgery, I started trying different chemicals, and eventually settled on Easy Off Oven Cleaner IN THE YELLOW CAN. The blue can won't won't work, for whatever reason. I spray a heavy coat, then walk away for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, I scrub it with a red scotch brite pad and wash it off with water, reapply, and wait another 15 minutes. Usually after the 2nd spray - wait - scrub - rinse you'll start to see thin spots in the anodizing, it usually takes me about 4 "coats" and scrubbing. It's all over after that.

Dan

I like the engine picture

I was getting ready to repeat Loman's question and when I hit the reply button you had already answered

Looking Good Dan.

See Ya,
Mike