COMET CENTRAL

So here's my other project:
Back in May I bought a pair of Falcons. Both 6 cylinder hardtop 64s.
I parted the really rusty one that was complete and the less bad one I'm keeping.
The plan- build a road race type machine with mostly vintage parts. Solid lifter 289, Toploader 4 speed and 8 inch rear. Full cage etc.
Here's what I'm going for- except with a front bumper.



Here it is. It's got the front sheet metal from the one I parted

For some reason I was sold on the idea of installing convertible inner rockers for unibody stiffening from this website http://www.streetortrack.com/Installing ... -p-14.html
The car needs complete floors so I figured while I'm in there...

Here's how it was when I started


Cut some of the rust out and put in a new double layer of 18ga skin on top of the torque box (the inner structure was good)


So I bought 65-66 Mustang inner rockers from NPD. They aren't an exact match for the Falcon inner rockers but I didn't care. The shape is different and they are about 7/8" taller. Otherwise they need to be trimmed to fit.

Fitting inner rocker to the outer rocker and making sure it ties in to front and rear torque boxes



Right side installed.



Now to get the right side floors in.


Joe

That is cool Joe, I have floor work coming in my future,not to the extent that you have but I like to see others doing it to help my confidence. who would have I thought I would enjoy sitting looking at rusty floors become non-rusty as much as I do.

See Ya,
Mike

Joe;that looks strong,the door area is a great place to ad strength!!The 64 looks like a PERFECT candidate for that project,should be a blast when it is ready!!! ROY.

lavron wrote:That is cool Joe, I have floor work coming in my future,not to the extent that you have but I like to see others doing it to help my confidence. who would have I thought I would enjoy sitting looking at rusty floors become non-rusty as much as I do.

See Ya,
Mike

Glad your enjoying my pain Lavron!
I'm like you though. It makes me happy to see the rust slowly being replaced by clean metal.
I got the floors from an eBay seller for $75 each. They are 18ga and look pretty good. I looked at Autokrafters and Dearborn but I was looking at around $600 with shipping for complete left and right. Not for this rig!

Joe

CALIFORNIA CALIENTE wrote:Joe;that looks strong,the door are is a great place to ad strength!!The 64 looks like a PERFECT candidate for that project!!!Should be a blast when it is ready!!! ROY.

Roy that's exactly what I thought when I saw it. It's a dog and I don't feel bad cutting it up! It'll be fun!

I've been tossing around the idea of adding subframe connectors as well as the inner rockers. Do you think it will add to the strength? Or unnecessary overkill?

Thanks!

Joe

Joe;any strength you can ad to the undercarriage is a good thing,and the weight will be LOW to the ground!!As long as the Falcon is open,now is a great time to ad connectors!!Look at how my car is built,it is torsionally very strong,which is what I was after!! ROY.

Ok you talked me into it.
I'll get some 2x3 rectangular tubing down there to connect the subframes. I'll connect them to the inner rockers laterally at 2 or 3 places as well.
I still need to pull the heads off the 289 and have the screw in studs installed. Then get over to your place for the porting.

Thanks Roy!

Joe

Lookin good Joe! Thanks for sharing your pain , I'm really going to enjoy your pain! Are you going to mini tub it?

Yeah Johnnie it'll get mini tubs. I'm learning as I go here.

And I remember seeing your progress on your Comet and having a smug smile on my face thinking 'man that must suck!'
Now it's my turn!

Yea well I got that smug smile on now, but I'm thinking this is gonna be fun, pokin at you, sayin ''hurry up!'' ''get back to work!'' ''what are ya building ? a tank?'' ''do this, do that''

poboyjo65 wrote:Yea well I got that smug smile on now, but I'm thinking this is gonna be fun, pokin at you, sayin ''hurry up!'' ''get back to work!'' ''what are ya building ? a tank?'' ''do this, do that''

DON't forget______how much is this thing gonna weigh when's it's done ,are you gonna have the title weight changed so you have to pay for heaver lic's pop

Don't bust my balls Pop!
I think it'll be lighter than stock. I hope!
It'll be gutted. One seat. No radio heater or most wiring.
But with the cage and body reinforcements. So maybe it'll be a wash.
Considering lexan but not sure.

Joe

Joe;seeing as it is a road racer,I don't think any added weight will hurt,especially since the chassis will be stronger and stiffer!!With a 418W,all aluminum interior,Mild Steel Roll Cage,glass fenders and front bumper,the COMET is still 3150,I feel your Falcon should be lighter!! JMO , ROY!!

JOE,we take a fox body stang and strip it down and leave the factory firewall and the floor brds,thats it,we add alumn bodies that we build,we have a break to bend the sheets of ALUMN,but by the time we put a complete roll cage and all the braces and fuel cell,the weight adds up fast,in our class the car has to weigh with the driver,,2500lbs,,we have chunks of lead that we add,,,we scale the car with the driver and start adding lead in certain places,in the v8 modified class it has to weigh with the driver 2300lbs,we use a monte carlo frt clip and the rest is hand made on a jig in most cases,and it also has a alumn body and we have to add lead to it also....we attach most of the lead so that it can be moved around on the chassis....we have different sizes of fuel cells cause we also take advantage of the weight of fuel,depending on track conditions sometimes we will fill it up or just run what we think will be enuff for a race of just so many laps,,,,we move the battary to a certain loccation for the perfered weight on a certain location....it is a tricky thing to get a car balanced just right ,we play with tire stagger and tire PSI and width and off set of whls,,,,our tires are g60 15's on both cars....but we turn left on dirt and you won't..but in your own way you'll have to learn how to set your car up...A good car set up is better sometimes than a faster motor,in fact we have won many races with less under the hood,but our cars were spot on when it came to set up and our cars out handled the others...in some cases SLOWER IS FASTER....these 2 boys of mine have great running motors,but in most races they work on the set up.....pop