Lavron's '64 Build Thread

[lavron]

Not sure we need another a '64-'65 build that takes years to complete , Ok only kidding!

Thinking about starting one for my Comet, it will be a long term build unless something happens to change that, but mostly it will be limited right now by more of a time crunch, and as always money (if you had unlimited funds, time would not be so much of a factor, just hire stuff done, but what fun is there in that), but really there are some inspiring stories here, one learns so much from every build that is on here and you get to see just how bad some of the cars started and how just us regular guys (mostly) are able to save something that many would just junk, no one would do this unless they had a soft spot for Comets, or were just plain crazy. There are some awesome builds on here (still going through them) mine probably won't be all that impressive but kudos to everyone who contributes, you can't imagine how helpful that is.

Here is my plan that I will put together for presentation in the next few days and try to get a few pictures; Assessment - I will assess the current state of my Comet, list some of the stuff that already have (that I can remember). Planning stage - What my plans are currently (this can change of course) will list some of the modifications I intend to do, tire size, transmission, engine,body and interior, etc. Finally actual work I am doing currently

I will leave a few mysteri

I welcome all comments, suggestions, ideas, opinions and even for a few "that is the dumbest thing I heard or saw someone do" certainly if you give that comment I would like to know why.

Those are my plans unless enough of you guys come on and say "we don't want to see your old junk cluttering the forum". I really want to start something to keep me motivated and get some great ideas and advice from the guys (and gals if we still have any of those here). And everybody keep showing what you got and do, I need inspiration all the time

See Ya,
Mike

[popscomet]

AIN'T nothing like a good plan and for it to come togrther,,,,we all like to see the results,,,,the most important thing on a build is not to burn yourself out on WORK.....so many do this very thing,work every wakening hour they can ,then all of a sudden they are exhausted and tired,then the project sits for mo's or years and is sold just to get rid of it,and get it out of sight,and many times at a monatary loss...so pace your self and try to make the rebuild a happy thing,,,,and if possible,every now and again,include your wife if at all possible,,her input is priceless,,an extra pair of eyes or another opinion never hurt a thing..good luck ,enjoy yourself and when it's done.....it's done !! Working just a few minutes aday soon mounts up......winter is here so stay warm and above all have a good time ,,,,pop

[comethead]

Great advice Pop! For all of us!

Bring it on Lavron. Looking forward to it.

Joe

[Jims65cyclone]

Looking forward to it, Mike. When I finish this house remodeling project and get my second garage built (AKA "Cometorium"), I'm going to get down to brass tacks on mine and start me a build thread, too. I'm sure I'll be getting some inspiration from your thread.
Jim

[SASSY]

Plan,schan,, get a sawsall an a angle grinder with a zip disk and get goin!
Take a pic of it before ya cut your pinkie
Good luck, an just don stop!
Frd

[comethead]

Plan,schan,, get a sawsall an a angle grinder with a zip disk and get goin!
Take a pic of it before ya cut your pinkie
Good luck, an just don stop!
Frd

Sage advice.
And I've seen Fred with a Sawzall...

[lavron]

First is my Assessment/Evaluation of my Comet, and a few pictures of my car I took today as she sits.

Starting out I want to say a big thanks to everyone again for the work they have contributed to Comet Central, it has totally changed my evaluation of my car, you have taken a lot of mystery out of the work I need too do.

These are as glamours as it gets for my little '64, I have owned my Comet since 1979 and the paint looks about the same as when I bought it except I have sprayed some rattle can primer on it here and there and have sanded on the hood and never primed it, I am not really into the patina look and someday I would like to see her with fresh paint, but I will talk about that later.

The drivers side;


And passenger side;


My current engine is the original 170 cid that has been bored 30 thou. over, matched pistons, Clifford 264 cam, Mallory dual point, Clifford split header, hardened valve seats, with new valves and guides, and the Offenhouser triple setup with 3 Autolite 1100 one barrel carbs. The engine actually does not have that many miles on the rebuild but want to change it out and I am thinking about keeping this engine intact to maybe use in a different project one day (have to finish this one first)


The few other modifications on my car currently are; 1 inch sway bars front and rear, 8" 4 bolt rear with 4.11 gears, 3.03 3-speed with a Hurst floor shifter, by the way, with this combo the car has no trouble taking off

Now the bad, and that equals RUST, actually very little has changed on the car in the last 30+ years I have owned it as far as rear quarter panel rust, what has changed is where I used to have a perfect trunk floor, I left my car sitting outside for 5 yrs and the trunk seal leaked onto the ultra cool green shag carpet I had in the trunk and rusted it out before I discovered the error of my ways, the same for the front floors, while they contained rust already it is now worse and my torque boxes are rusty on the front, amazingly enough the rest of the floor survived pretty good because I caught it in time and ripped out all the carpet in the car (not green shag).

Trunk rust, both sides next to the wheel wells.
Left side

And right side

As well as ruining my gas tank it rusted in front of the tank, I did not remove my plywood here that is covering the gas tank hole, but you can see how far forward the rust reaches here.

The frame rails are rusty too underneath, not sure how bad but I know they are rusted.
And what caused the trunk rust, besides the carpet? The leaky (dried and cracked up) trunk seal, which also rusted the trunk lip in the front, the rest is ok.

The last bit of rust in the trunk is the bottom of the trunk lid, it is rusted badly on the left rear corner, only on the inside not the outside the rest of the trunk looks fine.


Inside the car both front toe boards, and the driver floor.
Passenger side you can see the rust goes through all three layers of the floor, there is a little rust on the front edge of the floor as well.

Drivers side toe board and the floor is pretty bad in the corner, and I have a mouse nest

The rest of the floor is ok as far as I can tell, but I will examine it further when I get to work on the car.

Obviously I will have an issue with my cowl vents being rusted out and will probably cut the ends off to look inside like a few others here have done.

The outside of the car has the classic case of rear quarter rust.
As a teenager I attempted to slather some fiberglass and bondo on the right rear quarter, I am not too proud of my work

The left side I thankfully left untouched.

There is a small spot of rust on the lower front passenger fender but the picture was more my finger than the rust so I didn't upload it, I also attempted to repair it when I did the rear quarter, but it actually doesn't look too bad, it still will need repaired.

The only other really bad spot is on the right front core support and frame and the bottom of the battery recess, the frame is rusted right at the strut rod attaching point.

That is my Assessment, while I do not like the current condition, I know they are all fixable. Currently the car is, in my opinion, not safe to drive on the highway (besides not having any taillights, interior, brakes or gas tank) because of the rear frame rails and the front frame.

My next post I will begin to lay out the plans to get it back on the road, what I have and what I am considering or looking for, I will be looking for some input on that phase for sure

See Ya,
Mike

[lavron]

,,,,and if possible,every now and again,include your wife if at all possible,,her input is priceless,,an extra pair of eyes or another opinion never hurt a thing..

I almost forgot, my wife helped me move my Comet today, she hated it (did not like it has no brakes and we live on top of a hill) but was real trooper, not sure that is what you had in mind Pops

My wife really likes the Comet, BTW, we had our first date in that car (and others), we had our wedding engagement pictures taken with the Comet, so it has been part of our marriage for the 25+ years we have married and she would like to see it back on the road almost as much as me, but she also is practical and keeps me from going overboard on spending on it, and get my other jobs and priorities done around the house

See Ya,
Mike

[Groover]

...for the Win!

My wife really likes the Comet, BTW, we had our first date in that car (and others), we had our wedding engagement pictures taken with the Comet, so it has been part of our marriage for the 33+years we have married and she would like to see it back on the road almost as much as me, but she also is practical and keeps me from going overboard on spending on it, and get my other jobs and priorities done around the house

That's great to hear. My wife wasn't nuts about the Comet project when it started, but now there are days when we're going somewhere and I grab the keys to her car and she says, "Aren't we going to take the Comet?" to which I always reply, "Of course, of course we are."

[lavron]

OK first update on some of the stuff I am "working" on, kind sticking with stuff I can tinker on right now, so this is a little bit of Planning Stage because I haven't actually done it but I have made few investments.

A mockup of my dual carb setup to see if I can actually fit them on there, which I can but will have to add a bracket to hold the outboard carb ears. I know it is not the best but will probably use a little JB Weld under the base to build a flat surface where the bracket will attach and to bond the aluminum plate to the cast iron intake along with bolts, of course



Will be going old school or cheap on this and not taking it to a machine shop to do any the milling and cutting I need to do on the intake but am going to grind and file it by hand and cut the openings by hand, I did all the work myself on the Offenhauser and it worked fine I will need to mock up my linkage as well and may need to make a bell crank to change the direction from the original accelerator to these carbs.

The carbs are Motorcraft 5740s that came on Ford Escorts so I don't think 2 of them will over carb the engine, I think Escorts were like 98 cid or something and this is going on a 200 so should be about right. I have a few ports to block on the 5740s as soon as I figure out what all of them are for.

While I am talking about plans for the head, I am thinking about having larger valves installed when I have the head work done, people have been successful putting 1.75" intake valves and 1.50" exhaust valves in, the only thing that worries me is sometimes they accidentally cut into the water jacket on exhaust valve seat #1 and then it has too be welded from thermostat opening I also need to find a early 170 rocker arm assembly so I can have adjustable rockers, if I can't find one I can always take the one off my current motor but would really like to leave it alone.

Hopefully this is not too crazy a plan, if you see anything of concern, make a comment or PM me.

See Ya,
Mike

[Rocket989]

A lot of work but some cool plans!! Just curious, why not leave the 170 in the hole for now and get a T5 adapter plate? What color are you thinking?!?

[lavron]

A lot of work but some cool plans!! Just curious, why not leave the 170 in the hole for now and get a T5 adapter plate? What color are you thinking?!?

The 170 is setup pretty good but I would need to go through and do a lot of refreshing on it, and I wanted a 200 for a long time so I could get a 7 main block. But really the point you bring up is a good one, I would probably never hurt the 170 so it is just some weird desire I have

I decided to use a period Ford correct color for it, even though it was not offered on the Comet, the current color is Prairie Bronze and I want to paint it Grey, I think the color is Gunmetal Grey Metallic but can't remember off the top of my head, you could get Falcons and Mustang that color I believe in 1964. Also considering a black stripe.

See Ya,
Mike

[lavron]

Thought I would divide my plans up to little snippets so I wouldn't have these really long posts like I have had, I will try and concentrate on one or two areas at a time

First is my engine build, which I have already been talking about (larger valves with hardened seats and the 2 progressive 2 barrels), might need some suggestions on my cam choice with the upgraded/added carburetoration and larger valves.

I want an engine to cruise mostly with a bit of pep, not a real loppy idle but a little is fine, currently I have the 264 degree towing cam from Clifford and don't see a need to change it unless anyone has a good suggestion, I really am not good at choosing cams, what I currently have was what Jack Clifford suggested with the triple Offy setup. I have a double roller timing chain set already.

I will pull the Mallory dual point from my current engine and add a Petronix kit too it most likely. Still undecided on a coil and haven't even looked yet.

I will try and do a little porting and polishing but am not going to worry too much about it for my street engine just clean up and smooth a few things. the pistons will be whatever size I end up needing to match the overbore.

I have a Pacesetter dual out header that I think dumps to 2" pipes, and the port divider for exhaust 3 and 4, and to round it up I have some ARP bolts for the engine like header bolts, I really to dig into my stash to see what I bought

I can't think of anything else on the engine off the top of my head right now, that is generally what my plans are.

See Ya,
Mike

UPDATE 2021; Just reading through my thread and don't want to spoil the suspense for those reading this so If you don't want to know what the future was to these plans stop reading now Pretty much everything I said in this post you can wad up and throw in the trash I think it helps to see how a project changes in 5 years and when you actually start building it. at least for me. (yes everything is covered in the thread so not going to say more than I have.

[lavron]

This is way early on this post, I pretty much think I will never get to this point but about how I am thinking of painting my car, I found this Mustang out on the web that is painted how I am thinking about painting my car, not sure if the stripes would be too hokey or make me look like too much of a poser with just the hopped up 6.



I am going to black out some of my trim as well and am leaning toward Bassett Racing Black steel DOT Wheels, 15X7 on front and 15X8 on the rear and then for tires I am liking the Mickey Thompson Sportsman S/R Tires, 26X8.00 front and 28X10.00 rear.

You guys think I will have any problem fitting those size tires on the car? I can do a little rear wheel tub work if I need to make them fit and scoot the axle back a little, I would like to lower the car down some but not slam it by any means, I live in the country on a gravel road after all, I want to be able to come and go at will

See Ya,
Mike

[poboyjo65]

Here's a little darker maybe ,but with a lot of blacked out trim.
http://www.cometcentral.com/forum/viewt ... =24&t=5294

Pretty sure you'll need to do some tubbing to fit 28x10s on it. also 28 tall may be close to the front of the opening. I think Lou moved his 65 openings up 1.5'' for 29s but has plenty of room so it'll be close. I guess you could move the axle back slightly .