72 Mercury Comet GT in Germany

Hey folks,

some of you may have stumbled upon this post where robert pointed out a comet in sweden:
http://mmb.maverick.to/showthread.php?t=55026

yesterday, i flew from germany to gothenburg to take a closer look at the car. it looked good from the pictures, so i figured it could be worth a try.

needless to say it was a fairly big disappointment. the car looks decent from a distance, but turned out as a restoration project upon closer inspection.

the car has been lowered way too much up front and the suspension is junk. it is held up by hijackers in the rear. the tires stick out really wide - the have been cut by the wheel openings, which broke in return.
the car has fairly big rust issues. the passenger door is toasted on the front inner side. the passenger floor pan has rusted through as a result of that. it has a lot of surface rust everywhere on the inside. the corners of the trunk are rusted through. the drivers upper door hinge has been fixed badly before, same as the area where the brake cylinder is mounted. the underside was completely covered in black conservation material, so i expect a lot more rust.

it's been obviously a project for all of the previous owners. the engine bay and the wiring harness are a total mess. the interior is rough. lots of weatherstripping is missing, so is a lot of chrome parts. the grille is busted.

with the price the seller was asking i couldn't really see a point in buying it. after negotiating for a couple of hours he lowered the price considerably.

so i made a decision which i will be cursing a lot - and bought it. this decision was backed up by my girlfriend, so she won't be allowed to complain when i spend a lot of time on fixing the car!

from gothenburg, we took the ferry to kiel, germany. we then drove 400 miles home - flawlessly. so the good seems to be a decent engine - 302 with edelbrock performer intake and holley double pumper carb, a good transmission, the 9 inch rear and disc brakes all round. and the paint job is quite nice.

i just brought the car to a friend's shop. i'll be tearing down the car and keep you updated on the progress! right now i'm browsing through the old documents (in swedish and danish) and evn found the old title - it's a florida car which was exported in 92!

here are some pictures:

 

Car sure does take great pics! Glad it went to a good home! Loved the pics at the Ferries...we have them over here(B.C. Ferries) and although we complain about them a lot it is one of the highlights of any trip to be in the terminal and get on one! Be sure and keep us up to date on your progress!

 

Looks like a good project. Good luck with it. Keep us posted on the progress.

 

i will keep you updated. i'm recovering from the trip today, so no work done. next week, i'll have the underside all cleaned up and the interior will be ripped out. then we'll see what rust issues have to be dealt with.

@Grabber71: i like the horseshoe bay - nanaimo route best. but only so far, because next time i visit, i'll be going the inside passage finally. bc - definitely one of the most beautiful places on earth!

 

I think its a good looking car, sounds like you are going to take it to another level, Good luck with the resto. Thats a unique car anywhere you go in europe. How often do you see old American cars there?

 

they are fairly common. not on a daily basis, but the scene has gotten pretty big. it's mainly mustangs, but also quite a few mopar drivers. but i have never seen a maverick in europe, let alone a comet - so i hope it turns out as a real head turner!

 

Same car in the other post?

 

yes, it's the same. i thought it would make sense to start a new thread where i post updates regularly

 

the marti report for the car has arrived - a real gt with a floor shifter. nice...

 

Cool!

Your gas cap should ship tomorrow if the payment hits the bank. Thanks again

 

ripped out the interior today. looks like all four floor pans need to be fixed. one of them has a badly fitting piece already put in. cowls are gone. lots of work ahead...
but i still cannot believe what they did to the shifter...


all pics can be found here:
http://www.72comet.de/gt/index.php?id=21

 

You know, all things considered it doesn't look that bad except for the spot on your rear quarter window. I wish the floors in my Comet looked that good. You should be able to remove the welds and salvage the floor hump and put an original style floor shift back in. - Matt

 

wait until you see pictures of the cowl vents

but the welding is done at a body shop of a friend of mine - he runs a ford dealership, has a gt40, a 61 tbird and a couple of capris (german model, same era as maverick/comet). i guess it'll be in good hands.

the funniest thing i found was this:


it's a manual neutral safety switch. the complete harness under the dash is there. but instead of mounting a switch on the tranny, the previous owner ran a new wire to this switch and to the starter solenoid. i think it's very... uhm.... "creative"

 

wow thats a new one for the books....:16suspect

 

i was able to work on the car the whole day. i removed quite a bit of the exterior. car now looks like this:


here's a shot of the passenger side cowl vent:


and some BADLY repaired rust spots on the lower rear quarter. rust, duct tape, bondo and some aluminum foil makes an easy repair, eh?


all pictures are as usual on my website:
http://www.72comet.de/gt/index.php?id=23

tommorow i'll hopefully get the glass, the trans and the motor out!