Help Needed!!! Teen restoring '74 Comet

Forgot about the T code so my bad there. 71 makes a good point about getting in over your head both time and $$ wise. Truth be told, a lot of us have put more time and money into a car than it was worth. Kinda the nature of the beast. However, you have to know when to cut your losses. If the project looks like it's turning into a money pit, then one needs to reconsider everything. I've been very fortunate with the cars I've restored. This hasn't happened to me. The car I'm doing now, well, let's say that I haven't put that much into it including purchase price but that was just good fortune to find something that hasn't needed a lot to get to where I am with it at this point of time. I hope you find yourself in a similar situation. And learn, learn, learn everything you can.

 

While it pains me greatly to agree with Frank , his assessment is spot on.

If car has set for a number of years, it ain't sumpthin' you're going to replace wiper blades, battery & drive. Anything & Everything that was marginal has now failed. No doubt needs a full brake system rebuild(drums will be marginal on a good day). Plus carburetor, all tune up items, likely belts/hoses as well. Probably needs front suspension/steering work. My '72 was very nice wen I bought it, didn't stop the frontend from being junk.

Cowl rust out is considered by many as the death knell, but if you don't mind getting your feet washed during a rainstorm, maybe ain't so bad. There are patch up methods, still it's a bad idea to sink big $$$ in parts when in this condition.

 

Welcome! I am in the exact same boat as you, I bought my car two years ago when I was 16 and I knew nothing about working on cars but wanted to learn. I still don’t know very much but I found that along with these helpful people on this forum and YouTube you can pretty much learn anything. I would recommend watching ChrisFix on YouTube for maintenance and anything you can’t find in a YouTube video just ask the forum, these guys have saved me time and time again.

 

Wow, I totally agree. I'll have to get a better picture of what exactly is wrong to see if this is a project worth doing, but I've already learned so much this week alone. Thank you!

 

I 100% agree, and I'll have to get a better feel of what all needs to be done, but I'm sure I'll encounter a myriad of issues that will end up costing me, but like Constable said, learning as much as I can is all I'm after.

 

Thank you for the welcome! I've already watched some of ChrisFix's body repair videos haha, and I totally agree, I've learned almost everything I know from youtube and the internet, and I'm glad to hear working on cars is just the same. No matter how many videos I watch, I won't have learned anything without doing it, so now I've gotta get my hands dirty.

 

Welcome to the wonderful world of Comet ownership!

The car doesn't look as bad as you describe it. Perfect Comet Grille! Hood doesn't look to have the whole lower lip rotted off the front, but the trim missing suggests something there. Two of the bigger challenges with a Comet. Just about everything else is standard Maverick/Comet stuff.

Door makes a popping noise? ... is it rubbing on the bent front fender? Pretty common with damage. If not, heavy grease on the hinge rub points, maybe new hinge bushings, which is a neat project for a beginner. Maybe $10 in parts that are commonly available.

If the floors aren't super rusty, I say "party on!" It looks like a good car to learn some basic mechanics on if you can get it running fairly easily. I would definitely put front disc brakes on it in place of those drum brakes if you expect to share the road with modern cars. By that I mean, new master cylinder to match front disc/ rear drum, clean the brake lines out, rebuild rear brakes too.

Something else ... if it is too much to handle, don't simply scrap it. There are some good parts there and the community here can put some of them to good use.

 

Thank you so much!!! I’ll get to work later today checking on the floor and see if I can do some work on the door hinges. Thanks for all the info! And if it ends up being too much, you guys will be the first ones I let know hahah.

 

The Engine,the Hart of the Car, has a Compression Number. T he Engine needs to be close to that Number on Compression. Measure the Compression's of the Cylinders with all Sparkplugs removed. and Note that these Numbers do not need to differ more than 20 psi. If so you will be searching for Skips,and Roughness possible Boring of Engine, this applies to most all Engines! Not trying to scare you ,just save you some Cash and Grey Hairs.

 

That Stock Carb is known to Shake loose. investigate this please!

 

And then go out and buy the new Holley replacement 1 barrel electronic fuel injection to replace it.... and a Pertronix kit for the ignition ....
These suggestions may fall under the category "Mission Creep" .... I'm pretty good at that, lol. I've learned to stop counting the flaming dollar bills I keep throwing at my car.

 

Will do!! thank you!