Michigan Mick's 71 Comet Project

I came across the following video on YouTube. You have a very beautiful car! Looks even better with the custom green seats.

 

I agree - very nice

 

Thanks Paul. There are a couple of videos on You Tube of my car from the Car Warz guy. I never saw him around my car when he shot the videos. I must be off judging when he is taking the videos. Since I am a judge for one of the car clubs I belong to, I unfortunately spend lot of time away from my car. All of the videos came from our USMA car shows.

I agree the car looks even better with the new interior. I have new plans for the engine over this winter. My brother will be upgrading the engine with new aluminum Trick Flow heads, new cam, rockers, lifters, intake manifold, etc., etc. I will be signing a lot of checks and following instructions - he is the mastermind/genius behind the rebuild. We will hopefully start the rebuild in a week or two. I'll post pictures and give progress reports once we get started.

 

All of the winter projects are completed. I have my first two car shows this weekend. Going to the MSU football stadium in Lansing for a show tomorrow - should be interesting since I am a U of M grad. Should be a good show they said they had over 800 cars last year. Sunday I am going to an indoor car show at the Monroe County fairgrounds. Next weekend I have a three day indoor car show in Mt. Clemens, MI.

Over the winter my brother and I did a lot of work on the car. We upgraded the engine put in aluminum Trick Flow heads, roller rockers, new Comp Cam and a Weiand Stealth intake manifold. Added a lot more power to the car, in fact so much I decided to upgrade the rear end and we put in a Detroit True Trac differential. My brother reinforced the rear shock brackets where they bolt to the frame. We painted the power brake booster and brake fluid reservoir since they were looking a little ratty. Touched up the green paint on the engine and transmission. We spatter painted the trunk, touched up all of the undercoating on the car and added logo lights. We put one logo light in the trunk and one on the front under the spoiler in the middle of the bumper.

I restocked all of my Hot Wheels over the winter also. At car shows and weekly cruises I give away Hot Wheels to all of the kids that look at my car. All they have to do is ask me a question or let me ask them a question about my car. Last year I gave away 1,102 Hot Wheels. My goal this year is to give away at least 1,500. I bought about 3,000 Hot Wheels this winter so I should have a good stockpile.

Here's a few pics.

 

Nice upgrades! That is a cool move giving Hotwheels to the kids.

 

Very nice, love the logo lights!

As Rusty said very cool giving away the Hot Wheels!

 

The car is looking good. It shares so much with what mine aspires to be once more, you know yours is a favorite of mine.

Cool deal with the Hot Wheels giveaways. I have a stash of Hot Wheels here myself.
I have given some out at Halloween ... give the kids a choice, candy or a Hot Wheels. A lot of them freak out when they get one then.

 

That is a very nice comet...kudos to you and your brother....hot wheels for the kids?...super cool! Keep seeding for future gear heads

 

I am really impressed about the Hot Wheels!! What a great idea!

Oh, and the car looks great, as usual!

 

Just checking out my old build thread and noticed my Hot Wheel comment. Just to give everyone an update I far exceeded my goal for the Hot Wheels. I ended up giving away over 4,000 Hot Wheels. I gave away over a 1,000 attending three Trunk or Treat car shows around Halloween. I took 350 cars to each show and ran out at each show. The kids absolutely loved em. I've been stockpiling the cars all winter and my goal for this year is 5,000.

It was cool at the Detroit Autorama where I had my car a couple of weeks ago when kids came by and said look it's the "Hot Wheel Man". They were disappointed I wasn't passing out Hot Wheels at Autorama, but I assured them I will be passing them out at all of the cruises and car shows. There were also a lot of parents and grandparents that talked to me about the Hot Wheels I gave their kids.

 

Haven't posted to the thread for awhile. Wanted to give you my Hot Wheel update for 2016. My goal was 5,000 but didn't quite make it. The Trunk or Treats I attended this year were not as good as last year, tried some new venues, but the old ones were better. I ended up at 4,256 Hot Wheels for the year. I'm going to shoot for 5,000 again next year.

Decided to do the Detroit Autorama again next year. Just ordered a new spoiler and will hopefully have some decent weather between now and the end of February to clean up the car and put on the new spoiler and Logo lights. In the fall I hit a sofa cushion that flew out of the back of a pick up truck doing 70 mph on the expressway. The sofa cushion was toast and I lost the Logo light I had installed under the spoiler and dented the spoiler.

Last year at Autorama my car never got judged because I didn't realize they still judge cars at night when everyone has gone home. My car was all locked up for the night and so they only basically judge the outside of the car. This year I will leave it open all night so it will get judged properly.

 

Haven't posted for awhile - it's now Spring and car show season is starting. I have my first indoor car show next Sunday (April 23rd) at the Monroe County Fairgrounds - can't wait. Weekend after that I have a three day indoor car show at the Gibraltar Trade Center in Mount Clemens. Then after that it will be a car show just about every Saturday and Sunday with a couple of cruises thrown in during the week. I have been stockpiling the Hot Wheels all winter and have over 12,000 ready to give out to the kids. During the winter I went through and organized all of the Hot Wheels. I have them in bins, by Ford, Chevy, Mopar, Trucks, Motorcycles, Purple Cars (for the girls), etc. Even have a special bin just for the Maverick Hot Wheels.

Participated in February at the Detroit Autorama again this year and had a great time. Was actually able to drive the car there and back since the weather cooperated this year.

 

Hot Wheel Update for 2017. Well I passed my goal of 5,000 Hot Wheels for 2017. I gave out 5,128 at the car shows and over a 1,000 more at the Trunk or Treats I went to. I've been stockpiling Hot Wheels all winter and have quite the stash to give out to the kids. My wife thinks I'm a little crazy and obsessed (she's probably right). I would guesstimate I have over 20,000 Hot Wheels ready for the kids (of all ages). Goal for 2018 will be 6,000 Hot Wheels (not counting the Trunk or Treats). I have started giving out two Hot Wheels to each kid which really gets them excited.

First car show this year is an indoor car show in Monroe on April 22nd. Can't wait. Have a couple of things to do to the Comet before then. Have to replace the exhaust header gasket on the passenger side, check out the electronic cutout on the passenger side and replace my logo lights. My front logo light under the bumper got ripped off the car when I hit a couch cushion that blew out of the back of a pickup truck, when I was doing 70 mph down the expressway. The logo light in the trunk I ripped the wires off loading stuff in the trunk. I'm also adding a back-up camera - gotta keep up with technology.

 

Two things looks like I never gave a Hot Wheel update for 2018. I hit my goal of 6,000 giving out 6,075 Hot Wheels plus at least a thousand more at the several Trunk or Treats I went to. So goal for 2019 will be another 6,000.


I also just got my car ceramic coated this week at Ziebart and it looks fantastic. It looks like the car was freshly painted. I also had sound deadener sprayed on the undercarriage to give it a more uniform look, since I only used 3M rattle can undercoating when my brother and I did it 7 years ago. My undercarriage and engine compartment where two of the areas I needed to improve based on the judges at Autorama this year. So the undercarriage is taken care of and I'm going to clean up the overall look of the engine compartment. Adding new spark plug wires and routing, cleaning up master brake cylinder and cleaning up all of the wires going to the started solenoid. I'm also going to get rid of those old sealed beam headlights and add some LED headlights.