Michigan Mick's 71 Comet Project

Mick, as for the guy in the pic all I can say is NICE BELLBOTTOMS. I think I will be in Liv this Sun, will it be home by then? Rick

 

I have the same springs. They ride a little stiff to me. I am going to take the bottom leaf out B4 nx season. If I know what I know now I wud have done it B4 they were installed in the car. I been led to believe they are more favorable to those folks looking to curb wheel hop for those drag racing - which I have no intentions. I have heard they are quite effective in doing just that. They have been on the car almost a year and pretty much ride the same now - maybe just a little better. It cud be I have gotten use to the ride. But not enough to discourage me from the removal of the bottom leaf. I will check bk w/ you next year and see what's ur opinion.

 

Rick,
Don't think it will be home by this weekend. Probably some time next week. If by some reason it is home on Sunday I'll let you know.
As far as the bell bottoms - Hey I was one styling dude back in the 70's. When the car is all done I'm going to take a picture 40 years later at the same location with the same pose. I'll have to hit some garage sales or thrift stores to find some bell bottoms I don't think I held on to them over the years for some reason. That oughta be a hoot!

 

Thanks. Yeah I am very pleased with the paint job. Not bad for a garage paint job. I had some mixed emotions on what I was going to do with the interior. I was going to try and make it as close to the original as possible but the more I thought about it I didn't really like the color combination anyway. When the wife and I decided on the interior color combinations and since I saw the finished work on the padded dash, I am pleased with my decision to do a custom interior. My challenge now will be just to sit around and wait for the big bucks to come flowing in so I can get the car done and on the road. My goal is to have it on the road by the spring. Until then I can just look at it and dream.

 

Mick,

Now that I see a Ginger bucket seat there, I know you and I are living in parallel universes. .... same original interior and exterior colors, and a pair of Ginger 73 Cougar buckets here, that will finally be reskinned in black.

I like what you are doing to the interior.

 

Man, your car is coming out nicely. Well Done
It's nice to see work of that quality.

 

Thanks Dave. There have been a couple of times I almost cut a few corners to save a buck or two or some time, but eventually decided against it. They say good things come to those who wait (whoever they are) and I have been waiting. Hopefully the car will be ready for Spring cruising next year. Picked up the radio tonight so tomorrow we should be installing the radio and exhaust system.

 

Very nicely done. My paint job was also done in a garage. I went with the gloss black metallic paint, for waxing purposes... Great looking Comet. I use to live pretty close to you. Graduated from Cody HS, Detroit...

 

This write up is fantastic. The pictures are awesome. The whole concept of resurrecting your first car makes it even better. You guys are doing a great job. Looks amazing.

 

Thanks. I was born in Detroit and lived just across the street from Chadsey HS. Moved out to the burbs when I was 7.

 

Yeah I think I will like the interior also - just wish my money tree was growing faster. Doing a custom interior wasn't in my original budget (of course I blew that a long time ago), but I decided what the heck you only live once - go for it. I think my brother said my buckets came from either a 71 Stang or Cougar. It is kind of cool about the parallel universe thing. I see you are a Captain, I only made it to Staff Sergeant in the Air Force.

 

Thanks Brian. Yeah why is it that we long for those simpler times. It's like I'm turning back the clock 40 years. I may no longer look live that studly guy in my Avatar, but inside I'm still that same kid I was 40 years ago.

 

Sounds Great!!

No pictures today just an update. My brother and I just finished adding the exhaust system. It sounds great I love that throaty sound of a V-8 and the roller cam we installed gives it that little extra rumble.

The other thing that sounds great is the stereo. Put in an HD radio and CD and it sounds fantastic. My brother's neighbors probably thought there was some kind of party going on in his garage we had it cranking. All that is left for the sound system is to wire in the 8-track.[

 

Picture Gallery

Well I guess I was getting a little picture crazy, I used up my allotted space for pictures in the forum. So I went through my gallery and deleted some of the pictures, renamed them and reordered the pictures in chronological order. I apologize to anyone looking at this thread for the first time and finding out some of the picture links in the thread don't work or that a picture is missing.

In case there was a picture that someone was looking for in this thread or in my gallery and they are really bummed it isn't there (I highly doubt it), here is a link to my brother's picture gallery for my project on Flickr. If you want to see some of the other projects he has worked on check out the one on the 63 Ford Galaxie Convertible or the 61 Falcon Project. What he had to through on the 63 Ford is quite amazing to me since he doesn't own a body shop or anything, is self taught and does this stuff in his garage. For any of you guys with roots to Detroit and who went to the Detroit Dragway or Autorama back in the 60's and 70's the Falcon was called Home Brew II. It is now owned by one of my brother's old high school buddies Jim. Jim has also had a hand in restoring my Comet especially the rebuild of the engine.

When you go through the pictures make sure you have the option to show the Title and Description on, because he does include a small explanation on each picture. Here's the link - Enjoy!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14256847@N08/sets/

 

Stereo and Exhaust

My brother finished hooking up the stereo and added some speaker switches si I can switch between the radio and 8-track



We also finished installing the JEGS 2 1/2" exhaust system kit. It took three days of playing with it but it came out nicely.





Now I just have to decide what type of chrome exhaust tips to add. Anybody have some suggestions or pictures of theirs.