Resurrecting the 72 Comet

This is the 1980 Troyer Modified that I am restoring

 

Well its been a long time since I updated the build.
Been busy working on the comet that last few months.
What started out as a little this little that project has turned into "lets make it good enough to be a daily driver"
So needless to say thats what Ive been doing.
In my last post I still had not even dropped the motor in.
The 302 is in and she's running beautifully. I take her for cruises around town right now and its an absolute blast.
This car is truly so much fun to have and to enjoy.
I don't have any engine pics but will updated with those at some point.
Theres been a ton of little work gone into this car recently.
Everything from color sanding the paint to buffing out all the windows to remove the 40+ years of scratches and water spotting. All the money has been focused on the drive train and suspension that cosmetically I'm doing everything as cheap as possible. Thats the "design" or "look" I'm going for anyway. I want to a little rough and rugged with the looks but all dialed in and sound when it comes to performance and drive ability.
On the inside I decided the headliner had to finish being ripped out and i wanted to try something haven't seen before. I wanted to simply paint the roof instead of a new headliner. Im glad I did cuz for $5 worth of paint it came out great!

 

The dash got some tape to cover up the cracks, the seats have towels with bungie cords holding them and a new steering wheel was put on (its way better than the stock wheel)

 

The big undertaking Im in the middle of right now is an all new front end
Im not a fan of the drum front brakes and all the suspension parts are stock and totally worn out.
Time for a complete overhaul with some improvements
So theres where I started. Bone stock and ready to be re done. Removed the shock and spring first. Then a big hammer, hand torch, and pickle fork took care of all the ball joint and tie rod separation. Once the ball joints popped I took the spindle cleaned and inspected it then shot it with some black paint.
Next was the caster rod. I removed it, cleaned, and inspected it. Some black paint and new bushings.
ready to go.

 

Once everything was apart and out, I cleaned up the fender well area the best I could and shot it with 2 coats of duplicator rubberized undercoating Cant even compare how good it looks. Def worth the extra couple bucks and time.
Suspension wise I wanted to upgrade but I didn't want to drop in a 4k suspension that was over the top. Big overhauls like that are hard to justify for a simple street car.
I went with Moog on stock replacement parts.
Moog lower control arm and ball joint
Moog inner and outer tie rod ends
Stock spindle
SPC makes what looked like a beautiful upper with camber adjustability and 2+ degrees of added caster built in the arm.
I was sold.
With the addition of the open tracker bearing spring perches she's a beautiful piece of suspension art. Here is is just during assembly. Just great equipment if you ask me. Moog and SPC have come through so far.
Next was the brake kit. No more drum, 4 piston wilwood seemed perfect to me... Thats one side done. Today gonna work on the other side. Cant wait to see it assembled and on the ground.

 

Front disc brakes are one of the best upgrades you can make. I should have done mine sooner than I did.

 

Nice job Little John! I am following this thread cuz I had a similiar setup excluding the dual piston brakes. I had the SPC arms on last summer and had problems w/ a noise in the suspension, traced to the arms. I wound up selling them and going back to stock arms -- noise problem solved. I do have the roller spring saddles/perches on the car now, had them there w/ the SPC's. I know of one other person this forum using the same arms -- w/o any issues. I will be looking to see how they work for you. I had to use a large pry bar to force the spring into the up arm to bolt it down -- wondering if the was the case w/ ur setup.

 

This car coming along very nicely, I remember seeing it for sale not to far from me earlier this year glad to see it went to a good home. Also may I ask what wheel and tire size combo you went with the stance on it looks killer

 

Thanks mojo!
Ill keep that in mind as the miles rack up. The one thing I did notice about the arms and the roller perches is that The stock bumpstop will hit the roller perch at ride height (if your car is lowered like mine)
I let the car settle for the night and just wanted to see how it all looked and luckily I saw the perch hitting it.
I had to cut the bumpstop at a 45 degree angle so the perch would clear through travel.

Hey thanks x72COMETx. The wheels are black rock wheels 17x9
The 9" wide rim BARELY clears a couple of key comments in the front end but it does.
Only with that tire will it clear. any bigger sidewall tire and it would hit.
Ill double check the tire size for you today. I can't recall off the top of my head

 

Yesterday the new front end and brakes got completed
I love being able to see those slotted rotors through the wheel.
Since all new everything was bolted to the front end the car needed and alignment.
Luckily a few grease plates, caster camber gauge, and toe plates that I had lying around served me perfect.
Results:
Camber: (-)25 Degrees
Caster: (+) 3.75 Degrees
Toe: Zero
Fired it up and took it for a drive.
I first focused on Bedding in the new brakes.
Let me say WOW on the brakes. The car actually stops. Its amazing.
Suspension wise everything felt great. Smooth and quiet
The steering was a lot more on point especially when turning.
Minimal difference when driving down a straight road but once she's in a turn its so much better.
I have new sway bars coming as well. That will help fight all the body roll

 

Stance looks sweet, I have been debating on installing the spc upper arms but wasn't quiet sure how they would work out but they look like they worked out great

 

I had to grind the ends where the perch mounted to the arm for them to lay flat on the arms; otherwise they sat on the welds of the arms. Another member had the same issue. Did you have that issue? My car is not lowered, to many speed humps here for that.
Also, I like the look of the wheels and stance. I am going to paint my wheels as soon as the spring wx arrives.

 

The only grinding I had to do was when I installed the clapper mount for the wilwood brakes.
The lower caliper bolt would not clear the spindle arm.
The perches on top of the A-arm seem to clear perfect. They keep the spring perfectly in line.
Ill try to take a pic at ride height to show.
I put some miles on it yesterday and the suspension seemed on point.
Car drove extremely smooth and during high speed corners it hooked and went.
Very happy considering the lack of performance these cars naturally have.
So far the upgrades were worth it.
I can't wait to bolt up the sway bars and see how that reduces body roll.

 

Took the car to get the exhaust done properly haha
It had an aftermarket exhaust already but the pipe was too small (1-7/8") for the HP she's pumping out.
I had them run 2.5" pipe from headers back.
She's sounds wayyyyyy better and deeper. The cam is really there now in the sound.
Drove her home to be reminded of my high speed cooling issue.
below 60mph she cools fine
Above 60mph she slowly climbs the gauge until I slow down.
Hoping its a bad radiator and lack of a shroud
I have a brand new aluminum champion 3 row, shroud, and fan on the way

 

Been noticing your posts .. A shroud will help a lot and a good electric fan will even do more. I've had some of these
issues in the past on other cars and the combination of the shroud AND fan took care of it .
I try to make the HOT ROD Power Tour each year and when I'm able there is a LOT of idling time at each of the SIX STOPS going IN and OUT of the designated sites. Never got above 190 with the AC cranking away.
Cometized
(Chip)