Picked up this beauty (aside from the color) for my son's senior project. He will be joining the forum shortly and most likely be asking some beginner questions, so be gentle. I've been out of the car game for a number of years myself, and I recall enough, just to be dangerous 74 Comet, 302, 2bbl, auto trans (column shift) and power steering. Overall she's pretty straight, but has a couple rust spots beginning on the bottoms of the doors. Here's the thought process. He want's to make a street/sleeper out of it: 1) Put an alum manifold and 4bbl 2) Headers & dual exhaust w/flowmasters. 3) Cam & lifter upgrade. He wants it to sound a$$ 4) Put in a floor shifter in lieu of the column shift. Note: Car has bench seat. 5) Wheels & tires. Thinking of going with some Weld Draglites. 6) Bumper tuck. Note: I had asked this question in another thread, so I think we have a handle on it. 7) To be determined So.. Any thoughts, tips, recommendations and more specifically PART NUMBERS will be greatly appreciated ! PS: He's in High School and his budget is limited
And think about some disc brakes, with a limited budjet he had better get a job or dads/ moms going to have to help him out. LOL Anyhow have fun helping him with the project I know its his senior project but somehow dads/moms get involved.
Scrapper - I was eyeballing them this morning in fact and agree on the shackles! Any recommendations? Simply unbolt and toss? Why put them on in the first place? To raise the rear end? To compensate for sagging springs? Yellow - I've already resigned myself to know my wallet will be picked at some point He does have $ in the bank. But he wants to keep the costs down by scavenging used parts if need be.
Yeah I think 75% of the people here forage for parts as cheaply as possible its part of being a Mavericker. Shackles allow for the rear end to move somewhat and other reasons, they are usually put for clearance on the tire or saggy springs or just to give it that rake look, another thing that he will probably be tempted to do is put on air shocks and this is a big no no. Best thing to have him do is come on this site and get familiar with its search features and start reading about any thing he wants to know about because it is all on here
Just my 2 cents, you can take it or tell me to *&^% off. Since it is already a V8 car and parts are easy to come by for a SBF, you may want to make it able to stop and handle first. Nothing is as quite unnerving as driving a fast car that cannot turn or stop on the street. Also, welcome to the forum!
Your right Jason, gotta have the whoa with the go It actually handles pretty well and the brakes were just redone by the previous owner.
Last night, we went to see a buddy of mine that runs a machine shop to pick his brain on recommendations on parts and see what he had laying around. He hooked us up with a performer intake and a 600cfm Holly carb that he's going to go through before we pick it up. He even threw in a set of alum valve covers . onice we commenced on tearing the engine apart, going to have him go through the heads and upgrade the valve springs for the cam swap
Car looks good, looks like it has some paint issues and minor rot. Please keep him from slapping on some gray primer. I'd off the shackles and go through the fluids and brakes. A good tune up, new brake shoes if you have to keep the drums for sone time. You'll be surprised what you can find on craigslist for a fraction of the retail price. Start a project thread and in sure you'll get a ton of good info.
Day one of the comet project. Cleaned up the engine compartment prior to disassembly. Got the radiator out and other parts. we remover the bolts from the exhaust manifolds, which actually went pretty good considering I was expecting some of them to break off We did run into a problematic alternator bolt that refuses to budge. I think it's bent I blew up two 5/8 sockets trying to get it out Hopefully tonight, we can get the heads off. Got the alum manifold and carb sitting in the garage and waiting for the Cam, headers and shifter to arrive.
Speno a couple more hours on the comet. Got the pesky exhaust manifolds out, manifold out and heads off. My gear puller is to small so I have to borrow one from a buddy. Heads are going to machine shop tomorrow. Coming along slowly but surely Love spending the time with my son and teaching him a thing or two
Got the heads back from being gone through and new Comp Cams valve springs installed. Next step is to clean everything up, repaint the accessories before they go back on and then start putting it back together.
