Help Needed!!! Teen restoring '74 Comet

Hi, everyone! I'm Ali, a 16yo high school student that has gotten his hands on a pretty beat-up 2-door 1973 Mercury Comet. I'd like to preface this post by saying that I am not a car guy (not yet at least ) and I have limited knowledge of terminology and proper practice when it comes to cars. I can barely drive haha! I plan on having this be my first car, but I need to get it running first!
The car has extensive exterior damage. There are several spots on the doors where the metal has been rusted through, The doors make loud popping noises when opened, the side of the car in front of the passenger seat may or may not have been hit by a forklift, and there are numerous blemishes on the lower half of the car. The interior is quite damaged as well, with torn-up back seats, no roof liner, and tarnished and damaged dashboard controls/ radio console. In terms of the chronology of this restoration, should I work on the exterior first, interior first, or work under the hood? Speaking of under the hood, I've been informed that the carburetor and the starter may be faulty, but that is all the information I have, and as I said earlier, my lack of car knowledge prevents me from offering too much more insight.
I've done some research online and have narrowed down options to what model it is, but am unsure of how to determine which engine is in the car. I'm pretty confident it's either the 200 or 250 v6, but I'm unsure of how to find out which one it is (how do I go about figuring this out?) I also have the VIN (4K31T510509) but had no luck finding it in any databases freely online.
As a beginner, I'm gonna need all the help I can get, and once I found this forum, I knew that I'd be in the hands of some folks who definitely know what they're talking about! Please let me know any tips you've got, as well as any resources I might find of value. Thank you all for helping me out and I'm glad to be a part of this wonderful forum! Here are some photos of the car, please let me know if I need to post any more.

 

Just found a decoder for the VIN and it turns out though the car was made in 1973, it's a model 74 (assuming this is because it was produced in October, just after the September cutoff), Made in the Kansas City assembly plant, its a 2 door sedan, production number 510509 and most importantly its a 200-V6, which answered one of my questions in my post!

 

first ......
second...not a 200-V6, it's an inline 6.
third...what's your budget?
I suggest you or a helper take a container of water (at least 1 qt.) and pour it into the vents at the base of the windshield (cowl vents). pour slowly as not to get any on the windshield. you or a helper at the same time look under the dash to see if any water it leaking to the inside (floor). pull the carpet under there to see what shape the floorpans are in (just rusty or holes in floor) this is to let you know if the car is worth putting any money into at all. check back and let us know what you find.
this is a major repair something you should have done before buying the car.
my opinion...not a good choice for a first car,

Frank

 

Welcome to the forum from northeast Ohio!!!

Wow Frank, you didn't pull your punch any with that statement.

Actually Ali, your photos make your car appear better than what you have posted in your description. That is encouraging.

Frank however is correct and you need to perform the water test before you proceed any further. Once you have that performed and hopefully the results are positive, then you can proceed. If not, you have an additional major repair ahead of you and a decision to make.

Good luck Ali, we are here to help!

 

Hello Ali. You certainly are showing your bravery doing a restoration for a first car. From the limited info you have provided us and few pictures, this is what I see. I would bet the engine is a 250 especially since the car has factory air conditioning. As to the engine, I am assuming that the car has been off the road for the last 20 years as I see a 1999 inspection sticker. I faced the same thing with my current car and have you seen if the engine is free rotating or not. If the engine is locked up, you may be facing a serious problem though it is possible in some cases to unlock a frozen engine. The mechanical and potential electrical issues you face are of the most important first off. The body and cosmetics come after. To begin, you are also looking at draining the fuel tank and checking fuel lines before even trying to start it. Brake systems need looked at carefully as they tend not to like sitting for years. Corrosion undercar affecting the suspension components. You have a lot to consider getting into a full on restoration with little to no experience.

What the guys said about water testing the cowl does have a lot of merit. If the cowl is rotted, the car could be terminal and moving forward might not be wise.

I applaud your initiative but I do hope that you haven't bitten off more than you can chew. I already had auto knowledge when I decided to tackle my first restoration project. You're going to need a lot of help to pull this off successfully. We can only do so much by remote control but I know we will do what we can. Try to find someone local to you that can help get you off to the right start. And you're going to have to buy tools and not crap cheap ones either.

I sinceerly wish you all the luck in the world. Keep us posted and don't be afraid to ask questions. The only dumb question is the one that never gets asked.

 

It's a T code, unless swapped, left the factory with a 200.

A/C was not available with 170, but it was discontinued after '72.


BTW Ali were in NC are you??

 

I'll definitely have to do some research on the difference between a v6 and an inline 6, thank you for the insight! I'll definitely get to work on the cowl vents and see if I can find any more issues with the car. Lucky for me, I got the car for free, as the owner was a family friend and reaaaaally wanted to get it off his hands. You're absolutely right, there's a lot of work to be done and even at the end of the process I doubt it will have been worth it monetarily, but the experience of restoring an old car myself is invaluable in my eyes. Thank you for all your insight so far!

 

Will do! Thank you all so much! And that's some comforting news haha

 

Thank you for your best wishes! I did some more digging and I'm coming up with conflicting data. Here it says that the info on the car corresponds with a 200, but here it says 250. I'm betting it's a 200 based on the info with the car alone. Thankfully my dad has accrued many tools over the years, torque wrenches, jacks, even a sandblaster haha. My next step is gonna be to get comfortable using these tools in an application like this. And thanks for the suggestions on what to check, I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

 

I knew I should've trusted that T haha! and I am! Salisbury to be specific!

 

Know when to say when is the big thing. If it has cowl rust you can still get it running and learn along the way. My first car was a rust buck yet I drove the wheels off it. Knew it wasn't a restoration candidate but I learned with it and had a lot of fun driving it.

 

The things ill learn along the way is the main thing I'm chasing. Thank you!

 

I suggest start working on brakes, nothing else matters if you can't stop. Next, would be steering/suspension. That's my order of fixing old cars for the road...

 

Thank you! This definitely helps to give me some direction.

 

"Lucky for me, I got the car for free, as the owner was a family friend and reaaaaally wanted to get it off his hands."

"Know when to say when."

there is another lesson that you don't want to learn...
wasted time and money...