History 64/65 Comets old drag cars lets see pictures

Ron Leslie of Kenz and Leslie by the car testing last night at Bandimere.



Ron and his 66 Flip Top Mercury









This is the last flip top that Ron got from Mercury

 

Roy
On the shelf I had thought of that but I was worried about the upper A arm up travel.I had done the Shelby 1 inch lower on the upper A arm and wanted to make sure I had the room if I went back to stock location.Looking at it after it was done it looks like I could have taken another inch or so out of that shelf.

The KC show looks like it might be a good one.Its only 8 hours for us. I think its a go.
http://www.musclecarreunion.com/index.html

 

Dale

I have an extra comet that I've been thinking of doing that to.Been watching your project closely,taking all the notes.Need some updated progress pics though.
Cant wait to see your car done

 

Jim

I might just have to invest in that Bad Ass east coast mustang drag team.Not that I need another car to kick my butt down the track like that Sniper in the 65 Comet.



How about some motivation Jimmy

 

Heres my three runs last night.Working on my reaction time and shifting

 

Ken;NICE!!!!! Do you have a synchro trans?My Jerico is the drag race version and you leave your throttle on the mat,do not have to lift between shifts.I know I'm used to a screaming baby Ford but it sounds like you could use more rear gear!!! How did the clutch work out?It looks like you are carrying the front out nicely!!!! I Love that picture of Ron Leslie standing next to your badassed Comet!!ROY.

 

Roy

I have the jerico DR-4.Sounds like the same tranny.I had them add the speedo gear and down shift sliders because there was no extra cost.Just driving it down the street its easiest if I double clutch it to shift right.I was told with this model to use the clutch on the shifts.I try and keep it on the floor but sometimes I lift( habit, working on that). The DR4-4 might be the clutchless one,couldnt afford that one at the time.
So far the clutch is working fine.I was going to start taking away some base this friday.So now I am 8 turns base and 32 ounce counterweight.We go back up there and do two practice runs for PINKS and then race on SAT.
I have more RPM to play with now so this winter we will move up to 4:88 gear from 4:56 that I have now.

 

I purchased the car in September of 1984.Did your brother in law own it prior to that?If so,I need some info about the car.Pflueger shipped in ten 1964 Comets to his dealership in mid 1964.Five were Cyclones and five were Calientes.I would like to know more about the Cyclone you found.Also,back in the day we raced at Sandy Beach on the straight away there in front of the beach.This was always done around midnight.There used to be a measured 1/4 mile there.We would put people on each end to stop traffic,if any.HRP was too far away for us Windward guys.

 

Ken, nice looking job on your shock towers, watched your vid and great ride. Your comet sounded great rolling thru the gears. It got me wishing for a manual trans.
Roger

 

Roger;you know you REALLY NEED a 4-speed!!!! Real Racecars have THREE Pedals!!!! ROY.

 

I thought he had your Comet after '84 but maybe not. I can't remember if I drove it that year or not. It was close though. He's Kenny and sold + traded to a guy named Guy. They lived in Hawaii Kai at the time. I remember races at Sandy Beach. Kenny also owned a orange '64 Comet in highschool (late 70s) that he raced at Sandy's. That one was fast with a 289 4spd. Sent you email so hope it arrived.

 

Roger;I just noticed you do not have shock tower braces.You NEED to put something back in there or the towers WILL move!!! ROY.

 

Roy, your right it is on my list. I remeber driving in my old 64 fairlane when my buddie first got it on the road with no hood. I was amazed at how much the towers moved. It was supposed to be done a couple weeks ago but I worked on my sons stang so he could race.
Roger

 

Roger;KOOL,I'd hate to see you have to takes steps backwards!!! I've actually seen them pull in after hitting a bump! ROY.

 

QUOTE:
Dunno if this fact has been mentioned but the bid on Beswick's Comet stopped at $310,000 at Mecum's. Anyone know if it sold?

Bill



Bill,Yes it's current owner is out of Canton,Mi.He brought it to the AllFord show at the Ford Glasshouse last weekend.Boy,It gets your attention running or not! Guess he has a stable of AFX/BFX comets....

 

Overcame a few more hurdles this week on the Rocket. Still no engine, but I should have a soundbyte of it by next week's end (fingers crossed!) Its going back in for final color-sand, and hood paint (Kudo's to Crites for their great work on the hood, it fit quite nice!). The front end anodize pieces were quite worn, so I tried what I did to the back trim. Stripped them down, and had them polished out. It turned out far better than I anticipated!!! And, we finally got the new braking system to hold fluid, including the pesky frontend staging brake in the inside. Quarter mile long burnouts outta bring a crowd outta the pits!!!!

 

Dale;I guess you can breath now!!!! It looks like the grill and everything else turned out beautiful!!!! If you look at Mercury Junky's pictures,post 1525,he uses a piece of small chain hooked where the hood springs go,to hold his hood open. ROY.

 

SixGun;do you have any info on that 65 Comet? It must be one badassed runner in order to run Top Sportsman!!!!!That is one serious piece of machinery!! ROY.

 

PINKS ALL OUT BANDIMERE update
Well it was a rough friday.Somebody should have told me to never ever ever race on Friday the 13th.Ist qualify, Launched hard ,Coil wire with the power tower part of the coil came undone came down and shorted out on the timing cover, Completly smoked my MSD box poof, done.
It's a good thing I have an expensive 65 Sohc parts car at home with the same exact MSD box in it.So all those hours of fancing wiring fell victim to a wire cutter in seconds.Eddie and I hauled ass back to the track after getting some 5 dollar little ceaser pizzas(that I'm sure now are not good for you) and some beer for late night wrenching.Got ready for the second round of qualifying.Half way through the pass Water pump stopped working overheated the car, throwing water all over the wind shield.Turns out my wire connection in the weather pac was loose,something you never thing to look at.Done for the day.
Sat, Have to say The whole event is a lot of waiting, fours days in, kinda a pain in the ass.Ist pass,now they are changing the rules, you red light, and you get disqualified,You dont run in your time slot, and your disqaulified.Track conditions not that great,too many cars running through too fast with little track prep.Ist round Best run To date at Bandimere 10.5 @ 130 mph solid run good R/T.Second round Solid run but broke traction at starting line 10.6 @129 mph.My class was solid had about 40 cars all running close to that 10.6 range.
Again waited another hour or so to find out they picked a 11.5 class.Third year now they have picked a 12.5 class ,12.0 class,11.5 class.Not sure if I would do it again its a lot of time involved,I guess I would rather lose on my own ability then not to be picked and have a chance.Not much video this time they wouldnt let Eddie take any.
But heres a couple that I had to buy.

 

I am new to the board and have just purchased a 65 comet.
Can someone tell me what is the center to center distance from kingpin to kingpin for a front straight axle that best fits a comet.

Thanks

 

Heres what I have in Video.Thanks to Fast Eddie for all of the great video and helping wrench this season

 

427SOHC;if anyone on here would know it would be Dale[teddiesnoke],he is building a 64 Comet with a straight axle.ROY.

 

Ken, sounds like you guys just need to forget about the big mouth bald guy's tv show and come east and race...lol We have nine second air here too!!
Car looks great as usual.

 

Ken, I went to Pinks at PIR last year to watch a few freinds race. Great for the spectators as lots of cars but not so great for the racers. Another downer was that Rich and his boys are goofs and don't seem to really understand drag racing.IMO
Your 64 looks and sounds awesome.

 

i will measure mine when i get home tonight and post, i narrowed mine, i beleive i took 4 inches out of it, its out of a f100. there is a thread here on the hamb. shows a great way to do it and still retain the integ. of the axle, search keywords, norrowing, i beam, axle. and you should find it, george

 

Dale that front end looks great, cant wait to see it all. gunna put mine to shame,
what trim piece goes along the bottom side of that grill? right above the bumper? thanks

george

 

I sent you a reply, 427 SOHC. I'll get exact dimensions for you.
Not sure about the trim piece, the one you may be talking about is the piece that goes onto the valance?? Or, the top portion that attaches to the lip of the hood??

I got the car back over to R&A Auto body, to do the final completion of paint and colorsand/polish. It still is so nose to the sky due to no engine trans yet, and I've asked them to mask off as much as possible to keep in clean. After SEMA, we'll dirty the snot outta it at the March Meet, right Roy??

http://public.fotki.com/teddisnoke/the-rosedale-rocket/page7.html

I messed with the newly working staging brake while unloading it. That was FUN!!! It seems to work just fine!!

 

Dale;Down and Dirty at the March Meet,YEE HAW!!!! It looks great in the pictures at the paint shop!My engine is FINALLY going back together,it broke July 3rd! If all these shops are so low on work,how come it takes SO long to get anything done?!!!! ROY.

 

Wow, lots of great stuff on here after i'd been away a couple weeks.

Holman Moody made six banger intakes? It's a very nice looking piece too.

Having half the Kenz and Leslie duo pose with your Comet is great. That is a real long time Ford/Merc man. I've seen results from drags in Denver in 1949 where he's racing Fords.

 

Hey guys, does anyone have any pictures of the 1964 Premier Motors inc. car driven by Jake Howard? Or any info. on it or him?

Thanks Jason