History 64/65 Comets old drag cars lets see pictures

I saw this a couple of weeks ago at the “ Out of Sight” vintage drag event at ‘da Grove. I had not seen the car since the early ‘80’s when it was in disrepair from years of neglect.

Here is what the car looked like in 1964 soon after it left Dearborn Steel Tubing and was being campaigned by Tom Coward Lincoln Mercury.

 

Amazing…glad to see its back at the track

 

Killer Original B/FX car with the original 289 / 48 IDA Weber set up..1 of 3 ever built with the set up..

 

Scored this today….

 

Sure it’s on here somewhere…but too cool not to see again….

 

An ironic picture….

 

Great photos!

 

Love this one, as it’s got a local legend…Doug Nash featured…

 

The altered wheelbase Plymouth really has an advantage over the Comet with that huge overhang.

 

Loves me some ‘64 lightweights!

 

Question: were 15" wheels ever offered on these cars as an option?

 

The factory did not offer 15” wheels on ‘64 or ‘65 Comets. I know all V8 cars were 14” 5 lug, 4 1/2” bolt circle. It is possible that some 6 cyl. models had 13” wheels, I once owned a ‘64 6cyl. Wagon, it had 14’s.

 

Thanks - that's what I suspected. Would have been helpful because I need all sort of stupid **** to approve modifications on my car (am in Austria where the government hates cars). Well at least there were 15" aftermarket wheels which I can prove, so...

 

Does anyone know where the list of vin#s and drivers for the 1964 mercury lightweights is? there was once some paperwork from mercury showing who got what car. I would like to find that list.

 

It is possible that Dearborn Steel Tubing has that information. I am not aware of any registry that has compiled the serial numbers.
There were only 21 factory A/FX cars built, 20 Caliente's and one station wagon. They did not use the Cyclone model because it was a mid year model.

 

how would i get in touch with DST? i cant find any contact

 

I tried to search for the company and found that they changed the name to DST Industries when a son of one of the founders purchased the company. Then I found this do***ent from five years ago, it seems as if the company has ceased to exist.
https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Pr...WARN.pdf?rev=61b06d07caa24609b6082135e81b1bcc

 

This photo was posted by @jeepster on the “Vintage shots from days gone by Part 2”
This is the first time I have seen this photo, it is a very early shot of the Tom Coward’64 A/FX Comet after it was sold to Joel Kanios. Joel campaigned the Comet under his own banner of Kanios Enterprises. Not long after this picture was taken the car was modified a number of times to keep up with the other A/FX compe***ors. (Altered wheelbase, straight front axle, gutted interior, etc.)
See post 9662 for current pictures of this Comet.

 

Listed on Hemmings.com
It is hard to believe it retains all it’s original body panels considering these were race cars and were heavily modified on a weekly basis to stay in sync with the compe***ion.
https://www.hemmings.com/cl***ifieds/listing/1964-mercury-comet-riverview-fl-2899207

 

Hello everyone that has contributed to this thread over the years! When I was a teen (early '90s), I saw a pic of Dyno Don's '64 Comet in a magazine and fell in love with it. As a young budding artist (not an artist now), I had to draw a picture of it. I should dig that out and share it as it was one of my better pieces and more proud pieces of work.

However, I grew up in an early Mustang family where my dad loved the HiPo 289s. That kind of led me to be a Mustang guy as a kid. I never saw Comets growing up. I don't recall seeing them at shows and don't recall ever seeing any for sale. A few months ago, I found one local to me that was very affordable and I pulled the trigger. The 260 was locked up, and the guy had pulled it and was planning on putting in a 289. He tried until he realized he was up against the 5 bolt vs. 6 bolt problem with the factory automatic. That's when I stepped in and made an offer as is, as I was only going to put an FE in it from there. I couldn't believe it but, there was a semi-affordable 427SO in pieces for sale within Colorado... so I had to have it too. I never thought I would own a real 427SO. The jury is still out on whether the block is any good because it was in a boat and had frozen at one point and cracked it, visibly on the outside lower. Then it had the usual cracks up top on the deck and has a few sleeves, even though it is only bored 0.017". All cracks have been repaired and they look like they were done well. I'm praying that it's salvageable. The engine was supposedly in a boat and you can tell water got into the cylinders shortly after it was rebuilt. I'm hoping that because it appears to have head bolts instead of studs, the load of being on the water rattled the heads loose enough to blow a head gasket or two, and that there's no other block damage. And, the block & heads have H&M stampings...

Backstory complete, does anyone have any pics of the interiors of the factory drag cars that they can share? My goal is an A/FX clone that'll see some street use and some strip use. The car is a factory V8 automatic car and I'm curious if the Automatic cars retained the automatic on the column, or did they switch to a floor shifter? And, if so, which shifter did they use? And, the million dollar question is did the factory race cars retain the stock brakes or did they swap to something like a Galaxie or truck brake system? I should add that I am not hung up on it being an automatic, but it'll definitely be easier. There's currently more big block top loaders for sale locally than FE C6s.

I apologize if that's been covered in this thread before, but I started going through the thread to find that all I end up doing is looking at the cars... Plus, it's 323 pages deep... it's going to take a pretty big time commitment to go through it all!!!

Thanks for looking!

3blap.