Projects 1965 Comet Caliente Convertible Project

Roy: Thanks for the heads up. I have lots of cans of red Rustolium primer and lots of tubes of seam sealer just waiting for something to do. By the way my friend Tom is going to the Camarillo car show with his Tbird on Friday. Are you going to make it to the show? If so I will have him look for you.

 

Jeff;that is my plan as of now! I still have to put new plugs in,put the hood back on,and adjust the clutch[took too much out]!!I was going to do all that today but got involved doing some welding on my trailer. ROY.

 

Roy: Sounds good. Wish I could be there but there is just too much going on. I will have Tom look for you. He has a white 58 Tbird so if you see one it's probably him. There aren't too many of them around.

 

4/20/2012 - I did get some work done last weekend but had to go out of town so I did not get a chance to post pictures. Below is the picture of what took me all day Saturday to get done. The fender has a previous patch that was partially done correctly (brazed in) and partially not (flapping in the wind with paper towel reinforcement) so I had to fix all that along with the rusted out part of it. I thought this was going to be the easier side to fix but ended up being much more work. I had to fix the trunk drop, the preexisting fender repair, the wheel well and the rusted out parts of the outer body.

 

Hey Jeff,

Your dedication is impressive. But now I'm starting to wonder. Wouldn't it have been easier to just build a whole new car from scratch?

 

Yep I have wondered the same thing myself. What I bought was what I thought was a complete car minus engine and transmission. What I am ending up with after discarding what I can’t use is the tub of the car with fenders and trunk and even that has to have major repair work. At least I am at the point of building it back up. I do enjoy the work but this is not a quick process and not for the faint of heart.

Jeff

 

Jeff;met up with Tom and his wife last night,that is a cool old T-Bird they have!! We had a nice talk,a lot of nice cars there last night! ROY.

 

Roy

I’m glad you and Tom hooked up he’s a great guy. I was there two years ago with the C$bra and had a great time. I wish I could have been there but it’s about 75 miles away and there was just too much going on this weekend. I hope to meet you soon in person.

Jeff

 

5/6/2012 - It’s been a busy time lately but I have gotten some work done. I wanted to work on the transmission tunnel but I need to know where the shifter was going to go so I had to find a Mustang shifter so I got one out of a newer Mustang but it was really ugly so I found a reconditioned 1967 Mustang shifter that fits the style of the car. Then I had to see where that would go so I had to put the front seats in and realized I had to build rear seat mounts to position the seats and the adjusters on the seats were all messed up so that took some work to just get those working good enough to get the seats in then I had to get the console in and found that the console that came with the car was not the right one it was for a coupe so I had to fit that to the car then I could start figuring out where to put the shifter and I had to cut out some the floor I just finished putting in. I have yet to get anything done on the transmission tunnel but I like what I have gotten done pictures below. I don’t think the Comet had the option for a console shifter but if it did I think it would look like this.
I understand this is how it goes it’s just funny to put it into words. I know most builders understand the situation. The transmission has a cable linkage so that is next. Not as much fun but I kind of need it to drive the car.

 

5/17/2012 - Now for the seat slider story. I am a back yard mechanic and have been my whole life. This is pretty down home but it works really good. I have read questions on forums about how to fix the plastic guides on the seat sliders on 1965 Mustangs, Falcons, Comets … but I haven’t seen any solutions other then find replacement seat sliders. To me that’s a challenge. On my seats I had 3.5 out of 4 sliders in pretty good condition so I thought I would fix what I had. The springs for the adjuster handles were all missing except one half of one and out of two connectors that go between the sliders I had one half (rust). This is what I did. I had two springs left over from a Jeep break kit and I bought 2 springs from Ace ($2.60) so that along with a little bending I have the four seat adjuster springs I needed. The connector wire that goes between the adjusters I used coat hanger wire. It’s a thicker wire then what came stock (high performance wire).

Now for the plastic guides. The plastic guides hold a metal roller in place that is sandwiched between the two pieces of the slider. That was gone too. So I needed two plastic guides and a roller. I used a half inch bolt and cut a .055 inch piece of the shaft off (hack saw) and round the edges (first picture). I then found a Nylabone dog bone in the back yard that the dogs have been chewing on for about a year and cut (hack saw) two ¼ by ¼ by 4 inches long pieces from that (first picture). I then used a bench grinder to whittle the plastic pieces down to fit the way the other plastic pieces fit in the other sliders. Then I ***embled the pieces by lifting the top piece of the slider up and put the roller in place then I slid the plastic pieces in place. To hold the plastic pieces in place so they would not slide out I put rivets in the end of the sliders (picture 2). So for $2.60 I have something that works really good. As you can tell I also really liked watching MacGyver on TV. I will post pictures of the finished console shifter this weekend I’m not quite done.

 

Jeff;Tom said they call you "MacGyver",nothing wrong with solving a problem YOUR WAY,good for you!!! I tried to answer your PM,the site would not let me!! I will be out of town for a Family function Sunday,maybe the next LB Swap?!! ROY.

 

Roy: Have fun with your family and we will try next month. As for MacGyver that’s quite the complement. I do try and get the most out of what I have but I'm not opposed to buying things if I need to.

5/20/2012 - Well I got the transmission linkage done finally. A little measuring , a little math and some trial and error and it works great. I still have some welding to do on the transmission cross member that I just built and now have cut apart and the floor. Maybe I can start on the transmission tunnel next which I have been trying to get to for weeks . I plan on making access panel in the transmission tunnel for this linkage just in case.

 

Love it!!!!!

Coat hangers and dog bones to the rescue.

 

Jeff;WOW,now that[shift linkage] took some thinking !! I got your PM! ROY.

 

JunkYardFrog: That reminds me of a song “Coat Hangers and Dog Bones and Wild Wild Women will Drive You Out of Your Mind”.

Roy: Yes it took some time to figure that out and I won’t be able to see if it really works until I get the car started.

 

5/28/2012 - It is a milestone day. I can sit in the car and not see the ground. I love three day weekends. I had a goal of finishing the transmission tunnel, removing the engine and transmission and putting the car tilter back on (I hope for the last time). The first picture is what I started with then the next ones are of work I did this weekend. Next is finishing up some welding underneath the car then priming and undercoating. After that I can set the car back down on the ground and work on the suspension, steering, engine bay and differential. I am considering the Borgeson power steering box kit (http://www.borgeson.com/xcart/catal...51966_289_302_351W_Power_Steering-p-1551.html) has anyone heard of problems with this?

 

Jeff;looks great!!! One more headache out of the way!!!! ROY.

 

Very brave save going on here. These are beautiful rides and am proud of you kids for going for it. Best wishes ~sololobo~

 

Roy and Sololobo,

Thanks for the complements. We are having a great time with this project. It is challenging but I really like this kind of work it’s very satisfying.

Jeff

 

6/3/2012 - I got the car tilter back on the car and did the welding I needed to do. I needed more room for the balancer that is on the front of the Mountaineer drive shaft so I “altered” the middle cross brace that is in the car (first picture). My daughter and I then finished all the seam sealing that needed to be done and then under coated the car.

 

One word: "Fast"


Looking great, amazing progress.

 

Man the car is comin along great ! Nice job!!

 

great job with the build! you def saved that car!

 

Thanks all. I’m getting close to being current. I am up to June of this year with the posts. At this point I get to put the car on the ground and leave it there so I can start installing parts YEA!

 

6/8/2012 - Finally I can make some progress now that the car will stay on the ground and not have to be flipped up on its side any more (picture 1). Well I think I can make progress. How can it be progress if all I continue to do is take thing apart (picture 2). I am at the point that I have taken everything off the car at one point or another so now the only thing I can do is make forward progress. I ordered a Borgeson steering box so that should be in next week. Now there is a little work that has to be done on the shock towers (picture 3) then onto getting into the stock pile of parts I have collected over the years for the Granada disk conversion.

 

6/10/2012 - Got a lot done this weekend. I made the template and drilled the holes for the Shelby drop and cut a coil out of the front springs (pictures 1 and 2). I rebuilt the shock towers making room for the air conditioning compressor (pictures 2, 3 and 4). I love it when you can at least set new parts in place (picture 5) and my daughter is working on detailing the engine (picture 6). We are moving forward no more cutting out rust and dis***embling the car (I hope).

 

Jeff;did you check to see if the driver side a-arm will clear that notch when it moves UP?How about room for the coil spring? ROY.

 

Roy,

The A arm movement is not affected and the spring fits. Last weekend I put the engine back in for the 4th time and even with all the measuring and calculations the air conditioning compressor still hits just a little so out comes the engine again and more cutting and welding. This last post was as of 6/10/2012. I should be caught up to current day within the next couple of weeks. I hope you had a great time with your family last weekend.

Jeff

 

Jeff;had fun but now I'm sick,the rugrats carry diseases,I'm sure of it!!!!! ROY.

 

Roy,

I'm sorry to hear that. There is definitely something going around. I just picked up my kids last night returning from Michigan. They left in good health and came back sick as can be. Hope you feel better soon.

Jeff