RancheroSteve

I'm dividing time between several builds, but I've made some progress. I've re-worked the front suspension and steering - added better spindles and tie rods - and combined everything into a single unit. Shot it with Alclad this morning and painted the steering boots flat black. Here's the unit positioned on the frame: Brakes are next.

Yes, it does - gotta see if I can fix that, too.

Just a small update here: One other small thing that needs fixing on the body is that the door line doesn't extend all the way on the horizontal top surface. Here it is scribed in: I'm also thinking that top step of the door is a little too pronounced. It's tough to get a file in there, so I'm going to try to ease it just a little with some sandpaper and call it good. On to the chassis and running gear next.

Interesting - I've had a similar idea for a long time! Don't know if the thought was subliminally planted in my mind, or what. But I was thinking of leaving the bubble on and making an "Allison Under Glass" or something like that.

I thought you might enjoy this, JC: After I read this article (https://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2013/11/01/carroll-shelbys-former-southern-california-shop-changes-hands/) a little while back, I realized that 1042 Princeton is just a couple of blocks away from where some friends of ours live. We were out visiting them on New Year's Day, so we swung by to have a look. The building has changed a little, but not as much as the neighborhood around it. The doors that Shelby is standing in front of in the old photo are different, but clearly recognizable.

A little more done. Now that I've got the roof to where I can live with it, I made a few other body modifications. This isn't going to be a replica stock build - more of a resto-mod I believe - so I'm at liberty to make a few changes. I've never cared for faux vents and the port holes on the Comet's fenders have always puzzled me a little (this isn't a Buick, right?), so off they went: Likewise, the fake vents behind the back window:

On the Thunderbolts at least, they had to make some modifications to the front suspension in order to make room for the big block - moving the shock towers and mounting points outward and re-engineering (likely shortening) the upper arms - so anything close to factory geometry went out the window. I'm guessing those modifications produced some unusual camber curves when the car launched and the front lifted.

Really nice clean build on the car, but the figure really brings it to life.

Well said, Mike - although I first read that as him having a big "time machine" and I thought, if you had a time machine why would you want all that other stuff? As we get older, it seems like time becomes the most precious commodity.

Thanks for posting this, Ed. It's interesting to see what the standard and optional Cyclone features were - apart from the 4V 289 and tach, it was essentially a trim package that could be upgraded with more performance options. I've seen it stated (apparently mistakenly) that all Cyclones had vinyl roofs, but according to this brochure that's not the case.

Wow, you don't stop - one more thread to follow! These are among my favorite Cobras.

Sure Ron - not trying to hijack your thread here!

OK, I'm about to go into way more detail than anyone here probably wants, but since it sorta came up . . . While you could order a HiPo in a '65 Comet, very few have been documented. A great deal of confusion abounds because Mercury often used a different lettering code than Ford. While "K" was the engine code used for a HiPo in a Ford, it wasn't always so in the Mercury. In 1964 a "K" code Comet was the regular 289 (remember, the 260 was also still available in '64). Although "K" was supposed to be used in '65 for the HiPo, the '65 Comets found with HiPos are apparently "A" code cars that were converted by special order. A lot of this info comes from Bob Mannel's excellent book "Mustang & Ford Small Block V8 1962-1969". Moving on, the cast iron HiPo exhaust manifolds pictured in the post above were originally tooled for the '63 Fairlane (where the HiPo first appeared), then later re-tooled to fit the Mustang. However, they won't fit a Falcon or Comet due to the narrower engine bay and the location of the steering box (ask anyone who's tried). The exhaust manifolds that came on all V8 Falcons and Comets from '63 to '65 looked like this, only less rusty initially (photo from EBay via Google Images): The passenger side was identical to the (non-HiPo) Fairlane manifold and the driver's side manifold was Falcon/Comet specific. A pipe ran from the driver's side manifold under the oil pan and joined the pipe from the passenger side manifold. All Falcons and Comets had single exhausts. I doubt anybody ordering HiPo Comet left those manifolds on for too long - most likely they'd be replaced with tube headers. It wasn't until much later (late 80s- early 90s?) that the aftermarket stepped up and modified the HiPo manifolds to fit the Falcon/Comet chassis. Here's a shot showing a comparison between the stock driver's side manifold and the modified Falcon?Comet HiPo style manifold: Alright, that's all I've got for the moment. Any questions or contradictions?

Just a thought - with all the work you've put into the details on this, maybe consider building it at least partially "opened up"? You could always do another curbside later.

Thanks for weighing in, Art. Not to split hairs, but that's a Caliente (same body, of course - slightly different side trim and grille). I will agree that Moebius got the body mostly right, and I'm grateful for that - I'm not trying to be overly critical or to bad mouth the work anyone has done here. I'm happy to have the kit to work with. But to my eyes (and to the eyes of some others, too) the curve of the trim over the rear window isn't quite right, and that downward curve of the roof starts a little too soon, so I've just been trying to alter this stuff so it appears a little better to me. This isn't my usual style of building, so it's a bit of a new adventure. I have some issues with the chassis and driveline as well, but I'll admit that I'm pretty intimate with that stuff to the point that I could easily be accused of excessive rivet counting if I go public with some of my criticisms. I'll probably share some of them as I go along, but they may or may not matter to many of the builders of this kit. It's finally just a model, but we do get wrapped up in this stuff, right? I'll leave you (for now) with a photo of our Caliente back when:

*Best Thread Concept* in quite a while!

A little work on the top rear of the roof, so that it doesn't drop off so quickly. I had to be careful here - didn't want to mess with the rear window opening. Misted a little primer on; a little more fine tuning and I'll think I'll leave well enough alone, then move on to the rest of the model.

Glad to see you tearing into this and building it your way, Mitch! Might those be the shock towers from the AMT '69 Falcon Modified? There's not much I like about that kit, but it still has about the best Falcon shock towers in kit form. I've noticed the front suspension/lower arm issue as well (for those not familiar, the lower arms on a stock Comet have only a slight downward angle). I wish Moebius had put a little more effort into making something closer to stock - from my vantage point it would have made more sense to model the lower front suspension as a separate piece, then they could have done another part for the A/FX car and satisfied both markets. But I just buy 'em & build 'em - I'm not in the business.

Charlie - good suggestion. I tend to engineer by eyeball in a lot of cases, but my best guess is that the amount removed isn't much more than about a 1/16, but it's enough to make a visual difference. Meanwhile, I shot a little spritz of primer on the roof and it's looking better. Now the thing that's bothering me is the way the top of the roof falls off too early at the rear (as Erik Smith mentioned in the other thread). I'm working on trying to improve the roof there, but what I'm also noticing is that the rear window is essentially too low - there should be a little more roof below the window before it meets the rear deck. I can't see any easy fix for that without hacking out the whole rear window frame and raising it up, so I think I'm inclined to leave it where it is and live with it.

Thanks, Bill - some decent shots of a very nice and mostly original car there. For those that care, a few unoriginal things that I noticed under the hood: valve covers, radiator, overflow tank, chrome upper shock mounts, and if you want to get really picky, the starter relay might be the wrong color (I'll have to check on that). I also don't see a battery, so maybe it's been re-located to the trunk? Plus the Hurst shifter in the interior shots, of course. Some shots of the undercarriage would have been nice, but hey . . .

Happy New Year - time for some action! I've moved the recently released Moebius kit to the top of the pile and made a start on it. I won't be going full "MrObsessive" on this, but I'm going to try to make a few improvements and corrections where I can. I haven't decided on an overall theme for the car yet, but in the meantime, I figured the body would be a good place to start. First up is the roofline over the rear quarter windows, which has been the subject of discussion over in the "New Kits" thread. I'll begin by removing the molded in drip rail: Next, I made a pair of new rails from 1/64" x 1/32" brass: I made them with just a little bit of a sharper angle than the kit rails. I glued the rail to the body, starting at the front. Once the rail was adhered at the front I was able to carefully attach it at the crucial curve, so that only a small part of the original body was "winking" at me from below the brass. (Sorry for the out of focus image). Next, I sanded off the part of the original roofline below the brass. Notice the rail stops a little above the small piece of trim at the base of the roof (see various reference photos). Repeated for the other side: There's still a little more clean-up to do here, then I'll shoot a little primer on it to get a better idea, but so far I'm thinking it's a definite improvement. Thoughts and questions welcome.

Yes - stay tuned. I'll be posting an "On the Workbench" thread in the next day or so with a relatively easy correction for this.

I'd have to agree with that - at least there's something decent to work with here. I imagine a lot of folks won't care enough about some of the mechanical discrepancies enough to bother, or plan on doing extensive modifications anyway. But part of me hoped that Moebius would take the trouble to get some of these details closer to correct. I don't want to dissuade anyone from buying the kit - I'm just trying to provide some info so they know what to expect.

Yes, you are correct - the lower hose is on the wrong side and the radiator has a shroud (which it shouldn't have), but I believe the Comet used the T-10, so the kit transmission is correct.

Yes Al, the AMT '67 Mustang is still the best 289 ever kitted as far as I'm concerned. This one isn't bad, but I guess I was hoping for something even better. The most obvious thing in need of improvement to my eye are the exhaust manifolds, which are rather generic and in fact not even really correct for a Comet. While I'm at it, almost every SBF ever kitted has this same error - the oil filter horizontal to the ground - whereas in fact it has a definite downward angle. Having the filter molded as part of the block makes it more difficult to correct. It might be that these - and some other mechanical issues that may come up for discussion - won't make a great deal of difference to the majority of the potential buyers of this kit. I'm sure some people might think I'm being a "rivet counter" here, but having over 35 years of familiarity with these engines makes me acutely aware of such issues. At least the good news is that the body looks pretty darn close to right.