1965 Mercury Comet Cyclone (update 1/4/19) Finished!

[espo]

Glad to see this back on the bench. Have you finalized the body color or is it going to match the interior ??

[RancheroSteve]

Glad to see this back on the bench. Have you finalized the body color or is it going to match the interior ??

Ha, it never left - it's just me finding time to work on it that's been a bit scarce!

Body is going to be some sort of black, maybe with a little metallic to it.

[RancheroSteve]

Finished the interior:

Added a few bits: column shifter with "one ball" knob, turn signal stalk, pedals, heater/vent boxes under the dash, heater controls on the dash, side mirror adjusting knob, and seat belts. Carpet is my first use of embossing powder - a mix of gold and some sparkly black.

Edited June 16, 2017 by RancheroSteve

[afx]

Interior looks great Steve. Been many years since I have driven a column shift vehicle - and I haven't missed it one bit! 

[espo]

Beautiful interior. I find it interesting that you went with the column shift since it seems as though everyone, including myself, goes for the floor shift. Nice to see someone doing something that simple but sets their build apart. Being plastic it doesn't really matter, but being the former owner of many "Three on the Tree" vehicles this might offer a problem. Back in the day a Pool Ball or even a Beer Tap Handle was somewhat common. The problem came about with the weight of the new shift ball. The automatic transmission cars were not as bad as the manuals, but if the shift ball was to heavy it would cause the transmission to pop out of gear. Look forward to how the build progresses.  

[RancheroSteve]

Thanks guys. This is going to be an auto trans car and even though it's a resto-mod, I decided to keep it original in regard to the shifter location, as I believe the '65 Comet automatics only came with column shifters. I also like to throw in a little bit of something different and fun.

[Phildaupho]

Hey Steve - Are you going to do one of your famous front disc brake conversions?

[RancheroSteve]

Oh yes - front discs for sure. They make a huge difference! If we had kept our '65 Comet, it's one of the first things I would have done.

[Fast Floyd 2]

Looks Awesome so far !!! Keep up the Great work !!!!

[mustang1989]

Nice touch with the "1" ball.  Really slick idea. Very cool work on that interior.

[mod3l Lover]

That is going to look great!!

   David S.

[RancheroSteve]

Progress is kinda slow - I'm not able to get much time at the bench these days and I want to get this as right as I can. The front suspension is now complete. Probably some unnecessary detail in here that will never be seen once it's all together but that's how we do it, right?

Lower suspension, steering and spindles are from the Mustang; upper control arms from the Comet; springs, shocks, and spring covers are scratchbuilt.

Next up: getting the engine finished and installed.

[DustyMojave]

Interesting touch adding the snubber mount. And the black spray winds up looking very much like rubberized undercoating.

[RancheroSteve]

I haven't given up! Finally some progress to show.

An early incarnation of the engine, before I went with a more modern front dress:

And a few shots of the engine installed. I added the serpentine belt and accessories from a 5.0 Mustang, then couldn't get the engine as low as it should be (header clearance issues), so I had make a new cowl to shock tower brace to clear the intake plenum. All not too unlike the real world!

Undercarriage is done, too:

Thanks for looking.

[afx]

Glad to see this one back on the work bench.

[espo]

Great looking engine and chassis.

[mecklm]

Hey Steve, just checking out the modern front dress that you added to your motor. It seems a bit strange  (for a stock F.I. 5.0), but the coil is mounted on top of the tensioner/power steering pump bracket, the square shaped block just to the left of your power steering pump fill tube. 

I attached a picture of my 1:1 where you can see the MSD coil in the stock location. Same basic shape as what's represented on your front dress. The two prongs on the front of your coil would be where the wires connect - the left prong would be the plug wire going to the center of the distributor cap and the right prong would be the "power" wire coming from somewhere on the firewall. 

Just thought I'd mention it since you already have an older, round coil represented on the inner fender.

Take care, 

Mike 

[RancheroSteve]

Thanks for the info, Mike. I looked a photos of 5.0 Mustang to try to figure out where the coil went - found a lot of shots where it was mounted on the inner fender, so I fabricated a modern type coil and put it there. But now that I'm looking at that square thing on top of the P.S bracket, I can see what you mean. Maybe I'll have to change it, arggh.

[mecklm]

Yeah, sorry about that if it's making more work for you. That coil on the PS bracket would be easy enough to remove - before the motor goes in the car unfortunately though. 

It's a detail that the majority of folks wouldn't be able to identify as a coil, but anyone familiar with a 5.0 would recognize right away what it is. Maybe removing the round one from the fender wouldn't be too much of a pain. Other than removing the round coil, the only other thing necessary would be to wire up the front of the square coil, which wouldn't be difficult at all.

Regardless of what you do with the coil, the rest of the car is outstanding and I'm looking forward to seeing it "under glass"!

Take care, 

Mike 

[RancheroSteve]

No worries, Mike - and thanks again for the info. I generally try to do my research and get things close to right, so I'll figure out a way to fix this!

[Maindrian Pace]

EFI 5.0/AOD into that chassis - now where have I seen that before?

[RancheroSteve]

A small update - I rewired the coil after Mike's suggestion. Not going to go crazy here adding every wire, but wanted it to look close enough:

Based on this reference photo I found:

Also realized I hadn't put the trans mount on:

So I think I can now turn my attention to painting the body and maybe one day finishing this up. Just gotta say, one great thing about a forum like this is people that care enough to point these things out in a helpful way - much better than finding out way down the road.

[RancheroSteve]

First coat of paint is on the body:

Paint is a very dark gray metallic lacquer, from a quart can of paint without any identifying marks that I found somewhere years ago.

The hood is a very thin casting - quite nice actually - but I noticed that I'm getting some ghosting of the underhood bracing, and also there was a pair of sink marks where the hood hinges attach, so I've sanded the hood down again, applied a thin coat of putty and will have to re-prime.

[RancheroSteve]

I'm still plugging away! The body is painted, foiled, and the glass is installed.

I had a bit of a misadventure with the rear window. I love the way that Moebius designed the kit to have the glass install from the outside, but make sure you get the fit right first! I thought I had it, then after foiling it was a little tight, so I decided to pull it out and sand the edges down a bit, which meant I was going to have to re-do the foil. As I was removing the foil, I cracked the glass (it's a nice, thin casting), which necessitated contacting Moebius Customer Service for a replacement. Naturally, I was more careful the second time around, and ultimately decided it was better to install the window before foiling it. You can decide for yourself, just passing that on . . .

 

[mecklm]

Hey, car is looking excellent in paint. From my screen, it almost looks like a hint of blue in the paint? Regardless, that engine compartment is really going to pop against that body color. 

Doesn't look like too much more work before we see this "under glass".

Take care, Mike.