The Comet was Sold!!!!!

Here's a very brief update.  The 1962 Comet has been sold!  I almost traded it for a 1967 Pontiac LeMans convertible project car but decided to sell it outright to free up space in the shop (and some cash) so I can finally start digging into the 1969 Mustang!

Loaded up and ready to go....

On her way....

The Comet is for Sale!

So I spent the weekend cleaning out the Comet and finishing a couple odds and ends it needed to make it drive-able.  I photographed it and listed it on Craigslist, the H.A.M.B, Grassroots Motorsports and Comet Central. So here are the details....

For sale in a '62 Comet project car. Car could be used for parts, restoration or with a little work could be a neat rat rod cruiser (it has loads of patina).


This Comet is a 4 door and was originally equipped with a 170 cid six cylinder engine. The engine has been upgraded with a 200 cid from 1967. The car has an automatic transmission and starts and moves. Car needs some mechanical work to be a driver. Namely, the brake line to the rear of the car needs to be replaced and the exhaust manifold is cracked (and very noisy).

The body has rust issues in the lower portions of the body panels (see photos). The leading edge of the hood is also badly rusted. The radiator support has rust and there is blistering on the rear frame rails behind the rear leaf spring mount.

Car also has a set of American Racing Outlaw II's in it which are hard to come by in the correct 4 lug bolt pattern . Rims are in great shape except one has minor curb rash. Tires are very good. Buyer can also have the original 13 inch steel wheels that came with the car (tires bad) if you want the traditional look.

Bill of Sale only! Window sticker shows that car appears to have last been registered in New York in 2003. Asking price is $1400

Please email me questions or set up a time to come take a look.

If it doesn't sell locally I will list it on eBay in a week or two.

I Don't Like Musicals

I love car movies! I even love the bad ones (which there are plenty of) if there is enough driving, racing, or hooning on display.  I have a special place in my heart for the classics like American Graffiti, Two-Lane Blacktop, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Bullitt, Vanishing Point....you get the point.  If I stumble upon one while channel surfing I consider it must see TV till the final credits roll.  However, the majority of the cult classics really only appeal to car-guys at this point in time. My clinical data to substantiate this statement.....of the movies mentioned above I'd probably only gt my wife to watch American Graffiti with me again (yes she has watched all of the other out of obligation).

However, there is one car movie that she absolutely loves and I cannot stand. In fact it was on two days ago and she stopped to see if my sons would be interested and I literally left the room.  That movie is 1978's Grease!

Her and I joke about the fact that there is a movie that features cars, gangs, and Vinnie Barbarino and I can't stand it.  The simple fact is I don't like musicals. I guess that people randomly breaking into song can even ruin Ben-Hur style hub caps.

Honestly, Grease can probably be considered the most mainstream car movie ever made.  The irony goes even further. When I was in high-school the majority of my class was having parties in which they watched (and apparently sang along with) Grease. You know who wasn't at these parties? The socially shunned gear heads (you sense the bitterness) who were literally out cruising/street racing while these private screenings were taking place. And just for some perspective on the movie's staying power.....I went to high-school 18 years after the movie was released!

So why do I bring this up now. As I mentioned, Grease was on yet again the other day, but more importantly, the original 1949 Mercury that Craterface drove is for sale on eBay right now.  So if you have over 100 grand burning a hole in your pocket and aren't revolted by the concept of people randomly bursting into song here's the ride for you...

Night of the Comet

Previously on this blog I explained how I backed into my Mercury Cougar from my ownership of my Ford Mustang. I also explained how I love old Ford Falcons (especially the round body models).....so if I remember my least favorite portion of the SATs (which was analogies)....Ford Mustang is to Mercury Cougar as Ford Falcon is to....Mercury Comet! Enough with the nonsense.......I just bought a '62 Mercury Comet.  

Unfortunately, there is no need to get excited. Its crappy, rusty, a 4 door, and a 6 cylinder. It was destined for the junk yard and I felt that I couldn't let it go to the crusher without at least trying to salvage the car or at least some of its parts. So now it sits in the garage. I'm going to clean it up a tad bit, adjust the points and clean the carb so it runs.  I will vacuum out the filth the mice and God knows what have left in it and take some pics and list it for sale......if I don't get any takers, I will part it out and sell whatever I can and hopefully help out some other Comet owners out there. So if you're interested in a clapped out '62 Comet let me know.  It would make a sweet rat rod cruiser (can't fake the patina).  If you were really badass you'd slap some Gulf Racing colors on it and go LeMons racing.

So if you need some inspiration...

Pics coming soon

Autumn in New England

So things have been pretty hectic around here and I think its obvious with the lack of posts I've been generating.  November is here and the car scene in New England is about to shutter up for the winter......so this last weekend featured a final flurry of activity.

First off,  before the weekend even started I had an interesting week leading into it.  On Tuesday, I took my Cougar for a quick blast on a curvy road near my house in order to play with my GoPro....or should I say what was supposed to be a quick blast. At the end of the run there is a large parking lot (which happens to be where the state's Department of Public Safety is housed).  I turned into the lot and went to perform a 'K' turn in order to head back home.  While making the turn and turning the wheel lock to lock I heard a pop and then the steering wheel spun freely!  The aluminum u-joint that connects my column to my aftermarket rack and pinion setup broke! My car lost the ability to steer and I was in the middle of a crowded parking lot at an awkward angle. My mind jumped into problem solving mode as I had to figure out how to straighten the car out in order to park it in one of the lot spaces.  Then the realization of what would have happened if the u-joint broke 2 minutes earlier or later while I was driving like a madman on a sinuous tree-lined back road. Then I went back to problem solving mode. To get the wheels of the car to turn I employed a hunk of asphalt curb I found and placed it under one of the front tires and drove forward a tiny bit to force the wheels to turn to full lock.  Once the wheels turned I moved forward to the desired angle lined up with a parking spot and then re-used the curb chunk to force my wheels back into the straight position......and finished pulling into the space (a little before dark).

I happened that on Friday (November 1st) I was moving into a large storage unit which I was going to be converting into a  shop and storing the Cougar and Mustang.  I already had plans to rent a trailer Friday morning so I could tow my engine-less Mustang to the unit......I simply modified my plans to also tow the Cougar there.  So I left the Cougar in the lot for a couple days and hoped for the best (I think it may have helped that I was parked next to a couple state police cruisers).

On Friday I took my Discovery to get the Cougar......and of course it was pouring rain.  I used by curb chunk trick to back the Cougar our of its spot and turn it perpendicular to the parking spot and facing the trailer.  It was so easy I thought I'd have it loaded in minutes......then came my lesson on how hard it really is to load a steering-less car onto a trailer alone in the rain!  The amount of finagling it took to line up the trailer perfectly since I had to be able to drive the car up one-shot without any steering correction was ridiculous. Add in the fact that my Hankook Ventus R-S3's hated the wet steel ramps and I must have put on an entertaining display for the state workers in their cubicles.  Eventually, I persevered.

Round two was the opposite story.  The Mustang had steering.....just no drive train. This was much less of an ordeal...just some pushing and the creative use of a come-along to winch the car into the trailer and we were on our way.   

Cougar in its new home.....more to come.

Onto the weekend....

The weekend featured two of the area's biggest swap meets.  On Sunday my brother and I went to a semi-annual event organized by a local club and held in the parking lot of an amusement park.  The turn-out was fantastic.  There were all sorts of odd and interesting cars there. There were even more odd and interesting people.  With regards to deals, there were some to be had, but in general the prices on the cars in the car corral were inflated compared to other years.  There was a really nice Comet convertible for sale that was a deal.....there was also a beat 80's Monte Carlo with a built V8 in it that could have been had for about a grand that would have been fun to beat on.  We had quite a few conversations about what specific cars/trucks we owned in the past would be worth based on the asking prices we were seeing.  In general, the event wasn't productive from a great find point of view....it was just a nice time to get outside on a sunny day before the snow comes and look at cars and people-watch.

One event I missed on Sunday that I wish I attended (and will attend in the Spring when it starts up again) was the final gathering of Caffeine & Carburetors....check out their website.  Info on our new shop coming soon.    

Still have some fall foliage

This needs to be hanging on a wall in my house

Cougar Life

Stuck to the side of my toolbox are a couple old newspaper clippings advertising a few Mercury Cougars. The old yellow clippings were retrieved from the inside of a closet door. The closet happened to be in what was once my bedroom in my childhood home.  I was probably 13 or 14 years old when I clipped these from the 'Bargain News' and hung them in my room.  It was only a few years ago when helping my parents move from our old house that I found them and took them to put on display in my garage.

The Mercury Cougar was always one of my favorite muscle cars.  The electric razor inspired grill with hide away headlight was just plain cool.  The sequential taillights were even cooler.  If you asked me at that age what car I wanted when I grew up I would have said a Mercury Cougar with a 428 in it. My brother's truck had me in love with the Ford FE power plants.  In fact, in 8th grade, our English teacher made us right a letter to ourselves as seniors in high school.  The cool thing was that the school took the letters and gave them to us 4 years later. What was one of the first things I asked the older version of myself? What did I drive!!!  I even asked specifically if I had a Cougar with a 428 in it.  At the time I read the letter I was driving my 69 Mustang with a 302 in it....I think the prepubescent version of myself would have been satisfied with that answer.  So the point is I always wanted a Mercury Cougar.

As I mentioned in my post about my first car, the day came when I was ready to invest time and money to get the Mustang exactly where I wanted it.  This was going to involve updating the Mustang's chassis, suspension, brakes, and transmission.  While researching online (it was now the internet era) I came across a 1967 Mercury Cougar for sale.  It was an original S code car....meaning it came with a big block 390. While not the 428 I dreamed of, it was part of the FE family which I was always fond of.  It came with a 4 speed top-loader and had a complete Total Control Products front suspension on it.  It even had Wilwood disc brakes on all four corners. These were all the goodies I wanted for my Mustang and I couldn't even buy these parts for what the guy was selling the whole car for.  So my plans changed and my brother and I drove to Cleveland, Ohio pulling an empty U-haul trailer behind his V-10 powered  F-350.  We drove straight there, picked up the car, stopped for dinner with some relatives in the area and drove right back with this gem...

 

I still have the Cougar and you will be seeing many more posts featuring me doing dumb things with it as soon as the Spring arrives!!!