Figured it would be worth the while (however short it may be), to keep a running "story" about the Comet that a friend and I went half n' half on purchasing. The ideal plan is to flip, but it seems the more we get familiarized with it, the higher the chance it just won't leave. 
My friend is really starting to like it, but I wouldn't be against letting him "purchase" my half I have into it should he do that. However, this project is new, so only time will tell how all that goes. Fair warning, I'm going to get wordy as I usually do.
We wound up with the car since a guy at work came in and was talking to a co-worker who jokingly suggested I needed another car. $500 was all he wanted, since the guy got it as part of a package deal for another vehicle he was getting, and didn't want the car, and he only had $500 into the car as it sat. I semi-jokingly sent the car to a friend, and then several bad ideas later wound up splitting the cost for the purchase cost for a car and a case of beer to move it to it's current home where we can work on it.
Technical details: It's a '64 Comet 202 Sedan. Equipped with the 170ci I6 and 3 speed on the column manual trans. Manual brakes, manual steering, and nothing more. Car is about as basic as it comes. Doesn't even have a windshield washer or reverse lights. Options essentially are: Front lap belts, AM mono radio, dome light, cloth seats, and full size wheel covers. Odometer reads 16K, so I'd consider 116K, but 216K might not be improbable. Minor rust, nothing structural. Mostly just some ugly spots on the front floors and way down in the trunk sides, but mostly small in those places.
It's a local car, and still has the original owner's manual with the original owner's information in the glovebox. Before being parked around 1990, it was definitely not living an easy life. Clearly involved in a fender bender, banged up fenders and dings in the rear quarter panels, but outside of a small missing quarter panel trim piece on the passenger side, everything is still either on or in the car. The exterior panels are solid, save for the hood where it does have some very small holes towards the front. The interior is wrecked from age and being parked for years and is badly deteriorated. Seats are torn, headliner is fallen down and separated. Some things are working, some stuff isn't, but that's to be expected for obvious reasons. Heater blower work, wipers don't, horn don't, radio turns on (speaker crackles, but seems shot), lights work, turn signals need bulb attention, and the windows still go up and down. I do need to get a brake light switch, as the lamps are stuck on when power is hooked up.
Mechanically, the 170 seems good. We spent a good amount of time getting the ignition system squared up. New plugs, wires, coil, cap, rotor, points, and condenser. Plug wires were replaced at some point by 1965 Packard Radio ones, and two plugs had been changed (or maybe four, we got four with blue part numbers and W type logo, and two Autolites), but the rest of the system was original and essentially shot. Tossed on the cheapest O'Reillys special ignition components and some NGK plugs. The first issue was the coil wire with our wire set was too short, so we attempted to use that ancient Packard wire. Every once in a while it would sputter, but just give total crap. Our wire tester was showing a real weak flash. Thought we had an issue with the coil, but after ruling out the coil, we set about ensuring the distributor wasn't screwed up. Eventually the guy who's letting us keep the car at his place came out with some spark plug wire and terminal ends and made a new coil wire. That helped immensely and we finally had good strong spark and got the engine fired off and running for a few moments by shooting gas into the carburetor.
Plans in the future are:
-Fixing the clutch return spring, as you can move it up and down manually, but it won't return.
-Rebuilding the carburetor
-Replacing the fuel pump
-Ensuring good transmission operation
-Rebuilding brake system
-Minor floor repairs
-Minor front end straightening
-Servicing all fluids
-Replacing V-Belt
-Replacing hoses
-New tires
-And likely other small things....
Should be interesting to see how this one goes and it goes away with a new owner a few months from now or if it stays local.
My friend is really starting to like it, but I wouldn't be against letting him "purchase" my half I have into it should he do that. However, this project is new, so only time will tell how all that goes. Fair warning, I'm going to get wordy as I usually do. We wound up with the car since a guy at work came in and was talking to a co-worker who jokingly suggested I needed another car. $500 was all he wanted, since the guy got it as part of a package deal for another vehicle he was getting, and didn't want the car, and he only had $500 into the car as it sat. I semi-jokingly sent the car to a friend, and then several bad ideas later wound up splitting the cost for the purchase cost for a car and a case of beer to move it to it's current home where we can work on it.
Technical details: It's a '64 Comet 202 Sedan. Equipped with the 170ci I6 and 3 speed on the column manual trans. Manual brakes, manual steering, and nothing more. Car is about as basic as it comes. Doesn't even have a windshield washer or reverse lights. Options essentially are: Front lap belts, AM mono radio, dome light, cloth seats, and full size wheel covers. Odometer reads 16K, so I'd consider 116K, but 216K might not be improbable. Minor rust, nothing structural. Mostly just some ugly spots on the front floors and way down in the trunk sides, but mostly small in those places.
It's a local car, and still has the original owner's manual with the original owner's information in the glovebox. Before being parked around 1990, it was definitely not living an easy life. Clearly involved in a fender bender, banged up fenders and dings in the rear quarter panels, but outside of a small missing quarter panel trim piece on the passenger side, everything is still either on or in the car. The exterior panels are solid, save for the hood where it does have some very small holes towards the front. The interior is wrecked from age and being parked for years and is badly deteriorated. Seats are torn, headliner is fallen down and separated. Some things are working, some stuff isn't, but that's to be expected for obvious reasons. Heater blower work, wipers don't, horn don't, radio turns on (speaker crackles, but seems shot), lights work, turn signals need bulb attention, and the windows still go up and down. I do need to get a brake light switch, as the lamps are stuck on when power is hooked up.
Mechanically, the 170 seems good. We spent a good amount of time getting the ignition system squared up. New plugs, wires, coil, cap, rotor, points, and condenser. Plug wires were replaced at some point by 1965 Packard Radio ones, and two plugs had been changed (or maybe four, we got four with blue part numbers and W type logo, and two Autolites), but the rest of the system was original and essentially shot. Tossed on the cheapest O'Reillys special ignition components and some NGK plugs. The first issue was the coil wire with our wire set was too short, so we attempted to use that ancient Packard wire. Every once in a while it would sputter, but just give total crap. Our wire tester was showing a real weak flash. Thought we had an issue with the coil, but after ruling out the coil, we set about ensuring the distributor wasn't screwed up. Eventually the guy who's letting us keep the car at his place came out with some spark plug wire and terminal ends and made a new coil wire. That helped immensely and we finally had good strong spark and got the engine fired off and running for a few moments by shooting gas into the carburetor.
Plans in the future are:
-Fixing the clutch return spring, as you can move it up and down manually, but it won't return.
-Rebuilding the carburetor
-Replacing the fuel pump
-Ensuring good transmission operation
-Rebuilding brake system
-Minor floor repairs
-Minor front end straightening
-Servicing all fluids
-Replacing V-Belt
-Replacing hoses
-New tires
-And likely other small things....
Should be interesting to see how this one goes and it goes away with a new owner a few months from now or if it stays local.
..
Comment