Ahhh that new car smell - 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente hardtop!

I'm a sucker for anything in the form of a 60's era two door hardtop. And obviously I have a particular interest in the Falcon and Comet. While I was wrapping up the rehab on my blue 64 convertible, this little gem popped up on my local Craigslist looking for a sympathetic new home. Now, seeing as I haven't bought a car in at least 5 months, clearly the planets have aligned and brought us together. It's a cosmic thing.                          

"Bruno," as the old German lady who owned him for the last 30 years called him, has been weathering out in a field for the last decade. Ingrid parked him in 2004 due to what she described as "death-wobble" in the front end whenever she'd hit a bump in the road. When I found him he was/is in pretty rough shape. It's unclear how much of the degradation occurred during dormancy, and how much was already there leading up to his 2004 mothballing.                              

 He was sitting on 4 flat tires and stitched to the ground by spiderwebs too numerous to count. His corners are bashed and his soft parts are all hard and cracked. The good news is that he's virtually rust free, short of a little non-obtrusive surface rust. I had in mind to purchase Bruno with the intent of harvesting some of his nicer trim pieces for my convertible, than give him a quick "refresh" to make him a driver. I may practice my panel beating skills to straighten some of his dents, and strip out the shot interior.

But I'm getting ahead of myself...Today I am heading out to make him run again. I will flush the fuel system, rebuild the carb, change the points, condensor, cap and rotor, change the engine oil and filter, prime the oil pump, drop in a new battery, and voila!

When he's moving under his own power again, I'll tuck him away in the side yard for warmer days. With the completion of the convertible, my focus has once again shifted back to my beloved wife's BMW 2002, which I will be completing hopefully by this summer....But stay tuned, as Bruno here will be the subject of future posts.

1964 Comet Caliente Convertible edging towards daily-driver status!

Pursuant to my goal of having this little gem on the road and usable by November, I've been busting my rump nearly every free moment. I got the engine in, hooked up and fired with little fan-fare. I primed the oil system, replaced the old fuel with fresh, static timed the distributor, and she roared to life with just a few cranks of the key. The open headers were pretty head-splitting inside the garage and made for quite a neighborhood nuisance during initial test runs.

I topped up all fluids, made a few neighborhood romps and then drove it 2 miles to the muffler shop for a complete new system of 2.25" pipe with dual magnaflows. Since then, I've put about 150 miles on her while tuning the Edelbrock Performer carb. I bought a jet and rod kit from Summit and have been playing with different combinations to achieve a good balance of power, transition and idle.

I replaced the dented rear bumper with a well-worn example from ebay that isn't dented. I found a clean grill on craigslist and installed it in place of the wavy original. I welded in a patch at the drivers quarter panel where a little rust had eaten away. 

I am presently working on freshening up the interior. Unfortunately as I write this I am held up waiting for a response from Dearborn Classics about a defective section of carpet that I can't use in the car...Hopefully they come through for me and ship out a replacement piece pronto...

                                 

                           Final iteration of the engine. Note the Monte-Carlo bar attached now for structure                                                                     reinforcement.

1964 Merc Comet Caliente front suspension rebuild and modification

Having just recently acquired this car, I set to work on the rehabilitation. Since the engine is already out this is a good time to rebuild the original suspension. I wanted to upgrade the suspension on the whole car with some improved parts and also make some inexpensive but valuable handling modifications. Here's what I did to the front.

 I retracted the coil springs up in the shock towers with a spring compressor and removed the brakes, knuckles and upper control arms as a unit. The rest was simple unbolting.

1978 Honda CB750K

I sold my Harley Davidson down the road and ended up unexpectedly committing some of the cash proceeds to the purchase of a 1964 Mercury Comet. The cash I had left over was what I was left with for my next bike. I didn't know what kind of bike I'd be getting, but I had one concrete criteria- a Kick Start lever must be attached to the motorcycle (and it must be cheaper than the product of Comet purchase money subtracted from Harley Davidson sale money). I shopped craigslist for weeks until this sweet little gem popped up- a 1978 Honda CB750k, the last year of the original SOHC engine and last of the kick start 750 Hondas.

 Pro's: Kick start, 750cc engine, less than 10k miles on odometer, good tires, immaculate original paint and seat, 4 chrome mufflers, chrome fenders, tons of style.

Tribute to a good riding companion 1990 HD Softail

I love motorcycles. Back in 2009 I picked up a neglected Heritage Softail. I limped it home on bad tires, oil soaked brakes and with the choke pulled wide open just to keep it alive. It was in full dress, windshield, tall bars, bags, his and her seat, sissy bar, Conchos and tassels. I loved the bike but hated the look. I took to stripping it down to the essentials and making it my own. I de chromed pieces, changed the bars (several times), changed the seat, stripped the turn signals, speedo and dash and other un needed doo-dads. I wanted a pure machine, the only luxury I was allowing was the full fenders, as I really like the look. I took to repairing any faults over time and wound up with a reliable and awesome Harley Davidson that served me for six years, way beyond my humble original expectations. With mixed feelings, I sold it in tip-top shape a few weeks ago to try something different.

          Here's Black Betty at her peak of fitness, a few days before I found her a new owner.

1964 Mercury Comet Caliente Convertible: the modern gentleman's rocket ship cruiser

A few weeks ago I sold my Harley Davidson motorcycle of 6 years. 20 minutes later I was sweeping up the garage, wad of cash in pocket, and fate brought one of my distant neighbors over for a visit. This would be no ordinary visit though, as he was there on business. He wanted to sell me his project car, a car which had been solely in his family since new- a '64 Comet convertible. He had undertaken a mechanical restoration years ago, but life interfered and the project stalled on him...for 15 years. Now I don't need another car, nor do I need another project, but I am a sucker for a cool 60's FOMOCO product and I can't resist. So we made a deal and pushed the shuttle a few blocks from his garage to mine. Follow along as I perform a sympathetic mechanical and cosmetic restoration of the Comet. It is my ambition to have her back on the road by November(ish)...we'll see about that (as I write this it's August 9, 2015).

 

Here is my first glimpse of the '64 comet. The engine and transmission have long ago been removed

BMW 2002 M10 engine build

Well, the old girl was a smoker, no matter how much I drove her and pushed her and tuned her, she had a nasty habit of expelling a cloud of bluish-grey when taking off from a stop. The longer she idled, the more embarrassing the cloud. I figured (optimistically) that the valve guide seals were deteriorated from sitting, so I embarked upon replacement of the seals. If you know your M10's, you know BMW doesn't make this an afternoon project like, say, a Chevy 350 engine. No, BMW insists you remove the camshaft and rocker shafts, and to do so requires you to remove the cylinder head from the engine. No big deal, that's a chore that takes around 3 hours working at a reasonable clip.

                                                      1975 BMW 2002 losing it's head

1975 BMW 2002 Esty Carpet Install

The 2002 interior door panels, rear seat and dash were all in really good condition. All that was letting the interior down was the front seats, (which were deflated and the drivers was torn) and the well worn original carpet. The 1974 came with a one-piece molded carpet, as opposed to the "cut and sewn" multi-piece rugs of earlier cars. Some say the cut and sewn looks better aesthetically, but I decided to order up a replacement one-piece molded carpet to replace the one that was being removed. I wanted a quick and easy install...

I received the one piece carpet from ACC. I had previously installed a molded ACC carpet in my 1974 Ford truck and it fit like a glove! It went in easily and looked fantastic, hugged all the bumps and curves as good as an original carpet. I hadn't had even a second thought about using them again.

Sadly, the carpet for the 2002 was a completely different story. I guess the floor pan is quite a bit more complicated than the old Ford's, because this carpet was a very poor, sloppy fit. There are a lot of nooks and crannies and little protrusions on the BMW 2002 floor that demand close and custom fitting. Yes, the ACC did lay down on the floor, albeit not at all snug, leaving annoying air voids everywhere, and generally requiring custom modifications that were not possible, given the one-piece design.

I didn't want to put forth the effort to make the ACC fit, because I knew I would end up with a very marginal final product. On the advice of a friend, I switch to Esty, a known custom carpet maker for old BMW's. The Esty carpet was less expensive (had I known that, I would have chosen that one first).

The Esty BMW carpet is a better choice as it is individual pieces, cut and sewn like the earlier cars. You can manipulate each piece as you install to attain the best fit possible. And with the sewn edges and original-looking materials, it really is a nicer looking finished product.

 I stripped the original carpet, the seat belts, brake lever, console and shifter.

1974 Ford F100 Explorer "rehabbing the rig"

I have never owned a truck. I had a Ranchero once, but no trucks. I was never really a truck guy. I have held a job or two where I used various company trucks for heavy-duty industrial purposes, and was always delighted at how well a good strong truck did whatever I needed it to do, within reason. I drove Fords, Chevys, Kenworths, Volvos and International Harvesters. I liked the Fords the best, though, as real "big rigs" go, A new Volvo is pretty sweet!

I am going to do some fixing up around the new house soon and need a good truck to haul stuff. However, I am wired such that I can't spend any real money on a fancy, newer truck,  I don't need or want a luxurious daily-driven modern rig. I want something that is inexpensive, has a little history and is unique. Enter the 1974 F100. It has a proper 8 foot long bed, a 390 cubic inch big block V8 engine, power steering, and disk brakes. It's a classic American Work-Horse of the highest order. Best of all, it's only $1600.

It was probably the "Viking Red" color that drew me to this one. I viewed lots of cheap Fords, but this one spoke to me. Being a 1974, it is exempt from state smog inspections, so as a hot-rodder, that spoke to me also. It wasn't without it's flaws though, principally, the engine was severely down on power, and had a rough idle due to compression loss in multiple cylinders: The valves were toast. The brakes were also toast, as were the U-joints, and the cab heating system. However, the body was rust-free, wearing mostly original paint, the tires are fairly new, and the interior was original, worn, but not abused. There was enough to this truck to make it worth fixing up for the tasks at hand.

                 The previous owners had used it as a camper to follow the blue-grass music scene.

1975 BMW 2002 bumper tuck

Foreign cars sold in the American market place suffered an unfortunate aesthetic set-back for the 1974 and subsequent model years. They were required to be equipped with "5 mile-per-hour" impact bumpers. Most foreign cars already had bumpers, albeit they were typically tasteful little chrome accents to an already well styled car. For 1974 and later, BMW added large, thick aluminum beams supported by hydraulic rams to the front and rear of this delicate little Michelotti-Designed sculpture (for the US market only, Euro-market cars still had attractive slim chrome bumpers). I can only imagine the look of horror on the collective faces of the BMW Dealers in late 1973 when they took delivery of these "things" that they were going to have to convince people to buy. The prior years were equipped with very appropriate, slim chrome bumpers which appear as a thoughtful part of the cars over all visual appeal. The new bumpers were, simply put, nothing like that at all.

Having said that, I actually don't mind the 70's funk on this car. Along with the bumper change, BMW also updated the rear lamps and the front grills. The look of the 1974+ cars appeals to me because I see it as a transitional piece. It clearly is the same classic body as the car that debuted in the 1960's, but possesses modern traits that would be a BMW tradition through to the 1990's. It's not as archaic looking as the earlier roundies, yet not as refined looking at the classic E30 3 series, but evokes nostalgia for both.

Having also said that...I can't really appreciate how far the bumper stick out on my wife's car. The gap at the front and rear is absurd in my eyes, so I set about fixing that. Here's how I shortened our 1975 BMW 2002 by half a foot.

                           Don't stand on the front bumper when it's wet or icy, as you might fall through!