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    Results 21 to 31 of 31
    1. #21
      Join Date
      Mar 2013
      Posts
      154
      Country Flag: Belgium
      Can only approve of this thread since you are in europe, love seeing stuff like this in europe since its more rare to do projects like this.
      Good luck with it and i like the car! ( maybe i am a bit mercury biased.. )

    2. #22
      Join Date
      May 2017
      Posts
      118
      Like your build and the car looks pretty solid. You may have found it but if not the square body Falcon/Comet face book page I have found to be a great resource for information when I have questions or need parts I can't find. https://www.facebook.com/groups/7032...?ref=bookmarks

    3. #23
      Join Date
      Apr 2019
      Location
      Austria
      Posts
      23
      Country Flag: Austria
      @70CougarXr7: tell me about it. I do envy you guys in so far as parts availability is concerned with. Sure I can (and do) order stuff from US suppliers but everything takes ages to get here if only because of our snail-like customs service and if something is wrong I have very few practical options for sending back. And of course getting used parts for my car at the scrapyard or even a swap meet is like

      But I'm a masochist, so I'm fine.

      @Boosted Falcon: am a member of two Comet groups and one UK Falcon one and yes, FB has its uses.

      On another notes, the suspension is finally all assembled and the car is on its feet. The rear is where I want it but the nosebleed stance has to go although I think I need to drive it for a 1000 miles or so to allow everything to settle. If it does not improve I'll cut the springs a bit and see how it affects the ride/roadholding/handling. I still have the old stock springs so I could use those also and get them properly treated by a local firm that does that to increase the spring rate. But that won't happen yet as there are other things which need doing like insulating the firewall, putting back the heater, laying the carpet, dismantling the oil sump and cleaning inside (sludge) etc. etc.

      Steering feels a lot tighter (well it's new) with the new ratio and Pitman arm. The idler arm should also arrive soon and then I think it'll be as tight as it'll ever be which for a non-racecar is enough.

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    4. #24
      Join Date
      Apr 2019
      Location
      Austria
      Posts
      23
      Country Flag: Austria
      Well, just a quick update which is summed up by lots of frustration and stupid delays. As mentioned above, the engine was full of sludge which meant taking the valve covers, inlet manifold, sump and oil intake pipe/strainer and spending hours and hours carefully scraping and vacuuming the crap, followed by new oil and filter (both of which will be dumped after 500 miles). So far so good, engine is 60 psi when cold, 20 at idle but as soon as you rev it it goes to 40 and stays there even with the Middle Eastern temperatures we had. Then I had a saga with the brake cable which apparently is longer than a Falcon one but Melvin's Classic Ford Parts came good on that in the end. Other than the above, lots of electrical issues which are now all sorted (including a new starter which I got at Vienna's own speed shop (http://www.chromwerk.at/) at not too much €€€) and a busted capillary pipe on the thermometer which meant another one from Summit. And then we jumped on to the wheel alignment which I did with basic and home made tools (our tire shops have no clue about old American cars, all they ever do are BMWs, Audis VWs and the like) and what "fun" it was (not). In the end I got it to +2.15/+2.4 L/R caster and -0.5 camber with the right toe in (1/8") for a Shelby drop but this is all "for the time being" so I can do about a 1000 Km to let the springs settle before I shorten them. Given that I cannot adjust the camber anymore, I ordered a lower arm camber kit from John Dinkel (https://opentrackerracing.com/produc...kit-1965-1966/).

      So after all of that I took the car on the road and it was better with no more rolling in the corners like a drunken Buffalo. Ride is firm but no firmer than a friend's BMW 330ix which has Bilstein bits in it. I don't like the turn-in but again those are temporary settings and with 215/70/14 Cooper Cobras, what can you expect. Brakes were not even so I got to adjusting them when a friend noticed the LH brake hose was nicked, most likely from when a gormless apprentice was cleaning the inner wing with a rotary brush... A trip to Chromwerk got me the right hose, but that was only the half of it because during bleeding one of the master cylinder bolts' nuts decided to take a trip. Phew. That car still has the single circuit brake system... And to top it all I discovered a separated wall on one of the tires so that will be replaced (annoying as I'm going to go to 16" or 17" wheels when I convert to front discs anyway, but there was no way of avoiding this if I want to drive the car THIS year).

      Seats, door trims and carpet are in.

      So it's the beginning of August and I've covered about 8 miles so far but if the tire gets here this week I'll take the car on a longer road trip...

    5. #25
      Join Date
      Apr 2019
      Location
      Austria
      Posts
      23
      Country Flag: Austria
      Another update... After the problems mentioned in the last post I managed to cover about 1200 Km to allow the springs to settle and see how the engine behaved. Well after the sludge was disposed off, the sump bashed into shape and two oil changes things improved a lot with over 40 psi at 1200 RPM and over and the engine runs cooler (never more than 200°f on a hot summer's day). Cannot get rid of a leak around the rear crankshaft seal but that is probably because the seal was not fitted well enough. It's not major but annoying. But the big news is that I got the coils shortened by about half a coil which resulted in the car dropping its nose to where I wanted it. Fitted the Opentracker camber kit and after the usual fuffing about with gauges and shims now have -1.2 camber, +2 caster and about 1/8 toe-in which I believe are correct for a Shelby drop. The weather was nice yesterday so I used the chance to do a test drive of about 60-70 miles around our country roads. First impressions are:

      - steering is a bit heavier but manageable;
      - going over bumps and road undulations is nowhere near as harsh as I was afraid it would be, in fact my feeling is that the shorter springs work better with the Maier supplied black Bilsteins because of better starting stroke position;
      - turn-in is very, very good. Car tracks true on fast corners and is not unsettled by bumps.

      On the minus side the steering is still loose on the straights which I put down to my dying idler arm (am trying to get a new one which is not easy on a 64 car) and possibly ball joints which, having been awoken from many years slumber in Oregon could not handle Austria air. Also the (new) steering box could use some adjustment. Yes I realize the standard Falcon/Comet steering system will never be as precise as a rack but those are $1600 PLUS shipping PLUS import duties so I'd rather try optimising the standard set up before spending more money. Last but not least car tends to wander to the left which could be a slightly grabby drum brake (which will at some point will be replaced by a Wilwood disc so).

      All in all I think I got the worst behind me on that area. Next step is to swap the 3 on the tree to the 5sp McLeod box.

    6. #26
      Join Date
      Apr 2019
      Location
      Austria
      Posts
      23
      Country Flag: Austria
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    7. #27
      Join Date
      Jul 2015
      Posts
      1
      Country Flag: United States
      I love your car!
      Can you post a picture of your old idler arm? If it is like a 63 comet V8 idler arm with 3 mounting bolts it can easily be built better than new using delrin bushings.



      Is that the original paint? If so, what paint code is it?


    8. #28
      Join Date
      Jul 2006
      Location
      Chesapeake, VA
      Posts
      605
      Very cool car and I love that you're not just throwing money at it. Think it through, make every modification count and you can have a whole lot of fun on a reasonable budget.
      Cars are meant to be driven.

      John B

    9. #29
      Join Date
      Aug 2004
      Location
      Ontario, Canada
      Posts
      2,313
      Country Flag: Canada
      How did I miss this thread?

      I have always had an eye for the '60s Comet. It's a good bet you won't see another one going down the road.

      Don't feel bad about missing the rust damage in the floor. I had the same thing happen to me with my Nova. It looked great untill I started cleaning up the "surface" rust inside. At least I was able to buy floor pans for it.

      Looking forward to the 5 speed swap.

      Ken
      If there is a hard way to do something, I'll find it!
      My other car is a Vega.

    10. #30
      Join Date
      Sep 2013
      Location
      sw Kansas
      Posts
      1,640
      Country Flag: United States
      Very good. I'm sympathetic to people outside the U.S. Lots of difficulties.

    11. #31
      Join Date
      Feb 2012
      Location
      Vancouver,Canada
      Posts
      91
      Country Flag: Canada
      OH YAH!!! Great project and the stance looks fantastic! That colour really looks great on the 64...more pics if you can.Great work...cheers

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