1964 Comet 404 V8, C4 wagon

Discussion in 'Station Wagon Projects' started by blacksnake, Aug 13, 2010.

  1. blacksnake

    blacksnake Active Member

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    Well I started a thread in the new guy section then i moved over to the Cosmetic thingy and I think I may be taking up space in the wrong area so i am trying to land in my final resting spot in order to document and share the restoration of my 64 Comet wagon.

    I bought the car in the begining of July, a friend of mine was building a 1962 Falcon 2 door wagon (surf wagon) and it looked great. I started my hunt. I love the unique front end of the 64 Comet and I always wanted one. I fell into a 1965 Mustang Fastback so thats what i built first. My love for the 64 Comets never went away so I started looking for a Comet wagon.

    I found this wagon near Simi Valley, I paid 1000 dollars for her. She started and drove into the trailer..........I lied she made it too the trailer but not up the ramp. I drove her right to my buddys resto shop for her first evaluation.
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    The car was born in Los Angeles and started here all her life. She was used for towing as there was a heavy duty hitch and a brake controller still in the car.
    Note brake controller
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    And the hitch
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    When we got her up on the lift I took off the hitch and took a look around, the floor was solid as a rock, the roof...............that was a little different story
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    Everything else was pretty good. The only day i have to work on the car is Fridays........But I get to work at my friends shop all day and some times I even get help. Before my son left for Boot Camp he helped a few Fridays, He left July 12 :-(

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    After he left I was solo and started the tear down. This is my second restoration with my buddys help so it was bag and tag and bag and tag.......
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    Last edited: Aug 13, 2010
  2. blacksnake

    blacksnake Active Member

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    Theres more.......

    I have alot more pics to update the resto, but I have to go to bed, I have to work tomorrow............I will try to finish tomorrow night n bring her up to date.......Oak
     
  3. 65falconwagon

    65falconwagon New Member

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    Blacksnake,

    It appears that the only bad section is the roof along the rain gutters from your pics....hopefully that rot hasn't extended into the inner structure....appears that you can cut out that section and carefully weld in a patch panel being careful to not warp the metal....I have a '65 falcon wagon and know full well about roof rot from my forum that I posted...good looking wagon considering age and should be a nice project to get back on the road
     
  4. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

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    Another parts chase, huh? Looks like you're organized too. :thumbs2:
     
  5. blacksnake

    blacksnake Active Member

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    When we started teh tear down, we did the outside first, stripped all the bumpers, all of the grill assembly, headlight buckets etc.
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    We took out the front windshield, the front windows and vents, the tail gate interior skin and the 2 miles of trim on the outside of the wagon
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    WE then moved to taking the motor out........this is a Challenger V8 which is an early 289 with a 1.12 6100 4bbl Carb. This carb was taken from the 352 v8. This is a factory set up with a C4 trans, it was rated at 210 HP. By the way I just sold the motor and trans to a local mustang restorer.
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    After the motor was out I started to clean the underside and the engine compartment, here is the way the engine bay looked after I pulled the motor
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    And then after a turn with the wire wheel to both the engine bay and the underside, I had to prime a couple of spots that I went down to bare metal
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    I pretty much had all the exterior and interior stripped so I started to rehab all of the parts taken out, I have a full shelf of parts at my buddys shop, it is kind of overwhelming. It all has to be done so one day at a time.......besides the painter said he may have the wagon for up to 3 months, he is giving me a good price as he will do the car in between other jobs... Here she is heading to the body shop.
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    I cant remember what i started with but I believe it was the heater box......a new box is almost 300 bucks so I decided to try to rehab it. Here is what it looked like when i pulled it out.
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    I also started to sandblast other parts and paint them "bumper brackets etc.
    And I began the hunt for parts needed for when the car is back and ready for reassembly. Some of the parts I needed was a passenger side tail lamp assembly, an "M" gas cap, as well as a piece of exterior trim here and there.
    After a good search I hit gold on Craigslist.
    Here is my early Christmas gifts arrived this week!

    [​IMG]

    Oak
     
  6. blacksnake

    blacksnake Active Member

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    Parts

    The guy i bought the parts from would not separate them so I had to buy the gas cap, three tail lamp assemblies, 2 extra tail lamp lenses, and some tail gate trim that I really didn't need. So if anyone is looking for some wagon parts I have tail lamp lenses and all the tailgate trim, as well as 2 passenger side tail lamp assemblies. Back to the resto up date. As i mentioned I started with the heater box, It was cracked and super dirty, so I had to fiberglass the cracks and I sanded and painted the rusty interior doors and doghouse.
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    I am still not done with that thing, my last project "mustang" had a very squeaky motor so I replaced it....well one of that guys at the shop rebuilt it while he was bored so now I will use that motor for the heater in the Comet as the one in it was squeaky.
    I then moved to a few different parts and over to the sandblaster.........but I can only stand at the blaster for so long so I started to work on the horns....Wow were they rusted...
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    I peeled off the cover and put 12 volts to them and.................nothing. I proceeded to soak them in WD-40 and took off the adjuster nut (didnt even know that existed). After a good soak tried again...nothing. One of the older guys at the shop came over and started to mess with the adjuster nut and then...............they worked. I put power to them a few times an hour to loosen up the rusted horn....but now they both work, I love the sound of the old high low horns, my son has them in his 62 Fairlane.
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    I also broke down and bought a buffing wheel in order to polish some of the 2 miles of trim on the wagon at home. Here are soem before and after pics of the trim pieces, One polished one not, see if you can tell the difference
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    This little baby took me an hour, I discover through the local paint shop that all the side trim is anodized, so i had to burn through the anodizing to get the piece to shine. I was told to de-anodize the piece first then polish. I will try that on the next few pieces
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    Well that pretty much it for now....I will post pics every Friday that I get over to the shop and work on the car.

    Just for info on the paint on the car, I plan on going back to the stock color (smoke grey/anniversary silver) with a slight modification. I am going to remove the roof rack and paint the top in Corinthian white and make the side (inside the trim) Corinthian white as well. I am going to put the interior back to stock, it was red with gold (what?) trim.

    I am tempted to paint the area on the rear fenders, behind the COMET letter in red but I am thinking that may be a little much?

    I was also thinking about painting the wheels Corinthian white and having the rear wheels widened to 8.5 inches, I also like the American racing Salt Flats with the grey centers.........Anyway i have a long way to go for all of that.

    As far as powertrain, I am taking the motor out of my mustang project, another 289 5 bolt, as well as the trans, C4 and transplanting it in the Comet. The mustang will get a new Ford Racing 306 Crate Motor (allready ordered) and a World Class 5 speed.

    Here is the donor car and a pic of the motor.
    Mustang
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    motor
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    And a fun picture of the mustang motor as I found it before the resto.
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    Well I think I am caught up, I will keep posting every Friday, Thanks Oak
     
    Last edited: Aug 14, 2010
  7. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

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    Quick work! Parts prep takes a lot of time, don't it. Fun though.

    I've found that I do a better job getting the rough stuff done in a batch, or doing the detail, finer stuff. For some reason the old noggin gets into brute mode and can't turn down to tune in a moment of painting gauge needles in the next moment. Too much adrenalin circulating, I guess.:)
     
  8. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

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  9. 65falconwagon

    65falconwagon New Member

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    Nice work on the wagon! The trim pieces came out real nice....I had a question about your power steering....Is that original v8 PS? I was wandering because I was thinking about putting 6 cylinder PS in my wagon but I will have a 289 V8....I have gotten a mixed reaction on whether it will work or not...some are saying it will work while others are saying otherwise...I had a PS setup that I got off of a 65 falcon wagon parts car that I brought home
     
  10. blacksnake

    blacksnake Active Member

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    Yes mine was a V8 PS car, I dont know that there was a difference in the 6 cyl PS unit and the V8 PS unit but I can certainly find out. Mine is going to cost 450 for a total rebuild. Let me know and I will ask my guys at my buddys shop

    Oak
     
  11. blacksnake

    blacksnake Active Member

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    Power steering Info

    65 Falcon, ref the power steering, I guess the pump is the same for the 6 and 8 cyls, but the ram etc is different, not sure if that is what you were after?
     
  12. blacksnake

    blacksnake Active Member

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    Friday update

    I actually took off Thursday and worked on the Comet both Thurs and Friday, I became well acquainted with Mr Sand blaster and Mr Primer. And finally Mr. Duplicolor, here are some pics of the finished products from the last 2 days.

    I will also include some pics of my 2 friends projects being completed at my Buddy Bruce's shop.

    Here are some pics of the stuff I blasted and eventually painted.
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    I would normally clear the heater box but it was cracked so bad I had to do bodywork to it, so I had to paint it flat black, it turned out pretty good
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    Here is a shot of my work station for final paint
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    A picture of some of my finished stuff as well as the stuff I still need to go through
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    One of my smart ass buddys said "hey I think the straps that hold up the gas tank would look cool painted red". I had to repaint them!!!
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    I also went to visit "Kathy" at the body shop, not much done just started on the front fenders?
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    Here are some shots of Bruce's 62 2 door Falcon Wagon
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    And here are a couple of pics of my Buddy Chris' Firebird 400, we just put the fire breather in today, it has about 575 HP. Its gonna be Bad Ass!
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    And the group of "Old Guys" teaching me more and more each day Tom, Me, Dan, Bruce, and Tom, great bunch of guys
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    Stay Tuned...........Oak
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2010
  13. Stormin' Norman

    Stormin' Norman Well-Known Member

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    Awesome looking work, yours and the team at the shop.(y)
     
  14. the Rev

    the Rev senior junior Charter Member

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    pretty spiffy collection started there(y)

    why is this the 1st ive heard of the 62???:evilsmile:
     
  15. blacksnake

    blacksnake Active Member

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    Went by Body Shop today

    Some pics from body shop today, the owner works on all the panels, he wont do the metal repair, he is leaving that up to the youngsters. Here is what I saw today, getting excited.
    Oak
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