1964 Comet 404 V8, C4 wagon

Blacksnake,
Great thread, beautiful car, nice workmanship.
Keep it up!

 

Beautiful Comet. Can't wait to see the completed project. Great color combination as well.

 

As a self-appointed spokesman, you are doing one heck of a nice job! Most likely the envy of many.

 

Friday update, short day

Just a quick update for today,
Moto Mike as far as the heater motor, I just grabbed 3 speed off of the wall at the shop and used that. The old one, after i took it out, was just plain ol bad, wobly old motor. Like I said the new one was a 2 wire three speed so I just hooked up the ground and the high speed part of the switch and now I have a one speed (high) blower motor.

Didnt get a lot done today but I did figure out all the wiring, as far as I know, lol. I checked everything during the week, differnet parts on different days and when I got frustrated I went to the windows or some other project.

But after today these are the things I have tested/checked. Running/dash lights-check, turn signals-check. Green dot gear indicator light on column-check, Heater motor and wipers-check. Dome/courtesy lights-check.
And finally today (4 hours) I got the rear (tail gate) power window working, both switches (in dash and the key switch in tailgate).

Todays check was the most complex, lol. There is a switch on the tailgate to keep the window from being operated while down. I had to contend with that amongst other things. First I had no power to the switch, figured that out, then no power to both power poles on the window (up and down)........................................After cleaning every single connection (PLUGS MOSTLY) I finally got power to the window motor but lost something in the last leg of wires. NExt we figured out that it was the safety switch that keeps the window from moving while tailgate down. Took that 47 year old switch apart and cleaned the contacts..............Then TA-DA it worked!!!!!!!

Even though not my favorite thing to do it was rewarding to get all the electrical in the car working perfectly....

Other stuff we did was fire up the shop owners son's car, a 1989 Mustang LX coupe, the motor was just rebuilt. It fired right up but it was a little lean and the headers heated up and started one of the rubber smog hoses on fire. No big deal after we poured a bit of water on it.........After the fire the car was timed and running good, just have to get a new hose before it can hit the street.

we left the shop at 1 and went for our annual wing christmas lunch, at Buffalo WIld Wings, it was great.

Well everyone have a great CHristmas!!! Ryan

 

Thanks Ryan....I have a question though that maybe you or some of the others that have done restos can answer......with all the aggrivation 40+ yo wiring can be, is it worth it to completely rewire a car being restored with one of those "complete" kits?

 

Mike
Probably, but my car is and has always been in California, so not a lot of water, and no huge weather/temperature swings. And i looked at it all before I made my decision. If and or when I get an electrical gremlin, I may go to a new kit, some of the guys at the shop have done a few and the more they do the easier it seems to get, basically follow the direction and you are good to go.

I will admit some of my pugs/connections did have a bit of corrosion thats about the worst of it.. I think that may be electrolysis and unavoidable no matter what the climate.

 

I have never used a kit; I have always been able to clean up the original or replace with good used or new parts. But my projects have mostly been Corvettes, Firebirds and GTO's, so there was a well-established supply of replacement parts.

My friend's 32-34 Fords all have wiring kits...I think he usually uses "Painless" kits. I've done some work on his cars and they are nice harness kits.

 

yes yes

I agree, the more I am around the new kits the better they get, very simple if you follow directions and get a reputable kit, some are even geared for "your" car. The last one done at the shop was for a1967 Firebird, very neat and tidy and no gremlins, lol

Maybe on my next project??? Dont tell my wife I said that lol, Ryan

 

I guess if you've got the car stripped all the way down anyway, you might save yourself some grief chasing electrical gremlins by using a kit.

 

Very quick update

Shop was closed today but one of the guys went in for a bit so I did as well, installed the hood latch stuff and the splash shield for the front fenders, also cleaned all the glass we still need to install, and checked out the tailgate glass.

Ref that glass (tail gate) I need to take off the track and re-install a new weatherstripping between it and the glass, I have never taken one off, I may take it to a glass guy???

And I installed the rear view mirror bracket and figured out that the mustang visor rods, dont work, lol. Back on the hunt for some of those.

Mostly just took it easy today........Oh yeah tried to install the rear bumper that I bought almost a year ago................Its the wrong one, oh well I will call the guy Tuesday, Have a great weekend everyone!!!! Ryan

 

Been a while

Well I have been away from the shop for a few weeks, had some extra duty at work then went to Barret Jackson etc etc. Finally made it back today and got a few things done. I got all of the door weatherstripping from Dennis Carpenter, wow can you say expensive.

Also got the rubber fender dividers (weather stripping sort of stuff, between fenders and core support.)

Also got the headlight buckets on as well as the hood latch and the hood ornament, lol

I spent most of the day putting that on and working other jobs in between. I had the grill polished and I tapped it off and painted it today. I also started to reassemble the headlight eyebrows and put the front bumper lights back together.

I also got all of the rest of the trim pieces back from the polisher, including the front running light housings. I tell you this polisher is amazing, these things were dinged and dingy, he made them beautiful!! (and i dont even have a pic to prove it, i forgot)

Well here are some pics of the items I got done today

Here are the rubber dividers on the core support



Headlight buckets and hood latch



Another views of seals installed



Hood Ornament



Latch installed



Headlight eyebrows/fender extensions



And my pride joy..........the grill



Cant really see much but the blue tape hangin out of the doors is holding on the weatherstripping



Have a good week see you next friday???

Oak

 

Thanks for the update!

 

friday update

well it was an OK day here at the shop, good weather at least in Cali,

Today I got the entire dash working, all lights blinkers etc so, I mounted the cluster to the dash.

Then I fired up the motor for the first time since I hooked up all of the power steering stuff to not if but how much the power steering would leak. It did leak a bit, I will look at it better when I get her back on a rack, it was from on of the short lines into the ram.

Then I moved to get the eyebrows installed on the fenders and then to install the fenders....Got em both on loosely (tight where they need to be). Thats about al I got done today but that was a solid 7 hours worht of work LOL.

Here are some pics of todays work.

DASH



DRIVERS FENDER



PASSENGER FENDER



QUICK SHOT OF FRONT



Ryan

 

Looking good there Ryan, like your posts with all the pictures of your work.

 

man...i wish i could remember to take pics when im doin stuff...:confused:
i just never think of it

great progress BS...shes sure gonna be purdy