New tow vehicle
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Holy cow! What an awesome find! Where the heck did that one come from?
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2,326 Posts
NICCCCCCCEEEEE!!!!! Wow! Not an easy find. Great going Judd. Here I thought you scored a car hauler or something. Much better than that. Mark L
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262 Posts
Thanks! The guy restored it then let it sit and rot in his garage in Pensacola, FL. The car was bought new in Pensacola and I,m the fourth owner 43,000 miles it has good bit of rust on the lower outer body, doors, quarters, front of hood from setting for 20+ years (1989 tags ). Crites makes a bubble hood and I've got a couple of lines on people with good desert doors. I'm replacing brake parts and tires right now. I'll rebuild carbs and fuel pump new fuel filter check gas tank and see if it will start next. I have the chrome smooties ( Comet street tires ) on the back now but I like the red rim blackwall dog dish Ford hubcap look on it. Other than the valve covers it is original numbers matching car and I couldn't let it pass for $6,000 even though I don't really need another money pit! LOL.
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No way to pass up that for $6k!
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It's .2 faster in the quarter now I washed 150lbs of dust off it and put some tires that hold air on it! 
I'll start on the brakes and get tires on the front tomorrow then fuel pump rebuild carbs check gas tank and new gas filter. Swapped a friend for valve covers closer to what should be on it.
I'll start on the brakes and get tires on the front tomorrow then fuel pump rebuild carbs check gas tank and new gas filter. Swapped a friend for valve covers closer to what should be on it.Attachments
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That picture looks like it could have been late 60's! They look good together. I'm sure the chrome valve covers are correct, but I liked the old Eddy's too!I think the Comet needs a tow bar!
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2,326 Posts
Boy does that bring back memories. Most of the guys in my little town (about 15 miles from Great Lakes Dragaway) used to caravan out to the strip on the weekends. Guy in town had a garbage truck company and they would meet there and all head out together. '62 Chevy 409 Impala SS flattowing a '62 bubble top 409, '57 Chevy pick up trailering a '55 gasser, '61 Pontiac Catalina 389 tripower A425 trohpy motor/4speed flat towing a '61 2 dr sedan Catalina 421 Super Duty, '63 Ford Galaxie 500 390/4 speed flattowing a '64 Fairlane 500 390/4speed. By '67 there was a '67 chevelle SS 375/396 flattowing a '66 SS Chevelle w/427/4 speed. Then all the hot cars in town would follow them out to the strip. It was quite a site back then watching the procession going by. Great memories. Mark L
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It was always fun seeing all the cars on the road to Woodburn and wonder how many were going to run, or watch the drags. Lots of guys used to drive their car there and then set them up at the track to run.
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Just a side story. In my little town we had a Ford dealer that was big time into drag racing. The mechanics all had race cars, and the dealership owned one, a '66 or '67 Fairlane super stock with the 427 and fibeglass front scooped hood. They also had a green Shelby 500 but I'm not clear if the dealership owned and raced or sponsored it for one of the mechanics?? The Fairlane was deep dark royal blue with a strong metalflake in it and it was named "Night Mist". A very stunning color and car. The dealer ship was on Main and 3rd street. The previous mentioned garbage truck company was down 3rd street about a block behind the Ford dealership. That was where the guys owned the '55 Gasser. A mellow yellow paint job, Hilborn type fuel injected small block around 327 inches, engine back into the firewall (see where I get my inlfuences from??), long ladder bars and radiused wheel wells for the big slicks. Anyway. The guys with the gasser would fire it up and warm it before putting it on the trailer, by driving it up and down 3rd street towards the Ford dealership, turn around, do a full launch down 3rd street and pull back into the garage. The Ford guys would bring the Fairlane out, drivedown 3rd by the garbage truck garage, turn around and do the same, heading back and into the Ford garage. This was almost every Friday or Saturday night before loading up and all heading to the strip. I had friends that lived on 3rd right in the middle between the places. We would sit on his porch and watch. The cops in town were all their buddies and knew what they were doing. The Cop namea Phil would appear as one or the other went back into the garage then drive off. One or the other would come back out do a burnout and launch, then back to the garage as Phil would come back around and drive thru. Not a single person in the area ever complained or got mad about them doing that. Then they would all load up and all pull out together. One of the mechanics at the dealership owned a '67 Plymouth Fury. 440 and a 4 speed. The other Ford guys used to rag on him all the time. In '69 he bought a 440 '68 'Cuda and they had to stop because the 'Cuda was, FAST!! Then the dealership got a '69 Boss 302 Mustang and a Boss 429 Mustang. But around '71 the dealership sold out to a Milwaukee Ford dealership and all the car guys were gone. By '74 the dealership was gone and a NAPA moved into the building. But those were the days. I probably wrote all this in another thread somewhere but I love reliving the memories. Mark L
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22 Posts
that Ford is BAD ASS!
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262 Posts
Well I've had trouble with the idiot that did machine work for P.O. The pistons (Venola) were in backwards so I had to take it to my machinest to check what else isn't correct (rod nuts on backwards). I hope to have it back in the next few days I guess it will be a brand new rebuild. The valves were not seating and it had bad compression on one cylinder and I removed them for Freddie to repair then discovered pistons!
I removed the scattershield and reinstalled the original cast bellhousing cleaned and painted exhaust manifolds and other parts. It will need exhaust pipe on drivers side as it is paper thin with holes. It looks like I missed my 1/1/2012 have it driving date.
The valves were not seating and it had bad compression on one cylinder and I removed them for Freddie to repair then discovered pistons!I removed the scattershield and reinstalled the original cast bellhousing cleaned and painted exhaust manifolds and other parts. It will need exhaust pipe on drivers side as it is paper thin with holes. It looks like I missed my 1/1/2012 have it driving date.
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It's always a crapshoot when you get someone else's engine assembly. I went through the same things with my 327 after buying it. The PO told me he had paid a local machine shop $3600 to build it, and that it was a real high HP engine build.(500hp+!) I got it for a fraction of the quoted build price, and didn't believe his HP claims, just because it didn't have the various components I could see to make it near that amount.
Drove it all summer, and it ran good, but not as impressive as it should be. I decided to change heads after seeing they were low performance smog heads. Also decided to change cams, and that's when I kept running into strange things. Harmonic balancer beat on the crank with a hammer, and the marks to prove it! Crank timing gear beat on the crank with what looked like a chisel from the marks I saw.
I decided I needed to check thrust bearings and end play after that, and also decided to check the crank and bearings. Crank checked out fine, as did the mains, but the rod bearings appeared to have been assembled without any lube, or possibly the engine wasn't cleaned well prior to assembly. I could see the bearings were starting to wash out around the crank oiling holes. Had to replace all the crank bearings and plastigage everything to check clearances.
Definitely a good leson for me. In the future I'll either get a base motor and build it, or a worn out motor and start from scratch building it up. Then I'll know exactly what I have, and not have the time and money into it.
Drove it all summer, and it ran good, but not as impressive as it should be. I decided to change heads after seeing they were low performance smog heads. Also decided to change cams, and that's when I kept running into strange things. Harmonic balancer beat on the crank with a hammer, and the marks to prove it! Crank timing gear beat on the crank with what looked like a chisel from the marks I saw.
I decided I needed to check thrust bearings and end play after that, and also decided to check the crank and bearings. Crank checked out fine, as did the mains, but the rod bearings appeared to have been assembled without any lube, or possibly the engine wasn't cleaned well prior to assembly. I could see the bearings were starting to wash out around the crank oiling holes. Had to replace all the crank bearings and plastigage everything to check clearances.
Definitely a good leson for me. In the future I'll either get a base motor and build it, or a worn out motor and start from scratch building it up. Then I'll know exactly what I have, and not have the time and money into it.
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