My Comet Day1 and Early Years

[lavron]

I have been looking for these pictures for a while now and finally found them tonight, they are not scanned the best in the world but they are not that great of quality pictures anyway.

Anyhow this is the day after I brought the Comet home in July 1979, I am using some lacquer thinner to remove some spray bomb they had used on the car over scratches, I guess it was supposed to help it look better but it was a far mismatch for the factory color, to say I was beyond happy that day would be an understatement, so that is me at 17 years old, such a nerd My mom snapped the picture, I did not even see her do it.


The following pictures were taken in the early 80's, the first one was probably the summer of 1980 or 81 my brother had given me the E.T. Mags and Radial TA's off of his Pinto, so they were 13" wheels, we had to go buy the correct "multi-dapt" (?) washers for the lug nuts, as you can see I have already started priming on the car.


This picture was taken in the summer of 1982, this would have been the time when I had to replace the water pump on the way to work I was talking about in my build post, me and my brother were working for the city of Roscoe that summer, these buildings had been condemned by the Army Corps of Engineers when they built Truman Dam and that fall they mysteriously burned one night when the city started raising money to restore them as tourist attractions, one remains that you can see across the street from the row of buildings my Comet is sitting in front of. Looks like I had primed more on the car and removed the trim from the trunk, still have not put it back on.


Finally I have to guess on this last picture, going to guess mid to late 80s, it still has the same license plate as the picture above but I can't remember how many years they ran those plates, it was taken at my folks farm and you can see the front fender of my brothers Pinto, I had removed all the trim from the hood and primed on it, it was at some point after this I took the mags back off the car and put the 14" steel rims back on, because IIRC I ran the wire hubcaps on there for several years.


Anyhow that is all I have for now, thought some might find this interesting

See Ya,
Mike

[popscomet]

pretty darn cool,,,,you and that old comet go way back....

[lavron]

pretty darn cool,,,,you and that old comet go way back....

I wish it was still in the same condition as the day 1 picture but that was 39 years ago and both of us have aged

3 more pictures. Last of the 80s, this was taken 1986-87 it is just before it got the engine update, it is back to the steel wheels but looks like those are the tires from 1980, because I put Radial TA's on it after the upgrades, I got married in 88 so this is before that, I had 5 acres down by Branson, but I took over my Uncles garage for a while and did all the work on the car. It still has the same plates on it but they are legal as the sticker is orange now.


This was taken in early 1990s, I was daily driving the Comet if I wasn't driving the '62 Ford in the background, at times I wish I had stuck with that team, finally new license plates, those are the ones on the car now.


But the brakes quit working and life got too full so she ended up sitting just like this for several years, going to say those were the hardest years on the Comet.


I think that pretty much catches me up to my build pictures. And I think this was right around the time I started the Forum or not too long after because I pulled the car up in front of the garage and pulled all the rotten carpet out of it and cried a little at the rusty trunk floor

See Ya,
Mike

[Lip Ripper]

Do I spot a Toyota?

[lavron]

Do I spot a Toyota?

Datsun, that was my mom's car, Dad bought it new in 1980, I finally ended up with that car and my wife was the last one to drive it, it tended to get passed around when anyone needed a car to drive, I drove it for a while, then my brother drove it when he got back from the military and he wrecked it, spun it and crashed the front and back when he sat it in a ditch. My dad was going to junk it but it was right after me and my wife got married and she needed a car, so I tied the grill back in with bailing wire pounded the dents out with a hammer and she drove it several years then the rear end started howling in it so it got parked, by this time the body was starting to rust away so I donated it to the American Cancer Society and they came and picked it up.

It was actually a good little throwaway car, I think he paid around $3000.00 for it new in 1980, My brother-in-law bought one at the same time (exact same car, different color) and I think my sister drove it till the wheels fell off of it.

See Ya,
Mike

[Lip Ripper]

The local junk yards used to have the Datsun pickup's for yard trucks. They said you couldn't kill'em. I'll be back on my Datsun soon.

And I love that you've kept that car. I have one that I regret selling. my 62 Comet build.

Bean Blossom.jpg (218.55 KiB) Viewed 2475 times

[Jims65cyclone]

Bean Blossom?? Don't tell me that was your car's name!
Jim

[lavron]

And I love that you've kept that car. I have one that I regret selling. my 62 Comet build.

Cool '62. And I am hoping there are better days ahead for my Comet, might even end up being the best it ever has been.

See Ya,
Mike

[Lip Ripper]

Haha, no Jim, that is Brown County Dragway located in Bean Blossom Indiana. It was in the sticks but a nice track and a bunch of quality cars would show up. I remember one Labor Day weekend. The weekend of the US Nationals in Indy. Some of the cars that were eliminated at the nationals drove down to run with us. One guy got off the track, ended up in the ditch on his lid and stopped our program for a while. He broke his shoulder. There were other cars that got off the track too, just too much power for a track with grass between the lanes.

[bigdan]

Cool stuff Lavron. Your post reminds me of a long past memory - first car I ever drove was a . . . . . Pinto. With a hot 289. And ET mags, 13" 4 lugs up front, with 14" 5 lugs in the back to fit the 9". Dad built it in the late 70's/early 80's when his buddies were building V8 vega's. He let me drive it on back roads home from church when I was 8 - yep, 8, and one evening I may or may not have hit a block wall with it at a pretty good pace. That ended the Pinto, and the drivetrain went into a 64 Falcon post car- and here we are today LOL. I still have those ET's out back with the odd washers. . . . One day, maybe, they'll go on something else.

Nice history. Thanks for sharing.

Dan

[lavron]

I still have those ET's out back with the odd washers. . . . One day, maybe, they'll go on something else.

I left the E.T. mags in the shed when we moved, they were looking a bit rough with lots of white looking corrosion on them, still had the well worn original set of tires on them. I left a few other things I wish I had not like some bell housings and the original trans and rear out the Comet, I actually forgot about them they were out in an old horse shed, I would never have used them anyway most likely.

Nice history. Thanks for sharing.

Funny thing is I have owned several cars and trucks over the years, pretty much the only one that got pictures taken of it was the Comet, then again none of the others were Comets so that might tell you something There are a few of the Jeep because I did the lift, flares etc on it.

See Ya,
Mike

[comethead]

Cool pics Mike!
I’m pretty sure in it’s mechanical soul your Comet loves you back!