I've been planning this project for well over a decade, and it's based on a project I started back in high school in '78. The basic plot is putting a '60 Falcon nose on the Comet. When you look at the Falcon and Comet, you realize that at the front, the bodyline on the side of the Falcon curves down and returns along the lower part of the body, while at the rear it wraps around the corner. The Comet, of course, wraps around the nose, but curves back at the rear in almost the same way as the '60-61 Falcon front does! In '78, I took the Comet nose off my '62 2 door sedan and gave it to my buddy, who put it on his '60 Ranchero. I took the Falcon nose, and bolted it on my '62. The only picture I have left of that conversion was this one from '78 with me and my dad working on the car:
I put a custom eggcrate grill in it around the Comet quad headlights ( the Falcon only has one per side), painted it white, and drove it to school and all over. I've been meaning to revisit that idea ever since.
Which brings us to the current Comet convertible. I had originally picked up a '63 S22 hardtop to do this to, but then found a really ratty convert shell. The S22 hardtop is going to be a restomod, with just custom wheels and a slight lowering to distinguish it from stock visually, though it's going to also get the stock 260 that is in my current convertible.
The current convert was bought for me off of Ebay in '04 by my wonderful wife, and it's a tad rougher than the pictures suggest:
Apparently, the floors had needed some help and someone welded in angle iron IN the rockers from underneath. They also must have done it with a bit of sag in it, as it's now permanently sagged slightly on the passenger side and the door doesn't close properly. Typical.
So.... (here's where the purist may want to avert their eyes...)
I'm carving out the rusty floor, putting it on a rack, and using AutoCAD to design a new custom frame. A frame that will mount the body and new suspension (Mustang II in front, and 2nd gen RX7 IRS in the rear). It will also get air ride to adjust the height down to show-height scraping, and up to normal driving height.
The body is getting the aforementioned '60 Falcon nose, as well as getting a spare set of '60 Falcon front wheelwells installed in the rear to match up the openings (and remove all the rust in the wheelwell area). Then the body is getting smoothed, custom grillework made, custom taillights, custom blade bumpers, and a completely restyled art deco interior.
It's not going to get the Halibrands (but it will get 5 spoke billets) and it's not going to have the Ford logo in the grille. I'm actually going to use the Mercury Man.
The paint is going to be HOK Tangelo pearl mixed with Sunset pearl over a bright yellow base, to that it fades of to slight tangerine at high viewing angles and as it rolls under down low, but has pearl yellow as the highlights. Should accentuate the curves nicely, and be an excellent sun color for a convertible.
ALSO, while I'm not building a race car, I do want a bit more performance and uniqueness than the stock 260 offers. So it's getting pulled and installed in my '63 S22 hardtop to replace the tired old I6 in there. This will give my stepson the look and sound he wants, but not be too powerful or fast for his first car.
What's replacing it? Well, I've done the whole small block Ford routine many times, and built some strong big blocks, and put Ford engines in non-Ford cars. But I wanted this car to be really unique.Originally, I had gotten a wrecked '89 Tbird Super Coupe with the supercharged 3.8 liter V6 for the project, but it had to stay back in the NW, as well, and I ended up selling it. The SC engine put out as much hp as a newer 5.0, bolted in where the 5.0 would, and was actually plenty fast in the almost 4000 lb Tbird, and I thought it would be different and slightly exotic for a custom rod.
While walking around in a salvage yard here in MD while getting parts for a restoration of my buddy's MGB, I passed a little engine that was rather interesting. Compact, exotic, but no identifying marks. Took a bit to figure out what it was. (the one at the yard didn't have the intake on it)
It was the DOHC, 270 hp, 4.0 liter V8 from a Lexus SC400. Smaller than a small block Chevy and a little lighter than a small block Ford (though 2 inches wider than the stock 260...). And vastly smaller than the 4.6 liter DOHC Cobra engine in the late Mustangs. Plenty exotic, however, especially with all the crap off of it and polished up. They've been known to go 300-400k miles without a rebuild. This one has 90k.
90% of the stuff on the engine in the first pic isn't necessary to make it run. I'm building a MegaSquirt fuel injection and ignition controlling computer setup (home made, and about $300) to control the whole engine, and a Ford EDIS ignition module and individual coils. All I need is about 300 hp to be plenty fun, and I'll get that with this setup and a good dual exhaust. The hard part is that the Lexus SC400 and LS 400 that these engines came from only ever came with automatic transmissions, no matter where in the world they were sold. And the trans is also computer controlled. I didn't get the stock trans, and am actually adapting a late '80s Toyota Supra 5 speed manual to it, which also entails having a custom flywheel made.
I know, I could have simply bolted in a 289 or 302, but where's the fun in that?
The engine only cost me $500, and the trans a mere fifty bucks. With no identifying marks on any of the engine or subsystems, it's just going to be an exotic engine under the hood (and unlike Foose's latest car, I won't have to fake a hemi with sheetmetal covers for the valve covers...)Anyhow, the project is underway. It may take a couple years to get done. I'm getting ready to tear my single car garage down and put up a multi car garage and master bedroom suite above it, which won't be ready to be occupied until late this year.
