Comet rebuild

[Aussie Comet 1964]

I haven`t been on here much lately, just a quick look to see whats going on,I have been rebuilding the Comet, its been on the road for over 26 years & raced everywhere & its never been undercover, it lives outside, it has stood up pretty well with only very minor rust to fix, It started when over easter I thought I should replace the windscreen thats been cracked for a few years & replace the hood lining thats been falling down & held up with race tape for years ,& before easter was over it was a bare shell on the rotisserie, it is almost done now with only a few things left to do like paint the new hood & fit the door glass, I also made moulds to make a new fiberglass hood with ram air & teardrop scoop with underside ducting, I needed some more clearance to run a carb spacer & a larger aircleaner,also fitted a bigger radiator & fitted a bolt in roll cage while it was stripped down which will allow me to run down to 10.0, nice to see it all shiny again, . John

[comethead]

Holy smokes John!! You don’t mess around!
Looks great!!

Joe

[popscomet]

MAN that's some serious stuff,,,you have the best of both hoods wrapped up in one....thanks for sharing...………..pop

[Groover]

Great to see this thread. Nice quick review of an awesome '64.

[riverbum]

Awesome job!

[Aussie Comet 1964]

Joe, I didn`t want it off the road for too long, can`t go long without driving/racing it, have 8 weeks now to finish it for Drag Challenge, Aussie version of Drag Week, I was delayed a couple months with a couple problems with sanctioning body over the roll cage but aproved now, Pop, I like the look of the combination hood too, been wanting to make one for a while now since I saw a pic of Dyno Dons Comet with one. John

[tomb22]

Great Job and a awesome car. Love the look. Thanks for the pictures.
tom

[Jims65cyclone]

Holy smokes John!! You don’t mess around!
Looks great!!

Ditto That!! That's a lot of work in 5 months! It would probably take me longer than that to make the hood (if I knew how ).

Jim

[SASSY]

Ditto to everybody's comments!
Without getting into a book on it could you mention the steps you took to get the inner and outer molds.
Did you use your hood, what release agent ?
I have decent amount of glass knowledge but too nervous to layup on my hood.
Fred

[poboyjo65]

That's disgusting! that really chaps my arse how fast you do all of that! does time work the same way down there? but I really like the new hood & Bars, good job!

[Aussie Comet 1964]

Fred, I have never done fiberglassing before, I went to a supplier I was recomended to & he explained what I needed & I looked on youtube for tips, I got a teardrop scoop & made a mould of it & fitted it to my ram air hood with body filler & primed it & smoothed it out, then added some edging to the sides of the hood & used plasticine to taper the edges so I have something to trim back, then 5 coats of wax then a coat of PVA glue then a coat of gelcoat & 6 layers of fiberglass, each layer I did each night then I added some timber for strength to the mould, then the fun part getting it out, I made up a heap of plastic wedges & pushed them in then the hood pops out woth a loud crack, then the mould is ready just a clean up & start with 5 layers of wax, PVA glue & gelcoat & 2 layers of glass, & pop that out, the original underside was not wide enough for a 14" aircleaner so I modified it with some spray foam & plaster then took a mould off that & then poped a part out as before I glassed some alloy reinforcement in for the hinge mounts & latched, I also put a little alloy rod to support the scoop as well, then sat it in the top mould & glued the 2 halves together, that is the short version, it has taken about a month or more work with the drying time etc, it was easier than I thought but is very messy, the original hood is as before, I just took the mods off again after I was done. I have added some pics of the process, the red is tooling gelcoat for the mould, it is stronger, the white is gelcoat, I also made a mould of the original hood too. John

[SASSY]

Thanks much for the "short version" and the pics!
I dream of a custom hood for mine with an offset cold air intake in red and black weave carbon fiber.

[Aussie Comet 1964]

no worries Fred, just have a go, it ends up being not that hard, I looked at carbon fiber, looks like you need to put the mould in a bag & pull a vacuum on it to get the resin through the weave

[lavron]

I am always in awe of anything John (Aussie Comet) does.

Thanks for the pictures and update.

See Ya,
Mike

[Aussie Comet 1964]

bit of an update, the Comet is pretty much finished now, only a few small things to do, I have 2 weeks until I head off for Drag Challenge which is the Aussie version of Drag week, we will race at 5 tracks in 5 days & drive around 1000 miles, the roll cage is now certified & car has passed safety inspection, I have given it a run down the track last week, once I got the fuel pressure right it ran 11.07 & 11.08 which I am happy with first time out, I still didn`t have the aircleaner sealed to the hood or my cool can fitted or any race gas & the air was not so good, so it should get back in the 10s no problem, had a highway drive & all is good, good to be driving it again after 6 months, I remember how good it is to drive. John