What I did to Comet this week

After owning my car for 7 years now, I swapped out the stock 200 and 3-speed top-loader for a 5.0 and a C4. That was the second year I owned the car. Then, nothing for year s. Some jobs you just don't want to start, even though you have the parts. Maybe because you just want to drive it, don't have time, or you're just lazy. I'm a mixture of all three.

I put off the 5 lug conversion for a long time, but I finally decided to do it. To motivate myself, I bought some new tires and wheels. This way I would have to do the job to enjoy the purchase. I wanted a set of Magstar wheels and F60-15 tires all around, but at $375 per wheel and $200 for poor handling tires, I decided against it. I settled on a set of Dynacorn Magnum 500 aluminum wheels and BF Goodrich radial T/A's.

I bought it all at The Mustang Shop in Calgary, they stock everything. Unfortunately, the 15 x 7's were on back order, but there was 15 x 8's in stock. "Let me see them" I said, after looking at them I impulsively bought them. "Do you have any 235/60-15's?", "No" he says, "but I do have some 245/60-15's". "Let me see them. Just to look." So I ended up buying them too. Now, after having cookie cutter 195/70-14's for 7 years, those tires looked massive. I was scared they wouldn't fit. More on that later.

Started out last weekend removing the old rear:

Now I needed another one with 5 lug. Oh ya, I have a parts car at the farm. It's hiding:

This thing is in terrible shape, I bought it years ago when I was desperate to have a Comet GT. Eyes were bigger than my stomach:

Here's the rear after I was buried in rust dust:

The rear end of the car disintegrated after I removed it.

Here are some before and after pics of the rear. I could have saved a lot of time sandblasting it, but I used a wire wheel. It's coated in POR15, and some red/orange off the shelf. I also completely disassembled the brakes, sandblasted the drums and backing plates, made new brake lines, new hardware, etc. This all took a few days of work, but I'm finally done. Funny how just a quick rear end swap turns into a big deal. I just had to paint everything to make it look nice.



The "new" rear is a 2.79 ratio and has 4 leaf springs. The original was a 3.00 and had 3 leaf springs. I knew I would lose some off the line acceleration, but the gears would be nice on the highway.

I picked up the rear wheels and tires this morning that a shop finally got mounted after a week. But I was still unsure they would go on when I saw them. But anyway, they fit no problem:



I love these tires and wheels, it totally changed the look and stance of the car. It rides awesome now with big tires and heavier springs, really smooth and tracks good. I also lost an annoying vibration after the swap. Probably a bearing or bad tire. I'm thinking I will get blue center caps, mercury man type probably. I just can't believe the difference in ride quality. I flew past people on the highway too, the tall gears are great out there. But my speedo is WAY off now.
Here is the old wheels:

Front wheels, 15 x 7 are in the mail. When they get here I will be forced to finally do the disk brake swap, another one of those jobs, but another story.
Anyways, I haven't posted for a long time so...

 

Nice comet - love those Magnums

 

Nice wheel choice, looks good.....

 

Nice work!

Make sure to post more pics when you get the front wheels and center caps on!

I like the color combo of your car!

 

Beautiful car and nice work!

Bruce

 

Looks awesome, black stripe with vinyl top is killer...

For whatever gear that's in transmission, use one with a couple less teeth, should increase the reading at 60 mph approx 10%(or 6mph)... If you need a greater correction amount, knock off another tooth...

 

Looks good.... The wheel is all aluminum? It looks very similar to the factory wheels with a trim ring ... very good copy!

You are going to love the swap to disc brakes. There were some Mercury center cap emblems available a couple years ago. They are stick-on vinyl bubbles, about 1/8th inch thick. I got them from Seth here ... forgetting his screen name. Somebody help me out here. He might have some more.

 

Well, I started the front disc brake conversion. I have a 77 Maverick parts car that will be giving up its spindles, booster, brake pedal assembly, brake lines, and prop. valve. I ran into some problems of course; the old spindles were hell to take off, the worst I have encountered on these cars. I also discovered the passenger upper ball joint is finished, so I decided to order a front suspension kit from The Mustang Shop, which includes upper and lower control arms with ball joints and spring perches. The kit I ordered was for 1968-1973 mustang, so hopefully someone will chime in if I screwed that up.
Another problem I have is that the front wheels I ordered to match the back ones shown above, do not fit. I was afraid this might happen. So I'm wondering what I should take to the machine shop, the wheels or the hubs? Something is going to get ground. Any suggestions on that? It needs about 1/8th of an inch. The front wheels are 7 inch, so I'm not concerned about having to rotate the tires and get all 4 machined out.
I have made some progress however, the front brake lines from the donor are installed, as is the proportioning valve. Thanks to Craig for the disc brake article with the excellent pictures of where to drill holes for the brake line to pass through the shock tower and such. Tomorrow, I'll get the firewall ready for the booster and start swapping out the brake pedal bracket under the dash, that will be fun.

 

Oh, and would it be a good time to do a Shelby drop? Curious if anyone's done that thanks.

 

Awesome project! Good to see those Saskatchewan plates!

M.D.

 

I am a little unclear what doesn't fit regarding the front wheels .... guessing it is the hub size. If that is the case, and you haven't mounted tires, most wheel companies are pretty gracious about returns. You should ask them if they have a version of the wheel with a hub size that fits. Most wheel companies have so many versions of the same wheel, it will make your head spin. See if they have one application for your car, and another listed for a 77, because the hub size did change in the run of these cars.

Do those wheels use lugs that have a cone-shaped seat?.... or a straight shank?

 

Ford increased bearing & hub size in 1970, so your wheels probably fit the '69-earlier models...

I wouldn't recommend machining the hub smaller but opening the wheel a little shouldn't be a issue, may want to check around on that... I've heard somewhere in the later '70s Ford started playing around with pin size for the ball joints, be a good idea to check proper fit...

 

Krazy,

Wondering if there wasn't yet another increase in hub size mid-run too. Several people have had problems with this switching from drums to disc and then not being able to use their earlier wheels. I can't say definitively though, because I believe the rims are lug-centric (using the lugs to center the rim, rather than hub-centric), and it might just be that with drums being flatter-faced it wasn't an issue earlier.

 

You are probably correct, I'm not familiar with with models newer than '74...

I'm using '69 Torino GT brakes on mine, about any wheel will fit...

 

Thanks for the reply. I think I will machine the wheels, looks like a lot of meat there to work with, there is a shoulder or step on the inside of the wheel, that could be taken off, then they will fit.

I thought they would work because they fit on a later model rear no problem. They only off the one hub size and I already have the back installed, so I'm keeping them. These cars always offer us challenges like this, making things for mustangs fit etc.

I'm pretty sure the later model Mustang suspension parts will work, but someone might know for sure.