Hello all, my name is Jon, I'm 19 years old and I love everything Ford. I registered on this forum about 2 minutes ago with the hopes of being able to speak to other Maverick/Comet owners about these kick ass cars, as this seems to be the main thing I talk about to my co-workers, friends, and my (very annoyed) girlfriend. I drive a 71 Mercury Comet that I got from a truck shop for $475. The guy wanted to put the engine and tranny(more on that tranny later) into a Bronco for a customer, but decided to go with a C6 and 351 instead. I haven't done anything spectacular to my car except for a few small things... So far my list of stuff includes -Some nice chrome valve covers and an edelbrock air cleaner I got from kragen auto parts -A rebuilt 2bbl carb with an electric choke (soon to be changed to a 4bbl holley or edelbrock with a matching manifold) -Bucket seats pulled from an 80-something toyota corolla(?) FX-16 -Basic speaker and CD/MP3 player system -Replaced the U-Joints(twice after I messed up the first time by bangin them in with a big hammer and socket contraption) -Popped in new motor mounts -Put in another oil pan after well... long story short, never use a hammer to put a bigger bolt into a smaller stripped hole. -Supposedly the heads were rebuilt not too long ago, at least thats what the guy from the shop told me, the heads DO look gray as opposed to the slight rust color the rest of the engine has (possibly from being machined?) -A light gray primer and black paint job after the old blue spraypaint was sanded off over the deteriorated olive green original color. I'm going for a Boss Mustang look. -Headers once I send back the Hookers(P.N. 6901) that didn't fit even after the Summit site and one of the tech guys told me they would. -Some cool looking 8mm blue spark plug wires with braided steel sleeves from Accel. With SplitFire plugs to match. -A 2&3/4" True dual flowmaster exhaust that dumps right before the axle (GREAT for nighttime driving and scaring small children and animals) -A sweet Grant steering wheel -A "remanufactured" starter that has the same problem of not pulling the shaft back in after doing its job just like the one I swapped it for did. Now a story about that tranny.... the other day I was driving on the freeway and I noticed when I went about 75 the front of the car would shake a lot... I decided to do the smart thing and go faster to see what happened. All of a sudden I hear a big clang and the whole car starts shaking Ill over and end up limping home trying to act like a tough guy cuz my little sister was riding shotgun. The next few days I check out in and out of work, I discover that it needs new motor mounts and the front U-Joint felt like squiggling out of the yoke but got stuck halfway. I fix both problems and all is well for 2 days, then as I put the car in drive it wont shift gears or even move when i push on the accelerator! I wonder at this marvel for about two seconds then my dad tells me to check the tranny fluid, sure enough, there wasn't any to check. So I put the quart I have in and buy 3 more and put em in. Problem solved? Not quite... as I'm on the freeway I notice a good bit of smoke coming from underneath the car.. enough that it makes it a bit hard to see the car behind me without letting the car rearend me. So I get to work, look under the car and see tranny fluid pouring from the front of the case. So today after taking the thing to AAMCO and checking it out with the dude there do I see that the case is cracked in multiple places and there seems to be a piece missing from the face of it... maybe the truck shop guy knew something I didn't? Well, thats me in a nutshell.. So.. all things said, I'm going junkyard diving on friday to get another C4, anyone know whats compatible with my car? Will I have to get a diff. driveshaft? How about gears? Any and all info will be worshipped. Thanks all!
Welcome to the board Jon! Sounds like a good find. A '71 Comet is pretty cool...would love to see pics(we all love pics). You can use the search to find pretty much any info you could want...but, if not, someone here may be able to help out with some advice. Good luck with the project and keep us updated(don't forget the pics eh!)
Ok I have two pictures so far... I'll make some of the interior soon Front of the car.. had to tilt it because the camera on the phone is weird http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/hypergoon/cometfront.jpg Back of the car http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y22/hypergoon/cometback.jpg
