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Visors
These were a great find. They are NOS visors by Ventshades. This company still makes visors today! These are for 1961 4 Door Comets. They came is a box that had never been opened!. Here they are on the car. |
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Half Moons
Can you ever have enough chrome?? These are reproductions made of stainless steel. They are called half moons or sometimes sad eyes. They cover the top half of each headlight. I have seen these on other cars and I really like the look.... Here they are on the car |
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Fender Skirts
Here is one of my stainless steel fender skirts installed on the car. I only put these on when the car is on display. I bought these NOS, still in the box! The had a protective masking tape type coating that had badly dried over the years. We tried everything to take it off and finally found Goo-Be-Gone. It worked great! Look at the reflection from the road |
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Gas Cap
The paint was all banged up from being dropped over the years. It didn't however have any dents! I stripped the paint, primed it and sprayed it with touch up paint from Paint Scratch! Wow! I can't believe how well it matched! Take a look for yourself.
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Drivers Side Rear View Mirror
When I got the car the drivers side rear view mirror was ripped right off the base. Mirrors at that time were usually installed by the dealer. Due to that it was impossible to find a mirror that fit the same base holes on the fender. I ended up buying a clamp on mirror and taking just the mirror part and installing it on the origional base. The picture is of the finished restoration.
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Our Lady of Grace and Fuzzy Dice
I had to have both of these two items from the past. The Our Lady of Grace statue is suppose to bring you good luck on the road and I have no idea what the fuzzy dice mean but they just seemed to fit!
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Restored Tail Lights To Original
When I got the Comet the first thing I saw wrong was the tail lights. The previous owner cracked a lense and replaced it with a sheet of red plastic cut to the shape of the lense. He replaced both and still had one original lense in the trunk. I found a replacment and restored both to original. Let's face it the tail lights on this car are the most distinctive part! They had to be right! |
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Restored Dome Light
The dome light lense was badly cracked. Looked like someone put their finger through it! I found a replacment part. Put is a fresh bulb and it's back to working. Below is a pacture of the finished replacment. |
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Passenger Side Lock
When I got the car the passanger side door lock was missing the little door that covered the lock hole. I ended up buying a set of two locks and removed the door from one and moved it to the other. There is a little srping on that goes over the door shaft and hooks on to two little notches on the top of the shaft. If you turn the spring top until it clears the hooks the spring will pop off. Then you can pull the broken shaft out of the lock. The new door goes back in the same way. Put the spring over the shaft and make sure you twist it two times around before you push it down to get caught on the two notches. The door will really snap closed with two turns!.
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AM Radio/FM Converter
The AM radio in this car did not work from when I bought it. I happened to see a radio on E-Bay going cheap that was suppose to work so I bought it. It was a piece of junk. I usually have luck on E-Bay but not this time. It did have a set of good tubes though so I guess I didn't lose anything. I decided to look at the radio in the car. I checked power to the set and it was all there. I took it out and put in on my bench with a replacement speaker and antenna and hooked it up to a 12V supply. It worked!! So I took it back out to the car. Installed it again and nothing. Again, out of the car, on the bench, and it worked. This time I did not put it back into the car but left in on the floor and jumped in everything to the car. Nothing! I then use the replacement speaker and wire for the antenna like on the bench and still nothing. I then jumped power from the 12V supply and it worked with the car speaker and antenna. I check the power again from the car and everything was there. I then notice that I have the red lead on the meter on the chassis and I am reading a positive voltage. I swap the leads and then I see the problem. The radio is being fed -12V!!! It made me just sit there a minute to comprehend it! So I go under the hood and sure enough the battery is in reversed! So many questions went though my mind. How does the car run?? Well if you think about it. Cars this old don't have any electronics. Everything but the radio would not care about the voltage polarity! So I reversed the battery cables, re-polarize the field coil in the generator and low and behold, the radio worked just fine!! If you get anything out of this, make sure when ever you put in a new generator or reverse the polarity on your battery, you re-polarize the field coil. Do this following the directions that come with the generator, regulator or your shop manual.
I also added one of those FM converters. These were originally made for people with AM only car radios. Perfect for the Comet!
Notice that this radio had the CONELRAD markings at 640 or 1240 kHz on the dial. This system was used to broadcast warnings to citizens in the event of an emergency during the cold war.
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BF Goodrich Bias-Ply Wide White Wall Times
I found a guy selling a set of 4 brand new BF Goodrich Bias-Ply Wide White Walls size 600-13. The car actually has the origional spare left but the rest of the times are 13 inch radials.
Tires Mounted On Ford Rims
I found a guy selling 4 Ford rims that had been sandblasted and primed. I put the wide whitewall tires on these rims after I re-paint them to match the car. That way in the winter I can put the old rims and tires back on the car for those few times I take it for a Sunday drive when the weather is good. I also polished the hub caps with neva-dull. They are in perfect shape. I am lucky they are so good. The finished restore is in the picture below. What a differenc in makes in the look of the car. |
