Thread: 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente

Here is one for you guys we just finished and sent home on Friday. This beautiful 1964 Mercury Comet Convertible has been owned by the same man for 45 years and was his highschool car. The car lives in good weather and is regularly driven year round.

It ended up in our hands after he installed a Total Control Products rack and pinion about a year ago and 3 shops later called TCP because they could not get it set up properly. TCP referred him to us. He lives about 300 miles from us and drove the vehicle up here. The car was rotisserie restored by his good friend about 6 years ago but due to some cheap reproduction suspension parts and some bad engine machine work we ended up fixing the rack and pinion issues, re-rebuilding half the front suspension and re-rebuilding the engine.

The 289 engine was upgraded with full roller valvetrain with a roller camshaft, compression was bumped up to 9.0:1, heads were gone through and also received upgraded valve springs to handle our new cam. The engine build was mild and built for efficiency. (More power means it doesn't have to work as hard and that is efficient ) All of the accessory brackets, oil pan, timing cover, and intake were powdercoated semi-flat black to match the engine, and the hi-po headers were silver ceramic coated. Clutch was upgraded to a modern diaphram style. The carbureted combo was road tuned with our dual wideband 02 meter and drives like a champ.

At the owners request I put about 300 miles on the car to make sure everything was well sorted before he drove it back home and this is just such a fun car to drive. My wife called it a "Happy Car" because everywhere you go people are smiling and waving at you. I can't tell you how many people I had stop and talk to me while in a parking lot or at the gas station. It definately beckons back to a happier time in this country- I think they said it best in CARS- "back then people used to drive to have a good time, not make good time."

Sorry I didn't get a lot of beauty pics- I went to post these and realized most of what I've got are technical pics of broken suspension parts and wiped out main bearings.

Man, it's a beauty. You had mentioned it on the phone but I had forgotten about it until just now. Thanks for posting.

Except the color, a true beauty!

I'm not a huge fan of baby blue either but for a 60's car its a great color and this car wore it well. First time I drove it at night I got out of the car with the lights on and there was this blue glow from the rear of the car.... he has a matching blue neon license plate frame. Again.. probably not something i'd pick but it fits the car.

Gorgeous!!! Lucky guy to have a car like that in high school when it was new!! Even luckier to have it all these years later and know that its still desirable as hell.

sick ride!

Seriously unique! Nice job!

I have a 64 comet nothing special sedan that i'm bout to have some fun with this thread helped motivate me

Back in 68, friend of mine had a white 64 too, but his had a 327 with 2x4's, 488's and a straight front axle, car hauled!