Merc63's namesake car finally comes home.

Merc63

Active Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2010
Messages
400
Location
Pikesville, MD
Car(s)
'23 Chevy Bolt EUV, '13 MINI JCW Roadster
I bought this '63 Mercury Comet S-22 hardtop over 20 years ago off a used car lot in Seattle with all intentions of fixing it up. I had a roundbody Falcon at the time and a Comet convertible parts car. The roundbody got sold and the parts car was sitting at my dad's place. I drove the hardtop for a bit then decided to start gathering parts. Well, life took it's usual twists and turns and I got a job here in Baltimore and moved, leaving the Comet behind at my dad's, where it sat in a carport for the last 16 years.

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Fast forward to two weeks ago. My dad was cleaning off his property, as at 77 he's not into working on cars anymore. He called me up and asked if I wanted to keep or sell the Comet. I've finally got room in my garage, So I said, I'll find a way to get it over here. My dad got the car running (a battery and some fresh gas, and it fired right up and he said purrs like new) and brought it out of the carport where it had gotten absolutely filthy, though due to being a typical west coast car, it's not rusty except for a couple very small holes in the floor pan and a couple bubbles starting around the rear wheelwells. Here on the east coast, it might as well be showroom fresh... lol!

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It was driven out loaded up on a truck the '31st of March, and shipped over here from Seattle to Baltimore.

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Well, it arrived late last night. Supposed to be here in the afternoon, according to dispatch, so I waited. Called the guy and he said he was stuck in traffic. So I waited some more. Finally at 7:30 PM, I called again. Turns out he was delivering a car to Philadelphia first, and nobody bothered to tell me. So he arrived in Baltimore at 11pm. Couldn't get the semi anywhere near my house, so he parked up on one of the main streets about a mile away. I met the driver there with a battery and some gas, unloaded it from the trailer. Oh, goody, it has a totally flat left rear tire. No air. Oh, well, it was dry rotted anyhow and was going to get replaced. Put the battery and gas in and fired it up. All the lights worked, so I drove it slowly around the truck, down to my street, then to the house. On the flat tire. Past the county police station. With 20+ year old Washington state plates and no registration, of course. By this time it was 11:30, so I didn't get pictures then, nor did I take the time to wash it, like I had planned.

I'll clean it up this weekend and inventory the car. Most parts are inside it (like the rest of the trim). The interior is on a bit worse condition than I remember it, but I expected that considering where it's sat for the last 16 years. I'm just surprised that it fired up and ran so well. Anyway, here it is at the house, finally, this morning:

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And washed it up this evening:

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Proof pic:

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I finally will have a chance to put it together. The plan for the future is to import an Australian Falcon 250 cid inline 6 cyl to replace the stock 170 cid inline 6 (the Aussie version uses an aluminum crossflow head with fuel injection). The Aussie engine literally bolts in where this one sits, so there will be no modification of the mounts or chassis to get it to fit. It's already got a 5 speed manual trans in it (before it got stored, it had a Mazda 5 speed manual adapted to fit it). Then I will update the brakes to discs and convert to 5 lug. I've done a photoshop image of what the finished product will look like:

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I expected to see some AMG x63 - but this is WAY COOLER! Love the story behind it! Car looks gorgeous already after just washing it, can't wait to see it done! :)
 
I thought I had mentioned the reason behind my screen name in my other car threads... ;)
 
I may have just ingored it, or just not seen it. Or.. well many possible reasons.. :D. Also I may have mixed up you with someone else, that actually had Mercedeses already. Either way, keep the updates coming, looking forward to it! :D
 
Great story, and huge thumbs up for keeping it so long :)
 
My thoughts pretty much:

Merc63 namesake? Oh cool, a big Mercedes! "I bought this '63 Mercury Comet S-22 hardtop.." What? Oh it's just another American piece of crap. :zzz:

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No wait, hang on.. I don't mind this one. It's definitely got an attitude about it. :hmm:

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Holy hell, it's awesome! :blink:
 
Subscribed, looking forward to pic heavy posts of the rebuild and restoration, :)
 
Awesome project, can't wait to see what you do with it. :cool:
 
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