Off the Radar
Original Radar Car For Sale
Amazing ’65 Comet Caliente Convertible
We hate to do it, but since we bought Ol’ Blue (our ’64 Galaxie Club Coupe – story here) and got it sorted out for road trips, we haven’t been driving our original Radar Car very much – a 1965 Mercury Comet Caliente Convertible. Since it has a freshly rebuilt 289 and completely re-done engine bay, now is the time to pass it along to the next care giver.
You may have seen one of our original blogs on this site about driving the Comet to shows and around town, and the stories we get from people we meet (story here). We’ve certainly posted quite a few photos of it on our Facebook page – (here) – some of which were taken by our friend and professional photographer Carey Stinson – http://www.careystinsonphotography.com.
Here are a couple of Carey’s shots from last year:
Courtesy of Carey Stinson Photography http://www.careystinsonphotography.com
Courtesy of Carey Stinson Photography http://www.careystinsonphotography.com
As you can see, the car is in great shape. The only thing we haven’t done to it is repaint it. The paint is in good condition but it isn’t perfect. It wins trophies at car shows and certainly turns heads on the freeway, and that is pretty much the point.
We’ve had it for almost 12 years and it has been garage-kept the entire time. Over the years, we’ve done the following:
- Rebuilt 289 engine with rebuilt 2bbl carb
- Rebuilt C4 transmission
- Gas tank removed and cleaned; gas line cleaned; new gas sending unit in tank
- Correct color white vinyl top
- Interior repaint
- Correct weave carpet (with Dynamat sound deadening underneath)
- Interior vinyl redo (except for seats – they were in great shape)
- New dash pad
- New windshield
- Most of the exterior trim re-chromed
- Correct pattern trunk mat
- New white wall tires (last month) and freshly painted rims
- Rear springs and shocks all around
- Complete re-wire so that everything works – even the cigarette lighter (!)
- Under-dash A/C repaired and converted to R134
- AM radio rebuilt and new mono speaker
- Glove box liner
- Correct show quality hubcaps
- Window fuzzy strips
All in all, we’ve nearly done a complete restoration with the exception of the exterior paint. The Comet drives like new and runs very strong thanks to the fine folks at Morgan & Sons Racing Engines (you may have seen them on TV on the American Outlaws show). We decided to put a mild cam in the 289, which gave it a nice sound and a little extra grunt.
Driving the Comet is like driving a time machine. Manual steering and manual drum breaks, a mono speaker AM radio and a silky smooth ride make tooling around in this car a pleasure.
If you are interested, please contact Randall Cass at randall@carshowradar.com. We’ve got a really thick file folder on the work that has been done, a photo album of the work in progress over our ownership and several trophies we can show you. We’re going to miss this car, but we want to pass it on to someone who will care for it and enjoy it like we did.
Oh, and here are a bunch of photos that we think you’ll like:
