100,000 Endurance Comet now witha Superior Shine

[Superior Fine]

100,000 Mile Endurance Mercury Comet !!

Every now and then I am lucky enough to detail a historically significant vehicle.
The list of vehicles I have detailed include various vehicles for major celebrities and even a MBZ 770 that belonged to Adolf Hitler to name a few.

This past summer I was called to detail the “Endurance Run Comet.� This particular Comet was the lead car of four cars in the Lincoln Mercury Divisions Durability Run at Daytona International Speedway, which began September 21, 1963 and finished on October 30, 1963. It averaged 108.354 mph for 100,000 miles of continuous driving for 40 days and nights.

The Durability Run was under the strict sanction of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, the Automobile Competition Committee of the United States, and the Federation International De L'Automobile.

After 50,000 miles this car held new world, national and American speed records. This car achieved the 50,000 unlimited class record with an average speed of 108.828 mph.

This Comet has 289 Hi Performance engine and is in original un-restored condition. Formerly a part of Harrah's Auto Collection, Collector Cars of Nags Head, and the Mustang Country Collection.
Mileage is now 101,594.

[Superior Fine]

My job was to prep this vehicle for the auction in Pebble beach.
This job wasn’t going to be the run of the mill detail job. I had to get it to look nice without damaging or removing any of the “character.� I wanted to leave as much evidence of its history all the while bringing it to its maximum potential.








I found the original Lacquer paint faded and the chrome and other brite work lightly pitted and oxidized.

[Superior Fine]

My very first step was to do a walk around. It was important for me take my time and do a nice and easy evaluation. I identified items that I wanted to leave and others that were OK to remove. I had to know what would be the best way to clean everything. It was very dirty but I determined that a “wet wash� would be OK and not damage anything. I did take the precaution to mask off an oil change sticker that was in the driver side door jam that was dated may 19, 1964. I also taped off all the door gaps so water would not enter the cabin area.

[Superior Fine]

After a very gentle wash I measured the paint to determine how aggressive I could get with it. Do you want to talk thin? Hows 1.6 mils!!!!!!




Nice and easy was the name of the game. I used my light polishing product of choice and took in slow with repeated light passes.

[Superior Fine]

In this picture you can see a section of fender that had been polished once or twice. I went over almost all the vehicle with at least four to five applications.

Compare it to the side that had only been washed.





She shines again!!! Here is the completed exterior -

[euro]

One of the coolest details I've seen here. Good job on keeping a piece of automotive history preserved.

[Frito Bandito]

Great work on a piece of automotive history! Nice write up, too! What did you use for an LSP?

[Setec Astronomy]

Pretty interesting, how did you keep from ruining that emblem on the passenger door that was already flaking off? I was also noting the subtle aerodynamic details such as that wind deflector on the hood ornament (why they didn't just remove the ornament I don't know) and that the passenger wiper arm was removed. That's really quite an achievement to maintain a 108 mph average for 40 days straight in a minimally modified '63 street car .

[Scottwax]

That is a really cool car! Interesting since that 40 day run, in the next 44 years, it only was driven a bit less than 1600 miles!

Excellent job on the detail, write-up and pictures!

[BigLouMaxSE]

Originally Posted by Scottwax

That is a really cool car! Interesting since that 40 day run, in the next 44 years, it only was driven a bit less than 1600 miles!

Excellent job on the detail, write-up and pictures!

And that's assuming that they rolled the car out and started at 0 miles!!

Great job, fantastic car.

[JoshVette]

Nice work, you really did a great job restoring that chrome and paint on such a rare car.

[topnotch]

Great work on that, something like that takes time and patience. I feel like I went back in time viewing this post.