The Comet was introduced in 1960. As the original plan was for it to be an Edsel, for the first two years it carried no Mercury branding, though it was sold at Mercury dealers. The Mercury nameplate was finally added, and the Comet stayed around into the late 1970s (though not always as a compact). A redesign came in 1964, and the Caliente was the top-of-the-line model (excluding the Cyclone, which was the performance edition). The seller has a solid ’64 Caliente that he intended to fix up, but that work now isn’t in the cards. Located in Northbrook, Illinois, this car was purchased as a barn find and is now available here on craigslist for $5,000.
Reworked in 1964, the Comet was still a Falcon unibody derivative, but now with a square-Ish shape like the bigger Mercury’s. Your basic ’64 Comet was a 202, then you stepped up to a 404, and next the Caliente, the fanciest Comet money could buy. A 170 cubic inch inline-6 was standard, though you could opt for a 260 V8 (and later a 289) that produced 164 hp. In Mercury circles, the Comet must have been a good seller, with 27,200 copies of the Caliente 4-door sedan finding buyers like this one.
As the story goes, the seller found this Merc in a barn and brought it home, and it’s stayed in his shed for about two years since. It hasn’t been running in some time, though the engine turns over (by hand?). The seller had intended to replace the 260 with a 302, but there isn’t a sufficient budget to fund this project further. The odometer reads 34,000 miles, but does that mean there’s an imaginary “1” at the beginning?
Overall, the faded Ford by-product is in good shape. The body doesn’t have rust even though it lived in Wisconsin previously. The windshield is cracked, and the gas tank is wrong (doesn’t fit?), but the interior is surprisingly nice in the photos. Some of the chrome is dented, but the seller has the necessary replacements. This would be a great car cleaned up and put into running condition, but further than that invites the age-old question: does it have too many doors? Thanks for the tip, “Rtdreep”!
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