Kadinger’s Comets include his black ’72 race car (on the right) and white ’72 GT (far left) which will become his daily driver. The blue Maverick Grabber in the middle is a project car owned by Duane’s son.

We found a couple of Comets orbiting near the suburbs of Sacramento. These two Mercury Comets are the featured cars in our “Reader’s Wheels” segment this week.  We love to see the projects that our readers are working on and the story behind the projects and these two Comets are a perfect example of what we look for. 

Duane Kadinger has always loved the Ford Mavericks and wanted to pick one up as a project. While cruising the web looking for a Maverick that he could turn into his own custom, he found a Mercury Comet on craigslist. “I had never heard of a Comet. As soon as I saw the car, I was in love and had to have it,” said Duane.

Kadinger’s first Mercury Comet project car.

Plunking down $500, the Comet was his and the project was under way. He has owned the car for the past six years. Duane says that he has put “$10,000 into the project to date, and has plenty more to go.” 

Picking up his project car in Rancho Cordova, a mere ten-minute drive from his house, the Mercury originally listed on Craigslist for $1,800. Seeing that the car “had a bad transmission and no interior of any kind other than an egg crate, I talked the seller down to $500.

Duane explained “I would have been devastated if the seller had said no because $500 was all the money I could come up with,” adding “I even had to skip paying the electric bill that month. I was so broke but I had to have it.”

“The thing that attracts me most to the Comets are the shape of the front end and the tail lights. They are just a sexy design,” he explained.

The one of the few problem areas that Kadinger has with the Comet centers around the limited amount of clearance in the engine bay.

Mercury made the Comet from 1960-1969 and 1971-1977 alternating between a compact and an intermediate car. Originally planned as an Edsel model, the Comet became a stand alone product when the Edsel marque was folded. By 1971 the Comet was revived in it’s fifth generation as Mercury’s version of the Ford Maverick compact.

Duane’s 1972 Comet shared most of the sheet metal with the Maverick except for the components that Duane finds defining about the Comet; the grille, the tail lights and the hood. The “sexy” tail lights were also used on the 1970 and 1971 Montego and Cyclone models. 

The original base models of the ’72 Comets came with a 170cid straight six that produced a modest 82hp at 4400rpm. An optional 250cid straight six producing 98hp was also available in ’72 but the 302 V8 option, which produced a more impressive 138hp, was much more desirable to muscle fanatics.

Duane’s Comet has the 302cid engine which has been bored 0.40 over. He added an Edelbrock circle track water pump for better cooling, a Professional Products Hurricane intake manifold with an Edelbrock 650cfm carb on top. 

Duane’s 1972 Comet Specs

• 302cid bore +0.40
• Edelbrock water pump
• Hurricane intake manifold
• Edelbrock 650cfm carburetor
• COMP Cams extreme energy cam
• C4 transmission with 2,500 stall converter
• Hedman longtube headers
• HEI distributor
• 8mm plug wires

According to Duane, “the hardest thing to work with has been the clearance issues. Even changing spark plugs with the original exhaust manifolds was a major job. It took me four-hours to change eight plugs.” Changing some parts has helped with clearance as he noted; “Now that the old exhaust is off and I have the Hedman Hedders on, spark plug changes aren’t too terrible anymore.”

Sadly, Duane’s black Comet experienced a blown engine. While it may be down for the moment, it’s certainly not out. He is having a local machine shop, Pearl’s Performance, build a 363 stroker to power the mighty compact.

“The engine will produce over 1,000hp and will go to the track regularly. The engine started out with a Dart 302 block with all forged internals to support a Weiand supercharger and two Quick Fuel carbs. We’ve also rounded up a Melling high volume oil pump and eight quart oil pan,” Duane said proudly. “I’m using a double roller timing chain too.”

“My plan is to make the black Comet a racecar,” he explained. My white ’72 Comet GT will become a daily driver. It’s not there yet and I still have plenty to do there as well.”

Duane has owned the white Comet GT for a year. Entering into another round of hard negotiations with the seller, he was able to drop the price to $1,975 after a week of counter-offers.

The previous owner was parting the car out on Craigslist. “I had to convince him to sell me the whole car,” Duane said. “I just had to rescue it from being cut up. The seller said he had a guy coming the following weekend to cut the quarter panels out.”

Kadinger’s second Comet was saved from being cut up.

The seller and Duane emailed back and forth, pricing every single part out, eventually coming up with a price that they both could live with. “I still saved the car from being cut up,” he says with a smile.

Unable to do much with the new Comet while he focuses on the black racecar, he has managed to find a set of bucket seats for the second project car. After laying Dynomat down on the floorboards, Duane has installed a new carpet kit.

Currently the white Comet has a running 302cid that has been upgraded with a Typhoon four-barrel intake and COMP Cams extreme energy camshaft.

Next up for Kadinger is making his white Comet into a dependable daily driver.

He intends to turn his white daily driver Comet into a resto-mod of sorts. “I will fix this car up to be a really nice driver with air conditioning. It came to me with front disc brakes and power steering and I have recently added disc brakes to the rear for even more stopping power.” 

While they are still projects that are in progress, Duane wouldn’t do without them. “I will never part with either of my cars. They are not for sale,” he states confidently. If you’d like to share your ride with us here at SLTV, send us an email at Reader’s Wheels, and tell us a little about your car. Get some pictures ready and we’ll contact you and get more information and you’ll be on your way to sharing your car with the rest of our readers.