1958 Country Sedan project

OOOOOHHHHHH, that's SWEET, Jairus!

 

Very nice! Now what will it look like with Mike's Bullitt wheels on it?

 

Well, I really want to keep the wheels vintage. Chrome reverse sans caps or 5-spoke American Torque Thrust are what I am looking for.

 

Jairus- Now that is the right color for your woodgrain. Do not attempt anything else. Please let us know when this is complete. And oh, just spraying those steelies red and keeping the hubcaps might be the finishing touch.

 

Just a quick post tonight. Tired and still need to airbrush a couple t-shirts before dreamland.

Drove up to Portland for the Portland Roadster Show. Our t-shirt co. has a vendor booth in the three day show.

I snapped this pic seconds before things got tense. The truck on the right decided he wanted over as the two trucks ahead were slowing because of the hill. The pickup to the left was poking along while I and the big rig were doing 60 easy. Really had to punch it to get out of the way of that 18-wheeler as he was COMING OVER regardless!!!
*sheesh*

Anyway, we made it to the Expo center and now the cars are safely under cover for 3 days.



I will take more pics and post in the car show forum tomorrow. But in Building "C" (there are three buildings) I noticed this really cool '57 wagon that looked just bitch'n.


Guess what he had for an engine ladies?

Looks strangely like mine huh? Yup, that's an FE. Note the electric wiper motor. Not Ford... so I am guessing some type of 50's GM product. Can't wait to talk to the owner this weekend and share notes.

 

WOW....that's a nice booth you have! And BIG!

 

Very cool! I noticed a few drops on your windshield, the new wiper motor working ok?

 

Just north of Woodburn the rain poured and the truck spray was incredible on I-5 and yet the wipers and defogger kept the windshield clear. Never forgot I was driving a 54 year old piece of equipment you understand... but yeah, they work just fine.
Wanted to take a pic then but afraid to take my eyes off the road for a second.

 

That looks like a clean wiper conversion on the '57. It does look a little tight on the driver's side valve cover though.

 

Home again after a long 3 day weekend. Never got to talk to the owner of the '57. He stayed away from his car all three days and when the doors opened jetted out. Never saw him even tho I was at my booth constantly all three days, he never came over. Yet, I frequently took tours over to his car and never saw him. Too bad, would have liked to talk about a number of things. Could have use his help. I wonder why such people remain distant and elusive like that?

 

That is odd.......2 almost same year Ford long roofs, seems like there would have been more interest. Maybe there's a good reason? :confused:

 

Finally got something done to the wagon worth reporting. Trying to NOT spend any more money right now saving up for a Radiator and all. But... for only $8 bucks I replaced the few broken clips that were missing and put on the old trim that came with the car.



Not giving up on the woodgrain idea at all! But that is a long range project, and in the mean time it would be nice to have a little shiny on the wagon. Plus it covers up all those holes...



Speaking of saving money.... driving this machine on a daily basis is turning out more expensive than I thought. Soon as the weather warms up I am going back to my bicycle! Just sick spending so much money on gas every week.

Next project is to put in some kick panels with speaker mounts and install a set of 6x9's in the back to cover up the rattles with tunes.

Stay tuned to this same Rat channel for updates as they happen.

 

That trim looks great. If it where me I'd keep that look. Very nice.

 

Looking good Jairus!!!!!

 

New update: (kind of long)
Swap meet this last weekend yielded virtually nothing in the way of parts and bits for the wagon. The swap at the Expo center is the biggest in the Northwest with sellers and buyers coming from California, Washington, Canada, Idaho and Utah. Thousands of sellers located in and on the Expo grounds and on the Portland International Raceway track and infield Wednesday through Sunday. My head is still reeling over the number of parts my little brain identified, sorted and categorized each second walking the track, through the halls of the Expo and all around the parking areas. Cars for sale were in abundance of course including wagons. Took a bunch of pictures, which I will post later, but it was the lack of Ford parts that baffled me.

At the very least 75% of all the parts being sold were Chevrolet/GM in origin. Mostly for machines from 1955 to 1967. The rest was split up in Ford, Mopar and Studebaker. (No kidding!) Very little of anything else and almost(I said almost) NOTHING for a 1958 Ford!

One guy had a trailer full of bits off a few 57's, but I found a two front signal lights from a '58, but nothing else I could use there.

My list of items that I was looking for included a rear bumper with less twists than mine. Front grill center bar and a set of chrome head light doors. But they never showed themselves in 4 days of searching.

What I did find was a generic Ford lighter socket and element with-out the knob and a dash clock. Yup, a genuwine 1958 Ford chronograph! From the outside it didn't look like much, lots of rust. But once cracked open I found a near mint movement that only required a touch of cleaning to get working once again.


Like all automotive clocks of the period this one is an electro-mechanical device that basically winds itself up once every 4 or 5 minutes.



Behind the movement are two electro magnets that are activated when the contacts close as the spring loaded center bar winds down. The magnets pulse grabbing the center bar putting yet another load on the spring keeping the movement going. Should the center bar fail to "rewind" the movement, the process would wind down and stop.



Many years ago... 1983 to be exact, I purchased a 1969 Mustang coupe with a rally clock in the dash. It didn't work so I pulled it out and fooled with it. Nothing I did could get it to work including oiling it with light sewing machine oil. Figuring that I killed the thing with the oil I dumped lighter fluid on the works to clean off the oil.
The darned thing started working and never stopped the 7 or 8 years I owned it till it was sold to the next owner. When I purchased a 1972 Mustang in 1998 I did the same thing to that clock and it worked... pretty well. But then that car had problems anyway.

So... best I can figure, the combination of oil and lighter fluid, plus blowing it out with compressed air cleans the movement.
Right now it is sitting on the work bench running off a battery charger. If it lasts all night and keeps time, I'll clean up the punky looking container and install it in the dash.
Not bad for $10 bucks huh?

Oh... for those of you wanting to suggest I go and install a NEW quartz movement because it's better....
Please keep in mind that I have a working vacuum wiper motor, working 8-track player, well adjusted points and a mechanical carb that fires that 390 hot or cold with only a blip of the key.
I swing Ol'school man!