1958 Country Sedan project

Turns out the replacement speedo cable is too long for the sheath. I clipped it off and am about to mold the end into a square to fit the lower end gear. But I am not pleased.
After spinning the 55 year old replacement cable with a cordless drill it makes a woop-woop-woop noise that makes the needle bounce like crazy. This suggests a slight bend in the cable that will make itself known everytime I drive the car.

Seems like I wasted my money again on yet another ebay sucker auction.

Guess I'd better look for a good modern replacement cable/sheath replacement combo and bite the bullet on the price.

At least my freeing up the speedo head with the drill motor and a pint of liquid wrench was successful.

 

Well, it was a painfull Saturday yesterday. Bitter sweet actually, if truth be told.
The 1957 Ford speedo replacement cable I purchased was with-out the sheath and ended up too long.
I suspect it was for a pickup truck. But the seller said it would fit the Ford Sedan/Wagon line so who was I to quibble.
It didn't fit and turned out to be about 2' too long.

Snipping off the end and grinding a square fitting isn't the right policy as all I managed to do was ruin an already ruined/bent/rusted-over-time cable anyway.

so... threw it all in the trash and this morning went back to Ebay and purchased yet another new replacement. This time WITH the sheath and correctly machined ends.
Be here some time this coming week. Probably Thurs.


At least I have a freshened up gauge cluster with Day-Glo needles again. Plus I broke the speedo head free so it spins just like it's suppose to.

AND after replacing the head light switch... I now have a working dimmer switch!!! It was soooooo pretty last night sitting in the front seat basking in the glow of the dash lights.... (Meatloaf comes to mind but no girl)
*sigh*



Think I'll go wash the car.

 

Stay at it; you're making progress!

These car projects are all the same...two steps forward, one step back...

 

Can we ask for of the day glo instrument panel? maybe some in the dark?

 

Well... maybe the correct word was "fluorescent".
As in the needles.

The rest of the instruments are same as any other '58 Ford, which is to say off-white background instead of the '57 which is black.
But the needles are all suppose to be fluorescent orange.

Problem with my car was that the dash was sun bleached and all the needles had turned white like the background making viewing where they were pointing difficult to see exactly at a glance.


All I did was place a piece of paper under the needle and hit it with a drop of Practra Lacquer fluorescent orange shot through an Iawata double action top loader airbrush. Bingo-bango-bongo they were done!

Took all of 30 seconds to freshen up after taking two hours to remove the stupid instrument cluster.

The rest of the day was spent farting around with the speedo head and cable.

But I swept the day away successfully with a Whisky broom and watched the new Hobbit movie!

Today I'm painting slot car bodies.

I even picked this "Sunpro" tach because it has a white face like the rest of the dash lights.

 

Woo! Woo! Woo! (Goober sounds again!) That picture of the dash in the dark is ART! Awesome, great work! Keep us posted on getting that speedo working. Thank You!

 

FYI and for future reference. Aftermarket cables are available. They come with one end forged square, which fits into the transmission. The other end is cut to length and has a nylon square which is epoxied to the cable and fits into the speedo head.

 

Well, that is good to know for the future.
But I already ordered a new cable and sheath Sunday morning. Be here on Thursday and installed same day.

Good news is that the car ran flawlessly today.
It's getting so that I look forward to the chance to drive anymore and that could get expensive... considering the price of fuel.

On another note, July 27th marks my second anniversary of owning this wonderful machine. No big deal, just making note that it's been two years since the purchase.... and two years since I've been a member of the forum.

 

Fed Ex arrived with a package today about 6pm.
Surprise of all surprises it was my speedometer cable!

So.... I poured a pint and found some tools....

40 some odd minutes later...

IT WORKS!
This is the first instance of that needle moving off the stop while the car is traveling forward! Pretty damn cool I think... after driving it for 2 years with none. It will take time to get use to.

 

Very nice Jairus, congrats!

 

Ya gotta love it when a plan comes together! Those are the "ahhhh" moments indeed during a build and the pint is either the reward or the consulation prize. LOL! :2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

Can you bury the needle to the far right, without needing to use the drill ?
If you're worried about fuel milage, you could power your car with a natural gas bottle and push a button which switches over to gasoline feed for when you need to pass a vehicle or to drag race

 

Tuesday last I finally received the needed new window glass.
Changed out the door glass, door felts and runs on the drivers door.


The glass in that door had a couple major cracks in it and had begun de-laminating around the edges when I purchased the car two years ago. The felts were totally gone, rotted out years ago, and the glass panel rattled with each bump and when the door was closed. I used folded bits of paper jammed into the slot to keep my sanity for a long time. But the day I slammed the door too hard and totally shattered the panel... is when I set about collecting the bits to do both front doors.

Process took about 10 hours to do (just one door) because some things just required a lot of experimentation to figure out retrofitting the new parts in the places of the old. But... the new glass rolls up/down smoothly and doesn't rattle when the door is closed!

Still have to put in the down stop and re-attach the door panel this evening.

I'll do a full step by step with photos very soon when I do the passenger door. Hopefully Monday (Labor Day) morning.
Till then, I love having quiet glass and no cracks!

 

Well, this is not the full up step by step I had planned on posting. Sorry.
The second door didn't turn out any easier than the first... plus I had some retrofitting to do to get the felt strip attached to the newly painted interior frame. But.... both doors are now done!



One of the tips I can share and the only step I took pictures of... was the clips that hold the back and upper sloted rail.

The rail comes long and has to be cut down and bent. I used the glass to make the "L" bend and cut it to length to match the old one pulled out.
But there are 5 pop in clips on the old one that needed to be removed. This clips hold the rail up in the door frame. They were factory tabbed to the old rail. Only way I could get them to attach to the new rail was to clear off the rubber molding and silver solder all 5 in place. The lower end (12" long channel on the back of the door couldn't be tabbed to the old rail so I used epoxy and let it set up for a couple hours.

The one step of forming and tabbing took about 2 hours to complete and install for example.

Not a project I want to do again. Think I'll live with the rear door glass... for a while.
But the nicest thing I accomplished, besides clear window that roll up and down is the painted frames!

I know its a small thing, but I've lived with the bare metal/slowly rusting frames for TWO YEARS now! Like the center pillar and the rear door frame for example. Those I might pull and paint during the next few weeks since thats not hard to do and we have no shows coming up.

Note the Bali Bronze doesn't quite match the dash? The paint shop mixed it up from formulas as a replacement since the old paint is no longer available.
This will necessitate my painting the dash eventually. But... it's pretty faded on top anyway.


For now... the "Surf Rat" lives with fewer rattles!

 

Great work Jairus. Only thing I see wrong is that gauge on the far left is not reading very high up.
And be careful opening those doors next to the planters.
and driving don't mix.