1958 Ford Ranch Wagon "Class Project" - year 2

Christmas break

Over break I took all the front sheet metal in to have it blasted and then took the exterior pieces to a paint shop to get them primed.

Picking the pieces up from the blaster:




Taking the exterior pieces to the painter:


Primed pieces back home:


I learned a lot about the economics of body work in this exercise... Both of the companies gave me a good deal on the work, but it still put quite a hole in my build budget.

 

Looks great, pick! Yup...when I look at car to buy I try to avoid any that require body work. It's expensive.

 

Looking good there, thks for posting up progress posts/pictures. Don't see too many restored 58 Fords around here anyway. Like the detail restore you're giving that wagon. :2_thumbs_up_-_anima

 

Session 9

In this session we worked on adjusting the brakes so they are ready to bleed, mounting the radiator support and radiator and getting the motor to run without leaking anything.

I picked up a correct '58 radiator a couple months ago and the students got it cleaned up and painted. They got it bolted to the radiator support and set in place and then went about trying to hook up the hoses. The radiator hoses we used last year with the incorrect radiator don't work, so we had to make some adjustments. We also had to change the routing of the trans cooler lines (we're using the trans cooler out of the truck that the 390 was in).

We started up the motor and let it run a while. The radiator seems to hold water, but the bottom hose still drips a little...

 

excellent progress there OP

 

Nice to see the '58 coming along so nicely. Looking forward to getting my wagon to that point.

 

Session 10

Our class and our car have been invited to be part of a "Next Generation Exhibition" at the Corvette and High Performance show in Puyallup Washington next month. http://www.corvhp.com/ The car will be on display as an "in progress" project, but I'd like to be able to drive it into the building - so we have two classes to get it to move and stop.

In this last session we spent some time trying to mount the voltage regulator and starter solenoid on the radiator support so that we could get the engine compartment wired up before the inner fenders go on. I thought it would look good to keep the electricals off the inner fenders and hide the wiring as much as possible. Unfortunately, after we mocked up the inner fenders and battery tray we discovered that the mounting locations wouldn't work. So we'll have to rig up a temporary mount for the electricals for next month.

Now that the brakes are back together it was time to bleed them again.

 

Session 11

On Friday night Dave, Ken, and I made the command decision to put the inner fenders on so we can mount the electricals and have a place for the battery to sit so we can drive the car into the car show on the 12th.



We actually had more adults than students this week with both of my helpers present and only two of the kids. But it worked out okay because Ken spent most of his time getting another of my projects cars running that was blocking our way out of the garage.

After the students put the wheels back on and lowered the car off the jack stands, they got to work rewiring the engine compartment. The stock wires are pretty brittle and the wiring we added last year didn't look very pretty, so we're replacing everything and making sure that it's all routed nice.

Here Mitchell works on heat shrinking one of the connections where we've spliced into the original harness.


Anika worked on new wires from the alternator to the voltage regulator.


After Ken cleared the way out of the garage, we took the car for a quick drive around the block to make sure that it will be able to drive into the exhibition hall on the 12th. The car feels good with the new suspension.



The new front springs give it a little lower stance (it scrapes going out of the alley now). I'm anxious to see how it looks with the rest of the front sheet metal on.

 

Next Generation Exhibit - Corvette and High Performance Show

Our class and our project were invited to be part of the Next Generation Exhibit at the Corvette and High Performance show last weekend at the Puyallup fair grounds.

Ken was nice enough to borrow a trailer and tow the car down for me on Friday night.

Then Jake, Mitchell, Dave, Ken, and I went down on Saturday morning for the show. The setup was a little fancier than we're used to:



There was a lot of interest in the car and in our program. And not a lot of other Fords... or station wagons...



It started raining right at the end of the show and really started coming down on the way home. The car ended up with a bunch of water on the driver's floor.

 

Thanks for the update.

 

Great pictures! You car REALLY looks great at the show.You must have felt pretty good seeing it there. Awesome project keep us updated.

 

Session 12

Took the family to Hawaii for a week so our 12th class was delayed. Now we're back in dreary Seattle and back in the garage...

This week the engine wiring got finished up and we figured out a pulley/fan solution so we can run the engine now without worrying about the temperature.


Now that we've got the car running, driving, and stopping - it's time to start working on the body and interior.

To get ready, we starting stripping the interior (again) and removing a few more things off the body. I have floor patch panels on order, so we'll be welding those in soon.



So the seat came out, door panels came off, chrome trim came off the doors, rear bumper came off and the paint under the trim got ground off.

Now we're ready to do some cutting (floor doesn't look bad from this angle )


We're also going to rebuild the seat bottom since it was in real bad shape.

 

Lookin' like progress! You must have some nice dry weather in your garage or one heck of a dehumidifier. Almost a year that she's bare metal and no rust!

 

Session 13

This last class we worked on getting the interior taken further apart, started cleaning up some of the interior pieces, and started cutting out new door panels.


When we cleaned up the cargo area last year we stopped at the back seat. Now we've got the back seat completely apart so we can clean it up as well. We're thinking of covering the metal floor of the cargo area with vinyl tiles - linoleum or wood grain - something tasteful.

Now the interior is REALLY cleaned out and ready for dynamat and carpet.

 

My garage actually gets quite moist. Last year we rubbed down the body with Gibbs and haven't had any problems.