Projects 1954 Ford Customline Resurrection/Build

I am getting back on my '54 and just read through all your thread so far. It looks like things had moved decently well in the beginning. You're enthusiasm has definitely helped my own motivation to get this girl back on the road after ten years.

 

I’m still kicking away at it, stuck trying to make some headers. One of these days I will document some of the progress I made..


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Guess I will try and get some updates posted since I’m stuck at the in laws this weekend. I left off after getting the front crossmember welded up.

After that was done I started in on rebuilding the front end. The frame is brushed heavily in “professional” black rustoleum. If I could do it again, I’d probably get some better paint on there, but at the time I didn’t have a compressor, and I still haven’t rounded up a paint gun. Alas...

 

That looks good, I did the same thing, I brushed the entire frame on our Ranch Wagon. HRP

 

The next thing was getting motor mounts in for the 302 I built.

I know a lot of people who have installed sbf’s use the original ‘54 motor mounts and cut some slots out for the mounts, but you can see in the previous pics that those had been cut off at some point.

The guy before me had welded in some 302 mounts on the frame rails for a different type of motor mount, but I decided to try and replicate the original style mounts since there is a lot more info out there about how to locate the trans tailshaft on the original transmission crossmember when using the original 239 mounts.

And yeah I’m aware that my welds suck. This is definitely one of the weaknesses in the build, but I feel like the mounts are in ok. The weak spot is on the bottom of the mounts where they butt against the frame but any downward force is just going to force the mount closer to the crossmember tube.

 

Upgraded the wheels and tires.

Had the wheels powder coated in black and I think they turned out great! Definitely one of the nicer things on the car..

 

The steering box was also awfully crusty, but it cleaned up pretty nicely. I ended up taking it back apart later and swapping out some better gears after I jacked up the worm gear bearing while trying to get the adjusting shims in.

As an FYI to anyone thinking of rebuilding their steering box, the hole for the horn wire pretty much allows gear oil to run right out. I think there is a rod originally that is supposed to go in that seals it up but mine was toast so I filled the box with some white lithium grease that seems to do the trick. To
Change it eventually I suppose you could flush the box with solvent and then refill once it dries..

 

Not too much detail on the rear diff rebuild but here are some before and after pics for anyone interested

 

I’ll spare you all the heartburn you would experience seeing how I got the body swapped but here are some pics after the work was mostly done.

 

Alright, getting close to getting caught up.

I wasted a lot of time trying to track down all the 5.0 efi components and trying to make some headers which would perfectly match the ports on the heads I’m using.

I finally threw in the towel and swapped out the upper and lower manifolds for an Edelbrock performer and a Holley 4160, and went with some hedman 88400 headers. The ports on the headers match at the top and bottom but hang over the sides of the exhaust port on the head slightly IIRC. I can live with that for a while.

Felt good to get all that together and get it fired up for a short test that weekend.

 

For the throttle linkage, I adapted the original firewall linkage with a rod and some swivel ends and welded it up. I will probably try and get something a little nicer in there in the future with some adjustment, but this works for now...

 

From there I started refreshing the front clip, got the radiator, alternator, and belt in.

Also had to swap the timing cover and water pump out again back to the ‘68 style in order to allow for the water pump to rotate the proper direction without having to round up a couple of idler pulleys to get the serpentine belt running the right way.

This gets us caught up to today. I test fired the engine for a little longer with radiator and water pump in and now just need to get to work tuning everything

So close to driving this heap again....

 

Nothing wrong with brush painted Rust Oleum. It will protect the frame from further rust and takes a while to completely dry. What you did looks good and you'll only see it when you put mirrors on the ground to show it off at the shows. Tip. Don't put mirrors on the ground at shows to show everyone the frame.

 

By the way, I have a ton of Ford Explorer efi parts for sale if anyone wants to go that route


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Looking good. Nice job.

 

The cast aluminum is worth decent money as scrap.... That what I do with 'em.... LOL

 

So this is basic, but I test fired the engine the other night and the cheap electric fuel pump I had laying around doesn’t have any sort of shut off feature and pumped a ton of gas into the cylinders. I’m changing the oil out and I got a new Holley pump which is supposed to “self regulate”

Is there anything else I need to get the fuel system going? Return line? Etc?


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I have a '55 Fairlane 4 door that my parents bought new. Same chassis as your '54. '54 was the first year with ball joints, '53 and earlier had king pins. One thing to check on '54-'56 Fords is the front crossmember under the radiator that the front legs of the lower A arms connect to. This crossmember is prone to rusting from the inside and the bolts that hold the A arms to pull through. Get under it with a big screwdriver and poke that crossmember hard, especially around the A-Arm bolts, to be sure it is solid and not weakened by rust penetration. Replace the crossmember if it's questionable. One of my cousins wrecked a '55 Club Coupe because the crossmember failed and caused him to lose control. Fortunately he went into a ditch instead of oncoming traffic.

 

I’m looking for an explorer intake


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I actually just swapped the whole frame due to this lol

It worked out well because I was able to sell parts off the parts car to fund my build and work on the frame while it was separate from the body I’m using


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Buy a regulator even with the new pump, it’s good to be able to fine tune your fuel pressure.

I like to use the holley regulator with two outlets and put a pressure gauge in one of the outlets so I can check fuel pressure at a glance.

A few years ago I had a mechanical pump on my ‘54 wagon that was putting out 18psi!


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Pm sent


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You are doing a great job. Thanks for the updates.

 

Anyone have thoughts on electric fuel pump mounting locations?

I ran my car a bit a couple weeks ago off a gas can with an old electric pump and the car did fine

Then I got a Holley mighty mite pump and installed it on the inner fender and ran the line to the tank and now the car runs for a few seconds and then dies, almost like it’s running off the fuel in the bowl but starves once it runs out of fuel from the bowl.

I pumped the gas out of the tank into a gas can and it seemed to flow fine...

Any thoughts? I’m thinking of moving the pump back to near the tank.


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That is exactly where it needs to be. An electric pump will push gasoline better than pull it like a conventional engine driven fuel pump.

 

I kind of thought you would have to go the "short" water pump route when I saw your headers mounted as your engine is further forward than mine notice the steering box placement in this picture. Also HEDMAN 88400's

 

Your mounts reminded me of another post from a while back where a guy had to fix a mount issue similar to yours https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/faq-sticky.897329/page-4 Post numbers 117 & 118 Notice the distance from the valve cover to the firewall, usually the HEDMAN 88400's don't clear with a 351W like a 302 will but with the setback they do. This also gives more radiator to fan clearance.

 

I ended up using some spacers from the hardware store on the radiator bolts to push the rad forward enough and I’m going to use an electric fan mounted in front. I’ll have to cut up the grill support a bit to make the fan work.

The engine is way forward but I think my mounts are pretty close to where the originals were, and the tail of the AOD sits on the original transmission crossmember as well, so not sure how I could have pushed it back much farther




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just getting caught up you mentioned the steering box leaked and you put white grease on I believe the hole for horn wire is you may as well piss in the wind as the grease well do nothing.there is (was)a tube that the horn wire ran through it may have rusted away by looks of rust in the shot of the box you posted.possibility you would have not realized what was left of it.you do need to figure a way to replace it as it will keep the grease from leaking as it should sit above the grease level.

 

I plugged the hole with a rubber stopper jammed waaaay in there. Nothing is coming out of there now.


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