Technical A Kid's First Project: 1957 Fairlane 500 Town Victoria.

What this means is he needs current tags and registration on his 1957 Ford. This means the car will have to have insurance....his/the sellers insurance. A rusty tag from 1983, a crumbling 1983 registration and loose leaf bill of sale is not going to work.
I have gone through this. Louisiana sounds similar to Ohio. I had to provide the buyer with current registration. (proof that I was the owner). To get that registration the car had to be tagged and insured. It was no big deal because it was a driver and insured and tagged in my name. For a "field car" or non runner, he'll still have to get a current tag and registration to go with that Bill of Sale.

PS...As a seller I keep the actual tag. The tag number is on the tag receipt/registration. Louisiana took a photo of the truck with the tag. The reason I keep the tag....I had to pay a parking ticket in Atlanta for a car or truck I sold 10 years after the fact. It was either a 62 Ford Galaxie or 54 GMC. the parking ticket said "Ford Truck". Anyway I had to pay Atlanta a ticket because some vehicle had a tag in my name at the Atlanta Airport. They could have got that tag out of the Garbage...who knows. I keep the tag now.

 

the tag is a 2010 tag, with 2010 alabama license plates. he has registration somewhere, he needs to find it before i'll buy it, i don't know if this will work, but maybe we could to trailer it back to alabama, register it, transfer it, then bring it back. and get an ohio title in my name. thats just a shot in the dark as i've never bought an out of state car before, even if its in my own state.

 

but it looks like the way to go is a court ordered title its a messy process that may or may not work, and the car will need to be inspected (that'll be hilarious to see OSHP's reaction at the inspection office). and its a several month long process. but, it might work.

 

join these good info here and there.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/social-forums/1952-59-ford-social-group.282/

http://57fordsforever.com/smf/

 

thanks for this, if i get it i'll need to use this a lot.

 

Hello,

In any old 50’s sedans and coupes, the lower door weep holes is often an overlooked item. When it drains well as it is supposed to do, any car wash water, rain or any moisture running down the side into the glass area should get an exit out of those holes. But, most people just forget or do not know to keep those weep holes open for better drainage. If the water and moisture don’t have a place to exit, then it starts the sitting/rusting inside of the car doors and body panels, which is the first place most people knock on, with their knuckles.

In our family of old hot rods and factory sedans, that was one thing out of many that was told to us by our expert mechanic friend in Los Angeles. Despite the fact that most of our teenage cars were new or fairly new, I was given the job of keeping our sedans and hot rods clean. Part of my job as a pre-teen and teen was to get the weep holes cleaned out. If the water is dripping beyond the bottom of the door edges, then the weep holes are working.


Jnaki

One would guess as to which item is the main culprit in clogging up the weep holes. Well, a forgotten factory rubber cap is one. The next most clogs are small leaves that get wet and slide inside the window edges. It goes down the door chamber and sits on the bottom, plugging up any exit holes. So, a small pick or hook is necessary to get those mini leaves out and keep the flow of water going down those weep holes.

Vacuums aren’t pin pointed enough to suck out those clogs. One has to break them up then scrape them out. So, check for the weep hole clogs in those old rusty doors or even the ones that are not rusty, but old like a 57 Ford.

It sounds like something the factory has designed and implemented, but it is up to the car’s owner to maintain the free flow of water out of the bottom area of the door panels and body panels. Gravity plays a big part of the flow of any moisture/water drops, so check those bottom door and body panels.

As a young teen, we had a family friend who was an adviser to many of the teens in the neighborhood from the local youth groups. He drove us to a lot of places for our teen gatherings, before we got our driver's licenses. By the time I happen to mention the weep hole job I had for my brother's cars, as part of his leadership, he had me do the same thing to his 1957 Ford 2 door hardtop.

As funny as it seemed, during our teen gatherings, we had to drive his car around to make sure the water was draining completely. This was after a few trips and episodes when he noticed his car had not been in the same spot as when he left it parked. As the old saying goes... "If it presents itself, take the advantage, as it may not be there the next time."

 

i will definitely make sure those never get clogged, as there aren't any rust holes on the lower part of the doors now, i wouldn't want there to be from water being trapped.

 

Check the panel below and behind the rear license plate, that is one spot that mine has a bit of rot..rest of car is VERY solid.

 

Good luck!

 

i noticed a small bit of rust there, but it didnt look to have any holes.

 

Check the body supports where they attach to the inner rocker. My 57 Fairlane project was almost rust free, except for the rockers. I replaced all the inner pieces, as we had a lot of gravel roads when this car was new. If you look closely, you can see the gap where the crossmembers on the bottom of the floor attach at the body mount bolts, you will see the gaps between the floor and the crossmembers. Mud and silt can easily get in there, then water will wash everything down hill to the rockers where it all collects.
I'd bet money that the inner rockers are rusted out inside the body mounts where you can't see it. If not, you're pretty lucky. I have already hammered the edges of my crossmembers down so they fit the floorpan better, but they will be totally sealed with seam sealer before paint so moisture cannot get in there easily again.

I started my project with what I considered to be a rust free 57 Ford by what I could find around here. The gap you can see in the transmission tunnel is a good 3/8 inch. If I don't seal that up, it will just start all over again.
The rockers and body mounts were all needing some metal replacement, and this is the best 57 I could find.

 

i'll make sure to check those. as the outside doesnt seem to flex at all when i knocked on it. there might be some on the inside.

 

it took a lot longer than i expected, but i might finally be bringing it home, it was a lot worse than i remembered it being, but alas, still somewhat fixable, it might never be perfect, but its at least intact.

 

sadly, i cant get the motor to turn over now, not even with a wrench, i turned it all the way over a few months back... why wont it turn now?

 

Won't turn at all, or only turns a tiny bit? Is it a stick and stuck in gear? That'll do it. Otherwise, take the plugs out and spray the cylinders down real good with penetrating oil. Some guys use diesel fuel or transmission fluid to do the same thing. If it turned over a few months ago and just got locked up it should free up. Don't try to force it too much, you don't want to damage the rings.

Good idea to oil it up even if it did still turn, since the cylinders are really dry from sitting and you don't want to score/scratch them up turning the engine over dry.

 

not at all, im gonna head back this saturday and remove the plugs and use some marvel mystery in the cylinders.

 

I got real lucky with my '59, it was a west coast car with almost zero rust. The worst part was the inner hood on the front vertical surface. I chopped out the bad areas, used citric acid to remove the rest of the rust, hit it with POR15 and fiberglassed to rebuild what I cut out.

 

I got a 272 YBlock with my 56. It was stuck , I got it loose using a huge prybar on the flywheel teeth against the bellhousing. Anyway I bent a bunch of pushrods cuz it wasn't just stuck from the cylinders, also valves were stuck. So if you want to use the engine without a rebuild, which you may or may not, I would remove the valve covers and move slowly while you watch rockers, etc. Good luck keep us posted!

 

my plan was to rock it back and forth when im trying to get it unstuck with both rocker shafts removed. i dont want to rebuild more than i need to, and im readjusting the valves anyway.

edit: not sure what my brain even did there...

 

also, should i put bias plys on it, or radials, i know a type of tire thats technically a "light duty truck tire" that is a bias ply.

 

for as rusty as this one is, its floors are almost entirely intact, and its trunkpan is perfect, but the battery tray is gone, he said that he had a battery in it for the first couple years it sat, and the battery went pop in about 2014

 

I put a stock car battery tray from Speedway in my car, in the stock location. I machined off the lip on the back side and secured it with zinc plated carriage bolts, to the inner fender.

 

shes home, and i love her. rusty, beat up, and everything

 

im gonna ""borrow"" one from one of the many squarebody trucks we own, should work well enough

 

also, i fixed the hood... kinda, i need to weld in some new sheetmetal in the very front as it rusted away in the front. but at least it closed enough to move it

 

on another note, this car is so oddly optioned, i dont think there is another like it. its a post sedan, 4 door, 3 speed manual, 292 thunderbird, with the trunk antenna, dual wide mirrors, no ac, no power steering, no power brakes, luxury cloth interior, deluxe hubcaps, and manual seats.

 

so i started taking her apart, and finally popped the trunk open, i found the original factory floormats... how rare are these?

 

Start with the basics. You need to get this car running, or verify that engine is beyond repair.

Obviously it has not started or run in a very long time. I would pull the distributor and get an oil pump priming tool and run some oil pressure through that engine. I'd soak the valvetrain down in some Marvel, and use a wooden block and mallet to tap on the tops of the valve to free any stuck ones in the guides. Then liberally apply in the cylinders to free up some stuck rings. Clearly you're going to need new wires and whatnot. But if the engine is frozen, you can cut right to the chase and pull it.

 

The rubber mats are probably pretty brittle, might be salvageable. The bumper jack is worth keeping and cleaning up, for someone who is restoring a 50's Ford that is.