1952-59 Ford Kovid Kustomline build thread

Rear seat panels are almost finished. I am missing the passenger armrest so if anyone has an armrest and/or the ashtray for the passenger side they would be willing to let go, let me know. Also, got her out yesterday at lunch.

 

I'm jealous. Keep em coming.

 

Scored a box of arm rests from my dad which had the missing passenger side front and back that I needed. The Ash tray cleaned up nicely. Also took the wife and dog out for a first day of spring ride.  

 

After 8+ years of usage, it was time to replace the flexible exhaust tubes running from the headers to the mufflers with some hard pipe. Also ran the exhaust all the way to the bumper instead of ending at the rear axle. Very pleased that I can now have a conversation in the car and no longer smell of exhaust after a ride.

20220322_163102 by Dos Cincos posted Mar 22, 2022 at 6:17 PM

20220322_163116 by Dos Cincos posted Mar 22, 2022 at 6:17 PM

20220322_165326 by Dos Cincos posted Mar 22, 2022 at 6:17 PM

20220322_172003 by Dos Cincos posted Mar 22, 2022 at 6:17 PM

New exhaust by Dos Cincos posted Mar 22, 2022 at 8:07 PM

 

Was able to get both door panels finished up and installed today. Hard to get a good picture of the zodiac flake but it pops. Thankfully I have enough material left to make some kick panels next. Is everyone using velcro to hold them in place? Also, what is the trick to getting the bolt out of the hand strap for the backseat?

Passenger side interior panels by Dos Cincos posted Mar 25, 2022 at 5:32 PM

Drivers side interior panels by Dos Cincos posted Mar 25, 2022 at 5:32 PM

20220325_171504 by Dos Cincos posted Mar 25, 2022 at 5:32 PM

 

Door panels look great! My kick panels are held in place by a channel on the door side. I can grab a pic tomorrow if it would help. May be different on yours.

 

I have door panels and kick panels held in place with Velcroe in my 53 F100 and it works good. It is the heavy duty industrial stuff.

 

Velcro strips in my '57 as well. Used it to replace the OEM style snap-in clips.

 

One more picture of the zodiac material in the sun.

Zodiac sparkling in the sun by Dos Cincos posted Mar 26, 2022 at 5:22 PM

 

Got tired of wondering what the inner wheel wells would look like if painted white so went ahead and just did it. Not as much of an impact statement with the car in grey primer but will look kool once it is blue. Just another small kustom touch that most wont even realize is there.

20220429_135448 by Dos Cincos posted Apr 29, 2022 at 2:37 PM

20220429_135402 by Dos Cincos posted Apr 29, 2022 at 2:37 PM

 

Looks good and does make a difference that will stand out even more once you get it blue!

 

Coming along nicely.

 

Thank you sir.

And thank you sir

 

Door panels = very, very nice! Also, if you paint the car the same color as your window frames, those white fenderwells are really gonna make the car pop!!

 

Thank you! Yes, the plan is for the car to be very similar to the window frames once finished.

 

Nice!

 

Someone grabbed a cool picture of me leaving a show last year in the Kovid Kustomline

Ridz by the River Fall 2021 by Dos Cincos posted May 31, 2022 at 9:55 PM

and then another one heading into the same show this year.

Ridz bybthe River Spring 2022_1 by Dos Cincos posted May 31, 2022 at 9:55 PM

It's kind of cool to see your car rolling down the road from others perspective.

 

Looks Nice

 

The Kustomline ran pretty hot the last time I had her out so I decided it was time to drain and flush the cooling system. Started off by draining the old coolant which was fairly nasty.



Then I added some ThermoCure to the radiator and ran it for three hours over several days to clean out all of the rust from the system. Then drained that and back flushed the whole system.
This is the ThermoCure results.


After the back flush I replaced the thermostat (180°) and added a sacrificial anode in place of the petcock valve on the radiator.


Took her for a spin and she holds at just a tick above 180 with no leaks so I'm calling it a win. Probably need to look into an actual shroud for the electric fan next to help with long Atlanta stop lights.

 

Yes on the shroud.

 

I put a sacrificial anode in my radiator, figured after 3 years I'd buy some fresh zinc pieces. I took the old one out... It was perfect, but I put in a new one since I had 5. Probably the ground********* the radiator to the support helps.

 

Yep, nothing like seeing your car on the road! Looks great!

 

Quick update. Local Goodwill store had two rear seat grab straps keenly disguised as a woman's belt. For $3.00 I was able to get both straps out of it.

 

Took the Kustomline out to a local show last weekend, just to have the small 90° bypass hose from the thermostat housing to water pump burst upon parking for the show.


Needless to say, all of the recently added coolant went everywhere in the engine compartment. Thankfully the local parts store had what I needed and I was able to drive her home.
A byproduct of all of that was forcing me to do some badly needed engine bay cleanup. Some of which I already knew from my post in the engine thread.
Before:


After:



Still more to be done but it is an improvement.

 

That is a good idea. I need to do something similar on mine

 

Good call on the seat grab straps! Great use of repurposed materials!

 

Been chasing an overheating issue, or at least a perceived issue (hard to tell when it is +95° with humidity just as high). I wound up dialing the timing back to 10° and then leaned up the carburetor a tad more and also decided to swap the radiator cap back to the 16 psi cap that came with the radiator instead of the one I had purchased from Amazon that was rated for 14-18 psi (not sure that 2psi really would affect the temp). The changes seemed to help keep the temp down while running around and stop light to stop light traffic but now I'm wondering if the cap had any effect or if it was all just in the timing/carb adjustment?
Also, found this cool old church round the corner from me that looked like it fit the era of my car so stopped for a quick pic and then muted the colors a bit for a more vintage look.

 

Dos Cincos, can I share that photo of the car in the church parking lot on my website with your permission? I would be glad to give credit to where credit is due...

 

Wow, absolutely. Will be interesting to see how you use the picture. Thanks!

 

Later this summer I will have a blog post showing a lot of the rides and some of the other work that guys are getting done. I do appreciate it - and nice job on those colors!