Projects The Adventure of a Boy and His Edsel

Another quick update for those that are following along. Not much new with the car other than Silas continuing to drive it carefully since he is still in a sling and not sure what they are going to do with his shoulder yet. Also, the insurance company for the guy that backed into Pinky was finally able to get in touch with him to verify fault on his part. So, we took the car to a local body shop to get an estimate on the damage yesterday. I have to admit that I was amazed at what the estimate was and am not sure how anyone affords to get a car painted anymore if you have to pay for both labor and materials. I was shocked to say the least... I just sent the estimate to the insurance adjuster, so I assume the arguing will start soon.

And, a pic since all posts are better with pics. Chris Brown caught Silas driving on the reliability run during the Gathering at the Roc.

 

I just got an email from the insurance company dealing with the damage from the parking lot incident. It sounds like they are going to pay the full amount of the estimate! I am shocked to say the least!

 

That is a shock. But a good one!

 

Well, the insurance check made it and sure enough was the full amount of the estimate which happened to honestly be quite a bit more than Silas has in the car. Anyway, appears he now has some money to do some other things to pinky, his 63 C10 project that he wants to finish to debut at the Gathering at the Roc next October AND his OT car he wants to build into a drag car. We will see how that all goes. And, I posted this pic in another thread. But, here he is blowing past me in his hot rod Edsel on my first trip on the interstate in my '50 Buick. He thought it was funny...

 

Thats great news. He must be crazy happy!

 

Glad it all worked out.

18 and some cash in hand! Haha I remember those days. World is in the palm of his hand.

 

Had to laugh today. Went to the parts store and going the opposite way I saw, you guessed it, a pink four door Edsel with a white roof and wide whites. no time to take a pic but for a moment I thought to myself that the kid gets around.

 

Lol! That’s too funny! Silas does get around, but hasn’t ventured that far yet. He is talking about heading to either Texas or Missouri this weekend, but not sure if either is going to happen or not yet.

 

It is funny ........

 

First stop after depositing the insurance check... Pinky needed a good cleaning.

 

Seems Silas and pinky made it down to Arlington, TX with no real issues. He sent me a couple pics from the trip down.

 

Silas and pinky made it back safe from Texas about 2 am this morning. Sounds like he’s not a fan of DFW traffic after this weekend. I can’t blame him there. Sounds like we need to adjust brakes and check a few things over after the 600 or so mile trip.

 

Way to go, Silas. I was not much older than you when I drove from Joplin, MO to Spokane, WA. In the WINTER.

Ben

 

600 miles is a hike in an old car. Mine have been local so far, have not taken it off Long Island due to the bad roads that lead to the GW or Verrazano Bridges.

 

600 miles RT is a heck of a shakedown run, going into places like DFW area (been there but 25 years ago) makes you think about being a defensive driver, realizing you’re not is a ‘15, ‘16 whatever.
Then gives him stuff to think about and improve, seems like a triple win

 

I was (am) just too dumb to worry about stuff like this. In 1992, with about 30 miles on the clock, I took Clarence to Louisville for the NSRA Street Rod Nationals. 283 engine and T/350 trans had just been rebuilt; junkyard rear end and driveshaft installed "as is"; original 44 year old radiator that had been "fixed" a couple of times already. Engine rebuild was just cylinder honing, rings, and bearings on an engine that probably already had well over 100K miles on it. Columbia to Louisville is around 400 miles each way.

b-t-w; I met a lady that weekend that I have been married to for the last 18 years.

I'm very proud of Silas for pulling this off. I met him at the SK-500 last year and am looking forward to seeing him and pinky again next May.

 

When you come down to it, some of us have been driving worse cars in our pasts. I thought nothing of jumping in my '65 Belair and going to a stock car race upstate NY on short notice. Top off the oil and run for it. This car was known for a balky starter and getting the Muncie hung up in 2 gears at once. No cell phone, no AAA and not a shred of a safety net.

My racing partner owned a towing business. ALL of his family cars were junkers. He said as long as you keep them cool and full of oil, they will run. And he was right. I saw him perform more than one "no parts" tuneups on his stuff. Take out the points and plugs, clean them and put them back in. Need new wires? Take them out of another junker that was heading for the 'yard.

If we rained out when we were supposed to race, we would jump in one of his cars and take a run to Middletown or Flemington on a 15-minute notice. he would call the track to make sure they were running.

 

Pinky and Silas are still going strong...other than when he called today a couple miles north of our exit off I-35 when he ran out of gas. No big deal other than the downpour that came about that time. We were both soaked, but at least an easy fix.

 

Love seeing you guys out crushing some miles. With the car running as well as it is and being as capable as it is, I feel like the best thing you can do is just keep driving it. It always seems like stuff starts to break when you let them sit. They like the use.

 

I used my Ford as a DD for a couple of years straight, it never ran so well with regular use.

 

Well, it has been a month since my last update on Pinky. She is doing fine other than she about lost a muffler on the way to vo-tech a week or so ago when I was in California for work. Silas caught it in time and pulled it the rest of the way off. It broke where the pipe goes into the muffler body. His fix while I was gone was to pull the other one off too... Still haven’t done anything as far as a permanent fix yet. It doesn’t sound terrible actually.

Anyway, Pinky also now has a brother named Guido. Silas bought a little O/T S15 with some of the insurance money from Pinky being backed into. So, he has something that gets better mileage and a heater to drive on and off. Pinky is still out and about regularly too.

 

Pulled Pinky in the shop tonight to try to get the trunk open that has been stuck shut for a while now. Pulled the backseat and found a crispy critter. Still trying to get it open and doesn’t appear to be quite as easy as some of the GM trunks I have had to open this way... Silas is into his work though.

 

Got it open! Not sure exactly why it was stuck, but everything seems to be working fine now. Anyway, we are going to make a new rear package tray and do some wiring while it is all apart now.

 

Gives new meaning to the term "Rat Rod"!

 

Silas's shoulder must be lots better. Good in you both. Love this thread.

 

Lol...yep, had that same thought.

 

His shoulder isn’t as good as we hoped it would be, but he can function mostly. I guess the pain is still pretty constant, but at least it hasn’t popped out again.

 

Great project!

 

Those aren't the only mufflers in the exhaust system, are they? I seem to recall the larger Ford products of that vintage using those resonators at the back of the car along with some larger, oval mufflers further upstream. The Walker or NAPA exhaust catalogs of that time usually listed an optional "resonator eliminator" tail pipe that could be used in their place to save on the added expense of the real resonators.

I'm surprised to see those still in place on a car of this age. The few that I ever worked on years ago usually got the eliminator pipes, unless it was something posh like a big Mercury or a Lincoln.

 

Actually, they are the only mufflers and are Smithy’s. Now, it has none...