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

another note, its 0-60 (which i thought i measured) was its 0-70 and that was 10.5 seconds. not half bad for a ratty old beater.

meaning when it was at 75... I was taunting the reaper. at least it drove straight and very well

 

also, when i bent the needle back, i must have moved the needle a little so now its fixed and actually sits at 0

 

Now I understand “nudge”

 

I was going to say "I don't know what nudge means" but as long as you are happy with it, I guess I'm good.

 

i held the cup with my thumb and just barely moved the needle with it

 

Congratulations! Good to see you younger guys doing this.

 

i dont know if its just inaccurate, but once the car is moving the temp gauge goes from the middle and shoots down to the bottom (see here)

 

The title process was actually really simple,i explained it was an alabama car, then they opened to a giant chapter dedicated to georgia, alabama, and a couple other bill of sale states. i gave them the bill of sale, they noticed he had written his ohio address, so i called him and then gave them his previous address (somewhere in gadsden?), walked from the title office to the dmv, the dmv ladies loved the car and the vin was so small she had to take a picture of it to see it properly. after the vin verification was complete, she filled out some paperwork. we walked back over to the title office, i signed some papers, and they handed over the new title.

then the easy part was registering it. i gave them the T•5518 plate, they scanned it, gave me a historical plate (i dont actually remember the tag number) luckily this isnt like a vanity or custom plate, its a one time payment! these plates are now permanently in my name. i just have to have the actual historical in my glovebox in case im ever pulled over. registration and the model year plate info went into my above visor document holder.

 

I went to my DMV with the clean Colorado title and my insurance card, plus a bill of sale. The weight on the title was something like 3460.

The Witches of Eastwick at DMV took the title and vanished behind closed doors for about a 1/2 hour. They came back and somehow told me the weight is 3550 and the color is gray and white. The title stated it as white. Whatever... I was glad to be out of there with the plates and 10-day inspection sticker.

 

yesterday alone i put almost 50 miles on it. it just drives so good.

i need to replace my coolant and heater hoses, then flush it out properly this time, add straight, then fill the rest with distilled water.
I FINALLY found the Ranco seal for the heater valve so i can have a working heater as the days get cooler.
it was only 10 bucks and way cheaper than buying rubber to make my own.

also, i learned the hard way that i should never top up these cars, the seal and vent cant take that pressure lol.

 

96132.1
last week it was at 96045.3


it drives so good, i have found a technique for smooth downshifting, typically if you blip the gas twice while in neutral, then clutch in it slides right into gear

 

fixed the cigarette lighter plug, still going to add one underneath as an extra but it will be much easier now. i simply bypassed the circuit breaker and wired in an inline fuse.

 

I’m pretty sure you should be using a vented gas gap.

 

not in full size fords, thunderbirds and wagons used a venting cap, but the cars have an external vent.

 

Interesting. I guess that clears that up!

 

Damn hotrodders!!!!

 

i finally will have a working heater for this fall. the heater valve now works very well and seals beautifully.

 

My '59 had no heater valve, possibly may have been issued with one. I took great pains to make sure my heat worked well.

I had the heater box apart to pressure-test the core. The core itself looked like new. I had to adapt a Jeep duct to get the hot air up to the defroster plenum. Another duct I had to make out of a wheelbarrow tube.

 

my heater box takes up a LOT of room in the passenger side floor but i dont need to adapt anything to make it work. itll be nice to set the cables up properly so they have the 1/16th inch tolerance.

 

which is the cold water outlet? the one on the pump or the one on the intake?

 

so it doesnt work like i expected, the pump side goes to the valve and the intake side goes to the non valve side, the side after the thermostat is somehow cooler than the side before.

 

Maybe someone like Jeff Norwell would be able to help. Do you actually need the valve?

 

the valve is sealing great! however the valve to core seal is no good, so i ordered a non crushed one. i also filmed a cold start after sitting since friday. starts like brand new...

 

Glad to see you out having some fun with this one. Of course the car needs to earn your trust a little, but once it does, don't be afraid to really use it. Old cars love miles.

 

it just threw its belt on me haha... i need to get a spare luckily i just put mine back on and readjusted it.

 

And that kind of stuff is going to happen with regular use. Its going to wind up needing brakes, u joints, pinion and axle seals, belts, hoses... that type of stuff. Eventually it sort of all works itself out and you just get in the car and go.

 

brakes are all new, u joints are freshly greased, pinion and output shaft seals are new, new hoses are coming today, going to have a heater once the last seal arrives. i also need to replace the hose clamps and thermostat.

 

hoses have arrived, just waiting on my heater core seal to button it back up

 

core is sealed and waiting to flush the block again, going to put the flush inside the block behind the thermostat, then let it heat up and clean out my block.


in unrelated news, i found a working clock for 15 bucks! i took it apart, oiled it, wound it manually and it started ticking, i used my trusty 12v power supply and i heard the coils go _pop_ and it wound on its own. now it tick tock ticks without any worry.