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

> >7/16th isn’t too common on vehicles> >

I got 42 of them clearly visible on my vehicle. Others with newer vehicles might even have 48 on theirs.

 

the alt mounts differently

 

thats my last resort, if nothing else works that'll be what i do

 

I’ve an alternator off a mid 70’s 390, double pulley, no clue if it works or not. Also have what I think are the brackets for it, will have to double check that. I’m sure it’s a 3/8th bolt that’s needed for it. I’ll get some pics for you tomorrow, if you want it I’ll box it all up for you and send it your way.
I’ll never use it.

 

Older Ford long Alt mounting bolt is 7/16 , never seen one 7in long . But that’s what she said also .

 

7 inches is the distance between the front of the alt and the rear of the original gen bracket.

 

well i dissappeared didnt i? well yup, i was unemployed! no car things when i dont have a source of income, now im heading back out to work, i dumped half of what i had left into the 57.

starting with what i should have done a month ago, but got caught up with other things. the 57s alternator is installed (mostly) and working cleanly, the vr is a 1970s standard brand replacement and will absolutely need replaced prior to the trip. the alternator from what i can tell is a fomoco original, i gave it a wire wheeling to pretty it up and bolted it in, ran new wires, and spun it up... 14.2 volts at idle, using the 10 gauge battery wire, i doubt i'll ever use more than half of the 55 amps its rated for, if i do encounter issues, i'll replace the wire with an 8 gauge wire going straight to the starter solenoid, doubt i will have problems though.

 

finalized mounting it.

remember how i said the regulator wasnt going to last very long? well, it failed and stuck wide open, battery went to 17v before i noticed. water level is fine so im not worried

 

It may not have boiled the battery down, but everything that had power running thru it is life-shortened.

I used to put 6V bulbs in my OT car so the brightness would match (until I figured out a 12 brighter bulb). They would last maybe 3-6 months.
Stuff that didn't get the jolt will be okay.

 

luckily i didnt have any lights on nor did i have the radio, coil might be worn more but i have spares.

 

the valve cover grommets for the thunderbird aluminum valve covers do not seem to work with the offenhauser valve covers.

i just so happened to have a bunch of grommets for a 4.6 and some washers... tried it, it worked! 5/16 and m8 are pretty close so hey, as long as it seals i dont have any issues, plus i get to keep the acorn style 5/8 valve cover nuts.

 

fedex finally delivered my order, unfortunately, the box is missing a valve spring, but it did have the coil springs and a spare set of intake gaskets (i do not trust the ones i reused) so i quickly stuck the aerostar springs in it.

it. is. perfect.

its so low, the springs havent even settled yet. it still needs the new front shocks, and the rear leaves will eventually need replaced. for now, this is the look...

forgot to add the other pics between

 

this is kind of like a 'time machine thread' for most of us--pretty fun!

 

in 8 days i will have owned this car for 4 years, and it will turn 68 years old in 10 days.

purchased august 26th, 2021,

vin plate stamped august 28th, 1957.

ive wanted to modify this car a lot further but ive simply not had money or not had time, now i have some money and some time, plus, car still needs to make it to lloydfest! the exhaust is good enough for now, mild leaks here and there, but nothing major to worry about.
a couple years ago a buddy of mine lowered this car in photoshop, ive wanted it lowered ever since

 

Most young people ruin their first car. A few keep them alive. It's rare to bring one back from the dead.
Glad you listen to advice, keep working on it and have made it this far. Congrats!

 

my actual first car that was given to me was wrecked, the first car i purchased is the 57, if it wasn't for the advise from people here on the hamb i likely wouldnt have made it this far

 

got the front shocks in, these kybs that are supposed to fit needed some "modifications" to fit properly, had to slot one of the ends. , the final ride height is just 4 inches from frame to concrete

 

How’s it ride now?

 

havent had the chance to drive it, i really cant wait, the voltage regulator arrives today so i should be able to get it driving tomorrow after work. the shocks are definitely stiffer

 

Checked ohios legality of lowered cars, this car is road legal still. 4 inches is the minimum height... its exactly 4

 

its been exactly 4 years since i got the car, 4 years and 20 minutes ago i began swapping the wheels to a set of 90s ranger wheels that barely held air, i remember sitting in that drivers seat and thinking "this car wants to live". i had a key set from a mid 60s ford truck that had a key that mostly worked and i clicked it over, imagining starting it up. the car was a long way from roadworthy, 2 years away even, had i been more experienced and a money supply other than odd jobs, i think i could have gotten it driving in high school.

going through the early parts of this thread is kind of painful to read now, i really had no clue what i was talking about back then even though i tried to understand, i faked it til i made it.

i still need to fix the rust lol.

 

This is my sons 57. He's 21. He rebuilt the stock suspension and installed the Aerostar springs. Rides nice. You'll be happy with yours.

 

wow a 500 2 door post, thats a decently rare car.

the black and red aged very nicely, cragar s/s are a nice choice of wheel, I prefer steelies myself but 5 spokes do look nice on these cars.

i'll need to replace the rear leaf springs and get a 1.5" lowering block to set it back to the height it is now while restoring the ride quality.

my mom is concerned about speed bumps and potholes, im not too worried, cars steel, and strong

 

I've had so many 57-59 Fords over the years that I've lost count of them all. Wagons, 4drs, 2drs...the 1 thing they all had in common was stock suspension, brakes, and steering. Usually I would cut a coil, sometimes a coil and a half, but I drove them daily with no issues. I have always upgraded them to dual reservoir master cylinders. Routine maintenance and you're good to go.

 

one of the first deviations from stock i did was to swap in a '67 mustang master cylinder for a 4 wheel drum car, id rather not risk losing all my brakes from a freak accident.

 

unstuck the points and sanded them, the regulator was only working before because they were stuck. it appears undamaged... i think im going to try fixing it, from what i can tell i didnt wire it correctly...

 

i do not learn my lesson do i? electronic regulator is junk, got shorted at some point and stuffed back into the box, gambled 20 bucks and lost.

the old regulator is not good, as the primary set of points need to be jumped for it to begin charging, im going to try one more nos 70s electronic motorcraft voltage regulator before throwing one of the many nos mechanical ones at it.

alt works like a dream though lots of voltage, radio is noisy now though, need more radio condensers.

edit: i just realized the radio condenser i have is tied to the ground instead of the bat terminal, need to switch it over so it'll actually suppress noise, also it is wired correctly.

 

anyway, change of pace for things that are actually going well for once. the valve seals are in, other than being midly time consuming its very easy to do.

stick pinkie in hole, turn engine over til piston is at the top, smack the retainer with a 1/2 inch socket nice and hard a few times to break it free, compress spring with the hat, use a flathead as a chisel and pop the retainer down, pull keepers, spring, clean seal area, occasionally remove pieces of petrified rubber, slide new seal on, compress the new spring with the retainer in place on the hat, push valve up with pinkie, place keepers with other hand, release.

repeat 16 times. I got 8 done today. the exhaust on the passenger side sounds different the exhaust has more force out the tailpipe. maybe its just placebo? I could compress the valves partially by hand before, cant even move the new ones, I was nervous before, no clue why i didnt do this sooner.

This isnt even expensive either. i think i have 50 bucks in the melling name brand springs and another 20 in victor reinz seals.

i noticed those chromed studs are flaking chrome off into the engine, big nono, cleaned it up and decided theyve got to go, plus theyre super soft so the threads actually got galled from me tightening down the valve cover, time to replace them with grade 8 studs like they were supposed to be.

the galling on the rocker arm shaft hasnt gotten worse nor has it gotten better, cant feel it with my finger nail still so im rolling with it.

picking up a cork sheet monday to seal the cap on the road draft, its not spewing oil out the road draft, its dripping out the outside. also picking up some napa stainless wipers.

"he put new wipers on a busted windshield"

side note, I should have done this before I lowered it, i can barely reach under the car for dropped tools now lol.

 

Good job!

 

voltage regulator arrived today, so did the studs, car should be able to drive this evening... if its not im going to steal parts off of my dads 79 ltd to get the alt working, easier to ask for forgiveness than permission
(kidding of course, he already said i could if i really need to, so long as i put them back)

all that should be left is to make a new gasket for the road draft can and fix the choke, which i discovered had a crack in it causing a major vacuum leak.

Tuesday I'm going to load the car up and clean out whatever i don't need. I'm going to bring various tools, feeler gauges, a spare belt (or two), and double check my spare is full on air, while also bringing a tire plug kit. its 260 miles to Camargo, Ive been getting 150 miles per quart before resolving the leaks and valve seals, two gallons of oil should be good enough to cover both sides of the trip. I'm bringing only one gallon of coolant since I've resolved all my coolant leaks. also bringing gear oil for both my transmission and axle, along with the funnel and my ramps, the transmission wasn't leaking before, but on a trip like this its Murphy's law.

I need to go from Newark Ohio to Ironton Ohio without anything failing, once I reach Ironton, my grandfathers house has a full shop, I should be able to do some maintenance there if I had encountered issues along the way. if something occurs before then I'll have to turn tail and head home unless I'm close by. Camargo is another hour out, if I encounter issues down there its only going to be HAMBers that can save my ass.