It’s got 2 double wet coats of 2K over epoxy primer, so the short answer is no. It’s going in, I’ll mask it and work around it. It’s been out for so long I need to see the car with glass if only to keep me inspired.
Here's the last of the stock steering junk headed for the scrap pile. I'm happy to be rid of this, have a non-power steering link for the center link coming from Ekler's.
My friend Randy junked the OE power steering on his 59 T Bird for a Borgeson system. He said it's great. Ford had the worst power steering system design ever for a while. https://www.borgeson.com/P-S-Conversion-52-64-Full-Sized-Ford-Cars.html
It was basically same system that corvette use till 1981. Somehow when you buy expensive borgeson kit, you can never admit that its not any better than old properly working setup.
Is, “Yeah, well they suck too”, an acceptable reply? Having had a couple of them, that is my evaluation. And, illl add that anything would be better, even a rope tied to each steering arm.
The valve is a rebuilder I installed years ago, with very little use as I quit driving the car shortly after. I could offer it to someone, but I’d rather not deal with people.
I dont like sloppy steering either but i know how to repair it to work as it should. Ford ram cylinder steering is a perfectly good system, when in good condition.
I would disagree, based on the fact that this is a rebuilt valve, rebuilt ram, new tie rod ends, idler and ball joints. It was not good. If this power steering set up were that good it'd still be used. It isn't. I'd have done a R&P but the Borgeson is a bolt in proposition, I'd have had to fabricate mounts and fanagle a steering shaft around the headers and crossmember. You can have all that stuff if you want to pay the freight.
You have spent lots of money for "experts" who dont know how to rebuilt things. That does not make ford steering set up bad.
Didn’t make it good either. I also know when to stop throwing money at outdated stuff. You seem to be very concerned that I did this. Again, if you want that junk, you can have it..
You can't make chicken salad out of chicken poop. That system is poorly designed and wears out long before it should. You seem to be the only fan.
Yesterdays project was to (try to) fire it up. I dumped what gas I had (about 3 gallons) in it, swiped the battery out of the Impala, cycled the (new Walbro) fuel pump in several times and hit the key. Turned over about half a revolution, fired, coughed, fired again. Repeated this several times with the same result. I don't have a fuel pressure gauge (yet, one will be here this afternoon), but it sure seems to be lack of fuel. I used a fuel pressure regulator/return filter similar to a Corvette system from Tanks Inc. (where I got all the rest of the fuel system stuff), and on their advice simply plugged the 5.0's factory fuel return port at the fuel rail. I'm going to see if, until the gauge set arrives, see if the Schrader valve at the fuel rail has any pressure, and if not I think the issue may be that the regulator/return set up isn't compatible with the Ford 5.0. Frustrating, mostly because I don't understand all I know about this stuff, but I'll get it. It ran when parked, until I replaced the tank and pump...
Addendum: The fuel pressure gauge set arrive from my pal Jeff Bezos, so I fitted it to the Schrader valve at the fuel rail, put a battery charger on it and cycled the pump. Took 4 cycles but it came up to 40 PSI (I guess Fords need 35+ PSI), so now to pull the battery back out of the Impala and see if this 'Bird has wings...
EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA! The 'bird fired up as if it'd been shut off yesterday! However much gas I had dumped in it evidently wasn't enough to get into the fuel pump windage tray, as I dumped whatever was left in my gas can and that did the trick. So, that made my day. I'd have taken a little video but didn't have my phone this morning, so y'all hafta take my word for it, but it runs perfectly. I'm excited now.
When I fired the car up the other day after I shut it down there was gas on floor at both ends. Not a lot, but definitely lines leaking. I got under it this morning and found the problem, rotten 30 year old rubber lines from at the front to the fuel rail, and a not tightened fitting under the tank from the filter to the line. I made a plug for the front as the original return line could be abandoned with the new regulater/return filter, and tightened the flare fitting at the back. It fires right up with no leaks, no issues now, so I can go back out and install the pitman arm on the new steering box and install the center link fitting that replaces the original power steering valve. Sorry Pontmerc, all that old stuff is in the recycle bin now. Note: I tried uploading the video of starting it up, but my internet connection is super slow for some reason and wonky, won't load, so, we'll save it for another day...
I worked on the left front fender where it had a knot from welding the new section in to fit the ‘63 Caddy headlight bezels, and then finished up the (roughed in) work on the driver’s wheel opening. I won’t be able to drive it the full skirts with the Salt Flats wheels, and I’d never had just the upper section of the skirts on, so I tried thiss one on . It works.
The Jalopy Journal
