Projects 56 Vicky Build

Love your car, great project!

 

I'm still subscribed and following. Love this build. Go man go.

 

I see the normal stuff one would see after a motor has been sitting for awhile. I suggest a full disassembly, hit the cylinders with a dingleberry bush to clean up the cylinders and maintain the crosshatch and reassemble with new rings. If the bearings check out you can save money by reusing them. IMHP though, micing the crank and changing all bearings isn't that expensive. Overall the motor looks good so it shouldn't be too pricey to bring it back to life. Keep going, I can see that I'm not the only one enjoying the rebuild of this car.

 

I'm with those who urge you to get some color on this eventually, because the Victoria side trim just begs for a tutone, and some of the period-correct combos include a salmon and charcoal pairing, which if done right makes your heart skip a beat.

 

Haven't touched the car in quite some time, other than to move it around and pile shit on it.

Got to work on the donor chassis tonight. Found some rot holes that I was not aware of though...
Started by wire wheeling the whole thing (except for that parts that the grinder won't fit.) and then moved onto cleaning the mouse nests and dirt out of the crossmembers and frame rails. (one time I actually wish this frame wasn't boxed!)












and here's the pile of crap I managed to get out. There's still some in there, but I don't know how willing I am to do it again...

 

Im doing a frame -off as we speak on my 56 vicky.Floors rockers braces outriggers and x member have been replaced.I just rewired my dash and installed aftermarket gauges in place of the idiot lights.I used Omega gauges made in the good ol USA.The 292 is rebuilt as is the 3spd o.d on the tree tranny.Im gonna paint her H.O.K.cinder red.love the job your doing.

 

great find and great thread, the 56s are easy in the fact that you can get all new panels for them, i had the cross member go in mine , i just cut back to good steel and made a new bottom section, then filled it with oil, and ran the coolant overflow tube passed the body so that it would just go onto the road and not into the crossmember. wise choice taking the body off to do the floorpan properly.

 

It's actually a different frame from the exact same year and make car.

Once I get the body off the other frame it will be alot easier to show you guys why I opted to buy a different one.

 

I took the 9" rear from a 57 custom 300 that I've been saving apart today. Looks like I need wheel cylinders, shoes and to have the drums turned, but everything else is in really good shape, including the parking brake cables. Not sure how well they will mate up to a 56 parking brake though, haven't looked into that yet. I'm not going to pull the pumpkin now because a) it doesn't leak b) I can focus that money elsewhere to get it rolling. I'll just deal with the non posi, highway gears for now.

Got some stuff in for the chassis.

Most noticably, my chassis paint came in. I went with "Chassis Saver" (cause I'm poor). I bought a gallon of it so can do the chassis, the control arms, rear end, and under side of the car. I like the stuff. I goes alot further than you'd think. Smell isn't too bad, but I wore a respiration most of the time anyways. Get's REALLY tacky as it dries.

I just had to use it, it was like a kid at Christmas, it couldn't be helped. I didn't do the parts of the chassis that I still have to fix in some way. I also coated the control arms, and rear end.








Brush marks seem to fade well as it sets up. Lays down nice and flat if you ask me.




Coated the inside of the cross member because, well it's open so why not?





And lastly (MOST) of what I ordered, some is on back order.

 

Officially have worked on her more in the last week than the last 3 months. lol.

New brakes in the rear (still have to have the drums turned), lubed the parking cables, which are thankfully good to go now.





Flipped the chassis over and painted the top.It's getting kinda old flipping this thing around by myself.




Also painted the oil pan black. no pics though.

 

Got ball joints and bump stops in.





I tried to start butting the control arm bushings in and managed to ruin one. New one on the way. tips?



also decided I didn't like the oil pan in black. So now it's gold. Gonna do the motor in this metallic gold and low gloss black. Not finished being painted yet, but you get the idea.




Also thinking with these valve covers to do them in low gloss black and the fins in the same gold the motor will be. This is obviously just a quick "will I like it" spray.

 

I think the gold will look good, especially with black accents. Definitely not a "cookie cutter" color.

 

just saw your post after seeing this car on our st. george utah craigslist for $650...dont know if there is anything there ya might need

 

lol for 650 the whole thing!

I need the doors, fenders, trunk lid, rockers, splash pan

 

yep...there are more photos they posted..just go to st. george utah craigslist and type in 1956 and you will see them and can get a phone number..

 

gold motor will look excellent in a black engine bay.

 

Man, if that were closer I'd be all over it. I just can't afford it with shipping. It's even got disk brakes!

 

That's what I'm hoping.

Current thoughts are

Gold:Block, heads timing cover
Low gloss black: valve covers (except fins) all pulleys and accessories.

Not sure which color I'd like to do the intake at the moment.

 

I took the rear, wheels, leaf springs and drive shaft out of Vicky today.




I will be painting and re using these leaf plate/traction bar combos.



Rear ready to go in.




My current rear selection. I sold a 9" over the summer too!




Oil pan painted. Yeah. it's got it's share of dings, but I'm trying to reuse anything I can and it doesn't leak, so F it, it's good.



Valve covers masked, ready for black. Well see just how much gold comes off with the tape.....

 

well, a ton of the paint came off with the tape. That was a waste of time...

So I just mixed up a color that was pretty close and painted it on with a pinstripe brush. Probably just should have done this to begin with.





After. Also painted the breathers to match. Still gotta get grommets for them.

 

painted/coated some more stuff today.

I will be reusing these coil overs on some new shocks.

before



after paint and clean up




Old sliders from springs.Guess I should get some new ones....

On that note, I notice some are cloth/wax ones, some are the button type. Are they interchangable, or are some supposed to be in some holes, while another type is in other ones? I kinda forgot to pay attention to where they came out of.




Springs coated in chassis saver.




Traction bar/ leaf mount combos. also coated in chassis saver.

 

I've been working on repairing the chassis off and on now. I have the front cross member all repaired, but not having good luck in the rear. Every time I cut a section of the chassis (just the bottom of the "box") and weld in a new peice, I run into a thin section next to it causing blow through. Just keeping on going, cutting further past till I find something good.

 

Maybe its time to try and source a good frame from southwest USA like Arizona, New Mexico etc. Think of the time involved in fixing your current frame versus a clean and straight frame from out west.
Here in Hawaii we have to take these issues into account and often its more practical to source a good component and ship it here rather than spend countless hours in a shop fabricating parts to achieve the same result.

 

Bob Falfa: Hey, you know a guy around here with a piss yellow deuce coupe, supposed to be hot stuff?
Kind of a cross between piss yellow and puke green..........go watch the movie again.

 

I'd love to but, time I got, money I don't. All said and done, I'm going to probably have less than 5K into this car.

 

you may want to rethink the paint on the sliding portion of springs as it will hinder their proper movement.as to the cloth wax pieces I think you will find that were a webbing material saturated with a grease to aid in movement and keep the leaves from wearing against each other and eliminate squeaking.they were 2or 3" long and were held in place by the dimples in leaves at ends.been a lot of years since having a set apart.

 

Love reading through these threads, you're doing some great work.
Another one saved. Keep it up, and you'll be driving in no time!

 

Update without much to tell.

Car has been shoved off to the side and piled on, because I don't have the room to work on it.

As she currently sits:






Parts in the "car loft" I had to cobble together out of scraps just to have somewhere to put the shit.





Here are pictures of the "tranny Mount" that matches the job they did on the tunnel. I've been meaning to post pictures of it for a while now.






Went to Hershey for the first time, Not a lot of love for 56 Ford cars there, or it all got scooped up before I was there. Either way I did snag a few things. Got some side trim for the doors (back ups - Hey, it was $50 why not), got a batwing air cleaner (have always loved these! - even before they got popular again), Hard to find manual shift column piece (I have like 2 autos, been looking for one for a while) and I spent some money on literature. Basically bought everything that said 56 ford car or Victoria that was reasonably priced.

 

I just found this thread. I enjoyed the story . I always tossed the boat anchor Y blocks and installed the FE engines in my 56 fords. Im of the opinion if ford had of came out with the FE in 1955 the tri five chevys wouldn't be a popular as they are. Any way Your engine is a 65 up block it has 4 motor mount bosses on the sides of the block. the 64 down only has two. From the rods I think yours is a 68 engine. Any way the pistons are low compression with the valve reliefs. A 360 and 390 are the same block. A 360 is 390 with a 352 crankshaft. The block pistons & rods are 390. The 390 piston in a 360 doesn't come flush with the deck at TDC. Your intake is a 64 or earlier because it has the oil filler tube. 65 didn't have one in the intake it was filled via the valve cover. The real drawback with a FE is the restrictive cast exhaust manifolds. On my 56 Pk I used 330 F 600 truck manifolds. in a car chassis they wont have enough room. I would be worth the time to fabricate a set of hedders. I would go with a set of fenderwell hedders because clearance is already tight under the car. clutch linkage on one side and the starter on the other. any way you have a great project. Reading your story makes me want to install a FE in my 55 ford wagon.

 

Thanks!

Anyways, not much to tell, I moved and am still getting settled. I brought the chassis and those parts too my new garage, though I don't have any tools there yet. Working on stuff when life allows.