I signed on a while back, but it took a while to figure out picture posting. I live in Ontario near Niagara Falls. I'm just getting my 56 Victoria back on the road. It started back in 1966 when I bought a 29 Ford coach when I was in Grade 12. It was in the ba*****t of a cow barn with only one light bulb. It looked ok and ran for $275, but once out in the sun it had bondoed over paper bags stuffed into holes, was flat black and leaked badly out of the rear seal. It took a year to replace the engine, fix the body and paint it. It would go 62 mph flat out and ran quite well. I started university 80 miles from home in Sept. 67 and commuted weekly in the A. All was well until I got caught in an early November snow storm. No heater, no defroster, snow packing around wiper from the top. I spun it 360 in traffic with big bald 900 Royal Masters on the back. I needed a winter car. My friends all had 56 Fords. Ones ready for the s**** yard were $20 and we had 6 parts cars. I bought a Victoria with Tbird 312 auto for $125 for my winter car. The car has evolved a bit over the years. Pete
The 312 was leaking oil out of the rear seal. I pulled the trans and the pan to fix the rear seal. While tightening the trans crossmember bolts back up I heard a cracking noise and trans fluid leaked down onto my face. So much for the auto. From our parts cars I switched it to a 3 speed standard with a Foxcraft shifter. The motor was burning oil and I bought my budies rough 56 post for his 272, 312 heads. Later in '68 for more power I bought a 55 Ford for it's 240 hp 57 Merc 312 for engine #3. I think I paid $50. A friends dad had a 56 wagon, 6 stick with a blown rear end. We swapped in one from our parts cars and the old wagon rear was a 4.11. So I repaired it and put it in my car. I recall some trans syncro" dogs" popping out on the way to university. It wouldn't come out of high gear. I drove it that week parking in drive-through spots and feathering the clutch from stops signs until I got back home. While at school driving around, the front end started to shake. The crossmember had cracked across the A arm bolt hole. Having it towed 80 miles home would be pricey. I hitch hicked home and borrowed my brother-in-law's 5 ton farm truck. I found a constuction site with earth piles. I had brought some planks and shovels, and we made a ramp to load the 56 onto the stake truck. Back at the farm they had aloading dock to offload it. The car that had provided the 272 had a new crossmember, so it went into the Vicky.
I was taking co-op engineering and worked 4 months and went to school 4 months. By February '69, the Vicky needed more power. I bought a 390 4 speed from a 62 Ford Galaxie rag top at a wreckers for $300. By April it was running, but used a quart of oil in 60 miles. The wreckers replaced the engine with a 64 Merc 390 for engine #5. In Sept 69 the engine came out for a rebuild. 67 Mustang 390 GT 10.5 pistons, Cobra jet C8AX 6250C cam, Edlebrock F427 intake. I bought a set of flanges and built fenderwell exit headers for engine #6. I welded the back half of two front wheel wells togther for radiused wheel wells. I added a Cobra Jet Mustang hood scoop and had the hood painted flat black like Mach I's and the car painted Chrysler bright bronze in 1970. The rear wheels were magnesium 10 x 15 Americans that came from a top fuel car that a friend bought in Lockport New York. Another friend had the latest Mickey Thompson J70 x15 tires on his Deuce coupe. I swapped the bigger M&H's for the more streetable Mickeys. By then I needed a new winter car and bought a 69 Fairlane Cobra for $400. The Vicky ran low 15's at the drags.
Thanks for the welcome. I'm glad you like the story. Here is the next chapter. In 1971, after a day at the track the 390 got a rod knock. It had a spun rod bearing. I had a friend that was a mechanic at a Ford dealer. He had a 428 Cobra Jet Fairlane drag car and had a spare 428 block and stock pistons. I didn't have a 428 crank. He said I should order a reground crank and bearings from the dealer and put the 390 core back in the box. It worked. I took the 428 block, crank, and pistons plus the 390 rods and flywheel to a balance shop. The shop called me soon after. The crank was out of balance about 1/2 lb. on the front. From my mechanic friend I learned there are CJ's with with convential rods and drag pack Super CJ's with heavier 427 cap screw rods and have an externaly balanced crank. They use a counterweighted sleeve behind the harmonic balancer. With that part it all got balanced. I had to save $1000 in my work term to pay for the next four months at school back then, so the stock 390 heads went back onto Engine #7. I had about 50 easy miles on the new 428. On my way home from work I had to drive through the Thorold tunnel that is under the Welland ship c**** that connects Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. Just as I entered the tunnel I heard a bang and the engine stopped turning. The Vicky coasted to a stop at the bottom of the tunnel. Because of the curve under the c****, I couldn't see daylight in either direction. A big truck made a hard stop behind me when I came into it's view. I got out of the car and onto a walkway. Shortly after, a service truck came up behind me and pushed me up out of the tunnel. I guess there was closed circuit TV. It was kind of scary. I had the car towed home. A valve head fell off, turned sideways, split the piston and cylinder wall. I had the block sleeved. In '69 there were four 428 piston weights, but none met my balanced piston weights. I bought a lighter piston. Back at the university lab I machined aluminum bushings. I put them in liquid nitrogen and interference fit them into the piston pin ends. I bought a set of 428 heads from a drag racer. He said the valves had sunk too far from frequent rebuilds for racing. A friend had picked up an Edelbrock FE 2x4 intake leaning aginst a trash bin on cleanup day. He gave it up for $20. So the dual quad 428 engine combo#8 went back into the car. Sometime later in the early '70's I repainted the car black laquer with flames in our garage. Weekly I towed my friends 70 429 CJ Torino to the track. The Torino ran 13.20s. The Vicky tow car ran 14.89 @94 through the bumper outlet exhaust. With headers open it ran 13.89 @103 mph. It had a 3.08 9" rear from a 57 Ford. At a wreckers I found a reupholstered 57 Ford interior. It wan't a good fit, but I made it work. The dash was krinkle black.
The Jalopy Journal
