1952-59 Ford Working on the '59

Thought you were referring to the adjustables in front. Ive got 2 centering ones on each side also.

 

I finally took shots of the mud dauber nests I took out from under the dash and inside the heater ducts. Very glad I took the entire heater apart... I like how one was wrapped around a wire.

 

No pictures, but took out the Aerostar front coils yesterday. Popped in the ones that came with the car, less 1 coil. Original spring rate was 414, now 495 with the cut coil. Aerostars were like 650. The suspension works better and the height grew by about 1.5". Took it for a short ride, made some tight turns, no more tire rub.

 

I drilled the rear floor for the seat belts, figured I'd do the Fat Mat Rattle Trap now so I don't have to undo the belts later. The stuff is about 1/2 price of Dyna Mat, so I got a 50 sf roll. I didn't realize it came with a roller, I bought a nice one at a local speed shop, a lot more heavy duty.

Got a before shot, floors are painted with Duplicolor white lacquer. Any holes I had are plugged up. It went down nicely and conformed to everything. I used a heat gun here and there which helped. My buddy stopped over, he did his car with Dyna Mat and he said his tore pretty easily. I gave him a piece of mine to go play with at home.

 

Looks good Bob. I did mine with roofing Snow & Ice shield. Goes on roofs under shingles. I swear it's the same product, just packaged differently...at 1/4 the price. The heat gun also makes the stuff stick better..... aside from making it easier to conform to the shapes. This project is a bit tedious, but relatively easy if you take your time. The next step I did was the 3/8 Jute carpet backing with the aluminum sheeting as well. The jute is alot more difficult than the rubber/alum, but if you're considering that let me know...I accidentally came up with a way of doing it that made it MUCH easier.

 

Looks good Bob, good how-to ideas. What is that rubber hose?

 

Nitrous oxide that goes to a mask when I drive.... nah... that is the wire bundle to the back of the car in shrink sleeve.

 

You used an ice-dam material, as we know it up here. I'll look into it when I run out of this stuff. The carpet I was looking at has a backing, so I'll call it quits at that. How quiet is your car inside?

 

LOL, That's all relative to how loud the exhaust is, isn't it? Actually I have issues with the door seals letting too much very noisy wind in, and my exhaust has an annoying rumble at certain points in the acceleration. More of a dronning noise than a rapping noise. These are two issues I'll be working on, but as far as normal road noise there is none, I'm quite satisfied with that. Once the car is up to freeway speeds, it gets pretty quiet from the exhaust as well...just the damn wind coming thru the door seals.
I also have my car 100% undercoated underneath, btw, so overall, the outside of the floorpan has a coat of por-15, por-15 primer, 2 coats of paintable undercoating, and 2 coats paint. inside is por-15'd, adhesion promoter, splatterpaint, clearcoat, dyna-mat type stuff we're talking about. The 3/8 jute backing I talked about was flat yardage, not molded, as was the carpeting. So, lots of stuff to help the noise situation. The backing and carpet were yardage as mentioned...many hours of fitting. They are both glue-down.
I have nothing (yet) in the door panels or rear quarters yet to suppress noise.

 

Quietness...just a comment....like so many other issues with our beloved cars...never gonna be like our daily drivers...but we don't really want them to be, do we? jmho.

 

Wow, you've done a lot. Odd that the door seals are so noisy. I got Carpenter's for mine, think they make them for the world. I have the dog leg seals that seal the door at the top hinge area. I'll do the inside of the roof as well after the floor is finished.

Your drone, does the exhaust have a crossover (balance) tube in it? I'm thinking about that for mine. The old Fords with duals had that from the factory. At least every '64 I had did. Seen them on later Fords and T-Birds.

I'm undecided about the bottom of the car since the floor pan is so clean. I have to finish s****ing years of crud off it first. From the back floor forward it's down to the factory paint.

 

Shoot... my daily 2012 Malibu rides so nice, smooth and quiet. But I'm looking forward to the 4-speed and a little noise, less comforts.

 

Yes, my exhaust has a crossover H pipe. I'm going to talk to my exhaust guys that finished what I started....take them for a ride and see what they say.
Yep, my seals are Dennis Carpenter...and as much as I hate to ***** about anybody that makes anything for our cars.....the '57 2 dr sedan seals are not correct. Everybody has the same problem in that they are not thick enough in the wing window area. Carpenter says there's nothing wrong with them, they are exact duplicates of Ford's oem seals. So I guess it's the rest of the world that's wrong.

MAJOR HINT on the roof insulation......I promise if you go any other route, you'll have issues. DO NOT use any rattle can adhesive. I've tried them all, believe me. They will not hold up to the heat when the sun hits the roof, the adhesive will let go and the insulation will come down onto your headliner. Here in Texas just a hot garage will create the problem. Get a cheap Harbor freight spray gun with the biggest nozzle. Look at their blue syphon feed gun...less than 20 bucks. Pick up a gallon of Landau Roof contact cement by Weldwood. Sold at upholstery supply shops....I paid 27 bucks the last time I bought it. That gallon is the equivalent of hundreds of dollars in rattle can stuff, is the only thing you'll find used at an upholtery shop because it works. Pick up a can of Acetone at lowes to thin the glue down about 10% to make it sprayable. I pour in the glue about 1/2 full, then add 1/4" or so of acetone, then stir it right in the gun cannister.
While your at Lowe's picking up the acetone, wander over to the insulation department and pick up a roll of foil-faced bubble wrap type insulation(less than $20). This is perfect for the roof because it weighs almost nothing...exactly what you need for a roof!! Or you can wait for a swap meet or trip to the speed shop and pay 2 or 3 times as much.
You can leave that glue sitting in the paint gun for a month or so with no problems, btw. Just clean it out if you're not going to use it in the near future. lol...I've forgot twice now and had to replace the gun twice.

 

Learning a lot from you guys's hints...
Texas, when you say "just a hot garage will create the problem", just how much hot are you talking about? A part of my to-be-soon-finished garage doesnt have roof insulation and even if the the summer hasnt arrived yet overhere, I notice that it tends to get hot... and the metal sheet on the doors dont help either.

 

The main concern would be a car parked out in the sun, my insulation the first time around fell down inside the garage before I got the headliner in when I used the likes of 3M 77 super, and 3 or 4 others after that..all with the same results. Then I read about the same issues others had and their solution. A headliner is a lot of work to install, and you sure don't want insulation falling down on it after it's been installed. The pic is the Lowe's stuff I mentioned.
How hot..who knows, but I live in Texas where 100* F is common, and a metal building can get up to 120 easy. I'm in process of putting a floor in my workshed and insulation...should be done today. Bought a bigger A/C for it last year.....just can't handle the heat in my old age.

 

I think I'll put up a small piece of what I have (already has adhesive) and drive it around for a week. It gets blazing hot here by early June, but a good tip on everything else.

 

Bob...do you have the front end alignment specs/procedures for the '59? A 57 forum member changed his upper control arms to '59 because of a better bushing setup, and he noticed the shaft also apparently has a caster adjustment the '57's don't have. If that's the case, I may do the same mod to my car if he is able to get more positive camber out of the new setup.
OPPS!!...changed camber to the correct caster.

 

The arms do not have an adjustment themselves, but they do adjust with shims. I'll attach a couple of pix from when the car was apart. I have the alignment specs somewhere if you need them, but they're pretty generic.

 

Finished the Fat Mat on the interior. A 50-SF roll went pretty far and we got it all covered. The heat gun was good, get a stubborn piece warm, smooth it out with a rag (old dish towel). The back of a sharpie was pretty good to get in tight areas.

 

Great job on the insulation.
On the control arm question.....I should have been clearer on what I was asking....You mentioned the shafts had no adjustment, but what you're showing me in the pics confirms what the 57 forum members were saying..the shafts on the '59's are threaded, as are the bushings. They are telling me the shafts can thread in and out of the bushings about 1/4" from center...thus moving the upper control arm front to back...which would be the caster adjustment. There is no such adjustment on the '57 shafts, so logic would say the '59 control arms are going to have more caster adjustment. That's what us '57 guys with PS modifications need..more positive caster than the oem setup will allow.
The guys that are working on it now are wondering if the '59 manual indicates a starting point for the shaft location, and yes, they would like to see the specs and whatever else you might have for the '59 front alignment.
Thanks in advance..
sorry...I just noticed in post 227 where I asked the question I had incorrectly stated the shafts had a camber adjustment the '57's don't have. I meant to say caster.

 

As far as I know (and I've done a lot of these when I was fixing cars for a living), there is really no adjustment on the '59 upper arms themselves. Any manual I've seen tells to center the shaft on the arm & tighten it up. Camber and caster is done via shims only. You could bias the shaft in relation to the arm a bit, I've never seen it done.

Took a quick look for the specs, I'll post them later when I dig them up.

 

Thanks for the info

 

Took me a while... was working insane hours all week... fun.

I took a picture of my driver-side upper a-arm. You can see the shim pack I have in it. The camber is close to neutral, I'll be aligning it at a friend's shop once I register it. The manual recommends a maximum of 9/16" for the shim packs. Specs from the Ford manual: Caster is zero to 1 degree positive. Camber is .5 to 1.5 degrees positive. Toe is 1/16" to 1/8" in. Written for bias ply tires, which had a tendency to toe out once rolling, radials I'll set it to 1/16".

For caster: a 1/16" shim change has a 1/2 degree impact. To change caster and not impact camber, move the shim front-to-back or back-to-front on the arm. I'm not sure how the arm moves, so I have to look at it when the time comes.

For camber: a 1/16" shim change has a 1/4 degree impact. To change camber and not impact caster, work the shims equally at both bolts (add or subtract same # of shims). On the '59, I add shims to increase camber.

For a pull-condition (car drifts or pulls to one side), the car will pull to the leading upper ball joint. Which is usually the most negative caster.

Tips for not losing the shim packs, write down what you have. It they are the type with the tab, tape them together. Without the tabs, press a ball of duct seal over them so they stick together. I've used windshield sealer too.

I hope I haven't confused too many people, once you've done a 1000 alignments or so, it comes naturally.

 

Awesome info...thanks Bob...I'll p*** it along to the guys that needed to know.

 

Great build....... thanks for all the pics.

 

Thanks all, still plugging away but no pictures, need to check my camera later. Have the Fat Mat on the inside of the roof completed. Had an issue with the 4-speed (side cover related) so out it came on Saturday. New side cover ***embly with shift fork cams and it went back in. We took our time with adjusting the Hurst shifter and it has never been better. Checked the rear end fluid... way over full. So I let some of that leak into a pan. This rear does have a bottom drain plug.

 

Snapping some pictures for my upcoming insurance. Car is running and driving, quite loud with 2' of flex pipe on each side. Carpet worked out well, dog dish caps look good. Hope to be able to register it next week.

 

Looks great!

 

Thanks, I'm expecting to hear back from my insurance later today. I sent them the information about the car and some pictures.

 

Looks killer! How did you like the carpet?