1952-59 Ford Evintho's '54 Customline build

What pan did your use on your block?

 

https://www.kmjperformance.com/i-31...ance.com/search.html?q=sbf+front+sump+oil+pan

 

I've used the KMJ pans on several cars. So far they have all fit and not had any warpage seen with some cheaper pans.

 

Pans on the car waiting for new motor mounts and the she get the motor installed

 

Well, it's been awhile. I'm still alive. Progress has slowed a bit but I thought I'd update the few things I've done over the last 6 months. Prepare to be underwhelmed!
Back on page 3 I found the correct water pump serp pulley but I had to fab the 3G alternator bracket. For the upper mount 1/4" flat plate and thick walled steel tube did the job. The lower mount is more 1/4" plate. It's also tied into the block at 90* for support.





I relocated the battery to the trunk. I just used the stock '54 battery tray but I'll probably get a vented box later.



Can't say enough about these guys.......www.batterycablesusa.com
They have everything you'll need. It's all quality stuff, their prices are great and as an added bonus, their shipping charges are ridiculously cheap!

For the positive lead I ran 1/0 copper welding cable from the right side of the trunk to the left side of the firewall and attached it to a power post.



I strung the cable under the decklid, over the rear wheelhouse and through the rocker panel.



For cable retainers, I cut some lengths of 7/8" tube, sliced them in half and welded them to the decklid bumper supports.





The negative cable runs through the floorpan and connects to a stud welded onto the framerail.



Got lucky and snagged a recently replated grille ***embly for $400 from a HAMBer! Thanks Eric! It's in excellent condition. My local plater wants $1k to replate my ****py original. No brainer!



Last month I decided to tuck my rear bumper. There was a 1-1/2" gap between the top of the bumper and trunk extensions.



A couple of 2x6's secured together and placed on a floor jack makes installation and removal truly a one man operation.



Just slotted the bumper bracket holes and it tucked in nice and tight.



My bench seat caught on fire at one point in it's life and is beyond toast. I wanted buckets anyhow. Found these sitting out on the sidewalk 2 blocks away. The price was right, couldn't p*** 'em up! I think they're out of a Prius.



Fabbed up some mounting brackets.............done.





I'm in the middle of bodywork and prep now. I decided to attack the roof first. In it's prior life someone decided to dance the Macarena in the middle of it. After popping it back out and doing a little metal shrinking, I took it town to bare metal with 80g. It took 3 layers of Rage body filler to get it back into shape.





Next, I layed on a couple of coats of epoxy primer and followed that with 2 medium coats of Slicksand (sprayable bondo). Blocked that all down with 180g followed by 240g then, just today, I finished up with 3 coats of 2K urethane primer.



Remember the roof sections and drip rail that I had to replace? I'm pretty happy with the outcome!


All that's left is seam sealer in the gutters and a final scuff before paint. I'm gonna move on to the rest of the bodywork tomorrow.
That's all for now. Thanks for lookin'!

 

Looking great.

 

Nothing works better and easier in the driprails than 3M Panel Bond. The application gun is pricey but well worth it. Easy to get a nice shape, and sands really really well. An added advantage is it has a rust preventative. It was recommended to me for the driprails by the N Texas 3M rep, and I'm glad I took the advice.
Great work your doing!!, and I like the seats............a lot, but do they fold forward to allow access to the back seat? That's usually the biggest problem with finding bucket seats from late model cars....not too many 2 drs around anymore.

 

Thanks guys! I've been looking into seam sealer and will be using the two-part product which requires the expensive gun. I figure $100 all in to keep moisture at bay is worth it.
The bucket seats do fold forward. Comfortable too!

 

BTW, what are you going to do for a license plate light?

 

Hahaha, great point! I totally missed that! I'm sure I'll figure out something. Funny thing is, about a year ago, I bought a brand new license plate light!

 

A lot of progress and it all looks great, your getting closer all the time. HRP

 

UPDATE:
The last 2 months have been focused solely on bodywork and paint prep but I can now confidently proclaim 'she's ready or final paint'!
I thought I was done with metalwork..........not! It seems the OP had a penchant for slapping mud over rusty/rotted metal and calling it good. I cut out the rotted piece on the left rocker and replaced it..........







Then I moved on to the deck lid which looked OK but upon closer inspection.........it wasn't. Ground out the bondo and cut out the rotted metal........







Patched that.........





Behind the right rear wheel the OP had performed his magic. Noticed a small bubble in the primer, ground it out and sure enough........patched with bondo! I cut out the metal and it was packed with dirt and rust.....





Repaired properly......



At some point in the cars life the p*** door had been replaced with a different model door, I guess. The body shop had bondo'd up the trim holes and they were popping out after 50 years. I welded 'em up....



Then I started the filler work. No action pics of that but you'all know how it goes. Filler, sand, filler, sand, filler, sand. I was actually able to flatten each section with no more than 3 layers. I'm getting kinda good at this! But yeah..........sanding ****s, especially at my age! In my 20's I was headed toward a career in bodywork/painting. I'm sooo glad I bailed on that endeavor!

I stripped every inch of paint off the car. I can't say enough about BlackHawk strip discs
Chuck one in a 4" angle grinder and you'll be amazed! It took me 4 hours to strip the entire car to bare metal and I only used 3 discs!









Layed down 2 coats of DTM epoxy primer and followed that with 3 coats of SlickSand. Several days of block sanding got me body panels that are as flat as gl***. My body aches!



Here's my ****nal of sanding blocks. The 24" long DuraBlock is an awesome weapon as is the pool noodle (picked up at the dollar store). With all the compound curves our '50s cars have, it was invaluable!



Once blocked, I layed on 3 coats of 2K urethane primer and called it a day.







Ready for paint!
I'm gonna take a little break. The wife and I are gonna take a trip to the deep south (never been) next week. When I get back, I think I'll start tearing into the 5.0! That's all for now.

 

fantastic effort i'm sure it will be a stunner when done....well done

 

Great job. Enjoy your trip, and eat some crawfish.

 

Doing it the right way. Nice job. Makes me want to do some rust repair, lol.

 

Looks great. HRP

 

ENGINE UPDATE:

The last 2 months have been all about the 5.0. Tore into it and was pleasantly surprised! I was expecting a well worn, 200K mile motor. Turns out, it really was owned by a little old lady who had only driven it 100K, serviced it regularly and was very gentle with it. Pulled the pan and heads and was greeted by this.....







No sludge build-up and barely any ridge at all. Had the bores mic'd and the worst one was .005 out which meant I could get by without boring it and buying new pistons! I pulled the rotating ***embly and put fuel line over the rod bolts so as not to nick the crank journals.



Once it was down to a bare block, I chased all the threads.
Tip: Autozone and O'Reilly's tool loaner programs have thread chaser kits for free!
O'Reilly's tool loaner program - thread restorer set



Next, I went over the decks with 80g on a piece of exhaust tubing, in two directions, to check for low spots or any warping. The scratches were evenly distributed indicating a flat deck.





Another issue was I needed to plug the center mount dipstick hole since the dipstick was now in the front timing cover. I simply tapped it, spread some thread sealant on an 1/8" pipe plug and filled the hole.





Next task was cleaning up the cylinders. Got a ball hone off of Amazon.....
240 grit Ball Hone
and went to work. 45 p***es per cylinder and the last 10 very quickly to produce the 45* crosshatch. Lots of 30wt oil as lubricant. Came out rather nice!







Addressed the lifter bores too. 220g taped to a stick of 1/2" PVC fit perfectly. An up and down twisting action cleaned them up nicely without removing any material.



Now that the block was more or less prepped, I wanted a good bite for the engine paint to stick so I reinstalled the pan, heads, covers, etc and plugged and sealed all holes and gave the block a good sandblasting.





This is the paint I used. Primer and Ford Red.



Tore the motor back down, removed all oil galley plugs and gave it a thorough washing with hot, hot soapy water. Used a high pressure nozzle to rinse everything out then blew it dry with compressed air.





This is the re-ring kit I ordered....
'93 5.0 H.O. engine re-ring kit

I also replaced the oil pump, shaft, timing set and a whole bunch of other superfluous stuff.

I checked the end gap on the rings by installing them an inch or so into the bore. All between .018 and .022.



After I wire wheeled the tops of the pistons (don't wire wheel the skirts), I cleaned out the ring lands with an old broken compression ring then installed new rings (well lubed) with a ring expander.



Ford 5.0's are notorious for leaking rear main seals. I want to prevent that at all costs. Installed Fel-Pro's crankshaft repair sleeve.
Fel-Pro 16250 crank repair sleeve
I ran a thin film of this on the inside before I tapped it on....
Loc***e 518 Flange Sealer
I also used Ford Racings RMS to ****on it all up.....
Ford Racing rear main seal
When I install the flywheel I slather thread sealant on the bolts and that should prevent any RMS leaks.



I thoroughly cleaned the crank and all oil p***ages and hand polished the journals with fine steel wool.



Next, I set the crank in the block, torqued the caps and Plastigage'd all the mains. All within spec.



Re-***embly was pretty straightforward.
Tip: Install the cam first, before the crank/rods/pistons! This allows you to grab it from both ends, facilitating installation so you don't nick the cam bearings.
Lathered it up really good with cam lube.





Next, I lubed up the main journals with Lubriplate and installed the crank.



Installed the rest of the rotating ***embly and started methodically putting everything back together.

 

Slapped on some Ford Racing valve covers, cleaned everything up.........and she's 'bout ready to go!






I've got exactly $900 into this motor.
Head and machine work was $450 alone, the rest was parts and materials.
Sure beats a couple of grand for a crate motor!

Next up is color on the firewall and door/trunk jambs.
Firemist Green BC/CC
Once that's dry, I can bolt up the trans and slide the combo in.
Getting closer!

 

very i,formative and a top job as usual...well done

 

Real clean job, it will look real good in the car. You mentioned rear seal leaks on 5.0s, I have never had a rear seal leak on any small block Ford, either two piece or one piece seal. Yours is a one piece seal so should be no problem for many miles. Good idea marking the firing order on the cap.

 

Nice job on an old-school garage build up. Brings me back to my stock car days when I had sponsors with some bucks...

 

Love the posts on progress, any idea how many hours you got in metalwork on your roof. I’m facing the same repairs and was just wondering what ballpark time I was looking at, any info would be much appreciated. Keep the posts coming


Thanks in advance

Jax59

 

I work slow! I'm retired so there's no rush. I've probably got 10-12 hours in metalwork alone, just on the roof.

 

There were some real old guys locally, they were into Mopars, nothing else and were the go-to for any advice. I was over there with my buddy back around 1975, he had questions on an oil pan change on a flathead 6.

They were building up an engine in the shop and one guy was getting ready to drop in the crankshaft. I saw he was cleaning it with something and I asked what it was... he showed me... it was a women's sanitary napkin. He said it cleans everything from the crank journals, leaves nothing behind.

 

We had some absorbent bed pads left after my wife had hip surgery and they are handy for soaking of oil spills.
I use coffee filters for cleaning cylinders after honeing since they don't leave lint.

 

New to this social group, discovered your build thread...nicely detailed, well done.

 

Looking great. Love the motor!

 

UPDATE:
I had health issues through most of 2022 so didn't get as much done as I wanted to. However, I was able to finish the front sheet metal bodywork, got the car all jambed and the motor installed (final time) and running. So here's a photo dump. At the end is a short vid of the motor running.

Front fender rot.......







Hood rot both sides.......







Headlight trim ring clip broke off so I made one. I know you can buy 'em but.......





Epoxy primed followed by Slicksand then 3 coats of 2K urethane primer.......







Stripped the entire trunk area and inside of the decklid.......





Then I jambed all that........





Followed by the doors and door jambs, hood, hinges and firewall......









Had the bumpers and a lot of brightwork rechromed. I also painted the back of the bumpers and grille with Alumablast for that finished appearance and to guard against any rust issues......





Permanently mounted the battery box.......



and got the motor ready to drop in for the 3rd and final time......



Done!!











Runs really good. I gotta get some mufflers on this thing!
Hope this YouTube link works.......

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XhoZigW7BIY

Next up, replacing all the window channel fuzzies, rubber, seals, new door gl*** and hang the doors.
To be continued..............

 

Sorry to hear of your health issues. You have done an excellent job on the car. I really like the green.

 

Wow! Nice work! Can't wait to see pics of it painted and done! Love the color, too!