Technical A Kid's First Project: 1957 Fairlane 500 Town Victoria.

nvm its fixed now. i think i need a condenser on my voltage regulator.

 

it unfixed itself.

however i found out i completely forgot to tighten the positive on the generator. so that was the problem.

i also temporarily fixed my gas pedal, as seen below. my floors have gotten worse. i think i need a full floor pan at this point.

its none the less, a very pretty car.

 

another two miles on the clock.

drives amazingly on dirt, i never once felt on the edge of control, however my passenger side front door rattles, annoyingly so, any ideas on how to stop it rattling?

after this, i decided my car needs a wash, so i gave it a nice wash.

also im reserving the concrete from my dad because its much easier to use a shop vac when youre closer to the house.

 

You ought to throw some wax and chrome polish at it too! Maybe even a buffer? How’s the Corvairs?

 

Old beaters we drove circa 1974, bad front floors we would just do a lay-up with some fiberglass and call it done. All from the one side. The cars usually expired before the patch job did.

In fact my car has a small 'glass patch by the gas pedal. From both sides. It looks so good it was hard to spot, but only about 3" x 5".

 

How is the door gasket? That and bad fuzzies (glass related) cause most old car door rattles.

 

fuzzies are completely gone but that wont be too terrible to fix.

my door seals are pretty much gone.

 

Looking good.

 

Everyone sells the fuzzie kits. I have one door seal in place and one to go. It cuts down on road noise if anything.

 

Wiper arms are taken care of, 10 bucks a piece, with refillable blades included. has both sides.

 

i completely forgot to post this earlier! i tried my hand at making another video, the wiper trick worked for about 45 seconds until it got worryingly close to falling off.

 

two years ago today i brought her home... its been a long journey and i wouldn't have gotten as far as i have if it wasnt for so much of the help i recieved here.

 

woohoo!! looking good. Keep up the good work.

 

i COMPLETELY forgot to write about the little run around i did with the fairlanes previous owners son (the guy who drove it last)

he stopped by and i offered to fire it up, and he asked if it drives, one glance for permission to take it out on the road (dad was making dinner on the grille) and he nodded yes. it behaved perfectly. 2 miles on the odometer.

he told me it runs better than it ever did when he drove it around the farm.

y'know, back when it had 3 bent pushrods and 10 year old gas back in 1995?

 

the date of registration has been confirmed!

next Tuesday im driving it to the dmv, mom with tow bar in convoy.

with some luck i'll hopefully make it to lloydfest in october.

 

There has been a slight delay, the voltage regulator stopped working (to be honest, it wasnt working very well to begin with) but after some ohm'ing, testing wires, tightening connections... and finally adjusting the springs on the regulator to 13.05 volts at idle, and 12.85 with high beams on. i took it for a little drive at least, went 4 miles effortlessly. my rad cap works too, it started spewing a little bit after the drive, i assume thats because i topped it up to the brim this morning before trying to start it.
https://youtube.com/shorts/Ud-XNL-KFcs?si=h5lNA9sNfaznoPxa
currently its parked charging, i might try to head in Thursday, however it may be next Tuesday before i get the chance.

 

Aaand itll be thursday if the solenoid arrives in time, the new battery doesnt like this solenoid and it actually needs the 12v bypass. the mufflers also arrived! smithys mufflers, hangers are in the cart but i need to wait for next paycheck to buy them. i also fixed my bezel brackets. the screws and screw holes were missing entirely, bent some new brackets and riveted them in. buckets look amazing even though the fenders are pretty poor.

 

yesterday i drove out and got this hood, its in perfect condition rust wise and was very cheap compared to the 500-800 people ask for these. it needs paint on the top side, but the only rust on it is surface. i need a 500 hood emblem because my trim is really rusty, itll break if i try to remove it, and i will use my hood latch hook because this new hood's is missing.

he also had a pair of very cool cars, both 390 powered, one was an actual drag car in the 70s!

 

also side rant, why does no one have the correct solenoid? it drives me insane that i cant find the right style even though its advertised to be!

 

took it for a cruise, going longer monday. if i can hit 45 miles on the odo its cleared to to drive to town

 

she can do a burnout! thats the only one im going to do but man it really did good, it left a nice smokey dark streak behind me when i left haha.
also, it made it! 96045 miles means its good to go!

 

@e1956v your work on the speedometer shows amazingly, it doesnt even bounce, once again i have to say you did an amazing job on that.

 

i almost forgot to mention, its insured (i got that cool little insurance/registration holder for it) and i stuck these battery caps on it to make it look more period correct. a correct battery hold down is on its way so i wont worry about it falling off

 

Its the morning of the trip into town! wish me luck!

 

You've got this!

 

shes registered and plated!

 

@e1956v i found out 50 on my speedometer is 58, and 60 is 70. any ideas?

 

Thats an average of 14% slow
The speedometer was calibrated on the bench, run the car on a measured mile and let me know how many1/10's
you're turning in a mile and post here to let me know. Run it twice on one given mile so we have good numbers.
Use mile markers or run a mile and mark it with GPS. IE use GPS and turning out of your driveway go 1 mile stop and mark it or pick a landmark when you stop. We are shooting for 10/10s in a mile or 1000 cable revolutions.

 

will do

 

i nudged my speedometer by a very little bit and now its perfectly accurate at 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60. i didnt test higher for legal reasons.
(also its raining)