So, I've always been into getting a car that doesn't have a cult following or whatnot or something that not many people drive and I stumbled upon the short life of the Edsel, and I instantly was drawn into then. I'm really fascinated with that '58 exclusive Tele-Touch drive that they came with but I can't find a decently priced '58 Edsel where I'm at to save my life, as much as I want one, don't really feel like spending $9,000 or even $11,500 on a car, even if it's a rare car. (Mainly because I don't really wanna take out a loan for a car that old, but I digress) How hard would it be, if even possible to find a '58 Edsel parts car that has the Tele-Touch and retrofit it onto a '59 Edsel? It sounds kind of pointless but like, at the same time what's really stopping me from trying to attempt something like that? I'm not very familiar with how it's all set up, shift motor location and stuff like that, read some where that it's near the left exhaust bank, but other than that I've never seen a picture or diagram of this particular set up so I have no clue what I'd be doing. That, and there's not a whole lot of information surrounding the Edsels, if that makes sense
Just a hunch but I wonder if it was a failed exercise. It only lasted a short time and maybe it was as troublesome as all the servo-motors on the ‘57-‘59 Ford Skyliner.
Yeah, gotta love that primitive '50s technology. Would be kind of cool to take one and refine it a little to make it a little more roadworthy, yk? Add a couple heat shields around the motor and exhaust or whatever
Finding a parts car that still has a complete system may be harder then finding a complete car. If the system was troublesome to begin with, and if a car that had a functioning system on it became a parts car, the needed pieces were probably gone quickly. The odds are probably better that the reason the car became a parts car in the 1st place was because that troubled system failed and the owner couldn't find the needed parts, or couldn't afford the needed parts. The late 50s and early 60s was a fix it generation. You didn't replace something until it didn't work, and cost too much, or was too hard, to fix.
Teletouch was available on all the 58 edsel models. The two "lower" ranges were Ford based cars, the upper ranges were Mercury based. In 59, the Edsels were all based on the Ford. So a Teletouch from a 58 Ranger or Pacer might work in the 59 Edsel. See if you can find the parts, before you get too excited about installing one in your car.
Here's some reading and dreaming about Edsels: https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/edsels.1239479/
I like the '59 over the '58 by far. I p***ed one up about 5 years back and it was complete for $8000. You can ferret out fixes for the steering column flaws, same as the Skyliner woes. New technology has emerged to make them reliable again. It is enough of a task fixing up a 65 + year old car. The tele touch steering wheel elevates the game quite a bit.
When I was a kid my dad had a 58 with the teletouch. I vividly remember it randomly shifting into low gear and staying that way while my dad cursed the dadblamed thing.
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