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

indeed i am, i need to buy my next run of alliance haha, i forgot to buy it earlier

 

Those windshields were designed to pop out in a wreck. I saw one in a 1958 Ford do that around 1965. It t-boned another car, the whole dealie popped out, skipped across the hood of the other car, hit the pavement and never fell over. It never even broke. The gasket and trim came with it.

I had 2 rust holes in the floor pan of my new 1966 Belair in odd spots. I used fiberglass to fix them. Of course this is hidden but an option.

 

the floors are far gone enough to justify patching. this little spot would be a PITA to fix and should stop the leaking into the cabin

 

well, i had a bad time today.

cracked, twice.

the seal isnt even fully installed because it wouldnt go, the string kept breaking.

 

Ow, sorry about that

 

now i need a windshield and it still has problems

 

Everything has to be surgically clean before the "new" one goes in. I used a new gasket and shot paint all around the opening first.

I had a mobile glass guy. He us now retired. He came to my shop and installed mine, which had to come out once for a 2nd attempt which worked.

 

the gasket area was somehow rot and dirt free. just had some rubber cement that was still pliable, felt like it was fiberous (probably asbestos!)

i cleaned it really good, guess i didnt do it well enough, plus the edges were nearly falling apart on this windshield, time really didnt do it very good.

 

I'm sure you already know this but the Std 57 Ford windshield is taller than the Fairlane.
When looking for one, make sure it will work. A center height measurement should be enough.

 

Wow, I just discovered this thread, and it is extremely similar to my own ‘57 Chevy thread. I’m inspired though to see you driving yours, mine still isn’t roadworthy and I bought it in 2017 when I was 19. I’ll have to read through this whole thread now!

Edit: hell I even had an ‘09 Crown Vic for a few weeks back in 2018 as my daily. Rear end blew up and I sold it quickly, but so funny to see the similarities in your thread to my own experience.

 

im currently driving a 1996 crown victoria,

i believe you were mentioned in here somewhere. my 57 was roadworthy. then i broke it :/

 

Old glass is brittle and can't be manhandled too much. You can shop around for a replacement. Mine came from Sanderson Hot Rod Glass, IIRC in Washington. He had the best shipping and the box was huge.

 

ordered a rad, i think this winter im going to finally try my hand at welding. wont be on the 57 first though.

i bought a rustyish shitbox specifically to try welding on, a cheap 1993 capri xr2.

as a benefit, its a decently reliable little turbocharged 5 speed car i can beat around in this spring

 

First and foremost, fire safety.
Second, clean surfaces to join.
Third, it takes 10 thousand hours to master something. You will stumble and fail. That's a given. Keep trying.

 

Definitely will, i plan on learning on this because its new, cheap, and relatively lame.

 

Find stuff to practice on, old bed frames on trash night. People throw out lots of metals.

 

Still waiting for my rad to show up... its an aftermarket aluminum rad that looks like an original, heres hoping its as good as it looks.

miss driving this thing. i think after i patch some metal up im going to try my hand at performance upgrades, thinking a limited slip would be the first thing i do, and change the leaves while im at it, i kinda want to lower it an inch or two.

 

its back!

gauge installation is going well as seen by my other thread.

and ive decided, i have one goal for this car this year.

get this shitbox to Lloydfest '25.



theres a list of things that need done, first of which is to get the damn thing reliable again.

axle is resealed, transmission is... fine and the engine has some noisiness, mostly due to the exhaust manifolds leaking, the exhaust is getting outright replaced in april with the mufflers i wanted in the first place, if anyone can make them work, its Mike's custom garage in mt vernon. while its in there im going to have him replace the gaskets and hardware as he has the proper equipment to do it.

second order of buisiness, fix the heater, again. theres a kit on ecklers to replace the valve with a more modern alternative to the heater control valve rather than the one it has. only a hundred bucks.

third order of buisiness, valve springs and valve seals, if its going to lloydfest 200 miles a quart isnt acceptable, thats a 400 mile drive, and thats not even considering constant load like mountains!

just hoping it isnt rings, ive got 135 in 7 of them and 120 in number 1 (my weak cylinder)

optionals:
4 barrel swap

limited slip diff

patch floors

cut front springs and replace or rearch rears.

re route vacuum lines to a vacuum can so my wipers work better on hills.

replace cracked windshield.

replace tires (4 years old now with bald spots on the inner edge from before i did the suspension)

get spare sets of points,

figure out a tag a long if things REALLY go wrong

Add towing to insurance, i'll need it...

 

Great goal!

 

Some of that stuff is more important than others.

The electric universal heater control valve is a good idea. There is a basic cable actuated unit on Amazon for like $15 but that 's assuming you have a good choke cable to run it. Sometimes the new, electric variant is just the easier solution.

New tires are a must. It sucks changing flats out there. That said, I also carry a small, 12v compressor I bought from harbor freight with me on long trips in case I need to inflate a tire that is low. It's not a fast process, but it will do the job in a pinch and is much quicker than getting towed.

Even if the engine is using a considerable amount of oil like you mentioned, it's not really that bad in the grand scheme of things. You'll barely get 200 miles out of a full tank of gas. Just throw a quart in at every fill up and it's basically the price an extra 1.5 gallons of gas. Inconvenient? Perhaps. But not a reason to not take the car on an extended trip.

If you're getting blue smoke on startup, then it would be indicative of valves and seals. If you're getting smoke under load, then it's probably rings.

The limited slip diff is a luxury item with your current configuration.

I think you'd be pleasantly surprised by how much better your car runs with a more modern 4 barrel. In that same theme, there is a drop in pertronix electronic distributor available for the Y block. I can speak from personal experience that converting my car to electronic ignition was the single best performance mod I've made.

I also carry one of those little $8 Amazon ticker fuel pumps with me on long trips. In the event my main fuel pump goes out and I'm stranded, I can quickly hook up this little guy under the hood with a couple hose clamps to get me home. I have a couple lengths of wire off the leads with alligator clips and just clip the leads to a good ground and the hot side of the coil. It's not optimal but it will work in a pinch and is cheap insurance. I drove my 57 Ford 180 miles home from central PA like that one time coming back from a show.

You don't need exotic suspension mods to get a good look. Cut 1 coil out in front, put a 2 or 3 inch block in the rear with a reversed shackle and you're golden. From experience with the 57 Ford, you'll see more improvement in ride with a functional front sway bar and good (functional) shocks than anything else.

Rerouting vacuum lines isn't really going to help your wiper situation unless you have a reservoir, and even then it won't be that good. The best way to just fix the problem is to convert them to electric. The Newport Engineering kit worked great in my 57 Ford for over 20 years.

 

my car is a cable heater control car, very rare as most seem to be vacuum. the expensive bit is the part that bypasses the heater valve, the nipple off the heater core. the valve is included in the kit with a longer cable to stick through the firewall.

i have a milwaukee tire inflator. goes from flat to inflated in 30 seconds flat, even new chinese tires like it has will be better than these flat spotted ones with bald spots.

a ticker pump is a good idea if my mech decides to give up the ghost at any point during the trip, probably going to bring that and some 5/16 hose.

blue smoke is only on takeoff and startup. otherwise its pretty limited unless i downshift and mash the throttle to pass someone then a big whoosh of smoke is left behind me. the springs are so worn out that it doesnt even rev past 4k, the seals are getting replaced as a bonus.

i got a deal on ebay on a 1957 t bird 4 barrel intake. shipping it would have cost more than i got it for and he just so happens to be in Columbus during the 1st week of april.

everything should be nearly bolt on, just gotta get a mummert thermostat housing for the cool looks plus a pcv valley pan. looking for a 4160 carb to use. keeping the electric choke i installed early on of course.

the limited slip is a "if i find one locally and affordably" price, some 70s-80s pickups came with the correct 26 spline center section stock. id just transfer the limited slip goodies over to my current axle to keep the 3.56 gearing.

i got a name brand electronic ignition kit from my local advance auto before it shut down for 5 bucks. 135 dollars off. didnt come with the coil though. so far my points havent given me any issues and i installed them 3 years ago (and 700 miles lol)

i figured one coil was about the happy medium, a front swaybar might be in the works... itll depend on how i think it handles after the springs are setup.

my shackles are hanging below the leaf, so i think theyre already reversed, but the leaves are very worn out, the shocks are great but the leaves sag to bump stops with just tools and my 140 lb when drenched sister in the back seat. (seen here)


might grab a '57 chevy electric wiper motor, theyre bolt on and im actually making enough money that i can afford them now.

 

A jug of coolant, a jug of water, a case of oil, extra belts, Basic tools, a jump box or cables, a couple jumper wires and a test light. A chunk of cardboard or moving blanket, a jack and at least one stand.

 

so.. my entire toolkit and a 5 gallon bucket of every fluid?

 

When you have it in the trunk, you won't need it (except the oil).

 

What is this 'ticker fuel pump' that you all are talking about?

 

a horrible off topic thing to put on such a car.

its a "save me" item

 

Add a tire plug set.
Just in case.

 

I would agree, except he mentioned getting new rubber. If the worst happens and he uses a plug, that will probably void the warranty. Better to have a spare.

 

Well, beats walking. And he can have it patched in the next town, but yes, plugs (I’ve considered anyways) are “get it down the road” thing.
Or make sure you buy a set from a large company with road hazard warranty, toss the spare on and hope it doesn’t go flat. Lol

 

i always have a full size spare and jack so im not super worried about flats.
i will definitely bring a plug kit regardless.