1952-59 Ford 1952 Victoria Build-Up Part 1

Awesome thread man, giving me all kinds of ideas for my '54!

Denise,

Lowering the seat is more involved than raising it, the seat support bars sit right on the floor, so in order to lower it you would have to cut an inch or so out of each vertical support and maybe modify the seat track adjusters a little.

But, raising the seat is super easy, there are four bolts that enter from the bottom of the car (which you can easily reach without even lifting her) and screw into the bolts welded to the support bars. To raise it, just get some grade 8 bolts 1 or 2 inches longer than what is there, and a spacer of the same thickness that mounts between the floor and seat bars.

The previous owner of my car raised the seat with 4 chunks of 2x4 wood with a hole drilled through the center, but I'm sure you could find a more elegant spacer. I had to remove mine because I couldn't see out the front window and under the visor, the previous owner was pretty short.

 

And what's wrong with kickstand pipes?

 

Nothing, really, if they are carefully selected and properly installed like yours...er...Iris's.

They were a crazy fad back when I was young and wound up being installed on everything from Ferrari's to bicycles...usually the wrong length to enhance the looks of the car and often crooked.

They always seemed to be "added on" instead of intergrated into the overall design. On some cars they add to the illusion of lowness; on others they confirm the actual lowness by the flat spots ground into their bottom edges.

But mostly, I tend to be a minimalist kind of a guy in my tastes and long sidepipes just never seemed to flip my switch.

Just personal taste, I guess, and certainly not a negative reflection on those who do like them.

 

I hope you don't mind Eric, but I thought I would throw the 'shopped version that I did up here in your thread so others could see as well.



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Wow! I like it even more than I thought I would. Thanks, Scott!

Now, where's the grinder...

 

can't wait to see more!

 

glad to see you are back on it - I have come back to the group just to search for your build thread many times to see what was new. I haven't been able to do anything with my car because, thank god, I have a brand new baby girl at home and my funds (which were limited to begin with) have been redirected to something much more important.

I did get to keep the car and just paid the last of the hospital bills so time to start saving again.

can't wait to see what you do next - good luck

 

Scott.... I want that car!!!! Eric... you got to build that! I'd even fly in for a ride!

 

I'm stoked about it too, Geno.

All the previous work will fit right in with the new version and, perhaps best of all, I've already got all the parts to build it!

As I explained early in the thread, the car came with two pickup truck loads of extra parts that the previous owner had collected with which to build his version of this car. His untimely p***ing cut his plans short, however.

Anyhow, when I finally got to sort out all the stuff we hauled back with the car, I found two sets of skirts, a partial set of rare '55 Pontiac side trim, a '53 upper grille surround and an Australian Holden grille!

If you apply all those parts to this car in a mental picture, it's a pretty tasty combination...and not at all unlike the version I'm about to build.

Strange...

 

Well... It's about time I got back on the job, wouldn't you say?

As some already know I've pulled the sheet off the Vicky and started in where I left off a year or so ago. My first chore: find new urethane ball joint booties to replace the cheap rubber ones that came with the Jamco tubular control arm front suspension.


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Thanks to Jeff, I've tracked down some booties I think will work from Energy Suspension (I'll publish the part numbers once I've confirmed the fit) and ordered 'em from Jeg's online. I also ordered short front snubbers (5/8" thick urethane) to provide a little more suspension travel.

More soon...with pix!

Yay! It's good to be back...

(Time p***es...)​

Okay... Time to update this thread.

Thanks to Jeff I was able to use the Energy Suspension Chart (http://www.energysuspensionparts.com/Energy-Suspension-Universal-Dust-Boots.asp) to determine the physical size of the various ball joint booties offered by ES.

The next step was to measure the various aspects of the Jamco ball joints - upper and lower as they are different - and apply the measurements to the chart and see which boots would be best for my application.

It turned out that Energy Suspension urethane bushings #9.13130G were almost perfect for the top, and that #9.13119G were almost perfect for the bottom.

Installing them was almost too easy: break the joint apart, take off the old ones, slip on the new ones and bolt 'er back up.

Here's the photos...


Before...


Cheap Chinese rubber boots were el-junko!


Here's the parts...


Lower gap with nut tight...


Upper gap with nut tight...


Lower bootie installed...


Upper bootie installed...


Long vs short bump stop...



Much, much better...

 

Hey stranger, welcome back! Really looking forward to more progress pics on this one.

 

Welded in the motor mounts tonight. A beautiful evening here in Texas...other than the mosquitos...and I had a few minutes after my chores to work on the Vicky. I'd tacked the mounts in previously, but with the engine out again I took the opportunity to weld them in permanently. Got the mounts from Jamco. Very simple bolt-in mounts, but I decided to weld 'em in just to be sure the motor don't fall out...

Too dark to photo tonight, so I'll take 'em and post 'em tomorrow. Good to be wrenching on the old girl again...

 

Here's the photos I promised on the installation of Jamco SBC into '52-'53 Fords. They're designed to be either bolted in or welded in.

I chose to weld 'em in. Call me paranoid...


Here's where I started. The Jamco mounts had been tack welded in place during the intial fitting of the engine to the car. With the motor out, it's time to mount the mounts permanently.


Some of the surfaces to which the mounts attach are not square, so gaps remain with the mounts properly placed. We'll fix these before welding.


Heat and beat. Heat the motor mount dull red with a torch then hammer it to conform with the shape of the frame beneath. Allow to cool naturally, do not quench.


Clean the area with a wire wheel and weld. (Don't laugh, I'm not a great welder...)


A little "damage control" with a grinder/sanding disc and the mounts are ready for paint.


That's about all there is to it. Nobody will ever see these mounts once the motor is back in place, but at least I - and now you, too - will know that they're solid and halfway good looking as well.


The front suspension and the engine compartment is just about complete at this point - minus paint and plumbing. The next step is to put the motor back in and get it running. Stay tuned...

 

Good to see an update- looking forward to seeing more!

 

glad to see you back on the job, dose it feel good to be? cant believe the rubber booties that came with those arms done that, for what they charge for that kit.

 

Awesome! Your build thread always provides some good motivation.

 

Well I decided to do something constructive today, so I dug my hood hinges out of the pile of parts beside the shop with the idea of trying to resurrect them to usable condition.

They'd been sitting outside for a long time prior to me getting the car and looked like they were gonners - stuck solid with rust and almost certainly bent like most of 'em are.

But an hour or so of PB Blaster, ball peen hammer and "gas wrench" later they're all set to go to the sandblaster to be cleaned up and set aside for later use.

Fortunately one of them (I started with four) was unbent and could be used as a pattern for all the others.

After getting the hinges to articulate as they should, I set about heating and straightening the others to match the good one. Not difficult, as I discovered, because the hinge arms are so soft they bend with little heat and very little persuasion.

Fortunately all the pivots were good and none required more than a few "taps" with the ball peen to tighten up nicely.

It's a good thing these are silent pictures...​

I cleaned up the firewall pockets where the hinges attach, too...​

End result: two very nice hinge ***emblies, two spares...and a crispy left hand. The lesson: don't grab the hot part...

That's it for today. More tomorry...

 

While you have them apart you should beef them up much like the ones we mentioned in an earlier post done by a guy that rebuilds hinges.The weak areas are two places, the arms and the thin metal where they bolt to the firewall. Take some 12 or 14 gauge straps and weld to the arms and the duct flanges this will reduce the flex that causes the problems with 52-54 hinges,looking forward to some pics of the fix.

 

Love the build, its good to see the old girl getting some love. Before you put the engine back in, it would be a great time to remove the steering gear for cleaning and a bench adjustment. One of the adjustments is done on the car, one is best done on a bench.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, Jeff and Ole don. They are appreciated.

I don't plan to modify the hinges, although I could change my mind. The design isn't at fault, in my opinion, it's the lack of lubrication and the subs***ution of force for maintenance that bends the arms.

Yes, Ole don, I'll check the steering box before I go too much further. So far it seems fine with very little play - the car doesn't seem to have all that many miles on it - but I'll adjust it as necessary.

Thanks also for the email, Don. It's good to know that another HAMBer recognizes the car and can help add details of its history. As you can see, the build is going much slower than I'd anticipated. Life just seems to get in the way sometimes...

 

It isn't often that any of us comes to own a car rich with history, but with my Vicky I've been so blessed.

Thanks to Ole don, I've discovered that my Victoria once belonged to a fellow HAMBer Dave Dooley who has since p***ed, and that it had a very special place in his heart.

Here's Dave's HAMB introduction, taken from his 2008 HAMB profile:

"Ever since I could push a toy car across the floor,I've been into wheels. Here I am almost 60 years old and still foolin' with cars. Twisted wrenches in a factory for 33 yrs. Now that I'm retired,I can do some of the things that I didn't have time for before. Like building my little roadster. 27 T body,home brew frame,flatty V8. What some people would call a rat,but I like the term Hot Rod better. Pulled my 52 Ford hardtop out of the corner a couple months ago. It was my first car,and I'd like to get it back on the road sometime soon. I figure on doing some mild custom work on it. Nosed, decked, shaved, different grille, and of course lowered. Lotta firsts in that old ride.
Later..."

I don't tear up often, but I did today...

 

That is incredible! Sounds like a real nice fellow; I am sure that you are doing the car justice.

 

Ole Don has done some follow-up, sending a few photos of the previous owner - Dave Dooley - and more info about the car.

I'm hoping that learning about the car's past and the owner's plans for it will help bring the project together to be even better than if I'd have done it alone.



It would seem that Dave and I have very similar ideas as to the overall "look" of the car, the grille being the main point of departure. He planned to fit it with a widened grille opening using a '53 Ford grille shell, filling it with an Australian Holden grille - which I got with the car. My plan was to use a complete '54 Chevy grille with park lights and extra teeth. I like the Holden grille bar very much - it took a while for me to figure out what it was - and may change my plans and include it instead of the Chevy grille.

Another point of difference between Dave's plans and mine being that in his mind the car would be flathead powered and in mine, as most of you know, there's a Corvette under the hood. With all due respect, I'll stick with the Chevy. I love flatheads, but I also plan to drive the wheels off this car when it's done and I just don't want the aggrivation...

I've also learned that the yellowed and faded water-slide decal in the left rear window has meaning. The decal reads "Mid-America Raceway, Wentzville, Mo., PL 2-????" (the corner with the phone number is ragged and unreadable). That drag strip was built in 1965 and was very popular in its day, but was leveled in 2005 to make way for a subdivision. There's a good chance that Dave attended - and perhaps even raced his boyhood ride, this car - at Mid-America back in the day. How cool is that!

Hopefully I'll learn more as time goes on. I'm really enthused about getting in touch with this car's history. Kinda brings it new life. I'm glad that in a way I'll be completing that which Dave had envisioned, and be the caretaker of the car he obviously cherished for a lifetime.

 

***

 

Thanks, Mark. I'm moving so it might have to find a new home. At least all the hard work is done for the new owner, eh? We'll see what happens.

 

Say it ain't so! Are you downsizing, or? PM if you'd rather not here.

 

I'm afraid so, Scott. I'm keeping the Merc, the Buick and a couple of the Harleys but everything else is gonna go sooner or later. I've already bought my new digs and am restoring the house - a cottage actually - and building a new shop that'll double as work and pleasure. Small, though, cuz I need to downsize pretty much everything. Too many unfinished projects and not enough time...if ya' know what I mean.

 

Congrats on the downsizing. I moved not long ago and got rid of a lot of things I didn't need anymore. Pretty liberating, actually. I love the Vicky! I'll let you know if I hit the lottery, then I can take her off of your hands

 

Well...I feel a little like Rip Van Winkle, waking up from a very long nap. Pulled the Vicky out of the barn the other day and said to myself, "Self, this car ain't gettin' any further along sitting in the barn." So, with any luck all the old photos on this thread will return so I can remember where the heck I was when I stopped, and will get back to making some progress. Yawn...stretch...

 

One of the decisions I've made since the Vicky has been in the barn is to dial back my quest for perfection in favor of getting it on the road. There are only so many hours in a day to devote to this car and I'd really like to log a few miles in it before I croak. Besides, nobody besides me is going to crawl underneath it to admire the painted frame and the powder coated frammis rods...so what's the point, eh?