First of all, this is an oddity. It was a factory police car in Kansas. Yes, a desert beige 9 passenger Edsel Wagon police car. I'm pretty sure it has to be the ONLY one of those. It probably shouldn't have been saved. Kids had shot all of the windows out, everything was old or frozen up, it didn't run, didn't stop, the tires where all dry rotted and flat, it had no title, and parts are hard to find. But it was REALLY solid. This is EXACTLY the kind of project I buy. So I bought the car, shipped it to Indiana, and then put new American Racing Torque Thrust D's and new wide white wall tires ($1500 worth) on it to make it roll, spent three months (and $300) getting a CLEAR INDIANA TITLE in my name for it, spent a ton of money replacing the green tinted glass and finding the weatherstripping nobody makes. My pal Randy spent countless hours replacing EVERY SINGLE SUSPENSION AND BRAKE PART including new Wilwood front disc brakes ($750) and doing all of the annoying little stuff like replacing door handle springs and replacing the ignition and door locks, and making the clamshell tailgate open and close again. The only rust was in the front floors so I bought new floor pans ($200, not installed yet). The grill was cracked so I got a good one ($175). The 332 FE engine does turn but is not running. If The 3 speed on the column isntbyour thing, I've got an NOS Fenton floor shift conversion ($500) a to put the oar on the floor. It also a brand new aluminum 3 row radiator ($200) and a new fuel tank ($400) All said, I've got $7-8000 in this car so far. We could probably have it running in a week or so and with nearly everything mechanical being brand new, it should be very reliable and as problem free as a 1959 wagon can be. We are still working on it and spending money so once it runs and drives, the price goes up obviously. But I know I'm probably not going to keep it so I'm offering it up in its current condition now for cheap in hopes that I can dive into my 60 Plymouth sooner rather than later. Also, I will take Plymouth Flathead six speed parts, or a cool open wheel hot rod project as trades. If not, we keep building.
The Jalopy Journal
