I am the proud owner, yes I said proud, of a 1959 Edsel Villager wagon. It's a complete car that starts and stops but not very well. I'm looking at what disc brake conversion, exhaust, power steering, a/c and other little things that are wrong with it will cost to fix and am thinking that swapping the chassis with a 2nd gen Town car is my best bet. Only thing holding me back is the rear wheel track. The Edsel is 56.4 and the Lincoln is 63.3. 7 inches is a lot of inches to tuck up under the rear. Any suggestions on frame swap or how about ways to get the steering and brakes right without spending $3K. What have you done to make your old Ford/Mercury/Edsel driveable and reliable?
A frame swap will cost you as much as not more then what it will take to make your edsel right. The track width can be fixed on the Lincoln easy enough if the frame is too wide to start with back half it and narrow the rearend. Axles will run you about 600-2100 dollars ( I can probably get them cheaper but I am being realistic), I have no idea where you are but it should cost more then a couple of hundred buck to narrow the housing ( I would do it for a 80-100 but I work cheap). You should be able to back half it if you do your own work for about 200 dollars give or take. or you can buy the parts needed to rebuild what you got and not have a bastardized setup. Disc brakes are optional, I am putting discs on my A but that's because that is what I have. if I had drums I would be putting drums on it. Drums work fine if you make them right.
A frame swap could turn your wagon into a parts car. Make a list starting with safety items and ending with it would be nice to have things. Then start working your way through the list. Spending 3 grand today is different than spending 3 grand, or more, over time. Just my opinion. Good luck. -Dave
Really, the only things that are 'old' on your Edsel is the brakes and power steering (Ford was still using linkage assist). Far less work to 'upgrade' or repair those two items compared to a frame swap and cheaper too. All the other things mentioned aren't part of the frame and would have to be adapted to the bodyshell. I realize that a 'donor' Lincoln can probably be had cheaply, but by the time you modify it to fit, any cost saving will be long gone. One other thing to think about; Lincolns use a lot of Lincoln-specific parts that are neither cheap or easy to find (even on the later models) so you may be simply trading one set of problems for another...
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