Just bought 4 door 1959 Edsel Ranger ... long story but I need to add disc brakes, new motor, etc ... can I use 1985 Crown Vic for parts ... any advice or suggestions is appreciated! Tami
Welcome to the site. Where are you from? What kind of shape is the car in? Can you post more pics? I have a '60 Ranger and it's my 6th Edsel. My first one was a '59 4 door sedan like yours with a 6 and 3 on the tree. Good luck with it....
Once I transfer pix from phone, I can upload more ... have plenty of pix from ***essment. Car was supposed to be "restored 8 years ago" ... I was completely misled ... it is a definite project car - needs a lot of work .... NO power steering or power brakes exist (main reason I bought the car - dealer said it was complete & driver ready) Transmission will not hold in park windshield wipers do not work carburetor is shot rust in the fuel tank windshield cracked driver's window cracked tires are dry rotted & front left tire is separating car needs complete brake drums electrical issue not fully ****yzed but the rear turn signals work opposite of proper design, front signals were not connected & 1 fell onto transport vehicle, brake lights do not consistently light up, radio does not power on driver door will not stay properly close trunk does not properly latch & lock none of the gauges work
I saw a post about your car on FB...maybe you should look around and see if you can find one in good condition? they're not real expensive, from what I've seen. Swapping in modern stuff can get pretty expensive if you don't know how to do it yourself. Fixing what's there can be either reasonably priced, or pretty expensive, depending on how good you are at doing stuff, and what condition it's all in. For example, I spent about a grand getting my 59 Ranger going again, which included overhauling the engine, installing a used transmission, new gas tank, getting the brakes working, getting the wiring working, new tires, etc. I did it all myself as cheap as I could, and I know quite a bit about old cars.
I hate to be negative but it sounds like you got ripped off. So you bought it from a dealer and didn't get to look at it before you bought it? Did they tell you it was in great shape and ran good or did they say it was a project? Did you pay for it with a credit card because you have some alternatives if you did. Please post pics ASAP....
I see you are from Florida. Was the car advertised on line and is the dealer from Florida? Sorry to hear you got burned. It's not a good feeling.
story about the engine overhaul, etc. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/y-block-overhaul.1017969/
If you have copies of the ad or emails with the dealer claiming it's driver ready and the car was bought here in Florida it might fall under the lemon law. Talk to a lawyer and go buy a good one, as Squirrel said, they're not real expensive: "Florida Lemon Law. If you've purchased or leased a defective automobile, you do have legal recourse under Florida's lemon law. The law provides arbitration for car owners with complaints, and can result in a full refund or replacement vehicle."
If the body is really solid you should be able to fix the items on your list at no great expense.Of course I dont know what you paid for the car either.Why does it need a new engine?What engine is in it?Can you do the work yourself?Squirrel is sure enough right about how expensive paying someone else to do that kind of work is.
Sorry to hear you got a bad purchase. But like the others have said, post some pics and more details about the car. What is the condition of the current engine? Why do you feel it needs to have power steering and brakes? I have a '59 myself and I know several other members have them, I'm sure we can help but we need more details.
[QUOTE="Moondog13, post: 11562199, member: 19417] "Florida Lemon Law. If you've purchased or leased a defective automobile, you do have legal recourse under Florida's lemon law. The law provides arbitration for car owners with complaints, and can result in a full refund or replacement vehicle."[/QUOTE] That's a hard case name, considering these cars were nicknamed Lemons at some point. At least I read that somewhere. Sorry you got ripped, not all car dealers are dishonest, but my first job outer school, was working for a dodgy car dealer, so I know how some operate. Good luck with ya car.
My '59 Ford needed a ton of work, not including the engine and initial buy, I have about $10k into it by now. Completely rebuilt the 2 doors, all channel, seals and gl***, handles in & out. Rear axle bearings & seals, disc brake conversion, gutted the interior, cleaned and painted it. 100% rewired end to end. New front end, shocks all around, hydraulic clutch, windshield ($375 + $150 shipping), aluminum radiator and so on. Of the $10k, maybe close to $2k was spent in scaring up all the interior and trim ( and clips) I was missing, some new, some NOS. Also, new fuel tank and electric wiper conversion (Newport Engineering). Reading the other posts, there are better cars out there and if you can get your $$ back, great. I see them for sale around even up by me now and then.
Have you taken the car back or are you going to keep it? If you are keeping it and need help getting it going I am only an hour away and would be glad to help.No charge,just buy lunch.
I have a '59 Ranger, great car, I drove it from NY to Detroit and also took it to Florida. I added disc brakes from dropnstop.com. Dave is great to work with. Sent from my iPad using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Hi Tami, sorry to hear of your bum deal, just got a 59 2 door Ranger myself its a bit rough in places but a lot of the welding has been done to a high standard and not covered in bondo so you cant see the quality of work There are some patch repairs to do in the trunk and re-do the repairs to the door corners but the upside i could see what i was getting into , the plus side the car was cheap (for this side of the pond) and the interior is in really good shape, mine will be a rolling project doing the work as an when i can The upside of my project is that I do all my own work including paint so its only my time and materials , my biggest expense will be to replace all the trim thats missing if it does not turn up and going on ebay prices for the individual pieces it would cost more than i paid for the car so may have to call on some Stateside contacts to help As others have said look at what you have paid for the car and your budget it could be better in the long run to look for a better one and try get your money back there are plenty to chose from over there and at reasonable money The Crown Vic donor option sounds like a good move as parts are cheap and plenty-full + the front clip should adapt quite easy Good luck I hope it all works for you Dave
Old post from almost a year ago... no news from the OP. Like I always say here, for every 20 new projects I see here, 19 of them fail at some point.
Hope you're still persuing this "project" Let us know With all those shortcomings, (even tho' some are not that hard to remedy) this so-called dealer should be outed. gatz
yeah, that was a while ago...I saw somewhere else that she was able to return the car to the seller for a refund, and bought another car that was in better condition.
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