Projects 54 Ford Customline daily driver

Thanks aldeanfan

Knghtcadi, sled fest is what im shooting for. Hopefully ill make it, still gotta wire it up and button up a ton of oddball small stuff. You know anyone in the area that welds cast iron?


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I like your new welding table! Is your upholstery a kit? Forgive me for not looking back further in the thread to find out. Did you try any heat on that wrinkle in seat bottom?

 

Thanks man, and yea its all ezboy upholstery stuff. The door panels i had to make, the actual wooden panel that is, and then wrap it with large pre sewn panels that i selected the pattern for. The seats are actually specific cover patterns to the car and then you select the style you want. I tried heat, the wrinkles were a lot worse on both covers when i started, but that center crease was folded and pinched really bad in shipping. As decent as these products are and the money i saved, there still not cheap. I did my 62 chevy with them as well, but i think this will be the last interior i do myself. I hate messing with this stuff haha


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What do you need done ? Our maintenance man at the shop I work at does it a lot on his old tractors and does stuff for the mechanics so let me know what you need and I’ll talk to him


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The power steering box is slightly larger than the stocker and the new motor mounts shifted things a hair so now my d/s exhaust manifold is hitting. I talked to cody walls, eastcoastchanneljob on here and on ig, and he said to cut it and modify it how i need, bevel the edges heavily, tack it with a mig just enough for it to hold and have someone fully weld it.

If he can weld it for me, ill get it lined up and tacked for him


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I’ll talk to him today and get back to you


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Shot of the two tone on the window garnishes that roll into the dash paint scheme

 

Very nice touch!

 

Thanks jeff!

Also carried the gold pinstripe back along the window garnishes to split the two tone, just like the dash as well




Btw, if any of you guys stripe occasionally, dont ever buy one shot gold metallic haha. It is superrrrr thin and runny and the metallic is hard to keep consistent. Everyone online says the same thing, but i didnt look before i bought it

 

All the interior is done aside from the front seat. Caught some hell with the door panel holes that are drilled in the door, they are dimpled inward stock. I had to flatten out the dimple and flare the hole out to get the door panel clips to seat right. All is good now






The accesory mirror is on and working, plug wires are on, trans has fluid, cut a little outta the rear crossmember above the pinion for a bit more clearance. Driveshafts in, need to get the fuel lines clamped down and shorten a power steering line so i can get all my fluid systems done. Slowly getting there

 

Has anyone disassembled a front seat? I havent attempted yet, but im thinking about the stainless strips on the rear of the folding seat backs. How do they attach? Any tips for wrapping the seat backs? Id like to keep them if its possible, really adds detail to the seats


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The top of the line Crestliners had them with phillips screws like below.

 

The sedans have strips that attach without screws, heres a pic off the interweb of a 52/3 but the 54 is really similar

 

Spent the majority of the day cutting off 2 stripped front leaf spring bolts. I stripped one, cut it off an stripped the second one. Its the front bolt with the large washer like centering head, both were aftermarket and looked to be low grade. Stripped with little to no torque. Ended up making a custom washer and bolt with grade 8 coarse thread hardware

Also solved my exhaust manifold clearance issue. Ended up grinding on the steer box to create clearance. Worked out well.

Where are you guys running your water temp sending units on a y block ? Im running the classic instruments gauges and sending units, can i use the stock location on the top rear of the d/s head? The hole is deep and the classic instruments probe isnt all that long. Would this cause any issues?


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Some silly wiring questions because im a total newb....

Light sockets, does the wire orientation matter ? For instance tail light sockets, i have the tail light wire and signal wire, will it work either way? Same with front markers?

Also the ebay number for that light switch relay didnt turn up anything, can anyone point me to a relay that will work for my lights, or do i even need one?

Does anyone have a diagram or layout of the ignition switch and headlight switch? I need to know what terminals are on each switch. My manual doesnt have a diagram of this, and none of the original wire colors are there

Sorry for the silly questions, got the harness layed out today, waiting on some loom to tidy things up but i plan on having alot of this soldered up and ready to roll asap


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Try this ebay # for headlight relay 262483542712 EZ plug & play. If you used a universal wiring harness they are "GM friendly" and color coded. Ford only has one hot lead going into the the headlight switch,GM's split it and have two you can find the Ford wiring diagram here. https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/media/54-ford-wiring.474898/

 

Here is a Chevy headlight switch to compare to.

 

Ford ignition switch back view.

 

If you are going to add extra accessories Stereo etc add this to the accessory terminal they also have the matching plug for it https://www.frys.com/product/6401272?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

 

This would make your life a lot easier, https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Book-How-To-Wire-Your-Street-Rod,2824.html

 

Ok, your questions answered....

Yes, it matters which wire goes where on the light sockets. The brake/turn filaments are brighter than the tail/park. A quick 'test' with 12V will quickly show you. Remember, the metal housing is the ground.

Now, I'm working off a '56 manual, but Ford used mostly the same switches from about '53 through '64, so this should get you very close if not spot-on...

The ignition switch. If you have a continuity tester, you can identify the terminals. With the switch 'off', there should be no continuity between any terminals. Turn to 'ACC' (accessory). You should now have continuity between two terminals. One is the ACC, the other is incoming power (supply). If one is markedly larger, that is power in. If not, continue anyway. Turn the switch to 'ON'. One more terminal should now have continuity to the other two; this is the ignition terminal. The remaining terminal is the 'START' connection. Turn and hold the switch at 'start', the 'ACC' terminal should now be open to the other terminals. You've identified three, the last one is power in.

The light switch will be trickier. With the switch terminals facing up and the knob end pointed towards you, you should see three terminals on the left side, two on the right. There will be two more; one for the dash lights which you'll be able to see the connection to the porcelain rheostat closest to you. The other one is for the interior lights, and it comes off the fuse at the back of the switch.

The three terminals on the left should be (front to back) the headlights, the front park lights, and the brake lights.
The two on the right should be (F to R) taillights and incoming power.

You can double-check this with a continuity tester. With the switch off, you should have continuity between the power, brake light, and interior light terminals. With the switch pulled to the first stop (park), you should have continuity to every terminal EXCEPT the headlights. With it pulled fully out, you should have continuity to everything except the park lights, the terminal should now read open to everything.

If you're 'modernizing' the wiring (fuse panel, maybe a kit), you probably don't need the interior light or brake light terminals. Fords in those days didn't have fuse panels (most cars didn't then), so they picked power up in different places.

I've been watching your build, nice job.... And it's great to see a guy tackle it 'all'.

 

Thanks so much guys, i dont think my ignition switch had the labels on the backside but ill double check, that would make life easier. And i need to order that book up jeff, i keep forgetting. Ill order it tonight, im still gonna try to bang out most of the wiring this weekend.

Ebay link worked, relay looks pretty straight forward, where it says “headlight socket”, what exactly would i be wiring to that. I have a high beam, and low beam wire going to each headlight and a park light and signal wire to each front marker. The link for the ford wiring diagram you posted isnt working. Do i need a relay for my front marker and tail lights as well or just headlights ?


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You will only need the headlight relay kit,what you do need if you are going to use the original fuel gauge is this unit. https://www.ebay.com/i/292489932157?chn=ps&dispItem=1 This allows your 6 volt gauges to accurately work with 12 volts. Below is how you wire it up.

 

Super nice looking car. Looks like a true time capsule of a 54 Ford you used to see back in the sixties.

 

Cool, only original gauge im using is the fuel gauge. Tach, oil, temp and volts are classic instruments. I just got my oil and temp sending units for those, hopefully the thread size is correct or ill need adapters

Also i dont have any junction blocks ( or whatever you call that block unit in the top left ) how would that change my wiring for the gauge regulator ?


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Thanks gman, i wanted to keep it an old school mild custom


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You can use the gauge regulator for the gas gauge only, the gauge and sender can stay original 6 volt too as Ford used these gauge regulators with 6 volt gauges into the early 80's.

 

I dont have anything left from the original wiring, im literally starting from scratch with a rebel harness. All those junction blocks and all that are gone


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Over the years a lot of the guys in the 1952-59 Ford group used Rebel,when you get to the wiring the Ford headlight switch give their Tech a call he can walk you through it.