Projects Build thread: 1959 Edsel Villager wagon

<p>Been pondering how to do the wiring without turning it into a rats nest. I decided it would be painful to take a trunk of wiring harness and try to hook up wires one by one under the dash. Better to use connectors for different groups of signals, just the way Ford does it. I have two parts trucks to draw from so that really helps.
</p>
<p>Moving forward with the steering column. Since the contacts are so fragile, I'm making an adapter harness between the original column wiring and the new harness. The adapter harness uses relays so the turn signal switch only carries a few hundred mA. I also added some diodes (already wrapped up in this pic) to prevent any arcing.


</p>
<p>
This is the column connector that matches the new wiring harness.

</p>

<p>
I'm working on a few more things now. I already have the headlights and windshield wiper connector connectors in there as well, but didn't take any pictures. I was pleased to find the mounts didn't change at all between 1959 and 1990.
</p>

<p>
Installed the gas tank. Yea, it just looks wrong to bolt a new tank to a rusty frame. But there is no sense slapping paint on dirt, and in order to get the dirt off the car kind of needs to be out of the shop, so it would take a lot of time to jury rig a gas tank just to drive the car out of the shop and pressure wash it and get it back in for paint. Plus the section of the body that's underneath the tank actually looks just fine, not rusty. It's only the frame and stuff around the tank that's rusty, so I can paint that later...


</p>

<p>
I painted the filler neck too. Took time time to chase all the black widows and whatnot out of there. I wasn't sure what kind of paint might hold up to gasoline well. I thought rustoleum might not. I ended up using POR15, hope I won't regret it. I have a few cans laying around but I kind of hate the stuff. If you get it on your hands IT IS NOT COMING OFF until your skin refreshes itself.

</p>

<p>
Here you can see my POR15 job on the filler neck... I guess it was POR14.5
Also the fuel pump bracket. This is the Carter one a lot of folks here use. I'm running two fuel pumps, this is the low pressure one. Then there is a high pressure one (for the EFI) closer to the engine. You have to run special fuel lines for EFI so I wanted to keep the length of uber-high fuel pressure line to a minimum.

</p>


<p>
My new shocks and brake lines. I re-did the rear brakes and replaced the axle seals, replaced all the brake lines. Also installing new fuel lines, using stainless steel tubing.


</p>

<p>
Running out of patience, with the LSR coming up I'm desperate to keep the progress coming. Looking at this picture I'm already kind of regretting it. Well I can easily change it later..

</p>



<p>
If I just tie that wooden block to the A-arms then my exhaust hangers are done
Seriously I have all the pipes bent, cut and test fitted. I just need to do the final weld to hold them together and make the hangers.
That pipe on the left side of the picture took some time to make, it curves in two directions - both sideways to bring the muffler in closer to the driveshaft, and also curves down vertically to go around the p***enger footwell and boddy support channel.


</p>

<p>
I re-did the throttle linkage. I got rid of the original 2-stage throttle linkage. In fact I cut off part of the original throttle linkage and welded it directly to the final shaft. It seems to work fine. It has one less return spring now, once the engine is running I'll have to see if it closes reliably.
The travel of the gas pedal from idle to WOT is only 2 inches now, I hope I'll be able to control this thing I can change the linkage to increase the throw but I thought I'd try it first, see how I like it. Plus, I want to get this thing done, don't want to keep frivolously changing stuff..

</p>

 

<p>Resized the pics above to fit within the window.. now the text is easier to read too. </p>

<p>Made a mount for my coolant filter. It's a little crude but should do a fine job. I'm a little budget constrained so I pulled this piece off a burnt down barn
The coolant filter base is $15 and the coolant filter is another $15. I have owned a number of vehicles and equipment with coolant filters and have been very pleased at the positive effect on the health of the cooling system.
I'm using iron plumbing pieces so I can easily weld them. I don't have a heater in the car yet (I want to put in something like the vintage air system) so for now I have the ports plugged off.

</p>

<p>
My mechanical coolant temp gauge sensor. I'm leaving the original sensor in its place in the intake manifold and there aren't any more ports, so I decided to accomodate my mechanical gauge here.

</p>

 

I woke up at 5am today and realized the original air box goes on top of the engine and there is no way that will fit. So I got up and started looking at it and browsing the internet for viable air filters. There is no room left in front of the radiator. The only hint of space I have left near the front of the car is on the driver's side fender.

Since the engine has 2x 2.25" air intake ducts that taper into 3" , I started looking for filters that would work with that. I ended up ordering these inline cone filters:

http://www.spectreperformance.com/search/product.aspx?prod=9833

I can mount 2 of them on the fender near the radiator support and then cut some slots / make some baffles to allow them to **** cool air.

 

Here are some pictures / drawings of the unit. They are like $60 from summit racing / jegs. They have 4/5/6 inch diameter housings. I went with 2 of the 4" diameter models , pictured below. Pretty nifty.

 

The intake has these silencers on it - as just about every car has. The two horns are only 1.5" diameter at their smallest point, seems awfully small for a 460. Do you guys know if these will actually hurt performance if I keep the rpm's under say 4000~4500?

 

I took the car for a test drive yesterday! But the coil springs are pretty weak and the car bottoms out easily even just driving down my bumpy gravel driveway. The car originally had a I6 so the added weight of a 460 isn't helping it.

I really want to get the original ride height and quality (not stiff / performance springs). The car is probably a bit heavier than even the ones with the FE engine.

Where can I get coil springs for it? I don't see anyone online offering coil springs for this car. Can they be custom made?

 

Glad to here it is running down the road, been following your progress from the beginning. Your resourcefulness is very impressive.

You may try calling Mac's Antique Auto for help with the springs. Their tech support line has access to a lot of old parts books. They have been able to cross reference some parts for me in the past. Good luck.



Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Thank you !! Really appreciate the kind words. Yea it has been fun to solve all the little puzzles. A lot of time, I figure I probably have like 300-400 hours into this thing. A lot of time to figure which pieces will work, reading specs, etc. Really looking forward to driving this thing now

 

I couldn't find any OEM / vintage filter that would work so I ended up using these little cone shape filters.





The idle air connection had broken on the plastic intake piece, so I made this metal piece. It's out of sight on the bottom of the intake so no need to prettify it.



This is what they look like installed. I bought some stick-on waterproof foam from a marine supply place, and this is behind and underneath the filters, so they won't scuff and rattle.



I cut some holes in the radiator support to allow cold air to come in. This was an afterthought so not very pretty. Hard to do it when it's already all together. But it's ok, you can't really see it either. Eventually I want to make a baffle so the warm air from the radiator can't mix in, will probably make a difference during low speed operation.

You can also see my poor man's overflow bottle here. I like the clear tubing so you can see that the system is working. In the bottle it is inside some 3/8" stainless steel tubing so the hose always stays at the bottom.



There won't be room to spare when I close the hood! In fact it took me about 4 hours to get it to the point that the hood would close properly. Had to grind some pieces off the intake manifold and really get those tubes down as low as I could.

 

So there it is! It's outside under its own power. Actually with the hood closed it looks just like the day I got it. Definitely a nice paint job and some body work are in order.



Grille view. I need to get the hood just a hair lower. I think actually when I clamped the (aluminum) radiator I ended up making it a little bit too tall. The radiator is being clamped pretty hard.

I painted the little inserts below the hood with Rustoleum Almond, wanted to see how it would turn out on an incon****uous piece of the body. Looks pretty nice actually, but I'm not going to do the whole car that way, it will be too dull, it just won't look right. I want to use a quality automotive paint.



The rack hangs too low, I need to change the mounts. Currently it hangs down about 2.5" compared to the crossmember. I figure I can move it up about 1.5 - 1.75" and shave another 1/4" off the bracket, so it will only hang down about half an inch. Between that and getting some new coil springs to move up the car 2" , I should have the tie rods pretty close to being level.



There is about 1.75" of space above the rack. Actually I think the challenge in moving it up will be the steering column. Moving it up will increase the angle of the u-joints and they were already close to the limit. I have 2 joints and a support bearing in there now.

 

Interior shot. I'm keeping the look as original as possible, although I couldn't resist adding a few gauges for more accurate information. I was able to transplant the wiper knob and chrome bezel thing from the vacuum system onto the electric wiper switch, so the electric wipers look original. The electronics already work, but I need to work on the mechanics of it. Currently I have only one wiper hooked up. If I hook up both, the arms interfere with each other.

I made all the original gauges work. The Generator light is the Check Engine light from the ECU. The original temperature gauge works as well as the aftermarket one. The speedometer works with the new transmission - I don't know how accurate it is yet. Will have to head out with a GPS to see if it's telling me the truth. The gear shifter indicator is also accurate, except that there is another position past the L. The pattern is PRND21 instead of PRNDL




The other side of the dashboard. I actually have the original Edsel keys that came with the car new, but I'm using some reproduction ones now, afraid to lose the originals
Still need to clean up a few last wires. I actually can't believe I got that m***ive trunk of wires underneath the dashboard.

The new light switch bolted right in, but the shaft has a different shape - a triangle instead of a D. I ground the old shaft down to a triangle and it works that way, except when installed the shaft is too short. So that's the shaft from the van. I need to figure a way to transfer the chrome knob onto this shaft.

The lights work, including all the interior dashboard lights and the dome light. I also hooked up the aftermarket gauges.

I decided to mount the overdrive cancel switch under the dash. Maybe at some point I can figure a more elegant way to do it. It is functional, there is even a night light in it , and the "off" light works.

My wife suggested to make a box around the aftermarket gauges. I like the idea but I'll put that on my "later" list for now.

 

All my relays under the dashboard. I used relays for the ignition, accessories, running circuit, brake lights, turn signals, basically all the power stuff uses relays. I don't want to tax the switches of the car any more than needed. I think the wiring in these cars is rather feeble and so are the switches.



Brake light switch. The original switch used hydraulic brake pressure and wasn't easily plumbed into the brake system. This is an industrial limit switch. I made it so that it grounds one side of the relay when the brake pedal is depressed.



Bulk head connector under the dash. As you can see I numbered all the wires. I wrote down exactly what each wire does, very tedious task. I also labeled them, you can still see my blue labels underneath the electrical tape. I left a few wires exposed in case I want to add more accessories, I don't have to pull it apart to find a particular wire. Fuse box from the van, and behind it you can see the ECU (it connects directly to the wiring harness outside).




My wife is ready to go for a ride

 

Engine compartment, mostly finished, although I still need to install the heater, so the fan wires on the p***enger side are still exposed.








Homemade throttle linkage. I didn't feel right about using a cable



Air filters.



Found a little spot for the ignition module on the driver's side fender. Also placed the fuel filter here.

I'm using two fuel filters. I found that the WIX 33033 style filters do not filter very fine, so they are good as a prefilter. The EFI filters are very fine and they are large so don't need replacement very often. I'm even using them on my carbureted cars with good results.

 

Well there ya go. I decided to push through re-mounting the rack. Started last night at 8pm and finished by 7am, I was just finishing up when my wife came to get me for breakfast

<strong> BEFORE: </strong>



<strong> AFTER: </strong>
Now it only hangs down about 1/2" and the tie rods are much more horizontal.




Also the tie rods interfered with one of the hydraulic lines, fixed that as well.
The u-joints were already pushed to their angle limit so I had to tilt the rack backwards (towards the column) and shorten the steering shafts in order to compensate for having less distance between the steering column and the rack.

I have 2 Borgeson u-joints in the path. They are still pushed to their limits and you can feel it in the steering. Not really binding but not 100% smooth either. Not perfect but I don't know what to do about it now. At least it's better than the sloppy manual steering....

 

Gas tank and exhaust pipe. I still have another piece for it to go out to the side.Need to change the blade in my cutoff saw so I can cut it.

I used the wiring from the van, it has all the necessary wires, and also some heavy power wires. I'm leaving the original wiring in place as well so I have some extra wires. Since the car has 4 tail lights and currently only one has a dual filament bulb, I was thinking later I can put dual filaments in both and run separate brake lights and brake/turn lights.



I cut and welded the exhaust pipe to get the shape I wanted. It curves both left/right and up/down to match the body contour. I mounted the hangers on both side of the muffler to the body, using thick rubber pads and washers, so there is no metal-to-metal contact. I'd like to add a heat pad to the muffler so as little heat as possible is transferred to the body.




Fuel pump. There are two - this is the low pressure pump and then by the transmission there is a high pressure pump.

I realized after I mounted it that the manual told you NOT to use teflon tape, that it would damage the pump. Wonder if I should take it apart again? But I kept the tape 1/8" from the front of the fitting so I don't see how it could end up in the pump except when you take it apart, so I think I'd just as well leave it this way.

 

Went for a drive today, took a little video. I'll try to embed the youtube video, hope it works

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/mAwC1hraAcY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

The car has 3.5 gears and I'm running about 2000 rpm at 65 mph. The engine doesn't feel like it's working much. Looks like the pinion seal needs to be replaced. I'm wondering if I should find a 3:1 or 2.7:1 gear set.

With 2.7:1 and 0.7:1 overdrive I'd be running about 1500 rpm. Maybe a little low..

 

I love the car keep up the good work.

 

I would think 2K RPM @ 65 would be about ideal.

 

Been going for a few drives.
The E4OD has a lighter 1st and 2nd than a C6. I'm finding that it only travels a very short distance in 1st and 2nd. It could easily use a heavier gear.
The rear pinion seal is leaking badly now. Since it kind of has to come apart I decided to swap the 3.5 gears for a 2.7

At 65 mph this will bring me from 2100 down to 1550 rpm in overdrive.
3rd gear give me 2200 rpm

1550 is pretty low, but I rented a late model full size SUV last year and it was running about 1600 rpm at 65 mph and it had a small block, so I think a 460 in a p***enger car should have no problem cruising at this rpm. This way you can use the overdrive as it was intended - just for gaining economy on long flat freeway drives.

 

I think that's true. The 2.7 will give me that (little more) w/o overdrive. Reserve the o/d for long stretches of flat freeway. I hope I'll like it

 

I checked some online specs of late model full size SUV's (won't mention specifics, don't want to cause any more trouble with moderators! ) and they are indeed spec'd to have 1500 rpm @ 60 mph with a small block so I think my 460 will do fine.

I'm not sure if I can get an appropriate speedometer gear for this transmission. I wonder if there are little inline gear boxes to change the ratio, to make the speedometer read correctly.

 

You might think about switching to a later model center section as well. The original style pinion seal is expensive and leak prone. I have replaced mine twice in three years.


Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Thanks for the tip! Are they all compatible? Do you know which years had the better seals? (I guess Rockauto cantell me)
I noticed this axle has a drain plug, that's a nice feature. That's in the main housing so itshould stay.

When I got the car I pulled the plug and nothing came out, so I poked my finger in there and it felt like dried RTV silicone. I poked around a bunch and finally some tar like material came out. I put some diesel fuel in it to dissolve the tar. Then after a few weeks (not driving it, just rotate the gears from time to time) drain the diesel and put in the gear oil.

 

Nice ride love the fuel injected 460. I have a 1959 ford F-100 setup for a 460, and the fuel injection would be ideal for free way driving. My truck currently has 3.00 gears and I like it on the free way gets about 15 mpg on the high way. My truck is carbuerated. Them Edsels are cool.

 

Honestly, I haven't looked into it much. The tip was given to me after I changed the seal out the second time. I figured I would do research the next time around.

 

I've had about a half dozen 460's, all except this one were carbureted. I've had excellent service from them. I really like them because they have both more power and better economy than other engines. Never been that much of an FE / MEL fan. I think the 460 and 351W are the best Ford engines.

The only downside of the 460 is somehow they always generate a lot of heat, more than other big block engines somehow. I wonder if the later model heads are any better in this regards than the older ones. This engine does run 200~210 degrees but I don't feel that there is as much heat coming from the radiator as with my other engines. I just don't know if that's because of the engine or the radiator

 

There was a fella on ebay selling the 2.75 gear section for $50 and a posi for $300. I figure the complete install kit with new shims will be another $100 so that's $450 for still having the old center section and doing the setup myself.

He said for $650 he can sell me a complete center section all set up , I thought that seems like a good deal.

 

Great build thread. Love the driving video.
That 460 really fills up under the hood.
Greg

 

yea I used every cubic inch of space under the hood. Only left a little pocket to fit a future heater and a/c system.

The driving video turned out quite well, I only got around to watching it a few days afterI posted it

Looking forward to seeing yours on the road as well! Too bad you don't live close by , I could probably lend a hand here and there. Where are you moving to , is it just local or far away?